Paradise lost [invite only]

Michael paused for a moment, watching the little tan male putter around the kitchen for a few moments, more animated than usual as he seemed to be digging around for something. Michael however was not really in the mood to deal with whatever it was that the little ethereal was doing, well not that he was on a short fuse so to speak, but he found himself rather short of patience recently. His son had not been the same ever since they had found Silus’ body, lacking all traces of ethereal energy, something that suggested that he was dead and in a more permanent sense. The dark haired male rubbed the bridge of his nose softly, drawing in a soft yawn as he looked to Shael who seemed to be looking into space now. Something was bothering the male now, and if Michael knew anything, it was indeed what had happened recently, even Jordan was hit hard by the events.

A bitter chuckle escaped from Michael’s lips as he reclined within the wheel chair, dressed only in a simple polo shirt and dark blue cargo shorts, what one would call his usual outfit. His silver orbs had grown slightly dull, as if the luster had been drained from them, now becoming a rather boring grey with some flesh of dull green spread across them. Fera would appear, looking to Michael rather pitifully and then to Shael, who had fallen onto his rear and just began to hug his knees, making a rather pitiful keening noise. The young male was in pain, something that the red haired female could tell, no, her family was in pain and perhaps slowly falling apart. She sighed lightly, tracing a finger along the counter as she approached the sullen looking wheelchair bound ethereal, wrapping arms around him, though he did not react.

”Alright dad, I’m goin out to get something to eat for us.” They had plenty here within their rather scant apartment, but he knew that Fera could not cook, and she did not want to risk killing him with an improperly cooked steak. He looked to her for a moment, a rather weak smile forming upon his lips.

”um alright, be careful.” His rather dead sounding voice said, the female knew what he meant underneath that, frowning slightly. All the female could do was nod before walking through the door, leaving Michael alone with his son, who had finally taken notice of everything around him, looking to Michael for a moment and then at his feet. Michael felt something in the pit of his stomach, a raging pain that caused him to double over though that quickly passed him. Something about the fit caught the attention of Shael, who walked over to Michael looking over him worried, as if he thought that he would just suddenly expire. ”I’m fine Shael.” He assured the male, ruffling his hair up ever so lightly, the dark brown mess atop his hair becoming only messier then.

”Ya sure?” The male asked not sounding so convinced, though Michael could not say that he much believed himself either. He was within the youngest form that he usually took, crawling onto Michael’s lap and just kind of snuggling against him, a low purring sound emanating from the male, as if this was the only place that he felt safe. Within an instant he shifted into the form of a small wolf cub, curling up and just lying there, Michael not really minding at all as he stroked the small silver cub. He had wondered why his son had not gone out to play with that rainbow wolf of Silus’, instead now just listlessly sitting around the house, Fera not even forcing him to go to school anymore. Still he went, if only to see that one friend of his that he could not remember, perhaps the only reason he was less mopey than he should have been.

”Um Shael, I think we should get out, maybe get some fresh air. I’m…startin to get a little stir crazy.” Shael looked up at him, cocking his head to the side as if silently wondering what Michael had on his mind, but not really looking too deep into it. It nodded for a moment before trotting off of his lap and then shifting into his humanoid form, the same small twelve year old form that he was within before becoming a wolf. ”I’ll text your sister.” Michael noted before rapidly typing something into a cellphone that Fera had bought for him, before slipping it back into his pocket and waiting for Shael to wheel him onward, to wherever it was that he planned to take them. Michael was personally wanting to take a walk in the park, but maybe the wolf boy knew of a better place for them. Not that he would have doubted that fact, considering that the male had been in the city much longer than him and would have had a greater feel for the place.

