Phoenix, thinking to damage the field, but not thinking about the effects of burning off the oxygen in the field, ignites and places his hand upon the field in an attempt to cause it to fail.

As incredible as it seemed, Nate had almost forgotten that had a small, apparently sentient, extradimensional creature living in his coat pocket.

Once the little guy started wanting out, he reached in and took it out, honestly curious as to what it was going to do. He held it up to the force field.

"Do you have any idea?" he whispered to it, "There's cookies in it for you."

He kept an protective Invocation ready. Just in case.

UPDATE!

 Asar quickly attempts to solve the issue by using his massive fists to drive straight into the foundation of the dirt flooring of the place and then into it's foundation. Which quickly gave way beneath his feet. Not swayed in the slightest he kept it up. Amazingly his arms were completely untouched during the endeavor. It wouldn't take him long to reach a sewer or any other abandon level of the city at this rate. However he frowned when he reached the bottom of the spherical shield, and although for some reason it wasn't moving the stone or dirt, he felt the bounce-back when his fists touched the rapidly receding bubble. It appeared to be malleable to a degree but even using his monstrous strength was unable to break the field.

 Phoenix began to use his powers to see if he could burn his way through the field, perhaps by damaging it enough he might unlock a way out of the field. Asar did not notice as the oxygen in the field began to thin after a few seconds and Phoenix hadn't noticed that Asar had upped his own field to prevent them from being smooshed.

 Asar did begin to notice one thing, and that was his field was holding against the pushback of the first field as though evenly matched.

 Nathaniel held aloft the little shelled black squiddy to the field and noticed something interesting. It's little tentacles began to swirl in a strange pattern before the force bubble. It began to emit a humming sound not totally unpleasant, and as it did so the field began to swirl with an iridecent wash of colors. Then with a popping sound, the first field fell as everyone locked eyes with the strange little creature, and all that remained was Asar's second field that had prevented it from crushing them. Finally the thing stopped and as if exhausted and full, began a slow arduous climb back to Nathaniel's pocket, perhaps a little drunkenly.

OOC: I'm imagining the mogwai humming song from Gremlins. ^_^
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:08, Wed 16 Dec 2020.

Nathaniel has seen a lot of stranger things. Been a lot of strange places. Had a lot of strange being tempt him with ultimate power for his eternal soul. But this was a first.

After he got hold of himself, he helped the little guy back into his pocket and tossed a bit of hardtack in after him. "Good work, little guy," he said, "That's some good, good work."

"Excellent work. I don't know how much longer my field would have lasted given the lack of breathable air. I think that this being is the one who was actually doing the whipping. He sent the person being whipped and any assistants away with some kind of power or magic. Look for other clues in the context of this warehouse being used as a staging area for the king of some minor country."

He goes over and feels the neck, for a pulse, of the being that is on the ground bleeding out. While he does this he takes a much more detailed 'feeling' of what exactly the power that was being used actually was. He specifically wants to know if this is somehow Marduk or a reincarnation of some kind.

 Asar bends to the man who was seeming to deflate before them, Asar sees power, and it's flavor is unique so far in his experience. The strength, the fire generation and energy body which he'd yet to utilize, the force field, it seemed to be a fusion of many powers. Then he realized, the power was a form of power mimicry, but went even further to include physical strengths as well. Though that power, like Asar's primary source of power, was somehow unseen except through deduction, a macro-power if you will, passive after a fashion. Maybe he could directly control which powers he got, but it seemed a rather random sampling from those individuals nearby.

 It seemed like this power could fit Marduke's profile, but he wouldn't go down as easily as this one. It didn't seem likely.
 The bubble now falls and Phoenix's fire flares up a bit. The man he'd shot lay on the ground, at the moment completely stunned, his eyes rolled back and he seemed to begin to deflate in size and mass. Though he did not seem to be dying. Even his bullet wound did not seem to be overly productive, though he did seem to be sucking air with his chest wound. (He rolled a one on his save so he's down for a while but he's clearly both no threat and yet clearly gonna survive.)

As the oxygen inside the bubble is being used up by his flames, they begin to dim, and Phoenix begins to feel a bit breathless.  Damn.  Something he had not considered, though he should have.
When the bubble falls, and his flames flare up again, he disperses them to appear human once more.
He steps over to where Asar is looking over the guy he had shot.  He sees that he is going to survive, and he nods his head at the man's resilience.  So, what's this guy's deal?

"It seems that he reflexively copies some or all of the powers and physical characteristics of those near him. A most dangerous person to have around me, specifically. He could be a great asset if he were on the side of light, but I do not think that he is. I would suggest we take him to the authorities on charges of assault, but we are on private property and I a sure there would be issues later. Perhaps Nathaniel could place a post-hypnotic suggestion to fight for truth, justice, and the Western Cultural way?"

He places some of the mans own clothing onto the mans wound and holds pressure to it.

"It is to bad that I lack some of the mental arts I possessed so long ago."

I could stop his bleeding, but it would hurt.  Probably wake him up, James, the Phoenix, says as he holds up a closed fist, with a flaming finger index finger pointing up.  But then, we might be able to question him.

In reply to Asar Uludu (msg # 63):

Nathaniel frowned and looked uncomfortable for a moment. "I'm not great with sarcasm, so I'm not sure if that was in jest, but I can do... things... along those lines. Temporarily at least."

He didn't like talking about this sort of thing. Revealing you can magically control minds had a bad habit of souring relationships.

