The Bear Necessities (IC)

[GranspearZX]

GM

The woman looked reluctant. A crack of thunder from the overcast skies above quickly changed her mind. First the two teenagers hopped in, and then the woman shortly after. During the whole ordeal, Marcus was moving from car to car, displaying a significant amount of strength and agility as he freed as many passengers as he could, working his way towards the lightning-throwing criminal.

In the meantime, the figure wasn't so much running away as it was... drifting. It got to an intersection... and then it stopped. By then, traffic had been cut off and there were no more civilians that could be seen in the area.

[Curious Key]

Kat was practically bouncing from toe to toe as the family crawled back through her portal. So far, all her heroing had been done dry and in the proper atmosphere. It was hard to feel heroic when she felt wet and cold all over—and while the uniform Claremont made for her was better at holding heat than than anything this snug she'd ever worn, it still wasn't actually good at holding heat. Kat blinked the rain out of her eyes and leaned over the car, watching the lightning vandal float right down the street. Would the lightning hurt more since she was wet?

Kat breathed. She bit down on the side of her lip. Once the last passenger slipped through the portal Kat let it drop and flashed forward, right in front of the floating . . . whatever it was, her arms crossed and one foot tapping against the asphalt. "Nice weather, innit?" She'd been going for dramatic, but you can only be so dramatic when you look like a drowned rat. "You could've picked a nicer day, at least," Kat said, kicking at the puddle she was standing in. "If you're going to rattle every building on the block might as well do out in the sun. Stay dry."

[GranspearZX]

Marcus seemed the least bothered by the pouring rain, and as he got closer, his expression seemed a lot more curious. He squinted at the glowing, lightning-clad figure and turned around, waiting for Warp to catch up. "You wanted to know what magic was... there you go. That's not even a person... it's an elemental."

He'd only read about them. Marcus had never actually seen one, and he never thought he would; for one to end up here, it would have had to been summoned. In this storm, however--a pretty ideal condition for summoning one--a summoner could have literally been anywhere. He didn't have time to look or be curious. For a moment, he even seemed reluctant to confront it, even with its back turned, until one of its lightning bolts struck the base of a street lamp, toppling it over onto an unoccupied car.

"...well, that answers that. Destroying it should send it back wherever it came from. ...maybe."

[GranspearZX]

GM

The elemental turned slowly. It was only vaguely humanoid; a glowing, partially transparent yellowish form with even brighter white eyes. Electricity crackled off its entire being, and once it noticed Warp and Arcturus, it seemed to focus its efforts on the two of them. It gestured, and a streak of lightning burst from its hand, aimed right for the teleporter. The shot missed its mark, however, striking the street behind them with enough force to up-end one of the cars they had passed.

[Curious Key]

"An elemental?" Kat put both hands on her hips and frowned up at the thing. "Is it. . . Woah."

Warp knew to expect Bad Things when the elemental pointed it hand at her, and she moved, dancing out of the way as lightning flared past her, the sweet smell of ozone in her nostrils as a little of the backwash rushed through her, making her hairs stand on end. If touching that thing was anything like being fired at by it, Kat figured just up and hitting it would be a bad idea. Cross punching off the list of things she was super eager to do.

There were other ways to take something nasty down, though. Warp willed red-black entropic energy to gather in her right hand, flaring and flickering. "Is it natural? I never saw any back home." She released her sample of the end-of-the world in a zig-zagging bolt of black energy that speared straight through the elemental's chest.

[GranspearZX]

"Well unless your home is an elemental plane... Endless sky and clouds. Or so I hear."

He was in no position to judge anything, but seeing Kat's powers at work did in fact make him take notice. If it wasn't magic then... what? Kat's bolt struck with resounding force and the elemental shuddered like nothing he'd ever seen before--odd, considering he'd never seen an elemental to begin with. He wasn't sure how to react to that... so he didn't.

Storing that question in the back of his mind for later, Marcus slammed his right fist into his left palm, a light blue runic symbol appearing both on the back of his hands and at the rain-soaked asphalt at his feet. "Effortless water, break thy silence!"

