Cometh Sharpy

May 23, 2015:

Something wicked and corrupt is this way coming, about to be birthed in Metropolis. That has drawn a few heroes to deal with the situation.

Suicide Slums -- Metropolis

"Slums may well be breeding grounds of crime, but the suburbs outside of here are incubators of apathy and delerium."

Welcome to the Suicide Slums, also known as Southside and The Simon Project. This area is the dark recess of Metropolis, where every corner you take can likely be your last, and the glimmer of hope that glistens off the skyscrapers ceases.

The high rises here are in shambles and disrepair, the markets seem shadier, pretty much verging on that of Black Markets, and the malice is a palpable feeling in the air, if not coming from the looks of the local residents.

Those that benefit from this neighborhood are the ones who can make money from nothing, or come from nothing and seek to have that glimmer on the other side of the pipe-lain wall. Prostitution, gambling, drug dealing, criminalizing - all of this is where most start and never find their way up and out, and if they do, it is likely running the business they started at or heading the gang they ran with, though tales are told of those that have broken free.

Streets bear potholes, newspapers roll across the roads like tumbleweeds and an old lady dumps trash from the upper story of her flat to splash into the dark alley below where a stray cat growls and runs from it all, even the rapid fire of bullets.

Obvious Exits:

  • <DC> (TEMP) leads to Dotsero CO — Me
  • <AOC> leads to Ace o' Clubs [MET]
  • <O> leads to New Troy [MET]

Characters

NPCs: Gang goons, Maglev train passengers

Mentions:

Mood Music: None.


Fade In…

Suicide Slums is the dark, dank, dangerous side of Metropolis. Good citizens avoid this place whenever and however they can. It's just not safe. So why would anyone come down here? Good question. Thing is, there are things that can draw one here. Things like a profound sense of a rippling, roiling disturbance in the elemental forces, building towards an apex. It is the sort of thing that a visiting druidess would notice, if she let herself do so. It is the sort of thing that Universal Awareness might pick up. And sometimes, it can be the sort of thing that a woman well in tune with the city she has made her home might pick up subconsciously, manifesting in that 'itch' at the back of her skull where her 'Seventh Sense' resides, warning her that something is wrong. Nicely non-specific; ever so darned helpful.

But that is what brings Captain Marvel out in costume into - or above - Suicide Slums. She's moving slowly, for her, scanning with eyes and other senses, hoping to pick up whatever it is that is continuing to itch the inside of the back of her skull. What the heck is this?


"Seriously Eon. Here?" asks Quasar as he looks at the jewel facing him from his left wristbracer. He's in street clothes right now.. as he was told that showing up glowing in red blue and gold might draw too much attention. "Okay, if you say so." And then.. ping. His eyes look upward at.. a certain red, blue and gold clad flying woman. "Ah. She has obvious down to a science huh?" he asks with a grin, mostly to himself. After all, one can hardly mistake the photonic energy signature of Captain Marvel for -anything- else. I mean who else would spark like a tiny star inside the city limits? He just smirks and takes the time now, since there is no horrible emergency, to try to narrow down the frequency that the woman's radio might be operating on.


A woman of medium height is there there walking like she is sleeping walking. Her long golden hair has been braided and bound up with gold clasps. She is dressed in a sage green night gown that falls to her keens. Moss green eyes are distant. A gold torque encircles her neck and around her arms are gold armbands. She is barefoot as she walks down towards the area, the area. The wind moves around her like a dog. She stops when she reaches a certain point and she frowns. She turns when she hears a voice.


A woman in a nightgown, wandering through Suicide Slums all alone? That's going to draw attention, and not of the good sort. The indigenous denizens are noticing, to be sure, and they are starting to close in. Given that this is Marcasi territory for at least a few blocks, two of the rougher, more tattooed and pierced figures pull ahead of the others and start stalking after her on the sidewalk, clearly intent on catching up and seeing what they can get away with.

That 'off' feeling seems, for those now close enough to start pinpointing, to be coming from - or just beneath? somehow? - the larger of two warehouses on the next block.

Keeping an open and relaxed mind, trying to follow 'urges' works great when one can fly in open sky, which is how Captain Marvel got this close. But as soon as her eyes land on the barefoot woman in sleepwear walking the streets as if in a trance, with rough-looking folks closing in, she loses her ability to stay that 'tuned out'. Immediacy takes over, and she drops like a golden-glowing meteor out of the sky.

