Paradise lost [invite only]

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.

"You would be surprised as to my level of understanding, friend," Connie says, raising a hand to the shots fired at her.  A multicolor concussive volley deflects it and she claps her hands together.  As she sees him go for the other woman, she pulls them back apart, a crackle of lightning-like energy forms between them.  Channeling this through herself, she unleashes it all in a widespread wave in his general direction.  She returns her attention to this woman who seemed out of place in the conflict, not that she has any room to talk.  This matter is none of her business, and yet here she is.  "You threaten with death.  How human of you."  In honesty, I'm not certain I can die.  Do I abide by the base laws of life and death?

Shauna was fairly certain this maniac wouldn't stop until he was killed, and Shauna had only one move left. She let him cut her, and she tensed her body as hard as she could, to prevent letting the blade cut her further. She held on for dear life to his arm that she'd probably be carried along, but it was so she could deliver a point blank laser to his body, using her vision to see his heart, and blasted away there. This way, even his heightened reflex would be negated.

Within his current path, Raziel found himself in what someone would call a rather messy situation. There were two attacks being launched at him and both he could not hope to dodge, yet that did not mean that he was down for the count, no the humans would need to be taught a lesson on true power. Along his wrists were what one could describe as rather strange markings, ones that began to glow a bright silver and within an instant the energy would begin to pour off of him like a beacon as it wrapped around him in a shroud that protected him from the attacks that were thrown at him, and within an instant something formed along his back that thrusted him backwards, away from the two that were attempting to end him and up into the air.

Now adorning his back were two golden wings, ones that flapped loudly and kept him aloft as he looked down upon the three beings that were threatening him, his flesh knitting together on the damaged arm. ”I would have to admit, I’ve been holding back on all of you, but I suppose it’s time I get serious.” Raziel noted as a wind burst from his wings, pushing the damaged Shael backwards as he rolled along the ground, still gripping his pained stomach. Within his right hand began to form a silver blade, as the other disappeared, one that was pulsing with the strange golden energy that was radiating from him, one that was perhaps unique to the ethereal himself. ”Now I think it’s time I ended this little game of ours.” Raziel noted as energy would coalesces around his winged appendages and with a flap a burst of the energy would be sent outwards, aiming to destroy all three of them.

Ethereal awakened grid:

Connie is taken aback by the man's ability to resist the double onslaught. Doubly dumbfounded is she when he goes through some manner of form change. She steps back, closer to the others as he takes to the air, sporting wings of magnificent light. Her hands begins to emit a potent, multicolor aura as he forms some manner of gargantuan energy wave. Her head turns slightly toward the two behind her, though her eyes never leave the armageddon approaching from overhead. Then she holds back both of her hands for a moment of buildup before launching an upward beam of into the wave overhead, hoping to disrupt it enough that they three of them are not harmed. "Once I stop, you should have an opening to attack!" She shouts over the collision of forces, cosmic and ethereal. The sound make by these two clashing powers is nearly indescribable and the air around it ripples. It's as if the universe is crying out that reality is being pulled at like a rubber band. It's...surreal.

If it weren't for the arrival of the cosmic being, Shauna would've taken cover- instead, she provided them cover, generating energy fields to combat Raziel's own. Shauna's vision was dazzled by the fantastic displays of power, seeing energy patterns she'd never had before; she snaps out of it and adds her own energy to the dangerous amalgation already building up in the air. But, going for cover sounds like a really good idea right about now, and she was slowly taking steps towards a nice big boulder nearby...

The strange energies would begin to intermingle within the collision, creating a dazzling display of color that perhaps never existed before, and the energy that was temporarily created was strange even to Raziel. Shael stood to his feet and drew upon his own pure ethereal energy, throwing a powerful burst of it into the fray and completely overpowering the attack that was coming from Raziel, though that did not stop him from doing what happened next. Within an instant he was gone, disappearing within a small puff of golden mist, and within that same instant he was standing behind the small tan male, wielding the strange pulsing blade within his hand. ’Like I said, I would have to put you down.” he muttered and the blade was thrusted through his abdomen, and a great gout of blood spurted from his mouth as Shael was lifted into the air and tossed aside like so much dead weight.