Yet in the end they found themselves within the park, not that he was really troubled by the choice of location, only that it was getting rather late. The sun had already begun to set, and there was a strange scent within the air. Something rushed past him at an incredible speed, slamming through a tree trunk, leaving only a rather neat looking hole that was smoking lightly. ”Hello Michael, its been a while.” A smooth voice noted as his head snapped towards someone, a rather smug looking blond within the darkness. Silver eyes glared into his own, which were wide with shock and fear as Shael could only growl much like a dog, pushing Michael back as if he were prepared to run, not that it would do him any good. Within an instant the male was in motion, slamming the flat of his foot against Shael’s face and sending him into a nearby tree, splintering the wood under the pressure of the strike. ”So, you thought that I would die so easily? It’s true that I was weakened a little, but not as much as you were, no, you could say I’m still infinitely more powerful than you.” He noted leaning away from Michael and crossing his arms as the small ethereal child pulled himself from the wreckage of the tree, growling as he charged with an inhuman speed, legs now taking the form of draconic limbs, though all Raziel had to do was reach out and with a twist of his body he slammed him into the ground. ”Down boy, if you keep attacking like that I might have to neuter you. So Michael I think this is where I finished what I started, can’t have any loose ends here now can I? Nothing personal my good chum, but well, you’re weak so I have to deal with ya. Not to worry though, I’ll make it quick this time.”

Shauna was at the park for her evening jog, wearing an all black ensemble; a sporty tank top and fitting jogging pants, listening to music on her new device. She kept up her fitness and routines at an attempt to maintain normalcy, ever since the incident at her friend Hel’s place. She had not counted on her powers continuing to grow even at this age. She was deeply worried where her life would go from now on... was she going to become... an energy being... like her mother? The thought disturbed her deeply. She broke into a sprint, and exhausted herself once she reached the vending machine.

Maybe the change would be gradual. Or maybe she’d explode like a supernova like her mother did. The sun set and Shauna looked at the options... so many sugary, artificially flavoured drinks. She also wondered and was thankful for how her powers probably kept the pounds off, probably burned all her calories too. It was all so difficult to think about, given Shauna’s unsteady state of mind. She buys an energy drink and gulps in down, towelling herself off. She thought about what to have for dinner, trying to give herself routine and structure.

Of course, it would be when she’d be unprepared that trouble reared its ugly head. Some distance away she could make out an assault in progress; a Metahuman attack. Shauna saw a shape shifter kid and a handicapped companion being attacked by a speedster fighter, and despite the latter’s efforts, was being beaten for his trouble.

Shauna sighed and huffed. If they were going to be fighting like that, then they wouldn’t mind getting hurt as well. Shauna walked towards the combat until she was in good enough range that dodging her attacks were going to be extremely difficult. She hid in the bushes, near a tree, then focused on the attacker.

Heat waves began to radiate from her eyes as the air cracked and sizzled, as a laser beam emerges from her pupils, defying physical laws. The emerald light smoked and ignited the very air it passed through, and was very much intended to relieve this quick attacker of one of his limbs- this counted as a warning shot to Shauna.

Michael glared at the blond that was seemingly taking down his son with little effort, a smug expression plastered upon his damn pretty face. ”I think this kid got weaker than before.” Raziel taunted, kicking Shael aside, as he rolled along the ground. However something caught within his realm of vision, and within an instant the male moved himself back a step as a strange beam of emerald energy shot past him, going onwards until it clashed with a light pole. The metal was melted through with relative ease as sparks would burst from the pole and it would fall to the ground with a resounding clang. It was this attack that gave away the position of the woman that had tried to attack him, male turning towards the bush that the blast had come from before looking back to Michael. ”Well well well, looks like a hero has come to the aid of the worthless cripple.” He taunted balancing on the ball of his foot, waiting for something else to happen.

Something about the fact that someone would come to the aid of Michael amused the male, though that might have just been the human desire to protect the poor and crippled, well and children. Within his hand, something began to form, a strange blade that was forming from a strange black liquid. In the end it took the form of a blade crystalline blade known as the Shard of Corruption , a blade that poisoned all that it cut through, a weapon that he had once created for Michael. ”Another body to add to the pile.” He mused letting the tip of the blade trail along the ground as he quickly run towards the bush that was harboring the female, making sure to move out of the way of any laser attacks that she launched towards him, before lashing out at incredible speeds with the blade.

