HOME | DD

Description
March 30, 2019; Bellwood

“Contego!”

“Jetray!”

“Look out!”

Ava could hear the explosions and shouts shaking the hideout walls as she ran through the halls trying to get outside as fast as possible. She didn't even stop to open the front door nicely. She slammed her shoulder into the push bar, not slowing down until she stepped out into the night air and saw what was causing the chaos. And just as she worried, her worst fears had been recognized.

Lucifer and Eon hovered in the air above the lot, firing their beams of energy at her friends and sending a lot of them flying into the nearest wall. Ben was in the air as a sort of red glider transformation, firing lasers at their enemies as he did loops in the sky trying to dodge. Gwen was on the ground, bruised from the fight and being checked on by Kevin, who was clad in a skidded asphalt armor. Ruby, Catherine, and Ava's other Assassin friends were doing their best acrobatics around the scaffoldings and crates scattered around the rocks trying to strike a hit at the Devil and his companion in any way possible.

But it was clearly a struggling battle, and so Ava thrust her hidden blades out from under her wrists, and ran forward to help. She lunged up onto a tower of scaffolding and used it to jump her way into the air. She hopped off the edge at the top and took aim at Lucifer's neck as she went airborne. But Lucifer simply threw a toothy grin her way, and thrust his hand out to catch her by the neck.

“I was wondering when you'd join the party, Arlie!” he laughed as she choked and struggled to get his fingers off.

He then raised her up, and tossed her down. Ava screamed as she fell back towards the pavement and landed on top of Ruby, sending both of them sprawling on the floor.

“Hey Champ, thanks for dropping in,” Ruby painfully said.

“Rubes come on, not now please,” Ava moaned.

“Sorry.”

The two scattered to their feet as the air suddenly rang with the crackling sound of an energy blast coming from Eon's direction. Ava rolled to cover and pulled out her gun.

“So fishbowl face,” she called out. “Be honest, what do you expect to get out of this? You honestly think Lucy's gonna let you walk away with your take?”

“I trust as far as I need to to get what I want,” Eon declared, firing one of his rays at her cover and disintegrating it to withering dust.

“Well ain't that team spirit,” Ava said, sprinting back towards the jungle gym of scaffolding to make a more direct assault. She leapt and dodged through the bars until she met up with Ben, who had made another transformation into a sort of blue arachnoid monkey clinging to the railings with sticky toes. Eon scowled at them and raised his crackling hand to fire another blast. Ben suddenly raised his tail though and shot a torrent of webbing out, sticking Eon's fist firmly shut.

“Glad you could join us, Ava! Have a good nap?” Dusk said as he was doing his best to stay out of view, taking shots whenever he could. “Hope we didn’t disturb you.”

“I'm honestly disappointed you didn't invite me to the party,” Ava responded as she dove down and landed on Eon. The two of them punched and kicked until Eon broke his hand free, and Ava lunged onto safer ground to avoid a blast. As Eon turned to fire, Dusk hopped over his cover to bash him over the head with his staff, using the momentum to get up higher.

Ava meanwhile continued her sprint around the arena, aiming to hop up to another level. But as she jumped, she suddenly felt something smack into her side, and quickly found herself airborne clutched in the claws of Lucifer.

“Going somewhere?” he quipped.

“Not really, but my foot was heading this way,” Ava responded, thrusting her knee upwards into Lucifer's shin. The Devil winced in pain and loosened his grip enough for them to go into a tumbling wrestle. Ava punched and aimed her gun, but Lucifer activated his thrusters and slammed her into a wall. She winced and began to fall as he let go, and she looked up, seeing the blinding red light of his hand blasted charging up. She shut her eyes, instinctively raising her gun to counter despite knowing it was futile. But her hope was rekindled quickly after. A beam of pink suddenly swarmed Lucifer and yanked him into the nearest pole, sending him spinning. Ava felt herself being caught by Chelsea's arms and being let down to her feet.

