The World Asunder

[GigaRidley]

Ansa reached the Soot District, with the Masked Knights thunderous footfalls just behind her. Up ahead, She saw a flash of seithrlight in the sky.
A signal?
Unfortunately, it appeared that she wasn't the only one who had noticed. Splinters began to crawl out of holes in the walls and leap from the rooftops into her path. Ansa shot down the ones directly blocking her with her pistol but otherwise kept moving. In the distance, she saw Weidr on the street.

 

[Hoboturtle]

Lambert kept the same pace as the young lady. He flinched as a pack of splinters descended upon them but relax as the Fae shot one in her path. She was proving to be a bit more and more capable. He how question what exactly their game plan was, "So what exactly are we going. Jim not too keen in leaving a fight half done."

He couldn't bare to see anymore harm done to his city, "Besides, that thing can't be left alone. Might drop mid Avalon down on top of us."

He had family here. He read a fair amount of bed time stories where the death of a loved one was used as a cheap trick to motivate the hero. He wouldn't let that happen. "So, who exactly are you? I would like to believe that you're the APF captain."

He dragged his heels in at a flash of light.

 

[Johaggis]

Weidr dragged the corpse of the B Class splinter toward the plane as it slowed down. A much smoother landing than Kai ever did, that's for sure. "Gale!" He shouted out. "Open a freezing cell! I've got a body for you! B Class!" The response echoed from some sort of PA system on the plane

"A B Class!? It's like my name day come early!"

A compartment opened on the bottom of the plane. With one final heave, Weidr shoved the corpse into the compartment. The cargo door opened, and Weidr clambered up.

"Weidr!" squeeled an excited Gale, as she came running up and embraced him.

Slim figure, high cheekbones, flowing brown hair, piercing eyes: Gale was an attractive woman by most men's standards, despite the weird glasses. Which were white. Still.

"I can't tell if you're excited to see me or happy I brought such a big splinter on-board" noted Weidr. "Also, your glasses are still on seithr-tracking."

"Oh, right." Gale switched them back to normal. "Can't I be a little bit of both? But let's get out of here. I think I saw some splinters running here in the distance."

Weidr looked back for any sign of Ansa. Just then, she came running up, with another man right behind her. They dashed onto the plane, just as the cargo bay door began to close. As the plane began to surge forward again, Gale steadied herself on the wall and took a nearby gun, pointing it at Ansa and the other man. "Who the hell are you two? What are you doing on my plane?" she said firmly.

Weidr cut in, "The woman's Ansa, an APF agent. I told her to meet me here so we could try and cut our way to Middle Avalon. But who the **** are you?" he said, also pointing a gun at the man.

 

[Hoboturtle]

"Easy you two, don't want you to hurt yourself." He crossed his arms and straightened his back "Masked Knight, don't really feel like telling you my real name for know. We can get to that later when there isn't a state of emergency out there, just know for now that I'm with the lady here. Now who are you two?"

He looked between the man and woman, not flinching at the weapons being pointed at him. He looked at woman with glasses, urging her to introduce herself.

 

[GigaRidley]

As the plane took off, Ansa surveyed Lower Avalon below. Although the closing of the strange rune had noticeably decreased the number of Splinters present, there were still a significant number on the streets below. The giant Splinter she and the Masked Knight had fought looked much more damaged by her attack than she had thought, moving in jerky, stumbling motions and roaring weakly. Its front two legs looked badly broken from the attack. Wherever Ansa looked, there were buildings slashed, burning or reduced to rubble.
"The destruction... it's too much..."
Her fist clenched tightly.
"Whoever did this is going to pay."
-MEANWHILE-
Aeolus walked towards where Pumice had landed, snacking on a fresh apple.
"A bit late. Just soaking in the chaos around here. Everybody's turning on each other and the goddamn system is already beginning to collapse entirely! It's fυckin' brilliant! Now, quick question: the girl who stopped you-- what'd she look like?"

 

[Johaggis]

"Gale" said the woman, lowering her gun.

"Weidr," said the man, also lowering his. Turning to Gale, he said "Where are we going?"

"Erigan. Whatever's going on here needs to reach the ears of Ilmarinen and the Frozen Court. Besides, my lab facility is better there than the outpost I have on Lokasen."

"Very well. I'll come with you there, but first we should head over Upper Avalon. I need to contact the pilot who brought me here quickly."

Gale turned back to the strangers. "Unless you're going to Erigan, we can drop you two off on Upper Avalon. Although, tensions there seem to be a bit high. HAHA!"

No one reacted.

"Upper Avalon is...high up...off the ground" she explained.

Weidr, Ansa, and Lambert chuckled politely.

 

[GigaRidley]

"Tensions... high?"
Ansa still didn't know of the goings on in Upper Avalon.
"If we could stop at Upper Avalon for a bit, I need to contact my men in the APF. But... you study Splinters? We saw something that makes me think there's a whole lot more to them than anyone has realized."