Spoiler:

Shauna didn't want to take the chance to let this one get close. She saw how well he reacted; Shauna put his reaction time to fractions of nanoseconds to be able to avoid that. Well then, Shauna stood her ground from then on and let the man get close. She had yet to find herself in a situation that warranted this power until now...

...Her eyes glittered once again with energy as she maintained eye contact with the killer. But, rather than a simple laser beam, her eyes exploded with the light a naked star, a much faster technique that usually burned out her opponent's retinas; humans were usually blinded permanently, but she hoped it would be enough for this one, as she prepared to get moving out of the way.

It took the male only a moment to react to the attack that was aimed for his retinas, moving slow enough that he could react to it, but not by dodging. Within an instant he was in motion, appearing behind the female with the black blade raised into the air, as if ready to slice through her with one swift motion. It would have been a death blow, but Shael slammed into Raziel with a gorillas shoulder, pushing him further until he slammed into a tree, though he was seemingly unaffected by the attack other than grumbling lightly to himself. ”Ouch, that hurt a little you brat.” He muttered wiping away the bits of tree from his body and glaring upon the two that he was dealing with. Within his other hand appeared a black gun, one that upon aiming at the two, he released a burst of dark ethereal energy at the two, Shael leaping to the side.

Shauna could hardly keep up with Raziel's moves. But, Shael had intervened in time and allowed Shauna to move and roll out of the way, grazing herself on a rock and landing on the grass. She tumbled to put distance between herself and this deadly combatant. This battle was now becoming the deadliest round of dodgeball yet, with bolts of dark energy flying all around.

Shauna decided to punch right through the dark energy with her laser beams, causing a entropic reaction that generated an explosion, wind pressure sending Shauna's hair backward, almost making her loose her grip. Her laser beam remained focused and continued towards Raziel's weapon, as Shauna was fond of melting people's high tech guns and having the resulting boiling hot slag render her foe useless... though against this one, she was already relying on her luck.

"Hold him down!" She shouted, as she needed a way to land a hit.

Raziel leaned to the side, before going into a leap that allowed him to dodge the attacking that would have torn through his flesh. The laser would slam into something and set it combusted, flames dancing up the tree that was set aflame. Shael would rush him, though he was easily deflected with a powerful palm to the stomach that sent him flying. The tan male would roll along as Raziel followed along, moving along at an amazing speed that was a blur to someone such as Michael, though Shauna should have been able to follow his graceful movements. As he did so, he fired around three rounds from the pistol that was within his hand, all of them capable of exploding upon contact. Using all of the strength within his legs he jumped towards Shauna quickly, until he was standing ahead of her, and with a flick of the wrist he aimed to slam the hilt of his weapon into her stomach.

Shauna could scarcely keep pace with the foe, and decided that hitting him was going to be an impossibility. She watched as he sped up, a dizzying fast being, moving like he was in fast-forward. Shauna had to think fast. It was opponents like these that really put her on edge... and she had to come up with something.

She peered under the ground and saw that they were near a gas line. Shauna hated this, but it had to be done. The second Raziel was near, right as he'd attack, she'd shoot the ground; he'd probably try to dodge, thinking it was an attack against his feet, but at the speed he was going he might not be able to outrun this.

The blow connects with Shauna, and she could feel her internal organs compressing violently, her vision going blurry. She saw the stars, and coughed up blood even as she braced her abdomen for the attack. The blow sending her flying away, just as the gas line erupted under Raziel, engulfing only him in a massive explosion.

