ISMA The Takeover

N0X

Well-Known Member
Saoirse awoke to silence. Something warm supported her head. A warm blanket covered her. She tried to make sense of the mumbling conversation and where she was to no avail. A dull pain ached through her entire body. The hand that caressed her hair was warm and comforting. She didn't want it to stop, but it did, and affectionately squeezed her shoulder. They knew she was awake. Saoirse opened her eyes, squinting at the light, and stared at her old Master's face; Rowan. He was well built for a graying man.

Master Rowan was legendary, and he was much older and powerful than any of the students could know. Saoirse had done her own digging about him throughout the years, and only found that he was one of the Immortals, but no more. It was as if he had been deliberately erased from the history books. Saoirse realized her teammates were also there, hovering over the bed. They were in the medical wing of the school. "Everyone," she croaked.

"Saoirse! You're alive!" A tall, blonde-haired, blue eyed boy shouted; Clark. Saoirse flinched at the sudden noise, and someone whacked him on the back of the head. "Ow!" His eyes were puffy and red, as though he had been crying. Saoirse realized her entire body was covered in bandages, and sighed.

"What happened to me?"

"You were thrown into a deathtrap and got hurt," Radella, a tan, red-haired girl with golden eyes spoke first, then added, "badly."

"We thought you were a goner," Neil, a tall, tan, muscular boy with sharp ears and wild hair added. His eyes were brown, and warm.

Then, her Master finally spoke kindly. "You've been out for a few hours. How do you feel?"

Saoirse tried to remember what happened. They were in the hyperdome, playing hyperball. It was an aggressive, contact team sport where two teams used staves to shoot pucks into each other's score circle while battling each other and avoiding traps on the field. Players earn notoriety for knocking out opponents, scoring points, and impressing the crowd with violence and skill. It was the ultimate test of speed, strength, stamina, and skill, and were allowed to use their self-enhancing abilities in any way they desired to win. It was a dangerous sport and all members had to be at least a tier 3 to play. Saoirse was at tier 2. She vaguely recalled being thrown into one particularly deadly trap by an opposing player before everything went black.

"Like shit," she groaned. This drew chuckles from them all, and the ice was broken. "Did we lose?" The question caused a heavy silence. "I take it as a yes," Saoirse lamented. "Damn. Sorry for causing trouble...."

"You're not causing trouble!" Clark tried his best to be quieter, managing only just. Saoirse smiled at his effort while still squinting at his high pitched voice.

"If getting rid of you was that easy, we would have thought of it a long time ago," Neil joked, drawing a chuckle from the bed ridden girl.

"Yeah, it's not your fault," Radella said, matter-of-factually, "It's Neil's. He was supposed to cover you when you ran the ball, but as usual--."

"What?! My fault? You were the one that let that bastard Sloane slip past you. If it weren't for--."

Sensing an argument, Master Rowan began to usher them out. "That is enough. Out, the lot of you. Saoirse will be needing quiet and rest."

"How bad's the damage, doc?" Saoirse asked.

"Luckily, no broken bones," Master Rowan said, "but your entire rib cage is cracked and bruised. Your back took the worst of it."

"It doesn't hurt much," she lied.

"That's a very good sign. They'll discharge you in the morning, if that is truly the case." There was deep worry in his green eyes. It was clear he did not fall for her bluff.

Saoirse smiled wryly. "Wow. Lucky me. I'll have to enjoy my vacation to the medical wing for as long as I can. Then we can continue my training as if nothing ever happened." The tense silence that followed gave her the impression there was something he wanted to tell her. "What is it, Master?"

"Perhaps," he spoke slowly, as if weighing each word before saying it, "it is best to put off your training. For now."

"What?" Saoirse's brows pulled together.

"I've also spoken to Coach Mor. He thinks it's a good idea to give you a break from the team."

