March 16, 2016:
Characters
NPCs: Rachel Jerimiah John
Mentions: Fenris
Plot:
Mood Music: [*\# None.]
Fade In…
Once more, it's the park in the afternoon. The sun is up, and the air is growing warmer. So we have Julia.. literally palming her face as she watches the little towhead white blonde 3 year old girl of hers eating a hot dog. And by eating.. I mean trying to mash the whole thing into her face, getting more of the fixin's on her face than in her mouth.
"Rachel hon… don't you think you should try to eat slower?" she asks. The answer is a messy, yet beaming grin with a full mouth. "Bu..tho 'ood!" is the girl's reply. Both of them sit on a bench in the park and Julia is in bluejeans, a white teeshirt with a North Face logo on it, and a windbreaker. Rachel has her flashing red light shoes on, and her Unicorn coat. It really is her favorite.
Jesana is strolling along grumbling to herself about dogtags and collars. She doesn't want to have them on her children but they've been given a couple of days in their other form and to take them in public without the things, risks complaints or animal control or police. All hassles she isn't going to deal with today.
The native american woman is dressed in navy blue leggings, brown sandals and black jean jacket beneath which she wears a knee length blue cotton tunic. The two coyote pups running around at her feet look to be less than a year old. They aren't leashed and stay quite close to her as the chase each other and tumble about the grass. One suddenly looks in Rachel's direction and the two dart off in a mad scramble to reach the little girl. "Heyla! What have I said about-!" Jes rolls her eyes and grins at Julia as she catches up.
Neither dogtags nor children, Alyse is walking down the street in her usual street-casual outfit. The skirt, vest and jacket that doesn't quite draw as many strange looks as the dress she'd been wearing when she first arrived. In her hands she's holding a paper cup of steaming and strong-smelling cocoa despite the later time of day. The blonde had been sleeping till an hour ago, having paid the price for not resting after she'd had a rather dangerous encounter with a toxic eldritch horror and then over-using her magics the very next tday the blonde had finally been forced to take the time to recover…because she'd been basically comatose for almost 24 hours.
Having not bothered to put her hair up today as she usually might, the witch is walking her own lazy way down the street when she feels the 'ping' of a familier presence and looks up. This time she spots Jesana outright and gives a little grin, raising a hand as her path takes her closer. This time she's the one who snuck up…although this is more of a stumble.
And.. halfway through her next bite, Rachel looks up and brightens up immediately, "'uppief!" she exclaims around a mouthful of Hot Dog. She jumps up, dropping the remains of her snack on the ground. Then… she charges towards the puppies even as Julia gets to her feet. Amazing how stupendously fast reflexes can still be caught off guard by a three year old.
Rachel's whole plan is basically… GLOMP-DA-PUPS! and Julia looks behind them, smirking as she spies Jesana, and lifting her hand in a bit of a wave. "Well hello there." she states, "They look like handfuls. I'd say it's like herding kittens but…" she shrugs, "It's kinda not, eh?"
Jesana winces as the hotdog is dropped and Jerimiah snatches it up. John is too busy play tackling Rachel. She turns and waves at Alyse and beckons her over before looking back at Julia and laughing. "Oh Fenris, don't mention those. They'd try to eat them. Frederick wanted to get one and I told him he was nuts. I think we're getting a dog though."
She rolls her eyes again and sighs. Cause that's what she needs. Another pup. "They'dve loved going off into the woods like this but they need to get used to being around more people and having some self control." Jesana's voice firms and she stares down at Jerimiah. The girl looks up, licks her lips and cowers and whines softly, hiding her eyes behind one paw. "Aw geeze. G'on. Go play."
She bends and pushes Jeri towards the other two. "Julia that is Alyse, Alyse, this is my friend Julia and her daughter Rachel. The pup with blue collar is my son John and Jerimiah is the one with the orange one." Jes makes introductions.