There's just something about jerks who would prey on a vulnerable woman that demands Carol take a personal interest. She lands on the sidewalk not far behind where the woman has wandered, facing off with the two men closing on her. Barehanded, no weapons, the golden-haired woman waits with slightly bend knees and a sort of darkly amused grin on her lips. "C'mon, boys. You want to beat up on a woman? Give me a try. Please. I haven't had a good laugh in days." It's the only warning they are going to get.

For Quasar, it is possible to latch onto a frequency that seems open around Captain Marvel. It's not an Earth standard frequency, but it does seem to access those as well, sampling repeatedly in a spread-spectrum pattern.


Well, who needs to sense energies of the good Captain.. when she's meteor-landing. Quasar just chuckles softly and mutters once he has the frequency nailed down, "Don't mean to startle you Captain. It's Quasar… I happened to be in the neighborhood, and I couldn't help but notice your subtle landing there."

He continues moving… stepping out behind the thugs who are closing in, and emits an infrared pulse that he hopes the good captain can pick up on. "I'm the one pulsing with IR." he remarks over the comms. "I'm guessing you don't need backup but.. I'm also guessing this isn't the reason you are in the area."


The strange woman wearing the nightgown turns towards the men and the and the blonde. She shakes her head and says, "Who you, go from here now, men no good." Her words are in English but they are heavily accented and her words are halting. The barefoot woman has not seen Quasar yet. She frowns at them and then mutters something under her breath. The wind picks up and it seems stronger than it was before. She eyes them and the blonde. When Quasar speaks she turns her head in his direction and frowns.


"Thanks for the warning, Quasar." The Captain's voice comes across rather clear, though she does not appear to speak. Close attention might pick up that her throat did move, but her lips stayed closed. Best not to distract these men with her talking to someone they don't know is there, right?

"Your kind don't belong in this neighborhood, cape. Best you get on out, leave her to us. We know how to treat a lady." One of the two rough men comments, with clearly nefarious and cruel intent. The other unhooks and starts gathering the chain that was his belt, preparing to close in threateningly. The increase in wind doesn't seem to have perturbed them at all, and what would - to them - seem nonsense from Lynwen is only encouraging them to think she's 'out of it' and a viable target for their interests.

Captain Marvel doesn't really wait. "My 'kind', really? Boys, I hate to tell you, but I don't much care if you meant 'apparently caucasian', 'female', or 'costumed.' I take exception. And I don't take requests to 'butt out'."

That's all the warning Carol's going to offer, as she slide-steps forward and leads with a forearm, catching the swung chain when it is employed and then wrapping to grip the chain and pull the user forward, slamming her other fist into his gut, then hook her heel behind his as she drives the same arm's elbow up to connect rather solidly with his jaw, toppling him over on his arse on the sidewalk.

"As for what I'm doing here," Carol offers aloud, now, "No. They aren't it. But they'll do."


"You do realize that she's not -wearing- a cape." says Wendell as he steps up behind the guys, his costume appearing in the blink of an eye, "I on the other hand.. -am- wearing a cape. And fancy bracelets too." he states. He's not yelling, but.. he -is- definitely being obvious. "Eon.." he says more softly, "Keep trying to narrow down that.. large scale trouble, eh?" he asks his patron entity, as he lifts his arms and energy flows from the Quantum Bands to attempt to reach out and make golden glowing handcuffs on all the hoodlums. "Now, I'm not saying you are all under arrest, but.. if you don't give some serious thought to your futures, that -could- still happen." he adds.


There is a sharp word out of the woman and in her hand a sword of fire appears in her right hand. It bathes her in an eerie light and the gold she is wearing shines brighter than the sun. She offers the men a soft growl in foreign tongue. The wind seems to whirl around her. The flow of conversation around her has her lost at this point. This can be seen in the look of confusion that crosses her features. She holds the sword in a tighter grip. "No, fight you leave." This is said in English to the men. Her green eyes go to the Captain and then to her companion.


In relatively short order, the two men who chose to make trouble are subdued. There's not much they can do, really. Handcuffed in golden light, that's the end of the trouble they'll be making today.

Nearby, one of the high-speed rail lines suddenly just flickers out and goes dead, leaving the people aboard trapped as the train drops into solid contact with the rail that lies beneath its core. Thankfully, safety protocols kick in and the train locks in place, secure against haphazard twisting that could topple it and its passengers to a crash on the streets below. But there's definite alarm, there.

