Good call on the Doomsayer. I'm familiar with the Black Dog myth, but I'm not sure I'd have picked up on it unless you'd made the dog's purpose quite explicit.

Some interesting thoughts that Blackhawk is having on Blood Raven. Also emphasizes January's uniqueness, since it doesn't seem like Blood Raven works with others very willingly. Given her longevity, I can understand this. It'd be hard for her to really get close to anyone. January at least had an in by virtue of being family.

Heh, also like her confusion about the +5 weapon. Our terminology can be rather opaque to those not in the know.

So these troops are the Air Force Infantry?

Nope, they're support! Which really makes their stand all the more impressive.

I can also empathize with Blackhawk's need to project confidence. It's something I've had to do from time to time. Doing so does actually help boost your confidence a bit, but you still know all the ways it can go wrong.

Good use of her powers in reshaping the infrastructure. That can do a lot to delay the opposing force.

Interesting use of the gangsters. Tough though they are, most of them don't have anywhere near the kinds of training that the airmen have, so it is probably better to have them as a reserve force.

And the battle is on again! Good think Blackhawk was organizing the available forces. They'll need all the help they can get.

Acadian: I wanted to do more than just have Blackhawk line everybody up at the edge of the bridge and say "Get Ready!" So I looked at pictures and videos of the bridge to see what was there for her to work with, and thought about how she could use her powers on those things. From there I just considered basic battlefield tactics, and threw in the defense in depth. Creating the aid station was just natural, as there had to be someone for the wounded to go, etc...

Most of all it was Blackhawk showing that Blood Raven had been right. She has a reputation, and people will follow her. And her concrete plan...

As ever thanks for pointing out the nits so I can fix them.


Renee: Blackhawk is a little frustrated and annoyed at Blood Raven acting like an asshole. That is really all there is to it. Blood Raven can be very cold and impersonal. This is the result of that.

One reason I put Blackhawk on the bridge was so I could reveal more about her character. I always knew that she was a historian from the first time I introduced her. But there had been no real way to show that. This was the perfect situation for her to fall back on what she had learned writing books about Canadian history and warfare, and put it to practical use.

I don't think there are Bloods or Crips here in Michigan. Are they even a thing anymore? I am not really up on the gang scene. The Black Mafia was called the Black Mafia Family IRL. They were old gang that does not exist any more. They are all in prison. I don't know much about the Latino Counts. They are called the Latin Counts IRL, and are an offshoot of a Chicago gang that basically set up a franchise here in Detroit.


WellTemperedClavier: You called it on January's relationship with Blood Raven. The only reason Blood Raven is so warm and personable with January is because she is family. Granted, given their family history that also meant that January was a prime suspect of hers as well... But even still January and Blood Raven often lock horns, and January is often left feeling frustrated. Blood Raven is a difficult person to get along with. She can be a great friend, and the best teacher and mentor you will ever have. But she has strong opinions on pretty much everything, can be quite inflexible when she is certain she is right, can quickly discount the feelings of others, and often deliberately behave negatively in order to intentionally drive people away from her, in order to avoid creating attachments.

This is essentially a sneak attack, with neither side really able to prepare ahead of time. Though by default the Abyssals have an advantage, as all they need to do is shove bodies through the gateway. They don't need any other preparations. Because of that the Humans need time to bring in the actual front line troops from elsewhere. I am not aware of any infantry or armored divisions stationed in Michigan. Selfridge is the biggest base in the southern part of the state. It is technically an Air National Guard base. But in reality it is one the largest joint services base in the US, if not the largest. So it has people from all branches of service. But as you noted, they are mostly support and clerical types. The A-10 squadron is stationed there IRL. So far as I know, those are the only real combat troops there.

Honestly though, I like this better. It is in keeping with the theme I have been trying to keep that common people can make a difference when they step up and act together. As Blackhawk noted when she saw the first airmen. They did not look like heroes. The looked like real people.






Autobots, Roll Out

The Colossus

Y Ddraig Aur

Hypersonic Weapons are real

B-2 Bomber

B-1 Bomber

B83 nuclear bomb

Nukemap projection of one nuclear bomb dropped on Belle Isle

Two Steps From Hell - Red Tower



Book 10.19 - Alliance

Blood Raven watched as Blackhawk rose up into the sky and flew down the bridge to meet the mundane reinforcements that now streamed onto its far end. Then she turned back to face the others, just as Gadget raised his voice.

"Alright then," the meta-inventor said. He spoke in an overly-dramatic tone. It felt as if he was imitating a specific person, but Blood Raven could not place whom. "Autobots, roll out!"

Blood Raven had the sense that something of tremendous popular cultural significance had occurred. But she could not imagine what. Many of the assembled heroes laughed or snickered. But they all moved forward with her across the broken span of the bridge to the tortured ruin of the island beyond.

She saw that the gap which had been created by someone blowing out a piece of the bridge had been partially filled. Someone - she would guess the Abyssals - had thrown a jumbled mass of materials into the river there. Aside from the general rubble, her eyes picked up the broken hulls of boats, the twisted bodies of cars, and even piles of concrete road dividers were all heaped up down there in an attempt to fill the ersatz moat.

Some needed aid to cross the gap, notably Isaac in his mech: the Fred Hampton. The great, lumbering machine was not built for nimble leaps. But the assembled fliers - including herself - helped the multi-ton machine by all lifting together and carrying the humanoid machine across the artificial rift. It reminded Blood Raven of the old game "Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board" that she had played as a child with the other girls at Mrs. Gibson's School for Proper Young Girls. Granted, they had never played it with a subject quite so large.

Then they were off across the no man's land that now took up the south-western end of Belle Isle. Buildings, pavilions, and monuments had ceased to exist. So too had trees, streets, and even grass. The land was nothing but a churned up sea of impact craters, shattered stones, charred earth, churned up mud, and dust. Even the narrow creek that had bisected this section of the isle had dried up entirely, its water having long since evaporated under the heat of energy beams and the airstrike. Now it was nothing but a shallow gully that the waters of the Detroit River had yet to reclaim.

They came to this trench at the remains of a shattered bridge that had once crossed it near the island's western edge. The ruins of a small complex of public works buildings tottered beside it, now reduced to low piles of bricks. Only a sea of concrete highway dividers all stacked up in neat rows behind the ruins hinted at the area's former use. Blood Raven glanced back at the partially filled gap in the broken bridge. Clearly some of the rubble that now filled that opening had originated from here.

She glanced back to the north along the shoreline. There too, gaped another ruin. The former white-stuccoed bricks and red roof of the Belle Isle Boat House lay in a tumbled down wreck. More than just a place for storing water craft, the century-old building had been an event space that had hosted rowing events, parties, weddings, and other celebrations. A beer fest had even recent taken place there. Now it was yet another landmark of her home that had been cast down into dust by the Abyssal hordes.

Her astral senses detected no life within either set of ruins. Not even of mice or birds. Had any people been there before the battle had begun, they were now either dead, or fled. She prayed for the latter. The struggle had not begun until long after the park had closed. That explained why she had not seen any civilians at all during the fight. She was thankful for that. Had the Hierophant struck at midday, it would have been a slaughter.

Perhaps that had been his original intent? But January had been with her friends during the afternoon and well into the evening. It had been his desire to kidnap her and use her for the sacrifice. He must have waited for her to leave, and be alone, before taking her. Thusly his time table had been pushed late into the night. That role-playing game by a group of teens may have saved the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of people this day.

They followed the dried out gully deeper into the island. Beyond it to the south lay the wreckage of what had once been a vast parking lot. Now it was a sea of shattered concrete, dust, and ash. The land on their own side of the narrow defile was little different, except that without all the broken concrete, it was instead a barren moonscape of mud and impact craters.

They moved quickly, and in no time at all they stood before the flowing and bubbling surface of the portal, which now loomed larger than ever. Blood Raven knew better than to betray it to the others - lest it cause their conviction to waver - but the thing filled her dread. Her heart gaped like a pit at the sight of it, and some part of her wanted to weep with the horror. This was what the end of all life looked like.

"Very well, let us fortify ourselves." Blood Raven indicated the area around them in a voice that did not betray the trepidation which coursed through her veins. "We may begin by using the edge of the creek as a barrier. That can be the anchor of our defense. Build from there. Magicians, to me, we must prepare for our ritual."

With that they went to work. The riverbed did not run directly broadside to the face of the portal. Rather it stretched out away from it at a diagonal, and would only afford them partial protection from a frontal assault. So Isaac began by positioning the Fred Hampton at the nearest edge of the gully to the portal. After him the Abyssals would have flat, open ground to come around the flank to his left.

The other heroes pitched in. Several collected the wreckage from nearby pavilions and shelters. Then the Veil created a gateway back to that public works complex. Soon she and the others were carrying concrete road barricades back through and building up a fortress around themselves. Kaelin reached into the bag at her hip and pulled out a sea of potion bottles, which she passed out to the others. There were far more bottles than could have fit into such a small purse, which led January sense that there was more to the satchel than met the eye.

Blood Raven turned when she felt a disturbance in the aether behind her. This was of course beyond that of the festering boil of putrescence which the Abyssal portal created in the aether. It was something more, something worse. To their credit, the other magicians noted it too, for they all stopped what they were doing. As one they all turned their gazes with hers to face the gateway to the Abyss.

From it emerged a colossus, of a kind not yet witnessed before. It towered hundreds of feet into the sky, and its tremendous bulk stretched out hundreds more feet behind it. Its hide was covered in thick, overlapping armored plates of horn or bone. A tall row of these scutes elongated out to points, and ran the length of its spine like a jagged ridge. A pair of smaller ridges or horns flanked this, framing the sides of its back.

Its head alone was larger than Isaac's entire mech, and was crowned with another set of these chitin fins or horns. It stared out at the world with two crimson eyes that glowed brightly in the dark. It had no nose, and the lower half of its skull was taken up by a gaping maw. Three distinct mandibles stretched out from the head. The widest one in the center and bottom of the skull was filled with teeth the size of telephone poles. Two smaller mandibles flanked this to either side, and were tipped with even larger tusks.

Its two arms widened out into great, crab-like pincers. Its torso below trailed away into not legs, but rather a forest of tentacles that held its body aloft. These bent under the weight of the monster's body, then curled back up into the air. They stretched up skyward nearly as high as the creature was tall. These tentacles waved about, and occasionally smacked down to crush everything beneath, and gouge out great rents within the earth.

"What is that?" Stinger asked what everyone must have been thinking.

"I know not, its kind has never been recorded in two thousand years of lore," Blood Raven admitted. "We shall call it the Colossus."

Isaac opened up with Fred Hampton's railgun. But even traveling at Mach ten, its projectiles merely shattered upon the creature's armored plates. He switched to his quad plasma cannons as the Colossus turned and advanced upon the heroes' makeshift fortress. At the gargantua's feet a new wave of lesser Abyssals swarmed. In the air above them all loomed her father: Nátthrafn.

"We must defeat this champion of the Abyss before we may begin," Blood Raven noted. "Else it shall simply crush us while we perform the ritual. Fliers, to me! The rest of you hold the fortress, and concentrate your fire upon the smaller Abyssals."

With that Blood Raven leaped skyward. She prayed that the others would follow suit. A jagged bolt of lightning lanced from the heavens and hammered into the creature. It had no effect upon it, but it did tell Blood Raven that Stormcrow was at least with her.

"Valhalla calls..." the younger heroine murmured in her ear.

They swept over the Colossus like a hurricane. Laser light, plasma, electricity and even more exotic forms of energy such as quantum stings and pure magical power hammered the Abyssal in the form of beams, bolts, balls, and explosions. It would have been more than enough to annihilate any skyscraper, aircraft carrier, or battleship. Yet the Abyssal seemed unperturbed by all of it.

Blood Raven landed atop the ridge of armor above the monster's maw and brought Y Ddraig Aur around. The Dragonspeech runes that etched the black steel of the blade glowed brilliant gold in such close proximity with the Abyssal - its ancient enemy. A brilliant geyser of sparks shot up at the weapon's contact with the monster's armored plates. But even the draconian blade failed to pierce this creature's hide.

That did get its attention however. It turned from its path toward the fortress her companions had thrown together on the ground, and swiveled its head this way and that to find its antagonist. Then its eyes crossed, and set upon Blood Raven's form between them.

It lifted an armored forearm larger than a house even as Blood Raven was set to strike again. But a hand grasped her armored collar, where the back plate of her cuirass ended at her neck. She felt herself whisked aside by this firm grip, even as the Colossus' massive pincer swept through the now empty space which she had occupied just an instant before.

Blood Raven did not have to turn to see who had come to her rescue. She could hear the croaking of the crows in the aether, and smell their feathers in her nostrils. She and Stormcrow came down upon the spiny projections that ran the length of the creature's back. She did not turn to face her protégé. She simply struck again with Y Ddraig Aur. Half-swording now, she drove it point down into the monster's armor plate like a lance. Beside her Stormcrow did the same with Samhain.

But neither sword found purchase against the great beast's armored hide. Once again, golden sparks flew skyward when her sword struck the monster. Again the Colossus whirled about to try to lay hands upon its foe. Yet it was unable to do so. Instead its tentacles whirled about, crushing great swathes of the lesser Abyssals underfoot.

"Blood Raven," Cray's voice came in her ear. A light on her wrist computer showed that this was a private channel, not being sent out to the entire team. "I've got the Pentagon on the line."

"Very well, put them through," Blood Raven sighed. The last thing she wanted to deal with were generals, especially given that her hands were filled with a titanic monster from outside of reality. But she could also imagine what they might be thinking, and knew that their responses could be as catastrophic as the Abyssals themselves...

"This is General Millar, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff." A male voice whose rasp betrayed decades of bourbon and cigars grated in her ear. "I have the rest of the Chiefs with me, and I'm in contact with both the President and NORAD."

