Dark Skies for Darkseid

[Chloe Price]

I entered the portal going at top speed. I rocketed through the Apokalips Troopas, until one did a moonsault and landed on my head, slowing me down. "Hey!" I said, coming into a full stop. Vibe blasted it off my head with a vibration blast. "Thanks." I said to Vibe. I then performed a Speed Pulse on an Apokalips Troopa, followed by stomping one into its shell and kicking it like a soccer ball, making it ricochet off of two others before taking out a third and stopping. I then performed a right hook on one that was sneaking up on me. Vibe Vibration Blasted one, and I followed it up with a left jab, then a right leg sweep. The skies were turning black with ash from the volcanoes of the Ashen Steppes. I then did a left hook, then a right uppercut, then a left kick. This knocked one into another, taking them both down.

"There's too many of them, we can't possibly beat them all alone!" I told Vibe. "We probably have at least 1 more guy coming along, but I don't know for sure." Vibe responded, using a Vibration Blast on one. I gathered kinetic energy, dodging attacks, and performed a sturdy Speed Pulse maneuver on one of the four leaders, who was wearing black sunglasses. "That takes care of this guy." I said, stomping him into his shell and tossing it like a football. The thrown shell took down 3 more Troopas before landing and coming to a full stop. I performed a knee attack on a Troopa and knocked him into his shell with a hammer fist, then slammed him into the ground and cracked his shell

"I just got that polished..." the hypnotized turtle said before passing out. "Funny; I just polished the suit yesterday." Vibe commented.

[Tearen Wover]

Nealaphh emerged in the Ashen Steppes, the familiar heat washing over its blank features and channeling itself into its cold, energy absorbing body. The god-mind's first priority was to return to Darunia and notify the Goron chief that Nealaphh had reason to believe it knew where the Megaton Hammer was within the Omniverse. Granted, Nealaphh hadn't actually been able to obtain knowledge of how the Megaton Hammer was constructed, but the fact alone that the shadow had been able to go out and do this much would likely be enough for Darunia to feel inspired to maintain his end of the effort to slay Volvagia. The god-mind looked out over the vista of the Steppes; it was unfamiliar with this particular location, though being that it had only traversed a small fraction of the volcanic verse, this was hardly surprising. The good news was that Death Mountain was quite visible from here, so navigating its way back to the Goron village would be trivial.

Nealaphh set out into the harsh, blackened wastelands. This area seemed to have a lesser degree of volcanic activity than other places in the Steppes. This was interesting, insofar as the fact that it indicated that there was actually pattern of geologic progression to this isolated space, though how such forces were organized were currently beyond even Nealaphh's considerable ken. More than likely, The Smiling One simply arranged the lava flows and fissures as he saw fit. Truly, there was nothing natural about this Omniverse. After about an hour's walk, the god-mind climbed its way down a sheer rock face, only to be met with the sight of a truly monumental conflict.

In the valley below, there was a swarm of Soot Walkers, but there was something different about them. Their flesh was of a grey pallor, and their shells had been warped to be a deep, midnight purple. They seemed to move in unison, with perfectly synchronized steps. Amidst this grey amassing of Soot Walkers, there seemed to be a large amount of activity. Something down there was creating such great friction in the air that lightning bolts were ricocheting across the vast canyon floor. Nealaphh stared at the scene for a few minutes before beginning a slow approach towards the epicenter of activity. Information was required.

As the shadow approached the outer ranks of what Nealaphh now dubbed Soot Stalkers, they took notice of the god-mind with nearly mindless red eyes. The droned in unison:

"We are the Apokalips Troopas, and we serve The Entropy. Hail Darkseid!"

...and with that, a group of about ten Soot Stalkers charged at Nealaphh, grim determination on their sharpened mouths. The god-mind was outraged. No. There was only one true Entropy in this Omniverse. Nealaphh might be at only a fraction of its power, but that did not mean that it still could not claim sovereignty over its cosmic birthright. Whoever this Darkseid was...they would have to be dealt with before Darunia could be seen. Nealaphh summoned up its mental power, and its eyes flashed brightly, sending a mental pulse throughout the throng that was charging it. Being a dispersed telepathic attack, the mental blast only momentarily stunned the Soot Stalkers, but this was long enough for the god-mind to warp the flow of time, speeding its relative progression through the temporal fabric, so that it was able to leisurely walk behind the crowd of corrupted terrapins. Once they had come to, the Soot Walkers looked around for a moment, trying to locate their quarry. Suddenly, one of them spotted the god-mind a few dozen yards away. What was not noticed, however, was the rapidly contracting sphere of space that was located in the midst of their dark mass. A moment later, a deafening explosion sent blackened volcanic rock and Soot Stalkers flying in every direction. Some of them were immediately maimed beyond any further threat, and others were too shell-shocked so as to be able to retaliate towards the god-mind. One lone Soot Stalker staggered towards Nealaphh, dragging a twisted leg and reaching for the shadow's black cloak with desperate fury.

