ic Emerald City Team-up: Burning down the House

[Tiffany Korta]

Lakeside, Emerald City
9:10 pm, 4th July 2018

The air glowed red towards Mount Stanley but not the glorious sunset that was happening over the sparkling Pacific rather Lakeside was burning. At the edge of the area, a rather eccentric mansion was blazing merrily, with everyone out it would be no danger to anyone rather a loss of property if not for the chance of the Elysian forest also catching.

 

Already at another fire in the area, a strange coincidence in itself, someone would be able to respond soon enough, but it could be too late for the more valuable forest that surrounded the area.

[Ari]

"Graaaaaaugk!"

 

In a shower of wood, glass and plaster, a human-like creature made of some quasi-translucent substance crashed through the mansion's stately front doors. Landing in a roll, they leaped ungainly to their heavy feet and stared up at the flames. 

 

"I already said nobody was in there!" screamed someone from what Maggy assumed was some kind of servant class? They all wore the same kind of clothes and lived in an adjoining, much more modest structure. Whoever they were they didn't seem to understand that the rocky woman had gone in to look for the arsonist. 

 

It had made perfect sense at the time, Maggy reflected as she stumped away towards the new blaze, humans couldn't live for long in flames, and setting an empty house on fire could only have meant that someone like her must have been using the fire as cover for a robbery. In her defence, Silver City Sentinels had made a pretty solid case for this kind of interpretation. And it wasn't like whoever lived there couldn't afford a new door, or stairs, or helicopter.

 

Gurgling in irritation at the wasted time, Mag-Might raced through the gloom of Elysian Forest. Even with her inner fire, the green-black magmin passed like a cumbersome, brush-obliterating shadow under the trees, pounding closer to the new fire. If this was some kind of fire spirit,  she could just eat it. If it was just a fire, she could eat that too.

 

She had to admit, it was a relief Mo wasn't there to come up with any other ideas. Some things didn't need complication.

[Tiffany Korta]

 

Emerald Spider

Peri was looking forward to some time off a quick meal with her family before enjoying the cities fireworks, unlucky for her route home took her passed the Lakeside, not that you could miss the glow on the horizon. Just for a second she almost considered not going to help, though she was aware enough to know she wasn't going to ignore it.

 

Landing softly beside the Fire Fighter, causing her to jump, relaxing a little when she saw it was Emerald Spider.

 

"What the sitch?"

[Tiffany Korta]

GM Post
After only a few moments of wandering around the house, it was pretty obvious that someone had removed most of the valuables, it was fairly obvious was that someone was trying to hide robberies. 

 

The burning was fairly controlled, designed to hide the evidence of the theft apparently, and the burning in the forest wasn't that bad, and from the flaming trails through the forest, you could see a second mansion burning away, and a third building that looked like it was just starting to catch...

[Ari]

Grating the plates of her jaws together in frustration Mag-Might leaned against a burning balcony and tried to figure what all this was leading up to, hersized glassy face screwing up in concentration. A whole bunch of homes sparking to life, someone taking things out of them(apparently? It kind of looked that way, the manses looked like someone had been rifling through them, from what she could recall Mo talking about crime scenes from work), with no apparent main target. Were they just going to burn down all of the wood houses? 

 

That aside, it was hard to be in a burning building and not feel hungry. Surely they wouldn't mind, if it stopped the houses being destroyed.

 

Leaping from her perch to the driveway, Mag-Might turned to face the house, the coils of orange-red flames beginning to spill out of the upper windows.

 

Her jaws unhinged to reveal the furnace of incandescent blue-green fire that gave all magmin life. Her eyes shone, and the flames in the house answered her unspoken call. Like some slithering thing from the black seas of Sub-Terra, the fire dragged itself out of the house, curling into a stream that flowed into Mag-Might's mouth and spreading channels of light and heat through her semi-translucent body and limbs.

 

A final tongue of blue fire licked against her lips, and with that Maggy turned and barreled for the newest fire. 

 

Maybe the criminal is still there! Or, at least, some sign of them. The fire clears their tracks, but they must leave something...

[Tiffany Korta]

 

Emerald Spider

Peri took a quick look inside to see if there was anyone who needed rescuing, but luckily no one was home on a night like tonight. She couldn't help but feel that this was deliberate, which was in some way was a good thing, it meant that they weren't the killing kind of villain who were the worst type to fight.

 

"Let's hope this applies to arachnid-themed heroes as well!" she mused to herself as she quickly checked that the Fire trucks had the situation in hand.

