Hellgate Debrief

April 19, 2015:

After clearing the Metropolis hellgate, Kara, Jericho, May and Zee debrief

Suicide Slums - Metropolis

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Mood Music: None.


Fade In…

It's a couple hours and Jericho advised that they get the hell out of the Suicide Slums before something went wrong. Like reinforcements. Or more magic. Or police. Or what have you. The hacker has led them to a nice brownstone in a middle class part of town that - rather amazingly - he has keys for. Yep. Safehouse. Jericho has several of them. "Fridge is stocked. Anyone need medical attention? Kara, you okay?" It had taken him a bit to round up all the demons and send them back but he's down to only K'nert now. Who looks smug.


Kara seems utterly exhausted after everything has happened, smiling at the others when she arrives, "I'm fine, I just..ugh.. Hydra made me see something I didn't want to." She forces a smile, "We did it. Sorry if I almost ruined things, I thought I could be the distraction and I failed.." She seems disappointed in herself greatly for that.


Melinda May has followed Jericho and anyone still withthe group to the safehouse, mostly to watch over Zee. What Kara did was risky, but it worked though Zee looks definitely the worse for wear. Once they're inside, though, she makes sure Zee is seated and moves to the kitchen to start cooking something for all of them to eat. Before she steps into the kitchen, though, she looks at K'Nert squarely and gestures for him to follow her.


Zee looks tired and she's frowning against the dreadful headache as she follows May and Jericho into the house, taking the seat she's directed to. Sitting back in the chair, Zee closes her eyes "We did this gate, Kara. The worst is yet to come. The South American gate…." she sighs and sounds a bit apologetic "You're right though, we need to focus on the fact that we did it."


"As ghoulish as it sounds…" Jericho says as he shuts the door and K'nert starts to follow May looking quite curious. "… I think we need to focus on what went wrong. That's how we'll make sure it doesn't next time. Kara, you were the subject of a mental attack?" They can go over tactical movement and silence later. That one's of more concern to him.


Melinda May kneels down to be closer to the little demon's height, then offers him one hand to fist-bump. It's about as close to thanking the little creature as she's gotten. Other than giving him expensive ice cream, anyway.


Kara nodded slowly and replied, "That girl, she made me see Krypton." She pauses, "My homeworld as it was destroyed, I saw my friends and my parents die. It was so real, I almost wonder if she was showing me what really happened." She shivers at the agony that they may have all suffered on Krypton, real or imagined.

"I'm sorry again. I thought if I ran in and distracted them, they would all come after me and think I was charging in alone. I guess they've learned my tactic." She was pretty clear on using the singular over the plural.


Zee raises her head and looks at Kara "Or perhaps, they were expecting us. Kara, this is the 3rd gate we've taken down." blinking to try and clear her head, she raises a hand to her temple and sighs "I didn't get a good feel for the magic, she made you see something?"


K'nert blinks at May for a moment and then gets a sly look on his muzzle and fistbumps May. Though it may be a good thing that she doesn't know just why. See he's been talking to Maxwell, Jericho's digital demon. And he knows that some human cultures had victory rituals in which they absorbed the souls and power of fallen enemies and opponents (usually by eating parts of them) and he… well, he thinks this is one of them. So yes, May, let us revel in the power of those we have slain!

Jericho himself folds his arms, having not noticed. "Is there any way, Zee, to ward her against that kind of thing? Even a little?"


"It wasn't even like seeing it, it was like I was there Zee. I could almost feel the heat from the planet as it" Kara trails off and closes her eyes. She had only just started to get over the loss of Krypton, not thinking of it as much and now Hydra had thrown it all right back in her face, "Some kind of warding or protection, even a little would help. I'm not sure why I thought Kryptonian Armor would do anything, my people fiercely and firmly believed there was no such thing as magic which I learned is totally false since my time on Earth and getting to know many of my wonderful friends."


Melinda May straightens back up without realizing why the little demon smirked, gets him a small container of ice cream from the freezer. Then she sets about preparing something for everyone to eat. Considering how exhausted Zee must feel currently, she opts for something quick and fairly easy to prepare, even with her limited cooking skills. Late night breakfast it is. Though the fruits found in the kitchen are gathered first and quickly peeled or sliced and carried out to set where the three talking can reach them.


