Removing the Veve

September 22, 2015:

Satana terrorises The Bronx in an attempt to have Darque return

The Bronx - New York

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Mood Music: None.


Fade In…

The Bronx may not have been the heart of where the battle went with Darque, but it is feeling the aftershock. Right off the shore the Brother Islands have been made Satana's home, and for good reasons, ones that help assuage her power, her hunger, and her /need/. The soil itself is ashes of the dead, roots tangle in bones long broken and diseased by one plague or another. Even though now it is a haven for nature it still has it's history and its original /essence/ and it is being sent forth like a premordial ooze to fester, boil and bubble….

Darque had made a minion of Satana, marqued her with a Veve and used her for his hunts and his games and it is not done. He has been banished, and
~NO ONE BANISHES THE GOD OF THE DEAD~
The primordial words echo through mystical chasms and ties and with it comes the shake that wakes even the dead and brings great darkness.

The shores of the Bronx boil, fish slap from the water onto the shore and immediately begin to decay, a fast forward of a drawing of life, leaving carcasses of bones while birds drop from the sky above to join the rolling out of the Dead Carpet. Then the sickening suelch of rotted flesh, the snapping of broken bones as reformation comes, though the boiling waters emerge the reformed creatures of Darque Eaters. Six of these creatures amass at the shore, dripping from the waters that are boiling and the shifting properties amongst opening and quaking eart the acrid smell mimics what drips from fang and maw as they unleash a horrid roar across the sleepy city streets.

This is followed at their heels with the figure of a woman slowly emerging from the waters with them, the heat burning in brimstone eyes as the black ichor cloaks her figure in the remains left in their wake, the hellfire now spreading across the waters surface as her hands cast forward and make it spread towards the town in a blazing path.

"Devour them all! Make a new army so he may rise again!" And the Eaters break forth towards the city upon beck and call of Satana's altered tenor while blood red hair dances around her form like razored lashes, that veve left bare upon her abdomen dripping with fresh blood as if disturbed and aching rebirth through her own abdomen.


Rain was likely doing her thing when it all went down. Captain is riding on her broomstick as the two travel along. Satana is a bit above her pay grade, but this whole BAD THINGS HAPPENING does set the witch's magic senses off. She turns her broomstick towards the shores, and - oh goodness. That's so not good. She's got to think of a plan, lest she get eaten.


Zee feels the power as Satana rises… and recognises it. With Darque gone, she's been expecting to have do some 'mop up' work. Whatever it was she'd been doing, is forgotten and the teen mages eyes glow blue as she teleports into the area - sufficiently far enough away to assess the situation - but close enough she can actually see what's happening.

« This is Zee, Satana is here. She and her beasts are hunting in the Bronx. To my location »

That call is sent out through her Pendulum, arcane channels and other forms of communications she has.

She can at least try to delay the Eaters progress and sends a fireball crashing into the front creatures… and then moves - not leaving herself an easy target to find - her friends will be able to though.


Fenris has not had the pleasure, or displeasure, of meeting Satana, but he does feel the heat of hellfire and the tang of bitter wormwood through the ley lines. Frankly, the God-Wolf has had more than enough of dealing with mad, dead things in the last little bit and when Zee announces a name for the disturbance - one that he's heard from his own friend Reese no less - he arrives via the Ways.

Though normal looking, perhaps a bit lean for a man his height, he's clearly expecting some trouble, at least if the large, glittering silver sword and stout oaken rod in his hands is any indication. "What in the nine realms is going on here?"


In Strange Sanctum mystical alarms come to life, interrupting the good doctor studies. "Should I plan for a late dinner, master?" Asks the bald oriental man that was bringing tea to the office. "Indeed, my friend," replies Strange, standing up and picking up his cloak. "I might also return with a guest of two." The other man nods. "Dinner for four, it has been a while since we had guests," but Wong has seen everything already, so he is hardly surprised.

A gateway opens in the air of the office, and strange steps through, the red and gold cloak transforming into a more acceptable garment by twenty-first Century standards, a stylish coat. He is still appearing a few yards from the ground, which would cause some alarm under most circumstances. But this is New York and there are giant zombies loose, so Strange barely registers in the radar of most New Yorkers.


