Molting the Mortal Coil

Turns out they had already prepared for their success as well as failure. Under their direction, they quickly cleared out a dozen guard teams. Clearing a path from the outer perimeter directly to the edge of the Quarry. At that point, Spark opened up his shell and took out a device that looked like a small drum the size of a bucket. He opened up the top of it and then sat down cross-legged in front of it. An arc of electricity formed between his fingers before he placed his hands against either side of the drum on two metal plates. Then he nodded to Nova.

At the signal, Nova took out a device with a short stick shape. She placed it inside a small box that Aurora unfolded. She then reached inside and put both hands next to the stick, “Avert your eyes.”

With just that quick warning, her power flared to life, brilliantly blinding light forming at her fingertips. Thankfully, the small box had only a small dark viewing window, her warning only precautionary. They weren’t intending to give their position away completely to the enemy by setting off such bright lights in the middle of the night. The group could only see over Nova’s shoulder, the burning lights were pushed into the small stick and disappeared. In just a few seconds she brought out the stick and it floated into the air.

Nova started working on another one of the small stick devices while the first she’d finished floated through the air. Aurora had taken over, moving the device with her telekinesis and inserting it into the top of the small drum that Spark was holding onto. It slid into a slot that seemed made for it and clicked into place. In just a few seconds, Nova had finished another and the process continued. After a dozen of the sticks were collected and slid into the drum, the lid flew back into place and Nova collapsed onto the ground. She was breathing hard and her face looked pale. As quickly as she worked, she’d expended much of her strength and took the opportunity to recover.

With the lid returned to the device, Aurora walked closer to the edge of the Quarry and Spring followed her. Spring’s usually reticent demeanor shifted, her posture straightened and her shoulders pushed back. After taking a deep breath, she placed her hands onto Aurora’s back like she was going to push her off the cliff. Then there was a subtle crackle in the air and Sage felt a disturbance with his Spiritual Sense. An energy field of some sort formed around Spring and expanded to cover Aurora.

At the same time as Spring and Aurora were preparing, Cloud and Spark were doing the same. Cloud had pulled out a chain with a grip on one end and what looked like the head of a set of pliers on the other. Spark did a few things to the drum, and then carefully lifted it up. He continued to channel more electrical energy into it while Cloud secured the jaws at the end of the chain to the bottom of the drum. Cloud nodded his head and took off running. The drum was yanked out of Spark’s hands, an arc of electricity still connecting the two for a moment. Then Cloud planted his lead foot and pulled hard on the chain. He pivoted upon one foot and swung the other around, his whole body twisting and imparting a spin to the chain and the drum at the end of it.

Hammer Throw!

Sage recognized the olympic throwing event just as Cloud started spinning. The drum did a full rotation around the man’s body before the man joined in with the spin. Like a human dervish, the drum carried him around. Cloud’s toes seemed to be the only thing touching the ground by the time his arms lifted and the drum disconnected from the chain. Cloud spun one more time before recovering his balance while the drum disappeared into the darkness.

Aurora lifted her hands and Sage sent his Twin Soul out to track the path of the flying drum. Even with all his advantages it was hard to track the small object flying at high speed out into the night. At that moment they all suddenly heard blaring horns and the Flare Base in the Quarry lit up with light. It sounded like a dozen semi-trucks were having a competition for who could have the loudest horn and then scrap metal started flying into the sky. From their vantage point on the side of the Quarry it looked like a junkyard had just completely lost gravity. Piles of metallic scrap and twisted trash flew upwards. Then a gout of flame five hundred feet long erupted from the ground and swept over the air like a searchlight. Snakes of purple lightning curled out and crackled between the junk flying into the air, adding an electrical net to the metallic asteroid field.

The small drum that was the cause of all this was hard to see from the ground and it seemed to have a mind of its own. Its flight path was not fixed, instead swooping and weaving around the junk coming its way. It easily avoided the sea of trash in the air, but just as it was about to pass through the last gap an arc of electricity jumped over to it. It continued flying without any trouble, but there was a large crackle and pop of sparks that drew attention. That change drew the attention of the pillar of fire. The burning column started to rush towards the drum, and in an instant the small drum was shattered into pieces.

Or at least, that’s what it looked like. The sides of it popped open and the stick-like devices it was carrying were launched towards the ground at high speed. The powerful flame melted the drum into a useless molten chunk, but it was too late to stop it from delivering its payload. Aurora let out a loud shout and fell backwards. Then, the night sky was suddenly ignited with brilliant lights. Even the flood of searchlights and the column of fire were no match for the sudden lightshow. Each of the dozen devices was like a tiny star, releasing terrifying amounts of light and heat as they fell to the ground. A few of them were intercepted by pieces of metal, but they weren’t stopped. The burning light melted right through the metal and they continued on their path.

Just like the defensive scrap metal, the roof of the Flare Base was no impedance to the weapons and they burned right through it. A few moments later there were loud bangs and the Flare Base shook.

“Time to go!”

Sage was quite impressed, but he also knew that they had made themselves into a target. The attack had been a success, but he had no idea how effective it actually was. It also seemed to take quite a bit out of everyone and now they had to escape. They quickly cleaned up their gear and started running. Cloud already had Nova and Aurora on either side of him, supporting their arms while Spark was helping Spring. Sage was the only one free, and he felt no need to abuse their trust. With the Twin Soul, Warp Worm, Spiritual Sense, and Foresight, Sage felt confident to lead them out.

A pair of Flares that were on sentry duty had rushed towards them and Sage quickly finished them off with a few shots from his rifle. A second team was a little more troublesome as one of them created some sort of field that seemed to warp space. Even seeing a few seconds into the future couldn’t stop his shots from warping around them. Unfortunately for them, the Twin Soul was not a physical being and it ignored the warped space. It flew into the Flare’s body and distracted the man enough to disrupt his psychic ability. Sage collected their bodies with the Warp Worm as he’d done before and they continued on.

The final hurdle came upon them just after they re-entered the city. Somehow they’d summoned many teams of Flares to wait for them at the perimeter of the city ruins. The group had already recovered enough to move on their own, but they were far from being in peak condition. Nova picked out a scapegoat, “I told you we shouldn’t have wasted so much energy on the Divine Amethyst, Cloud!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got a way to draw them away.”

Sage knew that the longer they took to escape, the more their enemies would reinforce the perimeter and the harder it would be for them to break through. He had dozens of tricks he could use, but since he didn’t want to give anything away he chose to use the Warp Worm. The ground rumbled nearby a team of the Flares and the wall of a building shook from a heavy impact. The asphalt road cracked and formed into a peak shape, like something was burrowing under the ground. It stopped for a moment after the collision with the building and then it started moving again, moving away from the city ruins and the teams of Flares.

From where the team was at, they only heard some rumbling and then the Flares in front of them ran off. They turned towards Sage with confused looks, “How did you do that?”

In response he just took off running, “Hurry we don’t have much time!”