"Your son?" Alyse blinks at Jesana, a raised eyebrow suggesting that for a small moment she might be taking her literally before she turns her attention to the new woman and her small child, bending a little at the knees and leaning over to smile at the kid while giving a small wave. "Good to meet you," she greets warmly before looking up at Julia. "Cute kids, all of them."
Julia, the kid with ketchup and mustard on her face, who's rolling around on the ground with a Coyote Pup. She looks up as she hears the greeting, and then grins and waves one hand before going back into the cuddle-pile. Of course, the fact that she has the stuff on her face makes her even better lick-bait from the pups.
Julia just rolls her eyes and steps over to drape an arm about Jesana's shoulders. But she looks to Alyse then and nods, "Good to meet you as well. They really are adorable, aren't they?" she asks.
After hugging Julia, Jesana grins at Alyse. "Thanks. They are. I'm hoping if they run around enough today they'll actually sleep all night. They're sort of an extra handful around the boat like this. I'll be kind glad when they turn back in a few days. What's babyproof isn't the same as whats puppyproof." Both of the pups are rolling around and cuddling and mock pouncing with Rachel but are obviously careful with the girl.
"How are you Alyse?" Jes eyes the Witch for a moment. She seems a little tired yet or as if she's been asleep for awhile. Hopefully there wasn't some sort of trouble but knowing how things go.. probably there was. "Haven't seen you in awhile either, Julia."
"Adjusting," Alyse says with a little chuckle. "Sometimes it can be a little more of a rough neighbourhood then one expects…and I seem to have the right kind of luck for things to go wrong around me some times." The mentioning of turning and changing brings a mouthing of a silent 'oh' from the Witch and she smiles. Truely, this town is stranger then even her own. "It took a bit out of me, but I'm getting there."
"… Rachel'n I've been… well, we've been busy and a bit scarce of late. Things went a bit sideways, but we're makin' it." offers Julia towards Jesana. She lets go of her friend and steps a pace or two away. "So, rough time of it?" she asks Alyse. "You new to town like I am?" She grins and adds, "Rae and I moved here from LA about six months ago."
Jes shakes her head at both of them. She's pretty sure that's something of an understatement for the two women but they don't know each other yet so she won't press. "The two of you can always call on me for help if you need." She also grins. The Tri-Cities definitely take getting used to when you are new. How many other places in the world do so many different types of people and beings live and interact? As well as all the magical. There are some of course but not quite like here.
"I've been up to the usual. All kinds of trouble. Demons, killer robotics. Some ass—uh.. evil guy.." Jes eyes the kids. Frederick has really been on her case about cursing in front of the babies and Rachel for sure is old enough to pick up on it. "Called the Clockmaker or something like that. Gods, we had to go into the sewers. I ducked into three different streams and a lake before I took my shower before my shower and bath." She looks faintly grossed out still. It had not appealed to her human sensibilities. Nor Coyote's actually.
"Killer clowns, demons and Norse gods with a hammer, it's been a busy first week." Alyse grins at the other women before nodding at Julia. "Very new, I'm from…out of town. Things are very different, have had to learn quite a few little changes." No sense talking about time travel with others when even she hadn't thought it possible to manage before it had happened.
The comment about the sewers earns a sympathetic nod from the blonde witch as she sips the sweet taste of her beverage and then she chuckles. "Yeah, I suppose it's logical that filth ends up in the sewer, but chasing after it isn't fun."
Shuddering at the mention of the sewers, Julia just shakes her head, "God. Sewers… I don't know if I could even -try- that. Rachel.." she says, gesturing to the little girl giggling and playing with both pups at once, "She'd dive in and love it. I swear, that girl has no sense of smell."
Jes lowers her voice. "We had to. These constructs, machine beings, they had a bunch of humans down there in electrified pens. They were.. it was bad. They were killing them. The police found out something was up when they send some officers down and then heard gunshots and they disappeared. They had no idea what to do. If more had gone in they'dve died too."
