A Safe Haven (OPEN)

[The Tommy]

Like the other domed countries beneath the oceans of Lemuria, R'lyeh was quite vast... Everywhere in this land, humanity's progress could be seen... Yet, despite the wonders created, Lizzie Jackson wasn't foolish enough to believe that anything about this country was 'grand' or 'progressive'... For the most part, the only people here were crooks... Thieves who had no sense of right and wrong... Whether they had powers or not, everyone here was subject to being robbed... Not that it bothered most of the locals, since they'd just as soon turn and rob the next person to walk too close to them...

Still, in her time on Shangri La, Lizzie had grown quited fond of Lemuria... And had, on occasion, traveled to the other countries... Mu and Atlantis being some of the most beautiful areas she'd ever seen. At the edge of the sealing of Mu, she'd spent hours watching the fascinating wildlife out there... There seemed to be no end to what awaited out there, from magnificently large beings resembling plesiosaurs in ways, to the rare sightings of a species that seemed to be giant crab-like creatures living in small communities... Of course, despite being the oldest human colony planet, very little of Lemuria had truly been explored... The only land mass had been void of life, and only served for industrial work... Atlantis as well had little wildlife to be seen, since it seemed the Lemurian Oil drove life away... Only R'lyeh and Mu allowed true viewing of the eco-system present in the ocean's of this planet... And it was all but impossible to study, considering that no scientist in their right mind would enter R'lyeh, and the monstrosities around Mu kept the average scientist from doing anything outside of watching from a distance...

Still, what little had been seen was wondrous, both super and normal humans often found themselves in awe of what they witnessed... Even in R'lyeh, this natural beauty couldn't be ignored... From the smallest creatures seen from the safety of the countries, to the largest monstrosities, every animal on Lemuria seemed to accept it's existence, and to live without worry of what it was capable of... Order seemed prescribed in a way that all creatures existed peacefully, with the predator's not being cruel as much as they simply did what they had to... There seemed to be no struggle for control or equality... In some ways, Lizzie envied that freedom they seemed to have...

However, that envy had nothing to do with her visit to R'lyeh this day... R'lyeh was one of few places where people with powers were free to roam without some form of law enforcement seeking to send them to Gehenna for those powers... Despite her mistrust of the locals, and her hatred of those who'd harm innocents for no reason, Lizzie knew this place was the safest place for her to hide away when she wasn't actively seeking to recruit supers and normals to help in the cause of bringing equality between the two groups. As sad as it was, coming to R'lyeh was the closest thing to a vacation that Lizzie awarded herself.

And so it had come that she found herself here, beneath the sea, seeking someone... Anyone... That would prove a worthwhile conversation, without picking her pocket or making a foolishly bold attempt to mug her...

[Crisis]

If there was one thing that Wyrture learned since arriving on earth, it was that such a complex planet didn't confine it's perceptions within its atmosphere. Things here were so interesting that Wyrture seemed to have a permanent smile plastered upon the face of his faux body...that simple matter of smiling itself, Wyrture had been to many planets many galaxies....but nothing like these humans a smile alone already meant so much. To think, these species were thought to be primitive once...well, from Wyrture's point of view they were still...but even in their primitive-state, they posed wonderful surprises. Such as their concept of magic...Wyrture really couldn't sense much difference from magic, and what he and his race could do. Who knows, maybe in billions years these human would evolve into something similar to the energy beings dwelling in Altwaal...Wyrture would definitely want to wait and see that happen.

He looked towards the sky...at the moment he seemed to everyone just a young boy, barely if at all out of his teenage years. A beautiful child...although Wyrture did that on purpose, the human perception of beauty was so relative, but he found certain archetypes underlying in the human collective unconscious...such as how human seemed to prefer an exaggeration on features rather than absolute perfect symmetry. It was a delicate balance, different for each individual...but Wyrture had come to find out that this preferred form of his was pleasing to the greater populace.

