Trials of a Planeswalker Ch. 02: Fall

"Uhhh... Jhoira, the doors aren't open! We can't go anywhere." Blayne said, pointing towards the bow.

"There aren't any doors. We aren't going to stay on Ravnica anyway. To Earth!" Jhoira exclaimed as an enormous swirling portal appeared off the bow. She touched another control and pushed up a slider. The engines roared and they exploded forward, disappearing through the portal in blink of an eye. Blayne was hurled back on his ass as oppressing darkness enveloped the ship. Around them, swirling torrents of mana exploded into existence and disappeared just as fast. A huge flood of red surged over the bow, bathing the entire ship in an eerie crimson glow. It couldn't seem to get within ten feet of it though, skimming off some sort of barrier around the ship.

Blayne pushed himself to his feet, shoving forward with the help of magic to hang onto the console next to Jhoira. Jhoira yelled in excitement as another portal appeared before them, this one swirling with the wonderful blue sky of his home.

*******

Chandra and Maria were sitting back to back on an apartment roof, panting and exhausted. For the last day they had been flying around burning anything that wasn't human. They were worn to the bone and ready to pass out, but Maria refused to give up and Chandra wouldn't let her fight alone.

There was a deafening explosion overhead as a rippling cyan portal appeared in the sky. Barely a blink of light foretold the skyship that erupted forth at supersonic speeds. A sonic boom shook the roof they were sitting on and they barely got sight of the ship before it raced into the distance.

Back at the evacuation shelter that Varia, Robin and Henry were staying at, it barely took a few seconds for the airship to reach them at those speeds. It raced closer and the sails that were held tight to the sides of it snapped open. It slowed rapidly as the ship hummed loudly, shining jets of mana flowing out the back of the engines.

"What the hell?!" Henry exclaimed, staring up at it, "Robin, get out here and look at this! I thought your world didn't have airships?"

Robin scrambled out behind him and stared in awe at the ship, "We don't! I've never seen anything like that!"

"Its got to be Blayne! I can feel him up there." Varia yelled happily.

As if summoned by his name, Blayne leapt over the side and floated down towards them. He landed next to Varia and immediately pulled her into a tight hug. His lips pressed to hers and they shared a passionate kiss.

"Oh come on Blayne!" Robin complained as he grabbed Varia's ass in both hands.

"Please honey, you had to get Varia to leave for half the night so we could fuck for three hours." Henry sighed, smacking her butt. Robin fumed and crossed her arms.

"Good to see you again." Varia sighed as he let go of her.

"So Blayne, where the hell did you get that?" Henry asked, pointing above them.

"This is the Skyship Radiant Dawn! Constructed by Jhoira, apprentice of Urza, to fight the Phyrexians wherever they appear. That is what these creatures are that are attacking. The plague is designed by Phyrexians from centuries past on Dominaria. Somehow it was spread here and it began to grow and infect everything. Now using this ship, we will stop them!" Blayne exclaimed, "Come on!"

People were closing in around them, curious and interested in the big flying boat. Blayne grabbed Varia's hand and leapt into the sky, landing on the edge of the skyship. Behind him, Henry and Robin followed. The crowd was yelling and talking in surprise at the clearly magical show.

"Jhoira, back to Manhattan!" Blayne yelled into an intercom pipe that was built into the turret next to them.

"Hang on, we will be there in a minute!" Jhoira's voice called back out of it.

There was a rumbling beneath the deck and the ship turned in the sky, the sails adjusted, folding back into a more streamline shape. They picked up speed and raced over the city. With the advent of this ship, there were going to be big changes to the fight for Earth.

*******

CHAPTER 24 - A LESSON IN FUTILITY

"This is amazing!" Robin exclaimed as they circled around Manhattan island at high altitude.

"Jhoira, how do these turrets work?" Blayne called through the same pipe.

"Strap yourself in, aim down the sight and pull the triggers! It's a mana cannon! Not that complicated." Jhoira spoke back to them.

"Alright, well first things first, we circle over the water at a low altitude and burn everything we see. Clean the shores and work our way inward!" Blayne said, "Everyone on the port side, get in the turrets! Use the intercoms on them to keep in contact! Call out what you see and shoot anything that isn't human!"