From where Satana had risen from the water the creatures that floated to the surface after her bobbed luke bloated corpses, already fast forwarding in their decay much akin to what had beached itself to try and save from the demise… Unsuccessfully. The Hellfire from Satana not only spans across the ground in a blasing path for the Eaters, but now across the littered bodies, rising a smoke of the dead. Where Sage cleansed, this polluted, perverted the rite and ritual to the fitting attempt and re-arrival using the woman from Hell. It would suffice for Darque and his needs to escape, to rise again.

Zatanna's arrival and blink in and out with her own force of fire is noted. Red eyes to meet the blink of blue, and in the matter of a breath Satana is from her place hovering over the flamed body of water to that of Zatanna's cast, a single palm held up with a claw drawn through like stigmata, projecting an eldritch shield over herself and the targetted eater, the meet of powers sendng a light through the fire imbued darkness, a blast of force to shove it back that likely interrupts the flight path of Rain and her Captain!

The shield falls and the nail is sucked through the palm of Satana's hand, the hooked claw placed before lips and licked clean by forked tongue while pupils flicker between that of brimstone backing and slitted Basilisk.

"Deathhhh…" Hissed in response to Fenris as Satana turns those eyes upon him, the smile warped, a hook fanged cheeshire where even her features seem to want to warp and cater to the beast underlain ad with a quick flick the two Eaters she had salvaged from Zee's attack are set upon him while the blood from palm drips over the earth and is spread to mingle across the Veve to spatter out in a sharp snap of her hand and silent incantations while eyes close.

All the while her voice alters from one tendor to the next, shuddering and then strengthening, but for those tapped within the leylines… they can /feel/ it… As her own body begins to wither there is a sharp -pull- and something surges to sustain her.


A certain girl had dropped 'Plague' into his own portal to send him home. Rain winces. She gets the message. She remembers the lady. It almost ended badly for Rain, if not for Strange's intervention. She looks grateful to see the Zee, Fenris and Strange. The witch would be dead trying to handle this. Her cowardice is kicking in a bit, and she really wants to just kind of hide. But she can't. Captain clings to her back.

Deep breath. Rain starts to concentrate and then suddenly, they nearly get blasted and manage to bob and wave. "WHOA," Captain clings harder. Rain winces. Claaaaaaaws. They have to be careful, but Rain is going to start channeling an old witch's trick. Call down the lightning to zot a few of the bad things (TM).

She does look grateful and wave to the others.


Zee's fireball had been intended as a distraction. The one thing she'd learned from fighting Darque and his minions is that a direct head to head magic battle was usually futile - she's strong, but so are others. She has to work smart.

Reappearing close to Fenris, just in time to see the two Eaters turned on him, the teen mage glances up "See the Vede, Fenris? I knew I'd missed something - I think she's bound to Darque." blanching as the leylines are tapped, Zee's eyes widen - does she recognise what's rising to sustain Satana? She really hopes not… she'd hate to have to hurt a friend.

"I'll call down rain, and purify it… " Eyes glowing blue, the Mistress of Magic, adds to Rain's elemental call - torrential rain starts falling over the Eaters - with luck, the spell purifies the water as well.


Fenris' eyes narrow. "Yes I see it. More of Darque's minions or is this one going to-" The sudden rise of power and the hiss of death gets a growl from the god-wolf. "Do that. I'm going to go have a chat th this woman."

The zombies, or death beasts or whatever they dart in at Fenris who brings his moonsilver blade into action, bisecting the first thing to come at him lengthwise and then hurling the other back at Satana with a hurricane force blast of wind. "Your master is gone, Hellbound. Why continue this?"

Maybe she'll talk, even if it's just taunting and mocking. Or maybe he's going to have to break out the wolf for this one.


Strange has set alarms to find Satana if she did magic in New York, but the sorcerer didn't quite expect this blatant act of necromancy. "By the Seven Rings of Raggadorr, this is not mere infernal ritual." He floats forward shooting a force blast at Satana, more to interrupt her casting than to really hurt her. "Ms. Moontree, Ms. Zatara, Master Darque is using this… woman to draw power from the living and from human souls. We need to clear the area quickly and then break the link between them."