Jes shivers. Her friend had been badly hurt if only for a moment and she'd gone more than a little feral. Not her best night out for sure. "We rescued them but the guy who made those things got away." Jes frowns. "If you mean the Joker, Alyse, be careful. That *whatever she says is in her native tongue but from the tone, something foul* is really dangerous. Thor.. I have never met and am forbidden to." She looks over to the children and can't help but grin. John is fetching a stick now but Jerimiah seems to be trying to get Rachel to fetch one. She is the smarter of the two pups. John is the move brave.
"Joker," Alyse repeats, frowning a little more as she thinks back to the clown man before she looks back to her drink as if that white plastic lid could divine some great secret to the nature of the dangerous figure. At the very least, the blonde woman chuckles a little at Julia's comment and shrugs her shoulders. "It's good that she's keen to, not all kids get the chance to get out and be messy."
She'd say more, but instead just smiles at Jes' comment about Thor. Given what she'd learned about the woman's associations last time? She can guess why such a meeting would be forbidden
And.. Julia's met The Joker. She watched him execute bystanders. She shivers at the memory and gestures to Rachel who is chasing one of the pups. Looks like the boy. Even as the girl chases -her-. She's trying to 'fetch' the stick.. from the pup that already fetched it.
It ends up with a dogpile.. literally. Okay a Coyote pile. Julia just shrugs her shoulders and sighs. "Well, can't fault her enthusiasm…" she mutters. She's trying not to let on about her whole experience with Joker. But anyone who can smell more than normal… she's sweating now. Nervous. Also, she's flashing with terror in her own head.
Jesana tightens her arm around Julia. She has on several occasions tried her damnedest to kill the Joker. He's got a luck streak of his own. "He's horrible. I know." It's a vast understatement of what she usually says about him but there are children about. "I saw him do a lot of horrible things. I've tried and tried to end him but he always gets away. He nearly killed a friend of mine the other week. Thank Fenris for magical healing." The native woman sighs. She really hates that guy. Truly.
Alyse just frowns, clearly having realised she'd tripped on a nerve for the two women with her more casual memory. Not wanting to dwell on it further she takes another sip of her drink, perhaps purposefully louder in her slurping noise before she looks up at Jesana. "Did you speak with your friends? The Wolf or the Nymph? I haven't quite checked out of my current lodging."
She'd ask more, but a sudden screeching noise cuts the discussions short as a nearby office building shudders and its windows explode outwards in a shower of glass. From the disruption a swarm of figures surge, carried on lithe wings the beings look like demons out of many a mythology, claws and teeth viciously bared while they surge down towards any poor citizens in their path.
It could be a flurry of winged monkies for all Julia knows. But she is moving faster than normal at this point… the moment she hears that, she's sprinting for Rachel and the pups… "Rachel! Get Down!" she cries out as she goes to try to cover all of them if she can… she has no idea if there is a bomb or demon about to come her way, but just in case… there is one thing in this world more important to her than the rest of the world combined…
Jes snaps a word in her native language and points and the two pups immediately herd Rachel beneath the bench and urger the young girl to curl up with them and wait where it's safer. The demigod squints up at the winged creatures and sighs. Her joly water and silver dust mace isn't going to do any good from a distance and her gun has only so many bullets. Still, she can make a start.
Drawing her weapon from its holster at her back Jesana yells for people to take cover while calling upon the predatory presence she'd been surpressing before. They might be demons or mythological creatures but she is the child of a god and predator all her own. Everyone near her is likely to suddenly realize this from the waves of edgy animal menace pouring out from her. Taking aim, Jes fires once, twice. They are getting quite closer to people now, she needs something else, not likely to find any pipes about Jes looks for a suitable branch or something to use as a club. She'll beat the things to death if she can.
It's almost funny that the mages both seem to have a fondness for the more mundane bullets. Sometimes the simple things are enough, right? The smaller calibre handgun in the blonde's hand barks a loud noise as the first bullet coliding with one of the demon-like things. Her rounds are pure Iron, yet both hers and Jes' own seem to have the same effect: the creatures seem to crack and splinter if they were made out of rock and stone. One or two bullets are easily enough to take down the creatures each, but more are still coming.