The body of the male landed with a resounding thud at Michael’s feet, well more like infront of his wheel chair, coughing loudly as the blood began to spurt from the large wound within his chest. ”One down, three to go.” he muttered quickly rising into the air with a powerful flap of his wings, energy coalescing around his fists with a great blinding flash. The healing wind instantly ceased, which would have stopped any sort of damage from being healed, including the damage done to Shael by the powerful blade within his hand. ”So, who’s next for the slaughter?” The enrgy around his hands would begin to form around his blade, pulsing brightly and with a swing he unleashed a burst upon the now two combatants.

Michael however was what one could call dumbfounded, looking to the bleeding ethereal on the ground. Things were not going well.

Connie prepares herself, but the winged one is already on top of the boy, leaving a blade protruding from his chest. She freezes, though not in shock. Her legs won't move and her eyes glaze over. There is a violent tug in her very being. The connect-the-dot pattern on her body dims for a moment before lighting back up. The inevitable has just happened in front of Connie's eyes. One of the bindings, the strong cosmic threads holding the ethereal plane of the universe in place, is severed. It trembles at first, but is soon quelled. The restraints still left are luckily just strong enough to keep the plane stable. It is with this reassuring thought that Connie is able to move again. Words flurry through her mind faster than she can fathom to string any sensible ones together, but she can move. What have I intruded on? Soon, Connie composes herself and the faint rainbow spectrum pulse around her hands bursts into a violent aura. It doesn't matter. His actions threaten the bindings...and they also aren't very nice.

Shauna feels the familiar and unwelcome tug of guilt and shame at being unable to save people. Her body ached and her vision lit up, her eye sockets literally on fire now.

"...I'm nothing but a big dumb sucker... getting involved in hero business is gonna be the death of me..." She thought to herself, thinking of how to deal with this man.

Meanwhile, the city reacts accordingly to yet another metahuman incident. Shauna's brilliant beams and explosions summon fire trucks and police cars, their loud sirens blaring loudly over the combat. Soon fire fighters were putting out blazes, while cops keep the people back. SWAT teams with heavy weapons aim their big guns on all the metahumans, telling the to desist, but they know better than to get involved.

The power surges all over Shauna's body; she gazes at herself as her flesh begins to give way, revealing the power beneath. Even her face seemed to transform into quasi-energy, hair turning to shimmering multi-colored light and blowing upward. Why was this happening here and now? She had no more time to think about it.

The plasma builds up in her hands and she launches them as several green star bolts, which, unlike her eye beams, followed no set path. They move in elliptical curves towards Raziel, much more difficult to defend against, each one a self-contained ball of plasma energy that could tell him what the surface of the sun was like.

So the humans had finally come to deal with the threat of “metahumans” though Raziel knew only one of them really fell under the category of metahuman. A low chuckle emanated from his throat as the ethereal slash would slam into the ground and bring up a large amount of dust that would form into a sort of pseudo smokescreen, however he could see the burning energy of the female that was glowing. So it seemed that not even she was mundane, he was dealing with rather interesting individuals and ones that would take more than a simple construct to deal with. Of course Raziel could have continued to fight, but he knew that it would have been a downhill spiral, he would allow them to defeat him, for now anyway. A low chuckle escaped from the male as one of the stray blasts slammed into his chest and sent out a spurt of golden blood.

Another would slam into him until the ethereal being was reduced into nothingness, and the weapons that he formed clattered to the ground, and the source of the energy would dissipate within a second. Fera had heard about the situation and was on her way as quickly as possible, not worried about any humans that would step in her way as she only muscled onward. There was a alrge amount of ethereal energy there, and that worried her, especially when she felt Shael’s own energy begin to dip and then almost disappear.

Blood was soaking the males shirt, turning it an ugly dark brown color as he slowly began to bleed out. Yet he could feel it, his twin so close as well as the one person that he was trying to protect; his daddy. He had pulled himself out of the restrictive wheel chair, shaking him and saying something that seemed like he was trying to keep him awake. No, he wanted to sleep so badly and breathing was more of a hassle than he really wanted to deal with at the moment, yet he knew he could not die, not like this. Silus’ death had already hurt Michael and something told him that him dying would only make things worse, small trickles of dark red blood flowed down his chin as the paling eyes would look into Michael’s as the light seemed to fade quickly. ”Stay with me little buddy, its gonna be alright.” Michael said lowly as if it would comfort him somehow, yet all he could do we smile weakly, yet the male knew that he would not be alright. With a wound like this he would not be alright at all, he was dying as he spoke. ”Stay with me, please.” He was going into silent hysterics now, as the blood began to soak even his own hands.

