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War Witch     What was determined during the Talos Island invasion was that the being known as Rularuu the Ravager is trying to get out of a prison that is keeping him from just absorbing this entire dimension. That's bad.

    He's doing it through using lots and lots of 'thin' portions of reality to get minions through, forcing the thinning space-time fabric open wider and wider each time, until the Shadow Shard's barriers tear open and let him come out.

    That's also bad.

    But Numina, a ghostly magic user, and one of the Surviving Eight, through the aid of dozens of other magic users who scanned the portals while other heroes fought off the waves of enemies, has come up with a plan. That plan is to somehow 'relocate' all the dimensional tears and space-time weak points to a single location... And overlap them. This will almost definitely result in a hole. The same hole that Rularuu wants. But by controlling when and where the hole appears and making it when its size is still small instead of after the various weak points have been stretched and deformed to accomodate him and his power, they can prevent full-scale invasions, regulate the flow of enemies, and have a single point to defend... And possibly mend... Instead of spreading their efforts out across the whole city. That's good.

    But a suitable location must be found. A secure site where they monitor the hole they're about to make until they find a way to close it forever. Preferably somewhere that already has interdimensional safeguards in place. And wouldn't you know it, Peregrine Island just happens to be home to Portal Corporation. That's VERY good.

    Now, in this final attempt to shut down the invasion once and for all, all the heroes still able to focus on this particular task (given that there are other bad guys and other emergencies as well), far fewer than there were before this whole thing started, have assembled while a collection of mystics, mages, psychics, and scientists work together to create a stable, secure portal that they can shut on and off as-needed... The closest thing to 'locking the gate' they can manage until they find a way to repair the dimensional boundary itself.

    They're assembled outside the Portal Corporation building. Peregrine Island has so far been spared any invasions, along with a few other outlying zones. But if this works, that's going to change in a big way as they gradually pull invasion portals here from all over Paragon City.
Emiya Shirou Nothing about this situation is good apart from the fact that they have a plan and some good resources. That such a terrible being will even have a TINY hole to work with, and has been shoving minions all over the place, that has Shirou absolutely as nervous as he could be about the situation. just how powerful could such a being be?

    Do heroes even stand a chance? Heroes much greater than he is?

    Although he's geared up in polished knightly armor that faintly reeks of mana and his whole body thrums with prepared Reinforcements, he can't help but squeeze tight the grips of Kanshou and Bakuya.

    "We're really sure this will work and won't backfire?!"
Dorian Pavus     Dorian is better now. He's had time to get a full night's sleep and has had some assistance in repairing whatever magical damage he'd done to himself in just flagrantly abusing his mana reserves. So he's at least CLOSE to top form today. Much less danger of passing out! Which is good because that's horribly embarrassing to do in front of other people.

    Though just to be on the safe side, Dorian's decided to try to help out those who are connecting the portal to the machines here so it can be cut off. He's no Rift Mage, but he knows the basic principles of what these people here might call 'extradimensional science'. Of course, it's all the same to Dorian. Magic, science -- makes no difference to him.

    Dorian's usual outfit has probably become recognizable as his 'costume', more than likely. He's wearing that now, since familiarity breeds comfort, and they need all the good vibes they can get at this point! Shirou's words? They get a raised-brow look from Dorian. "The alternative is having them all over the city," he points out. "I'd rather not have some be-tentacled beastly 'elder god' sort of monstrosity rip a hole in this dimension. There's already a hole in ''my'' world's sky, and I'd hate to have this world catch 'everything's gone to shit disease' from Thedas." More seriously now, "It's worth trying, if we have even the smallest hope of doing some damage control."
Revan One reason Paragon City as a whole seemed to have adjusted to the multiverse had probably been the fact that alternate realities had already been a realised phenomenon. On the other hand, such a thing was unheard of in the galaxy that Lowri Revan-Shan knew. Even the Jedi Knight, with all her inquisitive mind and ability to analyse many things, had had some trouble adjusting to the new greater reality with its many universes so very different from hers. And an invasion by extradimensional creatures led by giant god-like beings was certainly out of her purview.

     Clad in the now-familiar robes of a Jedi Guardian -- flowing but not enough to restrict movement -- which passed well enough for a 'costume' in the City of Heroes, she calmly regarded the Portal Corporation's building. "So then, ready for another adventure?" she quipped. They never seemed to end, actually.

