Last Lines, Skylines, and Leylines

[Axel Gobetsu]

The bustle of war preparations were deafening and even though he had cracked the hard drive open a few hours after the meeting Axel was still racking his brain to make sure he had everything he needed to make sure nothing would get past him at the gate. This was a week after the announcement and he had already explained his plan of defense to Erigor.

The blue skies were littered with glittering kite looking contraptions, at least three or four in each cardinal direction. To an unaware observer you would have wondered if they were having fun, but anyone aware of the science at work knew differently. Surrounding these rigged lines were attendants, keeping each one a certain distance apart and cooling the heated coils on the ground with water when necessary. Bound to start a fire if he hadn’t instructed they needed to be cooled manually. The kites, made of a ferromagnetic material, absorbed the heat from the surrounding air, condensing the water that was available and creating a cloudy forecast over the city no matter which direction the wind blew.

The parts were actually broken down from a Sontmano weather machine, Axel begrudgingly tracked it down from a greedy scrapper that wanted to charge him for every part that was a different metal. He was bargaining for the whole thing, and it was missing the most vital piece needed for power and cooling so he couldn’t help but haggle the short hairy man for the least he would sell it for. It was the part he wanted the least interaction with, the piece he was actually working to pry out of the hands of Sontmano. This vendor wasn’t responsible for the abuse that it took to provide the ease of this product, but his emotions definitely showed in the price.

To create the energy device that he had found in the hard drive however Axel was going to have to make some modifications. There were two main things that were going to be different, the location and the origin spark. At the Sontmano facility they had done years of research on the local leyline in order to build the nexus they drew energy from. On top of that state of the art materials were used to propogate a mysterious energy that Axel had never felt before. For Axel to accomplish the same he would need more than a few adept witches, a veteran mechanical engineer, and a power source that was reactive to the subtle fluxes of naten in the air.

Axel was fairly sure he had the last part covered which though which is why he wouldn’t include it to be conscripted in his parts list to Erigor. Besides he didn’t want to deal with any unknown power sources, even with the structure at Sontmano he applied his knowledge to the electricity the device produced and took advantage of it programming for his own purposes. They had constructed pylons of the generator on a miniature scale all across the island, this increased both the magnetic field and the storage capacity of electricity. The only problem with this magnificent invention that produced electricity without fuel was that it’s core was made of farmed ectoplasm.

[Axel Gobetsu]

Not that Axel knew about this trade secret yet, even though the entire island gave him the creeps he attributed it to the constant overcast and looming mountains. Even brushing off the eerie sounds couldn’t keep him away from eventually discovering the source of this mega corporations success. His intentions however were much further off.

Kyra had shown interest in the way his energy could interact with organic and inorganic technology. So much so that he had become the concentration of her experiments and she the inspiration for his training. It was through her effort that Axel took the time to learn the difference between volts and amps. Through his tenaciousness she was able to communicate with her plants in a way she had never experienced before during Axel’s constant stimulation training.

Reading their electrical impulses was never a problem but the ninja had trained his voltage output to a level that the plant could actually store and use for inessential behavior. This allowed for the expression of the modified genetics, further enhancement and eventual communication through understanding of those expressed traits. This had been Kyra’s obsession since her mother had been diagnosed psychologically insane and couldn’t see her daughter without screaming. Since she was about 12 years old her mother had been committed to a building right under the mountains at the back of the island.

Over the years she had witnessed her father return with darkness and frustration deepen across his face. Eventually becoming old enough to say what he couldn’t to the rest of his employees and taking responsibility when his mind was elsewhere. She trusted her father and his ability to take care of her and her mother so when she heard of her mother’s passing she was devastated, but she had never seen her father so relieved.

Suddenly giving his full attention back to the company and bringing solutions and new inventions to the table like he had them the whole time. That is of course when Kyra got the chance to actually grieve over the absence and death of her mother. Cultivating her knowledge and her plants in memory of her mother who was responsible for finding this beautiful island and making sure her future had potential seeds planted throughout it.