“Thanks,” she said to her and Gwen, out of breath.

“I miss the good old days when our enemies just had guns and sticks like us,” Chelsea moaned.

“At least you had those days,” Gwen said. “We always had these problems.”

“Fun,” Catherine said from behind her cover.

“You guys have magic, though.” Dusk called out, putting his gun away.

“Well technically it's not magic magic,” Gwen said. “It's just… weird science, in a way.”

“Don’t think now is the time for power explanations, guys,” Kevin said as ran out from behind them, a new coat of metal over his skin. He held up his fist and morphed it into a large sledgehammer shape, and used the scaffolding to leap up towards their airborne foes. He went for Lucifer as the fallen angel was getting his suit back under control, and decked him across the face, ping-ponging him back towards another level, where Jess was waiting to strike a home run with her electric baton.

“I don't know what you guys are talking about, this never gets old,” she laughed as she swung and thwacked him away.

“I'm inclined to agree honestly,” Ben said, wrestling with Eon a little bit away.

“Do all of your insolences know no bounds?!” Eon raged.

“Be glad you’ve only just met us! It gets worse,” Dusk called out, bringing his staff down onto Eon for a few hits. He rolled out of the way just as Eon let another blast loose. “What’s that dome made of anyways, Mysterio?”

“It will be the last thing you see before I turn your corpse to dust!” Eon snarled.

“That didn't really answer his question,” Ava said, getting a lift from Ruby to launch herself up and thrust forwards with her karambit.

Dusk sighed in response. “They never do.”

Ava swung her blade, landing a few cuts in his uniform, before he grabbed her and tossed her up. Lucifer came barreling through the air, rearing his fist back to land a hard hit on her. But Ava suddenly felt a tug on her torso that swung her out of the way. She looked up and saw Ben casting a web her way, and she grabbed it tight to swing back to level ground.

“We are wasting too much time with this distraction!” Eon said to his partner.

“I thought you had like time powers though?” Catherine asked.

“We must get the Hands of Armageddon!” Eon shouted, ignoring his foe and turning towards the hideout building. He raised his fist, lighting it up with purple energy, and blew a massive chunk out of the concrete. The Hands of Armageddon sat on its shelf, a slight purple glow emanating from it for all to see.

“Not going to let that happen, fish face!” Kevin declared, landing another smack on Eon as the fiend tried to make his way over to the artifact. Dusk threw in where he could.

“Hold them back! They can’t get them!” he called.

“Ava get the Hands!” Ruby shouted.

“On it!” Ava called, ducking beneath falling shrapnel as she sprinted back towards the garage. She lunged over the husk of the walls and ran up to the shelf, only to get blasted backwards by a red beam from Lucifer. The Devil hovered down, grinning at Ava as he gripped the sides of the artifact and kicked his thrusters upwards.

“No!” Ava yelled as her foe took off into the air again and she gave chase.

Gwen gasped and thrust her hand up, letting a beam of pink loose to try and latch on to the artifact. But Lucifer only struggled with it for a brief moment before Gwen was knocked off her feet by a blast from Eon.

The two villains hovered into the sky side by side, laughing maniacally as they looked down at the Assassins and their allies desperately trying to climb up and catch up.

“It's been fun doing this like good old times,” Lucifer yelled down at them. “But we've got business to take care of. I look forward to killing you next time!”

Then suddenly a swarm of purple lightning began to engulf him and Eon, wrapping them up and fizzling out until nothing was left but air and despair down below.

“No!” Jess yelled.

“Dammit!” Chelsea cursed.

The group took a moment to slow to a stop and regroup, looking up at the spot where their foes had vanished carrying a victory with them. They sheathed their weapons, and deactivated their powers, and stared, trying desperately to think of what to do next.

“... Welp. Time to alert the authorities,” Dusk stated, pulling his phone out. “Cause we’re screwed right now.”