Somewhere.. Reese was there. Possibly in a graveyard, a cementary where her old haunt was, possibly in Rat City where the abandoned industrial buildings lay. Yeah, there. There is when she felt that pull, her hand immediately drawn to her chest as she takes a stumble, her cane folding within itself as Max begins to chitter and howl, the very image of him becoming displaced with worry and agitation.

Thankfully, the little moloid wasn't there. Lest he be the first.

"It's nothing.. Max.." Reese murmurs, reaching out to press a hand against his head as she uses him to draw herself to her feet, toes dragging against the ground as a few of the homeless men in the area look on at their 'tiny savior' with worry. "I think I just need to get back to the Starfire. Get something to ea—-.."

The pulsing tug and pull from the otherworld causes a sharp inhale to be taken, a button quickly pressed upon the collar of Max to get him out of there quick, Reese's body soon flung upright and down into the ground which causes her to immediately disappear.

She went in a straight line; in and out of the ley, bouncing forward at a twirl and tumble and a skid that snaps fingers against invisible ground and visible, for nails to bend, bleed and crack only to regrow again and suffer the same fate as before. The sudden stop came once she was nearer to the scene; below in the ley.. a glow of red eyes that infect the plane with darkness calls forth beast and man alike as Reese opens her mouth and begins to PULL.

All to feed the beast wrapped in red.


The lightning, the rain… The four Eaters that had headed for the city with racelined of Hellfire give pause, their beastial forms made of the bodies of dead and coated in armour clatter as they shudder, but when they do so even the earth itself shakes, small trmors that send stones to dancing and crack foundations…. One struck to fall and the other three let out yet another harmonious roar of acris death that flicks on more lights through the borough, brinign the unknowing to the streets, the sheep to the slaughter as the remaining three leap for them to do as bidden, to do as necessary… For Darque. Eat.

Satana /pulls/, a greed unlike her norm, a greed unlike anything she has ever felt and one tht dares to suction and pull evermore - to live, to truly live…. There must be death, and she must be the harbinger of it for -Him-, and in this Reese is yanked through their connection, a failsafe Satana had set up in case her life was at stake. Like Darque was using her, she had set Reese up in that line of life and death. Everyone wanted to live, and this is how. Sacrifice. The lives connected, people passing through the Ley, suseptible to Reese's healing now became a veritable buffet, small sheep for the sacrificial lamb though as long as those lines remain open it is not just one… It is -many-.

Fenris' charge and attack is met with the sudden burst of projection, a skipping disk in fast forward to jerkily bring the soaking figure of Satan to stand between the skewn figure of the Eater before he split it to its very core but enough to show the mass of rent tangled limbs that forged the monstrosity coveted in chitinous armor. As blood spills around her feet from the many writhing figures made one and her one hands where fingers were nearly rent she holds the offending blade of Fenris' and holds eye contact…

Raindrops fall, small rivulets cascading down Satana's face, some stained pink from the blood in her hair, that mass of auburn spinning around them… One moment in time akin to an Equilibrium before a sudden burst of power comes with Reese's pull and she pushes /back/ trying to send Fenris and his frinds sailing "AWAY!" (The voice not even her own) with the spatter from nearly removed fingertips that quickly begin to knit, holding onto the blade she had gripped and tried to strip from Fenris' hold.

The Eater that had been nealy split in twixt rises around Satana, the sickening sound of entrails leaving the rain soaked ground just before he lunges into the air at the unladen hand of the woman's call, aiming for Strange.

"MINE. YOU CANNOT HAVE HER!" Those eyes slit into reptilian nictation, the hellfire spreading in a backdraft to /consume/ not burn… The air is palpable with the hunger and the /need/.


Rain is grateful for Zee's help. "Good call!" She and Captain offer. Poor Reese. Rain is quietly concerned. She isn't sure what to make of them all. What the heck is going on there? She looks to the injured woman. Confusion sets in. But she's going to try to keep some lightning on the eaters, so that Miss Satana doesn't get too feisty? Or feistier anyway.