The sky, looking closely he could almost see the empathic ties between people on this world and out of it. Maybe a nice little “road-trip” would be apt for today. Free-spirit that he was, Wyrture was not bound be schedules...and long-lived as Altwaaloid were, he was neither bound by time. Wyrture brought his head down from the sky...this container was nothing but individual particles once floating in the infinity of space, compelled to come together to a shape that Wyrture desired. If somebody were to cut open his arm, they would be surprised not to find blood but rather a chaotic gale of energy. But Wyrture didn't like being cut so much...it was that sharp spike of aggression that caused him more pain rather than the steel...so if anybody tried to...he usually smiled that them, before burning them to a crisp where they stood, Baptism by Fire...human idioms were another reason that Wyrture liked it to much on earth.

But as easily as Wyrture could call unto the particles, he could also send them away. Which he did just then...standing at the tallest peak on the planet, kind of solved for itself the issue of subtly...the nearest living creature to him was a goat about half a mile down the mountain. There was a flash of white, before the particles shot off in random directions and a solitary beam of light flew up into the atmosphere, breaking through its multiple layers at warping speeds. Planetary gravitational fields were always bothersome and good old brute force was a sure fire way to handle them.

Another perk of not having any biological functions was that one could survive the endless vacuum of space. Wyrture made his way across star systems, just getting distracted along the way to race with a comet. Soon enough however, the water planet of Lemuria came into view...Wyrture had stayed here before, but he found each community much too enclosed...but they were, literally. He pierced through the multiple layers of atmosphere again...from his vantage point he could see the only existing landmass...but that place was boring as death. Even before he burst through the surface of the water the individual particles coalesced together creating Wyrtures new shell...it was a long necked creature with leathery skin and flipper-like appendages to maneuver around the water.

He dove deeper down, heading towards the gigantic bubble set on the ocean floor-R'lyeh. Wyrture was heading looking for some form of entrance...technically he could just discard his shell and go through the glass dome. But Wyrture also learned with humans that energy beings tended to threaten them...there was really something about subtly that always proved useful.

Suddenly, however another creature surged up from behind him...it was a serpentine thing, ribbed with spines and a gaping maw lined with rows upon rows of teeth. Those same rose sank deep into the jugular of Wyrture's shell...if it had been anything more than that, surely Wyrture would have died. But in the same action of thought Wyrture banished his shell, only to reform behind the thing in his relatively “human” form. He was dressed in what humans would have considered archaic...a cloth wrapped around his waist and armor on his arms and legs that surely wouldn't have withstood bullet shots. But surely if anybody watching would notice, they would see a human boy surviving the pressure and frigid temperatures of the ocean deep. So much for subtly.

The creature, twisted out of the awkward bind on nothing that it had, before snaking its way through the water towards Wyrture...the smile passed across Wyrture's face again, as he extended out a hand...the moment when fingers touched scale the leviathan started exploding from the inside, as if it had swallowed tons upon tons of plastic explosives...the water streamed with red like some morbid mist, and when it cleared Wyrture just floated there, inspecting his fingers as he flexed them, there was a slight tinge to his mouth, like a confused amusement.

It was exactly that...a little bit of miscalculation. Separating the hydrogen and oxygen molecules and igniting the sodium in the salt water running through the creatures aquatic respiratory system (gills) was the intended course of action, it would have been an explosion localized to the chest cavity...Wyrture completely forgot about the speed of the creatures aquatic bloodstream...he did tend to rely on his empathy to understand things...but bestial creatures didn't convey as much as humans did.

[The Tommy]

Watching the watery world outside of the domed country, Lizzie watched a large, strange creature she'd never seen before, comparable to some of the plesiosaurish animals she'd seen in the past swim towards the country. While she was somewhat surprised, given that most of the local beasts avoided the domed countries, she found it an amusing animal... If she hadn't known better, she'd almost assume that it was looking for some way to get inside the dome.