Blood Raven nodded briefly, then joined in with Stormcrow to try once more to drive their swords home into the creature's body. This time her student called down a bolt of lightning to infuse Y Ddraig Aur with even more power. But once again, it was all for naught. Except that the release of all that electricity served to garble their communications for a moment, and blot out part of what the general had been saying.

"... 82nd Airborne Division and 75th Ranger Regiment are on the way, but I am told it will take hours for their first elements to reach you." His gruff voice finally came back loud and clear. "Likewise the Michigan and Ohio National Guard are both being mobilized as we speak. But again, you cannot expect them until even later than that."

"So what do you have for me general?" Blood Raven asked as she swatted aside a small, flying Abyssal and sliced off one of its three heads. As all the Abyssals did upon death, it vanished into nothingness a moment later.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw that Stormcrow was again calling one lightning bolt after another down from the sky. But she was not training them upon the Colossus. Instead she directed each into her friend Gadget. The young man's new suit of armor soaked up every blast of electricity like a sponge, and glowed brighter and brighter blue with each strike.

Blood Raven did not need to be a technophile to understand that he was absorbing all of that energy. Finally he turned it all loose at once in a blinding torrent of plasma. The superheated energy lanced into the gargantua, but did little more than cause its armored plates to briefly glow under the impact.

"I've got an experimental hypersonic missile being loaded aboard a B-2 bomber right now," the general declared. "I am told it's the biggest punch we have in our arsenal that is non-nuclear. It will be there in ten minutes. I've also got a flight of B-1s loaded with conventional munitions that will be there in fifteen."

"We lay betwixt two cities," Blood Raven argued. "Even in the center of the river, using either of those shall cause untold numbers of civilian causalities."

"And if you fail, what then?"

Blood Raven was silent. A pack of shadows had come up from the ground, and now swirled around her and Stormcrow. The two of them had their hands full fending them off. Thankfully Stinger came by for an assist, slicing two to ribbons with her quantum stings. Blood Raven never saw the tiny heroine of course. As was her wont, the Chicagoan had shrunk down to the size of an insect. But Blood Raven certainly felt the other woman in the aether, and could not fail to miss her handiwork.

"That's what I thought." General Millar spoke again after the long silence. "I should also note that I have been authorized to use nuclear weapons, should these... Abyssals are they called? Should these Abyssals reach land."

"Do not do that," Blood Raven said through clenched teeth.

"Don't make me do that," the general responded coolly. "A flight of B-2 stealth bombers armed with B83 nuclear bombs are already in orbit over the city. If you cannot stop this, I will give them the green light."

Then her father landed atop the spine of the Colossus, and Blood Raven had no more time for generals. Nátthrafn dragged his axe behind him, and it kicked up a long line of sparks as it scraped across the massive Abyssal's armored plates. He was on her in a heartbeat, bringing the weapon down in a great overhand chop. She blocked with Y Ddraig Aur, and for a moment they locked blades.

Stormcrow took that moment to stab in at his exposed armpit with Samhain. But Nátthrafn twisted aside, and unleashed a kick into her midsection. She went tumbling through the air, completely off of the monster's back. Stinger came in from the opposite direction. But her quantum attacks found no purchase at all upon the Dark Lord's new stony flesh. Instead he swatted her aside as if she really was an insect.

"With whom do you speak?" Nátthrafn leaned in close to Blood Raven now, baring his teeth in a snarl. "Your king? Your emperor? Tell him to surrender and I shall be magnanimous. I shall make your deaths quick."

Blood Raven ended the sword lock with a front kick that sent her father somersaulting backward. But he landed atop another of the Colossus' spines, and charged back for her. Blood Raven turned and ran away, toward the monster's head. She could not defeat both the Colossus and her father at the same time. It was not certain that she could defeat either alone either. But clearly she needed to separate the two if she was to have any hope.

She tried to dig her sword into the gargantuan Abyssal's hide as she went. But the dragon blade still found no purchase upon its armor. Not even between the angled plates was she able to drive its point home. The Colossus appeared to all the world to be as invulnerable as it was unstoppable.

"Oh, do not leave me again dear daughter," Nátthrafn mocked in his rich baritone voice. "I so would like to... catch up with you. I think it is time you joined me, in the grave..."

"The only grave I join you in will be one of utter annihilation," Blood Raven thought of the nuclear weapons that might soon be unleashed. Would even they be able to stop her father, or his Colossus? She suspected not. She had to find another way, and soon.

A pair of shadows swept out from her father's chest, and zoomed around in front of her. She was obliged to pause to destroy them both. That gave him time to come to grips with her once more. Again, axe and sword clashed. Again, neither found purchase upon the flesh of their foe.

"Face it daughter, you have lost," Nátthrafn boasted. "You cannot defeat me, or my army. This is my finest hour, the culmination of lifetimes of work. I shall drag this world into the Abyss and devour it. Then the rest of this universe shall follow. You will all feed my Darkness."

Blood Raven's heart did fall then. Try as she could to be brave through it all. She knew he was right. She could not find victory this day.

Yet she knew of one that might still do so.

"You shall rue you words father," she growled. She made sure that she was on the team-wide channel before speaking next. "Allies, retreat from the Colossus. Stay as far away from it as possible."

She leaped away. In the instant she was free of her father, she did the unthinkable. She took Y Ddraig Aur in both hands, and snapped the blade in two over one knee. Then she hurled the shattered steel from her hands. But she did not fail to note the drops of golden blood that ran from its runes. The blood that was those runes etched upon the meteoric iron of the blade.

Her father laughed uproariously. Perhaps he thought she had given up? She neither knew nor cared. She flew far, far away, in order to distance herself from the Colossus, and what she knew was coming next. The Abyssal flailed behind her, tying to swat her from the sky with its two massive pincers. But she effortlessly soared between the gigantic arms of the beast, and did not stop until she was well beyond its reach.

Below her, she saw the broken pieces of the sword strike the earth below. She saw the drops of blood hiss into the blasted and tortured concrete and mud a moment later. The golden fluid ate through the ground like acid, giving up an audible hiss. A faint cloud of mist rose up in its wake, creating a low haze that stretched across the ground in all directions.

"Your sword is broken my daughter!" Nátthrafn bragged from across the distance.

"Nay father," Blood Raven crowed. "It is resurrected!"

As if summoned by her words, a gigantic, reptilian foot shot up from the earth below. It was soon followed by another. Both were covered in golden scales, and ended in talons larger than automobiles. The dragon's head burst from the ground next, followed by its long, sinuous neck. Its bulky body came behind, and it unfurled its great wings as its back legs and tail finally emerged from the earth.

The dragon was not only covered in golden scales, but it radiated brilliant yellow light. It was as if a sun had taken the form of a winged beast, and towered hundreds of feet above Belle Isle. It was so bright, that it literally turned night into day, not simply around the island, but across both cities to either side.

"Witness Y Ddraig Aur in her true form!" Blood Raven crowed in triumph.

The dragon took a moment to regard her. It had been many years since Blood Raven had last laid eyes upon the great guardian in Wales. Over a millennia would have passed from the dragon's perspective, as Y Ddraig Aur had been left to plod the slow road of time to reach the present. Blood Raven however, had taken the quick route through the paths of time to return to the here and now, in the manner of travel pioneered by her friend and mentor Keziah. It had been all those years since she had petitioned the Great One for aid, and since the dragon had relented with the gift of her blood.

Now here Y Ddraig Aur was, fulfilling her ancient duty. Not to Blood Raven, but to the multiverse. For the dragons existed for only one purpose: to combat the Abyss. Blood Raven did not have to ask for Y Ddraig Aur's aid, though she did so out of courtesy in any regard.

The dragon turned to the Abyssal Colossus before her. The monster clearly recognized its ancient enemy, just as did the dragon. The horror brought a great pincer forward to snap at one of the dragon's forearms. Y Ddraig Aur replied by backing away, out of reach. Then she snapped her head forward, and let loose a torrent of energy from her mouth.

This was not the classic fiery breath weapon that most dragons of folklore possessed. Nor even a more exotic form of energy such as lightning or acid or even poison. This was cross between sunlight and a laser, and was comprised of pure arcane might. That the Colossus was not utterly annihilated under the hurricane of power was stunning. As it was the monster recoiled, and the armored plates that sheathed its body hissed and melted under the assault.

Then the dragon lunged forth, and the two were locked together, pincer to claw, fang to fang. They bit, slashed, and snapped at one another. The tentacular lower limbs of the Colossus smashed to and fro, inadvertently sending more of its smaller kin to oblivion with each crushing blow. The dragon's own tail was also a weapon that whipped around, and took off one of the tentacles of the Colossus with a single slice.

Then Stormcrow was at Blood Raven's side once more, and for long moments they observed the fight from where they hovered in mid air. It was the manner of thing one only read of in novels or saw in films, never in reality. Until this very moment, Blood Raven herself could have never imagined bearing witness to such a battle of titans. Yet here she was. The world was indeed a wider, and stranger place than she had ever thought.

Then her descendant handed Samhain to her.

"She's a lovely sword to be sure, but you can put her to better use than I," the other woman said.

Blood Raven smiled back at Stormcrow. As ever, Samhain felt right at home the instant she set her palm to the leather-wrapped hilt. The voice of the Morrigan spoke in her ear, whispering that death came to her enemies that day upon wings of night and fire.

"Come, let us not stand here and stare," Blood Raven said, and waved for the other woman to follow. She led her around the battle zone created by the two titans, and the two of them flew down to the makeshift fortress still being manned by their ground-bound counterparts. There they joined in the fight to hold off the rest of the marauding Abyssal army.

* * *

Lol, he actually says "Autobots, roll out!" Yeah, I bet Branwen is pretty confused about that one.

Okay, I have to link to this if I can. Light as a feather, stiff as a board. Okay, I see it can be a child's game, or it can be featured in more of a magical way, as per The Craft. Hard to say which version Raven played as a child, since she's magical herself.

They really tore up Belle Island. Buncha bastards. But that's crazy to think of the timetable, you are right. Perhaps Higherpants had been wanting to capture January much earlier than he did. And because he had to wait, all of this is taking place at night. Would've been mayhem even worse had he gotten his way.

And I totally get the way Raven's feeling dread at this moment. Because think about it: That's her FATHER's doing.

Yees, and there he is. Nátthrafn. Gee, thanks dad, at getting me involved in this mess. What an embarrassment, too. "Yeap, all of this is my dad's fault."



That's a great image. This monster's so big and important, it doesn't matter that it's destroying a bunch of smaller monsters!

And here's the Pentagon. Yes, I can totally see how all of this has attracted their attention. I don't think the Pentagon and our armies can do it. Maybe not even Chuck Norris could.

Whoa, she broke her weapon! Wht the?? This is crazy. I can imagine what a light show this is creating. The whole world must be stunned.

Well maybe this'll hold off any possibility of nukes being used. 💣 Or Chuck showing up long after his glory days.

---------------

Yes, Bloods and Crips are still a thing, although I think they're mostly still on the west coast. From what I've understood, both gangs are multi-state. They've expanded into Nevada and Colorado and other states in the past, and so on.

That role-playing game by a group of teens may have saved the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of people this day.
- - See? Gaming saves lives!

That Colossus is pure evil. It, of course, cares nothing of collateral damage, but goes a step further and takes no steps to avoid friendly fire on its own.

Blood Raven rescued by Stormcrow! That was an unexpected and symbolically potent moment.

"With whom do you speak?" Nátthrafn leaned in close to Blood Raven now, baring his teeth in a snarl. "Your king? Your emperor?"
- - Nasty Nate really needs to update his geopolitics by a few centuries.

Enter the Dragon! What an awesome force that dragon of light is. I love it when dragons are portrayed as good.


Nit: It had no nose, and the lower half of it{s} skull was taken up by a gaping maw.

Heh, for all Blood Raven's wisdom, it's hard for her to keep up to date on nerd pop culture.

Good work on ferrying the Fred Hampton across. That kind of firepower will make a difference.

Lucky that the attack happened after the park closed... especially since the delay may have come about from a game! Let no one ever say role-playing isn't useful!

The colossus's head is bigger than the 'mech?! The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Hopefully. But that armor will probably give it some real durability.

This will make it much harder to hold off the Abyssals. Plus, the size and endurance of the colossus means it'll draw a lot of fire, letting the smaller Abyssals move forward.

Oof, and now the military's setting up a time limit.

Whoa, snapping Y Ddraig Aur in two? This better be one helluva plan that Blood Raven has.

And she does! Sorry if you mentioned this earlier, but does Y Ddraig Aur mean "the golden dragon" in Welsh? At any rate, if they bad guys summon big help, the answer is clearly to summon some big help of your own.

Okay, while the giants fight, the heroes can hopefully finish the job.

Renee: For a woman her age (250 years) Blood Raven is comparatively well-versed in pop culture. But still some things like Transformers do slip through her cracks. At least she knows that kings and emperors are not really a thing anymore, except ceremonially.

I was thinking the child's version of light as a feather, stiff as a board. Doing it the other way in 1760s New England would likely get you burned at the stake...

This whole thing has been a family affair. Nátthrafn, Blood Raven, January, Julian. They are all from the same bloodline. Blood Raven was not far off the mark back when she was suspicious of January possibly being the Summoner.

Well, Chuck Norris probably could handle this. Even Hitler was afraid of Chuck Norris!


Acadian: I could not resist throwing in the nod to role-playing games, given that January, Avery, and Ryo are all gaming nerds. Their gaming afternoon saved countless lives.

The Colossus destroying the creatures on its own side without even noticing was a deliberate choice on my part. I wanted to show that this is what the bad guys do, and the amount of loyalty they possess for one another. While at the same time we see January whisking Blood Raven out of danger. The good guys are there for one another. The bad guys just destroy everything in their path.