     Mismatched eyes fell on Shirou as he asked his question. "To be fair, you really can't know what will work and what won't with absolute certainty," she admitted. "Pre-battle tactics can only take you so far. What matters is being able to change your plans on the fly as unexpected scenerios happen. And they /always/ happen."

     Though she was still unable to remember much at all of her previous life, at least some of her gift for strategy remained.

     "That doesn't seem to be a unique experience for any world, I'm afraid," she replied to Dorian. "Well, tentacled beasts notwithstanding. But there's always /something/."
Maya So here we go again things were starting to leave their mark on Maya, worse that a Chaos worshiper had been involved beforehand had he very worried. She could not worry abotu things like that for now however this time she was not in costume like she normally is. No she's clad in armour and toating a weapon though some of her tatoos are visable still on her face and exposed parts of her arms. The invasions have kept happening and they really need to put a stop to it. She had to make her self ready, it was getting bad and they had to push back ahrd. She did however find the local heroes had been very welcoming to her which spurred her on to defend this place even more. Ast the sight of Reven and Shirou being here? She felt a good deal better about their odd and Dorian not being there would be a shock, it seemed they were all ready to go.
War Witch     War Witch, Horus, and Apex are too messed up to be here today, so those three faces are not among the assembled heroes. But Numina provides an answer as a local in their place. She probably knows more about the subject anyway, since she was part of the Midnight Squad when they sealed Rularuu away. To Shirou's inquiry about if they're sure it will work, she says, "Instead of answering whether we are certain it will work, let me ask this. If I said, 'We have little other choice' would that comfort you? We must do what we must. We are not in a position right now to wait for a 'perfect answer'. The alternative is to keep fighting endless hordes until either we break down or the dimensional boundary does. If either of those occurs, this whole universe loses."

    Lilac Lascerator, a young heroine who has been present at multiple missions and crises in the past, including this one, pipes up from nearby with, "So, you know. No pressure. It's not like the fate of the entire universe rests on us or anything oh wait it does. So I guess it's our job to make sure that this works." The carapaced girl then wanders away from the group, continuously peeing around the corner at the Portal Corp courtyard, like she's trying to catch a glimpse of something. Or someone.

    A tall man in a stars-and-stripes sort of costume, bearing a flag pole with a plasma emitter and magnetic field generator on the end, comments to Dorian, "At least we've yet to run into anything with tentacles. Just giant eye balls, giant flies, and cyclopses." He pauses. "Cyclopsis? Cyclopsi? Cyclopsians? Damn, now that's going to bug me. The name's Flagbearer by the way."

    There is little time for introductions because alerts start going off about invasions all over the city again. Numina floats over to the platform where she is to perform the mystical part of the process while scientists arrange for a portal device underground to link with it, siphoning the anomaly itself to a ready-made frame. Not normally something they could do with their technology, but by combining it with magic, it appears to be possible... Though they also have some psychic heroes coordinating their actions by telepathically communicating with the parties on both sides and sharing what each sees via remote viewing.

    Psychics, huh?

    Well, little time for reminiscing. Because Numina has begun the ritual. And the effects are felt immediately as the air seems to distort, the ground seems to lurch without actually moving, and leylines shift and grind together. Holes in the sky start to appear. And enormous clouds of Natterlings, Watchers, Observers, Bull Natterlings, Wisps, Wisp Oppressors, and... New types of enemies as well all come pouring out of them.

    There's already more enemies in this one zone of these types than there have been from all of the prior invasions combined and they're only just starting. They really have their work cut out for them.
Dorian Pavus     Dorian looks to Revan as she speaks, and gives a nod. "They do have that annoying habit, don't they? What's the old saying? 'Battle plans rarely survive contact with the enemy'?" he asks. "Something to that effect." He offers a nod of greeting to Maya as well, seeming much more his old self this time around. Numina's words get a nod. "I don't think I've ever seen a 'perfect' solution. You just grab at straws until you grab the one that unravels it. Then you act as though you meant to do exactly that, in exactly that order." He smirks.

    Flagbearer gets a smile. "Cyclopes," Dorian supplies, when the Paragon hero looks for the word. "And thank the Maker for small miracles, yes?" But yes! Introductions will have to wait, because there are alarms going off. "Ah, it looks like they're playing our song," he comments.

    And Dorian winces when, right on cue, that pressure in his head comes back. At least it's not overwhelming this time. Proven when he's actually able to snark this time. "''Kaffas''. Can't that thing... '''exist''' in some other direction? And is the concept of fencing up one's pets unfathomable for an unfathomable entity? What a horrible neighbor."

