Dark Matter Ascension

Jace lowered his arm after firing off a Void Beam (Rank 3). It had rocketed up through the planet's atmosphere, annihilating everything it touched and bored a hole directly through Deckard's ship far off in the skies over the planet. "That's a problem," he stated bluntly as the ship barely moved. "I could [Horizon-Splitter], but I don't think I'd have the range unless I got clos-"

The world fell away from under him as he, the corpses, the mechs, Greg, Deckard's office building, and the entire park was ripped up towards the sky. The pressure slammed him to the surface of the park, and he tried to push himself up against the force pulling the world up into the sky.

Quinn's voice came over the comms, panicked. "He's used a tractor beam! Twenty seconds until you're all in orbit! Get off that!"

Void Removal (Rank 9), Jace thought as he used a Skill he had yet to use. He saw a sphere of whitish-grey energy that expanded out forty-five feet from him, and he focused on negating the traction beam.

This worked, but just for the area around him. The chunk of ground he was on, and in that radius around him, began to fall, and he saw the rest of the park all around him continue to get sucked skyward along with Greg and the tower with Dee and Priam inside. Damnit!

Ollie spoke in his mind, We can fix this. Priam is flying – he's got Dee. Greg is the only one – oh, wait-

Greg's voice came over the comms, "I'm riding this thing right up!"

"Are you insane?!" Quinn shouted. "You'll die in vacuum!"

"I don't have to breathe," he replied with a manic laugh of glee. "Or eat, or sleep. And temperature? Not a sweat – I've got so much damage resistance – I'm getting into that ship and ripping it apart!"

Jace spotted Priam flying – and the man landed on the platform next to him. "Hop on! I've only got a minute left!" The bunny-boy priest was dragging from exhaustion, and Jace could see him panting heavily.

Grabbing onto him, Priam flew the trio down toward the city. Jace looked up into the sky, where the park was once more being sucked up along with all of the bodies. "Don't you die on me Greg!" Jace shouted into the comms.

Greg was filled with fear, adrenaline, and excitement. Never in his life did he imagine that he would get dragged up into space using a tractor beam. He pushed himself to his feet, and stood with his Bowblade merged together into the ranged configuration. Pulling back the string at the rapidly-approaching ship – or rather, the ship that he was rapidly approaching, he let fly as he activated Power Strike (Rank 10) and Series of Strikes (Rank 10).

The Supermassive, gravitic singularity-powered arrows of energy flew forth slamming into the hull of the ship and into the large, tube-like shapes that were mounted on the sides of the vessel. There was a brief blip of something flashing into existence around the vehicle which stopped the arrows in place. "Shields," he tried to whisper to himself.

But that's when he realized – he couldn't talk, or breathe. I must be in vacuum, he thought. Glancing sideways, his suspicions were confirmed as he saw the curvature of the world to his side. The enormous chunk of land continued to be pulled up – and that's when he saw those tube shapes glowing a bright, cherry red. Lasers?

Most likely, Darrin, his Wayfinder, replied in his mind – actively merged via Verge Protocol. I would advise another volley once they shoot – lasers cannot be shot through shields, they must deactivate for a brief moment to let the projectile or projected energy out. Make sure you stagger your shots, to get the timing right.

Greg did as he was told, pulling back once more as he activated the two Skills again. He knew he was running low on energy – but he didn't care all that much. He was having too much fun being unstoppable. He didn't feel the cold encroaching on him, because his resistance to all damage was so high. He waited as the apertures continued to glow brighter and brighter, and he drew ever closer.

He saw a bright, sparkle of light and let loose – willing the Series of Strikes to fire off in quarter-second increments right after. A line of entropy-fueled arrows drawing upon the Ascended Power of a Supermassive black hole. The shafts of powerful energy shot up – and began bouncing off the barrier. But the barrier blipped for a moment as the lasers shot out – letting an arrow through.

Two things happened at once. First, the laser, at the speed of light, obliterated everything around Greg. He was the only thing unaffected, and he felt incredibly warm – as if he had stepped into a way too hot shower. Everything ceased to exist around him as an enormous series of orbital lasers obliterated everything, and his vision was filled with red.

It also had the unfortunate side effect of completely obliterating his Equipment. All of it. He was now nude, flying through space as the tractor beam pulled him into the underside of the ship. The person at the helm or weapons station must have though everything was destroyed in the blast, because the shields blipped off, and the tractor beam disabled. But, that didn't stop his momentum.

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He went into the tractor beam emitter, crushing it with his body. He didn't stop there though, as given his size and durability combined with the speed he was traveling at – he ended up smashing through metal, wire, reinforced beams, and all other components of the inside of the ship.

Now that hurt, and he felt a few ribs break. He would've let out a grunt of pain if he could breathe. But the more pressing issue is that he had no Equipment anymore. And that would be a problem. Darrin, he thought as he was nestled somewhere a few dozen-feet inside the ship's hull. Does this world have stuff like a laser sword? The one that the guy back on Earth in Japan was using?

Yes! You have to use a Rare Boon. And you also should use the other one on proper armor for extraterrestrial environments.

Okay! I want the Rare (Variable) used on a laser sword, some new (Heavy) armor, and then one of the Uncommon (Variable) on some type of heavy-duty, armor piercing sniper rifle. The last Uncommon (Variable), lets put an (Augmentation) on the sniper rifle so that I can use my Cosmic and Ascended Power through it.