[Axel Gobetsu]

Turning the skills he learned from people he trusted, against those very same people, was getting very old, very fast. Between the troves of betrayal that he felt building against his morals and the pain and destruction he would have ensue for justice against those that taught him, Axel didn't know what caused him more pain. Unfortunately he brought himself to this decision once more as he discovered the malicious intent of her father. Breaching their software like oil did a well lubricated machines, teasing its electrical components with stable impulses of electricity that broke the firewalls down like butter.

Even though Kyra was the first person that taught Axel to actually relax his body as well as his mind. He felt spiritually inclined to bring this company to it's knees. He had to keep this intention a secret of course which meant he had to hide his disgust from the entire island. Even more so from Kyra, it hurt Axel to resort to insincere flattery to distract her from his feelings about her fathers company. However, he neither wanted her implicated or hindering him from what he was about to do.

Attributing the subsequent explosion in his growth to Kyra's care and oversight wasn't even entirely a lie. What he could not give her responsibility for was his research in how to alter the programming of her fathers generators. Eventually making his way to each and every one under the guise of routine patrols and guard station inspections to create a bypass for the feedback loop that he intended to detonate.

However it was the advancement of her fathers ideas that prompted the need for better security. Before the construction and refinement of the generator the breakthrough itself produced a violent tone across the island that caused the wildlife to go berserk and the officers that were outside to go a variety of symptoms from dizziness to fainting.

Axel was one of the precautions that she felt she couldn't afford to overlook, and after persuading her father past his strangely new found confidence she acquired a budget and transport to acquire means for a better defense force to protect themselves. Upon bringing the ninja back with the weapons her father was pleased enough with the results to lift her ban on research facilities from all of them to the few that she could use for her botany projects.

The building that her mom was held in however was still off limits, fenced in a parameter that was electrified to protected from the enraged wildlife that saw it as a target every once in a while. It was now being treated as one of the most secure and advanced buildings on the island, and Axel's starting objective. Leading the others with was lethality was almost lazily achievable because they lacked the actual combat and never seen complete domination of a battlefield that had been the brooding culture in the village he was born.

That plus the fact that he had negotiated a commission on every creature he killed so he eventually became a machine so efficient at clearing the forest and raking in their funds that they knew they could make more profit on his abilities elsewhere. That is how Axel the drill sergeant was created, outgunning the arms he sold to corporate pups that relied meekly on their firearms. Eventually they upgraded their guard dog to one of the best suites they had to offer and this promotion, mere months after beginning his tenure, came with a higher security clearance than Kyra's.

Even still his suspicions weren't piqued until the girl he had began caring for opened up about the grief she felt for her mother. For he had seen the wires inscribed with ritual magic, he had to ignore the vats of dismembered body parts as he provided his expertise on it's security. Frankly he was getting paid enough not to ask any questions outside of the business he was paid for, being deep enough into other deep market trades that he knew science people were weird about their experiments, dead or alive. It took a while for Axel to accept that her mother never left the building but going off of hints like a closed casket and an empty grave that he took the time to discreetly dig up himself provided revelations that he wasn't too keen on accepting to say the least.

Still it gave him all the more drive and motive to investigate the source of the mystically magnetic field that radiated from that building.

[Axel Gobetsu]

Knowledge of how to construct this magnetic field being in Helidor right before an invasion felt like it was a gift from Vescrutia herself, plundered from evil to protect the innocent. It may not have looked like he was doing actual hard work but Axel was certainly working hard, between staying on top of building as many collapsible lightning rods as he could, building and testing parts for the generator, and eating enough food to replace nearly a liter of blood every day for two of the weeks he had been preparing. This was after, of course, he had summoned Minesai, their band's water nymph singer, from the vessel of purified water that he meant to bleed himself into.

Since coming to Helidor he had never felt more in tune with his Thieves Code. The hands he shook in the darkness here were far more comfortable and secure than the ones he met on his journey to get here. His ambitions had been well met by the intricate network of the self governing city, a unique community of people that found a way to look after it's own, uniting with an underbelly as lean against adversity as it's glorious and respected heroes.