Nátthrafn is indeed woefully behind the geopolitical times. He just barely missed the American Revolution. He died a few days before Lexington and Concord, and missed everything afterward. So the very word President would have no meaning to him, and the term "Prime Minister" would just be an administrative functionary. His last time on earth was one of kings, and emperors, and tsars.

I do love me a good dragon as well. They make some of the best ultimate boss characters. That is why in the Stormcrow-verse I made them a cosmic level force that forever stands against the Powers of Darkness.


WellTemperedClavier: At least Blood Raven knew what Voltron was! She probably even knows who Fred Sanford is. But she definitely has no idea who Taylor Swift or Beyonce are. OTOH, she does know who the real Fred Hampton was. Her hatred of the police is well-earned.

I am not really sure about what the proportions of the Colossus would be. It is so big I have trouble understanding how large each individual bit would be. I just know it is hundreds of feet tall, so Godzilla scale.

Y Ddraig Aur does mean the Golden Dragon in Welsh. I got it from the battle standard that Owain Glyndwr used in 1401 in the Welsh Revolt against the English. Unlike the traditional red Welsh dragon, this one was golden (as the name says). I saw that, and knew I had my dragon.

It will be a while yet before they can get to finishing the job. We have a couple more fronts to visit on the battlefield before this phase of the battle is over, and then the next begins.








Thirty Seconds To Mars - This Is War

Thrones are Biblical angels

Size of a 30mm round

Blackhawk's use of the minigun rounds was inspired by Sypha's use of ice bolts from Castlevania



Book 10.20 - Alliance

Blackhawk hovered just above the front line of her troops, at the very edge of the break in the bridge. Down in the river in front of her, she could see the shattered pieces of the span that had collapsed when that man in the mech had blasted it all out. That gap in the bridge turned out to be her best defense, for now the Abyssals were forced to leap, fly, or literally climb atop one another to get across the break in the roadway.

But that defense was steadily shrinking, as ground-bound Abyssals brought forward a constant stream of rubble to fill in the rift. Broken concrete dividers, bricks, roof tiles, even cars and boats were all hurled down into the gap. This slowly brought its surface higher and higher. Eventually it would be high enough for them all to stream across unhindered.

She would have liked to have fixed all of her attention on those sappers. But that was simply impossible. For even as they set about their crude siege craft, more of their cousins were indeed leaping and climbing over their comrades to get at the people who defended the bridge. Monsters that looked like twin headed and tailed pterodactyls flew down from overhead, along with literal flying heads. She recognized the latter from folklore.

Usually myth was just stories. She should know, she wrote stories for a living. In her case they were true stories, but still stories nonetheless. Being a historian was not just about throwing out names and dates, fact and figures. That was as interesting as watching paint dry. She had learned long ago that for people to be invested, you needed to present history as the human story, and fill it with the narratives of real people, who had real lives, real dreams, and sometimes real deaths.

In this case, she wondered if the people who had recounted the stories of the flying heads in the past had actually faced these things, or learned of them secondhand through others that had? Or was it just pure coincidence? After all, a head was a part of anatomy that all humans knew. And flying, well that was an ability humans had often envied. It would not have been extraordinary for a person to combine the two in order to tell a story about bravery and persevering against evil, without ever facing or hearing of a specific monster from outside of time and space.

Creativity was one of humanity's finest traits after all. The last thing people needed were actual monsters to create stories. We could invent them well enough all by ourselves.

There she was, being an academic in the middle of a battle. Everyone told her that there were no atheists in foxholes. Maybe they were right though. After all, she was not in foxhole was she? She was standing right up in front where everyone could see her.

One of those flying heads shot fire from its eyes, and splashed it down across her chest. The flames burned away the blue and green paint that decorated the steel. Even the medicine wheel that had emblazoned her chest was incinerated by the blow. Thankfully Blackwood's meta-paint was not so easily destroyed. She knew from experience that it would regenerate and return her armor to its original appearance in a few minutes. But it was still annoying. That was her drip, as the kids liked to say these days.

The bloody handprint that Blood Raven had pressed into her chest, that remained however. No amount of fire or heat or other energy could wipe it away. Blackhawk took hope from that. It meant that the other woman's magic remained, as strong as ever.

Before that fire could vanish, she wrapped up the flames in a field of magnetic power. So bottled, she flung it up at one of those two-headed flying dinosaurs. It caught the creature full in the chest, and burned a hole straight through its frame. In moments it dissolved to nothingness, not even leaving ash to float away in its wake.

She followed by releasing several of the steel plates from her arms. They flew out into space and reformed themselves into long darts. Each possessed wide, sickle-shaped wings on either side, with razor sharp edges. These spiked into those flying heads, and sliced them into ribbons. Like all the Abyssals, they vanished into nothingness a moment later, and she recalled the now magical steel weapons back and reformed them into her armor.

Below her the combined military and civilian defenders manned the barricades she had created. As she had instructed, the first line at the very end of the bridge fired directly at the Abyssals charging them. Those in the line directly behind concentrated their fire on the monsters who made it to the top of that first barricade. Those farther back concentrated on the airborne monsters all around.

So far it was working, so far. The Abyssals had not been able to break the first line from dead ahead, at least not for long. The fire from the helicopters to the south cut them pieces as they came up, then the combined small arms of her ersatz infantry took care of the rest.

The flying Abyssals, those were the worst. They breezed right past, over, and sometimes even under her defenses. Then they came at the defenders from all sides and angles. It was just as dangerous being in the rear as it was being in the front. Blackhawk did her best to concentrate her own personal efforts on these creatures. They would be her greatest threat.

This was made terrifyingly clear as a creature of nightmare appeared over the end the bridge. It looked like a series of concentric rings. Each twisted and spun in a different direction, one layered beneath the other. Each ring was filled with glowing eyes that stared every which way. Deep within the heart of the creature glowed a formless protoplasm that shifted and flowed chaotically. Within that in turn, rested a single, massive eye.

She recognized this from the Bestiary that Blood Raven had provided to all of their team. It was a Throne. She searched her memory for its strengths and weaknesses, but could only recall that those eyes were dangerous, and that it could only be harmed with magic.

The latter was made clear by the soldiers below who shot at it with their assault rifles. Yet their bullets had no effect upon the eyes and rings of the monster. Several of those eyes turned down to the defenders, and brilliant light flowed from them. Blackhawk reacted by creating a force field of magnetic energy between the defenders and this new Abyssal. But the light from its eyes streamed through her energy screen without the slightest abatement.

It bathed the men, and in just a few moments their skin seemed to turn not just pale, but white as bone, white as salt. A grinding, cracking sound rose up from each, as their motions slowed, then finally ground to a complete halt. At that they froze in place looking to all the world like stone statues from a museum.

Blackhawk replied by sending a bolt of electromagnetic energy directly at the center of the monster. But as with the bullets, this had no effect at all. Except that now those hundreds of eyes all fixed upon her. She saw that light stream forth from them once more, and bathe her body with heat and illumination.

The glow that now suffused her armor hissed to brilliant life in response to the Throne's attack. So too did the bloody handprint imprinted upon her chest pieces. She felt it create a field of energy between her body and whatever magical power of petrifaction that the monster was employing. The Throne flew nearer, and its eyes literally bored into her. But Blood Raven's enchantments did not waver or falter. They held true, and remained inviolable through it all.

Clearly, +5 Armor was a good thing.

Blackhawk looked down to the backs of her hands. The bands of steel plates that protected them obeyed her mental commands, and flew out into space, directly at the Abyssal. She reformed them into the razor-winged darts that had been so effective against the flying heads. She sent both right at the central mass of chaos that shifted and tumbled within the heart of the monster. But it stretched and twisted its body so deftly that the two magical weapons flew right through it unharmed, and emerged from behind it without having made a scratch upon the Abyssal's flesh.

The Throne turned some of its eyes from her, and fixed them upon more of her troops on the bridge below. Those eyes began to glow again. But this time Blackhawk was ready. More bands of metal flew out from her legs, and spread out in wide shields between the people below and the eye beams of the Abyssal. The magic that infused the steel turned aside every Abyssal attack, leaving those below unharmed.

That gave Blackhawk an idea. Now she sent every steel plate of her armor forward across the air. That left her wearing nothing but the blue and green undersuit of meta-material that Mr. Blackwood had created for her long ago. Like her steel armor plates, this was also decorated with a medicine wheel across the chest, as well as a mask that protected her features.

The Throne responded by refocusing all of it eyes upon her, and again unleashed their petrifying attacks. But she was able to shift her steel plates to block her body from those assaults. She thinned and widened each plate, and transformed them into large rectangles and squares. She locked each to the next, and sent them closer and closer to the Abyssal.

Now the monster appeared to sense the danger it was in, for it tried to back away. But it was already too late. The steel plates that Blackhawk had sent behind it came rushing forward to meet those on her side. In a moment they all clamped together into a single, solid mass that completely encased the Throne in a hollow sphere.

The monster within crashed against the steel an instant later, attempting to burst out of the trap. Blackhawk felt the metal warp and dimple under the assaults. It took every ounce of her willpower to force the steel back into shape, and hold it firm under each successive assault. Sweat beaded her brow, and she felt her body tremble with the effort. But still the Abyssal fought back.

She had to end this. With one last effort of will she brought all of that steel together, crushing it down into a single, compact mass. She felt the Throne trapped within strain against the pressure for long moments. Then she felt something like a popping or bursting sensation within, like a zit being pierced.

With that all resistance stopped, and the Armex steel of her body armor simply fell into a single, solid mass. She felt no empty spaces within the block of metal, nothing left to strain against it. That could only mean one thing. The Abyssal was dead, and its body had dissipated or evaporated back to the benighted realm which had spawned it.

Blackhawk a breathed a sigh of relief, and pulled that single mass of steel back to her. As it floated through the air, she willed it to separate into distinct pieces once more, and shaped them into the familiar forms of her armor plate. One by one, they all snapped into place around her frame, until she was back to her normal, armored self once again.

She found that she had been correct about the Abyssal. No trace of it remained after she pulled the last of the steel apart. That was easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

She set herself down beside the two men who had been petrified by the Throne's initial attack. She saw that one was a member of the US Army, given his uniform. The other was clearly a civilian, given the shorts and airbrushed Stormcrow tee that he wore. Their bodies were white as salt. She could not tell if they were still alive under it all, or dead. Blood Raven or Stormcrow might know how to counter such magic, and return them to normal. But she certainly did not.

So Blackhawk waved the roving paramedic forward, and corralled up a few more defenders nearby. She had them take the petrified men back to the aid station, to be set aside for later. With any luck after the battle was over one of the magicians might possess a spell or potion that would revive them. If not... well, there was nothing else she could do for them in any case.

Afterward Blackhawk rose up high into the sky to get a good view of the situation. In spite of all the mayhem around her, she and her bridge detail faced only a fraction of the monstrous army. She could plainly see that the Abyssals who assaulted her position were just an afterthought. The true brunt of their attack fell upon the makeshift fortress that the other metas had created in the center of the island, in the shadow of that strange gateway.

The sound of metal screeching came to her ears, and she jerked her head around to its source. One of the helicopters off the south-western tip of the island was belching smoke, and had begun to turn in a lazy circle. She reached out with her mind, and caught up the gunship as if it was a child's toy. That prevented it from dropping into the dark waters of the river below.

She saw what had done the deed. A creature that was all thorns and wings had landed atop the helicopter's fuselage, just beneath the spinning rotors. It was reaching into the engine and ripping out huge chunks of metal. Electricity sparked, and set fire to the oil and other fluids that now spurted to and fro.

Blackhawk grabbed up the rotors with her mind, and peeled them off the fuselage of the broken helicopter. Then she sent them down upon the spiky monster on top of the engine. She had no idea what it was called. It hardly mattered now. The metal blades sliced into and through the hide of the Abyssal, reforming into razor-sharp scythes as they went. The Abyssal disintegrated under the assault, and pieces of it began to rain from the sky along with those of the helicopter.

She finished it off by gathering up all the flames from the burning aircraft in another magnetic bottle, and loosed them onto what remained of the monster. Its fried and seared flesh vanished a moment later, disintegrated as all the Abyssals did upon death.

She still held the helicopter airborne with her other metaphorical hand. She pulled back, and drew it across the sky to the bridge. She set it down near the aid station, so the two man crew could be seen to if they had been injured. In the meantime with merely a thought she ripped out the missiles that remained on the craft, and flung them at the Abyssal horde with a great swell of explosions.

She followed by pulling out the ammunition for the chain gun. She arranged the rounds into a long, serpentine chain, just like cartridges within a machine gun belt. She brought one end of this belt up to the level of her eyes. Then she turned herself into a living machine gun, and used her power to magnetically accelerate each cartridge one at a time down into the oncoming tide of Abyssals. With each shot, she brought the rest of the rounds in her imaginary belt up to replace the last which she had fired.

All too soon however, she was out of the massive 30mm rounds. So she reached down and lifted up the veritable snow of spent shell casings that now littered the bridge. These too became deadly projectiles when she fired them down at the monsters at terrific speeds.

Once more, she took stock of the situation. It was touch and go, but her ersatz fighting force was holding the bridge. A glance back showed that more helicopters were bringing in fresh troops from Selfridge: the nearby American Air National Guard Base. Even more civilians streamed up the bridge on foot, and threw themselves into the fray alongside those already there.

But when she looked back across Belle Isle, Blackhawk's heart sank. The massive Colossus that towered there threatened to blot out the stars with its bulk. There was no stopping it. Not even the railgun of Isaac's mech seemed to have scratched its armored hide. Let alone the assembled might of the other three teams worth of superheroes. How they were going to defeat that, she had no idea.

