ic Study Group: The Sound of an Eclipse

[Poncho]

(Golden Star)

 

"Y..yeah..." Michael said a little uncertainly, but sighed as Buzz went and grabbed them instead. "...That's probably for the best. I'm empty." he said to Timeout as his hair went back to normal and he sat down on the ground next to the unconscious girls. "I hit that bull scorpion thing way too hard." he said, as the girls were brought over. There were all five of them now between the already nearby Orion and the four knocked out ones.

 

"Good job Buzz." He said to the cockroach kid. "And you too, Timeout, obviously, you guys didn't even need me, I've still got a lot of work to do." he finished with a laugh as they waited for the girls to wake up.

[Thevshi]

Timeout

Lawrence glanced over to Michael as the other boy sat down and made a comment about them not really needing him. The blond teen was kneeling down by one of the unconscious Starblights checking their vitals and any signs of broken bones or other serious injuries.

"Nonsense." Lawrence replied. "You helped protect Gamma from attacks, and drew some that might otherwise have come at me." He then moved on to the next when Baz brought them over.

"And you certainly helped put down those large creatures and gave Gamma a toss to deal with FX. You were very much a part of this fight."

[Poncho]

(Golden Star)

 

"Good point, good point." he conceded, raising his hands in defeat at Lawrence with a good natured grin. "I pulled my share, the same as you guys. But still, you're both as impressive as always, so let me compliment you a little bit, huh? Especially if I'm 'The Leader' or whatever." he laughed as the time hero continued working. There weren't any serious injuries, the girls were mostly just unconcious.

 

"So yeah, you two did great. Better than I could have asked for. Put this under a successful outing for both of you." he said to Lawrence and Baz as he stood up to look over the girls; he wasn't a medical person, but he could at least show a little concern while avoiding crowding them. "With many more to come in the future, hopefully. And maybe some more times throwing Buzz around at people who are sticking too far away." 

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

(Tagging for new posistion; @RocketLord @MoonSimply @The Sailor @Huckleberry)

 

As the students who had gone into the theater exited with Eclipse on Spaceman's shoulder and the Umbra Star floating in the air near him, they exited onto a street where, despite the carnage and destruction that had happened a few minutes before, it had calmed down considerably. Buzz, Timeout, and Golden Star were carefully watching over what had once been two monsters but now were just 4 teenage girls, as well as Orion and FX. The girls were slowly regaining conciousness, though Eclipse and FX would be out for some time still due to having been rather thoroughly beaten, and as the apparant leader- the one called Kitty who was also the Cygnus constellation- saw the floating Gem, she raised a hand weakly, realizing she was currently surrounded by people who were not directly on her side right now.

 

"Listen. Listen to me very carefully. You don't trust me, I know. But that gem is not a regular gem." her face was extremely pale, and her eyes were wide; she was not pretending to be extremely concerned about the safety of the gem.

 

"That Gem is the beating heart of another universe. I don't know what Estelle told you, but, listen." her voice was strained and she kept looking between the heroes as if she was concerned they were going to try and stop her from talking. "Enoch took that gem from his home world of Asterim before it became corrupted by Sola's darkness. He did it to stop that entire world from being corrupted by evil magic, but that also means it's connected to every person living in Asterim. If it is destroyed, then that entire world will follow; everyone and everything there will wither and die." she breathed out slowly and bit her lip. She didn't like what she was about to say.

 

"Enoch used spells to hide the theater from Sola's agents. If you take it, you need to give it to someone who can use those same spells. I don't know who that would be. But Sola can't have it, and it can't be destroyed. There's an entire world- a million people- relying on us to keep that out of the hands of people who would misuse it or destroy it." 

[Thevshi]

Timeout

 

Lawrence had been relieved to see the others emerge from the theater with an unconscious teenage girl whom he presumed to be Eclipse. He was more concerned that some of them appeared injured, particularly Mizuki. "Are you okay?" He asked her as he used his powers to heal his friends (and the unconscious Orion).