"WHAT?! NO!" Saoirse sat up, and quickly regretted it as red hot pain shot through her back, and she collapsed back on the bed, panting and sweating. She underestimated what Master Rowan had said about her wounds.

"You could have been killed, Saoirse...."

"But I--."

"You're not ready, Saoirse. Coach Mor was foolish to think that you could be at Tier 2. My own hopes for you clouded my judgement. I shouldn't have given you permission."

"This. Isn't. Fair!"

"Sometimes I forget you're still just a child. We can pick back up where we left off next semester--."

"Next semester!? You've got to be joking! That's six months away! What am I supposed to do until then?"

"Focus on your classes," Master Rowan shrugged, "you are not performing as well as you could be. I believe I've been robbing you of a proper education for quite some time, now."

Most students do not receive private lessons from a Master until after they've graduated. Saoirse knew that Master Rowan was making an exception with her, that he was giving her special treatment. She was talented. Gifted in ways most students only dreamed of. Saoirse squinted at him, sensing there was more to all of this than the eyes could meet.

"No. There's something you're not telling me."

For the first time, Master Rowan appeared to be his age. He paused and watched her dark eyes piercing through him. He sometimes forgot her intuitive gifts allowed her to see through the truth of things. But he could not bring himself to tell her, yet. Saoirse wasn't ready to hear it.

Rowan placed a gentle hand on her hot forehead. "Get some rest," he said. "We'll talk about this when you're discharged."

@Moose
 
Aoife reached her mind out to the student body of the school that they were raiding, they were going to be the first absorbed into the country of Menesha. Aoifes personal target was injured, one who had not realized her full potential. She smiled as the others around her all pointed fingers and tried to pass on blame for what was clearly a group effort.



She reached out to the others around her to make sure that all were ready for the attack. All of them were ready for their orders and Aoife was the one to give them. She went back into the minds of the students and probed for weakness and found the opposite of it. She grumbled to herself and linked back to the soldiers who had gathered around her, "these are students and their teachers, but make no mistake, they are self enhancers. Watch their hands for weapons and don't let them get close lest they tear off limbs. I need not remind you that while a higher tier has more practice, a person need be only tier one to be able to realize the full potential of their body. An immortal is inside, leave them to me." She said, her words echoing through the mind of every soldier that was there.



She had been very specific that there not be any elementals who use fire involved in the assault and it seemed her orders had been followed. Other than that there seemed to be a mash of conjurors, self enhancers and elementals. Thaumaturgists always had something better to do, and very few enchanters were battle ready. Healers stayed back.



She began focusing her psiionic power and formed her shell, blue transparent energy formed into a solid barrier. She made the body first, cephalothorax then abdomen. The spinerettes were a psiionic contraption that would send out a blast of energy to repel anyone who came close. Finally it was the legs, all right of them sprouted out and braced against the body she had created, crushing the undergrowth of the forest around them and creating eight ditches. She held her arms and legs close into her body in the fetal position, she didn't need them while her spider body was active.



It was time, she sent the signal to storm the building and they all ran towards the cement monolith and the outer buildings. She scurried over the buildings and made her way to the infirmary. She raised a single leg, poised over the thick cement wall that kept her out, and plunged it through.



The other soldiers got the messages, breaching at the entrances they were stationed at and storming the school, the goal was to subdue instead of kill for the overall mission. But Aoife had her own agenda. She peeked into the hole in the wall she made, waiting for the dust to settle.
 
The Master had no intention of abandoning Saoirse's training forever, but the things that he knew about her, as for the potential of what she could become, was troublesome, indeed. They had other troubles on their hands, as well. Someone, perhaps an informant or spy, had leaked Saoirse's existence to a very dangerous individual. But they were foolish if they thought that the Master would not be able to notice.

Although the news had come late, the other teachers had been preparing for this day for about a week. They knew who was coming with their own small army of psionics. The students had been ordered to bed early, although the most meddlesome amongst them had committed to their own preparations. The ones that had noticed the changes in their teachers, especially.