The sound of May preparing food in the kitchen, has Zee turning her head and grimacing as a pain shoots through it. Breathing deeply and slowly she turns back to look at Kara "That's some magic, being able to do that."

Frowning she thinks on the question, goes to shake her head and thinks better of it. "I don't know about a ward… I need to think about it. It might be possible but who knows how it will interact with her Kryptonianism… " yes, Zee just made a word. "Perhaps, Kara, the pendulum can be used to aid that. I …. can look into." Just not now.


"Alright…" It has the tone of someone moving on. Jericho knows that May'll have important things to add at some point but he can small what she's doing and he doesn't want to interrrupt. K'nert? He's busy with the ice cream. "Zee what about you? You've gotten banged up in every one of these operations and while that is just kind of part of the game, is there anything we can do to… slow it? Prevent it?"


Kara stares towards K'nert having never really met the little creature. Not sure if he can speak or anything she slowly begins to walk over towards the demon and kneels down saying, "Hi there little fellow. Do you have a name?"


Melinda May has some eggs scrambled in short order, and brings them out on plates for each of them while the bacon continues to cook. Don't expect pancakes. Maybe toast. She does watch Kara try to say hello to K'nert, to see how this goes down as well as to make sure the little demon doesn't get unduly rude to the Kryptonian woman.


Turning her head gingerly, Zee watches Kara approach K'Nert. This will be interesting, after being warned about Hensen, Zee hasn't tried to approach him, ever.

Sighing again, Zee moves her head and stops "I know, Jericho. Today was better, I didn't get hit with anything." The arm and hip still hurt, the hip less than the arm but still. "How did the others go? Was Sara ok?" Zee vaguely remembers Sara taking a hit from the demon as she …. shot someone? "If I could work out what's on the other side of those gates. The energy… doesn't feel right and not just because it's dark. And it's strong. Even with everything we dumped on it today, it still had so much to drop on me." And she's not going to talk about how she feels after tapping every available source of power in the room today.

"I was going to see if the pendulum bearers could form a spell shield" Zee sighs again and rubs her forehead "but we're hard pressed enough taking out what they throw at us physically without distracting people that way. Another magic user could probably hold a shield but that's another body to protect." Part of the conundrum of magic, really. Magic can be strong, but take the mage out, take the magic out.

Taking the plate from May, Zee smiles up "Thanks Agent May." and slowly starts to pick at the eggs.


K'nert says something to Kara in a hissing growling tongue that makes Jericho roll his eyes and reply in a twisting, resonant language that Zee and May will recognize as demonic. He seems to be quite good at it. "His name is K'nert, and he's a demon. Don't get too close. He's behaving because of me but… well, he is a demon." The hacker shrugs.

"Thanks May." He says quietly. "What do you think about what happened today?"

Zees' comments get a nod but Jericho isn't really magic savvy enough to comment on that one.


Kara accepts the plate from May with a smile, "Thanks Agent May!" She's still sort of pre-occupied with K'nert, undaunted by the hissing and warnings, "He's so cute though." She picks up a piece of egg from her plate and says, "Hi K'nert. I'm Kara, would you like to share my eggs with me? If you're not full from ice cream or you like eggs. If I'm bugging you, just hiss again and I'll leave you alone." She smiles a little more at K'Nert, "I have a supercat named Streaky, he likes to hiss at me to. Maybe the two of you could become friends?"


Melinda May can only shake her head at Kara, eating her own eggs while minding the toast and checking on the bacon periodically. "I think we're going to need more help if we're going to have a chance with that portal in South America. I'm not discounting your skills, Zatanna, but this last one clearly took almost everything you had."


Zee doesn't disagree with May. It took more than she had, the fact that she'd channeled the tainted Leyline energy plus the Limbo energy was a little concerning. "I agree… but if we take in another magic user or more, we'll need more bodies and a better engagement plan." She shrugs and looks at Jericho "Can you ask Magik if she knows anything, at all, about that plane and what might inhabit it. And… " she bites her lip "is there anything about that deal we found out about? I haven't asked recently."