For a brief second, the rain around Marcus stopped, frozen in mid-air--literally. They all turned in the elemental's direction... and then they dropped out of the air harmlessly. "...you've GOT to be kidding."

[Curious Key]

Warp stared in awe as Arcturus froze the water in the air above her head . . . and then it fell uselessly to the ground. Kat glanced sideways at Marcus and snickered. She opened her mouth to say something when the elemental let another bolt flashing past.

She snarled at the elemental, entropic energy flaring around her other arm; Kat raised it toward the elemental and shot a black lance that pierced it straight through before it could move.

[GranspearZX]

GM

The elemental seemed more active now that the two assaulting it were perceived as a very real threat. It seemed to resist the negative effect of the energy that passed through it, and it fired a bolt of electrical energy back at the pair--specifically Arcturus, who seemed to be having problems of his own. The lightning bolt struck a street lamp on the corner, sending it crashing to the ground. Somehow, the rain slightly letting up into a steady drizzle was barely noticed,

[GranspearZX]

"That's NOT funny!"

To say that Arcturus was embarrassed was an understatement. It nearly got him blasted; he ducked and rolled out of the way, the irritation worn on his entire being at this point. Someone had summoned this thing and set it loose in the city, and now he was getting laughed at by someone he'd just met. As mentally exhausting as it was, he straightened up and tried again. This time, however, the magic he attempted to wield seemed more cooperative.

The ground at Arcturus's feet froze as the water in the air formed a dozen or so shards of ice, shooting through the air with an ominous whistle. The ice magic ripped through the elemental and sent it writing backward, clearly damaged and slightly shrinking its form from the bled-off energy.

[Curious Key]

"That's what was supposed to happen?" Warp was laughing, her tune having changed the moment the lightning-man was thrown back. She held her hands out in front of her as entropic darkness danced across her fingers. Darkness expanded between her hands and hit the elemental straight through . . . she would have said the stomach if it'd been a person. She was a little fuzzy on subjects of elemental anatomy, but she figured that that sort of thing was supposed to hurt.

[GranspearZX]

GM

Another bolt ripped through the elemental, and its form buzzed with active, rapidly dispersing electricity. "NOOOOOOO~!" The sound rang out through the intersection as the lightning elemental exploded into several hundred motes of light, vanishing into the air as if it weren't there at all. The scream, however, didn't come from the creature--rather, it emanated from a rooftop near one of the buildings adjacent tot he nearby street. A short figure in a green hood could be seen quickly turning away from the scene, trying to disappear amidst the heavy rain.

[GranspearZX]

With the elemental gone, Arcturus's first instinct was to focus on the destruction it had caused. He'd nearly forgotten his theory on its summoner until a disappointed yell broke through the pouring rain. He looked up and spotted the figure atop a two-story building, and he immediately reacted. "Hey! Stop!!"

For the moment, he forgot Warp was laughing at his magical mishap. Instead, he started running. Magical energy welled inside the Beast Rune on the back of his shoulder and he leaped into the air, managing to catch the edge of the building without slipping and pulling his way up, pretty certain that Warp would have no trouble following to continue the pursuit.

[Curious Key]

Kat pumped a hand in the air and whooped as the elemental fell apart in front of them. She was dreaming of dry air and internal heating when she heard some stranger crying out in dismay–which was gonna either be the bad guy or someone screwed up enough that they were probably gonna find a motley and turn to wacky crime soon enough anyway. Kat looked up and saw a hood vanish over the rooftops, and she smiled.

She started running before she ported up, vanished in a red flash an emerging again six feet above the rooftops. Kat hit the ground running hard, trying to get a better glimpse of their little summoner before he ran off somewhere else and decided to pull a water elemental out of the sewer or something.

[GranspearZX]

GM

The figure whirled around and scowled at the pair, staff held at the ready. "You RUINED my experiment!"