Chelsea jolted her hand out and took his phone. She didn't even turn to scowl at him as she clenched her fist and dug her nails into the shattering glass of the screen.

“Hey! Berg only gave me two of those!”

She handed the crumbled chunk of hardware back to him, still ignoring his complaint, and her impulse to hit something very hard.

“What are we going to do now?” Ben asked. “Now that they have the Hands, who knows what they could do?”

Ava looked down and closed her eyes, trying to think. “They only have one half of the puzzle still,” she said. “We need to find the Apple. Fast. If we can get that artifact before they do, then we might still have a fighting chance here.”

“Hopefully the Animus room didn't get too damaged in the crossfire,” Ruby said, already making her way back into the hideout.

The group followed her close behind, into the dented remains of their base. Ava made a beeline for the Animus chair, thankful to see it unharmed. Ruby started frantically setting up the cables, and then simply handed Ava the headset. “I'll get the codes running from my garage station,” she said. “I'm going to keep working on your gift while you hurry through the last bit of Bromden's memories.”

“Ruby this doesn't really seem like the time to be working on presents,” Jess said.

“Trust me, if this is gonna go more south than it already has, this is a gift we're all gonna want her to have.”

And so Ruby hurried out the door towards the garage, with Ben and Kevin following her close behind.

“Gonna go help with clean up if it's that important,” Kevin said.

Ava nodded to them all, and she carefully put the Animus helmet over her eyes. She sat back in the chair, waiting until the white void appeared at Ruby's command from the other room. Ava fixed her eyes on the DNA strand in front of her, noticing it was at its end. She took a deep breath as that node began to flash red for selection, and closed her eyes, entering the past with only the hope that she would return to the present in time.

The void contorted and warped as shapes began to take form around her. The hum of the simulation remained, but it changed its tone ever so slightly. More akin to a foreboding ventilation system. He felt cramped in the little cell that was housing him, like he always did. But despite his discomfort, he didn't show it. He just sat in the corner, waiting for Billings to dare to show his face again.

Description
March 30, 2019; Bellwood

“Contego!”

“Jetray!”

“Look out!”

Ava could hear the explosions and shouts shaking the hideout walls as she ran through the halls trying to get outside as fast as possible. She didn't even stop to open the front door nicely. She slammed her shoulder into the push bar, not slowing down until she stepped out into the night air and saw what was causing the chaos. And just as she worried, her worst fears had been recognized.

Lucifer and Eon hovered in the air above the lot, firing their beams of energy at her friends and sending a lot of them flying into the nearest wall. Ben was in the air as a sort of red glider transformation, firing lasers at their enemies as he did loops in the sky trying to dodge. Gwen was on the ground, bruised from the fight and being checked on by Kevin, who was clad in a skidded asphalt armor. Ruby, Catherine, and Ava's other Assassin friends were doing their best acrobatics around the scaffoldings and crates scattered around the rocks trying to strike a hit at the Devil and his companion in any way possible.

But it was clearly a struggling battle, and so Ava thrust her hidden blades out from under her wrists, and ran forward to help. She lunged up onto a tower of scaffolding and used it to jump her way into the air. She hopped off the edge at the top and took aim at Lucifer's neck as she went airborne. But Lucifer simply threw a toothy grin her way, and thrust his hand out to catch her by the neck.

“I was wondering when you'd join the party, Arlie!” he laughed as she choked and struggled to get his fingers off.

He then raised her up, and tossed her down. Ava screamed as she fell back towards the pavement and landed on top of Ruby, sending both of them sprawling on the floor.

“Hey Champ, thanks for dropping in,” Ruby painfully said.

“Rubes come on, not now please,” Ava moaned.

“Sorry.”

The two scattered to their feet as the air suddenly rang with the crackling sound of an energy blast coming from Eon's direction. Ava rolled to cover and pulled out her gun.

“So fishbowl face,” she called out. “Be honest, what do you expect to get out of this? You honestly think Lucy's gonna let you walk away with your take?”

