The Envoy of the Beginning, Water and Maelstrom

The slight reprieve Shadow got from the switch back to water was enough for her to struggle back into the air, trying to catch her breath. Then she was back into the fight, careening around in the air to avoid the watery tentacles that now whipped around her. She had newfound energy now, her anger at Maelstrom's arrogance fuelling her.

'Who did you say couldn't defend themselves?' Shadow snarled, skimming low across the water's surface with two tentacles after her, streaking along like heat-seeking missiles. Her whip re-formed, the shadows thriving on her fury and frustration. She hated the fact that she had let her guard down, not to mention the fact that Maelstrom was completely ignoring her and concentrating on Krious. Granted, he was probably the better fighter, but to totally disregard Shadow was just conceited. A trait the dark girl happened to loathe.

The black-winged teen pulled up sharply, backflipping through the air and forcing her watery pursuers to face her. Her whip snaked through the air, slicing through the tentacles. Shadow didn't expect them to be that easy to take down, and she waited for whatever came next.

Jade was running around the perimeter of the lake, undetected save for the mask on her face that never went invisible with the rest of her body. She was using her metal claws to hack down Maelstrom's watery whips; either before they detected her or before they shot up into the sky, trying to attack her flying alliances. And to think, this all started with a hole in the middle of the lake. Cheshire let her guard down for a second, trying to look for JaK; she needed to know that her leader was still holding his own. Her eyes went wide as she saw another whip coming her way - she sliced it right down the middle before becoming invisible again. Two more tentacles went down shortly thereafter.

OT: Sorry if I seem a little disconnected from the rest of the story, i've missed a lot. Trying to jump back into it.

Shadow was cut off, and he completely lost track of her. To make things worse Maelstrom melted most of the ice around them back into water and the pillars transformed into the more flexible water counterparts. Leaving him on a patch of ice, with several other scattered around the lake. Maelstrom began to move her arms to manouver the tentacles of water, and soon put her whole body behind it. The entire mass moved fluently according to her movements. A long shot, but at least an early weakness. He had to get in close and shut her down, and he had just the thing to do it with.

"I've still got plenty of time lady."

Shadow showed her face once again, noticably frustrated with the current situation. With great efficiency she began to battle the many tentacles under their opponent's control. More and more fell, but other resurfaced just as fast as they went down. There was no end to the supply of water and creating these tentacles did not look like a big deal to Maelstrom. It did give him a good distraction, and it might even annoy the aquamancer. The platform of ice swayed and splashed through the water. He had to get off, close the distance between him and his opponent, but she was moving on top of the water and there was no way he could mimick that move.

Krious took a glance at the shore. Apache and the rest would be in trouble if this kept up. He actived his communicator once more.

"Apache, I need to close the distance between me and her to put my stasis into place, but I can't move on water. Any ideas on how to get this platform of mine moving? It might also be a good idea to scatter everyone to different position along the lake to avoid any major damage."

Krious began to move around the few platform on the lake in a random pattern. None of them seemed to get him any closer to his goal and if this kept up he'd have to revert to the oldest techique in his book. Maybe Apache had a bit less on his mind and could work out some options.

Apache heard Krious on the communicator, and while he stopped healing Zack, he turned around to view the situation. When Zack looked at his back to ask, he answered before the question came at hand.

''You're healed, I cannot help you more then this. You should be able to get up now. You had enough time to rest. Unfortunately, your bullets hit ice, not Maelstrom.

..I had offered my arrows for guiding them with magnetism would have proved more efficient probably.''

Apache took his communicator and responded to Krious.

''Yeah, one way. Sort of an old game of the Yu Yang. We'd charge out ethereal bow and arrow so they'd give off minor spiritual explosions. We'd volley those arrows and let them explode just in time to see who could move a rock with said volley. Fun for use, because why skid a rock when you can shoot it? Timing and dispersement were key. This would be a bigger version of it. Want to try?''

Apache didn't wait for an answer. If it was yes, he'd have to do this anyway, and if it was a no, he'd fire some whalloping arrows at Maelstrom. He held his left hand in front of him, and before anyone could chuckle that his real bow was still on his back, green spiritual essence started to move away from his palm and form a slightly vibrating shiny green bow. In the same manner, he moved his right hand to his left, and drew an arrow of green pulsating energy. He aimed upward, waiting for the command.

''Reminds me of the good old days. Minor the bad weather, minus the villain trying to kill us.''

(short...yet important)

''You've got plenty of time? I doubt you will say that in a short while! The world does not revovle around you..rather, it does around me!''

As she said it, the lake's content seemed to swirl and form an orb around her. Instead of Maelstrom fighting with tentacles, it seemed that now she was in the middle of this protective sphere, she'd be shooting. And so she was. The orb levied like a huge watery grave above the lake, and Maelstrom, blurred by the water's edge, seemed to make pushing movements. As she did, watery lances shot out of the water, harpooning fast towards her targets. As Maelstrom had noticed how aggrevated some were, she was kind enough to send an entire barrage towards those.

