Birth of a vilain: Spiral to Dementia

[Druid]

“You cannot hide from me. Not in here anyway. I am as much a part of this as you are.” The woman’s voice rang out through the stormy air. Lightning flashed illuminating a bleak landscape of dying trees and barren landscape. In the distance a small figure fled through the dark night. “Tisk, Tisk, Tisk!” The woman yelled. “And here I thought you would put up more of a fight.” The small figure in the distance screamed as shadows leapt at her from all sides.

“No! You won’t get me! You cannot get me!” The small form screamed. Thrusting her hands out she sent a blast of dark energy flying at the shadows. It hit them and they recoiled momentarily, but instead of being pushed back entirely they absorbed the dark energy. “No…” The girl whimpered. The shadowy creatures tackled her, knocking her to the ground. She cried out as her flesh tore on contact with the rocky ground. A stream of blood dribbled down her face.

“Alice, did you really think that using Your powers against shadows would work? They feed off of that exact energy. Rather then hurting them, you’ve made them stronger. Keep this up and pretty soon they’ll be bigger then the Titans themselves. “ The woman laughed maniacally. “Alice I believe it is my turn in the sun, you don’t want to be called selfish do you?” She reached her pale hand towards the crying girls heart. “Share and share alike. Isn’t that what your mother said?”

Alice screamed. Looking around she found herself in the familiar setting of her bedroom. The fan hummed softly as it sped around in endless circles. She looked at the clock. “5:30? Might as well get up. Don’t think I’ll be going back to sleep after a dream like that one.” Alice rose to her feet, but wobbled unsteadily. She managed to catch herself on the bed, stopping her fall. “I must be more tired then I thought. My legs feel like two lead bars.” Slowly she made her way down the hall to the bathroom. She flicked on a light and shuffled over to the sink.

She lifted her arm to rub the sleep from her eyes, but stopped as she felt something sticky there instead. “What the…” She looked up into the mirror and screamed. On her face was a series of long cuts, exactly the kind she had received in her dream. She backed away from the mirror, coming in contact with the wall. “It...It was real.” She whispered in shock. Her image in the mirror rippled and twisted until it only partially resembled her.

“That’s right my sweet sister. It was very real!” Her deformed mirror image hissed at her. The reflections eyes glowed with a jealous fire.

“I don’t.. I do not have a sister.” Alice said, her lower lip quaking in fear. She looked on in horror as the reflection shifted once more, becoming more recognizable, more human.

“Oh you do now. Ever since your little “accident” I’ve been hidden inside of you. Soon, oh so soon, I’ll be out. Then its play time for me.” The reflection cackled, the sound making Alice quiver.

“Ho-How do you expect to do that?” She stuttered.
“Simple. I’m going to take over your body. What are you going to do about it oh mighty Druidess?” She cackled again.

“My body…my body? I won’t let you. Get out of me. Get out of me now!” Alice screamed. She was very frightened now. Ever since that magical blast that had given her incredible powers Alice had known something was in her, something alive. She had always been able to feel it growing, but to know what it was terrified her even more.

“Oh I don’t think you’ll have much say in this matter, Darling. Besides I know some friends that want to meet you.” She gestured behind her in the mirror. Shadows seemed to ooze out of the walls, pressing their amorphous forms against the glass of the mirror. “They want so much to be able to come out and play. Won’t you oblige?” She threw her head back and let out an evil laugh. Then she snapped her head back forward and pointed with a finger directly at Alice. “Since you won’t let them out, maybe I will.” At her gesture the shadows scrambled forward, pressing harder and harder against the mirror. Tiny cracks begin to form along the width of the mirror. “Won’t be long now my sweet little Alice, and then I’ll be out as well. The shadows will be like nothing compared to what I’ll do.” The reflection turned and walked away, further into the mirror. It was out of sight just as the first Shadow slipped out of a crack. Alice let out a mighty scream.

[Druid]

((because I just remembered that I should be writing these things, lol))

As a young girl, Alice had never thought about who she was. She grew up in the wilds of Alaska, part of a reclusive tribe of mystics. They had found her in the wreckasge of a plane and rescued her from the arms of her dying mother. She had been a little over 3 at the time of the plane crash. She remembered her mom only in vague flashes, bits of pictures that would appear and disappear within seconds in her mind. From what she remembered she had gathered from those that had seen her, even at the end of her life she had been beatuiful. The tribal elder that had taken her from her mother's arms said that she resembled her mother, looking like a minature version of her. Alice held onto those words for the longest time, they made her feel as if she was not looking at herself in the mirror, but at her mother.

Time passed and she grew into a fine figure of a woman. She helped out around the village, watched the children, and sang them to sleep at night. Her life was a simple one. That is, at least during the day. At the age of 16 Alice was considered old enough to take part in the other aspect of the tribe, it's magical lore. All of their children underwent training in the mystical arts at the age of 16 for girls and 14 for boys. It was a rite of passage into adulthood. The lessons varied every night, introducing the young ones to the ways of magic in all of its forms. Alice had always favored the healing aspects of the magic, and as she grew more proficient at controlling them, started a tutelege under the former shaman healer of the tribe.