Two blocks away, a heavy transformer explodes in a sparkshower that lights up the afternoon sky.

The winds Lynwen is controlling tug and struggle, surging against her control but still obeying her will.

That itch in the rear of Captain Marvel's skull intensifies.

Eon immediately directs Wendell's attention to a particular warehouse in the center of all of this, the visibly calm epicenter of the storm of energies rising. "Hyperspatial, hypertime indexes building." he informs the wearer of the Quantum Bands.

The druidess would feel the wrongness building, like a cyst building towards an eruption.

Captain Marvel turns towards the woman, now armed with flaming sword and clear, demonstrated intent, nodding. "Not a problem. There won't be any more fighting. Are you OK?" Somehow, instinct is telling her this woman is here for the same reason she is. Now if only Carol knew what the heck reason that was!


Handcuffs. Check. "Huh?" asks Quasar as Eon speaks. He looks down at the jewel dedicated to contact with the omniscient guy. "Warehouse. Check." he states as he starts flying that way. He reaches out with the built in energy scanners to try to get an idea of what exactly -is- going on inside. But… then his merely human eyes see the train and he sighs. "Eon, keep tabs." he mutters before gesturing to the train and forming a Quantum Construct that is in essence, a frame to hold the train and keep it from coming off the trck, just in case something jostles it further. And then the frame grows an escelator complete with handrails… at the main exit doors to the train. Also, a glowing EXIT sign inside the train, and prybars that should be pulling the door open to let folks evacuate. While doing that, he's still on his way towards said warehouse, just not at 100% hurried pace.


At least the disruption wasn't during rush hour. Some people on the train are panicking. Some attempt to call for help on cell phones that suddenly are dead. Others grope around the cars in search of emergency exits. Then truly weird things happen. A shimmering force-field stabillizes the train while escalators suddenly appear. Next, power returns to the train's cars, one by one so that frightened passengers can find their way to exits, and onto the escalators. One of the last passengers to emerge form the exits is a young man with brown hair. He looks quite ordinary in his jeans, tee-shirt, and tennis shoes. In the chaos, none of the passengers noticed that his right hand, which clasps the frame of the exit, is glowing with a soft pale blue light. He waits until the last person has proceeded him. Then he boards the escalator. While he rides, his eyes actively scan this bizarre scene as if he is searching for something, or someone.


Lynwen says to her and frowns. She barks out an order and the sword disappears. She turns her head in the direction of the building. When the feeling of wrongness grows, she turns her head in the direction of the Captain when she speaks again. ""I speak bad English, do you know Latin, Gaelic or Welsh?" Once again her accent is heavy and her words carefully chosen. She looks between the Captin, the men that are now handcuffed and Quasar. She shakes her head.


"Sorry. If those are my choices, my answer's going to have to be no. I was never much for the ancient classics." Captain Marvel answers, unfortunately, when asked. Her head snaps around, looking at that Warehouse, though she cannot begin to answer why she is doing so. Only that … something feels wrong. Something feels very wrong. "Let's get going. I figure we're all here for the same thing. Faster is better." That said, she tries to escort Lynwen as quickly as she can towards the warehouse. The handcuffed men can fend for themselves.

The train is secured, and doubly-so. Then its passengers are given the chance to exit, and more power is supplied from unknown sources, enabling the doors between cars to open and funnel the people to the escalators. (Many thanks would be due to Joshua, but no one present knows that.) The feeling of those surges and pulses of energy ripples outwards from the warehouse, as more tiny catastrophes occur. Not all are electrical in nature; in fact, few of them are. But the sense of wrongness continues.

"I am afraid that I cannot fully make sense of these readings. I suspect that there may be magical implications." Eon explains to Wendell, still trying to keep tabs. "But whatever it is, it is most certainly building in frequency of pulses and strength. The epicenter seems to be a point close to the center of that warehouse, some fifteen meters below what would seem to be the solid concrete surface."

The warehouse in question is not abandonned, but it is most definitely not in the best of repair. It also is not clearly marked with logos or the like. Inside, the large open space is broken up by dozens of racks with palettes full of crates, boxes and bales of all manner of goods. It's a mess. But at the center, one such rack has collapsed. The metal frame members are flakes of dust and shards of wooden refuse surround it. Rotten, almost ash-like detrius implies some sort of cloth-like material also destroyed by the entropic waves of energy building here.