He was barely over five feet tall, his face obscured by the hood of the green cloak he was wearing and the odd-looking goggles he was wearing. He didn't seem to be much older than Warp; he stick his tongue out and swung at the air behind him, the crystal-tipped staff seeming to tear a hole in space itself. "Jerks!" Without a moment of hesitation, he jumped through the ragged-looking portal that snapped shut moments after he was gone.

[Curious Key]

Kat smirked, "Well, I . . . Hey!" The mage cut the air open in a way Kat found distressingly familiar, something tumbling from his hands as he stepped through. She made the leap to close the distance, appearing right next to the mage—or where he would have been, she supposed. Kat groped toward him as he vanished into his magic staff portal and hissed, kicking at the ground—and splashing water up over her boots to soak her feet a little more in cold wetness. she was the teleporter here! Vanishing to kingdom come without a trace was her schtick!

Memory tickled her thought. Something tumbling. Kat frowned and knelt on the rooftop, starring down at a little yellow cube of something. She balanced it on her palm and waved Marcus over. "Looks like he dropped a trinket." She stood up and held it out toward Arcturus. "It took a return address? 'If lost, please return to Four Privet Drive' or somethin'?"

[GranspearZX]

Marcus exhaled deeply, relaxing a bit as the figure escaped. He wasn't quite quick enough to prevent the teleport, but he could smell its after effects as he approached the spot, distracted by the smell and oblivious to what had been dropped. "...little brat's really packing. I can smell a couple of different kinds of magic, but this rain is making it hard to make out much besides that...?"

He looked up as she offered the cube, taking a good hard look at it. "...mind if I...?" His voice trailed off as he held out his hand, offering to take it from her.

[Curious Key]

It seemed to Kat like Marcus was talking nonsense. She shrugged. "So he's a stupid kid with a lot of magic firepower. Great." If he really wasn't keen on getting interrupted and had half a brain, he would have found somewhere else to call up his damn elemental. Course, that meant he probably was gonna make a mistake that'd make him easy to catch. Or maybe he'd make a mistake and blow up half a neighborhood. Warp turned the cube over in his hands, huffed and tossed it Marcus' direction. "Sure, do whatever."

[GranspearZX]

Marcus fumbled a bit to catch the cube, staring intently at it as the rain slowed to a steady drizzle. Police sirens filled the air as he stared at it, shaking his head. "I think this is what that kid was keeping the elemental in... hm."

He turned it over a few times, then sniffed at it. "Elemental magic. Pretty sure that going around poaching magical creatures isn't allowed though... I need to look at this thing a little more closely."

Still soaking wet, Arcturus looked in the direction of the library. "I guess our lesson's over, huh?"

[Curious Key]

"I think you said something like that before." She made a cutting motion with her hand, more out of habit than necessity, and space split right open before their eyes, pulsing red to the beat of the universe's heart. "Library first. Tell me what dorm you're in and I'll drop you off there before I go home, and . . . Wait, poaching?"

Kat looked a little concerned. "Did we just kill a magical lightning dodo or something?" She looked over her shoulder back toward the street and scratched at the back of her neck. "Are we in trouble with the . . . the . . . " She grasped uselessly at the air and made a face. ". . . magic police?"

[GranspearZX]

"As far as anyone else is concerned, I am the magic police." Arc paused, realizing how ridiculous and arrogant that sounded. "Well, actually... There's just certain things you don't do to upset things. This might be one of them. We didn't kill it. We just... destroyed its physical body. Energy never dies; it'll end up back on its natural plane."

He closed his hand around the box. "I don't spend much time at the dorms. Most weekends I live out of my lab at the Parkhurst Hotel. I guess we could go there, but I don't recommend trying to teleport in. ...can you even teleport somewhere you've never actually been before? I don't really know how that whole thing works..."

[Curious Key]

Energy never died, huh? Kat wondered about that. "Hopefully." She danced from foot to foot; if there was a thing that could capital E End something, then it might have been what she'd thrown at it. Her powers took offense to someone standing back up after they'd gotten done with it. Though maybe it still would get up and dust off their pants on the elemental whatsit? Magic was magic, after all. Maybe they had an exception pass to the end of all things?

