Literature from Reverse World Pt2

Raven flinched and responding to his sudden surge of fear his burst partner arced lightning between his hands in preparation to repel a surprise attack. The computer, already mistreated by the previous chase scene, responded poorly to the sudden extra current and sparked and hissed, the screen glowing a blinding white before dying with a puff of smoke and a quiet hiss.

One level down, on their way to the area the lead into the Dome, Taz looked at Tash as her friend suddenly stopped walking.

“You alright?” Taz asked, noting that tears were starting to leak from Tash’s eyes.

Tash wiped her eyes and looked at the glistening tears on her fingers with confusion.

“I don’t know. I just suddenly feel very sad. Like something I would have loved but never got to see suddenly ceased to exist.”

“Weird,” Taz contributed.

The pair continued on their path, noticing that the arcs of electricity that indicated Raven was nearby had returned, and judging by the cone of light sweeping the area Emma had also returned to their agreed upon rally point. Rather she hadn’t left. When they’d split job assignments Emma’s team had been suggested as the best person to make sure any stragglers Taz and Raven’s teams found were properly guided or guarded on their way to the dome. Walking into the area proper got to watch Emma crack up as Niko apparently told her something that was making Raven look distinctly uncomfortable.

“Oh! Taz,” Niko called, seeing Tash and Taz arrive, “You have to hear this. I scared the bejesus out of the professional here because he got distracted halfway through his job looking at things, he won’t say what they were, on a computer he stole from Esrever.”

“That’s not what happened,” Raven grumbled petulantly.

Stories were briefly exchanged and Emma smacked her fist into her palm at the point once the nature of the material on the laptop was explain, which Raven had not admitted to looking at any other file than the one that was open when he got it.

“So that’s why they came tearing through here like a pair of hellhounds after that girl,” Emma said, grateful at the clarification of what had been the oddest part of her shift guiding stragglers through to the Dome.

“I thought Jack was on your team,” Taz pointed out, “How’d he get upstairs with Esrever?”

“Oh, a while after you guys left to do your searches Esrever showed up and started to complain about how no one was listening to him when he said ‘run.’ Jack somehow got him to change subject on to other things that make Esrever upset,” the ampharos bursted warrior explained, “I was a bit distracted with some stragglers then but when I got back Jack said he had to go help Es with something and they both left me here in the dark.”

“So where’d they end up?”

“Are you all just planning to spend until the end of eternity standing around waiting to be overwhelmed?” a new, kinda whiny, voice added.

The group turned to see Jack and Esrever making their way in from the concourse that lead to the dome, Jack waving idly and Esrever just looking surly.

“What happened to the girl?” Raven asked learily, noting that their prey was not among them.

“She ran into the light,” Esrever grunted, “You know, that thing I told YOU all to do?!”

“We couldn’t leave without making sure everyone else got out,” Taz growled back at Esrever.

“So the girl got away?” Niko asked quickly to cut off further discussion of the subject.

“No, not really,” Jack said with a grin, “We know where she is so-“

“How do YOU know where she is?” Esrever asked pointedly.

“Detective, and stop interrupting,” Jack said in a quick aside, “As I was saying, we know where is so at best this is a minor reprieve from the oncoming storm of justice to be meted out.”

“Right,” Raven answered dully, “When you see her can you give her this?” he asked holding out the charred and melted remains of the laptop he’d been carrying.

“Or… you could just destroy years of her hard work and leave me with the check to apologize,” Jack sighed, looking at the charred machine.

“I’m surprised you got so upset by the stuff she was writing,” Emma said, giving Jack a contemplative look, “I didn’t think you’d be bothered by people writing things about you.”

“Oh I’m not,” Jack replied with amusement, flipping the burnt laptop over in his hands to further inspect the damage before dropping it without ceremony on the ground, “I’m just upset she broke her promise to only write me in pairings that match my actual preferences. I have nothing against BL or whatever you call it but I’d rather not have the hopes of people who know me and have been silently praying I’d be open to their affections falsely raised.”

“Ever the modest one,” Esrever graveled, then blinked and directed a glare at Jack, “Wait, are you saying you knew she was writing those things about everyone? How did you even know about that?”

“I’m a DE-TEC-TIVE,” Jack repeated slowly, “Try to keep up.”

“Gragh,” Esrever growled, throwing his hands up in exasperation, “Enough of this nonsense. The way before you is clear and the place is empty of souls besides your own. Leave this place before the forces hiding here gather against you in earnest despite whatever powers of light you employ! The light is fading.”

The world seemed to twist for a moment and Esrever vanished from sight leaving the burst warriors. They exchanged looks for a moment before laughing to themselves.

“Hahaha… wait,” Niko stopped laughing suddenly, “Did he say the light was fading?”

“Yeah,” Taz confirmed, “Why?”

“The light as in our exit out of here?” Jack asked catching on himself.

The group exchanged looks again and then looked down the concourse connecting Area 1 to the Dome, the open doors all the way down allowing them to see the dim speck of light that shone in the arena. Looking around the shadows that had clawed at the corners of their vision and the edges of the soft glowing lights scattered over the ground seemed much closer than they had before.

“Perhaps we better-“ Raven started.

“RUN!” Emma finished for him.

The warriors exploded into motion toward their exit. In front of them the flickering lights along the path to the Dome started to flicker out, Emma’s light sprang from her wand-like device to sweep over the area to see nothing. The light from the wand was eagerly gobbled up by the shadows before them on the ground and walls.

