Planar Chaos: Darkest Before the Dawn (Patreon)

I decided to do something different for monday.

Planar Chaos: Darkest Before the Dawn
—A companion piece to Spark of Invention

The world was green and people were the most aggressively cheerful she had ever encountered. Still, it didn’t take long for Taylor to find this world’s ‘problem’. Most every plane had one, even if was just run of the mill resource scarcity and food shortages. Here, there was nothing so mundane. Penned into four major kingdoms, this world had centuries before it even conceptualized ‘resource scarcity’.

The creatures of Grimm, on the other hand, were a much more present concern. During her time with the Avengers, Taylor had fought against gods, metal men, and monsters that lingered in the voids between the stars. Shadow Creatures born of malice and hate were a new one, yes, but nothing she couldn’t handle.

And their technology! The people of Remnant could show Tony a thing or two about robotics! Okay, maybe not, she admitted, but they could definitely show her a thing or two. Taylor was nothing if not eager to learn.

It was why she traveled to Vale, to see the best and brightest Remnant had to offer. And it was why she thoroughly unamused by the shadowy hand bent on extinguishing those lights.

Tony called it her hero complex. But hey, she’d learned from the best, hadn’t she?

Taylor—or rather Destiny—stood, clad in the armor she had built with her own hands, atop Beacon’s tallest tower, as a Dragon bore down upon her and all the innocent people in the city beyond. Far below, she heard as the battle continued unabated. She would not allow the defender’s bravery to go unrewarded. No doubt the enemy’s plan, whomever they were, hinged on this massive grimm that had lain dormant for god knows how long.

She would make it wish it have never awakened from its slumber.

“How’s it look?” Destiny asked.

“Forecasts predict scattered showers, or they would if anyone on this dust ball knew the word ‘meteorology’ to begin with,” T. Snark replied “Increase wind speed here, charge here and someone will be in for a real bad time.”

Taylor’s visor lit up at Snark’s words, and she began pulling at her magic. Her adventures with Iron Man hadn’t exposed her to much in the way of magic, but she’d become an expert at harnessing what little she did understand.

“Have at you,” she said, raising her arms. Her magic stirred the clouds above, bringing them to life with a fury that Mother Nature could only reach in her dreams.

The Dragon screeched a war cry at her, but it was the sky that answered.

Lightning rained down, vaporizing dozens of Grimm. Several bolts struck her massive foe all at once and set its bones alight like Christmas lights. The thunder fell like a physical blow, followed by the ringing of shattered glass.

Imprecise? Yes, but it got the job done. Lightning followed the path of least resistance after all, it was hardly her fault if someone got in the way. 

Destiny leapt, the thrusters on her armor sparking to life. As she soared through the air she left dozens of afterimages, each one born from the silvery light that haloed Destiny’s form. They grew, form from light, until countless suits of armor began to fall from the sky, firing an endless stream of ordinance at the fallen beast.

She had learned little new magic yes, but she had found no shortage of summons that fit the bill.

The Grimm roared. Its limbs rent through the air, and swarms of Nevermore descended upon Destiny’s minions. But her Silver Legion was faster. She watched from high above as her summons danced through the air like comets, dodging every blow, slipping past every talon. And in the meantime, they wrought fresh hell on the shadow monsters on the ground.

Taylor wiped her brow, summoning that many at once was about the limit of magical power she could channel at any one time. She could assist from above with her own lasers, but she’d be pretty tapped out for magic for the near future. Still, it seemed like her servitors had matters well in hand.

“Hey, kid, duck.”

Destiny blinked, “Whaa—” then her autonomous systems took over. The thrusters cut out for a second, taking her below a massive fireball that would have charred her. “Dammit, Snark, give me some warning next time!”

“Huh, I thought I did,” he said. Not for the first time did Destiny regret patterning her suit AI after Tony Stark.

“Just… battle mode.”

The rest of her armor began to slide into place. “And here I thought we were gonna make it through one without scratching my paint job.” Snark said.

Destiny retained enough spatial awareness to dodge past the lances of flame that came at her. Her targeting systems spotted her assailant shortly after, standing in the top floor of Beacon Tower. The woman’s silhouette was outlined with a glowing field that Taylor immediately recognized as magic. She flagged that section of the recording for later analysis, before dropping below a volley of jet black arrows that pierced through the air where she would have been if not for her tracking systems.

“She was right beneath me!” Destiny said.

“When you tell Tony, make sure to start with that part.”

“Not helping, Snark!” Destiny fired a volley of lasers at the woman. The first tagged her in the hip, but it didn’t even knock her off balance as the rest of her barrage splashed across a crimson shield. Destiny groaned. “Is there anything Aura can’t do?”

“Yes, actually,” Snark said. “According to my sensors a shield of that size that far out from the body should be functionally impossible, which is why it’s probably magic?”

Destiny weaved through the air, trading fire—in some cases quite literally—with the woman in the tower. “Aura already is magic! You’re saying she’s got something else?” 

“I’m just an AI, sweetheart,” he said. “You’re the dimensional hopping witch cum mad scientist. You tell me.” 

She grunted as flecks of rubble pinged off her armor. “I don’t have time to analyze what she’s doing.”

“Well you’ll be happy to know that our boys on the ground are doing their job. The massive grim is retreating, what do you think, should we go for the jugular?”

Destiny frowned. “No, priority one is the people still at the school. Just like Cap always says, keep the civilians safe before you do any grandstanding.” She started popping missiles at her foe, only to swear when they were sniped out of the air by acute lances of flame.

“Roger that, Sunshine, the Silver Legion is returning to Beacon airspace.”

Destiny heard a scream of rage from the tower as the dragon fled into the distance. But then, you don’t get to be that big without recognizing a fight you can’t win. “Sure you don’t want any help with the Phantom of the Opera here?”

“The Phantom was the guy, Snark,” Destiny said. She dodged past yet more rubble. The woman’s attacks were growing bigger, with less care for accuracy as opposed to screwing over everything in Destiny’s general direction. “And I’m wearing her down!”

“Is that a perfect ‘that’s what he said’ joke? Because it sounds like a perfect that’s what he said joke.”

“Not. Helping!”

Her thrusters whined before blasting a whole though a falling boulder. Destiny slid through the gap, closing distance with her enemy. Single shots weren’t doing anything but bounce off, but if she put enough fire power into that shield, it would come down. 

It had better come down.

Destiny and the woman locked eyes as the first drew level with the tower. Amusingly, the woman was also hovering with a small jet of flame, a dark mirror of Destiny’s thrusters.

“I don’t care how powerful you are!” The woman screamed. “I’ll surpass you with this power! I’ll crush you and every single one of your sisters!”

Destiny’s sensors picked up something as the fires in her foes hands flared up once more. “Behind you!” She said. The woman snarled, raising her arms, and most importantly, did not turn around.

Then a burnished disk—no a shield Destiny realized—struck her in the back of the head.

The woman reeled, barely keeping up her shield in the face of a dozen laser blasts.

A heavy visor slammed down over Destiny’s helmet. “Snark, ramming protocol.” Hopefully the redhead that just exploded out the elevator shaft would keep their enemy off balance for just a second more. Even still she continued peppering her opponent with laser blasts.

“And here I thought you hated CQC.” On Destiny’s back, a dozen thrusters whined as their capacitor banks reached full charge. 

Destiny grinned. “Why do you think I make you do it for me?”

For a single second, Beacon Tower glowed with the fire of the noonday sun.

“Do you believe in Destiny?”