"Forrrr the Entropyyy!" it cried. Regrettable final words. The fated Soot Stalker's head twisted a full one-hundred and eighty degrees on its neck, and it he fell to the ground with a miserable gurgle. Nealaphh paused for a moment to admire its handiwork; clearly its power had grown since it had first entered the Omniverse. Unfortunately, Nealaphh's sense of hubris had grown as well, and in the time it had taken to dispatch ten of its darkling foes, thirty more had snuck up behind the god-mind. Nealaphh's eyes went wide as several Soot Stalkers launched themselves at the shadow, clinging to the ebon-skinned humanoid like oversized, gnawing limpets. Nealaphh let out telepathic screams of fury as it thrashed around, trying to telekinetically pluck the harrying horde off of its black form. A few of them were tossed irreverently several meters, but more were always willing to take their place. Luckily, Nealaphh's stone-like skin weathered the swarming assault well, but fending off the corrupted wave of tortoise-creatures was fatiguing. Desperate, Nealaphh summoned another warp bubble just behind of itself, and the resulting explosion hurled the god-mind up and over the beguiled crowd of Soot Stalkers like an onyx missile.

Obviously, Nealaphh landed right where it had been meaning to: in the middle of the fight that Barry and Vibe were taking part in. This should have gone unquestioned: forming an explosive force so as to launch a variable density mass towards a determined location with precision was more than child's play for Nealaphh. Still, this did not necessarily make the landing any easier, and Nealaphh smashed down into the black dust between Flash and Vibe, sliding a few feet before coming to a rest. The pair of speedsters glanced in curiosity at this newcomer: was it another foe to be tangled with. Nealaphh lay still for a few moments before hauling itself to its feet. With one great sweep, it fixed its hooded robe so as to be in pristine arrangement, before locking eyes with the one Nealaphh now dub be the Crimson Kinetic.

"Uhh, hey guy." Vibe said, absentmindedly backhanding a nearby Soot Stalker into submission. Nealaphh glanced in the sidekick's direction briefly before turning its attention back towards Barry.

You fight the one called Darkseid?

"You better believe it!" Flash shouted over the loud cracking sound that came from a hyper-speed kick to a Soot Walker's face. The god-mind was slightly surprised that this metahuman did not react in surprise to hearing a telepathic voice, but it was entirely possible that, in his universe, the Crimson Kinetic was used to this type of thing.

"So what does that make you?"

Nealaphh was about to answer when it spotted a trio of Soot Stalkers about to jump towards Flash. As they leapt upwards, Nealaphh's eyes flashed, and slowed down the local time within their group so that the three tortoises suddenly came to a near halt in the middle of the air. The Flash rose an eyebrow at the god-mind before turning around and spotting the three assailants. With a grin, Barry delivered a barrage of high speed punches to the slowed Soot Stalkers. When Nealaphh was no longer able to maintain the temporal distortion, the differing force between Flash's relativistically near light-speed punches and the time-locked turtles instantly vaporized the unlucky Soot Stalkers. This was enough of a display to give even the brain-washed Soot Stalkers a moment's pause.

In this struggle, count me as an ally. Nealaphh said, just a slight intonation of smugness in its mental voice.

[Harry Dresden]

The massive army of turtles had not been what Harry expected when he walked through the portal. He spotted a cloaked figure, someone with a bright red jumpsuit, and another person who, from the sound of it, had some sort of ability to affect sound waves and amplify them to painful levels. Harry was glad that last was keeping the blasts focused; he knew what kind of damage rapidly vibrating air could do. Part of his training had involved learning a healthy respect for the elements, even the ones he didn't use.