One person might realize the source of that energy. The Quantum Bands ding Quasar with the knowledge of where that electrical power is surging from. "So, he's a walking capacitor." mutters Wendell with a nod of approval. "And he's helping. That's a good sign." That done, he sees the people safely evacuating the train and turns towards the warehouse now. He comes in behind the two ladies and says, "Okay Eon. I'm here. What's the… " his voice trails off as he sees the mess. "Oh…" he adds. "Whatever it is, is -not- good."


Other passengers are fleeing the area when Joshua reaches the bottom of the escalator. The electrical anomalies from that warehouse draw his attention like a flame attracting a bug. He looks toward it, and spots the two brightly costumed super-heroes. He glances around him, and then a disk of blue-white energy forms beneath his feet, lifting him slightly like a human mag-lev and propelling him toward the pair. Then he sees the third person, and a deep, worried frown darkens his face. He studies them for a moment, noticing that Marvel is trying to shepherd Lynwen toward the warehouse. "What do you want with her?"


Frowning Lynwen nods her head. "Mae'n ddrwg, rhywbeth yn dod neu'n cael eu geni. Tywyllwch yn galw." she murmurs and she begins to move towards the building. She cannot help herself it calling to her like moth to bug zapper in the middle of the night. Her eyes begin to go distant again as if she is looking at something that is not there, or the lights are on and no one is home. She shivers slightly and moves forward a few more steps, the wind stops. She looks over her shoulder to see if the others are coming as the wind brings her out of her semi like trance. She hears Joshua's voice and she looks up at him and offers a wave. "Mae rhywbeth i mewn 'na, mae'n cael ei galw, ddwyn fi allan o'r gwely yn l pob golwg. Rwy'n credu eu a bydd angen eich help i mi. Strong, mae'n cael ei lygru a newid tynnu a defnyddio yr hyn sydd yma i dorri trwy, mae'n ceisio i gael ei eni."


"I'm just trying to look out for her and get her in there as quickly as possible, since I'm figuring that's why she's here." Captain Marvel answers the young man whose energies she can feel swarming around his body. "Quasar, keep it tight." she murmurs to the caped man with the armbands. 'Cause this feels all kinds of bad. Unable to understand what Lynwen is saying, all she can do is shrug helplessly and tense, waiting. Somehow, her crazy Seventh Sense instinct is screaming something's going to erupt any moment now. She just wishes to Hell she knew /what/.

As the druidess an feel the 'birthing pains' of the eruption she's felt building and swelling, the concrete of the floor in the center collapses into dust, as if suddenly aging thousands of years in moments. At the same moment, the other three will all feel the electromagnetic disruption, as the entire four block radius goes dark, all of the power disrupted. Later investigation will show that one of the major trunks for the power distribution in the area runs right below this warehouse … and right below that spot.

On a psychic and magical level, there is a 'sound' like the tearing-asunder of heavy canvas. Visibly, audibly, there is an indistinct pulse through the air, a ripple, and then bits and pieces of detrius and damaged wood and metal start swirling in a cyclone fashion, yet without - thus far - any wind to back it up. Then waste water erupts and fountains from the hole. Chunks of other crates and metal bars fly upwards into the midst. It takes a minute, maybe more, for the 'creature' to take shape, a tentacled beastie composed of trash and waste and slime. It's … very unpleasant. And utterly wrong. Death. Ancient betrayal. Foul workings left uncontained. It's like an 'elemental' composed of entropy.

And it's hungry.


"Something dark coming into being." remarks Quasar as Eon gives him just enough info to have a clue, but -barely- a clue. Dark and corrupt." says Quasar as he moves in closer. That electrical energy signature is moving up from behind. A wristband wearing hand lifts to wave back over his shoulder towards Joshua. But.. then the EMP builds and releases. Quasar -quickly- forms a wall of energy to try to shield Joshua from it. His thought is… someone with that much electrical power, being hit by an EMP, would be… -bad-. Yeah, more understatement. He also positions himself to try to absorb the power of it to blunt the effects on Joshua. "You okay back there?" he asks, looking back before he looks forward. "What the… what is this Dogma?!" he calls out as waste water splatters onto his aura, sliding down off of it. "Man, that would ruin my costume." he mutters as he prepares to… face this head on.


