Because balance is overrated.
24 Jul 2026 - XSYS Team
Title card: December 2024
Open in the Polaris Building, in the study at the top we’ve seen before: Marlow’s office. Rich wood, art, bookcases full of old tomes, the works. She’s slamming both her hands on the table, and despite the fact that her entire body is obscured in robes and cloth wrappings and a mask, she is very clearly seething.
Magus, for his part, is refusing to give in to the framing of “being called to the principal’s office”. In full techwear regalia, he’s pulled his headset’s visor down over his eyes for the first time, partially obscuring his expression. Loa the racing synth (and de-facto arena engineer) is beside him; Exime the combat synth (and de-facto arena security) is standing on the sidelines between the two, her arms folded.
Exime glances at Marlow, not seeming to entirely understand. Magus steps forward and tosses a holographic datapad onto her desk. It’s displaying two images of a woman: one pixelated, like a 3D model rendered through a low-res screen, where she’s sitting on a bench of red wood, and the other a very similar shot, but photorealistic, her pose more natural, less stiff.
Marlow picks up the holopad and examines it. Even from behind her mask, her loose grip communicates disdain. Exime is craning her head around, and Loa is looking up at Magus with his monoeye, concerned.
Marlow straightens up, picks up the holopad by the corner, and tosses it onto the floor, clattering in Magus’s direction.
The two stare at each other for a long moment, visor to mask. Magus doesn’t exactly back down, but does turn.
Cut to black.
Title card: July 2026.
Open on the arena floor. Loa is in the audience, leaning over the railing. The stands are mostly empty, lightly peppered with synths; they’re watching a fight between two other synths. One is Exime, de-facto arena security; the other is a large orange-and-yellow cargo-loader synth. The two seem about evenly matched– when the loader lands a hit, it sends Exime flying, but she manages to tech the landing and launch right back in.
And off in that section of the stands, behind Loa, several heroes are sitting together.
She is, in fact, having a lot of fun dodging and weaving. It seems more and more like she’s toying with this loader-synth.
There’s a general mumble of agreement, more out of boredom than anything. The heroes filter down the stairs to the green room, changing back into their civilian clothes. In the back of the shot, Exime roars and yells, holding up a severed loader-arm.
Back in the green room, Loa is joining the heroes in their ritual. Similarly to one hero washing their face, Loa is imitating it, washing his featureless visor, clearly not understanding the point of doing it.
Midway through, Loa stops, suddenly frozen.
Just as Rue reaches out to touch them, Loa’s speakers blast a burst of static. Loa’s body jolts upright.
The heroes look at each other, confused– but with a loud twisting distorted-synth noise– a ragged hole blasts through the fabric of space-time. On the other side: a sunny city street, and Magus peeks through, leaning across with a shit-eating grin.
Um, hey everybody! Loa here, cause Magus is a little busy. This month, we’re on our first excursion outside the borders of Blue Arcadia, off into another world! Magus has a plan to fix all this other world’s problems, I guess…? We don’t know exactly what we’re gonna run into, but he says this:
“The sun is beautiful, the sky is clear and clean, and I hope you know how to skate, because today, our goal is simple: get to the bottom of this hill intact!
There’s a lot of things that are gonna try to stop us: big chunky guys, small floaty guys, all of ‘em robots of one stripe or another. Lotsa stuff, but it should be simple for heroes with your level of experience. I’m not super worried.
It might be a little bumpy here and there, but just sit back and enjoy the chaos!”
That’s all he left me, so your guess is as good as mine. Either way, our operation begins on the 26th, at 7 PM your-time!