Children were sometimes clever that way. Even tier 1 students were whispering between themselves of a possible invasion from a rival school. The truth was more serious than that, of course. The Master himself had seen students who normally slacked off and coasted by take their self-enhansing lessons more seriously than ever before. It worried him greatly that there would be much bloodshed.

Master Rowan stood before the great hall, waiting for Master Aoife as if to greet her like an old friend. How had he appeared there so quickly, in the mere blink of an eye? Well, he wasn't a top tier Master of self-enhancement for nothing. Master Rowan had slammed into the body of the spider elf before she could breach the medical bay and sent her flying and crashing through the massive outer walls of the school.

"Master Aoife," he greeted amicably, although any Immortal could tell the man was absolutely prepared to kill, "to what do I owe the honor of your visit at our humble school?"

They could hear other teachers fighting and preventing Aoife's minions from entering the buildings at different locations. Several top tier students awake after curfew decided to rebel and join the fray, much to the dismay (yet releif) of their own teachers.

"You really should have called," Master Rowan joked venomously.

Saoirse's eyes blinked open as she felt a trembling in the cement, and heard the rumbling of the earth moving and breaking somewhere far away. It felt and sounded exactly like an earthquake. A muscular black orc woman, who happened to be her personal nurse, had unlocked and opened the doors, and there was a very serious look in her face as she began to roll Saoirse's bed into the hall.

"What was that sound? Where are you taking me? What's happening?" Saoirse mumbled through a dull sleepiness.

But the nurse had sedated her to numb much of the pain from her injuries, and she merely shushed the girl as the bed rolled down the hall.

@Moose
 
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Aoife toppled over, her legs scrambling for purchase as she felt Saorise's mind began moving, the sedatives that she was on made it harder to track her, but Aoife managed.

She looked to him and sighed, weaving a shell of a large dragonfly in the abdomen of her spider, splintering off a piece of her mind, attaching it to the dragonfly and then sending it out. Aoife raised a leg and dropped it on the man, "Rowan, I know that a meathead like you may fail to understand. But you can't hide her from me."

The going was slow with the battle around them, but Aoife had superior numbers on her side and proper soldiers. The ISMA standard robes made it very clear who was on whose side with the color of the school of magic that the soldier used brightly blazing on their robes.

Her troops were well equipped and stayed back from the students and faculty. Elementals pelted students with small rocks, and suppressed them with gushing blasts of water from the gardens that were just outside. The air elementals were by far the most brutal of them, sucking the air out of the lungs and the surrounding area of any of those who came close to them. Soon grand monsters from other planes of existence joined into the fray and added to the chaos as creatures that made the beasts of the world seem tame were wandering the halls of the school. Her own enhancers were careful with the students, only directly engaging when other soldiers needed backup.

"Non magical humans are extinct, and they are to mages what mages are to psiionics. What does that make you Rowan?"
 
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Saoirse's Orc nurse, Nergüi, was a Tier 5 healer. It had taken her decades to get to where she is. Being the school nurse was as fulfilling a job as any. She was recruited by Rowan himself into his school. Out of the seven Houses, she was accepted into the House of Harmony and became an exceptional healer, training under the school Doctor, and eventually becoming a Nurse, too.

One day, she hoped to reach Tier 6, which would automatically earn her the title of Doctor at the school. She could open her own hospital if she wanted to, but it was more than likely that she would stay. Nergüi loved the students more than anything in the world. She would lay down her life to protect a single one if she had to.

Nergüi pulled Saoirse into an elevator that descended into the lower levels of the school. The elevator doors opened to reveal long hall with motion activated lights that turned on as they ran by. They entered a metal room and Nergüi locked the doors behind them. They were no ordinary locks, as this was no ordinary room. It was reinforced to handle magic missiles and also protected against psionic detection. Hopefully, Rowan's plan would work.