When Marvel explains, Joshua nods to her. Then he glances to Lynwen when the druid speaks in her ancient tongue. He glides toward her. "Eich bod yn ddiogel am y tro. Yr wyf yn falch. Rydym yn gwybod bod rhywbeth o'i le. Nid chi yw'r unig un wrth frwydro yn erbyn hyn," he answers. Then the EMP slams into him, knocking him backward by several meters before Quasar's force-field materializes, stopping the shockwave. Joshua gasps, stunned for a moment, and nods to the hero. "That was … close," he grumbles. He looks to Marvel. "She says that something evil is coming or being born in there." He nods to the warehouse. "I told her that we will work together to fight it. Am I right? It must be partially magical if she can sense it."


Moss green eyes are wide when the building collapses and the creatures emerges from its cocoon as wave of magic is released with the spasm of it is birth. The Druid when young man is thrown back is about to go and get him when the shield comes up. "Sunstone!" She calls out to him. "A ydych yn iawn, yr ydych yn Ni chaniateir i gael eu hanafu." The woman gives a sharp command and spear of ice apepars in her hand. Her gold jewerly is shining bright.


"OK. We fight it." Captain Marvel offers. She absorbs as much of the EMP in her direction as she can, for whatever good it will do. If nothing else, she'll be more fully charged for her own efforts in the fight to come. "Does she think this is something we can destroy? Or something we have to hold in place, while she does some magic whatsis to send it back where it came from?" Carol inquires of Joshua, since he can understand Lynwen and she most certainly cannot.

As soon as the creature fully takes form, it erupts into action, attacking with tendrils of goopy muck and trash as it tries to lash out at all of those present, trying to seize them, squeeze them, pull them towards the razored maw at its core. The druidess can be certain anyone consumed in that fashion - especially these three - would feed all of their power to the creature's entropic existence. A bad thing, to be sure.

Captain Marvel takes flight, blasting as she tries flying up and around the tentacle aiming for her. But in the tight confines of the warehouse, she's not going to be able to keep that up for long. Thankfully, her photonic blasts do seem to knock the tentacle around, and do it some damage, but that damage seems to heal relatively rapidly as more trash and garbage and refuse is pulled into the creature to make repairs.


Translations supplied by Eon, Quasar nods. The girl doesn't want Joshua harmed. "Okay Joshua. Here's the plan. You zap the thing. I'll do my best to help contain it." Yeah, he knows the kid's name. Well, more to the point, Eon knew it and mentioned it along the lines of, 'The young lady Lynwen wishes no harm to befall the young man Joshua.' but, that's all kinds of wordy and way too elaborate for Wendell. Anyhow, he makes a tower shield of Quantum energy and strides forward to give Josh cover… meanwhile sending tendrils of power forward to try to clamp a limb, grab a leg, whatever. He's trying to contain the threat here… that's always his first step in a battle.


Joshua quickly recovers from the EMP and nudges closer to Lynwen. He nods to Marvel, and then relays the question to the blonde druid. "Dwi yma. Rydym yn gyda chi. Allwn ni dinistrio? Oes angen i ni ddal tra ei anfon yn rhywle?" Before she can answer, he nods to Quasar. "Right!" he acknowledges. "Keep it busy. It seems to draw energy from rubbish. I hope that this area isn't over a landfill." He darts toward the creature, spreading his arms and releasing forks of jagged blue-white lightning at the trashy enemy.


"No get eaten." Lynwen says in English. "Os ydych chi neu nhw yn cael eu bwyta, byddwch yn caniatau iddo dyfu mewn nerth, yr wyf hefyd yn poeni am yr hyn y bydd eich rhoddion yn ei wneud a faint y mae'n seiffon." Then nods her head and begins to chant. The power she draws upon as she chants is of the five elements. The raw primordial magic heeds her call very slowly she begins to use the elements to unravel the creatrue before more are harmed.


"Don't get eaten. Check." Captain Marvel answers, as she continues to try to keep the creature busy, more than willing to even risk multiple tentacles' attentions to keep them off the druidess and her other companions. "I hate this, but … might be worth torching what we can of this stuff to limit what it has to rebuild." Of course, when she's getting that sentence out around swooping this way and that, wrestling her way out of entrapping grips, and blasting away at the creature, it takes a good bit longer to say than it does to read. Still, Carol is doing all she can. Something about this thing means that its rather nasty razored edges actually /cut/ her, which very few things can do. That's unpleasant news. But such is life.

The biggest challenge in trying to unravel the entropic energy of the creature is that in many ways it is 'slippery' to elemental touches, because it is based on a seed that is antithetical, directly opposing the very nature of one of those five elements: entropy, almost unlife incarnate, opposed to life. It can be done, but it's not easy, and it resists with a will somehow far more vast than the seemingly mindless beast would indicate.