"Is it bad that I'm really excited about this?" Robin asked as they split up. The turrets were spaced about every fifty feet down the side of the ship. There were three on both sides and one at the bow, which Blayne headed straight for.

"Not as long as it's the Phyrexians you're shooting at dear." Henry said as he sat down at his turret.

The seats were not the most comfortable, but they buckled in tightly and likely wouldn't move even if the ship tumbled over. The turrets were controlled by gripping the control handles through the back of the turret. The turret and seat were moved by thought. They had very advanced magical targeting system that helped them see and pick targets from a great distance.

Blayne had to admit, he was as excited as his sister. He relished the prospect of using this wonderful machine to rain death and destruction down on the plague that was consuming his home planet.

"Everyone strapped in? Good, I'm going down." Jhoira told them and the ship started to dive. If they hadn't been strapped in, Blayne might've been worried about someone falling off the deck. They dove at a sharp angle and picked up speed at an alarming rate. A hundred feet from the waters of the Hudson river, they began to level off until they were cruising above it at probably thirty feet.

"It looks like someone already got to the bridges." Robin said as they slowly moved in closer to the shore.

"Probably Chandra and Maria. They've been fighting the plague for the past day or two." Blayne said.

"Blayne, I don't see anything. There's nothing moving down there, it's all just a black morass along the streets!" Varia said.

"I did say they've been fighting for a while. Keep going around Jhoira, let's see what we can find." Blayne nodded as he watched around ahead of them.

Suddenly there was a loud screech from Henry's turret as a blinding white beam of mana shot down a side street. It struck with a loud hiss and the beam died out.

"What was that?" Blayne called out.

"I saw some hideous creature shambling down the street; half-melted body all covered in metal." Henry shuddered, "So I destroyed it."

"That's them, no mistake. Those spores are making some horrifying abominations." Robin grimaced.

"Coming up guys, watch the shore! They're everywhere!" Jhoira called out as they circled around to the east river. She wasn't kidding, hundreds, if not thousands of horribly mutated Phyrexian bodies were wandering towards the water's edge. Dozens had already fallen in.

"Light 'em up!" Blayne yelled, pulling the trigger on his turret. A sustained beam twice the size of Henry's burst forth and it blazed a swathe through the Phyrexians. He kept the beam firing as he rotated himself, burning trail up the street. The others joined him and set the entire portion of the street ablaze with blinding white mana.

Jhoira slowed the ship down to barely a crawl as they blasted the Phyrexians. But no matter how much they destroyed, even more rise out of the slime, crawling over the bodies. Some of the bodies just kept going after Blayne and the others had shot them.

"Be careful you don't let the turrets overheat! You can't hold the triggers that long, give them a few seconds to cool between shots!" Jhoira warned them as Blayne's turret began to glow red from the heat. The guage in front of him was well past 'warm' and nearing 'danger'.

"Not very good weapons Jhoira, I can't level a city with these!" Blayne called back.

"You try and build a machine that will generate a ten-thousand degree beam from a self-generating source of pure white mana, that can also travel across planes, and not have the turrets overheat!" Jhoira exclaimed.

"Alright, I think that's about it." Varia said, straining to see anything else moving in the pile of dead bodies.

Henry opened fire again, laying waste to the pile of burning corpses for ten whole seconds. When he stopped, Blayne was staring from across the deck at him.

"What? I was just making sure." Henry said with a shrug.

"Hey! About time you guys join the party! Good timing!" A voice came from above. Chandra dropped onto the deck amid a bright curl of fire.

"Chandra, where the hell have you been?" Blayne asked, unstrapping himself from the turret.

"With Maria doing the same thing you were just doing... only I have been doing for entirely too long now. I swear, this goop just forms back up around the skeletons or whatever it can get it's mucky fingers on and just keeps fighting." Chandra sighed, rubbing her forehead, "We were taking a breather when you guys showed up. I planned on napping for a little while before we got back into it, but here you are. Maria shouldn't be far behind me."

Chandra looked up in time to see Maria drop down to the airship on a trail of fire.

"Nice ship. This is pretty cool." Maria said, looking around them, "Thank god you're back Blayne, we couldn't do this any longer alone."

"Yea, sorry about the wait. Jhoira had to do some work on it first. So I..." Blayne's explanation was cut off by Jhoira yelling.

