The Mortal Strain

[Roland Karloseth]

Roland looked over and said "Yeah, but I'm just getting irritated. this meditation is seeming to have an adverse effect on me... It's making me want to shoot something instead of relax or sleep or whatever meditation is supposed to make you do." he said before Haze got onto Angie. It made him feel like a child in school, which angered him more. By now, his eyes were glowing fiercely enough to be used like soft lanterns in a dark room, though he didn't notice it due to the fact that the room was lit.  

[Kerrigan_dragon]

Angie closed her eyes once more, but was unable to find the peace and happiness of before. She just felt awkward and out of place, and began to fidget a little.  

[Red Glacier]

"Take a breath everyone." he lead by taking a breath. He knew he botched things up for Angie with help from Roland, but at least he could feed Rolands anger still.  

[xDarkPisces]

Rex stood on his elevated pad, breathing slowly, his eyes closed gently. His mind, however, would not quiet, and he found himself overwhelmed with a sudden torrent of dark thoughts both of the distant past and the more recent past. He wondered about his future, about this crazy place, and about his so-called powers that he was supposed to be unlocking. None of it made sense, and, being a man of logic and reason, was frustrated that it didn't. Try as he might, he couldn't focus on a single specific thought, much less wipe them all from his mind. His brain just felt heavy and over-filled with guilt, confusion, and disgust.

As he swam through his mental sea of confusion, however, he noticed a single common thread that seemed to bind his thoughts and memories together: darkness. No matter what his dreams consisted of, where his thoughts wandered, or where his memories turned, he always found a cool, placid darkness covering it all, like a security blanket. Deep in thought, he clung to the darkness and let it sweep over him. As the torrent of thought clusters began to flow in a single direction, he found himself in a white room with nothing but his own shadow.

He looked down at his shadow, and it seemed to look back at him, rippling gently in a non-existent breeze. Then, without warning, the shadow exploded into a massive flock of tar-black ravens, scattering in every direction and disappearing into the sea of white around him.

Rex realized his eyes were open now, and he was staring blankly at the wall opposite him. Much to his surprise, he felt more calm and collected now, and was able to focus. His mind was now nothing more than a black void of shadow now, and he struggled to keep it that way. The darkness gave him strength and peace. He exhaled. He closed his eyes and spoke softly, his voice dream-like and slow. "I think... I'm finally... getting... this..." he droned, his eyes still staring blankly as he breathed, focusing still on the nothing inside his brain.  

[Roland Karloseth]

Roland closed his eyes once more. "Seriously, why is this making me so mad? Close your eyes... calm down..."

"NO! This is stupid, you could be doing more important things with your time!"

Roland was confused. Did he just... mentally contradict himself? "No... that would be stupid..."

"So now your calling yourself stupid? That's great for the self esteem!"

"Oh s**t, I've gone crazy. I can't think straight" He mumbled to himself.

"Look. This is a waste of time and you know it. Seriously... super powers? When did you turn five?"

Roland cringed "Shut the hell up..."

"I would, but you keep thinking dumbass. Just walk out, you have no purpose here. It's like a fixed dog in a breeding kennel... what's the damn point?"

"I said SHUT THE HELL UP..."

Roland's fists were shaking at his sides. It was like a separate entity had taken up residence in his subconcious. "NO. My mind is my own. ENOUGH OF THIS CRAP" Roland's fists were starting to glow, and eventually they caught fire, although Roland took no notice.  

[Kerrigan_dragon]

Angie smelled fire. She opened her eyes quickly to look for it, then saw Roland's hands on fire and started swearing in Greek for a moment, forgetting how to speak English momentarily in her surprise. "Holy s**t, Roland, you're on fire!" She stepped away from him and found herself across the room. What the..? I just took a few steps... How..?  

[xDarkPisces]

Rex's entire by began to tremble as the smell of the fire reached his nose. Though his eyes were out of focus, he was able to witness Angie step from on end of the room to the other faster than he could blink. "How... odd..." he droned, still keeping his focus on the darkness of his mind. He looked down slowly, his eyes falling on the white pedestal and his own shadow. That's when he noticed it. His feet had sunk -into- the platform through the dark pool of his shadow. "What... the..." he muttered as he lifted his foot. The shadow seemed tangible, almost liquid like tar, and it stuck to his foot as he lifted it up. The black folds of shadow dribbled from his feet and back to the pool below him.

