Yue

 11th January

23:59 GMT +1

"…what Jade's got that I haven't."

Zatanna casually creates a violet barrier to block a barrage of fire blasted at us from the mutants occupying the tunnel Amon just flew through.

"Jade was an independent adult at the point-" I fire iron railgun shots blindly through the inferno, disrupting it for a moment. "-at which I was looking for a relationship."

"That sounds like a-" Zatanna waves her staff, another wave of violet crystal shards erupting through the rock. While that does reduce the quantity of fire coming our way, the crystal is melting rapidly under their ferocious attack and it doesn't actually appear to have killed a meaningful number. "-weak reason, just picking whoever was available at the time. How does she help you?"

The simple answer is 'she doesn't', but I don't want to risk encouraging her. "She helps me maintain perspective on what I'm doing."

I trigger my armour's phasing system but-. No, the rock is enchanted to prevent that. I might be able to phase through the fire… I load a phasic round into my railgun construct and fire it through a gap in the crystal formation. Monitor progre-. No, destroyed while phased.

"And she has sex with you. Is that what this is about?" She glances upwards. "Incoming."

We both fly to evade as three of the larger type of gnome mutants land on our platform, a translucent barrier appearing at the edge as they land. Fire billows from the mouths of the two furthest away, while the closest swings at me with a heavy chain! For a split second I generate an inertial dampener construct and use the resulting sudden change in my momentum to jerk back as the metal links gouge the stonework in front of me, then fly -the chain is held in the mutant's right hand- left and open fire with iron slugs. I hit it in the chest several times, resulting-. Minor wounds which heal almost immediately.

The big ones are super tough as well as super strong.

If it's biological super toughness like the Danner Formula then I can wear them down. Except that I'm sure there are more coming and I strongly suspect that it's actually magical super toughness, which will keep going so long as arcane power is supplied to it.

"No! That's not why!"

I dismiss the railgun and switch to a cold gun, going for height to evade my opponent's fiery breath as it recovers its chain. Move to the side slightly and aim for the head… No effect at survivable levels, turn it down all the way…

The gnome tosses its head slightly in irritation then swings its chain through the air at me, forcing me to evade.

Magic resistance to temperature change. Marvellous.

"I'm sixteen in-" Runes flake off the axe of one of the mutants as Zatanna flies to stay out of its reach, evaporating into violet smoke. "-three weeks!"

"Not the point!"

Switch back to railguns, load crumbler rounds, fire tho-.

Flames surge over my armour and I move to evade. Not penetrating yet, which is good, but the smaller mutants are climbing up the sides of the platform. Ugh, it's like late game Mass Effect: we're too tough to hurt each other. Mage slayers. Aim, wait for a -.

Bwouff!

I'm slammed into the ground by a giant.. club. Bypassed my kinetic barrier. Armour.. took it-. I fly along the floor as the large mutant who took the swing lifts it for another shot. Okay, first target. The first round hits it on its right middle finger, provoking a flinch and-.

And I'm dodging again because there's more fire. Alright, that's it. I load iron rounds again and fire at the smaller mutants on full automatic. Clearly lacking their larger cousins' toughness they go flying off the edge or fall to a bloodied heap on the ground. Great, breathing room.

Zatanna swirls her staff, gathering up.. fire, and condensing it into an incandescent ball over her head. "You like fire? Here."

The air howls as the flying thermodynamics violation slams into the chest of the axe-wielder, burning straight through armour and skin and exploding! The mutant collapses, falling backwards onto the stone floor. Somehow it's not dead, but there's clearly a limit to how much heat they can take.

Warded against cold but not heat. Unfortunately, Leonard Snart's weapon can't be used to excite molecular vibrations, only stop them. But a fusion gun should be able to do the.. job…

The surviving smaller mutants are scarpering. Okay, not going to complain. My first fusion shot hits the club-wielder on the right hand, burning through both the fingers and the haft of the weapon. As its weapon falls from its grip it tries to close the distance with me, a blast of flame blocking my movement as its fist comes around. I raise my arms into a guard as I recharge the fusion gun, taking the hit and being slammed into the ground… Which triggers my kinetic barrier because the floor isn't enchanted with attack spells. The mutant opens its mouth to breathe fire again but I fire first, melting the right side of its face down to the bone.

"RaaaaaGH!"

It staggers away, clawing at its face. And this is why I don't use fusion weapons! They're slow to fire and unreliable! Railgun, mage slayer, at the eye, fire.

The round punches through what's left of the eye and-. Its… Head.. shrinks, the remaining flesh.. now looking more like that of the regular gnomes. Ah, that's… Useful to know. Arcane transmutation changes one thing into another, but certain types of shapeshifting can be reversed just by removing the source of the change. Of course, we still need to actually find that…

The remaining large mutant backs up towards the corridor we were attempting to breach, the smaller mutants who were preventing us apparently having fallen back already. It's adopted a guarding posture, and isn't trying to press us. Zatanna flies over to hover next to me.

"Because if the age of consent is different in Britain-."

"Themyscira. Also, I'm not that shallow. Having sex with Jade was.. just a part of how our relationship developed, not why I got into it. Please don't think it was about that." I sigh. "I think the spell which is turning the gnomes into mutants is a constant effect. Can you nullify it?"

"Yes, but I can't counter the spells on all of them. So why can't it be a part of how our relationship develops?"

"Because, firstly, you're not in your right mind, and as I've said, I'm not even-."

"I haven't only just started feeling like this."

"I know. Then you've got-" I can hear air moving again. "-the age difference-"

"Four years?"

I wince inwardly. "-which is significant at our age, and the fact that our society defaults to a monogamous model of romantic relationships."

Okay, that… Doesn't sound like an air pump. The large mutant before us squeezes back into the passageway. We could attack, but I've got a nasty suspicion-.

And then the dragon flies up from the void below us.

Glowing orange, with a power ring around its left horn.

…

Shit.