    But he does as he'd done the last time, raising a barrier over the magical heroes working to link the dimensional rifts to the gate, so they can complete their work more-or-less unmolested. This is going to be difficult, though; there's so many enemies. But he's going to give it his best. As before, he stands with the end of his staff upon the ground, blue-white energy glowing between the serpentine dragon heads on the top of that staff as he holds the Barrier with concentration.
Emiya Shirou ZAM! ... A bit of magic, a lot of technology... and just as Shirou predicted, all hell breaks loose.

    Right in his face. The Amber-eyed magus IMMEDIATELY recoils, a hand going up in front of his face. The meager magical protection afforded to him by Kanshou and Bakuya's simply meaningless against this pressure clawing at his mind...

    Thankfully, a surge of willpower and determination blossoms into a firestorm within his soul at the sight of all those monsters coming through!

    This is what he was waiting for. "Trace on!"

    Shirou first HURLS his two weapons skywards in mirroring arcs , aiming to have them intersect with expert timing on some of the creatures... and they're barely out of his grasp than brilliant mana emerges from his palms as a blaze of light and solidifies into another set.

    "That many coming out right from the start?! We're really in for it..." He definitely doesn't have enough prana to fire many arrows or use anything big. He's best against single targets he can blindside... not fighting hordes!

    Unless...

    "My body is made of swords! A shell of steel with fire for blood!" The boy declares, and arcs of prana sizzle from his palms and outwards. What's in his mind is given form...

    As a wall of swords hovering in the air above him. Over a dozen dazzling weapons. The volley is unleashed like a rain of arrows for the thickest part of the onrushing hordes!
Revan The Guardian nodded to the Tevinter mage with a faint smile. "Something like that, yes. I've never had a plan which I could follow precisely..."

     Revan frowned slightly, as if confused. "At least, not that I can remember." Damn this persisten amnesia.

     But then she smiled again. "But then, that's part of being proficient at tactics: the ability to make things up as you go along."

     Her frown returned as she felt the psychic pressure, though instead of an expression of thought, it was one of near pain. "Since I haven't been able to make the previous dances, I have to ask: is this normal for...whatever this is? Because it's pretty intense even for a Jedi or Sith."

     And then the bady guys appeared suddenly following the ritual. Revan wasted no time drawing the lightsabers from her belt, igniting them, and hurling them at the nearest group. "They certain seem unfriendly," she quipped. "You know, it's rude to just barge into someone's dimension."
Maya Maya is greeted by Dorian and Maya's left feeling a bit better. "That seems to be a very common thing Dorian and you seem to like to flirt with danger don't you Dorian." She seem amused but the bander ends as the alien hordes come maya also senses something, something powerful is coming or just on the other side of the portal.

"There's something powerful...it's more focuserd than last time." Maya doesn't seem too happy hell she seems worried about it. She has to focus on the attack however the hordes are coming.

"I'm going to have to not hold back today."

Maya notes and there's a flare up of blue flamrs burning about her body now not seeming to harm her and even as that happens there's a ripple across her outfit as it almost seems like she's transfoming, well her clothing is and soon with a flash of light she's now wearing her blue witch costume. The magic build up keeps coming it seems Maya isn't joking about not holding back.

"I ... will need some cover..."
War Witch     The heroes fight against the swarm of monsters emerging from the sky portals, but as they start to converge and merge together, descending towards Numina's location, other portals begin to appear closer to the ground. Oh, right, because there are ground-bound monsters as well. Brutes and Noble Brutes begin to emerge, alongside with Boss-level versions, even bigger, with even nastier-looking right arms.

    Like the upgraded eyeballs, the Overseers, and the upgraded Wisps, the Wisp Overlords, they have even more powers to display. The Honored Brutes seem able to debuff crystals that affect all within an area, and fire energy beams at individual targets with similar effects, on top of the normal energy blasts and energy bombs and pummeling attacks.

    Overseers have added the power to summon minions to help them to their arsenal, adding further to the number of enemies to deal with.

    Wisp Overlords are psychics of such power they can apparently affect space itself with the powers of their minds, trapping heroes in warped space, and protecting their allies with force fields of altered space to disperse incoming damage, as well as the miscellaneous psychic attacks observed previously... Oh and now PSYCHIC TORNADOS that tears through the streets and heroic ranks, throwing them around in the air if they get caught in them.