She shook her head, and turned her gaze back to her own defenses. A new wave of flying creatures had soared over her front line, and she peeled off metal plates from her armor to slice them to ribbons. That Colossus was a Blood Raven problem. She had her own issues to deal with right now.

Blackhawk continues managing her limited defensive assets to very good effect. Just as importantly, she does not allow her focus to be drawn from her mission of defending that bridge.

’Clearly, +5 Armor was a good thing.’
- - And clearly, Blood Raven did a great job!

Hope one o’ them mages has a stone to flesh spell!

Finally she has a moment to glance at the main battle – enough to be concerned about how her fellow supers were going to defeat this aptly named ‘Colossus’.

Gaming can save some of us from falling into habits we shouldn't fall into, since gaming IS quite an addiction in itself, gaming also helped Lopov learn English, German, and some Italian in a more casual way, and so on. Dang, the Queen of Off-Topic strikes again.

Yeah, that's true about the child's game. Back then if you did something "wrong" you'd be branded as witchcraft. Forgot about that. I was just thinking that since Branwen has magic inside of her. But then, when would she have become fully aware and able to use this magic? I'm now assuming not back then, not when she was a child, or at least not in front of too many others.

These abyssal monster-things now are coming across as a colony of ants, as they are now blindly climbing over each other. They are also like the demonic monsters we'd see in a Bosch painting. There are even flying ants mixed in with the drones and soldiers. 🐜

So true when Blackhawk thinks 'being a historian is not just dates and facts'. The best history teachers bring the art of story-telling into the classroom.

Blood Raven put a bloody handprint onto Blackhawk's chest? Her actual chest?? Or just armor?

Yeesh, oh my god. This Throne monster. Ah, thanks for posting a link. It doesn't even look like a monster; it's like a flying symbol of some sort.

Sounds like they're going to need Cure Paralyzation on those two fellows.

I can relate with struggling the proportions. Every time I sit down and try to figure something out like that, I start drowning in the details.

This battle's definitely giving me a Zerg rush feel. My impression is that there are more Abyssals than there are bullets on Earth, so delaying them will only work for so long. And if the ritual doesn't work?

Then things go south, fast.

Are the flying heads penanggalan? I've come across those in stories.

One good thing about Abyssals: disintegrating on death saves a lot on cleanup.

While it seems like the troops have a decent hold on the ground Abyssals, the defenders don't have as much against the flyers. Blackhawk and some of the other metas doing a lot of the heavy lifting here, and I don't know how long they can keep that up.

Loved how she used her armor as a flying shield (and later a prison). Clever use of her powers.

All right, think she's making a good tactical decision in focusing on what's in front of her. You can't manage the entire battle when you're in the thick of it, you just have to fight and hope your buddies are fighting just as hard. Onto the next front.

Acadian: I wanted to create a real challenge for Blackhawk and the bridge defenders, and show that the Abyssals were making a real push against them. I also needed to have at least one creature that could only be harmed by magic, for that +5 Chekhov's Armor to pay off. I am glad it all worked.


Renee: A colony of ants is a really good comparison. The monsters are being driven in a horde, most to their doom. But they never stop or tire.

Everyone has magic in this world. It is just a matter of whether or not you embrace it and cultivate it within yourself. Blood Raven herself did not start using magic until she became an adult, and then only in small ways. It was not until she became a vampire that she really embraced her magic.

The hand print is on the chest pieces of Blackhawk's armor. If you go back you can see where she put it there as part of her enchantment on the armor, the blood being a physical component of the element of Spirit that she placed in the armor.

The Thrones are one of the weirdest of the Biblical angels. The Seraphim being the other bizarre one with six sets of wings and multiple eyes. There is a good reason that whenever angels appear in the bible, the first thing they always say is "BE NOT AFRAID!" I have drawn from a lot of cultural inspirations for the individual Abyssals. Native American, European Pagan, etc... I wanted something from the Abrahamic religions as well, to keep things well rounded.


WellTemperedClavier: At some point one of the characters does describe the battle as a Zerg Rush. I think Avery, since he is the OG - Original Gamer. You are right, there are more Abyssals than there are bullets on the Earth. All they have to do is keep coming forward to win in the end.

I know the Penanggalan. They are in my Monster notes for future use as a form of Undead/Magical Creature, but of Earthly origin. These flying heads come in two varieties. One are the Kanontsistonties from Native American folklore. The other are the flaming skulls straight from the Doom games.

I take a lot of my inspiration for Blackhawk's use of her armor from the Legend of Korra. They have Earth Benders who have specialized in Metal Bending, that do the similar things, if on a smaller scale. I just took that and turned the volume up to 11.

On to the next front.









Marble Grave Stele

The Goddess Selene

Lunar Ferroan Anorthosite


Book 10.21 - Alliance

Eleni stared for long moments at the still picture of an ancient grave stele that glowed upon her computer screen. It depicted a little girl holding a pair of pet doves, with a somber look etched upon the fine features of her bowed head. She marveled at the exquisite workmanship of the child's hair, which depicted the strands as they curled around her head, to be gathered up in a bun, only to allow a narrow line of curls to drop down the nape of her neck. At the same time her practiced eye noted that the girl's peplos was unbelted, allowing it to fall in a waterfall of cloth around the back of her legs, which would have been otherwise hidden beneath their folds.

"Somebody loved you," Eleni sighed. She was staring at a picture of a slab of rock. But in her mind's eye, she stared beyond the carven stone, to see the real girl it represented. Had that real girl also said goodbye to her favorite pets, before she died some two thousand and five hundred years ago? Had she said a prayer to Artemis with her last breath, beseeching the protector goddess of young women to guide her in the afterlife? Had her family been there with her?

Who had she been? What had been her life's story, before her so untimely end?

Discovering that and telling that story was the job of cultural anthropologists like Eleni. She looked from this one picture, to the other still pictures that scattered about the floor of her cramped home office. They likewise depicted sculptures and carvings of Ancient Greek women. They were young and old. All of them going about their daily lives: weaving, drawing water from a well, kneading bread, playing a flute, and so on.

The pictures competed with 3D printed toys from the period, smaller stele, and even statuettes. And of course there were the books. Books everywhere, stacked up in every available space. Her cat Hekate perched upon one stack. The feline looked up at her expectantly, even as her tail waved to and fro against the spines of the volumes beneath her.

Eleni leaned down to pet her, but the cat meowed loudly and darted off in a flash of indigo fur. Books went flying beneath her paws, and turned the organized mess into a decidedly disorganized one. Eleni bent over to pick one up, when the sound of voices came to her ear from another room.

That was odd. It was late, and she lived alone. She narrowed her eyes, and gathered her magic around herself out of reflex. Did she have an intruder? She did not expect that in Georgetown. It was about as upscale as things got in Washington DC. Art galleries, waterfront parks, outdoor streatery restaurants, clubs, and more made up the neighborhood. It was a nice place, for nice people, with a nice amount of money.

A little too nice if you asked Eleni. But at least it was within walking distance of her job at the university. She owned a car. She was an American after all. But the less she had to use it, the better.

Still, it might be some drunk college student who had wandered into the wrong house at the end of long evening of partying. Or maybe it was an actual burglar? That would be quite a change of pace. Usually trouble did not come looking for her so blatantly. Normally she was the one seeking it out.

In any case, Eleni would have to be careful not to reveal too much, in case it was an intruder. As such she did not call up the suit. That would really be tipping things off. She had to pretend to be normal, just in case.

She padded from the room on quiet feet, only to stop herself. The witch bottles she had planted in the walls would have instantly warned her of any intruders, natural or otherwise. With that in mind, she stretched out with her aion, and touched the nearest of the apotropaic devices. It lit up at her touch, a glowing island in the aether. From it her consciousness traveled through the web of power that linked one witch bottle with the next, and sheathed her home in the net of their protection.

There was nothing in the house except her and her cat Hekate. Well, there was that spider that lived up in the upper corner of the living room windowsill. But Gwen hardly counted. Not in this case at least. She also sensed a centipede crawling down under the couch. Ick! She would have to deal with that later.

Then the voices became clear, and Eleni breathed a sigh of relief. It was the television in the living room. She recognized the sound of the Nathaniel Creed of Worldwide Network News. His reedy, New England accent was one she would know anywhere. If someone had told her that he was a time-traveler from the 1920s, she would have believed them, given the timber and cadence of his speech.

"We are being told by reliable sources that this... incursion is of an extra-dimensional nature." Creed explained in a somewhat incredulous voice. "The massive energy field that has formed on Belle Isle is actually a portal - a tunnel if you will - to another universe. Not another planet, but an entirely different universe, with different laws of physics than our own."

"From her immortal head a radiance is shown
from Elysium and embraces the Earth;
and great is the beauty that ariseth
from her shining light."

Eleni concentrated upon the ancient prayer. A glowing circle of silver light sprang up around her feet, outlining the same words in Ancient Greek script. Aion rose up from within her, stretched out into the aether, and bent reality to her will.

In an instant her clothing vanished, to be replaced by the white and gray meta-cloth of her super suit. She felt the skin of her face and body transform into marble as solid and white as that of the Parian stele she had just been looking at. A hood covered the rest of her head, and trailed down to her ankles in a billowing cape. A crescent moon diadem now rode upon her brows, and glowed softly with silvery-white light. She knew that her eyes had likewise transformed into shining silver. She was Silverlight now, the epitome of the moon goddess, even if not the goddess herself.

She paused a moment to check the belt of enchanted moonstones that rode her hips, and the similar bracelets that sheathed her forearms. Behind her, an added glow filled the room as a pair of wings made of moonlight sprouted from her back.

Silverlight stretched out her hand, and a moment later her staff Mene took shape there. It was made of the same white marble that her flesh had transformed into, as if she and it were an unpainted and unadorned statue, like those so commonly found in museums. Growing from the peak of the staff was a rougher white stone of lunar anorthosite. It was shaped into the form of a half moon. The same phase which the real moon wore for a face somewhere high in the sky overhead.

For a brief moment Silverlight considered the vast gulfs of space and time that the stone headpiece must have traveled from its origin in the highlands of the moon, to find itself a part of her staff: Mene. It was a long, and winding, and certainly unexpected path. One involving men from Ohio riding in a lunar lander and returning with the stone to Terra Firma half a century ago. But just as her old mentor was wont to say, the world was far wider and stranger place than any of us imagined.

Then the voice of the Worldwide Network News anchor brought her head around, and she forgot about such trivialities as the literal moon rock that adorned the top of her enchanted staff. She had far more important things to concern herself with in the here and now. Chief among them were the misshapen creatures that flowed from the magical portal in Detroit. They came in all shapes and sizes. There was no uniformity to them at all. Some she did recognize from the Scripta Mortis. Goblins, bugganes, djieien, dídymo ptéryga; they were all Abyssals. Others were just beyond description, let alone recall.

How a portal to the Abyss could have been formed was beyond her. According to what she had read, it should not be possible. Summoning individuals temporarily, yes, that could certainly be done. But the barriers that the ancient guardians had constructed between the worlds long ago prevented permanent, lasting tunnels from one world to another. Or so she had thought. Clearly, something very powerful was at work here.

But she did not need to know how this had happened. Blood Raven would know. She always knew. All she had to do was get there, before it was too late.

Silverlight did not know how far it was from Washington DC to Detroit. But it had to be far, too far for even her magical flight. The battle was sure to be over before she even got there. That made her wonder how many other supers were watching this right now on the news, aching to join in the fight, yet unable to do so for lack of transport? Thankfully, she had another option.

She laid down upon the couch and closed her eyes. Once again, her hymn to the goddess slipped from her lips. She glowed with light, and a moment later her aura detached itself from her body, and stepped free of the bonds of flesh.

This aetherial form was made of light and magic. It cast its glow down into the mortal realm, just as the moon above shone its benevolence upon the earth. That light reflected in the eyes of her cat Hekate, who stared at her silently from one of the armrests of her couch. Her physical form still lay there, stretched out as if asleep. She watched for a moment as the cat leapt upon her body. The feline stepped lightly up to her lap, curled up into a ball, and lay her head down there.

Silverlight smiled for a moment. Then she turned away. Out of habit she had materialized upon entering aetherial space. It was a trick that had taken a long time to learn. As such, it was good to practice it whenever she projected. But at times she would rather not be seen by mortal eyes. This was one such occasion. So she took a moment to pull back on the echo of herself that she cast into the physical world. Instead she lapsed back into the default state of all aetherial beings: invisible and unknowable to those in the mundane world.

Her identity thusly secured, she looked up, and shot through the ceiling of her multistory townhouse. The floors and roof were no hindrance to her. She was no longer a part of the physical world. Inanimate objects such as houses had no solid presence in the aether. She rode the winds of the higher realm of magic now, filled with the currents of power and echoes of faded emotion that pervaded the aetherial realm.

Below her buildings and roads in the real world were vaguely sensed shadows. They were but dim outlines in the world of magic and life. Trees, grass, and other living things however, glowed with brilliant power here. So too did the people who scurried about their lives below, or slumbered in their dimly-sensed domiciles. Their emotions rose up like odors, allowing Silverlight to sense joy and sorrow, fear and delight alike.

She reoriented herself to the north-west, and shot out across the sky. She passed over the Appalachian Mountains in mere seconds. Soon the lights of Pittsburgh flowed by under her wings. Then Cleveland came and went, and finally the smooth waters of Lake Erie. She knew the latter would be black as glass in the physical world. But in the aether the water glowed with the wealth of life, a veritable paradise of aion.

She was back over land again moments later and soon enough the city of Windsor passed by beneath her feet. Detroit lay beyond, split from the Canadian side by a narrow curving river. Within that strait sat a long, narrow island that now glowed with unearthly power. The gateway there was a rotting pustule within the aether, a corruption that had somehow extruded itself into our world. From whence the portal had originated Silverlight could still not guess. Nor did she care too. Wherever it was, it was nothing any healthy person should ever lay eyes upon.