The two yelp as the broom wobbles and they end up getting flung back a bit. Still, freaking lightning, man.

And she's got to avoid Hellfire. Rain takes evasive maneuver. "Please leave, people!" She's got to scare the people away.


Zee can clear the area quickly-ish. There's a benefit to living in the world - pulling her phone out, she dials Emergency Services and reports a massive gas leak in the area… that will get the area evacuated as quickly - and leave only emergency services to protect. With Rain urging the people away, Zee can focus her attention elsewhere. Like protecting herself from hellfire…

She recognises her friends power, they had after all, been trapped in the leylines together (well part of Zee) for several days.

Casting quickly, being knocked back several steps by Satana's push, she just manages to throw up a shield … if she's hit by anything, she doesn't show it … and reaches out, down into the leyline… to Reese

« Reese, it's Zee, let me help you. You don't /have/ to do this… »

All the while, she's feeling out how to block the drain through the leyline - she doesn't want to hurt Reese, but… this can't continue.


Strange gestures, raising a transparent shield of magical force in front of the charging Eater. "No, I won't allow it!" The sorcerer turns to the other three running Eaters, raises his arms and chants, "in the name of the unbreakable one, master of the Ruby Cosmos, I bind you in the trap that can't be shattered. To me, the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak!" And bands of red light surge forward and form a large sphere around the undead monsters. They crash against the colorful bands, but they won't yield and they can't reach the fleeing humans. "They won't last long in this plane, we need to deal with Darque quickly," explains the mage.


Johnathan Taro was a man renewed; struck down in Brooklyn three weeks ago by a hit and run driver. A woman held onto his hand and he asked her to recite his last rites, he could feel himself slipping. He smoked since he was 14, salt of the earth type of guy, worked as a contractor who often times ran into asbestos and led. He had just gotten the news that he was laid off, and now he was going to die in the grip of a stranger.

Carol Manning had developed stage four breast cancer; forgoing treatment so that she could give birth to a healthy baby girl who may or may not suffer the same fate due to genetics. But as soon as her daughter was born she slipped into a coma and woke up three days later completely cured. She was a nurse at that same hospital.

Jackson Collins was just a kid riding his bike. He toppled over and scraped his knee.

Yet all of them in some way were affected by Reese's tug and pull from the lines. Each of them gripped their chests just as Reese had done, and fell to their knees, reaching out for something, anyone for the grip and feel of life beneath their fingertips. And it wasn't that she wanted this; but there was a sudden push BACK and a tug and pull between the lives of those she saved and the life that was attempting to save itself; Satanna.

« I have no choice! »


The people that look towards the melee are squinting through torrents of rain or a broken pipe…. to try and see through the thick darkness, shocks of lightning revealing the crab-like crawling of the eyeless beasts borne of disarticulated bodies, plague, and a monstrous mind, weilded by a woman clad in mud and vile, those eyes empty of sanity and her soul long stipped but now laid open like the beast that lunged at Strange.

Were they dreaming? A waking nightmare? And just as a woman grabs her small child and backpedals to bearly fall there is Rain, the other muttering as the lightning fades and there is nothing but darkness and wet… then flashes again and there is the undead creatures lunging with open maws bearing rows of broken bone formed teeth, fingers of tongues and fisjointed limbs realigning to suit their final frenzy…

Crashing into red glowing bars and clawing forward with a ferocity before it goes dark again and the lightning stops. But those howls, growls, and insectile clicks precede the baging as they try to move forward and test the strength of the spell-cast cage like rabid wolves, pieces breaking in their attempts…

The force Satana had sent them back in leaves her standing there in the mire, that sword pulled from her palm to rain down further blood in the streams of rain, rising her palm as her other hand takes the sword and cupping the blood only to rise into the air and cast a gaze towards Zee, eyes narrowing as she attempts to cast the blood upon Zee in her attempt to break that focii between herself and Reese… All that power!

An incantation begins, passing her lips as the hellfire flames that fwindle in the purity of the rains begin to build again, that sword used to rebew a part of the Veve that was daring to congeal before she cast that blde of Fenris' at Starnge with a deft sweep of her arm and snap of wrist.

