Summary:As heroes battle monsters outside, a group of them make it through the chaos to rescue the kids at the center of it. Log Info:Storyteller: Fractal |
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The forces that affect all things mystical and magical have been unsettled for days now. Those who watch the news and social media might have written it off as all the weird and wacky happenings.
Those who can talk to spirits might well be waiting for the other shoe to drop. For others, mystical devices have been activating and pointing everyone to here, at this time. Bryant Park, not far from the Disaster Zone.
Well, Bryant Park and Warehouse just off of it.
The streets outside are full of awful chunky golem things, but those are being dealt with by others. In the warehouse, four children are being held, Ready for transfer through the portal and they HAVE to be rescued.
Guarding them, perhaps, are four people - all with tattooes of varying forms. From what our heroes, or anti heroes, can see two are wielding unconventional weapons. One a quarter staff and the other has what looks a utility belt with different types of weapons hung from it. The tattooes on these two seem to cover their faces.
The other two 'guards', appear almost normal - except for the tattooes. One has tattooes covering his head, the other has tattooes that fill all available skin on her arms.
There isn't much time at all before they start dragging kids into open portals and Agent Koa Turner, of WAND, is shouting to anyone who made it past the scrum outside to get in there and get those kids. He himself is going to need another minute.
Hellboy manages to get past the scrum the way he usually does - by punching really hard. He smashes a golem thingie with the Hand of Doom, shattering it to powder around him and shaking the dust off his oversized fist as he pushes his way inside.
He draws the Good Samaritan with his left hand, spinning the chamber to see what kind of rounds he's got in. Incendiary. Well, most things don't like fire. If he has to change ammo later, so be it. Now to make some noise.
"Hey, inkpuss! I bet those woulda hurt a bunch if your friggin' heads weren't already numb. I'm gonna give ya to the count of five to let those kids go before me and my new pals here redecorate the walls with yer innards," he says, levelling his gun and aiming it.
"4!"
Being able to phase through solid matter, to fly through the aether, Dead Girl is impossibly fantastic at getting into places that maybe she wasn't supposed to get into. Like, a warehouse with a strange portal.
She rises from the ground between portal and children. Her eyes glowing red- angry. The abuse of children is particularly egregious to Dead Girl. Her fingers have lengthened into claws- and she stares at the four 'guardians' with intent, unblinking eyes. "I would listen to him if I were you. My red-skinned friend rarely makes idle threats… and believe me when I say what he will do to you is far better than what I will if the children are harmed in any way."
As Dead Girl speaks the room seems to grow colder- the barrier between life and death thinning as her anger roils and grows.
Batman had confiscated one of the staffs last night at the park. He hadn't had a chance to start an analysis on it - or better yet, to track down Keiko and question her on exactly what it is. But it had gotten the interest of the Bat. Especially when they had gone into kidnapping children. He went high, above the city and the golems that were down on the street below. They were being dealt with - and could wait.
There had been no time to plan or prepare. Just to react. It's not a situation that Batman wants to go into, but it's the one he's faced with.
The shadow appears momentarily over the skylight before the light bends, and shatters, showering the ground from above as the cloaked form drops to the ground. The Bat is only stationary for a moment. While Hellboy may be counting - Batman offers no such quarter.
The first Batarang flies out, spinning towards one of the men with the utility belt. "They can summon creatures and spells through their tattoos!" he calls out to the other. "Don't give them a chance to summon!" his gravelly voice calls out as he throws a second batarang, this one beeping, towards the portal - particularly one that might have an eye in it - once it enters, it explodes, looking to collapse the portal on itself before it can be used.
Batman's warning comes an instant too late to at least completely prevent creature features. The two metal staff wielding guards touch their arms and smoke begins to roil out of them. In not very long at all they've coalesced into a three headed hound the size of a pony and an abnormally large tiger. Six eyes focus on Hellboy. Two feline ones on Deadgirl. The animals start to advance. Then break into a run and lunge as their handlers follow behind.
"Molon labe." One of the staff wielders smirks to Hellboy.
The batarang disrupts the portal, or possibly the concentration of the magus maintaining it. It flickers and then collapses into a point and vanishes. The second of the two magi cries out in alarm and frustration and faces upward, toward that bat shaped shadow. Hands come up in a contorted pose and tattoos glow. "Purgavi!" He shouts and a pair of bolts lance outward flung toward the Bat but a bit off balance. Definitely shooting from the hip there.