That inspiration in itself was enough to make even Axel think about settling out of that code, no matter how quickly the idea was defeated. Before joining the Guilded Fang he even found his bandmates in a few of those cohorts bonding over smooth, captivating melodies. The kind of music that could sound like pure seduction while maintaining the ability to start a party. They had even been practicing along with more melancholy tunes recently, their drummer in particular, Tovi Reeves, had just dumped his lover over a conflict of interest. She wanted him to quit the band and get a job so she could give him her hand in marriage and say her vows publicly, Tovi hadn't meant to let it even get that far, but he had been in Helidor far too long and this was one of the last that would accept him for who he was and the name he made.

Ironically he looked a little disappointed when Axel asked him for his help in saving the place, but he still stopped packing his bags to help Axel with his plan. Knowing the names of the first evacuees, Tovi had one of the first claims on the loot left behind. Admirers and scorned lovers alike wished him all types of farewells from 'Die Slow' to 'Come see me sometime' especially since he had to make a few of them aware of his change in plans. Still it provided that many more unattended fridges and cupboards to feed the Bhalian Busters, the most recent name they gave to their band of artists, both reminding them of their objective and making light of a deadly serious situation because Axel needed all the help he could get in making his plan come to fruition.

Their band consisted of six sometimes seven members depending on whether of not they guaranteed their singer payment for her time and was more commonly known as Nature's Cadence. Minesai allowed Axel possession of he summoning rituals for performances with huge payoffs ONLY. She was a very strict customer when it came to her time outside of the water, even though she had been ambitious enough to gain that ability and attend a prestigious school of music and magic, it only made her value her time that much more preciously. This time however she would have to settle for the change in his pocket and the smile on his face.

[Axel Gobetsu]

Reconstructing the power generator was going to be crude but efficient, Axel had the blueprints but most of the circuitry just didn't make sense. The ninja's knowledge of raw electricity combined with the modifications he needed to make forced his genius to create an easier flow pattern to something that could handle the charging potential of his blood.

The biggest problem that he ran into were the materials, the strength of their combination, and vice versa. Thankfully he knew a few of the best harmonics experts across a few industries, Minesai the water nymph, that was currently helping stay alive amidst his most recent life threatening risk, was welled versed in the harmonic resonance necessary for a cold fusion technique that he had witnessed being used at the Sontmano facility. While the materials were being gathered and the different pieces being built and tested to his specifications by their naten acoustics engineer, Tovi, he was finishing the power source.

The storm that the ninja was conjuring was one that he dreaded in his childhood. Using his blood and Minasei's summoning water they created a culmination crystal that duplicated that deadly instrument. In his village it was custom to donate blood to such a cause, just a prick would do as a sign of good faith as this was the means they meant to use to change the seasons, and water their crops, to call the storm. Most of the blood, however, was provided by the lost children of the edo, secured and provided by the Owaki clan in exchange for permanent access to irrigation channels and charged storm water. Axel was amongst them and once they discovered his affinity to channel natural energies he quickly became their favorite. With knowledge of the naten conduits throughout the land they would ensnare the minute electrical impulses of every being that donated, and capitalize the rest entirely through rites of a dark ritual.

It was well known that not giving blood at any time tribute during ceremony seasons meant sickness was to follow through a variety of expressions, but it was the elders discretion, or rather philosophy, to delegate the credit, and blame, to a higher unseen authority. Once they found Axel's blood multiplied these impulses they assured him his position in the village, it was only when one of their visitors died during a particular ceremony did the strange sensation of guilt started to creep over him.

Minesai's ritual summoning water had to be innately tied to the naten conduits of the land in order to channel her energy to this specific location. He had already collected water from the shores of her river and used the guild's repertoire of elemental stones that they would inevitably have as a nexus for witches and anthem practitioners alike, to produce the correct conduction rate. The chant was a different story, he couldn't keep the pitch, hit the notes or pronounce the words but they worked together to translate those into notes nearly anyone with an instrument to play. Even though that wasn't all that the scholarly nymph required to hear to know the call was sincere to the depth of her presence, the real tribute was what you added to it, the funk you fit in the pockets, and Axel was chock full of the inter-personality that was needed to speak to her.