"AND WHO ARE YOU TO SIMPLY TELL -ME- NO?" Those words come on hissing laughter, like gasoline over gravel in their exit from Satana's lips. "TAKE YOUR PEOPLE BEFORE THEY EARN THE SAME FAVOR!" And with that the Eater that had been split in half begins to rup, break and snap, folding in on itself and shrieking as Satana's free hand curls inward, calling to the bits of each dead being that forged it, scattering them like shrapnel to those torrential winds towards the group of heroes, all the while the blood that pools beneath Satana in the rite begins to boil and seethe while the flesh struggles to knit and her /pull/ forms that push that shatters the body into dozens like shards of broken glass.


Fenris may have been sent back but he is not done, his own tethers to that of life are necessary, taking that moment to gather each and every moment from one face to the next. Zee and her reach to Reese is just the opening he needs to flood the lines and try and counter the draw through them with his own life magic, and although it is nothing on a grand scale his own battery and counter to that of a Master versus a God may be risky but he gives that life back in a sudden wave to attempt a counter and give Zee and Reese the moment they need.


Rain doesn't know about those people. She looks wide-eyed at Strange's powerful magic, but duly grateful. "Watch the broom, Captain." "Aye aye, admiral bringeroftreats," He mock salutes with a paw. Rain takes a deep breath, standing and diving off her broom. « Remake the beast. » Soon, an immense, white Siberian Godbear with violet eyes lands hard on the ground. "LEAVE THIS AREA! I AM A BEAR!" Waveclaw, waveclaw.

But seeing the people nearly getting attacked, she's going to swing at the newly formed undead. "TO YOUR FINAL REST!" It's hard to speak softly as a bear. And notably, claws are followed up by a gout of silver firebreath, her eyes glowing violet. She's using limited magic.


The connection to Reese is not magic, perse, it's conferred by the Leyline Pendulum she bears.

Zee's still channeling power into her shield, which is peppered by hellfire and now splattered with the blood that Satana hurls at her. And then there's Fenris' power flooding the line…

« We love you Reese… remember that… help if you can… »

Drawing deeply on her power, tapping the leyline, siphoning what she can, her eyes bright blue, Reese will feel what Zee's about to do… maybe the other woman will aid her - maybe she can't.

~~ kaerB ehT sdnoB neewteB anataS, euqraD dnA eseeR ~~

A risky spell, that might leave her open to attack, if she hadn't felt Fenris' power there, she wouldn't try it at all. Oh yes, the shield she maintains, will remain for the time being… she can channel her power two ways for now.


Unfortunately Strange couldn't catch the fourth Eater inside the Crimson Bands, since it was attacking him and not charging the civilians. No problem, he had plans, involving a large fireball. But then Satana casts her own spell and uses the monster as source for… gore-ish projectiles. His coat unfurls in a cloak, red with golden edges, and it sweeps to protect it, the shrapnel bouncing off the seemingly flimsy cloth, which actually is almost indestructible. See? This is where being an ex-surgeon is very useful. Strange is not freaked out by gore. He saw way too much in med-school.

"Who I am? I AM THE SUPREME SORCERER! AND I SHALL TELL YOU -NO- A THOUSAND TIMES!" Just to clarify. You have not heard super-humans banter in combat until you have heard two wizards dueling.

"And for you, Satana Hellstrom," he announces, "I have a gift I have been working the past few days." He chants words in ancient Atlantean, weaving a complex enchantment, and then he waves at the redhead. "Remember!" Not a conventional attack spell at all. Something that for most people would be harmless, barely distracting for a few seconds. But for a demon that was born human, it is like lightning straight to the mind.


Those who were touched by Reese could feel something strange. Their strength returning, with added vigor.. an adrenaline rush that'll soothe and surge their souls. Seikatsu knew what Zee was going to do, she could feel it through the three-way bond of Fenris' creation and through the pendulum that she wears..

So she lets go..

In that she draws as much as she can from the ley to boost herself up into the real; the maw that was open now closed for business as Reese effectively cuts out the pull from herself, but not that connected tug from Satana. She appeared from behind the tree; rolling just enough to miss a row of fire, her body at a slow hunch as tendrils of her hair slowly creep grey and glow blue as feet begin to drag away from the scene.