"Blayne, I've got incoming on the radar! Something is approaching us fast and whatever technology it has is trying to track us!" Jhoira called as the ship started to pick up speed.

"Oh shit, that's probably the Air Force. Jhoira, go! Don't attack them, just avoid them!" Blayne howled at the intercom, "Everyone hold on or get inside, it's going to get very windy!"

He felt the deck rumbling as Jhoira pointed the ship higher as it rose. She pressed hard on the accelerator and they shot into the sky. Wind whipped over the deck, throwing the three of them not strapped in off balance.

"Get in a turret, hold on! I'm going to try and do something!" Blayne yelled over the wind into Chandra's ear. She nodded and pulled Maria over to the opposite side of the deck. Varia was staring back at him as he crouched down. Lightning began to crackle in the air around him as he drew deep into his own powers. Earth had become richer in mana as they spent more time here, as if the presence of Planeswalkers had somehow feed the inherent magic properties of this plane. It still was still nowhere near the levels of Ravnica or Azeroth but it was still more than enough for Blayne when added to the substantial power reserves within him.

In the blink of an eye, he launched into the sky on a bolt of lightning. Blayne used his magic to enhance his vision as he hung in the air, the ship long since gone from under him. He saw the fighter jets in the distance, closing in rapidly. With a thought, he launched himself at the closest one out of three.

With great care, he managed to land on the bow of the jet, his hands pressed to the glass. He clung to the ship with his magic and looked in the cockpit at the pilot. The thump on the hull made him look back at Blayne and he started in surprise.

Using his magic, Blayne made letters appear on the glass. He had never used illusions much before now and it was tricky because he didn't want to damage the plane or anger the pilot. He ended up writing 'Just trying to help' on the window. The pilot stared in surprise at the words and he spoke into his headset, calling for instructions. After a few moments, he nodded to Blayne and the jet altered its course. Blayne leapt off and launched himself in the opposite direction, electricity trailing in his wake. He raced through the skies, hurtling back towards the Radiant Dawn. It didn't take him long to catch it since Jhoira had brought it almost to a halt once the jets had turned away.

"So what's going on Blayne?" Varia ran over to him from her turret.

"We have to go to the government. They were bound to have a few questions for the crew of a magical airship that suddenly appeared over New York . Jhoira, we need to head south. Do you have a map of my world?" Blayne called into the intercom.

"Come on up to the bridge." Jhoira said as the ship slowed to a halt.

*******

Four fighter jets circled around them as they hovered several hundred feet over the Capitol Building. A crowd of people had gathered on the National Mall to stare up at the Radiant Dawn. Probably the only reason the armed forces hadn't tried to shoot them down yet was because of Blayne's stunt with the fighter earlier. They were likely still trying to assess the new threat.

"So what's the plan?" Henry asked as they stood together at the ship's railing.

"Varia and I are going down there to try and talk with them. If what Robin says is true and they've been in continuous emergency session in both houses of Congress, then that means there will be plenty of people down there who'll be willing to listen by now." Blayne said, "But we need to be careful, at a time like this, people are liable to freak out and shoot us."

"So you really think they're going to just let you just walk into the main hall of Congress?" Robin said, grabbing Blayne's hand to get his attention.

"No, that's why its going to be just Varia and I. I need that pair fireballs over there to keep the ship safe and I need Henry here to keep you safe." Blayne said, giving her a quick kiss on the forehead.

"Don't you think you're being a little over protective?" Robin asked with a frown. However, Blayne had already turned around and grabbed Varia's hand. Before Robin could get an answer out of him, the two of them leapt over the side of the ship.

"What the hell did he call us?" Maria asked, crossing her arms.

"The fireballs." Chandra chuckled.

"I ought to kiss that man." Maria laughed.

Down towards the ground, Blayne could see the people yelling in shock and pointing up at them. They didn't know that it was two powerful wizards plummeting towards them. Their screams grew louder as Blayne and Varia neared the steps of the Capitol Building. Twenty feet from the ground, Blayne slowed their fall and they landed gently on their feet. People gasped in shock and some covered their eyes, expecting a bloody impact.

"One would think they had never seen magic." Varia snickered, following Blayne as he strode up the steps.