Radella, Neil, and Clark poked their head from around the corner of the elevator.

"She went this way," said Radella, confidently leading the way.

"A-are you sure?" Clark asked with wide, fearful eyes.

"I'm positive," Radella said, stopping them before the elevator. The orc's nostrils flared. "I know her smell."

Neil glared at the elevator's access screen. "We don't have the access code."

"Then, this is as far as we go," said Radella, looking around the hall. The three Tier 3 hyperball players could hear the noise of battle all around the school. They took a defensive position around the elevator doors, just as they did many times when they played the game and were protecting their silver-haired captain. Radella clenched her hands into fists. "No ISMA scum will get through us."

Rowan slapped the leg away with an ease that could frighten an ordinary man. He flew up to the immortal woman, unleashing a flurry of a thousand powerful punches, forcing her back. It was not impossible for a master of self-enhancement to break a psion's shield, especially not for an Immortal.

"You can't have her, Aoife," Rowan spat the name out with absolute disdain, "she is not yours to claim."
 
Aoife smiled at the barrage of hits even as it began cracking the carapace of her spider's body, and she pulled on the thread holding it all together, unraveling her woven armor. It gathered in a ball over her right shoulder, just waiting for the right moment to reform into something new.

"Claim her? The only thing I wish to claim is being the person who brings her to her full potential." She pointed to Rowan, "It is your people who wish to claim her, to confine her and limit her greatness." The ball began roiling as it prepared to unleash what would come next, a spike meant to use Rowan's own momentum to impale him upon it. She slowly floated down to the ground, wanting to lessen the avenues of approach he had.

As the fighting continued, the tracking dragonfly came through the corridors, flying past all the students who were suppressed or even murdered. It came to a stop just before the elevator. The signal of Saorise was no longer present, but the location of the room was definitely known. Aoife's facial expression betrayed her frustration at not knowing the exact location. She didn't even know if that room had an outlet she could be escaping from.

The dragonfly looked over the three students, glowing blue and transparent, it would be clear it was not actually a dragonfly. It began vibrating to imitate speech, sounding very much like a simple text-to-speech machine, "They wish to limit her you know?" It said.

Soldiers began making their way down the hall to them, three elementals resplendant in yellow from one end, and a conjuror and enhancer from the other end.

"They fear her power, but I can make her a god."
 
Rowan could only laugh at the audacity of the horrible bitch. They had never claimed her, as they did not thing of people as being claimable or winnable. They were simply people that were given an offer, and they made the choice to join their school out of their very own free will, or not, something this immortal woman could no longer even so much as fathom.

The fact that Rowan had even come across the girl in the orphanage was a miracle in and of itself, and the girl had practically begged him to let her join his school before he could even make the offer. Aoife could not even imagine it. Her mind was far too small for that. So, Rowan would not bother correcting her for her foolishness. It was a futile thing trying to reason with madness.

Sensing the gathering of energy in the ball and knowing it would soon unleash, Rowan blinked out of the way of the spike meant for him. To the naked eye, it truly did appear as though he were teleporting, but Rowan was merely moving at unfathomable speeds by self-enhancing. Not even Aoife could fathom it. Rowan used that same momentum to pierce through her shield and reach for the fragile girl inside, with every intention of snapping her neck.

"Secure the ball, Neil!"
Radella called.

Neil was a prop in hyperball, extremely strong in the neck, shoulders, upper body and legs, and he relished head-to-head competition. Aside from being a particularly gifted Tier 3 self-enhancer, Neil was a psion capable of creating powerful shields. Combining power with mobility, Neil ran to "secure the ball" by using his entire body as a battering ram against the elementals with the help of his shield.

"Clark, jump!" Radella pointed at the dragonfly, and Clark wasted no time in leaping in the air to "kick the ball"! Jumpers were the team's most powerful kickers, and they were the most important player to decide whether or not the ball ended up on their side or not. They had to be quick. His tall height was definitely helpful in making him a fast, and effective Jumper. That dragonfly would be meeting his match!