Smiling at the change in subject, Warp shrugged her shoulders. "It's a bit harder," she acknowledged. "But I can get it if I've got a vague idea of where to go. I've never been to Mount Rushmore, but I could probably go there. But I've gotta know where I'm going, and there's not a lot I can do with just 'Parkhurst.'"

[GranspearZX]

"My dorm room's fine then. I... well, there's a shortcut I use to get from Parkhurst to campus."

Marcus didn't often talk about his research or the artifacts he made. It wasn't that it was a secret; it just never came up in normal conversation. The Traveler's Key was one of those creations that he made just researching things that would make his life easier. He didn't often do things for personal gain, but getting to the hotel and back was time-consuming and costly. It was a simple key, but it would make most doors in the city lead right to Parkhurst Hotel's front door.

"Maybe once we get dried off, you can tell me what exactly that beam was. Pretty potent-looking stuff."

[Curious Key]

"Potent. Yeah, it's pretty potent." A short, sharp laugh, a rueful sort of smile. "One second." Warp flickered away from the rooftop and reappeared holding the bag Marcus had left at the library.

Instead of handing it to him, Warp turned around and stared into the rain. She changed her uniform out for her street clothes and squinted her eyes at nothing. The in front of her rent in a jagged line, leaking a bright, angry red that pulsed with the universe's heartbeat. It pried itself further open, into a ragged hole in the world. It was not at all pretty. "This'll take us back to the dorms," Kat said, unconcerned, and stepped into hole.

. . . A terrifying moment of claustrophobic suspension while the blood and bones of the universe pulsed and tried to mend the wound Kat held open . . .

And Kat stepped into the dorm common room, drenched to the skin, dripping water all over the floor. One of the students sitting on the couch saw the puddle she'd brought with her and gave Kat a dirty look before turning back to his book.

[GranspearZX]

There was something about Kat's powers that made even the Beast Rune recoil. It was only for a moment, but considering he was in a constant mental conflict with its aggressive nature, Marcus was keenly aware of when it suddenly wasn't. The brief moment of emptiness gave him pause, even as he followed Warp into the hole she'd ripped into space.

Dripping wet, he stepped into the common room, considering the nature of what he'd experienced for a moment. He shook himself out of his mental stupor and cleared his throat, concentrating as a dark green circle appeared at his feet and moved up his body, changing him back into his dry street clothes. He pulled off the mask and his features seemed to grow less beast-like as a result, save his canines and incisors which still looked a little on the large side. "Sorry," he said, apologizing for them both before leading the way to his room. He didn't seem to be anywhere near as wet after changing, a red symbol flaring to life against the back of his right hand.

Marcus's room was very odd at first glance. He was much more of an artist than he let on, and there were a ton of sketches hanging on the walls of various Claremont students and places around the city. There were also a number of wood carvings of various animals on his desk, one of them looking specifically like a large bear wearing Marcus's uniform. He went to his drawer on that desk and rummaged through it, motioning to a small footlocker at the foot of his bed. "There's a bunch of towels in there if you need to dry off."

[Curious Key]

Kat wrung her hands and gave an apologetic smile as she trailed after Marcus, leaving a scattering of wet spots on the carpet behind her down the dorm halls, a step behind. He was not, she thought, half so soaked. Leaning over, Kat squinted at his hand. It was glowing all red . . . Magic stuff, she bet.

Really, Kat wasn't sure what she'd expected from Marcus' room, but it wasn't what she got as she walked in. She dropped the bag on his floor and stepped into the center of the room, slowly turning so she could have a look at everything. Kat thought she'd had him pinned, but no, the guy was an artist too. She put a hand on her hip and smiled sideways while she looked at what he'd made. "Nice!"

Kneeling at the foot his bed, Kat flipped it open and brought out a towel. Her clothes, dry a few minutes ago, weren't quite as soaked as her hair was, so she prioritized that. "Thanks."