On the day of her Eighteenth birthday something mysterious and miraculous occured. There was a sudden fluxuation in the normal flow of magic causing a massive spike in the availible mystical energy. THe tribal elders conferred and decided that they should harness as much of it as they could, before the anomoly disappeared. They chose their three most promising students, one from each of the three main aspects of their magic system. The destructive element was represented by a young warrior named Akhet-Sabir(Fist of the All-God), the Creative Element by a young elder in training named Ritin-Tras(Bounty of the Earth), and the last element, that of healing, was represented by Alice, or as the tribe called her Kira-Quai (One who came from the sky). Using the harmony created by the three aspects of magic they created a triaginel, or triangular net that would serve to hold the magic and keep it safe within the bounds of the spell until it was harnessed. But the magic proved far to strong even for their spell and it exploded in a magical backlash that struck each of the three students with their own magic. Akhet-Sabir died immediatly, Ritin-Tras fell into a deep coma, but Alice, and Alice alone, stepped out from the fury of the magical explosion without the slightest mark. If anything the ordeal had cleansed her of any imperfection she might have once had. She stood before the tribe a pristine form of innocence and purity.

At least so it seemed on the surface. Even then, moments after the incident, Alice could feel the magic inside her. What had once been a familiar, even welcome sensation, now felt twisted and intrusive. It was as though it were no longer the static force it once had been and was now a fluid being, changing, evolving. It shook Alice up to the point where she did not feel comfortable amongst even her own adopted family. She fled the village the next night. Alone in the wilderness she gave into the powers that were growing inside of her. The magic seemed to tug to the East, terrified of what had happened to her, confused by what was still happening Alice gave in and followed the urges of the magic all the way across the country and into the chaotic streets of a post-Ritki attack Paragon. It was there that she plied her former trade, that of healing, in an attempt to forget about the accident. She buried her true name, as well as her tribal name, beneath the moniker of The Druidess and sought to heal the suffering that had stricken this once proud city.

[Druid]

The first shadow seemed to slither across the floor like a trickle of black ooze. Behind it more shadows were emerging by the second. Too scared to think about what she was doing Alice let loose with a furious assault of dark energy. The beams shot out in alld irections, smashing lights, shattering tiles, but each that hit a shadow was absorbed much in the same way it had happened in her dream. Alice screamed again and threw herself to her feet. She rushed out of the bathroom narrowly avoiding the outstretched arms of the shadows. She slammed the door behind her and raced across the room. Frantically she dug through her things trying to find her communicator. If she could send a message to White Tigress, or maybe even her old mentor Lord Morcalivan perhaps she still had a shot. SHe found the device as the shadows began to slip under the door. Panicked she pressed a series of buttons on the device, sending out calls for help to all she could think of. She was about to push the button for the newest hero she had met, a man known as Steel Heart, when the shadows reached her.

Like globs of tar the inky creatures clung to her, each adding itself to the growing black mass on her body. She tried to rip them off but found herself more and more ensnared. In a matter of minutes the shadow creatures had covered her entire body and were slowly working their way up her neck. Alice struggled in vain against the shadow's efforts. They had all but enveloped her head when the distorted reflection appeared. The shape was not definite, the way it had been in the mirror, but was paler, fuzzy around the edges as if it were having trouble holding its form together. The ooze had covered everything except for her eyes now and they were wide open in fright. The reflection looked down on her and smiled a cruel smile. "I'm coming in dearie, but this time you'll be the one trapped inside." The ghostly woman dove for Alice's eyes and found them forced open and vulnerable.

The effects were immediate, Alice felt her awareness of herself fading. She seemed to be pulled further and further into her mind until at last she arrived in a tiny cell.

"Terribly sorry about the decorations, I have so been meaning to do some home improvements, but I am afraid I believe in moving up not fixing the old." The voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. Alice beat futily at the cell walls. "Now big sis, that won't get you very far. In fact that won't get you anywhere, better just resign yourself to this fate. It won't be so bad. I promise to share all the stoires of my daily adventures with you in detail." There was a knock on the door to the room.

"Alice? Alice? This is Jade, are you allright. I got your message and came as soon as I could."

"Guests already? And me without my good face on.. oh wait I have your good face on now don't I?"

"Alice! I'm coming in."

"Oh this will be fun indeed. I hadn't realized you actually managed to call your friends in. That saves me so much effort. I was going to go ahead and do it after you were out of the way."

There was a crash and the pattering of splinters as Jade, better known as the White Tigress, shattered the door. The apartment was dark, some clothes lay scattered on the floor but nothing else seemed out of place. "Alice? Where are you?"

"Alice is not in at the moment, but if you would like to leave a message please feel free to do so at the sound of the first scream." Jade looked up and in a scene reminiscent of the Exorcist a nightmarish version of Alice dropped from the ceiling and sent forth a wave of shadow creatures. Jade barely managed to avoid them.

"Who are you and what have you done with Alice?"

"Done to Alice? Why I have done nothing to her, I couldn't harm my big sis now could I? But I am afraid she was not to willing to share this wonderful body and I had to get rid of her somehow. So I switched places. NOw I am in control and she is locked in our mind." The nightmarish version of Alice grinned like a five year old girl.

"What are you?"

"Now now now! That's not polite. Not what, but who. You can call me Dementia, though I suspect that you will have many other names for me by the time I am through with you." THe shadows that Jade had dodged came back and swallowed her up in inky darkness.

Meanwhile in a hidden labratory on a secret island a man looked up at the flashing call for help upon his computer screen. The call had come from Druidess. "So it has come to pass at last." The man leaned back in his chair placing his hands together and resting his chin on them. "I wonder when she begins her rampage.. if she will remember the one who gave her form and thought?" Lord Morcalivan smiled for the first time in a long time. "Perhaps she will come to think of me as a father figure." He pressed a button and the screen went dark then he turned back to the suit he was designing. He had much work to get done and the nanites were not responding. They would in time, they would in time.