Colt Classic

"Colt Classic" is the sixth episode of Reflection.

*OPIA begins its first large scale operation to save the fugitive Colt. Their destination is a GEIST base that has been rigged into a demonic death trap for the brave agents. Do numbers other than 1 or 20 exist on a d20?*

## Summary

The episode opens with Arg0s recieving an email from The Muse. She warns him that the Demonic Courts of Logic and Compulsion are using Colt as bait to lure the agents of FLOW into a death trap and obliterate the organization outright. Additionally, she reveals that the GEIST soldiers guarding the facility that Colt is currently trapped within are not human, but are simply artificial bodies possessed by the Courts. She also warns Arg0s to move out of the way as a car manned by one of the possessed bodies attempts to ram into Ridill's van.

After making their way through several barricades and armed GEIST constructs, the party is able to make their way to the walls of the factory. At the same time, Circuit approaches from the other end, using her Reflection to incarnate herself into a physical body. She sneaks into the factory through a vent and begins making her way towards Colt, eventually coming across a computer terminal in a storage room with access to various cameras and other facility software. Back on the other side, Willow attempts to use her other Reflection to coverly make a door, but is unable to. On Ace's reccomendation, the group uses her Beetle to silently crest the wall, dropping down into a field of large storage containers. Various possessed bodies roam the area, alongside a mysterious masked figure. After successfully picking off a few of the guards, Basil and Willow impulsively decide to press a button on a strange white container, which turns out to be a sort of railed transport that moves them to the other end of the storage field, right in front of the masked man.

Suddenly thrust into combat, Satyr and Arg0s engage the masked figure, who reveals that he is wielding the Reflection "Monster", while the rest of the strike team splits into smaller groups of two as well - Willow and Ridill; and Basil and Ace. Meanwhile, Circuit continues slowly assassinating GEIST bodies as she progresses through the warehouse. Willow and Ridill find themselves in a large room filled with glowing tubes, which Ridill reverse engineers to discover that they are birthing pods for the possessed bodies. Ace and Basil kill a handful of GEIST soldiers and progress deeper into the warehouse. To fight them, Ace summons Gnashing Maw, which unsettles Basil for a moment. While fighting Satyr and Arg0s, the masked man suddenly disappeares into Flame, reforming in one of the birthing tubes. At the front of the facility, Lugh and Lyst arrive and begin to confront the army of GEIST soldiers guarding the front entrance.

Ace and Basil find themselves in a large room filled with screens. Satyr uses his ESP to transport himself and Arg0s to their side after the masked man disappears, and explains that this seems to be a control center for the birthing tubes. Meanwhile, Willow preemptively pushes the masked man back into the tube he came out of the second he attempts to leave it, while Ridill uses her backdoor access to the machines to disintegrate the man on the spot. Circuit continues to sneak by by rolling her core crystal that contains her Flame across the hallway and reappearing where it stops. Unfortunately, the only viable area for the masked man to reform are the birthing tubes in the room now directly above her current position. As she attempts to figure out how to get past him, a lone researcher begins walking up the hallway. Circuit creates a second body by throwing her crystal across the room onto a pile of crates, where she distracts the masked man with the second body while she deals with the researcher. However, as the researcher approaches, it attempts to grab Circuit and hijack her body, forcing Circuit to disintegrate that self. The "researcher"'s disguise falls away, revealing himself to truly be a holographic, sapient manifestation of the GEIST AI, two revelations which equally upset Circuit.

On the other side of the warehouse, the main group manages to open the magnetic locks keeping them from the center of the building, and ride the sideways elevator to the long central pathway, on a metal railing right above where Colt is sitting. Meanwhile, Twice appears and helps Circuit escape from the masked man and the GEIST AI, meeting the main group in the middle of the building. Circuit drops down to investigate Colt, only to her horror discover that his right eye has been disfigured by the Demons. Then, suddenly, a massive, statue-like Demon drops down and destroys the Circuit body on the ground, forcing her to remanifest on the railing. Ace and Twice run back to the east wing to hold off the masked man and the AI, while the rest of the group is suddenly greeted by a massive projection of an unknown Demon, who tells them that, after seeing how efficiently they handled the previous Coda dives, the Demonic Courts have decided to annihilate them here and now, additionally remarking on his disappointment that FLOW did not seem to bring their "Flame-touched" along with them, as he is unable to sense the Flame of Creation. He then disappears, leaving the party with the massive Demon.