A pair of titans clashed in the shadow of this terrible gateway. One was a colossus with crimson eyes that had never looked upon sun or moon before. She could sense little else of the monster's corrupted frame for certain. Physical objects could be difficult to discern in the aether. It was auras that were painted with full, vibrant life here. The aura of the monster showed it to be a towering mass of tentacles, fangs, and pincers. It made her stomach sick just to bear witness to it. Looking at it in the aether felt like swimming in vomit, and she quickly shielded her awareness from the Abyssal.

As horrific as the colossus was, arrayed against it was a being of pure, magnificent beauty. Silverlight could only imagine what it must have looked like in the physical world: a long serpentine body, with four legs, massive wings, long tail, and great head. That was hard for her to grasp however. For in the aether she was not a bonfire, but a literal stellar mass of power. It was as if a sun stood upon the planet, given the tremendous light and energy it radiated in the magical realm.

She was a dragon, simple as that. Silverlight knew how silly that sounded. Dragons were supposed to be the stuff of folklore and role-playing games. Not denizens of the real world. Yet the Scripta Mortis had whispered of such beings. They had fought against the Abyss long ago, and sealed it off from the rest of the multiverse. She had never been sure how much of that to believe. Well, clearly all of it had been true.

Here was a dragon, Y Ddraig Aur. The name was simply in Silverlight's head, as if the dragon herself had planted it there. To be honest, no fictional depiction of such creatures could hold a candle to what lay before her. For what she beheld in the aether was simply beyond her senses to describe. She only knew that it was powerful, so much more so than anyone or thing she had ever encountered in her life. Not even her old mentor Blood Raven possessed such arcane might.

She was glad it was on their side. For it dueled back and forth with the unclean colossus, matching claw to pincer, fang to fang. The earth beneath the titans was gouged and torn asunder. The air rang with their bellows. It was a truly apocalyptic struggle between beings beyond human comprehension.

Boiling at the feet of the gargantuas was that army of alien horrors she had seen on the television. They tried to stay as clear of the giants as possible, but sometimes a dozen or more were simply stomped from existence with a single step of the dragon or colossus. Those who survived made their way beyond the titans, toward the Detroit side of the island.

The majority of these congregated around a makeshift fortress erected near the pulsing mass of the gateway. This was a nexus of power. Were it not for the dragon, it would have been the greatest assemblage of might Silverlight had ever witnessed firsthand. Plasma, lasers, railguns, lightning, fire, water, and more ripped through the air about the heroes centered within. They even had a giant robot!

Many of these worthies were meta-humans. But she sensed more than a fair number of magicians like herself within their midst. More than was common, that was for certain. Most she could not place. But one stood out. She was a Celtic raven, practically a goddess herself, dripping with the blood of battle and screeching the doom of mortals within the aether.

It was Blood Raven. Silverlight smiled. It would be good to see her old teacher and friend again. It was not under the best of circumstances. But one made the most of what life offered. When she had begun this life with a cape, Silverlight had known that it might end suddenly and violently. If that was to be the case tonight, it least would be with someone she held dear.

The smell of terror mixed with resolute courage came to her magical nose from nearer at hand however. She looked directly down, and saw that the faint outline of a metal ship cut across the aether. It floated amidst the flow of life that was the Detroit River, just south and east of Belle Isle. From the vessel's general size and shape, it reminded her of a large tug, or perhaps an icebreaker.

There was something written on the side of the ship, but as she was in the aether, she could not understand the words. They had no living presence, and so made no clear impression within the magical realm. She did feel some faint stirrings of pride when looking at them. So clearly they meant something to someone, for that emotion was tightly bound up within the words.

Racing back and forth upon its multiple decks and within the compartments below were dozens of people. Their auras were bright with fear and exertion. From the stances of some who were on the various decks, she could tell that they were firing small arms such as pistols and rifles. Except for two separate pairs, who seemed to be crewing full-blown machine guns.

Their foes were simple enough for Silverlight to note. Even in the brilliant stream of life and energy that was the Detroit River, these things stood out. They were suppurating abscesses upon the living skin of the Earth. Just sensing them made her non-existent stomach churn once more. They were a palpable wrongness, a corruption that had oozed into the healthy flesh of the natural world.

Silverlight did not hesitate. Blood Raven and the others could deal with the creatures on the island. There was no one to stop those in the river, save for this single ship. Or was it a boat? She had no idea. But she did know that they would not stand alone.

In the blink of an eye she shot down through the sky to hover directly over the waves of the river. That put her just off the side of the ship, between it and the oncoming tide of monsters that flowed from the shores of the island. At the same time she materialized, and projected part of her essence back into the physical realm. She knew that this would create a ghostly image of herself there which could be seen by all. More importantly, it allowed her to interact with the physical world, at least to a certain extent.

She raised her staff over her head, and gathered the light of the moon within it. Here in the aether that was no actual light of course. There were no photons in the magical realm. It was pure magical energy that shone down from the moon goddess above, and rose from the living planet below. She poured this aion through the lunar head piece of her staff. Mene focused it, refined it, and finally sent it lancing forth in bolt after bolt of power.

The arcane bolts cut across the river and drove into the oncoming monsters. Whether cast directly from the physical world - or from a manifestation such as Silverlight's current form - the effects were the same. The aion tore through the fabric of the monster's auras. While it had no initial contact with their physical bodies, the energy ripped and tore them asunder in the magical realm. Given that the magical realm was a reflection of the physical one, that meant that the harm done there grounded down into the mundane world, and replicated the wounds within their bodies.

As above, so below. It was an age old saying amongst magic users for a reason.

Moments after each assault their mangled forms vanished entirely from existence. Again, this was exactly as she had read. Abyssals could not maintain their existence within the natural world once dead. They were from Beyond, and to Beyond they returned with no will or force to maintain them here.

Soon this wave of attackers had been annihilated. They had not retreated, or wavered. But by coming forward, they put themselves directly into the path of her arcane bolts. The crew of the ship took their toll as well. For Silverlight witnessed more than one Abyssal disintegrate without the aid of her power.

She felt a surge of emotion from the crew members behind her. It was relief, wrapped up with courage, and hope. She vaguely sensed that they were shouting something. But as with the writing, she could not make out any specific words in the aether. Only the feeling behind them filtered through the realms.

She had heard that some mages had learned an advanced form of materialization that allowed them to read and even speak in the physical world. But as of yet that eluded Eleni. It was certainly something to strive for in the future.

A second wave of monsters dove into the water and swam toward the boat. Again, she could not tell what they might have looked like in the physical world. She could only sense their spirits. So far as she could tell, they came in numerous races, for no two were alike. That was the case with humans as well of course. But the differences between one person and another were subtle. In the case of the Abyssals however, it was the equivalent of comparing leopards to serpents. There were such vast and fundamental disparities between them all.

As with the others, they came forward in a rush. They seemed to have no concept of self-preservation. She sensed something behind them. It was an all-pervasive and all-oppressing will, which drove them like a lash. They were compelled forward by this dark intent. Even yet, Silverlight sensed that without this dominating influence, these creatures would not have hesitated to attack. Their auras were writ large with cruelty and corruption.

She thought back to her training, and rather than once again meeting the monsters with individual bolts of aetherial might, she took a different approach. She gathered up her power, and instead loosed it in a wide field before her. It did not take the form of a bolt or lance. Instead it became a wave that rolled forth. Where it met each monster, it pushed them back. Not back in physical space, but back from this reality.

"I command thee begone!" she intoned in an archaic manner that while grandiose, felt appropriate to the occasion. She spun her staff in her hands, and thrust it forth sideways, to once again reinforce her will to bar their passage.

She felt the monsters stop under her banishment. Their spirits quivered in the aether, as her power tore at their existence. But that will behind them flared up. It anchored them to the Earth, and prevented them from being exorcised from reality. That will outlasted her own attack, and remained as strong and unassailable as ever afterward.

Clearly, banishing was not going to work. Silverlight wanted to plant the palm of one of her hands into her forehead. Well of course not. If that had been possible, Blood Raven would have done so already. After all, it was she who had taught her the art of banishing spirits in the first place.

I really enjoyed meeting Silverlight and simply love the fact that seems pure mage, using only an arcane staff to help focus her magic. I view Blood Raven as a hybrid mage who augments herself with actual weapons when it suits her. Since Silverlight is a disciple of Blood Raven, I conclude that Silverlight's power is almost all magic. Again, I really enjoyed learning about her and how she relies on 'detect life's, her own form of stealth, and pure arcane power, augmented by the moon.

I'm glad she's there and certainly is a potent force multiplier. It will be interesting if we learn how/If she is able to communicate with the other capes. I suspect Blood Raven and Stormcrow will be able to detect Silverlight's aura in the aether.

Ah, so there are some superheroes living somewhat close to me. 🦸 Georgetown is really upscale. She wouldn't have much to do there as a superhero, but GT is also right next to some really nasty neighborhoods.

This chapter reminds me of the one in which we got to see Avery's entire process of getting involved. Started in his grandma's basement if I recall correct. He got his suit together, had to evade grandma (so she wouldn't freak) and then he was off. Main difference is, Eleni is a brand-new character for this show. And she's also been in this game for a while. She's competent. She doesn't fly off into trees and such.

But she's also too far away. Wow. It must be irksome to not be involved in the Greatest Supervillian Event of the 2010s! 🦹 Pretty neat that she's there in spirit, at least.

"I command thee, begone!" I also love the part when it says As above, so below.

So if I've got this right, is Silverlight dealing with the "below" part, right? Is she able to make some sort of difference? Seems like she's making it so that the monsters aren't able to respawn.

Interesting start here with Eleni studying ancient Greek art of women. And nice touch naming the cat Hekate.

And we're in D.C.! Was not expecting that.

Heh, I can now perfectly imagine Creed's voice (basically, I'm thinking of the announcer from Legend of Korra).

Interesting that Silverlight even looks like a statue. I'm guessing that her hero mode gives her skin strong like stone.

Now that is how you travel.

Definitely good that the heroes are getting more help. I do wonder how many heroes can transport themselves as quickly as Silverlight can. Also loved getting her perspective on the dragon; how wondrous and fantastical it must be to actually see such an entity (particularly for someone as steeped in mysticism as Silverlight).

Banishing the Abyssals won't work, but I bet Silverlight has some more tricks up her sleeve...

Acadian: Silverlight is definitely a pure mage. She even has a staff! I made an effort to make Blood Raven's current crop of proteges as diverse as possible in their magic use, so each is unique in their own way. Riven is pretty much a pure weapon master, using her magic for fighting. The exact opposite of Silverlight. Calypso is mostly a mage, but also has her aquatic form with its water-appropriate strengths and weaknesses. January is mostly a fighter who also uses magic to make her a Valkyrie. Kaelin is an alchemist, who can do some standard magic spells if really pressed. But her love is potions. Okami is a fighter/rogue, using his magic for stealth and combat. Even Xochitl will have her own specific niche, as we will learn in the future when Blood Raven and January finally have the chance to start teaching her. And of course Blood Raven herself is basically the Morrigan on earth.

I had to do a lot of work on the Crowverse's magical theory to make Silverlight work, specifically on astral space. I honestly never really did this much work on how magic works until now. Except perhaps way back when January got her first magic lesson, and Blood Raven was pulling out quotes from people like Plato. Thankfully I have been playing table top RPGs for ages, so I am well versed in ways to make a magic system function. I drew a lot from Shadowrun's system to create my astral space rules.


Renee: I figured Georgetown had to be upper class due to the rents there. When I go looking for character homes, I usually start with checking out the apartment finder and house renter apps to see what is there, and what they cost. It is right next to the University, so I figured it would be a lot like Ann Arbor (which has the University of Michigan), which is definitely an expensive place to live.

I saw what you said about the rougher neighborhoods in DC. So I did some Googling. Guess what came up as one of the worst neighborhoods? Georgetown! Riiight. More googling showed exactly what you said, that it's an upscale neighborhood, and one of the safest places in the city. But this sort of thing is one of the reasons I set this story in Detroit. I know the neighborhoods here, in ways I never will about any other city.

Silverlight is 35, that makes her the second oldest of Blood Raven's current proteges (with only Riven being older). So she has been at this whole magic thing for a long time, at least two decades, if not longer. She's really high level. That is why she mostly works alone. When she needs help, she simply summons some up, as we shall see soon enough. Though I am sure she also has alliances with heroes from nearby cities like Baltimore and Philadelphia where they all help each other out when they need it.

As Above, so Below really is one of the foundational statements in RL Western Magic. It goes back to the Emerald Tablet if I remember correctly. It means just what Silverlight intimated. Things in the higher magical worlds ground down to the physical world. Things in the physical world resonate out into the higher realms. Everything is connected.

Silverlight is killing the Abyssals the same as anyone else. She is just doing it from Astral space (what she calls Aetherial space because that is how she personally envisions it). Because of that the physics simply work a little differently. She attacks their auras in the astral. The damage done there grounds down into their physical bodies, because of the As Above, So Below rule. What happens in one realm affects the other.


WellTemperedClavier: I was originally going to name the cat Selene, but I thought that might get too confusing with Selene the goddess. So I went to the next goddess of magic in Greek myth: Hekate. Silverlight is very much a Greek-head, being a daughter of Greek immigrants herself. In fact, her name - Eleni, is the root of another name you might be familiar with - Helen, of the Thousand Ships fame. The "E" in Eleni is usually pronounced with a heavy aspiration, so it sounds more like "Eh-Lon-Oy". Or at least so I have heard it said by Bettany Hughes.