However, before it had the chance to discover whatever it really was looking for, a far larger, frilled beast appeared behind it. Biting down on it's neck, Lizzie was sure she was watching a truly powerful predator enjoy a well earned meal when, suddenly... A strange light emanated from where the larger predator had bit... And the next thing she saw, there was a man appearing almost similar to portrayals of Greek deities floating in the water. More surprising, was seeing him almost thoughtlessly kill the monstrosity before him... His powers, it seemed, would make him either a great ally, or a terrible enemy...

If he appeared in the city, the best Lizzie could hope would be that he was willing to reason... Willing to stand up for his own rights, without taking things too far... However, after the display against the predatory fish, she feared he'd be far more likely to prove himself a mildly violent madman, seeking only to bring pain to the universe...

[Crisis]

The thing about Altwaaloids is that, unlike other races they relied less on their five senses...and more on their sixth one. So as Wyrture stood there inspecting his hand, as if somehow he'd uncover the secret to his miscalculation in the whorls of his fingers...the sudden spike of another entity's perception came into his consciousness. His head went up, snapping towards the direction of the girl on the other side of the glass.

The curious interest painted itself across his face, and without making any movement he seemed to drift slowly towards her. His excess of cloth billowing behind him like a sail, and his hair were the only things aside form the slowly depleting distance between them that showed he moved at all. He didn't stroke his arms or kick his feet, as other people would imagine ambulance in water called for. He finally reached the window, staring down at Lizzie like a child encountering a bright red bird for the first time. He just kept going until his head, hit the glass with a distinctive thunk.

He laughed it off, from the other side of the glass as he rubbed his forehead with his fingers. But suddenly he leaned forward, and his head just went through the solid sheet of silicate, up until his shoulders. Neither his hair nor skin was wet, and he just kept his smile for Lizzie. The different perceptions swimming through her personality...they were intriguing. And Wyrture pulled himself completely through the glass, landing deftly before her, he took light steps towards her, and as he did his clothes unraveled both cloth and metal, only to be replaced by different clothes that would seem familiar to Lizzie. Wyrture ran his fingers through his hair, making a mess of it, but somehow it could only be described as perfectly messy.

“Hello” he said rather warmly, as if everything that had transpired were normal to him.

[The Tommy]

Watching in silence as the strange man seemed to draw closer to the dome without moving his arms, or doing anything to propel himself, Lizzie was unsure whether to be intrigued, or scared. Nonetheless, she felt no real fear for the man, even as he began to push himself through the dome. Aside from his ever present, slighty unnerving smile, he seemed a well enough man. Though, when he suddenly changed from the Greco-Roman style he'd first appeared in, to seeming dressed more akin to her father, Lizzie couldn't help but be taken back a bit... She hadn't spoken to her father, nor seen him, in over a decade... Not since she'd left Cluster 7C... Yet, this man seemed to be wearing his exact clothing now, right down to the grease stains from the larger machines he handled...

Despite this strange occurrence, however, Lizzie felt a need to be a friendly face for him. As strange as he seemed, he also seemed quite alone, like herself... And, more surprisingly, he seemed very friendly. Regardless of her trepidations, there was no reason she had not to be social... And while he might prove a danger, speaking with him would merely reveal his intentions. If worse came to worse, Lizzie had no doubt her own abilities would prove a match for any situation that could occur... There was a reason so many followed her example in demanding equality for those with powers...

"Good afternoon, sir. My name is Elizabeth Anne Jackson, however, most people refer to me as Lizzie... I'm something of an advocate for those with powers, similar to your own, in some ways. Judging by your appearance, I somehow doubt you're here on behalf of the government of this planet, or of Earth... As I doubt you work for any of the corporations abusing our people... Perhaps you're seeking to spread the message that we deserve better treatment?"

While some people tended to wait on such announcements, Lizzie knew she was a wanted woman throughout the known universe. Any human colony or planet she went to would be after her, for her outspoken nature if not more. With that knowledge, she never found herself afraid to reveal who she was upon first meeting people... Any sense of anonymity she may have had, had been removed by her own indomitable will years ago... She had a goal for the betterment of all she knew... And no force, be it man, nature, or alien, would ever be able to hold her down...