A click sounded as Taz’s hardsuit deployed thin membranous wings.

“Up we go!” she shouted grabbing Tash and Niko by whatever she could lay hands on to drag them into the air with her. To her side the coat draped over Jack’s shoulder seemed to spread out of its own volition then beat and push him off the ground as well, his hands finding Emma and Raven’s as he began his own flight for the exit. Dark silhouettes of familiar form began to stretch from the walls, only visible by the light that shone as a beacon for the airborne souls flew toward.

“We’ll make sure the area around the exit is clear,” Tash said, nodding to Niko. Then the two went quiet as their eyes glowed and they stared in the direction of the exit, eyes unfocused like they were looking at something the others couldn’t see.

“Then the hallway is ours,” Raven replied, swinging his free hand around, electricity crackling around it. In Jack’s other hand Emma mirrored his action.

“Wait,” Jack said, feeling the power building around the pair in his hands, “You aren’t going to use elec-“ His words were lost as with a blinding flash the two electric warriors sent bolts of power streaming down the hallway dispelling half formed shapes and shredding the complete ones that had begun to block the path. Jack meanwhile yelled in pain as the electrical backwash of the two thunder attacks washed up his arms and then into him. For a heady moment the trio dipped in their flight before Jack could recover.

Emma looked up at the slightly cooked archeops bursted man and winced at the obvious singeing he’d received. “Are you alright?”

“I’ll get you to the exit,” Jack growled, putting on a burst of speed.

Ahead of them Taz burst out into the Dome and immediately had to change course as whatever the hall had been like the dome itself had been gathering specters and shadows for much longer. Attacks fired and launched from dozens of hands seeking the actor come burster and her charges. Then the area lit up as psychic blasts, appearing from seemingly nowhere lit up the room, colliding with attacks on collision courses with Taz, or to attacks and shadows that cut off her path.

“The way is clear,” the two psychics said in an eerie sync step, “Go.”

Not questioning it Taz dove, only briefly sighting Jack whirling and twisting through a hail of attacks himself, and similarly aided by the sudden appearance of psychic bolts slashing a path of destruction for him to fly through.
The light grew larger in her view. Attacks clashed around her and she felt her burst partner make minor alterations to their flight path as the rain of psychic bolts began to peter out, her charges beginning to looks strained. No, the attacks weren’t running out, there was simply more attacks from the shadowed enemies to deal with. Whatever power they were using was apparently limited in how much it could output, and as they flew deeper into the dome the rain of attacks just grew thicker.
Then the light went out. Taz wheeled in the air, trying to spot where her goal had gone. The exit they’d been promised had been clear and bright even among the explosions rocking around them, and had now vanished.

“It’s still there,” Niko pointed toward a shadowed void in the grand melee.

“They’re covering it up,” Tash agreed, adding her finger to mark the location.

Taz did another spin in the air, activating her Dragon Dance and dived. They’d nearly been on top of it now it lay below them, a patch of darkness she’d mistook for the ground. More shadowy enemies launched water, lightning and empowered stone at them. The air around Taz lit up then became muted as purple psychic attacks rained down around her, a great funnel leading her into target. Before her a dark circle appeared again, the psychic attacks pounding into that section expended. Grunting Taz tucked harder into the dive and screamed glowing metal head first down into the black mass. Then they were through, and gone.

Beams lashed from a magical girl looking wand and Jack did his best not to upset her aim as he made a hard turn toward the place he’d seen the giant psychic arrow Taz had disappeared in suddenly be blinded out by the light of the exit. Raven saw the same and marking the spot in his mind started pointing at it for Jack’s reference. Around them the attacks began to come on thicker and heavier as the psychic blasts began to run out.

“Taz took our fire support with her!” Raven yelled over the din.

“I noticed,” Jack growled, again trying to eke anything he could out of his acrobatics with the two hanging from him. This wouldn’t go well once the last of the psychic ran out. He’d need to replace it somehow. “I need you two to learn to fly for just a second. Open up the hole again!”

With that Jack spun, throwing the mega form bursters into the air, hoping that whatever a “mega” was it’d help them for the next few seconds he’d be distracted.

“Rocks fall,” Jack said crossing his hands in front of himself, “everybody dies!” He spread his arms with a whiplike motion and above him the darkness of the unlit dome seemed to become darker as a portal began to open rapidly above Jack.

“Oh dear,” Jack said, feeling his energy drain away as the Rock Slide portal extended further and further open to cover all the enemies in the area, “Bit bigger than I thought.”

Then the rocks began to fall and it was all Jack could do to move through them toward the point the exit had been. Above him he watched Emma and Raven expertly kicking off the falling rocks to stay airborne. A light flashed from Emma followed by a massive hyper beam that dug into the shell of dark silhouettes that had gotten even thicker over the exit. Then like an electrical comet Raven flashed through the falling rocks to smash through the remains of the shell where Emma’s hyper beam had carved a sizable divot. Hands bracing the edges the shell of dark material lit up with lightning as Raven extended his electrical terrain to prevent it regenerating again. A second later Emma landed by him and was pushed through.

Raven peered back in the direction he’d seen Jack last and caught sight of a slightly lighter colored rock as it dipped and dove through attacks and rocks in a way that hadn’t been possible when it had carried two heavy Mega form burst warriors. More thunder was poured into the massacre of attacks and then Jack was next to Raven again, slightly singed but not much more than the double thunder earlier had done.

“Please to not shock rock pigeon snake man,” Jack said with some exasperation. Then they both turned and dove into the glowing light of the exit.