The wizard clasped his cloak over his duster with one hand, the pale grey fabric of his office billowing ominously behind him as he strode from the portal towards the man in red. Harry transferred his staff to his left hand and used his shield bracelet to call a disk of force into being on that hand, as the turtles were whipped into a frenzy by the presence of foreign entities that were opposed to their thrall-master. Namely, himself and the three who were already fighting. The turtles were mad; the ones at the Nexus might have had more logic, more freedom, but these were little more than Renfields; crazed killers, tormented by their own fractured psyche and loyal only to their master.

He didn't particularly enjoy fighting Renfields. The fact that they happened to be turtles did little to make it easier, but it was still necessary. He drew his revolver as the first Apokolips Troopa flung itself at him. The wizard raised his arm and caught it on his shield, then dropped the extension of his will keeping the disk of force maintained and shot it point-blank with a .45 Magnum revolver, with predictable and swift results. He took five more shots at nearby Troopas, two of which actually connected with something other than shell, before he dropped the gun back into his pocket and took off for the others at a run, using his staff to try and push aside the turtles that blocked his path. They seemed to retreat into their shells when you hit them on the head, and the shells were good for tripping up other turtles. He stopped when he reached the trio, turning and drawing his blasting rod. He swept the rune-carved wood through the air with a cry of "Fuego!" A gout of flame erupted from the end of the wizard's focus, charring a couple of his pursuers who had abandoned caution in favor of a chance at blood. "So, this is what that Darkseid is doing with his thralls? Please tell me you guys aren't with him, too. I just got through with a really irritating few days and I'm not sure how good a handle I have on my temper right now."

[Chloe Price]

"We're not; we're fighting Darkseid." I said as I faced Dredsen. "We came here on business; specifically, getting to Darkseid and stopping him from conquering the Omniverse." I then performed some speed punches on an Apokalips Troopa. "They call me the Flash..." I presented my speed, rocketing through five of the Troopas. "And that's Vibe..." I pointed towards Vibe with my thumb, who smiled, before continuing to blast the hypnotized minions of Darkseid. I then performed a few more attacks, a jab here, an uppercut there, all at super speed, trying to mow down the Troopas quickly.

More Apokalips Troopas came from the top of the mountain. "Great, the last 10 guys I took down are back." I said as I saw the group approaching. I then performed speed punches on two more Apokalips Troopas.

Vibe, meanwhile, was being harmed quite a bit. "Flash, a bit of help here...?" Vibe said, being pounded in the face by an Apokalips Troopa. In an instant, I turned to Vibe and charged through five guys at super speed, before helping him double-team the Troopas. Jabs hear, uppercuts there, a few kicks and sweeps on the side...I was performing every move I knew to take down the Troopas.

Eventually, I knocked one into its shell and kicked it. It bounced off of 6 other Troopas before it stopped. "This is a bit easy, really." I claimed. "Oh, really?" a...Different...Apokalips Troopa said. It was holding a hammer, and had a helmet the same color as its shell; black. "And you are...?" I asked. "An Apokalips Hammer Troopa." the anthropomorphic turtle said, spinning his hammer. "Alright then, if a fight's what you want, you got it." I responded.

He started throwing hammers, and I started dodging. He ended up causing collateral damage, hitting a few Troopas. I started zoning in, using a similar strategy to my strategies for Snart and the like. Eventually, when I got close, I had gathered kinetic energy, and...
BZZZZZAPT!
A shocking attack was landed on the Hammer Troopa, and the result was best described as turtle soup without the broth. A fried turtle was on the floor, dead.

Meanwhile, Vibe was really giving the other Apokalips Troopa some bad vibes, taking them down easy. He was obviously showing signs of fatigue. "Vibe, you okay?" I asked Vibe. "Yeah...I could...Use...A rest..." Vibe responded, panting. "There's a nice clear area over there with no Troopas." I said, pointing towards a rock with no Troopas. Vibe ran over there, to rest a bit.

[Tearen Wover]

Nealaphh did its best to suppress the endless horde of corrupted Soot Walkers, but they seemed to be in endless supply. Nealaphh took a moment to accelerate itself in the temporal fabric, to see if it could better assess the situation. As the world around the god-mind slowed to a crawl, Nealaphh took in the surrounding landscape. There area they were fighting in was large and flat, but a hundred meters away there was a large rock face with a wide crevice through which the Soot Stalkers were marching. If they could find a way to put a stop in that gap, it would certainly turn the tide of this battle in their favor...