The children start to scream as scary things start happening around them, but their wails and cries are hard to hear above the fighting, really.
"Would you deny these children a chance at paradise?" One of the magi shoots back to Dead Girl. "Would you condemn them to this cruel, cruel world?"
"I dunno who you are, fella, but yer sure awful damn bossy!" Hellboy yells back at Batman. Seeing the manifestation of the monstrous creatures, he lowers his gun and sights along the barrel to try and catch the middle head of the hound with a load from his hand-cannon, blasting two shots off one after the other.
"You assholes know that it's a cruel world because of sick bastards like you, right? If the water here tastes bad, it's because you and your buddies have been pissin' in it." he snarls, winding up to punch the thing in its remaining heads if it gets close enough.
Sir Percy has been bugging Dane for a few days now, something about the disturbance in the force or some crap. None of Dane's science actually told him anything about what is going down, so well he finally caved and listened to the ghost. He gave him the vague area of where to go, man ghosts can't get all the details, what the hell is up with that. Mounting the winged horse he goes out towards where he was told to. Location is easy to find, thanks to the golems of course.
Once there he dives in through the now smashed in window, horse and all. Cause hey these warehouse skylights are huge don't ya know. His sword is withdrawn once he enters, and well just eyes the magic folk for a moment. Well okay instinct is the big red guy is evil, but then he's not holding kids hostage. "Unhand the kids, or answer to the Black Knight!" He is of course still on the winged horse, cause well that does make a much better visual.
"There's no paradise in what you're offering them." Batman snarls out, even as he's twisting in mid-air to avoid the bolts that are being flung towards him. One of them rips through his cape, but he completely avoids the second as he lands on the ground in a crouch, cape curling around him. Hellboy's complaint towards him gets a grunt. Who is he?
There's no time for introductions. "Dead Girl! Get the children clear!" he calls out to the woman, even as he takes out another pair of batarangs. The animals? Those he's not worried about. He's going for the casters. Another batarang spins through the air, aimed for a portal to collapse it.
That is until he hears the arrival of Dane. "Black Knight, go for the portals, collapse them and the children can't be removed." Lesson learned from last night. A group of what appear to be marbles is brought out as he flings them towards one of the magis, causing them to explode in a cacophony of light and bangs. Miniaturized flash bangs, meant to break up and disrupt the magic users.
"Buddy, I'm a walking corpse who's seen what lies after death. You're trying to convince the wrong girl." Dead Girl replies, as her eyes flash a little brighter and she rushes forward, going insubstantial as the Tiger comes at her- she'll go for the handler. She'll turn solid at the last possible minute, and claws will attempt to slash at tattoos- to deface them and ruin them. To Flay living skin from the body with so very sharp claws that can dig through steel as easily as soft dirt.
The spirit being doesn't quite react to Hellboy's signature gun like a regular creature would. The gun clearly HURTS it. A lot. It yelps and the head that was hit droops. That would have driven away any normal animal. As it stands the two remaining heads snap at Hellboy. One is punched and hard. There's a crunching sound which is odd since this thing doesn't have bones. The other head though goes for his opposite shoulder and the big three headed beast tries to drag Big Red down as its handler comes in for shot at his head with the staff.
Dead Girl passes through the tiger though it does offer some resistance. Like running through water. The beast turns as she makes it though and shimmers, adjusting for her ability, phasing onto her plane as it runs at her. A staff comes up to block one hand but her other finds flesh and cuts and rends. The tattoo wielder cries out and his magic flickers as the cat leaps for Dead Girl's back. She got some of the tattoos, but not the tiger. Yet.
Batman's marbles make the mages yell out in consternation again as does Dane's arrival. It looks like they might be able to make a rush at the kids… but then another portal opens. This one is not made by the magi. It's opened from the other side. A tall, then man comes out, covered completely in writhing inky black energy with a symbol of a solar corona on his chest. A sun, in eclipse.
"Taste the will of our god…" He says focusing in on Batman. Bruce is suddenly assailed with images, visions of a life where the tragedies he has endured never came to pass. A life made perfect. A life without suffering. His hearts desire. And a promise that he can have it.