    The portals are more and more numerous, as are the enemies, but they're all gradually fusing together and converging on a single location.
Dorian Pavus     Dorian's response to Revan might need to be on the radio, if she's moved out of hearing range. But Dorian needs to maintain his Barrier. "I'm afraid so. Apparently a dimension-eater thinks loudly enough to disturb its neighbors." His tone is taut, as he's sustaining the Barrier. But that he can speak and do that this time is a good sign. Particularly for those who saw him the previous day.

    Maya's words of 'flirting with danger' aren't lost on him. And he spares enough thought to note, "I'm sure I don't know what you mean." But her desire for cover gets a frown. "Stay within the Barrier until you need to move," he suggests. The boundaries of the Barrier are clear, since it's a dome of blue-white energy with a glowing magical glyph on the ground. Normally the glyph appears, then the dome, then both fade away with the lingering protection offered fading away quickly. But he's half-cast the spell, feeding the glyph enough magic to keep it going.

    And things are starting to get more difficult. Not only for the heroes fighting, but for Dorian. The psychic attacks of those monsters are really testing his endurance! And it's obvious too, how the blue dome ripples. At times it almost flickers out, but Dorian manages to hold it together. He's breathing quite heavily though, and sweat beads his brow. But he's holding it together!
Emiya Shirou With Maya suddenly displaying enough power that Shirou could mistake her for a Caster-class Servant, and asking for HELP no lesss... he leaps over. Even though... that sheer display of power reminds him of a limit he'll never be able to cross no matter how hard he trains. He'll never be a fabled hero with epic and grand power, he'll never own a cherished sword of legend. Even his own 'iconic' weapons are fakes of the real thing...

    He's a fraud hero through and through, just faking it.

    Thing is, though...

    The thing that would become READILY apparent, as he takes a stance in front of Maya and extends a hand, in the face of what's suddenly become a calamitous WAVE of energy blasts and space-rending projectiles...

    "RHOOOOO AIIIIAS!!!" ... is that he's faking it so well that it works.

    A blip of purple-pink light flickers out before him... and it rapidly blossoms into a translucent, curved flower-like barrier with 4 irregular petals and 3 jagged stubs. For each petal a domed shield manifests before it, stacking up into a multi-layered barricade!

    It doesn't LOOK like much, but it FEELS like a row of indomitable fortressess... and that's what the huge brigade of blasts start pelting into. Explosions and spacial rips tear into the Seven Rings that Cover the Fiery Heavens. And behind it Shirou stands resolute, yelling fiercely as he pours what prana he has into the defense!
Revan For Lowri, bantering helped her allieviate stress and rally her allies...or at least, that had been the case in her previous adventures. Now, however...it appeared that concentration was the order of the day. The extradimensional entities would just /not stop/ pouring in. But then, her allies of now seemed to be holding their own.

     "Be nice if they could...think a little more quietly," she managed as she moved into rapid strikes to keep the Brutes off the squishier members of their party.

     "Well, you know," she quipped to Maya, "Danger seems to have a crush on people like us. Maybe it's just expressing its affection in the only way it knows how?"

     But casual danger dialogue wouldn't get the job done, so the Jedi drew on the Force to layer the others with smaller barriers resistant to physical and energy attacks. "Tough customers, these..." she commented even as she concentrated. they weren't going to be able to keep this up indefinitely, so another plan was in order. "How do these guys deal with lightning and psychic attacks?" she asked.
Maya Maya sees that Shirou needs help, he needs magic? She can spare him power and Shirou would find the blue fire leeching from her body into his, it's wild, a bit more primal than Shirou's world magic. Septerra is a /very/ young world, an after thought of creation by that which made Maya's universe. She gives him what he can to help and then? Maya kicks it up more cards start to be pulled from her pouches, one rises up glowing blue as blue fire leaching into it, followed by that is a green one which glows the same. Finally a red one joins them all glowing green. She's actually chanting at this point the language sounds a bit like Babylonia to those who know that tongue.

<<All is a cycle there is no start there is not end but to continue creation must one day end to be once more reforged...Black Hole."