Combat begins immediately, with the party landing a few miniscule shots on the seemingly impenetrable Demon. Pivoting their plan of attack, they push the Demon into a wall and begin to run towards the entrance to back up Lugh and Lyst who, despite the protective cover put in place by Lugh's Reflection, are beginning to lose ground to the mass of GEIST soldiers. Meanwhile, Ace and Twice engage in combat as well. Noticing the masked man's pyromantic ESP, Ace attempts to push out the warped section of his Flame he obtained in Above and Below, but ends up badly wounding himself. Vaultwatcher, thinking quickly, conjures Obsidian Gold to protect Ace's Flame. Before disappearing by way of Satyr's ESP, Obsidian Gold's ability impresses a portion of the masked man's self onto Ace, reinforcing his fragile form.

Back in the main corridor, the party continues to progress to the entrance of the warehouse, with Basil taking the lead, using Collapse of the Living to mow down hordes of GEIST bodies. Ridill uses her ESP to conjure an Isolation barrier than keeps the statue-like Demon away from them, as Willow attempts to expedite Colt's escape with the Beetle. Empowered by Obsidian Gold, Ace is able to greatly assist in clearing out GEIST bodies from the path ahead. Basil makes great use of her Reflection's various mutated forms as well, taking down many foot soldiers and even a hijacked GEIST helicopter. Unfortunately, as the party approaches the gate, a massive Demon crawls out from the pipes beneath the warehouse. Back at the end of the central corridor, a large mechanical figure appears from within a television screen and begins to assist the statue Demon in attempting to break down Ridill's Isolation barrier. Finally, the masked man appears as well and begins to make his way towards the group, now clustered at the front of a now sealed-shut gate. Arg0s scans the colossal Demon and discovers it to be aligned with the Court of Logic as well as harboring ESP abilities that far outclass most of the FLOW agents in the warehouse. Ace engages with the masked man yet again, Obsidian Gold impressing more of his form onto him, as the rest of the party picks off the sizable horde of remaining GEIST bodies. Unfortunately, the Beetle is severely damaged in the crossfire. Aura finally manages to blast down the front gate with the Oscar Original, joining the fight.

Hope continues to wane as the fighting rages on, but eventually, enough damage is dealt to the masked man that, unable to control himself, he unleashes a wave of Flame, dragging Ace, Aura, Arg0s, Willow, Basil, and Twice into a world constructed from his pyromantic Anima. Explaining that he was a warrior from a world that "never stopped fighting", he asks the FLOW agents to give them their all in his last moments. They engage him with all of their might and shockingly, he is able to sufficiently fend them off. While this is going on, Basil wanders off to a reconstruction of a temple at the edge of the Anima world, where she begins to release her own Flame, but she is intercepted by Ridill, who saves her and ensures her that everything is going to be alright. Rushing to the masked man, who reveals his name to be Charybdis, Ridill uses her talents to remove the forced control GEIST had on him as well as stop him from dying. As the Anima fades, the FLOW members find that the fighting outside has ceased as a line of official ESPers has breached the facility and is surrounding the wounded party. Additionally, at some point during the chaos, Ascalon had arrived in the warehouse and scared off the Demons. The wounded party, plus Charybdis, pile into the truck Lugh used to get to the warehouse and drive off to OPIA HQ to nurse their wounds.

## Characters

### Party

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

### FLOW

* Aura Pridwyn
* Lyst Solais
* Ascalon
* Lugh
* Twice

### OPIA

* Cam
* Mic
* Circuit
* Dr. Verona

### GEIST

* Satyr
* GEIST AI

### Other

* Colt
* Charybdis