She didn't know where she was going, she couldn't see. But anything far away from there was the better. It was akin to a slow creeping death, one immolated by fire as her hand reaches out towards the air, one knee taken upon the grass that soon burns, hand soon joined to press and crawl, her body bowed and bow as the light…

..slowly…

..dies.


It was all at once. Again and again, and Darque is the taker of life, not the giver. The Harbinger of Darkness and The End and now he had Hell as a catalyst! They would all die!

Those touched by Satana's blood, that pooling suddenly slides together from separate spatters and then spreads outward like a living stretch of slick visceral oil that goes up into Soulfire, attempting to consume over Zee and sap away at her own mortality through it and strip her of her shield to stop her.

The Eaters behind bars bore it upon their back and libs, and as they go up in those flames they split into parts, parts that raged forward in a surce of simply claws, teeth or barbs, slamming at the bars, splitting to slide between and amass in a blind frenzy upon the Rain Bear, seeking to take her down as well and swallow her in that Soulfire to strip her of being…

All of this in the absence of the pull of Reese as she dislodges herself from the ley and the lives strung through it attached to her, but when she gave that life it took back a little, a surprised drain that coursed outward now in the births of soulfire that rage towards the people while the bear is attempting to be subdued by the broken fragments of the Eaters ripped asunder in Satana's surprise and Darques rage!

"NOTHING IS YOURS TO EVER-KEEP. DEATH IS IN ALL OF US, NO MATTER HOW SUPREME AND THAT IS WHAT -I- /MASTER!!/" The sudden shockwave pours out and the Veve begins to swell over her abdomen and split wider like something inside wanted -out-, the slitted eyes of Satana widen and flicker from the basilisk to brimstone and then roll back into her head to scalera of inked darkness, her body going limp in its hover to bow at the spine almost inhumanly in mid air….

But where darque took the demon, Starnge struck the human, calling it forth and just as that backdraft of soulfire sought to burst upon the bystanders as well as that of those fighting it suddenly flickers in a memory not its own and with the surge of the rain turns to steam….

Something wavers in that air… Giving them a single moment….


Rain has no desire to die, or to let others die. "Holy shit!" The bear flails, and sort of runs from the Soulfire. Rain knows her limits and taking down Soul Eaters is about it. There's a counter attack in that she manages a gout of silver, holy (to pagans) fire towards them to discourage them. Less soulfire, more fire fire (fire^2). But for her part, Captain is guarding the broomstick (bravely), while she tries not to die horribly and keep people away. It's not giving her much time to pay attention to the others, and surely, she will apologize later.


Zee knew she'd be set on by Satana - the question was just… what? And now she has her answer - Soulfire that tries to consume her.

Around the teen mage, the air begins to glow, shielding her as the emerald pendulum responds to it's bearers danger. Which leaves the Mistress of Magic free to channel everything she has left at Satana… and whatever is forming in the air

~~ ngisnoC ehT tsaeB oT ecnehW tI emaC ~~

Zee senses Reese through all of this but there's little she can do for the woman at this point.

« Hold on Reese. I'll come for you… Just need a little longer … »

It's the only concession that Zee gives to the environment around her, so intent she is on Satana … having defeated Darque so recently, she has no desire to see his return - at all.


Strange snorts. Satana's voice, but Darque's words. As if death and killing was something worth to claim mastery. Killing is easy. Living is hard. Saving lives is harder. "Resist a minute, Rain, I am going to need your healing," encourages Strange, launching towards the stunned Satana.

Of course there had to be hellfire all around her. Even for a strong soul like Stranger's, hellfire is very painful. But he grasps the Eye of Agamotto from his neck and wills the eye to open. "Darque, this way is closed to you, BEGONE!" He directs the holy light directly on the veve the redhead skin. A normal demon would have a fist sized hole craved through her chest, but Satana survived to the full blast of Agamotto's Blinding Light, so he hopes she is human enough to survive this… and the tattoo is scorched.