 

Then she made her way towards the last burning house, if she was lucky then they were still there and she could stop this firebug from creating any more work for them all.

[Tiffany Korta]

GM Post
Approaching the final house it was quickly pretty obvious as to who had caused all these problems. Approaching from the large pool Mag-Might could see a human figure through the large doors into the building.

She and it was very obviously a woman was clad in a costume that would have looked more at home at a fetish club, an encasing red and black leather from head to toe. Not only did the flames lick around her under her complete control even forming what looked like hair from the top of her head.

[Ari]

There they were! And they were hiding their appearance, not even the normal way with masks, totally covered. Maybe a kindred spirit? 

 

Only one way to find out.

 

Breaking into a sprint, Mag-Might jumped, just a little...and a launchpad of rocky crystal sent her hurtling in through the window! As she flew towards the shrouded one, she let out a mighty roar of "Mrgh'crgaaaaak!"

 

Spreading her arms wide, Mag-Might swept them around the creature in what was intended to be a tight but friendly sort of bear hug. 

[Tiffany Korta]

GM Post

As Mag-Might got closer to the villains he could feel waves of heat coming off of the body, like the place itself it seemed she was burning up! She didn't rely on that alone however and at the last moment, she tried to move away from the Sub-Terran, a last-minute move that almost but not quite succeeded in dodging the embrace.

 

"This is only a temporary setback, I suggest you let me go before the trouble really starts." there was a real burning anger in her voice, that somehow sounded so young.

 

As she spoke flames began to lick around her body, rapidly gaining in intensity.

[Ari]

Keeping her grip by the simple expedient of locking her hands together, Mag-Might flexed her crystalline muscles and braced herself as the towering creature's flames roared around her . They weren't like the fires that powered her magical shell, or even like the blaze that drove her lower-strata cousins down in the mantle. These fires were angry.

 

Well, that made sense. What place did one of the Burning Children have on the cold, barren surface staring out into the endless void? Sometimes, when she was alone in the buzzing city, Maggy surrendered to the urge to crawl,  driven by the unreasoning fear she'd fly off into the empty blue. Maybe she'd found a kindred spirit at last.

 

"Grr'klk," she began in a gentle, even tone, "lurrhlgraaaughlkuh'k." She doubted this strange entity knew what she was talking about, but she hoped the spirit came through. "Gulkraghklkullkarghaugh. Uhaughlk Magh'kee klughl."

 

It was a little personal, of course, but it might help break the ice a little. Regardless, she held on. Not to hurt, but to make sure the torcher wasn't going anywhere. She winced audibly as the flames spiked, a thin crack growing down her side as a flaw in her crystal surrendered under the strain.

[Tiffany Korta]

 

GM Post

It wasn't just the body of the of leather-clad villain that was hot it was apparently her temper as well!

 

"No one touches me Sister Blister! If you don't unhand me right now things will get much worse for you!" the anger was palpable as she spoke

 

As she spoke her body began to heat up even more and the flames from the back of her head, that appeared like hair, begun to become longer and even bigger in intensity. It looked like she was about to blow up like the flames that were still licking around the building.

[Tiffany Korta]

 

Emerald Spider

Peeking into the last burning house Peri could see that a fight was already underway. She had a few minutes to decide which side to support right now, and to her mind, the woman in the leather had the inside track on being the bad guy. The burning hair was a big clue as well.

 

"Is this a private dungeon or can anyone join in?"

 

Swinging across the room she made a series of gestures with her hands, causing the air around Sister Blisters to face to thicken into a web-like series of interlocking quantum strands.

[Tiffany Korta]

GM Post
With her face covered it wasn't possible to tell exactly how made she was, except that the quantum web didn't muffle the sound as she screamed in frustration. As she did the temperature built around her body as flames began to flicker across her body, her ponytail flaring up larger and brighter.

As she finished her scream the flames burst out of her body filling the area with a curtain of fire. Due to the strange quantum effect of the web like substance that covered her face however she was still blind, though no less deadly.

[Ari]

Mag-Might let loose a bellow of surprise and pain as the stranger burst in, wielding some of the surface world's magic to twist reality itself. Unfortunately, she was so in awe that it didn't quite register in time that the torcher she was hanging onto was fit to go volcanic. Letting loose a couple seconds too late, the magmin raised a groaning howl as cracks splintered the glassy shell of her body, the heat shockwave flinging her away through one of the walls where she lay in a green heap. 