 

When the Starbright known as Kitty spoke up about Umbra Star and the need to protect it, the blond teen listened carefully, deep in thought. When she finished, he looked over to the others. "I can get Eclipse and FX over to Freedom Hall and have the Freedom League take them into custody and get that process started." He began before looking over at the large gem.

 

"As for the Star, magic is rather outside my area of expertise. The League can probably get Phantom involved, but she is often rather busy, and might be sometime before she can take a look at things. If we wanted to keep things 'in house' so to speak, I can call in a favor with my foster sister and she can probably arrange to have Veronica Danger drop by pretty quickly. She should at least be able to give us an idea of what it is we are dealing with here, and possibly help renew the spell hiding the Star from Sola."

[The Sailor]

Torpedo Lass II

 

As she's healed she hesitated for a moment to tell Lawrence about what happened during the fight. There were some details to bring up though.

 

"What happened was a knock-down, drag out brawl with Eclipse and some Dragon."

 

"But there's another interesting little tidbit... The Shadow Academy. Heard of them? Apparently they exist. And if they know of the Star, they may come calling to reclaim it. They seem like really bad dudes."

Edited March 18 by The Sailor

[Supercape]

Gamma Buzz

 

Baltazar scratched his antennae. "So this gem is like we need it but its dangerous. Maybe it just needs to be hidden away? Like in a black hole or something? Or maybe the bottom of the ocean? Or up the headmaster's a.... ahhhh.... up the headmaster's super secret safe that has a chute you put things up. Yeah, that sounded plausible, right?"

 

He shook his head. 

 

"Really... like, dont we need to save that world, or something? Cant have a whole planet depending one teeny weeny gem?"

 

He shuddered at the thought of the earth being in such peril. 

 

"Can't we move the planet to a different part of the universe?"

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

"Are you even being serious right now?!!?" Consuelo asked, perhaps unfairly, to disgruntled one known as Kitty. "Are you saying, that because, uh, Spaceman just telekinesis-ed this jewel out of the theater, Sola can find it now? You guys didn't think about putting up a warning sign or something about that?" She slaps her head in disbelief.

 

"So - let me get this straight - Sola invaded this place called Asterim. If she gets her hands on the Umbra Star, things get even worse for Asterim. But, like, destroying the star means everyone on Asterim dies. Sola will try to get the star from whoever has it. The star can give people superpowers, and, for some reason, when I split it in half, it made a portal to evil because the star was connected to, like, destructive personalities. Where the heck was that portal to? Sola's bedroom suite?"

 

"Like, how tough is this Sola chica? Can the heroes of earth just like, tell her to back off? Or do we need to just, like, hide this crystal forever?"

[Poncho]

(Golden Star)

 

"Woah, Woah." Michael held his hands up at the sudden barrage of information and at the response, but it wasn't hard to miss what he'd done; he'd gotten up off the ground when Kitty had gotten up and still hovered somewhat nearby; he was being respectful, but not foolish. 

 

"Let's discuss this rationally, right?" He offered, smiling. "We haven't been swarmed just yet so we're safe for this moment. We now know the gem is very important so Spaceman let's make sure you keep a nice grip on it; we're clearly all concerned about these people...in? The gem. I'm sorry I don't actually really understand the connection, but I do believe you." He said to Kitty.

 

"So just tell us everything you know and we'll figure out a way to help you." He tried to keep his voice confident 

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

Right. Keep a tight grip on the gem. Parker looks at it briefly. Maybe staying close to the theater will keep the gem safe, still? It's not like they've moved far.

 

"If the theater keeps the gem secret, then maybe it would be better if we moved in there while we talk?" he asks, looking between the others, before fixing his eyes on Lawrence. "Could you reach out to Velocity and figure out who we need to come deal with Ashley here and the others, so we can make sure they're secure? Then I'm sure the rest of us can talk things through, right?" he ends hopefully, looking towards the Starblights at the last sentence.