Jericho nods. "When I find her, I will. I suspect she's been looking into it but there's a lot of planes out there." The hacker leans back, thinking and watching as Kara talks to K'nert who turns to say something to him which draws a shrug and a short reply. The creature looks over at Kara once more, cants his head slightly as if sizing her up and then ambles back toward Jericho.

"No, nothing yet. And believe me, I've been looking. I've avoided drawing anyone else in so far… I get the feeling it's a long game."


Kara takes the hint when K'nert ambles away from her and shrugs, she had tried to make a new friend, "South America.. that's where we went on one of our very first primal force missions. We stopped some cultists who were raising zombies. Oh my god…" Kara looks like she just had a light-bulb turn on in her head, "It was Hydra even then, wasn't it? They must have been starting that zombie stuff up so they could do it in France and then they killed the President with it." Maybe others knew this, but for Kara it was only just starting to connect.


"Typical of HYDRA, all their irons in the fire at once." May carries out a plate of freshly cooked bacon resting on a paper towel then makes a second trip for the stack of toast and the butter. Finally, she returns with a container of orange juice and four glasses held in one hand. "As big as this is getting, I might be able to ask for permission to devote more SHIELD resources. We don't have any mages, but if you can gather them, SHIELD can damn sure protect them." She sets the glasses down and fills one for Zee. Drink it, no arguing.


Jericho thinks about that for a long moment. "SHIELD strike team might not go amiss. Are you willing to risk tactical agents going up against worse than what we had today?" The hacker looks about at the other two. "We've shut down three. They'll be loaded for bear at the next one. I can pull in a few tricks but it's going to get rough either way. Extra guns is a good idea but… people are going to go down on this one, May."

Kara gets a small chuckle. "HYDRA is disjointed. Their efforts seem uncoordinated because they are. They don't talk to eachother sometimes. It's like dealing with ten organizations instead of one, which is what makes them so dangerous and difficult to deal with." Jericho takes a glass and downs it. "Zee, May, Kara, I know you're all… connected somehow. And Sara. Can your group bring anything else to bear on this?"


"I've bought together those I can, Jericho. It's one of the reasons I asked Sara, May and Kara. Jes too… but she's had other things to worry about. " Zee shrugs and takes a drink of the orange juice whilst reaching for the bacon. "Magic users, connected to each… that might work. Use one mage as the focus and have the others channeling their power through them." May gets an interested look "And … if you're serious … sneak the magic users in close enough and cause a distraction elsewhere, might give us the time we need to bring it down…. " Zee looks better now she's eaten.


Kara drinks the juice with no arguments and starts to scoop up pieces of bacon while she thinks on it, "I know Constantine, so does Zee but he's hard to reach most of the time. There are a few members of the Justice League who might be suited to help like Booster Gold, his forcefields are powerful, maybe even Thor I could ask…? I assume Fenris and the other members of Primal Force are busy dealing with other threats." She looks to Zee and asks, "What about Rain? She has lots of magical artifacts and stuff to if we need magic users."


Melinda May looks from Zee to Kara and back, debating letting him know she has a pendulum like both of the other women wear openly. She's also wondering it might be time to bring in Fenris on this. "Zatanna, what if we ask…?" She hesitates to even say his name right now.


Kara's words have her nodding. "Rain might have a large amount of useful equipment in her house." And Loki as well, but, no. Not asking a Aesir known for mischief to help. "Kara, would you approach Booster Gold about this? His force fields alone make him worth approaching." Thor, same as Loki, so she doens't mention him.


"I think so, May" Zee hasn't asked Fenris because he has so many other things to do but… really, this was getting big. "Rain yes and Constantine, I … may have a way to get in touch with him … , Rune too, but I haven't seen her in ages. Dr Strange would be good… but again, I haven't seen him around in weeks." Drinking the rest of the Orange Juice down, Zee considers "Vorpal and Misfit are chaos magic." she shivers a little "I could ask them, but the idea of channeling chaos at those portals…." yeah, she'll leave that there.

Looking at Jericho and May, Zee shrugs "Timing's important too, right? Do we strike quickly or delay a few more days and let them think we think we've got them all?"