Not having children to cover and protect of her own, the blonde Witch takes aim and actually advances forwards, perhaps making herself a bigger target for the swarm that banks and twists like a single mass headed towards the three women and the children.
The bench has an adult Julia curled over it even as the three kids take cover beneath it. "Honey. You stay here with the pups, okay?" she asks. But then she looks to each of the puppies, "You two make sure she stays safe, eh?" she asks before turning her back on them and leans against the bench with her back. It's a good thing that her webs are made psionically, and don't need to be connected to her. Because.. as the swarm advances… it starts being impeded. Webs forming along the front of the group, tying them all together and slowing them down, making them easier targets. But.. it's a lot of webbing, and it's taking a toll on Julia's stamina.
Jesana frowns. Stone? She doesn't recognize whatever these things are but she's torn a length of metal free from a food stand and is using it to club the ones who are attacking people. She's good in a fight and accidently hitting a person isn't likely to happen unless she loses control of her temper. Jes sends a silent prayer to Fenris in the hopes that she doesn't get out of control. These are new friends and she doesn't want to lose them and her anger and the feral state it can bring upon is something terrible.
Jes knows the pups will guard their friend. With their lives. It's part instinct and part what she and Frederick have been teaching. They are young but her life and by extension theirs, will be always be dangerous. Letting loose with an earsplitting Indian warcry, the demigod wails on a trio of the little flying beings attempting to attack a mother and her husband and daughter. She's much stronger and heavier than she appears and seeing how the things crumbled when she shot them, it wasn't a stretch for her to imagine brute force doing the same. Or at the very least, drawing them after her.
Numbers seems to be the creatures strength. If anything they're slightly weaker then even the average human being, but their claws are sharp and their teeth long as they charge and slash at the women, struggle with the webbing and trying to raise hell. Jesana's strength seems enough to destroy the tree, but there's swiftly three more to take their place.
Alyse herself hears her gun click dry and doesn't stop to reload, instead she extends her arms either side of her as small lights begin to fill the air and flare around her, twisting into golden lights of magical energy that take the shape of butterflies. The constructs swarm around them, twisting and taking shame of a glowing bubble of semi-transparent energy around the bench. A shield made to cover and protect the children and Julia. Only with this in place does the witch now extend her hands, crackling voltage starting to take shape between her fingers.
What sucks is… having a secret ID. Especially when your little girl has no idea you put on spandex and go out into dangerous situations. Julia tries to appear to be cowering, when she's targeting her webbing strategically.
She realizes that she cannot cover everyone. So she focuses on just the right position… tying up one about to strike Jesana in a flank, or one who is trying to evade incoming attacks from Alyse. She is trying to be an enabler right now. Should anything reach her though.. she will tear it limb from limb. But for the moment, the shield appears to be holding.
Jes might not look like it but she's figured out what Julia's doing and is grateful. She's also realized the woman isn't out like she kind of is. She'll do her best to make sure no one looks too close at her friend. So she keeps on with the warcries and loud growls and snarls. Let everyone be looking at her and the mage, Jes would distract from her too but really there isn't anything she can do to hide lightning and sudden butterfly appearances.
Finishing off the trio, Jes's metal is bent and she uses her gun until it's empty and then finally just leaps into the air and starts grabbing at the creatures, taking them by the neck, one in each hand she bashes their heads together. If they claw at her a bit, she can take it. Besides, she's pretty fast. Faster than human anyway.
]
Jes is likely going to get cut, there's simply just too many of the creatures to avoid every last claw and every last tooth. Even so, for each scratch she's able to tear down several creatures…but the tide pouring out of the office building doesn't seem to be slowing. There's no end to the monsters…
The lightning brewing between Alyse's fingers arc forwards, surging through several of the creatures and setting them ablzae before they crumble, but even this doesn't seem to have ended the tide. Giving a cry of pain, the Witch looks down at her arm where a torn rent on her arm where a demon slashes.