Radella faced the conjurer and enhancer, blocking their path forward. She was still being mindful of the fact that Saoirse, their scrum, had been brutally attacked by the opposition's flanker, and that Neil had been right; it had been her fault. As the team's flyer, she should have been able to react appropriately in her team's gap in defense, but failed to do so. Radella could make excuses, saying Sloan was just too good of a flanker, but she'd be letting her team down if she passed on her responsibility, her failure. She'd make up for it this time.

@Moose
 
Rowan made it through her shield and it tightened around his arm. Aoife helpfully offered her neck to him, speaking directly into his mind, "did you really think that Adapa would consider a student of his healing methods to be fully trained if they couldn't heal faster than they were injured? Snap my neck if you'll feel some catharsis from it. You're only making an opening for me." She said, a thread of psionic energy piercing his skin and beginning to creep up his arm.

The dragonfly demonstrated why it was sent along, dodging the kick meant for it and getting behind the students to the elevator. It looked to the soldiers, the sounds of backup coming to assist them, "I leave this to you." And it folded itself flat, squeezing in the elevator doors and then falling down the shaft to where the elevator lie at the bottom.

One of the elementals stepped forward and stomped on the floor, a wall of cement popping up in front of them, slotted up from the building and caught Neil in his charge. The second elemental was prepared with a large jug of water to catch any limbs and the third began sucking the air out of the corridor.

"Stand down! You're not soldiers, we don't wish to harm you." He shouted over the wind.

A portal snapped open and shut in front of Radella, leaving a giant mantid in front of her. It chittered and swung at her, the enhancer hopping on its back and reinforcing it's carapice.
 
Rowan was sick of this pompous, self-righteous, whore with a superiority complex. It seemed she really enjoyed the sound of her own voice and wouldn't shut the hell up. Rowan laughed to himself, knowing she was exactly the kind of woman Saoirse would hate. Rowan pried the shield open with his free hand as his other closed around her neck. Then, after snapping her neck clean, without so much as hesitating, attempted to pry her entire spine from her body. What was this little tiny psion against the strongest immortal in the world?

"DAMN!" Clark looked devastated as he watched the dragonfly fold and disappear. The dragonfly, unfortunately, wouldn't get very far. It disintegrated as soon as it attempted to fly down the elevator shaft. There was something about that corridor that absorbed all the energy being the psionic construct.

Neil barraged through the cement wall like canon fire. It crumbled around him, and he kept going, knocking the elementals down like pins before they could use any of their powers. Neil turned around, raising his fists, ready to knock some sense into these ISMA bastards. "SHOW ME YOUR MOVES!"

"EW! GROSS!"
At the sight of the mantis creature, Radella unleashed a flurry of kicks with the force of her thick, powerful orc thighs behind them, not to mention Tier 3 self-enhancement.

@Moose
 
Aoifes eyes glowed as her neck snapped and she opened her mouth, corners of her lips twitching as if from laughter. The thread finally went all the way up Rowan's arm and into his torso, entering his heart, beginning to pierce it. The heart still needs to beat, can't make it too hard, the weakness of all self enhancers.



Aoife felt the dragonfly disappate and opened her mouth in a voiceless scream of anger. She puppeted her own body to grab her head, she would be healed soon enough, and then she could sort this out herself.



The air elemental showed his moves, which was retreat. He floated up on a cushion of air and was carried away. The water elemental made ice shards with his water and pelted Neil with them. The earth elemental assembled the broken cement into armor around his own body.



The mantis chittered and swiped at her with it's arms. The enhancer leapt off its back and provided some backup. He too was tier three, though by ismas system. He raised his fists and took a boxing stance before jabbing at Rabella.



Reinforcements arrived at the ends of the hall, a variety of mage soldiers had gathered to this final point, "give it up, you're surrounded."
 