Leading the tone, and leaving the pocket, scaling the notes to tickle octaves and communicate real tension, Axel was no ordinary guitarist, needless to say if nobody in the band could get Minesei to listen Axel could. She was completely infatuated with Axel's expressions, his improvisations unpredictable like the current of as whirlpool, his chords shimmered beautifully like moonlight dancing on the water, the waves that pulled her in were like the gentle persuasion of the incoming tide instead of crashing the melodies into her with the tension of his strings and it made Minesei a complete fan. That being the case the ninja was romantically uninterested, finding their mutual love of music and freedom a much deeper bond, and profitable nonetheless. The crystallization of water and other molecular fluids was just one of the tools in her scholarly arsenal that made her so valuably indispensable.

The power crystal itself wasn't inherently dangerous, tied to the local conduits it would give off a pulsing glow as it harmonized with the electrical impulses around it and Axel's blood charged the crystal by duplicating that energy. Still there were more than enough reasons to make Axel nervous about having to make this object, and then having it around. It was the scope of the magnetic field and the intensity of the harmonization that determined it's lethality, that's not even beginning to include the application of the power it generates. He would either have to charge a few of the lightning rods so they repelled the charging field and kept allied forces safe, or he could carry the highly combustible untested machine on his back as he flew over the battlefield on his board aiming the device with manual strikes of lightning that would leave the enemy completely drained of electrical impulses, stunning them, rendering them unconscious or completely dead.

Nonetheless Axel barely had time to make sure the generator itself worked properly, that plus the map that the Guilded Fangs nature attuned members helped him with would surely help in the tides of battle. Three weeks into preparation and Axel had drawn a perimeter of traps for his collapsible Lightning Fall rods, he had drawn clearly the caution line at which the field would begin it's affects and movement would be impaired, senses began to dull and then speech and conscious all higher in possibility the close the enemies got to the border of allied forces. The charged rods would go behind ally's and into the city, even though the generator itself was being built in the Guilded Fangs laboratory it would be time to carry to the front gates very soon. The very last thing they needed was the silence and focus to accomplish the delicate process of their cold fusion technique to construct the field generation vessel that housed their power crystal.

[Axel Gobetsu]

Lights flashed as the arcs sprang from his guitar into the sphere of water that Minesai was singing into, the parts welding red hot at the seams struck by Axel's chords and the parts melded together as the water levitated each piece into place. To anyone watching or listening it would have sounded like a stellar opera performance, but the two were sweating with concentration. Those notes of hers harmonizing the metals to one axis and frequency, she sang for the earth to unify in its resistance to heat and pressure, begging its metallic properties to conduct singularly and without resistance. All while Axel focused on each angle and amplitude he was putting into each pluck of his static lightning strings. The noise outside finally reached their ears once they were finished.

"It sounds like you're a little bit late to the party"

Minesai said as she pooled the spilled water in the room into their vessel, eyeing Axel as she spoke watching him place straps around the electrical cultivation generator that had begun pulsing its light faster and faster until it was a glow that only grew brighter.

"Yeah, I hear it. But panicking won’t make my riffs any sharper, Minesai. We need precision, not pressure."

The crystal generator had begun to pick up more electrical fields in it's radius, being in the Guilded Fang's laboratory meant they were close enough to the inner sanctum to replicate an exponential amount of energy. Without harm being done, his crystallized blood and naten would double the electrical fields in its radius and store the access energy, replicating their electrical impulses like a phantom nervous system. It meant they were far later than they intended to be, but the citizens that were able to contribute would feel greatly energized in whatever task or thought they were achieving at the moment.

"Precision? The gates are practically shaking, and you're worried about your... tuning?"

Axel and Minesai felt it as well, it was the smallest comfort to the task that was mounting before him as he gathered his guitar and board on his back and slung the generator under his arm to make his way outside.

