Invasion [MISSION]

[ 9:17 PM ]
[ May 30th, 2036 ]
[ Forma Mutata Domum, South Dakota ]

The soft hum of a car engine broke the silence of the South Dakotan countryside as it drove down the otherwise empty road, an occasional bump being felt by its passengers and it went down the cracked, bumpy, unmaintained asphalt. Eventually buildings came into sight, as did streetlights. However, most of the buildings themselves did not have any lights on, and the town seemed devoid of any life as car went down empty roads, through lifeless intersections. However, the reason for the town's deserted appearance became apparent when the sky ahead was eventually filled with orange and red, and as the small car sped closer it was clear that giant flames, infernos raging in buildings was the cause. People also came into sight, most of whom wielded various weapons along the lines of swords, bows, maces, warhammers.

These people ran to and fro among debris and crashed cars and trucks. There also appeared to be makeshift fortifications of wood and cars parked together, only adding to the half medieval, half modern feel of the whole place. Out in the far distance, more movement could vaguely be made out. However, the cause of this movement either appeared to be humans who had long since ceased living, or not human at all beyond baring a vague humanoid shape. The car carrying Beata's students screeched to a stop, the man driving it speaking up in a gravelly voice.

"Get the hell out, I don't get paid enough to get eaten by zombies and shit."

One of the car doors swung open and Montare stepped out, looking out in the direction of the flames. Just how much had managed to happen already that a lot of the town already resembled a total war zone? Keeping his eyes ahead, Montare drew his two shortswords from scabbards on his back and waited for the others to get out.

The town was washed in a thin orange haze. So this was real destruction. She'd seen the buildings, the corpses, what these people were capable of, but nothing ever on this scale. How many people lived here? A few thousand? How many would be here when this was all over and the flames died, and all they were left with were cinders? Kayla leaned her head against the glass, watching the faces blur past, all silhouettes against the burning buildings and shadowy barricades.

Zombies. The car lurched to a stop, and Kayla twitched her fingers, sparks dancing across her nails, and the door swung open. She got out on the other side of Montare, grinding the heel of her shoe into the patched and blackened asphalt. Electricity rippled around her, lighting up her features. What was this place even called again? It had some name she couldn't pronounce, something she'd forgotten as soon as her eyes had left the paper briefing them on the mission here. Maybe it didn't matter. This place wouldn't be standing long.

She grit her teeth in a grimace. What were a handful of them supposed to do that an entire town couldn't? Kayla hooked her thumbs into her pockets, strolling away from the car and through the destruction, not even casting a glimpse over at the others. Montare was the only one she knew, but she would've preferred if she didn't know him at all.

This was his town, wasn't it? Where he spent his life before Beata? How did he feel, watching it all turn to ash? How would she have felt? Furious? Devastated? Glad?

Watching all these strangers die, she barely felt anything at all.

Kimply had never done anything like this before. At school, she was great at combat. Using her power to know exactly where her opponent was going, shooting her bow with chilling accuracy to take them out. Moving with grace and precision, even occasionally teleporting, when her body could handle it. She was great in a fight. But at Beata, it was all a game. She'd never had to kill a real person. She'd never even come into close contact with death. She wasn't even sure why she signed up for this mission, other than the fact that this was her last year at Beata and she wanted to finally put her skills to use.

When they stepped out of the car, she readjusted her bow and quiver, looking around at the already desecrated city. Ahead, she could see people running around their homes destroyed, their lives probably ruined. There was a burning building, the smog filling the air and fire washing the world in red. The air smelled like smoke and what she understood to be death.

This was so unlike any challenge she'd faced before. Suddenly, boy troubles and daddy issues didn't seem that important. This was a matter of people's lives at stake. Kimply thought she was going to be sick. Clutching her bow harder than before, she straightened up and tried to appear like she wasn't freaking out on the inside. But at the same time, she prepared to face whatever laid ahead with everything she had.

Chaos, death, and destruction. Three words that best described the town, or at least what's left of the town. Various burning buildings and structures greeted them as they drove more into the demolished town. People running around like a bunch of unorganized ants; an unpleasant scene to take in. To top it off, the numerous bodies of deceased townspeople, followed by the stench of death. The car that carried the Beata students came to an abrupt stop and Gage waited until the others had gotten out before he stepped out.

The humid air crept onto his face and the atmosphere changed drastically from when he was in the car. This was new to him, but he kept his cool and focused on the task at hand. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breathe, he could sense the natural energy in the area. The destruction really causing a number on the nature that once was. He could feel it scattered everywhere. This would really put him to the test.

His right hand began emitting a faint light blue aura. The arua quickly forming itself into a dove-like construct that sat casually on his palm. Raising his arm directly straight up, the dove flew up into the sky until it was no longer visible. Gage then lowered his arm and turned toward the other student. "Ready whenever you guys are ready."

Mere moments after Gage stepped out of the car, it suddenly screeched and reversed away a bit before being turned around being driven away. Obviously, the driver wanted no more to do with what was going on than he had to.