 

Despite that, she retained enough presence of mind to marvel over what she had just seen. Surely this is one of outer space's great sorcerers. Not since the Elder Days, before the Fall, have there ever been wonder-workers such as this. She can bend the air itself into a prison, what other powers might she possess? Maybe....maybe she will even know where I can find the Claw!

 

It wasn't everything, but lying partially-shattered and unable to move as her inner fire sputtered and dimmed the prospect of a lead, any lead, was a profoundly attractive idea. Maggy would have reached for a lot of far more slender fronds than this, anyway, it wasn't like she could afford to be choosy where her help came from. 

[Tiffany Korta]

 

Emerald Spider

"Hi, there I'm your friendly not quite neighbourhood Emerald Spider here to help. If you could extinguish all fires and make your ways to the exits then we'll all be peachy."

 

Stuck at the corner of the room, well away from the flames Emerald Spider made a series of hand gestures that sent another stream of quantum filaments that she hoped to wrap around Sister Blisters feet. Even blinded the flame using villains must have sensed something was up as she managed to dodge the strands.

 

"Well, that could have gone better!"

[Ari]

Shaking her crystalline head furiously, the Magmin let loose a roar as she bounded up to the coldworlder.

 

Flinching at the flames lashing out at her, Mag-Might rallied and gaped her stony jaws, the red fires pouring into her to mingle with the green jets powering her silicate form. The cold sister was powerful, however, much stronger than unliving, mindless flames, and Maggy could feel her grasp slipping. 

 

With a deep breath the green inner lights surged with power, flaring in her eyes and coursing from her jaws as she struggled to tear the light clean out of the towering coldworlder!

 

"Ghrghk'akaughk!" she snarled furiously. How, was a mystery,

[Tiffany Korta]

GM Post
The angrier Sister Blister seemed to get the bright and more intense her flames seemed to burn, and apparently being blinded only seemed to make her angrier. So whilst her flames seemed to flicker slightly at Mag's attack they quickly seemed to burn even more fiercely than before.

Her attention at the moment seemed to be focused on the famous Emerald Spider, the one who apparently blinded her and even more helpfully kept blathering on. Though it wasn't enough for her to effectively hit the spider-themed hero, instead adding to the burning building.

[Tiffany Korta]

 

Emerald Spider

"Yowch things are getting hot!" Peri couldn't help with the quip, which was probably why Sister Blister attacked her in the first place "Or is that a sore spot for you?"

 

As she quipped her engineer mind looked for a potential solution to fighting the villain, she could probably avoid the fire starter all night, but her ally and the house probably couldn't. Moving again against a fireball she spotted out of the window the house's pool, with water the one thing that always helped against fire!

 

"You know you should surrender now before we stop you-you know. We don't want to rain on your parade and make it a wash out!"

 

Out of sight of the villain Emerald Spider gestured towards the pool behind them all, hoping her quiet ally was pick up on her clue and use it to there advantage.

[Ari]

Throwing up her slab-like hands in frustration, Mag-Mite unleashed an ear-rending cry of clashing and grinding minerals, launching herself at Sister Blister in a blur of whirling arms and legs!

 

Only to fall spectacularly short, arms and legs still pinwheeling. Before the eyes of the two, as if she were swimming in some particularly stiff jello, Mag-Mite began to tear up the floor in a circle around the incendiary. As her voice cracked and growled with words neither of the humans understood, and which neither of them would have found very appreciable if they had, the rug, wood and plaster and insulation exploded under her whaling fists and feet smashing everything in its path to smithereens.

 

"Krgh'lkree!" she bellowed, bringing her face down with shattering force, completing the circular path detaching the floor Sister Blister was standing on from anything else!

[Tiffany Korta]

 

GM Post

With only a few seconds to react Sister Blister snapped her arm down to her waist and began to project fire from her hands, the stream of fire managed to keep her just up above the gaping hole that had been formed.

“Well you definitely lowered the property values around here!” she laughed and looked around at the tumbling forming burning building.

 

Slowly she began to project more fire as she began to climb up into the air, apparently deciding that discretion was the better part of valor.

[Tiffany Korta]

 

Emerald Spider

Peri couldn’t help but agrees as she looked around, still, at least no one would get hurt tonight and that was the important thing. But for the life of her, she wasn’t going to let this villain get away from them.

 

“But we’re having a cookout we’ve already dug a pit and everything!”

 

With a complicated series of hand motions, she sent a twisting rope of superstring that attached itself to Sister Blisters feet, which she then attached to the grounding holding the fleeing villain to the ground

 

“You should stay a while!”