Dead Girl can sense enormous amounts of necromatic power from the newcomer.
Recovering the two magi defy Black Knight's warning and send up a storm of void bolts at him. Each one as cold as a thousand winters, trying to freeze his horse and bring him down. Then freeze him too.
Dead Girl's Necrokinetic and necromantic powers react, almost immediately, to the newcomer- a battle of control. A battle for willful control as her two-fisted Magical-Mutant ability drags and plays at such powers. She is, and has been for decades, the premier necromantic power in New York… and for good reason. She's benign and protects this city from necromantic abuse.
"Your God?" Dead Girl asks, as she pushes forward- she's stronger than any normal mortal, her head crashing towards the sorcerer, even as she's bit from behind. She feels no pain- and she's fully willing to tear the sorcerer limb from limb. There is only one answer, in Dead Girl's mind, for those who would abuse necromancy- who would abuse the Dead. Her People, are, after all, The Dead. "A god of the Dead, perhaps?" She asks, grinning wickedly- her attention is still on the sorcerer in her grasp, the handler of the tiger. Slashing, crushing, hurting- if he dies, he dies. She's not kind when it comes to harming children… not kind at all.
"He's a necromancer!" She calls out, "Careful! I have a few tricks that can help… But he'll take all my attention, if so!"
Hellboy takes the beast wrestling with him, continuing to punch in the crunchy portion as he rolls with the biting. It turns into sort of a flopping suplex, slamming the hound down beneath him and, in the process, managing to duck the swing of its handler.
"I never was a dog guy," he mutters. He keeps his grip on the beast and spins, whipping it around and trying to smack into the handler with the flesh of the beast itself, fully prepared to unload a few more rounds if called upon.
Has he been bitten? Well, yes. But it's only a flesh wound.
A new portal opens, and the Batman is prepared to throw another Batarang at it - that is until he's suddenly accosted. Images, a whole other timeline carved out for him.
Coming out of the theatre, Bruce is with his parents, when a thug approaches - except this time Thomas Wayne gets the drop on him. Fighting back the would be murderer of his parents. Young Bruce grows up in a loving home with his parents.
Dropping to his knees, Batman draws in a sharp breath at the thoughts that are trying to be forced upon him.
And then meets Selina Kyle in college. The two grow close, falling in love and marrying - Selina holding their first child in her arms and smiling up with him with such affection.
But the night. The night always calls. It always demands. There will be the mission. All because of a turn into an alley. A shortcut that was taken. A bulet that was fired. Batman feels that pain all over again, and it snaps him out of the spell that was being weaved upon him. The most pleasant of dreams, crushed beneath unbroken will - and the memories that someone tried to corrupt.
Rising to his feet, Batman growls out. "I hope you've prayed to your god, son."
"Because your ass is mine."
A snap line is fired past the spell-caster, and as it yanks free, pulling a chunk of wall free with all of his might as he tries to bring it crashing into the spell-caster. As it comes forward, Batman rushes, his fist drawn back as he tosses aside the grapple line to crush the heavy gauntlet into the man's stomach to double him over, and then overhand smash him down.
Well of course they attack him, people never bother listening to the warning. See that's why the sword is telling him to just stab them the next time, it works so much better. Of course he has magic bolts to worry about. Aragorn swings around and his own sword goes and blocks the magic blasts. He angles his sword so the blast will get redirected at his attackers.
"Yeah this sword was made by Merlin guys. I doubt you are in his league, you can just give up." Now he was told to try and close the portal, the problem is he has no idea on how to do that. Stabbing it probably won't work or anything like that.
He lands Aragorn on the ground, "Aragorn go to safety, I will summon when I need you again." He doesn't want to risk the horse getting hurt of course. "So any idea on how to close the portal? Cause I don't know what to do about them."
The man DG is assaulting expires. And his cat winks out of existence. But the soul lingers, she can tell that. The room is about to be heavy with death. It always feels like this when something is about to happen.
Hellboy is a lot tougher than he looks which is a good thing because so is his opponent. The question is which one is tougher? Okay, no it isn't. The question is which one has an unbreakable right hook and the answer is Hellboy. It takes several more bites but Big Red DOES put down the Cerberus AND his handler. He might need a moment to compose himself. The kids are sobbing at this point.