Rowan grunted as Aoife pierced his heart, but he still had time. Time enough to complete the very simple task of removing her spine from her small body. If he could just do that one small thing, an effortless thing, really, Saoirse would be safe. Aoife's men would retreat seeing the death of their Immortal Master. Rowan would be dead, but they would be safe. Saoirse would be far, far away from Aoife's clutches, if everything went according to plan. That was a sacrifice he was willing to make.

Neil made up for his lack of finesse in raw power, often able to knock almost any opponent out with a single punch as a prop in hyperball. The slugger's biceps bulged and as he ran towards the two standing elementals, he threw powerful punches that shattered the piercing ice. Like a raging bull, it was Neil's every intention to ram through the concrete-armored elemental, his momentum of which might also take out the water elemental if he barreled through with success once again.

By bouncing on her toes, Radella was able to dodge the mantis' piercing blades. Being the team's flyer made her an excellent swarmer. This meant that although the mantis had a superior (and deadlier) reach, Radella would close in, and overwhelm them with intensity and flurries of powerful kicks and uppercuts. However, she had to spend most of her time dodging deadly slashes before she could maneuver inside. Then, there was enhancer on its back, throwing punches whenever she got close. She had been jabbed several times in the face, and once in the stomach. Radella was already panting and drenched in sweat. Minor flesh wounds on her arms and legs bled. Her nose was broken and bleeding, and one of her eyes was bruised and swollen shut.

Seeing an opportunity to surprise the enhancer, Clark the speedster hid behind one of Radella's assaults and launched a speedy tackle at the enhancer on the mantis' back. Jumpers were known for being extremely quick on their feet, which often made up for a lack of power. Since they rely speed rather than power, they tended to avoid fights altogether and focus on directing the ball, and could make sudden changes of direction at high speeds in order to catch the ball in play. However, if a jumper was caught in a fight, their weaker, yet speedier jabs and straights could earn them many fight points during a play. Clark was almost pissing-his-pants-terrified at having to fight this foreign enhancer, but he had to do it for the team, and he never enjoyed watching Radella bleed. Radella took her chance at delivering a high-jump axe-kick, attempting to cut the mantis in half with every ounce of energy she had left.

@Moose
 
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Aoife grinned at rowan as he struggled with her spine. She thrashed the thread around in his heart to tear it up more before beginning to retract it until it was in his forearm. She began sawing away at the tendons that kept his grip on her throat. She began to speak into his mind again, "I've had seven bodies Rowan, do you really think I don't know how to reattach my own head?" Spider-like legs began springing from her head and grabbed onto her body.

"Crush my ribs, destroy my body so very little of it is recognizable, tear off my head, shatter my shield. When I emerge victorious without an apparent scratch, it will simply instill more loyalty to me."

Neil successfully barrelled through the cement armored elemental, but the water elemental dodged out of the way and pulled their friend out from getting trampled by Neil. One of the back up soldiers that had arrived conjured a bush monster that threw out thick vines to tangle up Neil's arms and legs to limit his movement.

The mantis was significantly more damaged than Radella, and the enhancer was barely keeping up with Radella. His focus was on defensive tactics which is why he was generally paired with others. Clark getting in on the fun threw him off balance, and he jumped off the mantis' back, letting the conjuror send it home. He noticed Clark's fear and pressed the advantage of fear against him. Clark got in several good jabs, but the nameless enhancer got in a single good punch.

The conjuror placed a hand on the floor and opened a portal to the abyss. Reality began to warp around the black cloud of magic that rose from the portal. It's surface roiled as it's gaze travelled over the room, everyone who it looked upon felt it. It turned on its summoner and materialized a hand, "you... Really need to start boning down." It said, beginning to draw out from the portal further and further, coiling around Radella though it had no true physical form, "I like this one, perhaps her?" The demon mused. It spoke to her next, "how about you, would you like to make a deal?"
 
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