The radio announcer from Legend of Korra is perfect! My actual inspiration - outside of the standard 20s radio announcer voice - is Andrew Leman. Among other roles he plays in the HPLHS Dark Adventure Radio Theater shows he does, he is Nathan Reed, of Worldwide Wireless News (which is where I got my own Worldwide Network News from). Here is an early example of his work as Nathan Reed

I was originally thinking that Silverlight would use ye olde standard arcane shield spell for defense, being a pure mage. But when I was looking at her hero form (mainly sculptures of the goddess Selene), I suddenly realized that she ought to look like a living statue in hero mode. So she forms what the old Marvel Superheros table top RPG called Armor Skin. It is a thin layer of incredibly tough skin that acts as armor. But it leaves your innards as squishy as normal. Of course she knows that statues would have been painted. But since most people don't, she sticks to the bare look of Parian marble, which was the most prized in ancient Greece.

I only now just realized that I did go with her using the Arcane Shield still. So I might make that her primary defense, and the stone skin might be just for looks. Or she could simply be layering multiple forms of protection. Or I could go back and strip out the references to the Arcane Shield, and make her stone skin her only defense. I will have to think about it. Edit: Ah ha! I just realized that her armor skin would be of no help in the astral plane. So she would need to use an arcane shield there. I just had to add a sentence to explain. That settles that.

As I mentioned to Acadian, when I was working on the rules for astral space, I leaned heavily on the tabletop RPG Shadowrun. In in astral travel is insanely fast, near instant. So that was her preferred mode of travel in this case, when every second might count. Though she can fly in her physical body, given her wings of light. But not nearly that fast.









Lernaean Hydra

Mishipeshu (The Underwater Panther)

Mishipeshu's D&D stats

Mechwarrior 2 Soundtrack - Arkham Bridge



Book 10.22 - Alliance

Silverlight felt that tenebrous will stir somewhere beyond the shoreline ahead of her. Apparently she had gotten its attention with her attempt at banishment. That dark mind reached out and washed over her. She recoiled at the touch of the being. While wholly vile, unlike the other creatures, it was not entirely alien. There was something distinctly human in there. Or perhaps something that had once been human, that now had been warped into something far more sadistic and vile.

Then the probing will looked away, its intent once more focused upon the battle taking place on the island itself. But as if in afterthought, the massive gateway bulged for a moment. Then a new perversion erupted forth from its surface like pus squeezed from a pimple.

This new darkness did not join the vast host of its comrades in attacking the allied stronghold on the island. Instead it set its own will specifically upon her. Silverlight could feel it instantly, charging at her like a bull across the aether. The intent was clear. This monster had been brought here solely to destroy her.

As with the others, she could only guess what it might have looked like in the physical world. In the aether, its aura was a forest of giant serpents, all sprouting from a massive bulk behind it. It reminded her of a multi-headed dragon, if such a thing ever existed. Then another word came to her mind from her own Greek studies: Hydra Lernaia.

The Hydra was massive, bigger than a house. It disgorged itself into the river and snaked across the water. It ignored both the strong current and depth, fully at home within the waves. Silverlight did not wait for it to close the distance. She immediately raised her staff and called down the power of the moon. With the goddess Selene's might so focused, she sent forth a great blast of aion.

The magical energy burned into one of the heads, and the strands of the creature's aura simply disintegrated beneath it. The entire creature recoiled for a moment as Silverlight's magic spread its destruction across more and more of the targeted skull. Then the monster lunged forward once more, even as the last vestige of that one head vanished entirely from reality, utterly annihilated.

It snapped at her with its remaining heads. She dodged one, two, three, and more. Several of those that had missed impacted the hull of the ship behind her. Even though she was not looking that way, she could still feel it rock in the aether, and all of the auras of its crew along with it. She had to move this to another location.

She darted upriver, in the direction of the wide expanse of Lake Saint Clair to the north and east. The Hydra pursued, even though the crew of the ship left behind continued to fire their weapons in its wake. She was vaguely aware of water being splashed and churned up in great waves beneath the body of the monster. The water itself only resonated faintly within the aether. But the various fish, plant life, and algae within it were bright lights of energy. That allowed her to more easily intuit the motion of the only dimly sensed waves.

The Hydra stuck again, and this time there was no getting out of the way. Here in the aether, the marble skin which sheathed her physical form would be of no use. So she brought up a shield of power in the aether, and two of the monster's heads struck it, and bounded away. She was alarmed at the crack that had formed within the pattern of her spell however, and was forced to pour more aion within it to rebuild its structure.

That is when she realized that the Hydra was bifold in nature. Unlike herself it was not projecting its consciousness from the physical world to the aether. Nor was it like elemental or nature spirits, which could move their entire selves from one realm to the other at will. This creature existed fully in both worlds at the same time, with the same permanence. A part of it was always active in the astral, and a part always in the physical.

As she mulled this over, another head came at her from the left, and a second from the right. She bent her arcane shield back around her, and turned it into a bubble of power that warded off all attacks. The Hydra batted her around then, like a cat playing with a ball. One head after another assaulted her, and it was all she could do to maintain her defense as she was slammed in one direction to the next.

Where was Iolaos when she needed him? Thankfully the head she had destroyed had not seen two more sprout forth to replace it. So at least she did not need to burn the stump to prevent it from regenerating. Then again, her arcane bolts were purely of energy here in the aether. In the mundane world, they were part physical, part magical. But in the magical realm, they were all aetherial energy, that attacked the aura directly. That might indeed be as good, if not better, than a torch applied by a demigod's companion.

But one head down was not enough. There were far too many more remaining. Too many for her to keep track of, let alone counter. As it was every time she thought to marshal her power for an attack of her own, another of the heads snaked in from some unseen angle and struck her shield. They had yet to break through. But each time rocked her, and broke her concentration upon her own counters.

She could only last so long like this. She needed to get out, and change the odds somehow. She tried to push upwards, away from the surface of the river. But another of the heads batted her back down once more. In no time at all she was under the waves, and being shoved down toward the muddy quagmire of the river bottom.

The water was no problem of course, not in the aether. It was not like she needed to breathe here, nor did she feel any pressure from its weight. It had no substance or force to exude in the aether. Here it was only the magical reflection of its physical self. In that sense, it was little different from the air which she had previously flown through. The largest contrast was that the greater amount of life within the deluge of water tended to obscure her aetherial senses more than that of the open air overhead. But with the Hydra right there in her face, she was not much concerned with seeing what lay in the distance. She had enough to worry up right up close.

Again and again the Hydra hammered down upon her. Again and again her shield held, barely. Each blow sent shivers and cracks through its surface. Each time she was obliged to divert more and more of her power into regenerating it. The monster attacked from multiple directions, probing for weakness. Then it turned to coordinating its assaults, in order to strike from all directions at the same time.

Now she felt her shield waver, and nearly wink from existence. It took everything she had to keep up the defense. The rest of reality slipped away from her mind. There was only her aion, the Hydra, and the shield between them. For however long that lasted.

"Selene, hear your daughter's prayer," Silverlight was not too proud to entreat the moon, which still shone somewhere high above in the aetherial sky. "Send me your light this night, that I might break the darkness. Send me a champion worthy of this foe."

Clearly, she was not going to defeat this creature on her own. She needed help. It was time to summon some. Silverlight considered where she was: the river. Naturally a water elemental immediately sprang to mind. Yet perhaps that might not be the ideal counter for her opponent, which seemed as at home in the sea as on land. She needed something with a little more bite.

Then she considered where she was again. It was not just any river, but the Detroit River. That was in turn part of the Great Lakes. There was a great deal of lore associated with the lakes, going back for thousands of years. Among all the tales one name stood out above the others. There was one being that mortal and immortal alike bowed their heads to out of respect, if not fear.

"Mishipeshu!" she called out across the aether. She sent her aion out through the name, and filled it with power and intent. Her compulsion was laid within it, her call for aid. To be honest, her desperation went with it as well, for she could not be certain how long she might be able to withstand the Hydra's attacks.

Her will made the call a reality, an echo that traveled instantaneously through the waves. It sped through one lake after another, bounded across the straits between them, reverberated through the underwater mansions along their bottoms, and danced atop the caps of the waves above. It filled the water with her call, from the farthest tip of Lake Superior, to the end of the Saint Lawrence Seaway.

Her answer came quickly enough. She felt it in the aether, even through the froth of life within the river, and the chaos of the Hydra's many darting heads. It was a shadow within the magical realm, a cloud that crowded out all other life and power with it tremendous bulk.

She could feel enough of the aura to know that it was not physical at all, at least not at the moment. Rather like her, it dwelled purely within the aether. At the most a mundane might perceive it as a shadow within the waves, like a school of fish somewhere deep below. But she knew better. Here in the aether, there was no mistaking it.

Silverlight felt it ground down into the physical world then, leaving only the echo of its former self within the aetherial realm. It was the same echo that all physical beings cast into the higher plane, one with some essence there, but not substantial enough to see or act in the aether.

Just like that it had transitioned into the material world. As with the other magical beings this night, Silverlight could sense enough from its aura to at least generalize its size and shape. It was massive. It could have had the body of a panther, or a lynx, or a dragon. One could take their pick. Its head was crowned with either horns or antlers, and a row of spines ran down its back and along its tail. Thorny claws sprouted from its four feet, and its maw shone with sword-like teeth.

Silverlight had not been sure what to expect when she had made her call. She had seen illustrations of course. But those were just the various imaginings of different artists, separated by time and cultures. None of them did the spirit justice. How could one reproduce such a divine being with only pencils or paints? It was impossible. Like love or hate, one could only experience it for oneself, then fumble for explanations afterward.

There was no mistaking it. This was indeed Mishipeshu, the underwater panther, or as some would say, the great lynx. It was the guardian and lord of the Great Lakes, and truly not one to gamó̱ with. Silverlight only hoped that she had done the right thing in calling it. For as much as her spell had compelled it to come. She knew full well that she could not control such a being. All she could do was ask nicely, and hope for the best.

The sudden appearance of the underwater panther in the river thrust the waters out from its great bulk in all directions. This created miniature tidal waves that rolled out toward either shore, as well as up and down the river. They were enough to rock the nearby warship violently, and Silverlight felt its crew members stagger to their knees, or fall from their feet entirely.

The Hydra halted its assault upon Silverlight, and turned its massive frame to face the newcomer. But it was too late. The underwater panther was upon it. It set on the otherworldly monster with a fury that only a hurricane could match. Its great head shot forward, and its jaws clamped shut upon the base of one of the hydra's necks. It violently snapped its head from side to side like a dog with a chew toy. The Abyssal's head and neck were rent clean off, and vanished from both the aether and physical world a moment later.

But in just seconds, a new head began to slowly grow forth from the stump of the severed appendage. So it was just like the legends of old. It was not just any ordinary creature of its type, but truly a Hydra Lernaia, the same as which mighty Herakles had battled of old. If one believed such stories...

Silverlight wasted no time. The Hydra had ignored her. She would see to it that it regretted that decision. She raised her staff and gathered up her power. Her eyes were fixed upon that regenerating head. But before she could loose another arcane bolt, the other heads of the beast blocked her attack. They were not attacking her directly, but they were still in the way as they all darted toward Mishipeshu.

She moved in closer, right up to the forest of heads. Then she darted within their swirling ranks, even as they snapped back and forth at the underwater panther. Mishipeshu was right up in the monster's many faces now as well, trading blows with both its fangs and claws. Silverlight took care to dodge these. For this close, even her own champion could easily lay her low by accident, especially given the speed of the blows and counters that the pair of titans traded back and forth.

Then she was upon the stump of the newly severed head. She could see the horns and scales of a new skull slowly beginning to poke forth from the protean flesh at the end of the bare stump. In no time at all, in perhaps a minute at most, she imagined it would be fully regrown. She could not allow that.

She struck out with Mene as if it was a sword, and hacked at the fresh stump. The staff still brimmed with gathered might. This power burst forth at the moment of contact, and burned through the unearthly flesh of the monster. She heard its scream across the aether, even as its great bulk recoiled from the blow.

As with her initial attack, her arcane assault burned through the monster like fire, destroying every part of its aura that it touched. It spread out from there like acid, annihilating even more of the Abyssal. Then finally it had run its course, and only a charred and forever mutilated stub in its wake.

Silverlight danced away through the air as the Hydra struck back with several of its heads. One connected, and crashed against her arcane shield. It felt like being struck by a freight train. But her magical defenses held, even if the force of the blow sent her skittering even farther across the aether.

Mishipeshu took advantage of the Abyssal's divided attention. Momentarily turning from the heads that beset it, the guardian of the lakes lashed out with its claws, and lopped off the very same head that had just attacked Silverlight. She immediately followed by marshalling her own strength, and sent forth another arcane bolt down into the fresh wound, and magically cauterized it for good.

This set the tone for the ensuing battle. Silverlight let the underwater panther carry the brunt of the fight, and face off directly with the Abyssal. Every time the nature spirit struck, she followed with one of her arcane bolts. That short-circuited the alien monster's ability to regenerate. These were not all great decapitating wounds of course. The panther was not always lucky enough to land such a massive blow. Some were only minor injuries. But Silverlight knew well enough that every one of those would count in the end. Whether it was death by thousand paper cuts, or death by a few titan blows, it would all be the same in the end.

The trio ignored the waves as they battled within the river. But those swells - kicked up by the behemoths - did not ignore everyone else. They battered against the other Abyssals foolish enough to venture near the shores of Belle Isle. Many were literally crushed under the titanic waves of force, or swept deeper inland. Some were even thrown back into the very gateway which they had issued from.

The tidal waves also rocked in the other direction. The ship that had been battling the monsters when Silverlight had arrived was likewise dashed and battered. She now imagined that it must be a Coast Guard vessel. From what she could gather of their auras, the crew ceased trying to shoot their weapons. Instead they simply held on for dear life to whatever was around them, or desperately tried to fight with their controls to keep the ship afloat.