’D..” He coughed as blood splashed outwards against Michael’s cheek, yet he did not really notice it as his eyes simply turned blank and the hand gripping his fell slack, before falling against the ground. Footsteps could be heard behind him, the sound of Fera arriving on the scene, only to see her brother lying dead on the grass in a puddle of his own blood and her crippled father crying over him.

Connie watches in silence. Her face is blank but her arms hug her sides tightly as the stars dotting her body all go dark. What remained of that binding no longer exists. The sight plays back in her mind like a broken record. Families mourning in anguish over the loss of loved ones is an unfortunate truth about this world. Even beings as undeniably potent as these couldn't evade it forever.

Human forces of all walks of life spawn from every unsigned crevice of the park. Connie stands there, looking to the fire crews and then to the officers. Many of the boys in blue lower their weapons at her gaze. She floats inches above the ground, no longer emitting any aura. I wouldn't have chosen that course of action, but...but wait. She closes her eyes, allowing her mind to wander into the realm of the web. Only one link is undone in the Ethereal plane. Her eyes now wide and glowing, she looks to the boy's corpse, and then to the space where the assailant had been vaporized.

The crowd that was gathering around the park, typical of an aftermath of a battle. Pictures were being taken of the damage done to the park, and towards the two luminous cosmic beings present. they had murmurs for both, but there was recognition on Shauna's identity. "Hey I know that meta... isn't she like... Sun Queen?"

An older beat cop came to keep the people from getting too close. He peered over and looked at the dazzling being of emerald energy in the sports attire. "You're wrong, Sun Queen was Red-Orange. This gal is green... She's the kid, Laser Ladette. She was a friggin kid hero kickin ass and taking when most of you were even in diapers. Dang... haven't seen her in ten years."

"She's a metahuman and a vigilante is what she is." Another younger cop said, getting angry from the damage the metahuman battle inflicted.

"You wanna arrest the walking nuke? go ahead kid." He said, though the old cop was the first to start moving towards the scene.

Shauna ignored the people who looked on, clutching her still pained but slightly healed midsection. The older cop rushed over, but kept some distance feeling that the air around Shauna was warmer. "Laser Ladette! I was a rookie back when you were cleaning the streets back in '98. You uh... need help?"

"Never mind me... I need a paramedic for the kid!" Shauna said, and the older police officer rushed off to get help. Shauna knelt by Shael. She instinctively wanted to resuscitate him, try to keep him alive, but with her hands aglow she didn't know if she'd do more harm than good. "I... I can't help him... I can't touch him like this... we have to do CPR... keep him breathing till the ambulance gets here..."

Fera could only stare for a moment, the small frail form having grown stiff upon the blood soaked ground. What would have made the sight even worst was the fact that he only looked twelve, barely old enough to have enjoyed life. Blank eyes stared up into the sky, a strangely content expression on his face as the body bore life no more, Fera drawing two fingers down his forehead and closing the eyes. A silent tragedy it was, or so one would presume to call it, though the red haired female could not even spare any words towards what it was, all she could do was cradle the small form within her arms, looking to the woman that was being referred to as Laser Ladette.  She wanted to say that nothing could be done, yet also she wanted to believe so desperately that Shael could be rescucitaed.

Something festered around the wound, an energy that prevented all forms of healing from doing anything, he could not be brought back. ”He’s already gone.” The female said in a hollow voice, one that seemed to silently admit that the child within her arms was gone, that he had died. A mental hand reached out, making it as if the rest did not even notice the child, save for the two that had come to aid him in the first place, both Shauna and the cosmic entity. She looked down to her father, Michael who was laying pitifully on the ground and staring at his blood soaked hands, ones that were soaked with the blood of his own son.

Silently resting the male on the ground, she helped the seemingly catatonic male into the wheel chair, brushing his cheek softly as she looked to the others, well the two that she assumed had helped within the matter. ”It’s best if you get moving now, humans tend to frown upon wanton destruction within their cities.” Fera noted cooly, placing the corpse within the care of Michael, or rather placing him in his lap. They could not return home, there was only one place that they could go to, and that was the only family they had, and Fera knew where the safehouse was. Grapping tightly onto the handles of the chair, she began to walk away into the night, using her own gift to make sure no one stopped her.