“I trust as far as I need to to get what I want,” Eon declared, firing one of his rays at her cover and disintegrating it to withering dust.

“Well ain't that team spirit,” Ava said, sprinting back towards the jungle gym of scaffolding to make a more direct assault. She leapt and dodged through the bars until she met up with Ben, who had made another transformation into a sort of blue arachnoid monkey clinging to the railings with sticky toes. Eon scowled at them and raised his crackling hand to fire another blast. Ben suddenly raised his tail though and shot a torrent of webbing out, sticking Eon's fist firmly shut.

“Glad you could join us, Ava! Have a good nap?” Dusk said as he was doing his best to stay out of view, taking shots whenever he could. “Hope we didn’t disturb you.”

“I'm honestly disappointed you didn't invite me to the party,” Ava responded as she dove down and landed on Eon. The two of them punched and kicked until Eon broke his hand free, and Ava lunged onto safer ground to avoid a blast. As Eon turned to fire, Dusk hopped over his cover to bash him over the head with his staff, using the momentum to get up higher.

Ava meanwhile continued her sprint around the arena, aiming to hop up to another level. But as she jumped, she suddenly felt something smack into her side, and quickly found herself airborne clutched in the claws of Lucifer.

“Going somewhere?” he quipped.

“Not really, but my foot was heading this way,” Ava responded, thrusting her knee upwards into Lucifer's shin. The Devil winced in pain and loosened his grip enough for them to go into a tumbling wrestle. Ava punched and aimed her gun, but Lucifer activated his thrusters and slammed her into a wall. She winced and began to fall as he let go, and she looked up, seeing the blinding red light of his hand blasted charging up. She shut her eyes, instinctively raising her gun to counter despite knowing it was futile. But her hope was rekindled quickly after. A beam of pink suddenly swarmed Lucifer and yanked him into the nearest pole, sending him spinning. Ava felt herself being caught by Chelsea's arms and being let down to her feet.

“Thanks,” she said to her and Gwen, out of breath.

“I miss the good old days when our enemies just had guns and sticks like us,” Chelsea moaned.

“At least you had those days,” Gwen said. “We always had these problems.”

“Fun,” Catherine said from behind her cover.

“You guys have magic, though.” Dusk called out, putting his gun away.

“Well technically it's not magic magic,” Gwen said. “It's just… weird science, in a way.”

“Don’t think now is the time for power explanations, guys,” Kevin said as ran out from behind them, a new coat of metal over his skin. He held up his fist and morphed it into a large sledgehammer shape, and used the scaffolding to leap up towards their airborne foes. He went for Lucifer as the fallen angel was getting his suit back under control, and decked him across the face, ping-ponging him back towards another level, where Jess was waiting to strike a home run with her electric baton.

“I don't know what you guys are talking about, this never gets old,” she laughed as she swung and thwacked him away.

“I'm inclined to agree honestly,” Ben said, wrestling with Eon a little bit away.

“Do all of your insolences know no bounds?!” Eon raged.

“Be glad you’ve only just met us! It gets worse,” Dusk called out, bringing his staff down onto Eon for a few hits. He rolled out of the way just as Eon let another blast loose. “What’s that dome made of anyways, Mysterio?”

“It will be the last thing you see before I turn your corpse to dust!” Eon snarled.

“That didn't really answer his question,” Ava said, getting a lift from Ruby to launch herself up and thrust forwards with her karambit.

Dusk sighed in response. “They never do.”

Ava swung her blade, landing a few cuts in his uniform, before he grabbed her and tossed her up. Lucifer came barreling through the air, rearing his fist back to land a hard hit on her. But Ava suddenly felt a tug on her torso that swung her out of the way. She looked up and saw Ben casting a web her way, and she grabbed it tight to swing back to level ground.

“We are wasting too much time with this distraction!” Eon said to his partner.

“I thought you had like time powers though?” Catherine asked.