Soon enough, that point became moot, as the ship was thrown up against the Canadian shore. Its steel hull ground through the rocks that lined the river bank, and gouged out a trench across the grass deeper inland. Given the wide open space around it, Silverlight thought it might be a park. A row of high rise buildings rose up beyond, and brimmed with mundane auras that shone brightly with excitement and fear. Some of those auras dared to venture into the open space of the park, but not many, and thankfully none near where the vessel beached itself.

Silverlight did not have time to spare for the crew while the Hydra yet lived. She was too busy just keeping up with Mishipeshu, and insuring that every one of the wounds it inflicted became permanent. In time their tactic of gradually whittling down the monster proved its worth. With the last of the creature's heads dispatched, the bulk of its body likewise disintegrated into the aether.

She took a moment to address Mishipeshu. Not with words. It was her experience that most spirits cared little for human speech. Instead she communicated with her feelings and ideas. These were things that carried real weight within the magical world. They were the forces that affected the aether, enough to literally change it, given enough power behind those ideas and emotions.

She sent her heartfelt thanks to the guardian, and also made sure to bow to its might. She was not here to challenge it to a genital measuring contest, but to implore its aid. Ask for aid she did next, as she entreated the underwater panther to stand guard over the waters of the river, and ward them against further incursions by the unearthly beasts.

Mishipeshu acknowledged her entreaties with its assent. Silverlight suspected that she needed not have asked at all. It was a spirit of nature after all, a living part of the Earth. The Abyssals were not just aliens. Their very presence was a poison within the body of the planet's aura. They were like the cells of a virus, that slowly but surely assimilated its host. They could not be allowed to persist. Else the world itself would perish, and be corrupted into something else, something far darker and more terrible than Silverlight cared to imagine.

The underwater panther darted away, and bore down upon a new group of lesser Abyssals that had been swept away from shore, and sent downstream. As it tore them to shreds and sent them back to the universe they had originated from, Silverlight finally turned her full attention to the ship.

In an instant she zoomed across the aether to hover over its deck, which was now canted at an angle to one side. The crew members now clambered to their feet, or cautiously navigated its tilted surface. She flew to what looked like its bridge, and stepped through its steel walls. Not being a living creature, nor imbued with magical power, the metal posed no real barrier within the magical realm after all.

She picked out one of the people within and laid a hand upon her shoulder. A confused bubble of thoughts and emotions flooded into her from the other woman. But Silverlight sorted them out in no time at all. She had plenty of experience in using her telepathy after all. She found that this woman was named Roberta, but preferred Bobbi. She was the first officer on the vessel, which was indeed an American Coast Guard ship: the Bristol Bay in fact.

"Bobbi," she pushed the thought into the other woman's mind. "I am Silverlight. I need you to tell your captain not to fire upon the underwater panther within the river. It is Mishipeshu, the ancient guardian of the Great Lakes. It is here to protect us."

"You're a ghost, and you're talking in my head," the other woman - Bobbi - spoke both aloud, and of course in her mind.

It was a common enough reaction, and Silverlight had expected it. She simply nodded along and explained.

"I am not a ghost, I just look like one right now. I am a white hat superhero, and telepath, among other things," she said. "Now please relay my message. You should see to your wounded, and gather yourselves. I don't know if you will be needed again. Just don't try to go back out in the water. Defend this shore in case any of the monsters find their way past Mishipeshu. And again, stay out of its way!"

The other woman nodded. With that Silverlight let go. Her telepathic link vanished the instant her fingers slipped away from the other woman's aura. While her telepathy brought with it many gifts, she had yet to master the use of it at a distance. She had to connect her aura with those of others to use it. So far that meant physically touching, or using her moonstones as a bridge. Perhaps someday that would change, but not today.

Silverlight turned and stepped through the walls of the vessel. She zoomed up into the sky, and soared across the narrow band of the Detroit River. Below her the underwater panther continued to hunt within the waves. But few prey presented themselves now. It appeared that the monsters had lost their taste for swimming. So Mishipeshu clearly no longer required her aid.

She passed over the shores of Belle Isle and headed inland. She knew that Blood Raven would be there somewhere. Her old mentor would have answers, and hopefully a strategy for defeating this incursion into their world.

* * *

I fully enjoyed this second Silverlight episode as much as her first. With her mighty arcane shielding in jeopardy, she asks for help - and is not disappointed. So the hydra necks do require cauterizing after thr head they host is severed. Silverlight's task becomes clear as she deftly cleans up after the water panther. Even better, her ally agrees to continue its valuable assistance. No surprise that Siverlight next checks on her Coastie allies. Great presence of mind and tactical awareness to ensure that the crew does not engage or piss off the water panther.

As you recall, Buffy could empathically heal and assess someone's spirit via a physical laying on of hands bond. So we can appreciate Silverlight's ability and its limitations. Her more recent paladin detect evil ability has provided some range to reading someone's aura and, by focusing her healing through her magical staff, she can also now range out with her healing. I hope that Silverlight is somehow able to similarly continue to evolve her magic.

Apartment finder, wow. You really do some research, Rosa.

Georgetown has some colleges, which means r4p3s on occasion. That'd be the worst thing Silverlight would have to deal with in her current hometown. There's probably some vandalism, plenty of thefts (auto and personal). That's about it. Murder rate is low, assaults aren't common. Assaults would equate to bar fights between frat brothers at the most. Nothing ordinary police can't handle.

But go into some neighboring neighborhoods and *bam*, there's your more serious crime. That's how D.C. is. Some of the richest live there, it's where laws get made, but it's also got lots of bad neighborhoods, as well. That's why whenever we go to D.C. (mostly to view the museums) we always drive to a park 'n' ride, then we take the Metro! No ghouls down there yet, thankfully. 🧟 But you basically skip all the badness up above (traffic included).

Yes I know "As above, So below". I remember that phrase from my New Age studies days. 🪄 I was a reader at the Tarot Card Hotline back then. Remember Miss Cleo? Amazing how times change.

Ah, so SL is high in level, this explains how she can sustain being in that alternate plane for such a long time, and she's also able to f*ck up a few abyssals. Ah, so she IS pwning them. Very nice.

She's combating the hydra! Broke off one of its heads Ooooh, Natth is gonna be pissed. Too bad she can't tie one of the monster's heads around all the others. Cool, a Mishipeshu has been summoned. Ha, you've also got its tablegame stats. Don't remember that creature. Maybe that's from a later edition of D&D though. We only played when the original edition was out, in the '80s. But see, that's one of the cool things about D&D: its rule systems may have been gonky at times, but D&D did draw a lot of its monsters from real-life myths and cultures. In a way, this helps kids who play the game also study world history.

I can only imagine how cool this fight is gonna look as it's no-doubt being filmed by drones and satellites.

She communicates through feelings, wow. See, and I think Mishipeshu is going to be impressed by this. Or at least, surprised.



That's so neat.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jan 30 2023, 02:40 PM

Andrew Leman definitely has that voice down!

It's funny how much RPGs have watered down the hydra from its origins. They usually just get treated as a big beast with multiple attacks, but games don't usually take into account how tricky they actually are to kill. I'm guessing this is an old-school hydra, which means Silverlight has her work cut out for her.

Oh, looks like the head isn't growing back. Maybe the blast cauterized the wound? Or the magic did it. In which case, good thing Silverlight's the one fighting this creature.

Hm, so if the hydra's in two realms at once, that might mean Silverlight can take the hydra out of action by doing enough damage to it in one realm?

(This weirdly reminds me of the ancient Christological debate on miaphysitism vs Chalcedonianism).

Oh, so she didn't burn it off! But rather, the aion removed it from existence. A potent weapon. Regardless, good thing that it's not regenerating since she has her hands full as it is.

Definitely smart for her to call in some (metaphorical) bigger guns.

Ah, okay, so the hydra's heads do grow back if they're removed through regular means. Guess you have to raise the challenge level if you bring in Mishipeshu.

Good tactic in double-teaming the creature.

I'm actually a little surprised there aren't even more nature spirits joining the fray. Seems like they'd have ample reason to want the Abyssals out.

Looks like she handled the Coast Guard situation well. Makes sense that officers in this world are trained on how to deal with metas getting involved.

This post has been edited by WellTemperedClavier: Feb 4 2023, 04:04 AM

Editorial Note: I have decided to go back on my previous ideas for the Technocracy being Austria, and the Technocrat being Werner Heisenberg. It just felt a little too uncomfortable for me to use real places and people for both. I don't want to seem like I am puffing up or glorifying either. So I decided to make the Technocracy to be a new, entirely fictional country named Avarica that takes the place of Austria in this universe. In this timeline the Avar Khaganate never quite fully collapsed. Instead it's eastern parts were swallowed by the Magyars when they created Hungary. But its western part held off the Carolingian Empire, and over time transformed into a Medieval state with little to do with the Avars except the name. I have the full history written out. Mostly it went from being a vassal/client kingdom of the Hungarians, until the Ottomans conquered them. Then it became a client kingdom of the Habsburgs, who in this world are based out of Prague. The place is a melting pot of Slavs, Magyars, Bulgars, ethnic Germans, Czechs, Slovaks, etc... and a tiny remnant of ethnic Avars (whose dna traces back to Manchuria). It did not really gain its independence until after WW1, only to be annexed by Germany in WW2. After that it became a neutral in the Cold War, under the leadership of the Technocrat, who is now named Janos Heisen, who is the inventor of Quantum Physics in this world. That is when Avarica became the Technocracy, the most technologically advanced nation on the planet.




Acadian: A couple of times now January and company have had to face off against summoned or wild spirits. I wanted to finally bring in the other side of that equation, a white hat who summons spirits for the good guys. I briefly considered just making it an elemental. Then - like Silverlight - I considered where she was. I already had the Underwater Panther on my list of monsters, since it is unique to the Great Lakes. It became the perfect choice.

Silverlight is extremely powerful. She has been at this for at least 20 years. So she needed some disadvantages to keep her from being over-powered. Having her telepathy being limited to touch only was a good one. It might always be that way. But she does have some work arounds, as we will learn in a few more books. But most of all I wanted to get across that even as much as she knows, she still has a lot to learn. So does Blood Raven for that matter. No matter how powerful someone is, that does not make them omnipotent.


Renee: That sounds exactly like what I expected from Georgetown. My only personal experience is with the super mutants that infest the place, and occasionally a Talon Company patrol if I fast travel there...

I do love how D&D uses not just purely original monsters, but also creatures from folklore. Heck, that is what goblins, and wraiths, and trolls are. They even had the stats for Real World gods in the old Dieties and Demigods sourcebook. I was still surprised to find that the Underwater Panther was part of D&D lore. I did not realize that it had any sort of popularity beyond the Great Lakes region. I guess it has a good PR agent!

I am also imagining what this battle will look like from porch cameras, and smartphones, and drones, as well as TV reporters. I must be truly spectacular. At this point there are 27 supers in the fight, including a dragon. And that number is going to get a lot higher before it is done. In the very least I am imagining that some sports teams might start renaming themselves after dragons.



WellTemperedClavier: Andrew Leman is a tremendous voice actor. I love his audiobook readings and the radio dramas he is part of that the HP Lovecraft Historical Society puts out. He's good on screen too. He had one of the funnest little parts as Charles Fort in the Whisperer in Darkness movie that the HPLHS made some years back.

It is absolutely the old school Hydra, the kind Herakles and Iolaus fought. It turns out that in this case Silverlight is Iolaus, and Mishipeshu is the demigod.

The way I am working astral space is that damage done to the aura there transfers down into the physical world. So if you lop off someone's arm in the astral, the same happens in the physical world. Or if you kill someone's aura, it kills their body. The reverse is also true of course. As Above, So Below.

The real danger of the Hydra being Bifold is that it is fully aware of everything around it in both worlds at all times, and can attack in both realms as well. While other creatures like elementals or Silverlight can move back and forth between realms, they still have limitations. Like with the way Silverlight cannot read physical writing while she is in astral space. And while she is projecting into astral space, she have almost no idea of what is happening to her meat body in the physical world.

It is funny you mentioned that about more nature spirits. You are about to get more. The longer this goes on, the more and more magical creatures are going to notice and get into it. Whatever they feel about humans and superheroes, they will all attack the Abyssals on instinct. It is purely a matter of survival.

Reading what you said about training in dealing with supers, I am now imaging a training video of Captain America walking into a room, spinning a chair around backward, and sitting down. "So, you've got yourself an encounter with a super. What do you do?"






January's Fight Theme - Two Steps From Hell - Never Back Down


Book 10.23 - Alliance

January followed Blood Raven to their ersatz fortress in the shadow of the gateway. She had come to think of it as Fort Alliance. It was beset by Abyssals. But they were not an unstoppable tide as before. The Colossus and Y Ddraig Aur saw to that. They were so gigantic that each footstep or sweep of their tails or tentacles sent dozens of lesser monsters to oblivion. January found that ironic. Clearly Nátthrafn had brought forth the Colossus to tip the battle in his favor, and for a while it had done just that. But now it might be unintentionally killing as many - if not more - of his own army as the heroes were doing on purpose.

Still, the horde of monsters that beset Fort Alliance was nothing to scoff at. Goblins, djieien, bugganes, Átahsaia, shadow monsters, flying heads, and more beset the makeshift fortification. They clambered over barricades, and hammered at ad hoc walls. The Fred Hampton was the linchpin for the defense, as the mecha's quad plasma guns incinerated Abyssals by the dozen-full with each volley.

Perhaps because of this, Isaac's mech was drawing more attention from the Abyssals than any other part of the defense. Goblins swarmed across its frame, and hacked and stabbed at its armor plates and weaker joints wherever they could. Archimedes tried to keep them away from his creator, but the single floating robot could not be everywhere at once when it came to a fifty foot tall mech.

