Society of Justice 3: Crisis on the Earth

[Captainguy42]

" Actually I just thought of something, you might want to keep the key powers to minimum. I mean they already saw us in action when we escaped the jail, if they know a Key user took her that would pretty much mean it had to be you or Takashi right? Heck even I'll have to play it close to the vest, no chain, no gloves, lucky for me that super strength tends to be fairly common." As he said that he dropped his chain and gloves on in the trunk, he chose to keep the knuckle dusters as he didn't recall using them during his escape. He looked around a bit more and found a pair of large back packs filled with essential gear for Alaska, such as snow-shoes, poles, cooking equipment and food.

 

[tsatoma]

Roman tuned out the two men as they began to rummage through the trunk for useful items, keeping his eyes on the map as he became lost in his thoughts. I must see if Palin knows of any potential plans the U.A. might have for the near future that we have yet to find out about along with getting the information on Herkimer's notes. After this I have to see why the Cherbourg refugee camp was asking for me earlier. If I can get that done quickly enough, I should not be late for my meeting with the Prime Minister. Then I have to figure out dinner.

Peering up from the map, he noticed that Tommy and Jason both seemed prepped and ready to go. "This river gives you a good idea on the boundary to where I can teleport you out; just get to the northwestern side and I will pluck you out of there. I will not be able to listen to any of your thoughts once you cross it, but when you are ready to exfiltrated you just need to think it," Roman explained, asking the two if they were completely ready. After affirmation, he nodded as the area surrounding Tommy and Jason warped around the two before completely changing into a snow covered landscape.

[hr]

Alaska was one of the few areas under United American control that was largely left unaffected by Patriot's reign of power. The danger of being so close to an area under the European Union's control, being less protected from magic than any other area in U.A.'s borders, and the time it would take for support to arrive made it too dangerous for a large civilian settlement. Aside from the very large military base in Anchorage which was used mainly as deterrence against an attack, the bulk of the Alaskan wilderness remained untouched allowing for wild animals to roam.

"No signs of any game we're looking for yet. Just a few elk over to the east so far," the pilot of a military helicopter stated as he adjusted their height to avoid wind shear above them.

"This is only our second expedition out for the beast, we'll find it now that we have a good idea where it is," a shrill, perky voice said, the figure it emanated from shrouded in shadows.

"You sure about that, ma'am?" a guard asked, keeping an eye out for any signs of life down on the ground below them.

"Oh, you betcha."

 

[NeoAC]

Brian had no interest in playing janitor for the day. Especially not when he was basically given carte blanche to go off into Paris and try and forget that he might not ever be going back home, or ever see his beloved Habs play another game, or not be in a world where America dominated Canada.

"Yeah, no, you know, if that's it, I'll probably bugger off for a bit there. See the sights and all, you know?" He excused himself from Renee's presence and after dropping some unnecessary things out of his pockets in his room, he headed out with the bit of money that he had picked up to try and enjoy himself.

 

[Captainguy42]

"I don't know why I keep expecting him to give us some warning before he does that." Tommy muttered as a bent down to put on his snow shoes, once they were on he check his map and compass. "Looks like we're not that far away, few hours hike and we'll be there." He said as he started towards Palin's last known position. After a few minutes of silenced filled only with the sound of crunching snow Tommy spoke to Jason, "Sooooooo, we got a few hours of trail ahead of us, nothing but miles of snow all around, Roman's finally out of our heads, anything you want to talk about?"

 

[Pm0n3y]

As all the wind, snow, and overall teleporting noises died down, Jason found himself in a white, quiet, desolate landscape. Nothing but trees and snow as far as the eye could see. Once the disorienting effects of instant transmission died down, The two found themselves with a bit of a trek ahead. Tommy started off the direction he was given, with Jason at his side. "...anything you want to talk about?" Tommy piped up, the snow keeping his voice low and compact. "Yeah, actually: how's that eye of yours lookin'? Any sort of new developments goin' down with that? Does it do something new or is it just for show or...?" Jason purposely trailed off, giving the bruiser a chance to lead in with an explanation.