Fire meets fire, and Rains blast stops the flames unhindered by the rain itself in their path, the dual cleanse is enough to bring that sudden burst to a hiss like a bucket had been dumped upon a bonfire, leaving burnt lifeless limbs before her as even the drive force of 'unlife' is sapped and the rest left to wither and dissipate in the breeze.

-—New activity since 08:39:42 AM-
All around Zatanna the Soulfire seeks to consume like a relentless storm bringing with it heat from the bowels of Hell.. But her spell cast does not effect who or what she may expect because beneath that skin and the fight for another to come back to this realm is another beast that also survives only as long as Satana does, and when she begins to slip so an alien entity could live the Basilisk was answering while the demon was dying and the human side was /remembering/ to save them all.

Just as Zee's spell impacts the surfacing monstrosity, Strange seals off the other rebirt threatening to happen through the rent veve left upon her, burning it from her flesh and sealing off the power and gateway made.

There was no response to Strange, no words, only a dark laughter that shook Satana's form in Strange's arms and faded away, leaving laughter to convulsions of shock and sudden severing her body doubling forward to vomit up the venom held behind lips where the Basilisk had come so close but was pushed back.

Reese suddenly gets back what was taken only from her. Their line not severed but something in the human side of the demon knew better as all of the flames sputter and die leaving scorced earth and ashen decomposition in its wake.

Satana is shuddering in Strange's grip, wings that had formed and laid limply down like broken appendages snapped up and shoved her away from him in a sudden slapping motion that landed her on her ass in the dirt, but her nude figure now cloaked by the leathery appendages.

Through shivering lips and a trembling form she finally speaks on broken and scratchy vocals. "D-d-d-don't… fucking…touch." And up-down at Strange. "That's…n-not how this works." A small attempt by the tic of one corner of her lips like she was trying to jest, all the while she turns her gaze back on the others and through her shuddering loses her cookies all over again.

Shock sucks and Satana is holding it together until they leave…


Rain might actually feel kind of bad for Satana. Being enslaved sucks. No one lkes that. Rain isn't strong enough to take the woman head on, short of just sitting on her in bear form. She is in awe of Strange's magic, but relieved as the things dissipate. She straightens. "… are you hurt? And here…" Rain shifts down and pulls her duster coat off. She'll give it to Satana. "Best not to get arrested or cold in important regions.


The glowing light from the pendulum fades from around the Mistress of Magic even as she lets the power of her spell drop, breathing heavily.

Making sure Satana, Rain and Strange seem ok, Zee then looks around for Reese and moves to the womans side and ensure that she is well too.

If this battle has cost her, it doesn't show yet - she'll save that for later, when she's alone.


There was always a cost to something even though it was not seen; nearly four hundred years of healing and giving life to others where they should not have, changing destiny as well as the course of the tides and giving to the world itself within the ley had taken it's toll. Though she wasnt a calcified husk; she was still down for the count, the little light soon expanding into a touch more once Satana had return what only belonged to her and nothing more.

Thank goodness. But that wasn't death in which Reese remains, a deep sleep upon the scorched and steaming grass, face down; the only signs of life is the way her back rises and falls in tandem with her respirating.


Strange clenches his teeth and commands the Eye to close, shuddering from the invisible injuries caused by the hellfire. Soul-burns are far worse than fleshy blisters, but it is not the first time it happens to him, he will heal. Also, Rain saves him the effort to conjure some clothes.

"Ladies," he begins. "Please, come with me to my Sanctum. Ms. Hellstrom's fate is better decided, I believe, by people like us and not the local law, which would just try to consign her to jail for a human lifetime without real understanding of who she is."


The eyes that stared at the few are a blue flecked with green, humanoid pupils where the slitted had once been and cool where fire laid, for now subdued in the force of humanity Strange had inflicted upon her to remember and when she was impacted by Zee's magic as well as Stranges… to take on. Slowly even the wings shrink away and reform into her shoulders and spine with the reformation of skin and bone. Her hair is a muddied and visceral mess of auburn that sticks to her face and shoulders, her figure sunken and frail. She gave back and had nothing left to take with, and doing so would require movement, a motion that would unfurl her from that hunched over pose to keep her wound not visible. But she felt it /all/ and it beat through her with a pulse and rhythm of a beating drum that made her head swim, lips quiver, and every bit of her /sing/ with the un-announced scream. She wanted to scream and have one /Hell/ of a fit and then pass out. But not here… Not in front of /them/. Her Highness has way too much Pride for that.