 

[Neosquid]

Pumice nodded at Aeolus. "Sorry for taking a minute, Aeolus, just went to grab a few things. And the girl..." Pumice thought for a moment. She...had silvery hair, like me. I recall it being short, I guess? Didn't exactly get a long look....she was wearing some chainmail too...blah. That's about all I got for ya. That cool? Any particular reason you ask?

 

[GigaRidley]

Aeolus pondered this.
"Silvery hair... so likely a Fae. Not many left out there now, especially outside of Miriel. Not after I came through. Heh. But what's she doing out here? Is she the one I'm looking for... Tamseril's daughter? That would be a goddamn treat!"
Aeolus turned to Pumice.
"Anyway, here's the next phase. This revolution is just getting started, and I'm going to need someone here with a knowledge of Avalon's defense systems to keep fanning those fires. Get things to be so bad that the other islands have to send some of their Kingdom Guard in to control the situation. I've got operatives on the other islands, so I'll be popping in and out to make sure the governments are starting to strain. Once they're spread too thin to stop me, we'll start Phase Three."

 

[Neosquid]

Pumice twitched when Aeolus mentioned the Fae killings. He wasn't entirely sure why, aside from the fact that it made him a tad...scared. Not much, of course, just a little. It wasn't a big deal to him.

He nodded again to Aeolus. "Heh. I'm on it, sir. When I'm done tormenting these fools, Avalon will be little more than a giant snowball of piss!" Pumice paused a moment, realizing that he probably could have worded his metaphor much better. "...err...that didn't come out right. Let's just forget I said that."

 

[Pichu2k7]

Karigen floated around the bazaar, his hood was up to hide his face and he had a bandanna around his neck which he would raise when the time was necessary. He had been short to pay his bills this month, they weren't due in for the end of the week but a little bit of assurance never hurt him despite hurting the people he stole from. He had an eye on a gems trader run by a Gedric, he could've probably overpowered the poor mole and quickly robbed his stall but that would cause a lot of unnecessary trouble for himself in the future as that was sure to draw guards in, so here he was waiting for a distraction of some sort to make his move, patience was key to a successful steal.

A drunkard slowly wandered into the bazaar, the small circle of stalls watching him with concern. He yammered something about his daughters birthday and collapsed on the ground, most of the stall owners ran up to him hoping he was okay. The Gedric however showed no signs of sympathy and simply scoffed and stared at the man lying in a heap in the middle of the bazaar.

Karigen noticed this and decided now was the time, he was going to need to be a little bit harsh if he wanted to get his prize though. He raised his hood and pulled the bandanna up so his reptilian face was completely hidden and snuck up on the Gedric, he quickly grabbed him from behind, his right arm around the neck and his left arm covering the moles mouth to try and prevent sound. After a couple seconds he dropped the mole to the ground and quickly ducked behind the stall and searched the moles pockets for keys to the lock that protected the small metal case in front of him tucked in a little pouch at the back of the stall.

A couple of guards had appeared on scene to keep a watchful eye for any signs of trouble, after finding the keys to the box, Karigen quickly unlocked it and opened it. The content was another small box on top of a couple gems, without thinking he quickly snatched up the small box and 2 small uncut gems before closing the box again and silently made his way away from the scene unfolding in front of him.

When he was out the bazaar he lowered his hood and took his bandanna off and quickly checked out his prize. In the box was a small pile of money, it was more then enough to pay his bills off and he looked at the gems he had. One was a ruby and the other an emerald, he would be able to launder them off at a later date but he believed this one robbery alone would keep him maintained for even next month if he managed it correctly. With that he stuck his makings into his pocket and headed back home without a thought in the world for the victim of his heist.

 

[Hoboturtle]

That joke physically hurt him but he braved through it.

He shook his head and place a hand on his hip, "What's going on in the upper levels? Thought up there was heaven compared to this hell."

Thinking about how everyone in his neighborhood barely scrapped by while the nobles overdosed themselves in pleasure always made him grims his teeth. If he had just a bit more cash, his problems would be long gone. His neighbors would have no problems. Those in Upper Avalon had everything, jewelry, food and medicine.

He shook his head. Thinking such things was not healthy, "Also, I know you're heading out to Erigan to study this but you got any idea about the situation yet?" He was curious if the doctor knew anything.

 

[Johaggis]

"Just a few guesses" replied Gale. "We've got a B Class splinter corpse down below, which might give me some answers. I guess we'll make a quick stop at the bazaar airfield. You can decide there if you're staying or coming to Erigan."

Weidr took a seat. "Hey, Gale. What were you doing on Avalon in the first place?"

"Oh, just some boring conference. Ilmarinen asked me to go, probably because he didn't want to have to suffer through it himself. Apparently we needed someone to go an represent Erigan, and being a newer member of the Collective, they sent me."

"What was the conference about?"

"Some new punk scientist thinks he's shaking the world, but he's really out of his element. I fell asleep part way through." Gale looked thoroughly uninterested in the subject.