"The eye? Honestly I'm starting to forget about it sometimes. I guess you get used to any injury if you give yourself long enough. Recently I think it's been giving me glimpses of what some people would call mana, as in the stuff of magic. You know the things auras, souls, ghosts, and enchantments are made from. Every so often it snaps into focus and suddenly there's an entire world layered on top of this one. Kind of a pain in the ass really."

"What about you Jason? How's it feel to be in a completely different universe, where your brother is a good guy and he still hates your guts?" Tommy asked.

"Tommy can see magic at it's spiritual core? What does he see in us...?" While Erebus pondered on the implications of Tommy's newfound gift, Jason was a little hesitant to answering Tommy's question. Brotherly hate was no new thing to Jason, but the initial reveal of young Takashi's disdain towards his brother was fairly disheartening. Though in this universe, as things were cleared up, the searing loathing from the brother seemed to be for a good reason.

"Well, it doesn't seem like he hates me in particular, though my alternate counterpart seems to be a real power hungry asshole. Makes me wonder how I (and by "I", I, of course, mean "him") even got to that level of crazy in this universe." Jason answered. "Maybe the animosity between you two is some sort of a constant, like how only half of Garrus' family can be alive at any given time or Tyson being generally abrasive."

"I guess." Jason said with a shrug. "It's funny the way the universe works, huh?"

"Actually it's pretty terrifying." Tommy added quite matter-of-factly.

 

[Captainguy42]

It was another two hours of walking before Tommy and Jason found signs they were actually in the right direction. As they approached the edge of a forest they could see a swath of destruction cut into the treeline carving a path deep into the forest. The two cautiously moved towards the wreckage of trees until they could see the trunks; shattered, rended, splintered, some merely knocked over. It was clear whatever did this was possessed a terrifying amount of strength. "You know it just occurred to me we never bothered to figure out what exactly Palin was hunting, and that we might want to be a bit worried about it." Tommy said to Jason as he inspected some tracks in the ground easily larger than any non-lizard creature he'd ever seen.

 

[Pm0n3y]

Jason had to raise an eyebrow at Tommy's concern. "Are you being serious, or just making a funny?" He asked, crouching down to properly observe what remained of one of the fantastically destroyed trees. A hastily made stump, a steady crop of splinters showing just how sloppily it was separated. "I'm like, the fastest guy on the team born with an almost indestructible second skin. And you're the strongest guy on the team with skin even tougher than mine! What do we (out of everyone on the team) have to worry about?" Jason boasted, continuing to survey the surroundings. "Believe me, if Palin thought she had enough balls to go searching for this thing, then we shouldn't have to worry about anything this mystery beast could throw at us."

 

[Captainguy42]

"You've actually got a point, heck I bet the two of us could do that kind of damage easily," Tommy mused as he pointed to the path of destruction. Suddenly his eyes lit up as inspiration hit. "I've got an idea! Follow my lead." He suggested, he charged forward and punched the nearest tree, splintering the trunk and felling it with a thundering crash. "I bet you if we start knocking down the trees like that, Palin might think we're the creature and come to us." Tommy said excitedly as he knocked over another, "Oh and if you tell Katie about this plan I'm going to throw you over the Arc de Triomphe." He added.

 

[Pm0n3y]

"Uhhh..." Jason wanted to intervene, but Tommy was already off. "Ohh, Tommy!" If this were a sitcom, the live studio audience would've been rolling in their seats at this point. But, he was on to something. No doubt Palin was following through the path of destruction left by the mystery beast. If anything, the ruckus could easily work in their favor. "Oh and if you tell Katie about this plan I'm going to throw you over the Arc de Triomphe." Tommy pointed out, bending through another tree with the chop of his hand. "Hey, my lips are sealed." He replied, putting a flurry of heavy kicks into the nearest tree. WHAP! WHAP! WHAP! echoed through the forest, toppling the tree with ease. Soon after, he sent a line of spikes blasting into another tree, grinning all the way. "It's a simple idea Tommy, but, I like it! I needed this, I could really blow off the steam!" He yelled "YAH!" and chopped through he air, sending another shockwave of black spikes into another tree.

 

[tsatoma]

"Reaching site of initial sighting. Going to drop a bit in altitude so that we don't get caught in these low ceilings," the pilot told his passengers as the helicopter began a slow descent below the thick layer of low clouds. Sparse patches of fog could be seen as they maintained a lowered flight level, though the overall visibility of the area was unrestricted. "Going to slow down now so that the doors can be opened for hunting. Make sure your safely tied in."