Joshua glances to Lynwen over his shoulder after zapping the Garbage Golem. To the others, he calls, "She thinks that it will absorb our energies and use them!" he calls. Tentacles lash toward them. Joshua nods to Marvel's suggestion. "Starve it! Cut off its fuel!" he answers, indicating that he follows the idea. Dodging another tentacle, he directs a blue-white bolt of electrical energy toward a pile of rubble that looks flammable. The mass bursts into flames.


It is painful after all this is the opposite of the magic she works with. She takes the newly form bud or trash elemental and layer by layers she begins to unweave it or peel it like it is an onion. The first layer is the hardest, the for this layer she uses fire and spirit. She pulls the fire from it. It comes out in tiny stream which she spins until balls of fire surround her. Then with the spirit she cleanses the corruption from the fire before she pushes the fire back into it. It is like injecting an antibiotic into the vein. Sweat begins to bead down her forehead as she words. Her chanting gains an almost eerie sense to it.


"Ow, that stings!" Captain Marvel complains, as her costume is shredded across her back, and her flesh with it. Damn, but that hurts. "Keep it up, keep it busy." Carol continues her fight against the tentacles, but she takes every spare moment she can - not many, but a few here and there - to blast and burn away segments of the building and its contents, trying to steal away the materials the creature is using to rebuild itself from damages.

The property damages here are not going to be pleasant. Ouch.

Quasar continues to defend Joshua and Lynwen. But with Eon to help control his constructs, he is able to rip up sections of the building and cart them away, rather than incinerate them, just taking them well clear of the creature's magical grasp. Whatever works to prevent its self-repair, or slow it down, has to be to the good.

The magical seed at the heart of the creature pulses as it strives to resist and overcome Lynwen's efforts, but the 'antibiotics' dig in deep. The burning ache of touching that entropic magic builds, thundering through the veins and surging through the temples to an almost blinding degree, but progress is made. Just as the seed is a construct of five elements, each corrupted or antithetical, it will take unweaving and defeating each of those to complete the task. Layer by layer, the seed is peeled. And as the creature starts running out of materials, its attacks grow less frequent, but even more furious, struggling to survive, desperate to seize one of the power-sources to feed its hunger and need. It's ugly.


Cut off its fuel eh? Quasar's been defending, but yeah.. it's time to focus. He grunts and generates enough energy to make four -large- bulldozers. Those machines shove and manhandle the trash, taking huge swathes of it away from the creature. He is surrounded by shields of course… shields that are being worn away fairly quickly but… while he's just a human being behind those shields, they are -incredibly- durable… unless it's magic eating away at them.


While Quasar works to displace large chunks of the warehouse and surrounding buildings, Joshua continues to incinerate combustible material while keeping an eye on tentacles that threaten to overpower Lynwen. When he sees that her persistence has begun to expose the creature's core, he focuses bursts of electrical energy at that kernel of magical energy, striving to disrupt it.


Lynwen continues to work with the magics the world around her had faded. The layer of the onion is peeled off as she pulls the air from it and she does the same thing, only this time starving it of the element. Once the air she pulls from it is purified she releases it and sends it away. Another layer is pulled.

When she pulls the water it is like the creatures is bleeding ichor, the stench from the pollutants makes the eyes water. The black slug pools at her bare feet and she takes it and uses the fifth element to pull the dark corruption from it. Soon the water is clear and she goes to put it back into the creatures. Her chanting continues and the rune on her forehead begins to glow.


The creature's strength is fading, as more of its mass is taken away, as more of its magical power and seed is peeled off or struggling to survive. But it is still magical, which means its attacks on Quasar's shields are far more effective than they have any right to be. It's also the reason they're doing more damage to Captain Marvel than one would hope. But with all three heroes working together, they are keeping the tentacles off of Lynwen, leaving the druidess free to do the one thing only she can do.

"It's getting weaker. Keep it up!" Captain Marvel shouts, trying to incentivize her impromptu teammates; she's getting tired, at this rate, and she has to imagine the others are feeling the drag as well. But they just have to keep this up a little while longer, until the mysterious magic lady can get this done. From the looks of things, it shouldn't be long. Right?