"Who's the kid?"

"Teslanciere."

"Oh..."

"Who's Teslanciere?" cut in Ansa.

"A ticking time-bomb, or so those who know of him believe" answered Gale. "He's the baseborn son of Ulrich La March III, more colloquially known as Ulrich the Uncertain. He never met his father, and was raised on Avalon under the protection of the king. The government of Ustuk is trying to prevent his half-brother from ever becoming a problem like his ancestors, but Teslanciere's another matter. He has his mother's name, and the King and nobles of Avalon simply keep him busy, by making him think that technology is about 100 years behind where it is. To keep up the illusion, Erigan has a special display made just for him. Of course, a downside is that we need renowned scientists from all over Aravad to pretend like he is discovering things so that he doesn't become a danger. Frankly, I'm surprised he hasn't noticed. Apparently he just "invented" electricity and radio waves. I'm sure the king was thrilled and then used his cell phone to tell everyone the good news."

"You seem pretty worked up about this" noted Ansa.

"You would be too, if you had to put in all this effort just to maintain this illusion. Honestly, I've got half a mind to tell him myself, just to end this charade. He's already inventing dangerous things as is. The king notified us that he invented some sort of air filter for seithr. I don't know that the king himself is aware of what that would do. Can you imagine? A city covered in seithr-gathering materials? All it takes is for some maniac to trigger one, and say goodbye to half of Lower Avalon. Not to mention, the high-density seithr would probably give rise to even more splinters, which is basically the last thing anyone needs right now. Besides, one day he's gonna discover who he is, and then what do you think he'll do? Thank the king? He'll probably just take after other La March's and cause unreal amounts of casualties."

Turning back to Weidr, she continued in a much calmer tone. "Anyways, I went to this conference yesterday. There's supposed to be another meeting tomorrow, but on my way down here, Leo turned on the radio, and it's been cancelled on account of current events."

Weidr took out his communicator. "Speaking of current events, I should see if Kai's still alive." He entered a code into the communicator and waited. "Kai! We found an evac, and we're on-board a plane now. Do you need us to get you?"

 

[Lennox]

Kai wasn't watching when the APF took out the giant splinter, but he was told it took four volurs to finally saw off its head. Though the next person he talked to said six, so he couldn't be certain.

“The radio people are here,” said Harkaras, returning from securing the causeway.

“The -- we let in the radio people?” said Kai.

“Thought we might as well. We should get a message out.”

“What do you mean, get a message out? They took out the splinters, it’s over.”

“You’d just leave then? Go back to the lower rings and keep on like we have been?”

“Uh… was thinking about it, yeah?”

The hulking bearded thryth looked around the park. The wounded were all stabilized, and spirits seemed generally pretty high.

“Look, Kai Fishwash. I ain’t never seen anybody rally these people like that, get ‘em all fighting for the same cause. The APF could do it. The Masked Knight could do it. Neither of ‘em do. They ain’t revolutionaries. They're just good at cleanin' up symptoms. Dunno if nobody else has tried, or if you just got lucky, but you end this now and it won’t happen again for a long time. This is far from over. I’ve got a lot of sway with the Dockers Union, I can definitely get them striking, and the Textile and Machinist Unions will probably support us as well. The others might be a little harder, but we’re all fighting for the same cause here. You’re a pilot, right? You in the Shippers Union?”

“Whoa whoa, a plane ain’t an airship. Pilots hate shippers. All of us. And listen Harkaras, I appreciate the pep talk, but I ain’t exactly a savior of the people type of guy.”

“Don’t get a big head about it, nobody’s asking you to be a fuсkin’ savior, Kai Fishwash. Nobody’s even asking you to be a leader. We got people that can handle that. Just go out there and talk to some radio guys.”

“I... okay... we making this happen? Like, for real?”

“Yeah.”

“Guess I better write down some bullet points then.”

A group of ten or twelve reporters, radio technicians, and photographers came in from the causeway, escorted by two men from the mob at Derren’s Alley, armed with Kingdom Guard guns and shields. They began setting up equipment and one, dressed in a sharply-cut grey suit, walked out into the middle of the park and shouted to the crowd.

“Who’s in charge here?”

Everybody looked to Kai.

“Uh, well not me,” said the pilot, not looking up from the scrap of paper he was scribbling on. “But I’ll talk for ‘em.”

His phone gave a short buzz, and he picked it up with one hand to see that Weidr was calling, holding his pen and paper in the other.

"Evac? I'm, uh, I'm actually a little busy right now, maybe -- wait a minute, evac? What's wrong with my plane? Did you see her?"

 

[GigaRidley]

Ansa listened intently as Gale talked about Teslanciere, noting how Gale's voice seemed to get increasingly louder and more irritated as she spoke. As Gale finished, Ansa remembered what she had seen at the rune.
"Wait...Gale, right? I have a question-- have Splinters ever managed to be controlled? Has anyone ever managed to get them to follow commands?"