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The Matriarch: Chilled to the Bone

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broccoli
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The Matriarch: Chilled to the Bone

Visionary was touring the Freedom Five facility when she noticed a wrongness in the fabric of reality.  The other heroes were on a mission, but Dr. Washington was on the tour with her, and Absolute Zero was still around.  They flew quickly to Central Park, where Argent Adept was already investigating a strange magical tear in the air; he had also felt something unnatural and come to investigate.  Unfortunately, they weren't the only ones.  The Matriarch was there, hoping to turn this disturbance to her advantage.  As the tear opened and began to spill into our realm, she attacked.

She seemed to have an endless supply of birds with which to attack, and her Cohorts quickly came to her aid.  Ra recklessly destroyed her minions, and one by one, the heroes fell.  However, it would seem that luck was on their side, for moments after they fell, a strange green light flashed from the tear, and time snapped back to the moment just before the fight began.  Vanessa and Anthony shared a look.  While the others were oblivious to the phenomena, they both knew something had just happened.  The difference was, for the Argent Adept, it was just a feeling; the Visionary remembered it all.

The fight began to replay in similar fashion.  The birds swarmed, and the park quickly filled with carrion.  However, a pulsing red light from the tear seemed to make brittle everything it touched, allowing the heroes to break the Matriarch's mask, and slowly clean up the carrion empowering the birds.  Again Ra dispatched the flock, and again there was a terrible psychic backlash from the Matriarch, greatly weakening the heroes.

This time however, the Visionary latched on and rode the psychic wave backwards to establish a connection with young Lillian Corvus.  Through this connection, the Visionary assaulted her with visions of a failed future, demoralizing her and stealing her will to fight.  Then she convinced her that no matter how many times the bird fell, and no matter how hopeless it seemed, focusing her attention on her cohort Huginn was the only way to avoid such a future.  She also suggested that her mask and fields of carrion wouldn't be useful until later in the fight.

The other heroes, unaware of the psychic conversation occuring in their presence continued to battle the strange things leaking from the tear in reality.  While they all thought it was strange that they had to incinerate the same large crow several times before it stayed down, compared to bubbles that exploded painfully on impact, a large 3 eyed lizard, a vortex spinning with forceful vibrations, and lashes of arcane energy that bound Absolute Zero's hands, it wasn't the strangest thing they'd seen that day.  Absolute Zero waded into the fray, taking the brunt of the damage, but constantly dowsed himself with cold in order to remain standing, while the Argent Adept wove songs into fire, frost, and pure vibrational destruction to battle the incursion.  Ra stuck to what he knew best: bringing fiery destruction upon his foes, particularly the strange reincarnating raven.

As more carrion spilled onto the field, and Huginn was joined by his companion Muninn, the Visionary began to enact her long-term strategy.  She subtley manipulated the energies around the Matriarch and Absolute Zero, leaving a connection to herself so that she could manipulate them further at her whim.  The Argent Adept clapped his hand and his beloved harp shattered into fragments, and Muninn fell to the ground, and Ra muttered, "Again, really?  Anubis take that damned phoenix", as he turned Huginn to ash yet again.

Then, the tear in reality began to exude a force that pressed in from all sides and made everyone feel confined.  The Matriarch seemed unaffected however, and she spread her arms wide.  "Prepare to become food for the flocks.  Come my minions, darken the sky with your wings and destroy these fools with your talons", she cackled.  The other heroes seemed taken aback, but Visionary let slip a sly grin; this is what she'd been waiting for.

"Ignore the birds and focus on the witch.  Absolute Zero, get ready.", the Visionary telepathically advised the others.  Not knowing what she meant, Absolute Zero healed himself as best he could, and Argent Adept pushed back the claustrophobic forces emanating from the tear.  Ra blasted the Matriarch with flame and turned to look at the Visionary to see if he could figure what would come next.  Suddenly, the birds began to fall from the sky, robbed of their faith in their wings to carry them.  The Matriarch threw her head back and let loose a psychic wail as before, but this time Visionary was ready.

She used her connection to the energies around the Matriarch and shifted and magnified the force of her wail, shaping it into chilling winds that blasted into Absolute Zero with frigid force.  Within seconds he felt as good as he had when the fight began.  Then he heard a voice in his head, "Here it comes."

"Here what comes?", Absolute Zero uttered just as the energies twisted and turned, becoming a huge blast of flame.  "Oh!", he gasped as his isothermic transducer activated and almost immediately shifted into high gear, transforming the intense heat into stored cold energy.  Absolute Zero pointed his hand at the Matriarch and began to channel the cold even as the fiery blast continued.  Dividing her attention, the Visionary manipulated Absolute Zero's blast of cold, magnifying its force as well.

The Matriarch collapsed to her knees, shivering and stiff, but still resolute.  The Visionary smirked and sent one last spike of psychic energy through their shared connection and watched as Miss Corvus' eyes rolled back in her head, and then the Matriarch finally collapsed.

The heroes gathered as they heard sirens in the distance.  Soon the local law enforcement would arrive, take Lillian Corvus into custody, and maybe this time, her lawyers wouldn't get her out so quickly.  The heroes began to trudge away from the scene, tired and sore, but victorious.  Absolute Zero turned to the Visionary, "I don't know what that was you did at the end there, but I have to admit, it was pretty COOL".  Dr. Washington and Drake both slapped their faces with their palms, and Vanessa groaned as they all turned away, walking a little faster to put distance between themselves and the prankster.  Absolute Zero feigned innocence.  "What?", he said, unsuccessfully stifling a giggle, "What did I say?"

(If you want to know what happened mechanically, check out https://sentinelsofthemultiverse.com/forum/topic/a-very-close-game-that-turned-around-2495)


"I'm not prone to hyperbole, but she is the Antichrist." - chwineka

flamethrower49
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Magnificent.  Really well written.