Nealaphh took note of the wizard newcomer. The shadow had observed his skills as it had watched the events of Dante's Abyss, and the god-mind knew the man to be a capable caster. Nealaphh reached out to speak to Harry Dresden's mind, but the human wizard went wide eyed and Nealaphh was forcefully hurled out of the man's head. This shouldn't come as a surprise; the mental discipline required to cast arcane magic inherently denoted a stronger psychic resilience. Unfortunately, telepathy was Nealaphh's only real way of communicating directly with other people, so it had little choice but to try again. This time when Nealaphh tapped Harry's mind, the wizard whipped around, glowering at Nealaphh. He was no fool; out of all the primes assembled here, clearly Nealaphh had vast mental capabilities. It only stood to reason that this dark-cloaked enigma was the one trying to get in his head.

"Ohh no. No thanks. You stay well clear of my head, got it?" Dresden barked, brandishing his enchanted rod directly at Nealaphh. The god-mind squinted in frustration. It couldn't entirely blame the man but honestly, did he really think Nealaphh would be able to scour his brain in the middle of a gigantic melee? For lack of better recourse, Nealaphh gestured towards the gap in the hills where the Soot Stalkers were spilling through. It was the first time in its mortal life that Nealaphh had ever actually pointed at anything, so the movement was awkward, to say the least. Harry kept his blasting rod trained on the shadow, but his eyes flicked to the point where Nealaphh was motioning towards. A small group of Soot Stalkers began to rush at Dresden while he wasn't looking, and Nealaphh took the opportunity to heft up several nearby Soot Stalkers who had retreated into their shells and hurl them at Harry's assailants. The went whizzing past the wizards head and smashed into the charging turtles with the ear wrenching sound of bone cracking against bone.

Satisfied that the human understood Nealaphh's general idea, the god-mind turned its attention back towards the Flash. The Crimson Kinetic seemed to have a nearly endless reserve of energy with which to bludgeon the Soot Stalkers into submission. This confused Nealaphh, since it went against just about everything it knew regarding thermodynamics and other very rigid laws of physics. The god-mind was suddenly cracked in the side of the head as another Hammer Stalker sallied into the fray, its crimson eyes burning with sadistic glee. A blow to the head was serious trouble for a mentalist such as Nealaphh, but it managed to retain enough concentration to erect a barrier of warped space to deflect the next incoming barrage of construction tools. Clutching its head in pain, Nealaphh glared at the Hammer Stalker with only its two right eyes, which then flashed a bright white. The Hammer Stalker suddenly went into horrific convulsions, and after several moments of tortured screaming, the red light pouring from its eyes shifted into an acidic green color. With that, the mallet-laden tortoise turned to face his would-be comrades and began to haphazardly fling its weighty projectiles into the thronging horde. A spike of pain shot through Nealaphh's head as his previous injury became irritated, which, rather than causing the god-mind to lose control over the Hammer Stalker, caused the tortoise to go stiff as a board and flop to the ground as its mind was overrun with runaway thoughts that it couldn't possibly begin to comprehend.

This was no good. Nealaphh needed a minute to regain its mental composure, but in the midst of this brawl, it didn't seem as though it would have an opportunity to do so...

[Dr. McNinja]

Dr. McNinja came to, bound in chains. He was being painfully dragged by a very short figure in black, who seemed to take no care if there were bumps or cracks in the ground. His sleeves were still ripped off from his fight in the Green, so he was getting cuts all over his arms.

"What the hell?" he mumbled.

Startled, the figure cried out, "He's awake!"

Suddenly, other figures rushed in, holding spears of some sort. Doc focused in as best he could. They were the fracking turtles again.

"Seriously? More Koopas?" Dr. McNinja whined, "You already blew up in my face, LITERALLY, and now you wanna tussle again?"

“Heh, you ain’t tussling any time soon. You’re all tied up, can’t you tell?” the Koopa snickered.

“Okay, I admit, you may be right,” Dr. McNinja grumbled, wincing as a sharp pebble bumped into his shoulder, “But you forgot one very important thing.”