On it!

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[Using Boon: Rare (Equipment).]

[Manifesting.]

[Using Boon: Rare (Equipment).]

[Manifesting.]

[Using Boon: Uncommon (Equipment).]

[Manifesting.]

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[Using Boon: Uncommon (Augmentation).]

[Target Equipment: Devastator Sniper Rifle.]

[Augmenting.]

[Result: (Channeling) Devastator Sniper Rifle.]

[Description: The Channeling (Augmentation) enables the user to replace ammunition with a Cosmic or Ascended Power manifestation.]

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His entire body was covered with the shimmering, sparkling-blue starlight. He felt oxygen return to him as he took in a breath – his entire body covered in an armored carapace. In his palm, a polished, gold spike appeared. A weight attached to his back, and he felt himself slightly pushed out of the hole he had made into the ship's hull.

Devastator Sniper Rifle - An extremely powerful sniper rifle that can cycle between laser, plasma, and physical ammunition of varying types. Plus, because of the Augmentation, you have other options. The carapace is (Heavy) Exo-planet Power Armor, which is the best protection we can get on a Tier 7 world like this. The spike in your right hand is a Beamblade Emitter, which has several modes. But, this is not just a beam of light that emits – a foil projects out with the flick of a button, and that is what is shrouded in the incredibly hot and dense plasma.

Greg felt giddy as he flicked the switch, saw the foil uncurl from the golden spike in his palm, and ignite with blazing, gold energy. Turning around, keeping his feet planted – which, to his slight surprise, seemed to have mild magnetic soles that he could increase the strength of just by thinking about it. "This is cool."

Quinn's voice came over the comms, "Everyone wants to know if you're alright."

"I'm good! Lost all my Equipment, but I got some new stuff. I made it to the ship. I'm going in." Greg carved through the ship's hull – pushing his way deeper into the vessel as he cut huge holes into it. He reached a corridor that vented atmosphere, and he stood firm with the magnetic soles as the atmosphere stabilized out – or rather, all the atmosphere trapped inside the corridor vented and some hidden bulkheads sealed.

Greg pulled himself into the ship, using the armor's boots to avoid floating in zero-gravity as he carved his way through bulkhead after bulkhead towards the bridge – thankfully pointed out by various signs.

Deckard was panicking. In more distress than he ever had been in his life. Something had gotten onto the hull, cut into the ship interior, and was dissecting it. Moving to the monitors station, he pulled up all of the ship's interior cameras, and saw a heavily armored figure stomping through the corridors. It's that Greg! He thought with outrage as he saw the Planet and Supermassive symbols on the man's hand.

How could he do that? Did he survive the tractor beam, and the orbital lasers, and the impact? How did he get so durable? Class Reset, and more durability? All of the prior scans I had of his capabilities are useless!

Deckard knew he could not fight this person who was approaching. And he did not have security robots on this ship. Taking stock of his Boons, he saw he was down to his few Common remaining – which wouldn't help in the slightest. No choice. I have to abandon ship! He went to the bridge's lifeboat, got into it, and sealed the door.

Right behind him, the bulkheads leading to the bridge were cut apart, and he pushed the EJECT button right before the blazing blade of yellow was able to cut into his escape pod. He went blasting out of the ship and down towards the planet. Pulling up his System interface, he used a private channel and broadcast a signal to everyone on the planet. "Listen up! This is Deckard Stonewall, leader of the Nebula Alliance! One-hundred thousand Stardust to anyone who protects me once my escape pod lands. Two-hundred thousand for the heads of Deasyl "Dee" Luna, Priam Westerfold, Greg Bhastal, and this unknown Signer with Black Hole and Supermassive symbols on their hand – fifty thousand apiece! Check my updated Bounty Board!"

He pulled up the System interface as the vehicle entered the atmosphere, starting to heat up – but not uncomfortably so. This is what it was built for, after all. He quickly updated the bounties of all the figures, using their most recent image-captures from the security cameras. And now…I get to the planet, get to the Cosmic Corridor, and flee to my backup planet.

Jace heard the message that was broadcast to everyone on the planet. Symbol Shift (Rank 1), he thought, willing his symbols to shift once more to become Pulsar and Magnetar. "Greg? You okay up there?"

"He got away!" Greg shouted. "I'm at the controls. Quinn's going to help me figure out how to steer this thing, and then Xera is working on a way to store it in the TPS so we can repurpose it for something. Even she didn't know, apparently-"

Xera's voice came over the comms, "Yes, I did not know that Boons could be used for Equipment that large. I thought the parameter restrictions were in place, but I checked the code – it developed a bug. I patched it, but a handful of similar Boons were used briefly after this thing was made. Nowhere near you, though. Still, we can use this piece of technology. I can repurpose it."

Jace, Priam, and Dee landed on a rooftop, and Jace scanned the falling debris – spotting the rapidly-descending escape pod. "Priam? How long can you manage to fly?"

"Maybe…another…burst of…a minute?" he said uncertainly.

Dee rubbed his shoulder, "Come on! You can do it! We'll keep you safe. I need to get Deckard."

Priam nodded, "For you. Heavenly Smite (Rank 11)." His wings manifested; he picked up the two, and began flying after Deckard's crashing escape pod.