"The crystal’s power is temperamental. One wrong note, and boom—no generator, no defense, no jazz band."

Even now he could feel its energy waxing itself over and over as the dynamic of electrical fields grew, he was going outside now for the first release of energy but he took a spliff out of his chest pouch, which was filled to the brim with herb that he meant to stabilize spikes in his naten with, as he thought about harmonizing with that amount of energy. He could strike the notes to conduct the energy, but it could very well turn into a bomb if its structural integrity is comprised at all. Axel knew they did their best but he knew that thing was getting jettisoned as soon as it became a problem.

"Jazz band... like that’s what matters right now."

"It’s what keeps us grounded. Look, you know you stabilized the welds with your water magic, right"

"Yes, but it was tricky. Water magic doesn't usually mix well with that much heat. And I basically had to sculpt the welds mid-fusion"

She said from unclenching her lip and nodding her thoughts going back to the laboratory they had just left, following Axel instinctually. Walking past the confused looks of the citizens that saw where Axel got deployed on their way here, thankfully Erigor and the other members fully supported Axel's allocation of personal resources. The lightning clone that was at the gate was commanding and fully supporting the troops as delegated, proper positioning and coordination was quite important to Axel so having to be out of that position actually really put a tax on his level head.

"You're a genius Minesai, I knew nobody could pull this off better than you did"

"You think so?"

She said softly in his footsteps, almost bumping into Axel as he stopped and whispered back to her in his most decisive tone.

"You never let the sparks fry your nerves"

An inspiration to him truly, one of many that were drawn to the power he was afraid to let go of. The storm energy of his culture had been so deeply instilled into Axel as a child he couldn't imagine himself powerful without it, it was the only conquering force he relied on even though he could tune in to so many others. The ninja thought his own nerves were done for, fried into non-existence, even now the performance he was putting on for her would bring him calculatable profit with their relationship holding steady.

"Right, sparks"

She was no fool, however book smart she was she had her own code of thievery as well. Men were something that usually didn't give her much trouble, she would sing them and a song, get what she wants, and move on. Axel always found a way to give her what she wanted with no sweat of his brow, and she always found herself waiting on his call no matter how many times she moved on. They let some people inside before using the door themselves and she continued sharply.

"And what about after this? If we stop them, what’s next?"

Sighing as his first response they got to the open training field before setting the generator down and looking at her struggling to keep the worry about her tone of his face.

"After? We keep playing. Fight when we need to. Live when we can."

He said this almost too lackadaisically, shrugging off her question with everything but an eyeroll. The machine was shining brilliantly at this point, and since the alarm system for the vessel capacity hadn't gone off yet he couldn't even start to worry yet. Squatting down he reached for the buttons when she inquired further about his plans.

"Is that all it is for you? Just... moving to the next gig?"

"One step at a time, Minesai. Let’s save the world first, talk philosophy later."

Resting his arms on his knees he smiled softly at her before nodding off into the distance at the legendary gates of Helidor holding strong.

"Or write a song about it."

He finished holding back a chuckle. Axel was not bringing any of his bandmates to the battlefield, he expected them all to find somewhere safe to relocate and make the call or start over. It wasn't in any of their nature to hold on to anyone's life that closely, that understanding kept them getting along and accomplishing every goal they used those lives for. Axel looked forward to their future performances, but he was making sure her summoning was cancelled before he took off.

"Fine. But if this works, I’m writing the chorus. Deal?"

She said forcing a smile that betrayed her need for so much more, she heard his music as a sound she could listen to forever and always be surprised by the expression of his melodies. A duet that could conversate with her into the night like a river into the ocean, is the dream that she hid as she waited with hope in her eyes for his confirmation.

"Deal"

He said with a full blown grin on his face, winking at her as he finally pushed the button that could release the energy in full force through the crystal outlet on the top. The wattage erupted from the crystal lens like a laser coated in vicious arcs of lightning that screamed all the way to the clouds and chirped its way into the atmosphere by way of the widespread cloud cover, visible to pretty much everyone between the two mediums that the lightning began dancing between the water droplets.