[Poncho]

(GM post)

 

Kitty looks like she's about to lash out at Consuelo and start another brawl- not that it'd be a long one with it currently being a hugely lopsided fight- but between Parker and Michael she pauses long enough and clearly reassess her options.

 

"Okay...look. I can only tell you what Enoch told me, because he got killed a few months ago. But here's what I know." she takes a deep breath.

 

"Sola was the princess of Asterim. She was going to be crowned the Empress, basically; it's like the combination of that world's Master Mage- which is like the head magic honcho of the whole world, or something- and Ruler. But in her duties, an evil Dragon named Nihil came from beyond the stars, slew the world's champions, and drained the energy from the world. Sola herself set out and defeated the dragon, but in doing so she became corrupted by it's violent nature and energies. She was no longer fit to be Empress, because magical worlds reflect their rulers, and Sola was corrupted by darkness. When she realized she could no longer be sovereign, she waged war on Asterim and killed her entire family. Enoch was a royal advisor, who, when he realized that Sola would win, tried to save his universe by taking the source of magic in the world; the Umbra Star, and fleeing." she paused; she had to remember this story herself, because she hadn't thought about it in a long time.

 

"Enoch has been running with the gem ever since, not just in this world but through dozens of others, always chased by Sola and her Dark Commanders. I...look. I'm not going to say we've been great at defending it...or from keeping it from getting corrupted. But we did our best without having any help. But I'd guess Ashley and Felix pushed the thing over the edge...and if you split it in half, that probably just made it worse. I don't know what was on the other side...I was kind of being unconscious out here. But I'd have to assume it was Asterim itself." she takes another breath and stops as the rest of the Starblights slowly come to, rubbing their heads.

 

"So...I'd assume Sola is as powerful as a Master Mage. However powerful that is. Plus her army of warriors and commanders. That's uh...if we could even figure out a way into Asterim in the first place." she looked at the Umbra Star again.

 

"...I think the Star needs a break though. It's...hard to explain. But lately I've been able to like...hear what it wants. Or what it's feeling maybe? Like it's kind of alive but not really. And it needs time right now. Time to burn off all the corruption in it from Draco and Aries, and, well, also from what me and the others were doing."

 

The Gem did look rather dark in the center, and it still had a few nasty cracks. As the group watched it, one of the facets went dark.

 

"...I think it's sending out it's powers. To new people. To try and cleanse the corruption." she frowned. "Look. You can take it wherever you think you need to take it, but it's just going to need some time to recover." Then she looked at Ashley and Felix.

 

"I don't care what you do with them, though. If the Star took away their powers it's decided they're not worth it anymore, and we never really liked them anyway."

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

Consuelo steps closer to the Umbra Star as Parker floats it in the air. It's really pretty. Too bad this whole thing is such a total cluster.

 

"Wow, this Asterim place sounds like it really sucks. And it looks like this Umbra Star is just a little piece of that suckage stuck in our world, just like, leaking out suckiness day after day. Bummer. Maybe we should just stash it someplace that's already as bad a it can get, like Mrs. Priestley's health class."

 

"Or, maybe we should just, like, give it back to Sola. It's not like Asterim could really get that much worse, right? And if, like, a whole universe dies or whatever if you destroy the crystal, well, at least Sola would like, take good care of it, and make sure it doesn't get disintegrated by some, you know, hot-head kid, or whatever. Anyway, all we got against Sola is the second-hand word of this Enoch guy, that we've never even met. Maybe Enoch was full of it. Other than that, I got nothing."

 

"I could use a taco. Anybody else want tacos? I'm thinking we should go get tacos."

[The Sailor]

Torpedo Lass II

 

"After what happened at the Theater? Heck and Yeah! Just not around here I don't think there's a Taco Truck for at least a mile of this place." Mizuki said to Consuelo. Grinning.