Raziel did not really have the time to react to the explosion that had erupted from under his feet, the powerful heat bursting from under him and sending him back. Painful burns spread across the ethereals right arm, ones that rose along to his forearm. ”Ow ow ow, that was pretty dirty of you girlie, I like.” Raziel chirped as a few trickles of blood down his damaged arm, though it seemed for the most part still capable of working. ”Interesting, it’s been a while I’ve been damage like that.” The ethereal was for the moment annoyed by the damage that was done to him, the last one that had done that to him was Ouroboros, but that was when he was a god among men, and when he was actually powerful. The woman was coughing a small amount of blood, which meant that she was internally damaged.

Looking to the damaged limb, Raziel examined it for a moment before glaring at the woman with those silver eyes. For the moment he could not really repair it, he went there without anything that could do so, but all that was required that he get rid of the female and then destroy Michael, everything else was so much mashed potatoes. ”Ya okay little human? I’ve been playing around with you, but I need to finish this quick.” His eyes began to shift, swirling as a circle of runes would form within his eyes, everything seeming to slow down further than it already was to him. Now the angel was taking things seriously, the pain within his arm growing slightly annoying, tearing away the shirt about his torso. The blade within that hand was not destroyed, no it seemed to weather the blast with almost nothing, one hand shot up and fired off another burst.

Far off, in the lower exosphere, the star stray peacefully floats, as if sitting Indian-style. She is listening to the tugs on the strings of the universe, bound to the little blue spec beneath her. She feels violent tugs constantly as she drifts. This is a world constantly in turmoil. I can hear every cry for help, audible or not. But how even I can't answer them all. Suddenly she opens her eyes and unfolds her legs. I will have to start some- Suddenly she feels a great tug. Thus was a conflict of beings infinitely greater on the cosmic web than mere mortals. -Where? As a satellite drifts nearby in its orbit, the cosmic defender turns herself and flies down toward where she'd sensed the conflict.

In seconds, she is floating over the park. She hovers about until she is overlooking the situation. As she sees the two parties, she observes.

Shauna gets to her feet, badly injured, clutching her midsection as her insides feeling like gelatin... why did she have to fight at night? It didn't matter, she got involved with someone way over her league and now it was kill or be killed. Her eyes glowed with the cosmic power of the sun, smoking, her dripping blood and tears coalescing into bright bits of plasma. Her powers were going out of control, evolving in ways Shauna never expected.

"You gonna... give up yet?" She said, rather sarcastically, not really expecting any results from it. She couldn't take another hit like that, definitely. But she waited for him to make a move. She looked around, the burning gas line spewing fire and smoke into the sky, the park now ablaze thanks to her powers. What else did she have? What else was there at the park? She hoped the shapeshifter fellow didn't just leave her for dead...

”Oh no, not when I’m just starting to have fun.” Raziel noted with a rather childish glee within his voice, the thought to ending the poor human’s life amusing him more than anything. Whether or not he could blame his new frail exterior was unimportant, this woman had made him bleed and that was more than enough reason to destroy her. The shape shifter seemed rather scarce at the moment, but little did the ethereal know that he was simply doing one thing, which was moving a limiting factor from the area, which was the wheelchair bound male that could potentially get in the way of him. Something about the sun child’s eyes caught the interest of the ethereal though, so that only made things much easier for him on the long run. The blond played around with as amulet that hung around his neck, well more like a necklace with multiple bit dangling from it.

A small light began to emanated from a light blue shared, falling upon the arm that was bleeding out a golden ichor, one that had been damaged by the explosion, slowly closing over the wounds that would have made using the arm painful, but it was not a complete fix. It was the best that the ethereal had on short notice, but it would do until he could get better attention to his wounds. Well, what happened next was quite the surprise as a burst of energy entered his field of vision, well more specifically ethereal energy, that of the pure variety. Moving his has to the side, a small sphere of bright seafom green energy shot an inch past his face and slammed into something, exploding loudly. ”Okay, I think I can get a little serious now.” A soft breeze began to blow over the battlefield feeling rather refreshing to Shauna in particular, the healing breeze meant to help her deal with the possible internal damage.