The turtle did not react. Dr. McNinja stood up, stretched his legs, kicked the chains away somewhere, and removed his katana from the Apokalips Troopa’s abdomen. The others were already bleeding out in the quivering heat. Doc stretched his arms, and adjusted the sleeves on the brand-new lab coat that came out of nowhere. He fixed his tie and sheathed his blade.

“I’m a ninja.”

The turtles all collapsed on the ground at once and Doc sighed.

“Now, why are you so familiar?”

Doc frowned and racked his brain for solutions. Finally, standing in the gore, he smiled like a delighted 8-year-old and exclaimed, “Oh yeah! At the Nexus! You work for…”

A dark realization dawned on his face and his eyes narrowed menacingly.

“You work for Darkseid. He’s nearby, isn’t he?”

The turtles did not respond. They were dead.

“Well, fine,” Doc groaned, “Be difficult, then. I’ll just find them on my own.”

Suddenly, panting, Jak ran up to him.

“Jak!” Doc exclaimed, “Good to see ya, buddy. Thanks for trying to catch up, but I got it under control.”

“But… how did you get out?”

“Ninja tricks. Also, lessons from Houdini.”

Jak frowned.

“The real one, I mean. In Dracula’s Moon Base.”

“What is he saying,” Jak thought.

“You know what? You probably have no idea what I’m talking about,” Doc sighed, “Let me brief you. These turtles used to work for an evil dude named Darkseid. Not… entirely sure what he’s up to right now, and I have no idea where he is. Or where I am, for that matter.”

“You’re in… the Ashen Steppes.”

Doc sighed. “Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? Alright, wanna help me hunt this son of a weasel down?”

Daxter appeared from behind Jak and pointed his finger at Doc. “Hey! I take offense to that!”

“Oh, good,” Doc droned, “You brought the chipmunk.”

“I am an OTTSEL, you nurse.”

Dr. McNinja flung his arms into the air, exasperated. “What did we say about calling me a nurse?”

Jak blinked. “How… did you get your… coat back?”

Doc winked and responded, “Ninja tricks. Now, you gonna help me take Darkseid down, or not?”

“He is,” a gruff voice interrupted, and the sniper from earlier clasped Jak’s shoulder. “And so are we.”

“Hey, wait a minute, Torn, ‘we’? I don’t remember signing up for this,” Daxter’s voice wavered as he whined.

“Quiet, ottsel,” Torn replied.

Daxter scoffed and crossed his dejected arms. Doc grinned wide.

“I like this guy,” McNinja thought.

[Harry Dresden]

Harry didn't particularly like the cloaked figure. Attempting telepathic magic on someone you just met, then going on to use it on other things when that didn't work out, didn't exactly make the best impression. "Stars and stones, it's like nobody's even heard of the Laws of Magic anymore. Forzare!" The last word was directed at the turtles; Harry created a sphere of energy, a task he found paradoxically easier here than forcibly shoving someone with raw spell power. Using the staff in his left hand to direct it, he set about slamming turtles into other turtles and knocking the smooth shells all over the place. [b]"Flash, huh? How're you doing that without snapping your own bones in half? Moving like that, I mean. That's a lot of detail work there. Not to mention getting electricity to behave for you."

Enhancing one's own physical capabilities was a risky proposition; you had to get every single detail exactly right, or the repercussions would be severe; enhancing muscle strength without bone strength, for instance, would snap the bones. Adding bone reinforcement to the spell increased its energy consumption, and the added weight played havoc with motor control. Everything you changed would affect something else, and, so far as Harry knew, nobody was specialized enough to attempt something as complex as super speed with magic. That, and if he were specialized enough to do it, how would he generate and control electricity like that? Thoughts like that ran through the wizard's head as made sure that Flash and Vibe were behind him. Having friendly space behind meant that he could focus on slinging turtles around.

As Vibe retreated to a rock they'd cleared out of the sea of Koopas, Harry yelled a question to Flash over the din of the fight. "So, don't suppose you know where Darkseid is?" Another downward swipe of his staff, another turtle retreating into its black shell. He swung the focus like a tennis racket and batted the thing off into its fellows. "This is the closest I've gotten. I don't much care for mind control magic. Might need to teach him something."