 The man on the ground was now going through a bit of a coughing fit, he almost appeared as he had on the boat with Geo, when he was saved from the frogmen. He had been turned loose amongst the people of the Mauretania without Nathaniel having seen him helpless in the ship's hastily converted hospital-saloon, where Roach and Phoenix had been lain to recover. Nathaniel recalls that the guard had been one of the first to leave the dwindling group of survivors. He hadn't in his experience remembered the man to be one of such abilities.

 It seemed more likely that Nathaniel had witnessed some kind of...power pill, being swallowed swiftly by the man after his master had left. Nathaniel recalled these events with clarity, his power had shown him much and perhaps it was just taking a moment to sink in, he had many answers already.

 Asar managed to cover the hole in the man's chest enough to stop the bleeding, but his lung was sucking air and perhaps filling with blood. He currently seemed no longer able to even lift a briefcase, his mass had decreased to that of a normal man and then his muscle mass disappeared along with it. He looked emaciated like the other survivors onboard the Neustria. The mass wouldn't come back for a time, they'd been too starved of food. So this was Grant August.

 He moans and his eyes start to flutter a bit, it seemed he was coming awake.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:10, Wed 23 Dec 2020.

He's comin' to?  Good.  He can answer some questions, Phoenix says.  Then we need ta get outta here before we cause an international incident.  We have no authority or jurisdiction here like we did in international wayers.  As it is, we may be too late.

"Well, if we are going to save him, getting him to our allies would be essential. At this point he looks like he has been starved half to death, like that kid on the ship. What happened to this guy?

Hey guy, we are trying to save you, but we need to know who your boss is and what happened to you so we don't mess you up any more."

Asar is really wishing he would have made the effort to copy that healing ability earlier.

UPDATE!

 The man stammers out a withering laugh as he explains his situation with a voice that sounds like his lungs are full of rice crispy's, "I uh, I'm a contractor for a king, I was told to escort the statue and...and...on the Neustria, to Paris. The man contracted me and told me what to do, he was very specific, but I failed. You found the statue didn't you, and stopped it somehow....you all. You destroyed me...and saved me," he says as he shakes a bony finger at the four interrogators.

 The man has a froth of blood at the corners of his mouth and it begins to seem apparent what his injury was in combination with his bloody chest. "I failed...again, to stop you now...it was a fluke. I was changing, and you shot me before I could complete the change..."

OOC: Feel free to begin your questions, he'll respond to certain things better than others so try everything. ^_^
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:31, Mon 28 Dec 2020.

It was either shoot you, or burn you to a crisp, Phoenix says as he kneels next to the man.  What were you turning into?

Nathaniel was glad the guy was talking. Of all the off-putting things he could do, controlling minds was one of the offing-est-puttingest.

But then, everything the guy said just begged another dozen questions. "Destroy you how? Save you how?"

Asar keeps pressure on the man's wounds and then picks him up. The only real medical help he knows about is at the train station.

"Lets get him to the train station."

He heads out with the man, questions and all.

James steps in front of Asar.  I can stop his bleeding, he says, by cauterizing his wound.  Did you see if there is an exit wound?

UPDATE! OOC: I like that image too!

 The quartet asked questions as Asar walked, carrying the man down the aisle in the warehouse. The man winces as Asar picks him up, and a fresh blood stain swells across the man's thin shirt. As they all look they see no damage mirroring the first on his back, no exit, though his whip wounds were still fresh and Asar could feel wetness on his hands. He responds in order, every few moments stopping to wheeze or cough, "I was changing into all of you, the best parts of all of you. That's what the >cough!<, yellow ones do..."

 He points at Nathaniel, "your gang saved me from the ship and the activation of the statue! Your friend the metal man did it." His face transforms into a deep scowl, "my contract ended tonight I'm afraid and so I'm destroyed even if I live. I could neither stop the curse of the statue, nor could I deal with you all...," he laughs a hollow laugh that ends in a coughing fit and a whimper.

 Ms.S swept ahead for traps or anything that could help their situation leaving the interrogation to the men for now.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:13, Thu 31 Dec 2020.

"Well it seems that the curse is over and the contents dealt with. You said that is what the yellow one does, are there others, and what do they do? Who is this king you were contracted to? Why would this king want the statue or it's contents?"

He continues to carry the man in one arm and use the other to apply pressure.

You said something about a king.  Was he here?  Was that who whipped you?
This brings a whole new element to what could already turn into an international incident if a king was directly present and involved.

Nate is well confused.

"Yellow ones? What yellow ones?"

He was hoping the man's answers to all their questions would shed some light on all this.

UPDATE!

 The man reached some kind of climactic coughing fit but when he regained his voice, the sound was foamy and fraught with obstructive liquids. "Yes, there are other pills. I only know about the red one and the yellow one. The blue one gives one the ability to see and hear long distances..."

 "The man who whipped me was my only contractor, he calls himself the Guardsman" he rasps, "he apparently represents the King of Latveria. King Vladimir Fortunov. He is collecting ancient artifacts of ...occultic origins."

OOC: Sorry this'll be a short one but hopefully answer some questions. Let's try to wrap things up shortly, so if you are holding any further questions, now's the time.

The one-handed man gives a soft sigh.  Something tells me that this is only the first time the Guardsman will cross our path.

"Agreed. Look ahead, there is our destination. Let us see if our friend can help with our wound and at least get it properly dressed till more professional help can arrive."

Asar continues on, not even breathing heavily, as he is nearly running with the man in his arms. A slip of a man, but a man none the less.