''Dear girl, you want your attention?''

Said Maelstrom after sending more then a dozen harpoon shots at Shadow. For those who couldn't fly it seemed like impending doom, especially if they had no other means of travel, and just a block of ice of land below them. Everyone was targeted now.

''You know, I pity you humans. Never think enough. Didn't you ever seem to wonder why I am called the Envoy of the Beginning?''

One of the titans east spoke to him through his mind. He was unsure who it was, but his most probable guess was it was the man now levitating across the surface of the lake towards them. Krious was unsure how he was to reply and Apache got back to him before he could take any action. Apache had come up with a plan to push the platform through the water using an energy type bow and ammunition. Again, Krious wanted to reply but their opponent didn't give them any more time to think about stuff.

The water began to swirl into one huge whirlpool, while Maelstrom lifted herself above the surface of the water. A voice came to his mind again, one identical to the voice he heard just now. It spoke of her upcoming actions and maneuvers. It was the titan east whom had given his foresight without awaiting his answer. Krious was thankful, but it still felt like he had a 50/50 chance this was really what was going to happen.

"Pity humans.. let's see you pity this."

One of his sword flicked forward again and he jabbed it straight into the icy surface below him. The telepath had stopped moving dead in the water, as if he knew what he was about to do as well. His person and the entire platform he stood upon started to show a black stroke around it and mere second later it teleported together with him to the position of the telepathic titan. At this moment Maelstrom released her deadly water spikes, just as it was told to him. Krious positioned himself in front of his ally, put both hand straigth forward, on above the other and projected a small portal in front of them just before the spikes hit. The spikes were absorbed into the shield and the attack was nullified for now.

"Thanks, I owe you one, but that's the last teleport I'll be able to perform in the next couple of minutes."

Krious took a quick look around them, seeing if anyone had encountered any difficulties in blocking this attack. Some were hard to see amidst the chaos, but most seemed to handle themselves well.

(( Crazy, I hope I didn't go overboard at your predictions, and I left it open to whatever you would want to change or add. If not, I'll edit it right away. ))

(I'm just going to assume Will told Shadow and Krious what was coming. If anything's wrong, I'll edit.)

Shadow heard the warning in her mind, and quickly flew to one side at the last minute, expecting the fleet of spears to follow her. She wasn't disappointed, and before they could complete their turn, she sliced them in half with a flick of her whip. Still furious, she used the spikes' momentum to push her up, landing feet first on the remains of Maelstrom's attack. With that finished, and Shadow having stopped the attack a little more forcibly than necessary, she flew to where Krious and the telepath were waiting.

'Thanks for the warning there. And your plan seems like a big help. Krious?'

Shadow was still angry, but it was a more controlled feeling now. Now, she was consciously feeding it to her shadows. She just had to hope that they could finish this quickly. With that in mind, she watched Maelstrom and waited for Krious' and their unknown ally's answers.

Zack sat up, looking at Apache. "Hey, Doc. If ya got a fancy pants spiffy bow, why cary the other one? That just seems-" Zack's trained eye saw the spikes coming and he hesitated. Apache was right next to him, but Jay would also need help. He clenched his teeth, knowing that he had this moment alone to decide. The be saw his jacket on the ground near her and his perpetual grin widened. Hoping he had regained enough strength, he dove on top of Apache to shield the bow wielder from the shards, holding one hand outstretched towards his jacket, launching it at Jay. The leather was lined with Kevlar and reinforced with steel and iron. It had belonged to his paranoid and rather less bulletproof friend within the program that had run experiments on him in the past. It had been a parting gift, for Zack's only friend had known he would not leave his next test alive.

''One bow for the spiritual, one for the physical. Both have their effective uses. For instance...''

Apache drew back multiple arrows and shot them hitting the impending ice shards just on their necks, scattering them from front to back. His timing and aim were extremely precise, and his focus did not break by the use of many arrows, nor at any aiming curve.

''My other bow can't fire that fast, as I am unleashing energy. The other bow fires slower, yet it fires real arrows, with the biggest variety of tips and attached utilities you have ever seen. Now metal man, we got a two big, rather icy spears coming in!''

Apache's spirit bow dissipated and he got out his tomahawk. It seemed to gleam with a similar bright green ethereal energy. Apache looked at the spear, then threw his sharp tomahawk at it. the energy seemed to aid it and with a big crack, the ice shattered into a thousand tiny icy particles.

''Next one's yours!'See what you can do metal man!''

Zack nodded, picking himself up. He picked up his Glock, ejecting the clip and ripping the bullets from the magazine in a single magnetic tug, forming a glove of shells. He braced himself as the icy spear flew towards him, breathing in deep. Right before it would have hit him, he swung his fist in a powerful punch, launching the bullets away faster than they would have been shot otherwise, shattering the icy spear. Razor shards still but into his skin and plinked off of his armor, but the damage was insignificant and far less serious than the first hit he had taken from maelstrom. Shaking blood from his fingers, Zack turned to face Apache. "Right, Doc, let's see what we can do for those guys, eh?"