Montare started to walk towards the chaos quickly, and he had gone no more than 20 yards before the fighting was close to him. Not far ahead he could clearly make out people fighting, many of whom were clansmen and clanswomen that he recognized. They fought against undead and... what the hell was that thing? Amidst the horde of undead a being made entirely of concrete and rebar stood at 30 feet tall, scarlet eyes growing as it slowly advanced and watched the fighting ahead of it. Despite Montare's pausing, the fighting still got closer as the townspeople retreated back as they fought.

Suddenly, a click and the sound of something flying through the air sounded to Montare's right. Shit, are some of them capable of using our weapons against us? Believing he had almost been shot, Montare turned in the direction of the sound to see a young woman reloading a crossbow and firing a bolt straight through the head of an advancing zombie before taking notice of the approaching students.

"Montare Lupo? Did you bring that help from the academy north of here?" She paused for a moment to reload and fire again, although she was no longer taking steps backward in between firing, and as townspeople turned to the sound of her voice, they too stopped. "They got through part of our main barricade up ahead. We could really use some help!"

What the hell were those things? She paused in her tracks, peering ahead at the horde swelling through the streets, pushing back the townspeople armed with their swords and polearms and bows. Zombies. Actual zombies? This was something they had to deal with too, on top of all the powers and monsters and people in black, fucking zombies? Kayla clenched her fist, disquieted. That wasn't even what made her hesitate the most. In the heart of the surge of swarming corpses, a stone giant stood, crimson eyes bright in its gray face. The corner of her lips curled into a frown.

She turned her head. A charging corpse took a bolt to the head, collapsing instantly just a few yards away from Montare. Kayla piqued up to hear her speak, chewing on the inside of her lip. All these people, all with gifts, and these things had still broken through their defenses...

"This place is hopeless," she sighed, her eyes flicking toward where the fighting was loudest. If they were going to send for Beata, they should've asked for an army. Or a fleet of trucks, to rescue the survivors. This wasn't their town anymore. She started in a walk, straightening her arm. Electricity rippled down to her hand, zipping down the tip of her nail, and... CRACK! A splitting sound, like a gunshot. Lightning streaked through the air, striking one of the 'zombies' in the head. It flew like a ragdoll, with less of a skull than before, its limbs flailing through the air.

One.

She snapped her fingers again, and again, loosing one bolt after the other as she walked, whipping and slashing her arms like a maestro, whips and spears of electricity smashing against the tide.

Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

They weren't people anymore. Just targets. It was important to remember that.

Yeah, you could really use some help. One look at the devastated town showed how well they were handling things on their own. What the hell were four teenagers supposed to do to? Sure, the girl next to her had crazy lightning things going on, the other dude had blue powers and shit, and she was fairly certain this Montare guy could turn into a wolf, while she herself had some pretty nice Katniss skills. Still, against a hoard of literal zombies and some giant rock dude, she didn't have much hope in their outcome.

Despite this, she followed Kayla's lead, raising her bow and pulling an arrow from the quiver on her back. She strung the bow and closed one eye, her power helping her focus on exactly how far her target was. On an outtake of breath, she let the arrow soar. Kimply watched as it met its mark, straight through the eye of one of the undead.

She pulled another arrow, then another, then another, each body falling to the ground only replaced by more and more gaining distance on them.

Surprisingly, it wasn't hard to think of them only as a target. It was like a game, and she got so caught up in it that she began to actually enjoy it, though her face stayed stoic and focused as she dropped body after body.

Gage watched as one of the townspeople shot down a nearby zombie. The horde of zombies slowly approaching them. Kayla and Kimply both striking down the approaching horde, one by one they fell. Gage readied himself, raising his arm at a zombie in the distance, Index finger extending in it's direction. The tip of his finger glowing light blue. Without any hesitation, a thin blue beam shot out like a laser and headed straight for the zombie. Hitting it dead center of it's forehead and easily piercing through it. The zombie falling down with a soft thud. One down, many to go..

Three...four...five...six...Their lifeless bodies fell to the ground. They were never ending. It seemed like if you took one down another would replace it. To make things worse, The huge golem was slowly closing the  distance between them. How the hell would they take that out? Its not like it was made of dirt or something that is easily destructible.

"How do you suppose we take that down?" He asked his group.

Like the others, Montare had begun fighting the advancing undead. Before long his shortsword were cutting through the air and undead necks. One, two, three, four... one by one zombies' decapitated bodies dropped to the ground as Montare's swords grew increasingly bloody. He'd cut down every last one of these monsters himself if he needed to. They were not going to be taking over the town. Spurred on by a sense of duty and the adrenaline pumping through his veins, Montare kept on fighting without missing a beat. His swords were going to be dull as all hell when he was done.