They were stopped at the front doors by the police officers guarding them.

"I'm sorry, there is no admittance to the Capitol Building during this national emergency without proper identification." The officer said, holding up a hand to stop Blayne.

"I just fell from a magic airship a thousand feet up and landed without a scratch and no parachute. You're really going to do this?" Blayne asked, looking up at the Radiant Dawn.

"I'm sorry, but no matter the situation, orders are orders." The officer said, lowering his hand to the pistol on his hip. Varia responded in kind, going for the saber on her hip.

"I commend your courage and stoic duty in the face of adversity, but you are going to let me pass. I have important information about the plague afflicting New York that must be shared with the whole world." Blayne said, putting a hand on Varia's arm.

"Sir, please step back down the stairs. For the safety of this nation, you cannot enter." The officer said as two more stepped forward from the left and right.

"Sorry about this." Blayne said, holding up his hand. Lightning crackled ominously around his hand and down his arm. Before the officers could draw their pistols, he swung his arm around, unleashing a blinding whip of lightning. The crackling flash stunned the officers and Blayne stepped over their prone, twitching bodies. He pushed through the doors with Varia close on his heels.

"You did all that and you didn't want me to cut them down?!" Varia called in annoyance.

"I didn't want them dead! The joint session of congress is being held in the House chamber on the west side, this way!" Blayne said, grabbing her hand. He whirled a tight barrier around them as a nearby officer fired his gun at them. The bullet ricocheted off his magic and he continued to run. Together they sprinted through the bewildered people and shocked guards of the Capitol Building. His heart pounded in his chest and he leapt up a long set of stairs, magic carrying him to the top of it. He burst down the hall, wind whipping all around him and Varia. Nobody standing in his way could stop him and the erupted through the doors of Congress.

Congressmen and Senators stood up and shouted at him as he raced down the middle of the hall. He leapt over the gaggle of reporters and landed on the desk in front of the Speaker of the House. Varia landed unsteadily next to him and grabbed his shoulder for balance.

"Congressmen! Politicians of America! Listen to what I have to say!" Blayne yelled to the room around him. Hundreds of eyes were on him and dozens of people were yelling. A few officers came running through the doors after them, their guns raised towards Blayne, although they didn't fire for fear of hitting one of the others around him.

"Who do you think are you?! What are you doing?" The Speaker asked as he stood up, "We are gathered here to try and work out the problems this nation is facing right now! You think you can just interrupt us because you think you know what you're talking about?"

"Come down from there, you are under arrest!" The lead officer called, his pistol pointed straight at Blayne.

"You guys just don't get it, do you?!" Blayne said in exasperation, an explosion of lightning bursting from his hand. It crackled over the heads of the people, striking the walls all around. A harmless show that did little more than blacken the walls behind the people, but it quieted the hall. "I am a Planeswalker, the one that defended this world from the great dragon Nicol Bolas when he attacked New York last year! My wife Varia is not even from this world! You ask me who I think I am how I can just walk into the capital building and address, but I promise that none of you have any idea what it is you are dealing with! You are all blind to the worlds beyond this one. What is happening in New York is something from another plane of existence: something that will consume this entire world. I am the only one who can give you chance to stop it. You need head my words before it's too late!"

There was a moment of silence and Blayne honestly thought he had gotten to them. Then the entire room erupted into shouting again and he groaned in annoyance.

"Just this one, Blayne, please let me do something." Varia said, hanging onto his arm.

"Nobody dies." Blayne sighed with a nod.

Varia spread her arms and floated upward off the desk. A black cloud of magic began to spread from her. It surged outward and washed over the crowd of old men and women around them. It invaded their minds and gripped their souls, forcing them into compliance with her will. She began to pour her thoughts into their minds, filling them with fear and scaring them to stillness.

"The plague is known as Phyrexian Oil. It is a dark, malevolent force from beyond this world, one that you cannot hope to contain alone." Varia spoke to their very souls through her invading dark magic: she filled their minds with horrific images of the Phyrexians, burning meaning of her words to into their memory. "We are here to help, we have brought forces that can fight, but you must trust us! You, above all others, are the leaders of this country! It is up to you to take charge and lead the people with the greatest resources at your disposal. That. Is. Us."