At first she leans away from Rains offer, but the shadows inly flicked at her silent call. She was nearly snuffed, and with the hand that clutched her shoulder to cover the wound (not herself, she is not one to hide her womanly form) she grabs the coat Rain offers and clutches it to her front.

When Strange speaks her eyes peel away from Zee and Reese to land upon him with an uptilt of her chin. "My /fate?/" If she had any venom left it spat forth in that single word, then the demeaning laughter that follows as she shakes her head.

"Right… I frget how sanctimonious this plane is and its people." With that she is standing and sliding the coat on, only clitching it over her abdomen, speaking all the while.

"You cannot take /me/ anywhere. I am a Princess of He—!" And when she comes to a full stand with a rigid snap of posture… That's all she wrote. He form buckled like the old toys where you trigger the base and their knobby limbs all collapse upon it like a marionette with strings cut. Her vision swam in black and she was down for the count.


Rain is wearing a physics pun t-shirt and jeans. She's stylish, really. Rain doesn't seem too bothered by nudity but. She does seem to be sort of thinking. "In fairness, it's probably a lot better than ending up banished or in a prison for magic and metahumans," She offers quietly. Sealed in for good is probably a crappy fate. "I'm not sure we're THAT sanctimonious," She frowns. But either way, Satana is out.

"Sure, we can come along." Rain's broom comes down, Captain on it. "Huh." The cat grunts.

"Are you okay?" Rain and the cat ask Zee and Reese.


"Her fate? She's part demon, is she not? Send her back to her plain and lock her there for now." It's that simple for Zee. Satana acted within her nature and to be returned to her dimension … would be punishment enough. "But go ahead, I will be along a little later. There is more to do here first." She indicates the form of Reese on the ground and the chaos still occuring in the streets. "I'm fine, thank you Captain." Zee's blue eyes light on the cat "Reese, I will know more when I can examine her. For now she seems to be out - perhaps sleeping, perhaps more. I'll take her to Shadowcrest and tend her, though."

If there's no objection, the teen mage will teleport herself and Reese out… and arrange for some others to help with the clean up.


Strange arches an eyebrow at Satana's protests. He had a retort from them, but the princess fainted. He catches her with a spell before she hits the ground, though. "Indeed. Somehow I doubt the American authorities are going to acknowledge her title. Even if it is true her father is a Hell-Lord. But," he looks to Zatana, "her mother was human, and she was taken from this plane when she was just a child. I think there is still enough of a human soul in her so perhaps she deserves a better option than exile in the realm of the damned. Please, come with us and bring Reese, we can help her in my residence."


Reese..is kaput still.


Rain rubs the back of her head. "Plenty of demons co-exist peacefully on this plane. I wonder if she's an alright person when not possessed or whatever." Rain shrugs. "But yeah," She tilts her head at Strange. "I'd be glad to visit."


Satana is still a bitch. Right now akaput one too.


Two of Zee's closest friends are part demon and she's fighting a battle with them in Limbo. She knows well enough about having some human soul left. "Then it's not for us to decide, it's for her to do. You can put the option to her and offer her help. But I'll come for now…" Really, they need to be out of here and there's still work to be done. "Let's go."


Strange nods and traces a few mystical symbols in the air, creating a teleporting effect that brings the five of them to the living room of the Sanctum Sanctorum. He lays down Satana on a couch and request Wong to bring tea and other drinks for everyone. And clothes for Satana.

Once everyone is settled he continues the conversation. "Well, Ms. Zatara. Usually I would agree. But Satana Hellstrom has killed, probably many times, innocent human beings. She has consumed their life forces and then devoured their souls, completely annihilating her victims. If we allow her to stay on Earth, we are responsible of what she does. But if we return her to her father and then ward against her return, we condemn her to be a demon forever when she could be much more. I'd like to find an acceptable compromise."

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