Finally, at the core of the seed, Lynwen will feel it: a solid core of earth, soaked in blood and betrayal, left to rot and decay, encouraged by evil and darkness, forgotten by goodness, life and mercy. It is around this that al of the other energy has built, tiny scrap by tiny scrap, for centuries. She can also tell that the recent events rapidly progressed its growth, making today's disaster possible. Thankfully, the Earth is not without its natural protections, and it was able to call to those able to help in this hour of need.


Unaware that it might be the Earth itself empowering this thing, trying to make it stop the pesky little things on its surface from ruining it… Quasar hrms… and gets an idea. He backs off, flying away and shunts a metric-asston of energy into… well, growing golden glowing armor that has no weight, and no movement restrictions… around each of you. Sure, the magical beast will strip the armor away as it hits them, but that's better than stripping away flesh, right?

"I hope this doesn't last much longer. The bands can channel energy forever, but I'm getting exhausted!" he calls out.


Joshua nods to Quasar. "So do I!" he calls. Another tentacle rises like a cobra, ready to strike Lynwen. Joshua raises both hands above his head and focuses his energy to form a huge fireball of electrical energy that he hurls toward the center of the creature.


The seed is exposed, Lynwen focused on what she is doing she moves forward towards it. The seed pulsates like it has a heartbeat and she sprinting. It is dying and she knows it. There is pain and there is corruption. She plunges her hand deep into the heart of the seed and she feels and hears the earth. Power courses through her and into the seed. The earth knows her and remembers from times gone by. She takes what is there and uses the spirit to pull the corruption from it. It washes over her, dark and light. She puts her other hand around it and she holds the seed in her hand. Ancient magic pours from her and into it. The world around her has faded. She is unaware of anything but that magic.


As promised, the other three protect each other, and Lynwen, from the creature, leaving the druidess to the challenge of the magic. Joshua's lightning ball to the center of the creature's mass burns deep, searing away a great deal of its mass, starting its imminent collapse. Quantum's glowing golden armor shields them from the burning, if not the stench, and though the magical nature of the attacks shreds the armor bit by bit, it does see them through to the end. That final, lethal cobra strike is blocked as Captain Marvel flies herself right into its path and slices it off, incinerating it to assure it cannot be reassembled.

Lynwen's hand drives into the blood- and rot-soaked earthen core of the magical seed, as she strives to purify it, sanctify it, and end the reign of terror it has pursued. As she takes that last step in the battle, and loses all connection to the corporeal world, she is immersed in the echoes of memory and time, seeing the Amerindian tribesmen and women, welcoming and accepting of strangers, having helped the pale-skinned foreigners.

Lynwen sees and feels their pain and agony, as the women and children are slaughtered by raiders, never expecting the greed that would compel them to abandon their alliance so as to claim the land and all those rich resources for themselves. The bayonets feel as if they pierce her very heart and soul, and fires raze the skin from her bones, stones hurled to crush her head as the rains of despair fall. This, here, was the place where they died. Where the shaman and her children were butchered, and their pain, their fear and anger and outrage, have festered all of this time.

And as the seed is finally purified and peeled away to nothingness, as the breath of spirit escapes cleansed once more, the druidess will find herself overwhelmed, the last of her reserves spent.

And, many hours later, when she has recovered, she will too find a new mark added: the raven symbol of that fallen shaman added forevermore to those she carries, a legacy redeemed.


After all that is done, Quasar just lands and makes a chair so he can sit since he can't stay on his feet any longer. "Wow." he mutters, "I need to stop getting involved with magic disasters. First vampires, and now this." he mutters as he shakes his head. "I'm just lucky you all were here."


Joshua lands and the glowing blue-white disk beneath his feet is already faint, warning that if this continued, he would have plummeted to the ground. He collapses to his hands and knees, breathing heavily with his head bowed wearily. After a few minutes, he lifts his head, staggers to his feet, and plods toward the place where he last saw Lynwen amidst the rubble of the creature. "So much for a quiet trip to see the sights of Metropolis," he groans. "We'll need a vacation to recover from the vacation."


Panting and perspiring - and not so clean - Captain Marvel lands, and walks to check on each of those who worked together on this. Assured that each is as alright as they can be, she helps get Lynwen to safety with Joshua, trusting him to take care of her since he knows her. "I'm glad we were all able to do what was needed. I hope she'll be OK. Thank her, for me, when she is awake enough to take it." She will introduce herself to Joshua, so that he'll know to tell Lynwen that she is Captain Marvel. Names are important, after all.

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