 

Mizuki stretched out. "Then I need to do some research on this 'shadow academy' Eclipse was talking about."

 

"They're 0 for 2 against us... they're gonna be sore about it looking to run it back. Knowledge would be power."

[MoonSimply]

La Puma Negra

 

"I for one don't want this to happen again. As much as I don't they'd be a threat in the near future, we shouldn't have such a powerful thing in just anybody's hands," Puma says. In truth, she herself had hidden a rather a dangerous item in her own room. One that was a lousy roommate and seemed content to watch streaming shows off of her laptop. It was a strange relationship, and one that she even hid from one's closer to her. Well, until she could get rid of it properly.

 

"Shadow academy now, desgraciados, whoever they are is going to be a problem."

[Poncho]

"I..." Michael frowned, he seemed conflicted, struggling to figure out his words. Finally he spoke very slowly.

 

"We can't just abandon Asterim, even if they aren't our world, they're still people in need of help, right?" he scratched his hair. "...But we can't do anything now." he frowned. "Rot is right we don't know that Sola is evil, that's sort of outside of our knowledge, but at the very least we should be aware of it." he was measuring his words very carefully.

 

"For now, Timeout, can you take these two away, and maybe get someone to pick up this gem and hold onto it? At least until it's 'better'. They probably know more about that then we do. Then when it's 'fixed', we can maybe see about dealing with Sola if it's necessary?" he offered to Kitty and the others, hoping someone would back him up on that. "I want to help. When it's the right time to do so."

[Thevshi]

Timeout

 

Lawrence listened as Kitty tried to further explain what she knew about this other world, the Star and Sola. None of the others seemed interested in calling in someone that was an expert on magic to take a look at the Star and possibly confirm any of this, and far be it for him to unilaterally decide to do so.

 

While Lawernce had only a basic understanding of magic within the wider superhero community, he did have a decent understanding of the cosmology of alternate dimensions and timelines, and what Kitty was describing fit well enough within what the blond teen understood.

 

Giving Michael a small smile when he suggested delivering Eclipse and FX to the Freedom League along with the gem, Lawrence stepped over toward the two. "Sure thing, will see that these two get taken care of and that the gem gets to someone experienced in magic to take care of it. Catch up with you all later." The blond teen said as he prepared to teleport himself and the two unconscious teen villains to Freedom Hall.

[The Sailor]

On 3/23/2024 at 5:56 PM, Poncho said:

"We can't just abandon Asterim..."

 

Torpedo Lass II

 

Mizuki looked over to Michael after Lawrence chimed in. The look on her face was one of both determination, and uncertainty. "We won't. But we need to know as much as we can first. Never go into a divesite blind. Know what major obstacles are there, as well as any hazards. Same with going to a parallel dimension. Just the stakes can be potentially over our heads."

 

"Knowledge is power."

She looked over to Lawrence before he left. "If you can, get what intel you can gather on The Shadow Academy. I'll see if anyone at Claremont has any info they're willing to tell a Sophmore..."

The Adults at Claremont are well meaning, wanting to keep their students out of harm's way... but they should know by now that's a fool's hope. "We can compare notes... Maybe at lunch together?"

[Thevshi]

Timeout

 

Lawrence looked over to Mizuki as she spoke up again and suggested trying to learn what they could about the Shadow Academy. The blond teen gave her a smile when she suggested comparing notes over lunch about whatever they might be able to learn. "Sounds like a plan." The blond teen said before he and the two unconscious teen villains were surrounded by a temporal distortion and then disappeared.

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

"We need to keep it some place safe, so people like Ashley doesn't get to it again, right?" Parker asks about the gem, adressing the Starblights. "We'll try to get the Star to A.E.G.I.S., the Freedom League or someone like that, alright? Hopefully Timeout can talk to them and we can figure something out so you can still access it... I hope." 

 

What else can he do? There is a lot to handle now. Another world, the Shadow Academy, the entire fight... and, tacos, apparently.