~

"Like this!" As the words were shouted, the crossbow-wielding woman let another bolt loose, this one destined to hit the concrete leg of the golem that was getting worryingly close to the group. Curiously, the woman hadn't fired a single bolt since the students started to fend off the advancing undead. However, the reason for this became clear as the bolt impacted against the concrete, letting out a loud BANG as the center of the golem's leg exploded in a blazing inferno, causing the giant to collapse under its own weight. Desperately it reached an arm out as it fell, only managing to crush a handful of zombies as it was reduced to a pile of rubble and debris, the life now absent from its form. This victory, however minor it may have been in the grand scheme of things, motivated the remaining townspeople. With the students' help, the remaining zombies were soon pushed back past the large barricade of cars, debris, and wood, through the hole the golem had created for them. With claws, talons, blades, arrows, bolts, they were kept away as a few townspeople made a run for a car near the breach, starting to push it to fill it. This happened slowly at first, and just as it seemed that the undead would make it back through, a man among those pushing the car paused for a moment, only for flesh and hair to be replaced by fur and hide as he took on the appearance of a werewolf in a matter of seconds. Quickly, he swat off several undead that had begun getting back through as if they were ragdolls. Whilst the others continued to push the first car or fend off the undead, the lycanthrope sprinted at breakneck speeds to another car, which he promptly lifted off the ground and flung towards the hole. With a crash, it landed on the first car which had only just been pushed into the position.

By now most of the townspeople were either celebrating and cheering or catching their breath. However, the werewolf sauntered over to the students and the crossbow-armed woman.

"These kids our help?"

The woman simply returned a respectful nod, no fear apparent on her features.

"Take some people and make sure no other golems are close to the barricade. We don't wanna risk this happening again, alright?"

The woman nodded again, before hurrying off to some of the other townspeople. With this, the werewolf resumed a human form as fast as he had left it. For a moment he simply adjusted his hair and the tie atop his plain, white, bloodied dress shirt before sticking his hands in the pants of his equally formal pants, a hatchet visible on his back.

"Are you kids alright? We didn't plan to throw you all into a mess like this right away." Immediately after asking his question he'd glance at Montare before commenting, "Oh, hey nephew."

Bang.

Kayla paused to watch the fireworks, as the monstrous titan hackneyed out of concrete and twisted metal collapsed into rubble. The giant reached out, one last swing, and fell with an impact that sent tremors through the asphalt, and then it was dead. Just a heap of rock and rebar. She rubbed the back of her head, breathing in the sharp scent of smoke and singed flesh. Maybe this place wasn't as hopeless as it'd looked just a few minutes ago. That one tiny victory seemed to breathe life back into the defenders, as the townpeople began to push back against the tide, a moving wall of claws and teeth and blades. Kayla walked forward, hopping onto the hood of a car abandoned on the side of the road, and aimed down into the horde.

Snap.

---

They'd rallied, and this street was closed off, at least for now. Was this the time for celebration though? Kayla hooked her thumbs into her pockets, glancing around at the devastation. Even if they'd stemmed the invasion for now, could it last? She hopped off the car and skulked back to the rest of the group, where an older man was talking. Seeing him shift from a human to a werewolf and back again barely fazed her, to her own surprise. After Rosie and Hosa and Montare and god knows how many others, she was all too used to it, and after all her experience, she'd come to the simple conclusion that everyone with this kind of power was a complete cunt. Maybe it was something in those shared genetics. She kept her thoughts to herself, gritting her teeth and giving the man a feral smirk, hunching her shoulders. Teen Wolf's uncle, huh? "We're doing better than you," she said, glancing over the blood staining his dress shirt. If that was his blood, anyways. Either way, his town was on fire, and hers wasn't. What was your plan, then? This place looked like it was on the brink of getting burned to ashes.

Pausing from shooting for a moment, Kimply watched as the concrete monster came tumbling down in a burning inferno, taking a handful of the dead with him. Well shit, why couldn't they have done that to start with? And where the hell could she get a bow like that? She'd have to ask the woman later, perhaps when they weren't trying so hard to save their crumbling time. They had work to do, after all. 

Looking over at Kayla as she spoke, Kimply couldn't help agree. She looked over at the herd, noting the countless bodies their little group had taken down, just in the short time they'd been there. She hated to say it, but these people definitely needed their help, whether they were a normal town or not.

"We're fine, thanks. So far it's been a piece of cake." Kimply replied flatly, putting her bow over her shoulder since it appeared they wouldn't be fighting at this moment.

Immediately after he asked about the golem situation, a women shot a bolt directly at its leg and exploded upon impact. The golem slowly crumbling under its own weight. Dust and debris slowly filling the area where the golem collapsed. A small tremor shook the earth as the bits and chunks of cement and rebar crashed into the ground. Gage stared blankly and in disbelief as how easy it was taken down. Was that really how strong it was? He could have easily knocked it down by himself. "pathetic.." he muttered to quietly.

The destruction of the golem led to a small break in the ongoing battle. Out of no where a werewolf made it way down to their group and shifted back into a human form before asking how they were doing. Smirking at Kayla's response, how direct of her, but then again, that's what he had heard about her. "I'd say we are doing alright." he said casually before folding his arms behind his head and staring off into the sky.