What in the name of everything holy is causing this? Demons flooding out from a building / clown car? Julia shakes her head, clearing her vision of the spots she's started seeing.
"Look out!" cries Julia.. as the creature that sliced Alyse ends up mummified in webbing. She can't do it.. she can't just sit here and watch. "Rachel honey. Keep your head down, and your eyes shut, okay?" she asks. "Jeri, John.. you two are doing great. Keep it up." she adds before she launches herself out of the shield… webbing forming to make a handhold for her to yoink herself faster ahead. The mage needs the backup.. and so as she is about to be overrun by another group… the -other- blonde woman crashes into them. She moves faster than humans -can- move. Well, her reflexes do. And she punches and kicks like the impact of a sports car at high speed. She may not be a were-creature, but she is Spider-Woman… and she is defending her child right now.
She realises they are just going to keep coming, something up there has to be making or controlling these things. Jes has one bullet left, her smoky quartz necklace worn beneath her tunic. Well, good thing she'd practiced this next thing and then had some real fighting experience using it. At least this time her clothes are all on. She hates to do it,e en for a second but Julia's there and Jes trusts her. She won't let anything happen to Rachel and the pups are with the little girl.
Jes knows Alyse is hurt, can scent the blood and feels Julia moving at her back. She's got to end this before Julia is discovered and Alyse bleeds too much. Hoping that whatever is up there, she can kill it with one shot and be back down in the next second or two, Jesana teleports herself up to and just inside the hole the demons are swarming out of.
Julia's potent strength easily shatters the same creatures, damage matching those hit with the bullets almost entirely. These things aren't made to last. Eager for their new prey, more of the creatures surge towards Julia even without the tide rushing Witchdoctor letting up one bit. The blonde woman continually hurls spells, lightning and energy cutting down the monsters but not nearly quickly enough.
Jes's teleportation leaves some confused demons. Having lost their first prey they surge towards the golden energy bubble, slaming against the barrier and trying to force their way through the seemingly unyielding magic. The witch is pouring a hell of a lot of power into that spell.
Appearing in the office building Jes is met with a sight, but not likely one she expected to come across. Among the whirling horde of flying monsters, a single unmoving statue rests, a perfect copy of the creatures carved out of stone. From the gargoyle-like object however, Jes' eyes would be treated to the sight of a ghostly demon seem to claw its way out into existance, a flap of its wings carrying it into the air where that ghostly body begins to become more and more corporael till it's as real as the monsters attacking below.
Super strength, super reflexes, highly durable, -and- trained to utilize all of those traits well in a fight. Julia whirls and leaps.. kicking two of the demons away before she comes back down with a falling fist that strikes through another demon. Her movements carry her down below the attacks of a group of them before she comes back up with a rising kick to the whole group of them.
She takes a blow or two, none of the claws, but just a blunt strike, and is sent reeling before she strikes back at her attackers. "How many of them -can- there be?" she calls out. But she notices the ones going for the shield… and she is on them in a flash. A web launches her towards them and she strikes into them like a bowling ball into tenpins.
The demigod snarls. Of course it's not a wizard or necromancer. Just some damned artifact some stupid bastard should have left where ever the bloody hell he found it. See, this is the kind of thing that makes her kill people. She keeps her gun in one hand while punching at the whirling lesser demons with the other. The second that thing looks solid enough she's shooting it in the head and then holy water/silvermisting it just to be safe. Maybe she'll even stomp on the sonofabitch too. She has got to get back down below! She needed to be down there thirty seconds ago already.
Jes has dozens of small and medium sized scratches and gashes on her arms, shoulders, stomach and back and a few on the right side of her face. Her jacket and tunic are shredded allover and there's a more serious looking blood covered tear on her right flank. Not enough to slpw down someone with her training, not in the slightest. The one on her flank may need a few stitches later though. Perhaps unlike her companions, Jes is still pretty fresh and in good shape energy wise. She'll just need to eat a lot later. Right now all she's concerned about is ending this and getting back to her children and friends.