He glanced at Angie, noticing the shock and surprise on her face, and his eyes fell to her own shadow. His eyes locked on it, noting the shape and contrast. His eyes glazed over and his left hand twitched involuntarily. He watched as Angie's shadow began to thicken and darken much like his own. "Dark...ness...falls..." he whispered.

Suddenly he was falling. Falling through the darkness of his own shadow into a sort of unknown medium. Then, as suddenly as he had gone down, he was shooting back up. He clenched his eyes shut as he fell UP through the window of Angie's shadow and was tossed against the wall behind her. When Rex opened his eyes, he found himself right beside her. Bewilderment flowed over him and he looked to Haze. "What... in the world... is going on here?" he asked slowly.  

[Roland Karloseth]

Roland opened his eyes because everyone was freaking out about something. He looked down and saw his hands were on fire. "AHH s**t!" he exclaimed and shook his hands violently before he realized it didn't hurt. "What the hell...?"  

[Kerrigan_dragon]

Angie closed her eyes and took a deep breath in, pinching her nose for a moment. Having calmed herself a bit, she then bent over to help Rex up. "From all accounts I've heard," she told him, her accent a little thicker than before but still easy to understand, "it's best you don't reach too far when you discover something new, as it can end up hurting you. That was incredible, I admit, but do you have any idea what you're doing? You could have killed yourself! Just try to be safe, please." Angie then looked over at Roland. "Mayhaps your powers are related to anger, it seems. So this exercise has been useful for us in different ways. Interesting, eh?  

[Red Glacier]

Haze ha been watching and making contacts, there was no sign from him of any recognition of what was going on.

he looked up at them all. he gets down then goes over and picks up Angie and sets her next to him then brings the others down to him "Do you believe now what I have said?" he looks at them all "These are your powers awakening and showing their form to you. Its now time we thickened your powers" two people walk in





"These two and I will teach you separately. Malice, you are with Rex..." The Dark masked man with a strange fog around him approached Rex

Malice: "Relax. We are of similar abilities" he put his hand out towards Rex.

Haze: "...and Scud will be with Roland" the massive not seemingly human at all creature steps towards Roland and gives what seemed like a growl but was actually a greeting


"I will be with Angie. we'll all be in separate areas working on what gets you alls abilities going based on what we just saw.....Malice and Scud are ready so lets get going. See you all in a bit"

________________________________________

ANGIE

he pats Angies back and takes her with him out of the room. He takes her to the wild life room and shows off the environment in a presenting way "How does it look? I always found the waterfalls to be relaxing. Wanna try there? its wherever you want to go Angie"

((Now I will be GMing all of you separately so I will divide the posts with underscore lines and your section will be marked by your characters name in bold. There's no need to read everyone elses sections because you're all in different areas doing different things, no contact between characters))

________________________________________

ROLAND





Scud: as soon as Haze and Angie left the room he grabbed Rolands face and a door opened up to the wall, he throws Roland through the hole and Roland found himself in a freakishly large room, Scud walks in and presses a few button and the room darkens, the room turns into the inside of an old warehouse with it raining outside. There were many oil barrels stacked in the warehouse and concrete blockades sitting as cover.

Scud: he runs up and kicks Roland and sends him to the opposite wall from Scud and then the sound of his guns locking and loading. He had 4 auto-cannons on his shoulders, a railgun in his right-clawed hand, a semi-auto sniper rifle on his back, and a twin gauss rifle taking over his left arm. Scud points the railgun at Roland and it began charging, he laughs at the fact Roland had no weapons, he was merely a fist fighter now vs. a tank in essence.

Scud shoots near Roland to send Roland flying towards the wall to Rolands left. The creature laughed at Roland more in spite.

__________________________________

REX



Malice nods to Rex "Do you wish to see how shadows effect human lives?" he breathed deep through his mask  

[xDarkPisces]

Trying to take all of this in as best he could, without seeming to overly intimidated by this newcomer, he grabbed the dark man's hand and shook it amiably. "Show me. Please. I..." he broke off almost as soon as he had begun, not knowing what words would be adequate. "Of similar... abilities..?" The fact that this comment confused him wasn't surprising, as he had no idea what his 'abilities' actually -were-. What was more surprising still was that this person seemed in complete control. His voice was so soft and controlled. His body didn't tremble or twitch, and his face showed no signs of focus whatsoever. Malice was merely there, solid yet not solid, as the tendrils of dark, shadowy semi-matter flowed around him.