Once all passengers gave a thumbs up, the side doors of the helicopter were unlocked and the hunt truly began. "So, what am I looking for ma'am?" the youngest guard asked as he scanned the area below him for signs of anything out of the ordinary.

"Lookin' for anything that can point to where the beast is or went. After that initial finding at this site we haven't been able to find anything else. From what we could tell, it looked like it went off a waterfall, but we can't be too sure," Palin replied as she calmly perused the area.

"Okay," the guard said quietly, keeping an eye out for anything. It stayed relatively quiet for a few minutes, before a snapping sound could be heard followed by a distant tree disappearing from sight. "Uh, might have found something. Looks like a tree fell over; not sure if that is really enough for us to go an- woah, nevermind. Another tree just fell down, and it looks like another! I think we might have found it after all!"

"Nice job! Let's move in slowly, and circle around a few times to see what it is first. Make sure your weapons are good to go!" Palin commanded with excitement now that her prey had been found.

 

[Captainguy42]

The chance to cut loose after being cooped up in that hotel proved to be intoxicating to Tommy. His lips twisted into the grin of a mischievous child as his mailed fist eviscerated tree after tree. Tommy had always tried not to take joy in destruction but for some reason this just seemed right. His friend was by his side, no one was being hurt, and deep in these woods this Earth seemed no different than his. But din of splintering wood Tommy didn't hear the helicopter approaching. He was so distracted that he didn't remember why he was there until he saw it's shadow pass over him. He stopped, looked up, and stared slack jawed at the copter A helicopter, wasn't there something I was supposed to being doing with that? Oh shit that's right. Immediately he dove for cover and watched as the copter circled around them. He wondered whether or not they had saw him as he lay down on the snow, trying to make the most out of his camouflage. He tried to locate Jason but he couldn't see him from where he was from his spot. Tommy panicked he had no idea what to do next, Jason wasn't in sight, and that copter could open fire at any second. Fuck it. He stood up, grabbed the nearest felled tree and winged it at them.

 

[Pm0n3y]

Jason, high above the ground and perched in a tree that (surprisingly) hadn't been knocked down yet, Could easily spy the helicopter from beyond the leaves. But what he could also spy easily, was the trunk currently sailing upwards towards the flying vehicle. "Jesus, Tommy!" He retreated from his perch, falling to ground level to meet up with the bruiser. "Stop trying to kill them, we need her alive!" He reminded him, trying his best to keep his arms from flailing around exasperatedly.

 

[tsatoma]

"Evasive maneuver! Brace yourselves," yelled the pilot as the view of an ever-growing tree grew as it hurtled towards them. Forcing the helicopter into a sharp turn to the right probably saved their lives, though the tail-end of the flying vehicle did not make it out unscathed. "We're losing balance, I'm going to have to put her down. It's going to be rough, so make sure you hold on tight."

"It must have been the creature that did this! It clearly knew we were a threat and decided to attack first! Clever," Palin said, talking as if they weren't going to be crash landing in just a few seconds, "Going to have to be smart on this one. We'll have to track it down once we land."

The unbalanced helicopter was brought down in an area of less dense trees, though the blades of the rotor system became bent and broken as it struck the trees. It landed with a loud thump, sputtering around clearing branches before the engine was finally turned off. "I'll radio back to base and see if they can send out a rescue group to come and get us," the pilot began after he looked back to make sure that his passengers were alright.

"Nonsense! We are here on a mission, and we will not go back until we catch my prey! Bringing more people here will just cause more problems," Palin explained as she took off her harness and hopped out of the helicopter. Reaching back in for her gun and a few supplies, she told the guard to follow her into the forest to find the beast.

"Uh...yes, ma'am," the young guard replied after a moment of thought on the matter, looking back at the pilot who simply shrugged in response. Muttering something under his breath about his job, he followed after Palin. "So, uh ma'am-" he began before being shushed by Palin, who turned around to look at him and put her finger to her lips.

"Gotcha," he said quietly once she turned back around, staying silent as they continued into the dense forest.