Kara sighs a little and continues to eat her food while chatting but not with her mouth full of course, "I had thought of Vorpal to, but the whole chaos magic thing is scary I've seen it go awry before and there are other scary issues at play with him right now." She leaves the Vorpal situation at that.

She nods at May and smiles, "I'll talk to Booster the moment I leave, he will be willing to help unless he ends up lost in a time stream or something he's not the kind of guy who would say no."


Melinda May nods to Kara. "Thank you. And I'll talk with Fury. I'm not sure how many SHIELD resources he'd be willing to commit, but any would help, even if it's just body armor and equipment." She claims only a single piece of bacon for herself, but keeps Kara from snagging the last four and makes sure that Jericho and Zee each get two. She's already been dubbed Ninja Nanny, might as well earn the moniker.


Zee sits quietly eating her eggs and bacon, the headache slowly receeding and her colour returning to normal. "Apart from when we do this, I can't think of anything else." but then, she's not got the experience just the enthusiasm to get the job done." Smiling slightly at May, "Thank you for the food, Agent May. It really helps."


Jericho takes a couple of pieces of bacon and crunches on them. "Alright, well we'll see what we can get. Oh, May, before I forget, a group of us hacked a major HYDRA data cluster today. I'm still processing the info but some of it looks like it might be about Smooth and Shift. I'll be coming to see you when I have everything sorted out." Beat. "Skye helped. Don't hurt her."


Melinda May looks at Jericho oddly. "WHy would I hurt her for that?


Kara looks embarrassed as she's about to keep eating all the bacon ,thank god for May, "Thanks for breakfast Agent May, it was really good." She gives another glance in the direction of cute little K'nert and ponders making sure she gets ice cream next time, "Great work tonight and sorry if I messed things up as always. I should head back and try to find Booster.


"See you later, Kara. Thanks for the help today." Zee settles into the chair, finally relaxing "I'll think on something to protect you from magic." Jericho gets Zee's attention "That sounds promising… were the hackers ok, Jericho?" K'Nert gets a glance, just checking out where he might be.


Somewhere, is the answer. Which is a worrying answer if you're not Jericho who apparently can talk to the damn things and sometimes be listen to. "Yes, everyone's fine." He assures Zee. "And… less worried about you hurting her, May and more about the obsessive rules fanatics at SHIELD doing so." Maybe it helps that he's an 'asset' now?


Melinda May nods to Kara as she takes her leave, then looks at Jericho again. "Just make sure to go through me when you ask for her help, and I'll clear it with Fury." This time, it'll be easy enough to write it off after the fact, as everything went okay. She finally pours herself the last of the orange juice in the container and claims one last piece of toast. "If it helps, Zatanna, I think we're best off waiting. Gives us time to collect resources, and for HYDRA to think we're done and become complacent." Hopefully.


"Yes, it does Agent May." Zee asked for advice and she'll be guided, particularly by May and Jericho… they've been good to and for her. "Then we'll wait. Is there anything you need from me?"


"No. Rest up. No good going in anyway with you at half streength. We'll hit South America when we're ready. Meantime, I need to talk to Sara. Or you do, May. Something she said made me worry. About how the this was affecting the usual Light and Dark she deals with. I wonder if that isn't part of their plan. Let something alien take over."


Melinda May nods to Jericho. "I'll talk with her tomorrow, then. And Zatanna, when you're rested, we should work on coordinating our efforts." She glances toward the green pendulum, her own still concealed under her mission attire.


"I fought that Jericho… when I wasn't whole. It's horrible and strong." and it attacked her "It's filling in the spaces with the Angelus and Darkness normally fight…" and that in itself was worrying. Nodding to May, Zee agrees "We should and I'd very much like that."


Jericho glances between Zee's pendulum and the one he suspects May has. "Mmmm. Well. We'll deal with it when we can. I'll get back to you both soon about the results of the attacks." He straightens up. "Feel free to stay here. It's mine. Just lock the door when you leave." And with a wave, he's headed out, K'nert scampering after him.


Melinda May nods to Jericho as he takes his leave. "I'm going to call in. Get some rest, I'll keep watch." She gets up to go tidy up the kitchen and place the call to SHIELD.

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