Quote Originally Posted by InTheMachine View Post
November 1st
Keith
Marrow stomps the ground so hard it cracks the asphalt, making Mercury lose his footing slightly, before bull rushing the South Sider. He slams a bony fist into Mercury’s stomach, stabbing through his armor.

Mercury goes down to one knee as he coughs and gags, unable to get air back into his lungs.

Marrow turns, looking at Crowe. “You scared, kid? You should be,” he says as he backhands the hero. Crowe hits the ground again hard, bouncing off the street. “I’m gonna kill you and I’m gonna kill him—“

Suddenly a sleek black mech about as big as Marrow rockets down from the sky, landing about ten feet away in a rush of hot wind and street debris. Its shadow waver unnaturally as it raises one arm, aiming a machine gun at the villain.

The mech peppers him with bullets and Marrow stumbles back. He grits his teeth before he whistles loudly. The pixel bird above flies back down and explodes in a blinding light.

By the time everyone can see again, Marrow and the bird are gone.

Zephyr lands close to Crowe, helping him into a sitting position. “You okay?” she asks. “I saw you take some hard hits.”

Mercury seems to catch his breath and stands. He nods in appreciation to the mech before heading back over to the mangled car that he’d been protecting before, heedless of the wounds that he’s sustained.

The mech’s shadow stretches and wavers as it stands and forms into the shape of a woman. Darkness seems to drip off of her, revealing a blond dressed in a black bodysuit and a domino mask. She and the mech go into crowd control mode, keeping curious civilians away from the scene.

Initiative!
6s… Marrow goes! He Wounds Mercury x5, but he soaks 2
Initiative resets!
Jokers… Marrow goes again immediately! He attacks Crowe for 37 damage! As he’s out of Bennies, Crowe is Incapacitated! He draws a King thankfully, so he’s Down But Not Out: The hero picks himself up and carries on after the encounter is over.
Kings… Meteor and Penumbra enter the fray! Meteor wounds Marrow x2
Marrow and the bird retreat!
Combat Ends!
Crowe realizes his mistake in moving so Marrow could move a bit and has enough time to only have a single thought go through his head before the hand comes back over him. Scared of Marrow, not entirely, but of letting down everyone else. Leaving them all in danger, causing more of a problem, not being able to take down one villain when his help had been asked for. That scared him more than anything else. Made him feel useless.

As he hit the pavement and bounced back up landing nearby again, blacking out from the pain. Is this... it? Really not even being able to fight one guy, being so..... useless! He thought feeling bones crack and a wave of blood through his throat.

"No'rtu ye'rtu, yo'roonv vo'rae'd llo'rred." He heard a voice just before blacking out, missing what ever else happened. The last thing he saw in the real world was Zephyr fighting the bird, and what appeared to be giant wings enveloping him.

Spoiler: Translation
Show

Not yet, young void lord.


About a minute later, he's not sure how long, he opens his eyes back up and sees Zephyr standing nearby and takes her hand as she helps him sit up. He winces a bit sitting up but feels..... less pain than he had a moment before. He could have sworn he felt a good few bones break just then. and what was that voice a minute ago? They looked like Stolas's wings just...... bigger.....

He looked over at Zephyr and smiled a bit weakly. "Y-yeah, just a bit embarrassed. And sore." He shook his head. "Really thought that one blow would take him down. What..... happened?" He looks around and sees the mech and then the other girl in the bodysuit. He sees Mercury over at the car but can't see where Marrow or the bird went to.

Did...... Stolas protect me? His eyes go wide, and he looks back at Zephyr seeing how she was. She seemed perfectly fine but he still had to ask. "How about you? Are you okay?" He had genuine concern in his voice. Somethings never changed, he'd worry more about how everyone else was than himself at the moment. Especially since it appeared he was fine.