Maya focus the fury of her magics into a gathering maelstrom of power, the spike here is big, it's very damn big. A black thing for lack of a better term will form in the hordes of enemies Maya has enough control as the power plays about her body to keep it from targeting allies but it takes the full force of her focus to do so. There is now only the spell, herself and what she's targeting. Maya directs the eruption of magic as it becomes a swirling mass which would start to suck in the horrible invaders all of them. They may soon find what happens to something in a black hole and the era of effect is massive, any that get pulled int with face horrible forces of gravity trying to crush and rip them apart, lighting crackles about Maya now as she keeps the spell going longer than normal and moves the center of the magically made black hole to try and entrap as many of the invaders as she can. Maya is just no screwing about and this is a spell no one here has ever seen her cast or even talk about before. The only reference the union has is there and there in very rare reports noting Maya using heavy magic the last was when Maya had her magical power stolen and the thief used said spell.
War Witch     Dorian is getting some good practice in at maintaining that barrier of his. If only it were under better circumstances. People are being protected thanks to him, psychic assaults aside, and Shirou doing a version of his own, boosted by his allies, and then reinforced FURTHER by Revan's Force-based barriers and protections... Well, they soon have a pretty solid defensive barrier. If only they can sustain it under the uneding assault.

    Maya making a giant magical blackhole is a shocker for more than the bad guys, drawing lots of eyes to the sky, and making those capable of sensing such enormous forces twitch half-way across the city. War Witch, back in Steel Canyon, taking a 12-hour nap after her last bout of smashing her head into the wall of power on the other side of the portals, wakes up with a start, but can't figure out what awoke her or what's wrong after scanning her bedroom for several minutes.

    Her head hurts too much to feel anything except that damn Rularuu's presence... So what woke her up?

    Back with the bad guys, they get drawn into the black hole, crushed, torn apart, destroyed as they are sucked in. Huge numbers of foes expire in an instant or get banished to who-knows-where.

    And with that barrier in place, no heroes become casualties either... Though maybe Maya has enough control to not induce friendly fire incidents. Either way, however, the streets still have enemies in them, and everything from steam-powered robots to carnival freaks and jesters all the way through to some guys in military duds keeping a low profile and sniping Rularuu soldiers when the opportunity allows shows even the villains are doing their part, even if it is for their own benefit.

    And gradually... Gradually... The portals all converge, down to a single ring of chaotic power, a concentration of interdimensional forces that the ghostly Numina struggles to contain, even as monsters continue trying to force their way through from the other side despite the portal no longer being able to accomodate them.

    Then she throws the portal down into the ground, or something, in a ball of light... And after several tense moments, during which Flagbearer stands ready with a plasma-U.S. flag waving in non-existent wind, body and costume torn up, and Lascerator stands atop a pile of Rularuu bodies with spines protruding from them, missing an arm at the elbow, and various other heroes making cameo appearances take a moment to just... Take stock of the situation...

    Numina seems to relax. As she says, "The portal is contained below. They will be making no more invasions into this city through this method."

    This is the cue to cheer.
Dorian Pavus     Dorian most definitely can sense the power of that black hole Maya's created. Sure, she may have the control not to let it get any allies... but Dorian's not going to just leave it up to that. He keeps that Barrier strong. A vein at his forehead is starting to show a bit. But finally, FINALLY... the dimensional rips are drawn into that one area, and 'thrown' to the ring below-ground.

    Once the dimensional energies disappear, Dorian waits a moment, to see if there's going to be more enemies. When he sees none after a moment, he releases the Barrier, exhaling a heavy sigh of relief. He looks about at the assembled heroes -- and winces when he notices Lacerator's arm missing. Then he looks to Revan and asks, "...Is it too soon to say 'we did it'? I hate saying that. Because that is literally the perfect time for something nasty to crawl up from the Void and cackle menacingly."
Revan Having spent a considerable amount of time in space travelling from one planet to another -- now practically living on board the Ebon Hawk -- Lowri was no stranger to the astronomical phenomenon of collapsing stars. What Maya had managed to pull off, on the other hand...

     It was a good thing she was not on the business end of that particular spell. The Force made her capable of a great many things, but it hardly made her immortal. Being sucked into deep space was not something typically survivable even with Force powers.

    B "I would say to remind me not to get on your bad side," she quipped to Maya as the last of Rularuu's minions was pulled into the vortex, "But I think that goes without saying."

     Unlike Dorian's Barrier, Lowri's Force Valour dissipated on its own, its protection falling away like a cast-off cloak once the threat had passed. "That always seems to be the perfect time for something /else/ to make a nuisance out of itself," she admitted to Dorian, eyeing the remnants of the city's villain factions limping away after aiding them, of all things. If that wasn't an indicator or Rularuu's presence being entirely unwelcome, she didn't know what was. "Still, it does look like our unwanted guests have been booted out for the time being. I'm sure being vigilant won't go to waste, though...something always seems to be crawling out of the woodwork, doesn't it?"