They were a couple minutes away from the first terrain shift. Danny and Laura had left Tessa to guard the main floor, while Danny setup on top and Laura slunk around for anyone slinking around. They left Tessa there with objections, mind you. Danny didn’t want to leave her alone after everything. But Laura and Tessa agreed it was the best tactical decision and she was outvoted.

Danny would just need to do a good job and stop any players from getting close enough to mess with the little Raccoon girl.

> WARNING: Reality Shift Imminent

pillars of dust shot up at four points around the tower and surrounding cityscape before slowly starting to expand and form into walls. The Tower itself was distressingly close to a corner, with just the street and a thin layer of buildings between it and whatever was about to be out there. 

The dust walls joined together. The view was completely blocked by them now. 

The ground shook, as if a crane had just dropped a crate full of something way too heavy.

And then, all at once, the dust began to disperse. It didn’t go away completely, but it quickly expanded into a cloud, then mist, then settled into an uncomfortable sheet that at worst made it hard to make out details beyond it.

There were two new terrain features behind the wall. To Danny’s left was a quarry, abandoned mining equipment and destroyed and partly buried mecha evident. There were also signs of battle, recent scorch marks and spots that may have contained bodies. It was occupied for sure.

To the right was more cityscape, but different from the chunk which contained their tower. This new city was thoroughly destroyed, as much rubble as standing, but with plenty of hiding holes evident. Danny would at least see if someone approached from the Quarry, but she wouldn’t know if they came from the destroyed city until they were practically already here.

She’d just need to trust that Laura could handle that direction.

The mage turned her attention to the quarry. She could see where opponents would likely come from, so she focused on those places first. Her fire lasers were great for mid to close range, but actually hitting something with them from this far out was practically impossible. Instead she’d prepared a variation on her steam bomb, with the heat turned way, way up. Danny hadn’t had the chance to test it out as much as she would have liked. This was all pretty last minute after all. But it was better than nothing.

She focused on the nearest pass. A magic circle began to glow around her with red-blue light, rotating slightly, while water collected and pressurized above the point where her bomb would go off. 

It gathered there for several seconds, growing larger as it did, before it reached capacity and dropped. After a few more seconds it hit the ground and detonated; a cloud of scalding steam covering the pass for a time. It was slower than Danny would prefer. Too much build up made it easy to dodge and the steam would reach bearable temperatures before dissipating, obstructing her view for a time. 

Still, it was pretty effective crowd control. The dramatic charge and drop choreographed where the next explosion would be and the lingering steam was scalding for a time. It would probably be enough to keep people away. Or to direct them along the route she wanted if they didn’t.

She did just that for a time. Whenever she caught sight of someone approaching she’d drop a steam bomb along their route to stop them in their tracks. If she didn’t see anyone then she’d change up more bombs around the best approaches, or else recharge her staff. She could only charge one bomb at a time, but if she loaded up her staff she could do several at once.

Enough to handle emergencies. And to keep them enemies guessing.

Meanwhile, the sounds of combat from the cityscape were growing closer. Some of the explosions sounded like they were practically at the base of the tower. Laura was the pro in their group. She could handle it...right?

Another explosion. This one was definitely from the tower.

Fuck. Fuck! Tessa!

Danny unleashed the rest of the charges on her staff before heading for the stairs.

Another explosion. From below. Danny nearly lost her balance, then picked up the pace, taking steps two at a time.

She rounded a corner. Down another flight of stairs. Across the way and down another, again.

And there was Tessa.

And there was the enemy, holding her at gunpoint.

“Fuck.”