”Well, looks like the brats joining the fray for real now.” Raziel muttered running a few fingers over his now less damaged arm, wincing lightly as they made contact with it. He paused for a moment, taking note of a fourth party within this conflict, one that was watching over it. The earth under him began to buckle before rising upwards in one great motion, Raziel leaping forward before rushing the ethereal and metahuman, as the very grass beneath him began to rise up like a thousand blades attempting to cut him, all of it becoming rather difficult.  He would let off a few shots, but they would not make it through the barriers of grass created between him and the two that h ewas now facing off against, he was dealing with something else entirely, taking note of the silver runic markings that had formed along Shael’s skin and the change within his eyes; which were now seafoam blue.

Connie knows, well, that some corners of the universe are so pivotal that the strings binding them to the rest of the cosmos are stronger.  By designed this may be to keep them from becoming so powerful that they overtake what remains or so self sustaining that they leave, creating holes in the web that would ultimately doom creation.  These are the threads that she cannot so easily read.  Two of these people are bound to those strings.  One of them is not.  That one person unwittingly acts as Connie's window of perspective on the situation.  Therein lies the mal-intent of the assailant.

As he makes his move, Connie narrows her eyes and points her hand downward.  In a burst of brilliant light, crackling down the full spectrum of color, she sends a forceful blast down to the ground from above.  With this, she cleaves a line into the dirt between the two parties with explosive impact.  Dirt and grass flies up as this multicolor beam strikes down.  But when it is over, Connie floats down, standing on the side of the line occupied by the defending pair.  The grass and dirt struck by the beam floats there for a moment, completely unmoving, in Zero-G before beginning drop back down.

"I recommend you rethink this course of action, friend," she says.  Both her hands pulse with this rainbow spectrum of energy and her eyes give off an intense white glow.  "The universe, itself, may not frown upon malice, but I do.  Leave.  Now."

Like inspecting the results of nose picking or head scratching, Shauna had developed a strange habit of scanning her own internal organs when she was injured or when healing was applied to her. Sure enough, the bleeding and swelling in her damaged liver and kidneys were subsiding as a strange healing wind washed over her.

Well, it seems Shauna wasn't alone anymore. The people she saved were definitely magical folk flinging something aside from fireballs all over the place, having nature themes to their spells. Another creature radiating energies similar to herself also made herself known, and for a moment Shauna thought the impossible... no, it wasn't her, it was a stranger.

Shauna leads Raziel to shoot lasers in his general path of movement, trying to tie up his movements and restricting his options; either fall into burning earth or evade that and be struck by Shael's own spells. There was far more to lasers than simply blasting enemies to molten slag.

The ancient ethereal was amused by the new being that had interfered with the battle, eyes narrowing as he looked over the being that had unleased a burst of strange energy upon the battle field. ’Oh look, another interloper in the affairs of something beyond them.” The self styled god noted looking to the grass that was twisting around him, and seeming to follow the trends of the earth around him, as if the child could control nature itself. He was aware of Michael was, and if he truly wanted to Raziel could have killed him now, but he was enjoying the little game that he was playing. Maybe he could kill all of them, especially the child that Michael loved so much, oh that would be too much fun. While ultima was beyond him, he could wipe out the bloodline of the ones that proved dangerous to him.

’How about I not? You see, you are interfering with business that transcends your understanding, and stepping in the middle of it is signing your death warrant.” He said condescendingly as the female with the deadly eyes would continue her assault, releasing the rather deadly looking eyebeams upon him and he was forced to move, leaping onto a wall of earth that was erected to slow him down. Leaping over it, he was only a few inches from the young male that was controlling the very earth itself as the laser beam collided with the earthrn construct, nearly landing a powerful back hand to his face as the plants grew to defend him, a stout shield that he could not break through. This gave the child enough time to move back as his blade shore through it with no problem, though the back handed attack sent him reeling, the healing winds still keeping him from any major damage as he rolled along.

Then came a single shot aimed at the woman wielding the strange cosmic energy and then a slash aimed for Shauna’s mid rift, one that would poison any flesh damaged by it.