Above and Below

"Above and Below" is the first episode of Reflection.

*Creatures from beneath now walk the surface, with bodies and armor far too powerful for even the most advanced weaponry to scratch. In order to drive back the encroaching apocalypse, seven individuals are equipped with seven superweapons from a vault of 100 legendary armaments. These Front Line Otherworld Weapon (FLOW) specialists are granted these powerful tools from other worlds to prevent their own world’s inevitable end.*

## Summary

### In The Desert

A van carrying the soon-to-be operatives of FLOW's second Wave gets stuck in a ditch in the desert around Fuse City. Arg0s and Ridill Arondite leave the van an attempt to push it, but neither of them are strong enough to do so. They call out Ace Galatine and Willow Wisp to assist, and they eventually manage to get out of the ditch after some interruptive banter, mostly about which number the group should count down from. The people who pushed the van hop on the roof and watch the stars as Aura Pridwyn drives the van back to the city.

### FLOW Wave 2

A group of Fuse City ESPers and GEIST soldiers restrain a demon from the Coda as a giant cannon on the top of Fuse City aims and fires an artillery barrage to annihilate the demon. At the same time, on the top of Upwind's arm, the recruits of FLOW Wave Two make their way down a road surrounded by a horde of citizens. Ace Galatine and Lyst Solais are first, with the two discussing sponsorships and their plans for which Reflection they want to wield. They are followed by a procession of GEIST operatives carrying Basilisk Id in a coffin. The newscast reporting on the procession quickly moves to Arg0s, who slowly makes his way down the road, somewhat embarrassed by the procedure. He talks to Mic as he continues down the road. He's then followed by Willow, who is dragged to the back of the line by Aura after Ridill experiences stage fright. Willow picks up both of them and runs down the road, narrowly avoiding a confrontation between Aura and a group of masked figures who were insulting him.

Ace and Lyst arrive in OPIA HQ. They are greeted by the Director, who quickly leaves them to look at Basil's coffin. They are also welcomed by Symphonia and Cam. Arg0s arrives soon after and moves to a corner, where he asks Mic if he can copyright strike the video footage of him at the parade. Danger appears and asks Arg0s for an autograph. He then goes up to Ace and asks for the same. Willow arrives with Aura and Ridill and the group goes to enter the hall of Reflections with Dr. Verona. They have a brief meeting with Circuit and Satyr before proceeding to the hall.

### Choosing Reflections

After a brief argument between Verona and the GEIST soldiers carrying Basilisk, the recruits are admitted into the hall to choose their Reflections. After they begin wandering the hall. After some time, the GEIST soldiers release Basilisk from her coffin. She wakes up and immediately begins screaming. Ridill uses her ESP to put her in a state of sensory deprivation, which calms her down. She attaches to Ridill, who she sees as a "childhood friend", and judo flips a guard into her coffin as a proclamation of her "Absolute Free Will". She goes to choose a Reflection, settling on Collapse of the Living, much to Ridill's despair.

Willow wanders the Reflection hall on her own, eventually settling on Grasp the Earth. She helps Lyst choose her own Reflection as well, settling on Villagekeeper. Arg0s inspects a variety of Reflections, eventually deciding to go with Singlehanded Savior. Ace and Aura spend a lot of time proposing Reflections to each other that neither of them want, with Ace settling on Vaultwatcher. Willow convinces Aura to try out the Oscar Original. Ridill takes Even Beyond the Furthest Stars.

The group returns to the center of the room, where the GEIST soldiers that brought in Basil begin shaking and melting into a strange gel-like substance. Immediately noticing that the source of this coming from the coffin, Ace orders Willow to destroy it, which she does by attuning to her Reflection and hatchet kicking it. As the coffin is destroyed, the group minus Aura and Lyst are suddenly wrenched elsewhere.

### Traveling Beyond

Ace and Basilisk are sent somewhere deep below, seeing a vision of various mysterious entities. They arrive in a mechanical fortress bordering a "sea of ash", stripped of their bodies and left as motes of Flame. They arrive in front of a hazy figure on a bronze throne, who reaches out their hand to them. Fearing what would happen if they remained, they took his hand. Willow and Arg0s (along with Mic) went somewhere far above, appearing on a train going to an unknown location. They notice a mysterious cloaked figure who gives off an aura of death. They began to incur heavy Burn, so Arg0s attuned to Singlehanded Savior and used its ability to derive weaknesses to break open the train with Willow's help.

The party and Ridill all awoke next to each other in the Coda. Ridill explains that they can't focus too hard on their surroundings lest they incur Burn, so they begin searching for the lynchpin keeping them summoned into the Coda. After avoiding a horde of Demons, they arrive at the shell of a GEIST soldier, the lynchpin Ridill was searching for. Before they can interact with it, a mysterious figure appears and begins combat with the party. Ridill summons an aura of Isolation ESP that allows the group instant teleportation. Ace and Basil attune to their Reflections during the course of the fight. Vaultwatcher takes a day of Ace's life in return for a sword, which he uses to incur Reality Break to sweep up Ridill's ESP into an attack that obliterates their connection to the Coda.

### Finale

By severing their connections indiscriminately, the party ends up somewhere random above Fuse City and begins falling from the sky. Ridill musters enough ESP power to create a platform to keep them afloat, which also catches the entity they were fighting. Basil uses Collapse of the Living to finish it off. Ace then gathers slow-falling gel from nearby drones to impede the group's descent. He convinces Vaultwatcher to give him armor to further impede his fall, whereas Arg0s uses his Reflection to heal him on impact. Basil uses Collapse of the Living to "attack the ground before it attacks her" and falls unconscious. Willow uses her wings to fly and carry Ridill to safety. The group talks about their dreams and looks at the lights of the city before going to get pizza.

## Characters

### Party

* Ace Galatine
* Basilisk Id
* Arg0s
* Willow Wisp
* Ridill Arondite

### FLOW

* Aura Pridwyn
* Lyst Solais

### OPIA

* Director
* Dr. Verona
* Circuit
* Mic
* Cam
* Danger
* Symphonia

## Trivia

* Willow destroying the coffin and sending the party to the strange realms above and below was unintentional according to Jay