"Too many!" Witchdoctor grunts as she blasts out another burst and then gives a little gasp as another set of claws tears across her back and over one shoulder. This is going to hurt tomorrow morning, but the fight hasn't yet ended. As long as that barrier remains solid, she knows that she's done her job. Even so, it's only a matter of time before she and Julia are going to be overwhelmed.
Within the statue room with Jesana the creatures shift and rush towards Jes in a crazy frenzy, single-mindedly wanting to tear her apart before she can threaten the statue that's letting them into the world.
Indeed, it is only a matter of time for Julia. She is doing well now, but she is more agressive than usual because.. Mommy.. and she finds herself kicking at one of these things when another of them slashes her across the back.
She goes down to her knees at the deep cut and she doesn't scream.. she growls. She isn't going to let Rachel watch her mother die here. That's way too Batman or Punisher. Her psi-net casts outward and she knows precisely where all of the closest things are to her… so she comes up with a surge of energy that won't last very long.
But.. she has the energy for the moment, and she is fighting the demons off from the shield like a woman possessed, or perhaps simply a creature of pure ferocity.
Once she's shot the demon emerging from the statue, Jesana throws herself bodily through the horde of flying creatures and into the stone statue to knock it over so it'll break and hopefully, stop working. If it doesn't, or won't budge then her next action will be to simply teleport it out over the ocean and let the damned thing drop and sink.
Oh, or maybe that flowing lava river she'd checked out in Hawaii awhile back. It was near a leyline too. Near enough she could manage it. It doesn't matter how bad they hurt her, so long as her neck or spine isn't broken she'll keep going. It's what she was trained to do from the time she was five. She can ignore any pain, any torture. She can if needed turn off the human part of her mind or shut down her emotins completely. Hopefully it doesn't reach that point because the Jes re emerging from the building in that case, will not be the Jes who went up there.
The statue does tip, but it's rather solid thing. The impact on the ground however does seem to send a rippling effect of stunning impact to the creatures. Every last one of them looking like they themselves had been slammed against the floor. Sure enough, Jesana's damage to the 'mold' seems to echo through the others. The teleportation? Sure enough it will work, be it the ocean's isolation of the burning heat of a volcano, the creatures around Alyse and Julia crumple to dust with their link so far away, either moved or outright destroyied along with the mold.
With the monsters gone, Alyse exhales a deep breath and the butterfly barrier fades away in a fluttering of energy wings disappearing into silence. Alyse herself shakes her head and clutches her arms while red stains her jacket. "My luck…I swear…" she murmers before turning to face the hiding children and look to Julia. "Are they alright?" It's only then that her mouth opens in silent concern as she notices the missing Jes.
Shaking her head a bit, Julia mutters. "Not gonna be one hundred percent for a bit. But… I'll be okay."
She takes off her windbreaker and wraps it about her torso to help staunch the bleeding. But then she turns and bends to scoop up all three young ones in her arms. She's also noticed the lack of Jesana being there… and she is determined that the pups won't worry about her without having someone to hold them.
It takes her a few moments more but Jes makes it back, dripping with seawater and spluttering and coughing. So she'd misjudged the jump slightly. "Holy effing Fenris. Whoever found that thing is gonna.." Her growling rumble cuts off as she spots the children and her friends and the wild animal aura emanating from calms a little. It's somewhat fortunate they were there. There is little else that can calm her rage so quickly.
"How are they, how are you both? I can't heal but Alyse, you can take power from me to heal yourself if you need. I.. I don't think I can do that for you Julia. I've only learned how with magic people." It might harm someone not magical. In anycase it wouldn't heal her. That is not one of Jes's skills. "I'm okay. I'll heal fast enough. Just.. ugh." Jes beckons to Alyse while dropping to her knees next to Julia and the kids, murmering soothing words and sounds as the pups wriggle all over her, water soaked and bloodstained and torn clothes an all. It wouldn't be the first time, it won't be the last.