"Show me..." was all Rex said, summoning up his will to follow.  

[Roland Karloseth]

"Oh sure, you get someone with a badass name like 'Malice' while I get 'Scud'" Roland said before the gargantuan grabbed his face and threw him.

"URGH!" Roland exclaimed. Scud was kicking his a**. Roland took cover behind one of the concrete blockades throughout the room. "How the hell is this training? Such uneven odds..." Roland sat behind the blockade, fiddling with his newly found powers, trying to figure out what his limitations were. The odds didn't seem so good...  

[Red Glacier]

REX


Malice: "Alright." he opens a portal and shows Rex in, he walks beside Rex and the walls of the hallway path they trod showed different events in history. "Rex? Did you know that shadows can tell more history then a human can? You just have to look hard enough." there was a large wooden door and Malice enters through it. They were in Nagasaki in the WW2 era and after the "Little Boy" Atomic bomb was dropped, all there was was ruins, everything was in black and white. "When the nuke dropped it created a bright flash that was so bright and hot, that shadows were burnt into the ground by the people and objects who stood in the flash" they were on a street and there were many shadows on the streets and building and even the shadows of buildings were burnt into other buildings and grounds.

Malice kneels down and rubs a shadow and there was whispers from it. "A woman was here, a young woman, her name was Harako Yugechii............She was 21 years old and a high school graduate, She was on her way to work with a new idea to help manage the work week to be more helpful to the morale of the workers....she saw a bright light and felt much wind....She could only feel fear and confusion and only wished she could have told her boyfriend goodbye." he stood up and looked to Rex
__________________________

Roland

Scud: he fires his auto cannons at the roof at a support beam to knock it down towards Roland. soon the support beam was cut in two places leaving a a part of the beam heading right to Roland  

[xDarkPisces]

The screams and desolation hung about him like great velvet curtains, heavy and thick as lead. The charred remains of buildings, none more than a few pathetic feet above the ground, billowed with dust and smoke and sorrow from a million suddenly silent lives. Rex closed his eyes tightly, struggling to quell the fierce headache that enveloped his thoughts. "Urgh... this... this place... I..." he grunted, sinking slowly to his knees on the charred earth. "So much... death and pain... why..." He keeled forward and pressed his hand to the shadow beside Malice. White-hot streaks of lightning seemed to shoot through him the instant his flesh made contact with the black dirt, and Rex was forced to wince again in pain.

"Why... urgh... is the pain so intense? Why can I FEEL it? What does... urk... this have... to do with my power?" He struggled between words and breaths, rasping in a soot-choked voice that no longer echoed with the soothing air he'd breathed back in the mansion. "I can hear them! In my... in my thoughts!" The world around him, dark and hellish though it already was, went a bit darker, and his eyes glazed over with a trance-like look. He stood shakily to his feet, feeling the screams of terror and pain rack his brain to and fro. He looked up, unseeing, to the red-black clouds and yelled at the top of his lungs, his voice reverberating off the rubbish and rubble around him. The shadow and scorches around him shimmered and shook, trembling with his scream. Even his own shadow began to quake as if with fear.

Then, without warning, his arms shot upwards, his hands claw-like, tearing at the air, and the shadows around him flew airborne in columns of blue-black tar. They swirling into the air, writhing, coiling, and uncoiling like burning worms. Then, just as suddenly as they had appeared, they fell to the ground as shadows once more, unmoving except for the flicker from the tiny bits of flame here and there.

For his part, Rex fell to the ground again, panting, dizzy. His vision blurred and he murmured to Malice, "Why... why have you brought... me here?"  

[Roland Karloseth]

"Damn!" Roland exclaimed, and rolled out of the way. "Wish I had a gun... so many oil barrels around..." Suddenly and idea sparked in Roland's head. He messed with his powers a bit and was able to make a fireball, which he flung at an oil barrel near Scud.