The Power of Music

[Remu]

Plot Name: The Power of Music

Timeframe: December 11th, 2010 - March 20th, 2011

Characters Involved: Nicholas Langley (Jonas Morti), Kevin Duncan, Jackson Sterling, Sisip Webster, Felipe Machado, Seven Sterling, Jameson Clark, Marlo Cross, Angel Pearson, Ashe McKenna, Eddie Carlisle, Isaiah Mannstein, Maximus Carrington, Tremor, Xerxes

Synopsis: It started with a statue, hurled from a swirling vortex in the hotel that hosted Cobalt Academy's winter formal while beautiful music played in the background. This statue bore the likeness of Kevin Duncan, indicating that he will have died in the future to save millions. Shortly following, a metallic mutant named Slash burst through the skylight and killed the respawner, Nicholas Langley before begging for the 'music maker' to preserve him and exploding into millions of metallic shards that injured everyone in the room.

Some weeks after, the school's temperature was brought to a pleasant spring condition, though it was not to last as it was then turned into a desert wasteland, all while the residents of campus were taunted by an entity calling himself the Music Man. It was learned that alien creatures resided beneath the surface, only dangerous once provoked by changing the temperature. When Cobalt scientists attempted to study these creatures, it seemed to agitate the Music Man, the sand sucked from the campus... and redistributed across three major US cities. Small black stones were left behind that security mostly retrieved, though some students gathered them as well.

Things were quiet for a while, until the campus was, once more, subject to bizarre happenings. Red mist, hidden monsters, foul-smelling flowers, intense heat. The music was this time, in truth, being played by Nicholas Langley, stirring up a storm that caused Sisip Webster's mind to be merged in Jack Sterling's body.

Attempts to capture Nicholas ended in bloodshed and the respawner's death, while those trying to capture him wound up attacked by shadowy beasts led by none other than the Music Man himself, who soon whisked Mr. Langley's body away. His face was viewed on camera, and he was soon identified as Maurice Farwell, a young man who vanished from Salem several years ago. The shadows, as it turned out, were shaded, mind-controlled mutants.

The storm came again, restoring Sisip's mind to her rightful body, but swapping the bodies of 13 mutants. Investigating led to a man claiming to know Maurice, and to the theory that the stones contained some sort of power, and so they were used. Bodies were corrected, by physical sexes were swapped. However, information was gained -- Maurice, a dying boy, had been sold for the purpose of science, involved in a program known as Project Symphony, which would extend his life and grant him power, though that power would eventually kill him, but eventually seek out a new host, the power behaving as an entity of sorts. It was kept under heavy wraps, and any who dared to speak of it were thrown into the psychiatric ward. Perhaps, they thought, that it was a desperate plea to end his suffering? Maybe he planned to pass on the powe to Nick, a man who could never truly die?

Once they found the lab's location on a remote, manmade island, nothing was found but blood and bodies -- and more shades. Music played across the campus as a team set out to find Maurice. They fought their way through shades, revealing them as mutants. First, they found a large monolith -- rather, pieces of one. When Felipe Machado and Metalhead laid their hands upon it, they found themselves struck with visions of death, overwhelming and mind-shattering. Once they recovered, they found the Music Man lying in wait with Nicholas Langley. They engaged in a heated battle that they nearly lost, before battering him into submission, Nicholas turning sides and stabbing his mentor in the back. Literally. This was enough to bring him down, at which point he revealed his true, frail, dying form and a room full of explosives, claiming that he would not allow the power to be taken like this. The team evacuated the scene, and the bombs went off, setting off a massive, colorful explosion that sent an iridescent white wisp streaking across the sky. The music ceased, and the people on campus were returned to normal, terrorized by the Music Man no more.