[Tearen Wover]

The god-mind was growing impatient with the situation. It seemed that trying to win this battle through attrition was far from efficient. All the effort they had expended thus far was simply wasted on the sheer numbers of enemies that they had to fight their way through, and there was no end in sight for the quartet of heroes. Nealaphh looked again to the gap in the crevasse where the Soot Stalkers were marching through. That had to be their only salvation from the current endless tide. The gap was distant, though, and about seventy Soot Stalkers stood between the shadow and its goal. With Harry Dresden preoccupied with the defense of his mind, and the other two anomalies losing their stamina, the situation appeared to be at a point of stagnation. The god-mind, however, was more than adept at creative problem solving, and as such, found a way to communicate with the only other person present who could possibly cause a volcanic rockslide. Reaching out to Vibe's mind, Nealaphh spoke to the sidekick with soft mental words as the man took his rest on the out cropping. The dark haired man glanced at the shadow before calling out to the wizard.

"Yo! Wizard dude! This guy Nealaphh wants you to know that if you can somehow focus explosive power on the top right corner of that gap in the rocks, and I sent a shockwave out there, he can amplify it by a magnitude large enough to plug up that hole." Vibe shouted, pointing to the same place that Nealaphh had gestured to a few minutes ago. In the meantime, Nealaphh contented itself with picking up the shells of defeated Soot Stalkers and flinging them through the crowding masses, as it seemed to be the most effective method of dispatching the terrapins. Nealaphh's head still ached, and when it touched the left side of its head where the hammer had struck, it could feel a large webbing of cracks and fissures spidering their way through its stoney skin and body. Still, there was a job to be done, and Nealaphh had to think of a way that it could keep the four of them out of harms way while they focused their efforts on collapsing the rock face.

Time manipulation was Nealaphh's latest trick that it had been able to regain, and as such, using the technique in any fashion was taxing on the god-mind. Optimistically, however, if its plan worked, there would be sufficient time to recover any expended energy from the abundant heat that coursed all through the Ashen Steppes. Nealaphh focused its mind on The Flash, and did its best to stretch the fabric of time outwards from the Crimson Kinetic. As it did so, Barry would find himself moving at relativistic speeds almost three times as fast as he could usually go. The time dilation would last for only a few moments, however, so the other three would have to act quickly. As The Flash circled their small group as a red blur, bashing Soot Stalkers faster than the eye could follow, the god-mind turned its attention to the rocky outcrop. Vibe perked up again as more instructions were relayed to him.

"Alright, this is where we have to make it happen! On three, toss the most badass power you got at that spot right there." Vibe shouted over the loud whirring sound that now accompanied the Flash wherever he went. Whether or not Dresden would be able to assist in this task was entirely his prerogative, but Nealaphh was counting on his power to carry out this plan.

"One...two..." Vibe said, his hands beginning to vibrate with a build up of pressure...

"THREE!" he shouted, unleashing a screaming blast of pressure waves towards the rock face. Nealaphh whipped around and began to contract the space around the point of impact, and as Vibe's energy reached its target, it got compressed into a nearly microscopic point of energy by being sucked in to the spatial distortion. Nealaphh did its best to hold the spatial tension, but it could not suspend the detonation indefinitely...

[Jak Mar]

Of course this was the time where Jak, Daxter and Torn made their way into the fray with Doc Mcninja. The meer heat moving around the Ashen Steppes made everybody in the group sweat more than usual.

Jak was the first one to grab Daxter by the hands and pull him up on his shoulder "Jak?! I don't like the look of those... dark soot Sayers.

Daxter looked at Flash, Harry, Vibe, the strange guy Nealaphh, that looked oddly familiar to Jak from Dante's Abyss and Doc Mcninja. The 4 heroes had turned into 8 heroes.

Daxter started to complain "Ahhh! Jak I'm HOT! I didn't sign up to have a hot tub bath in lava anyways..."

The Commander held his dagger and started to stab the dark soot Sayers as they started to move toward Jak and the group

Mcninja eyed the group, using his ninja speed to rush and kill as many soot Sayers as they possibly could.

Jak started to pull out his red gun and began to charge it near the ground. The red eco blast began to grow bigger and bigger until Jak let it go, the red eco turning into a ground blast taking out a group of soot Sayers.

Daxter said "Sorry we are late to the party.. "

Torn didn't even bother to growl at Daxter, leaving the ottsel confused. "Come on Torn, come on Jak." Daxter screamed.