“We must get the Hands of Armageddon!” Eon shouted, ignoring his foe and turning towards the hideout building. He raised his fist, lighting it up with purple energy, and blew a massive chunk out of the concrete. The Hands of Armageddon sat on its shelf, a slight purple glow emanating from it for all to see.

“Not going to let that happen, fish face!” Kevin declared, landing another smack on Eon as the fiend tried to make his way over to the artifact. Dusk threw in where he could.

“Hold them back! They can’t get them!” he called.

“Ava get the Hands!” Ruby shouted.

“On it!” Ava called, ducking beneath falling shrapnel as she sprinted back towards the garage. She lunged over the husk of the walls and ran up to the shelf, only to get blasted backwards by a red beam from Lucifer. The Devil hovered down, grinning at Ava as he gripped the sides of the artifact and kicked his thrusters upwards.

“No!” Ava yelled as her foe took off into the air again and she gave chase.

Gwen gasped and thrust her hand up, letting a beam of pink loose to try and latch on to the artifact. But Lucifer only struggled with it for a brief moment before Gwen was knocked off her feet by a blast from Eon.

The two villains hovered into the sky side by side, laughing maniacally as they looked down at the Assassins and their allies desperately trying to climb up and catch up.

“It's been fun doing this like good old times,” Lucifer yelled down at them. “But we've got business to take care of. I look forward to killing you next time!”

Then suddenly a swarm of purple lightning began to engulf him and Eon, wrapping them up and fizzling out until nothing was left but air and despair down below.

“No!” Jess yelled.

“Dammit!” Chelsea cursed.

The group took a moment to slow to a stop and regroup, looking up at the spot where their foes had vanished carrying a victory with them. They sheathed their weapons, and deactivated their powers, and stared, trying desperately to think of what to do next.

“... Welp. Time to alert the authorities,” Dusk stated, pulling his phone out. “Cause we’re screwed right now.”

Chelsea jolted her hand out and took his phone. She didn't even turn to scowl at him as she clenched her fist and dug her nails into the shattering glass of the screen.

“Hey! Berg only gave me two of those!”

She handed the crumbled chunk of hardware back to him, still ignoring his complaint, and her impulse to hit something very hard.

“What are we going to do now?” Ben asked. “Now that they have the Hands, who knows what they could do?”

Ava looked down and closed her eyes, trying to think. “They only have one half of the puzzle still,” she said. “We need to find the Apple. Fast. If we can get that artifact before they do, then we might still have a fighting chance here.”

“Hopefully the Animus room didn't get too damaged in the crossfire,” Ruby said, already making her way back into the hideout.

The group followed her close behind, into the dented remains of their base. Ava made a beeline for the Animus chair, thankful to see it unharmed. Ruby started frantically setting up the cables, and then simply handed Ava the headset. “I'll get the codes running from my garage station,” she said. “I'm going to keep working on your gift while you hurry through the last bit of Bromden's memories.”

“Ruby this doesn't really seem like the time to be working on presents,” Jess said.

“Trust me, if this is gonna go more south than it already has, this is a gift we're all gonna want her to have.”

And so Ruby hurried out the door towards the garage, with Ben and Kevin following her close behind.

“Gonna go help with clean up if it's that important,” Kevin said.

Ava nodded to them all, and she carefully put the Animus helmet over her eyes. She sat back in the chair, waiting until the white void appeared at Ruby's command from the other room. Ava fixed her eyes on the DNA strand in front of her, noticing it was at its end. She took a deep breath as that node began to flash red for selection, and closed her eyes, entering the past with only the hope that she would return to the present in time.

The void contorted and warped as shapes began to take form around her. The hum of the simulation remained, but it changed its tone ever so slightly. More akin to a foreboding ventilation system. He felt cramped in the little cell that was housing him, like he always did. But despite his discomfort, he didn't show it. He just sat in the corner, waiting for Billings to dare to show his face again.