January caught the eye of Gadget, and pointed to Isaac and Archie's difficulties. "I'm going to call some lightning," she said over the comm. "Think you can make a force field around Fred?"

"Does an owlbear spleck in the woods?" The meta-inventor laughed. He flew over to the towering mech. He sort of botched the landing, and half crashed into one of the Fred Hampton's legs. He picked himself up and pantomimed brushing himself off. A goblin darted at him with an axe of black stone or metal. But the armored hero simply grabbed the creature by the head with one hand, and literally dashed its brains out against the giant mech's leg.

Gadget went back to what he was doing as the Abyssal faded from reality. He raised both hands, and a shimmer of heat and light flooded the air around him. He twisted and turned his fingers as if he was manipulating invisible controls. With that the shimmer of light around him moved away and flattened into a distinct plane before him.

January hoped that he was ready. She looked skyward, and tore loose a great torrent of lightning bolts. She sent them straight down at Gadget, trusting him to guide the electricity to where it needed to go. The master of nuclear plasma did just that. Her lightning bolts struck the particle field that he had created, and streamed off it like an electrical waterfall. Even as the energy snapped and hissed, he sent it snaking around the surface of the mech. Yet the electricity never actually touched the Fred Hampton, nor Archimedes. However, the Abyssals were not so fortunate. Goblins and other monstrosities were obliterated one after the other as the river of lightning washed through them. In moments the Fred Hampton was once again clear, and the last of the electricity ground down into the earth below.

January set down at the feet of the mech, and went to work preventing more of the smaller Abyssals from inundating it all over again. That left Isaac free to concentrate his fire on the larger monsters. She guessed that he had run out of ammunition for his railgun, for he had ceased to use that terrible weapon. Instead he sent volley after volley of blue plasma through the ranks of the oncoming horde, turning everything they touched into vapor.

She stood shoulder to shoulder with Gadget. Soon enough they teamed up to perform the lightning ball trick she had so recently perfected with Lighthammer. Only this time it was Gadget hurling bolts of plasma, and January calling down lightning into them. With every dual strike the energy of each scattered over a wide area in great explosions of light and force.

Riven was a whirlwind with sword and shield, sometimes sword and sword, or sword and axe, or just one large blade or spear. Her armaments changed from moment to moment, depending on what she happened to need at that instant.

Her husband Thunderbolt was doing much the same as January and Gadget had just done. He both emitted and controlled electricity, and used it to create both killing barriers and deadly bolts of power.

Vortex was... Damn, January did not want to think about her. It had been what, an hour at least since she had last done so? How long had it had been since she had woken up in that summoning circle? It felt like forever. But she suspected that very little time had passed at all.

Vortex's father Hungry Ghost was present as well, as he had been at Gull Island. He may have been an international thief and mobster, but he certainly was stepping up. Maybe he was more than just a bad guy? Or maybe he just needed the proper motivation, like the end of the world staring in his face?

The Sentinels showed why they were the Midwest's premier super team. The Veil was amazing as ever, using elemental darkness to create gateways, barriers to defend with, weapons to strike out with, and even simple machines. She had been one of January's idols growing up. Zero Point and Stinger were everyone's favorite science couple of course: masters of powered armor, shrinking, and quantum spaces. White Fell was a real life werewolf, with claws and fangs that could shred anything they came across. Finally Helios was a little piece of the Sun, a man of fire who grew in size when he wished it, and incinerated all who opposed him.

January knew Calypso and Viuda from personal experience. One was the ruler of the waves, and the other of spider silk. Even Kaelin and Harper were pitching in, though not superheroes themselves. Kaelin was the mistress of potions, and ran to and fro with bottles to either heal wounds or provide buffs. She was also handy with an arcane bolt or shield when pressed. She reminded January of a cleric from any role-playing game. Harper was likewise her wizard counterpart from the same games. They were always ready with a bolt of fire or frost, a levitate or counterspell, or even just turning the ground to grease under the enemy's feet.

Of course the rest of her own team - the Allies - were there as well. Blood Raven was pure, unadulterated awesome. Samhain stabbed and sliced Abyssals to ribbons when they came too near. While from a distance she tore the blood from their bodies, turned it solid, and then transformed it into fragmentation bombs, shredding dozens at a time. Ôkami was his regular high tech samurai/ninja self, and Cray was the cool, calm voice of reason ever in your head.

Lighthammer jetted around the fortress, blasting with hard light or incinerating Abyssals with standard lasers. Archimedes - or Archie as Isaac usually called him - floated around his maker and helped keep the Fred Hampton clear of monsters with lightning blasts and lasers of his own. Gola too, though no more officially a member of the team than Isaac, remained in the fray as well.

Even Blackhawk - while back with the troops at the bridge - was not sitting things out. From the fort January caught occasional glimpses of the other heroine. She usually hovered over the bridge. She held up a force field there across the width of the span, and led the defense. Against her and her troops went wave after wave of Abyssals. There were fewer than those that now beset Fort Alliance, but the attacks were formidable nonetheless. Perhaps it was even worse there, for Blackhawk was the lone super among the defenders, who were otherwise ordinary people.

A miniature tornado swept across the battlefield. It annihilated every Abyssal it touched, yet it was careful to avoid striking the heroes. January felt power resonate from within it through the astral, and realized that it was an air elemental. So far as she could tell, no one had summoned it, for she could sense no ties or binds from it to one of the magicians. The zephyr was simply there, fighting for the world.

Soon the ground bulged up in what reminded January of a miniature volcano. Spilling from it was a creature that was quite familiar to her. It was a salamander, just like the one she had fought on Montserrat. Clearly it could not be the exact same one, as she and Calypso had placed that individual into a deep torpor. But this brother or sister of it looked the same: like a lizard made of obsidian and lava. Like its kindred air elemental, it immediately set about destroying the Abyssals.

The planet itself had joined the fight.

Ever since she had started her career as a superhero, January had been meeting people. She had been making connections among both allies and foes. Now here they all were, standing together. It was a good feeling.

A new player entered the chat, yet again. This was a transparent figure who glowed with soft, white light. She came flying in from the Canadian side of the river. She was clad in a light gray outfit of loose cloth, with a cloak that billowed out behind her. Her features were literally chiseled stone, like a statue come to life, and a silver diadem with a crescent moon rose up from her brow like small horns. A belt of moonstones hung from her hips, and similar bracelets circled her wrists. A pair of wings made of pure white light sprang from her back, which lent her a distinctly angelic appearance.

Finally, she carried a staff of smooth white marble. It was crowned with a shining moon of rough and weathered white stone. It was shaped in a half moon, which struck January as odd. Usually artists used a full moon or a crescent to depict the moon. Then she noted the actual moon in the sky above, and saw that it was the exact same phase as that represented on the staff. January suspected that was no coincidence.

"Silverlight!" Blood Raven cried. "Well met my friend."

January remembered that name. Blood Raven had recounted her in the list of her recent students. Silverlight was one of her Raven Sisters, as it were. The newcomer zoomed down to meet her mentor, and they likewise briefly embraced, at least after a manner. January quickly surmised that Silverlight had no physical form. Yet her hands did not pass through the body of her teacher. Instead they seemed to rest upon the barrier of Blood Raven's aura.

January had to partly shift her awareness into astral space in order to perceive the other woman's reply. Her voice was not a physical thing at all, but rather a wave that washed across the magical realm, and tingled down into her aura. The exact words were fuzzy in her brain. It was more the ideas and feelings they carried that made an impression on her mind.

"I am present in my aetherial form alone," Silverlight explained. "It was the only means by which I might reach here with alacrity. So my powers are somewhat limited."

"Your powers are exactly what we require," Blood Raven smiled. "Very shortly we shall need your magic, all of our magic. We only await Y Ddraig Aur to finish its business with the Colossus there."

As if in response to Blood Raven's words, the golden dragon landed a claw upon the Colossus' neck. The ancient guardian's brilliant talons sank into the gap between two of the Abyssal's armored plates. An instant later it tore one of them loose, and sent the house-size hunk of chitin flying.

It came hurtling directly toward the hero's fortress. But before it could strike, the Veil stepped forward and created a gateway of black energy in front of it. The hunk of chitin hurtled through, and went barreling out of a second gateway that had formed just outside of the camp. Now the massive chunk of armor plate went careening horizontally across the ground, and obliterated a long line of Abyssals in its path.

Then the fighting stopped everywhere. Both Abyssal and hero alike turned their eyes upon the titans that dueled overhead. Their every scream and roar reverberated through their bodies as a physical force. Their every step shook the earth below. They were like gods of old dueling for the soul of the world.

The Colossus reared back in agony, while the dragon pressed her advantage. Her head darted in toward the flesh now left exposed by the missing armor plate. But the Colossus batted her skull away with a backhand blow from one pincer. Y Ddraig Aur continued to push however, and grabbed up both of the monster's arms with her own forelegs.

Then her head snaked in again. She did not bite the unprotected flesh, but rather loosed that laser breath weapon once more. This time the energy burned directly into this now unprotected spot in the monster's hide. Abyssal flesh incinerated under the brilliant assault. In moments January saw beams of light begin to seep out from between the joints in the Colossus' other armored plates. All around its body, the Abyssal was rent with brilliant cracks of light that burst from within its frame. Brighter and brighter this grew, until it was nearly blinding. Finally the light engulfed the monster's entire frame. Then it exploded in an even brighter flash of illumination.

January was still blinking the spots from her eyes when she saw the charred remnants of the Colossus' annihilated body fall to the earth in pieces. As with the other Abyssals, these sometimes massive chunks of flesh faded and vanished from reality in moments. That left the golden dragon standing alone at the southern end of the island.

She roared her triumph to the sky above. It was a sound that not only buffeted January's body with pure physical force. It also ground down into her spirit as well. She felt it invigorate her. It filled her with power and confidence. Her aches and pains all fell away with the dragon's call. She saw cuts and bruises upon her teammates vanish. Even the dents and dings in Gadget's armor disappeared. In its wake she felt stronger than ever, faster than before, like she could do anything.

Afterward Y Ddraig Aur stopped, and literally froze in place. Even from hundreds of yards away, January could hear a brittle, cracking sound, like ice forming. The dragon's movements slowed, and finally ground to a halt as its body appeared to stiffen. It's skin and scales brightened, and became translucent. It reminded January of crystal, or the hard light that Lighthammer generated.

Something passed from the dragon then. Some vital spark - some ineffable power that had once animated the great spirit of magic and light - was just gone. It had disappeared, and the implosion that was created in its wake was not only clear to January in the astral, but even in the physical as well.

A great wind was whipped up from all sides, only to sink down into the body of the dragon, like water running down a drain. Hair, capes, and clouds of dust and dirt were caught up in the rush of air. But these soon fell to earth once more, and the scene stilled.

With it went Y Ddraig Aur, or the living, breathing manifestation of the dragon at least. In the wake of the ancient guardian's passing stood a ghostly image of the being, from which golden light still emanated. It looked like a statue of glass or crystal. Again, January was reminded of hard light. It was like a piece of the Sun had solidified, and plopped down upon Belle Isle.

January still felt magic there in the astral. But not the stellar mass of power she had felt just moments before. The essence of the dragon was now gone. Only the aftermath of her presence still reverberated through reality. It was like a shadow, or an echo, that still cast through both the astral and physical world. But this shadow created light, and even yet radiated some energy.

January thought she understood. It was the blood, the dragon blood that Blood Raven had forged into her sword, and then released upon the earth. That blood was just a piece of the real Y Ddraig Aur's essence. Once free, the dragon had animated reality with her inhuman will, and transformed it into an avatar of her former self. Not her full, real self, but just a projection of her power. Now even that gargantuan will was spent, and once that essence faded, so too did the avatar. One moment it had been a dragon. It had been Y Ddraig Aur. Now it was just a cicatrix in reality that remembered her.

That was enough for the Abyssals. The sight of their champion's ruin took all the wind from their sails. They went from being suicidal beasts one moment, to frightened sheep the next. They fled back to the Abyss, with only a few shots from the heroes to send them on their way. Everyone was just a little too overawed by what had taken place to do more. Even among superheroes, it was not every day one saw a dragon annihilate a god of dark magic.

* * *

A welcome run down of the large assemblage of superheroes that had converged upon this crisis as we return to January’s perspective.

After learning what we have of Silverlight in the last couple episodes, it was neat to ‘see’ her from January’s perspective as she greeted her mentor, Blood Raven.

You continue to more than do justice to what a dragon should be as Ddraig Aur destroys her foe and departs in spectacular fashion.

Nasty Nate has hopefully been isolated enough that Team Blood Raven will be able to finish him once and for all.

Little monsters trying to attack the mechanized robot! 🤖 They must not have very high IQ if they're merely attacking it because of the noises it makes. And then Gadget crashes into the darn thing!

Pretty wicked when they sizzle a bunch of baddies with natural forces from the sky.

Oh yeah, Hannah is here. Nothing we can do about that. Hey, at least she's trying to help. Her father is a greyhat, I guess. A bad guy, unless he needs to do good.

They've even got a dedicated cleric. My Skyrim gal Claire Voyance would like to join in.



Whoa. And I see Silverlight has been spotted.

Oh my gosh. What the ... so now the monsters are giving up! Yeah, Natth's gonna be furious.

Is this the end of the battle? Funny thing is, with everything that's going on, everyone who's joined in and lost their lives or gotten hurt, and so on, the one main thing which makes me nervous (IF this is the end of the battle) is that awkwardness between Jan and Hannah.

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Gary Gygax grew up in somewhere in Illinois, and I bet he had good knowledge of any mythologies of the Great Lakes area. I remember Wyrd grew up on the same lake where the Gygax family had a cabin, something like that.