[Harry Dresden]

The strange entity seemed helpful enough; it appeared to be requesting that Vibe speak rather than forcing it to. "The name's Harry, by the way. No 'wizard named Harry' jokes, they aren't funny." The distortion that the telepath seemed to be responsible for was a fairly easy target, especially now that Harry had his blasting rod to fall back on. The wizard took a deep breath and stepped forward, making sure that all of his allies were behind him, and pointed the now-glowing rod at the point where space seemed to bend slightly. Fuego! Pyrofuego! The first spell, a short burst of flame, became the catalyst for a much larger conflagration, which Harry shaped with his magic and the creature, Nealaphh, siphoned into the rocks. Harry wasn't certain what the results of this spell were going to be, but one thing was certain.

It was going to be damn impressive.

2/4 SP Remaining

[Tearen Wover]

Nealaphh watched as the vibration pulse and immense blast of fire cruised over the group's head to where Nealaphh was focusing its attention. The god-mind called upon all of its mental abilities, and began accelerating its own movement through time to dangerous relativistic speeds. Nealaphh watched as the world around it slowed, and looked towards the cliff face where Harry's blast of fire was now mixing with the compressed pressure waves and folded space. In this slowed time-state, Nealaphh was able to put much more thought into the spacial compression it was creating. The three combined forces shrunk into a minute, brilliantly white speck. Nealaphh maintained the held pressure as long as it could before the shadow could no longer maintain it's time warp. Nealaphh's body visibly relaxed as it came out of the time-warp, and the entire scene was illuminated brightly for a moment as the explosion was released.

The effect was immense; even larger than Nealaphh had calculated. Hundreds of ton of volcanic stone exploded out from the compression zone in a violent burst of sound and fire. Even from where the group stood, fragments of black rock pelted them. This, however, was a pittance in comparison to the unfortunate Soot Stalkers that had been lingering too closely to the rock face. The force of a mountain collapsed on the hapless turtles, and the new fracture brought with it a spewing gout of lava which quickly dispatched any stragglers. More importantly, between the new lava flow and the massive pile of immovable rock, there was no way the current wave of Soot Stalkers was getting any reinforcements. Satisfied, Nealaphh saw to assisting in wiping out the few stragglers who remained.

Relativity Shift used for 1 round.

1/2 SP Remaining.

[Jak Mar]

As the rock began to fall near the group, Jak covered Daxter and Torn covered himself. Jak prepared himself for what would happen next. Jak wiped the dirt off his tunic and made sure his friends were alright in the process. So far so good at least. He prepared for this Darkseid. Whatever he looked like in the first place. There was a sound of loading of a gun and then the gun was aimed at the ground.

The people around him were on the same side so he should hold off on dark jak for a while until Darkseid showed his face to the world.

[Tearen Wover]

Nealaphh waited with the rest of the group as the dust from the pitched battle subsided. Once the final Soot Stalker had been eliminated, the god-mind expected some new threat to emerge.

It did not. It seemed as though collapsing that canyon had been enough to halt this would be incursion, at least to the point that addressing it could be put on hold. If this was the best this 'Darkseid' had to offer, then perhaps he was not as much of a priority as Nealaphh had anticipated. Content that its job here was finished, the shadow nodded to its battle companions and silently strode off towards Death Mountain...

Dunno about ya'll, but I'm over this. Hope to run in to summa you cats later.

[Jak Mar]

Jak waited... and waited and waited for something to happen...

Daxter looked at Jak and then the others who were left, they were the only ones left as the crowd started to dwindle Daxter blinked and crossed his arms "Hey Jak... There's nobody left here except us... Let's get out of here...

Torn eyed the ottsel and nodded "Hate to say it, The Ottsel's right, I'd say we get out of this hellhole."

Daxter nodded "Come'n Jak, lead the way out... before we sweat to death here... geez you'd think we'd get reinbursed for the time we wasted here.."

With that Jak, Daxter and Torn made their way to Camelot.

[Harry Dresden]

Harry watched the shadowy being as it walked away, torn between wanting to use the Sight and fearing what he might See. The area was almost eerily quiet after the rockslide blocked off the turtles' reinforcements, and Harry couldn't say he was sad to see it, even if Darkseid was nowhere to be seen after all that effort. Harry glanced back in the direction of the gate before shrugging and turning away, marching towards a settlement in the distance instead.

Might as well figure out what was in this place besides mind-magic using warlocks and crazy Renfield turtles.