The snap of concrete onto his back sends Eclipse-Man tumbling into Batman's reach whereupon he is smashed to the ground. It's a good hit. From the grunt, it really hurt.
Then he pushes himself up. "I know who they say you are, Batman… you are the night? No. You only adopted the night. Let me show you what the night really is…"
Dane's deft work with his blade puts down the two sorcerers with their own magic. Like some kind of medieval jedi, he is. That just leaves Eclipse-Man as the one standing between the heroes and the children. The side door slams open and Agent Turner, the one who had directed people here, makes it in. He looks a bit roughed up but he has a shield glowing on his right fist and his gun glowing in the other.
"I am Doctor Eclipse." The dark man smirks. He floats back from Batman and raises his hand. Necromatic power swirls, capturing the souls of the four expired guards and merging them into a single amalgamation of hate and rage wielding ethereal scythes.
"This is the night. If you will not accept paradise, then accept OBLIVION!"
The amalgam strikes out in every direction at once, whirling four scythes at Batman, at Dead Girl, at Hellboy, at Dane. While a torrent of dark power pours from its mouths to try and grasp and suck the very life (or in the case of Dead Girl, unlife) from the heroes.
Hellboy puts up the Hand of Doom, using his indestructible right appendage as something of a shield to protect himself from any swinging scythes from the spectres Dr. Eclipse has unleashed upon them. He's got a few bites on his left arm, nothing that won't patch up soon enough, but it's certainly left him in a less than charitable mood.
He pops the Samaritan open, dropping in a couple of ethereal rounds designed for ectoplasmic entities and other demonic intruders. Spook bullets, he calls 'em.
"Awright ya big evil baby, I'm gonna give you somethin' to suck on," he says, holding up the gun and firing off a shot.
Dead Girl fights. She fights hard- no one is stealing Necromantic energy from this Dead Girl so easily- she pulls, first, attempting to bring the dead soul to her. If successful? The handler will be kept, for the moment, in a cocoon of necromantic power, protected from passing onward- because she's nice enough to ensure they don't get swallowed by the necromancer opposite.
She looks to the Scythe, Eyes flashing as she tries to take control of the Necromantic energies- turn them against their user. Her natural powers work towards that effect, as she begins to chant in an ancient language. Necromantic spells being fed by the ambient energy in this room- all the death energies. And these spells? Protective. They lock down the ambient energy and draw it towards the user, who- in this case- can store a godly amount of Necromantic Energies. "Do you think you know necromantic powers? Do you think you know Death?!" she growls- as she reaches up to try and claim the scythe for herself, trying to overtake the power and make it her-own and turn it against Doctor Eclipse. "I have kept this city safe from people like you for almost sixty years…. I will not stop now, nor will I be bested by someone who carries no respect for the Dead."
There's a sharp gasp of pain as Batman starts to flip backwards - the scythe catches him in the side as he moves to backflip several more times to get out of the way, landing on an unsteady side. His hand falls to his side, he grunts. With Hellboy striking from that heavy handcannon of his, Batman grits his teeth in pain. "Dead Girl, force a feedback on himself, take control of his energies. Black Knight, aim for his back. Work in concert with the demon's shots!" Because he hasn't gotten Hellboy's name yet.
As for himself? Batman grits his teeth together, and rises back up again. "You're trying to feed on the souls of children. You're not a monster. You're pathetic." Once he's back on his feet, he leaps again into the fray, except his line is towards the children. Landing near them, Batman glances towards them. His cape flares, covering over them to try to keep them covered. "I need you to leave." he says to the children as he huddles with them for a moment. "Run, as fast as you can, towards the backdoor. I'll get it open for you. Hold hands. Stay together. And wait nearby. We'll find you when it's safe." he promises, "Take this, it will keep you safe." He hands the oldest looking child a Batarang - one with a tracker in it, before swiping his cape forward.
It's a trick of the eye, a bit of ledgermain mixed with just a hint of stage magic, but he makes it as though the kids have just /disappeared/ as he ushers them behind some crates to send them towards the door.
So someone with all their smarts decided to make a magic super powerful sword, yet never made a magic shield to go with it, go figure. Of course he has improvised by getting a nice energy shield. However there is a problem with that, it doesn't do well against freaking magical weapons dang it. Scythes summoned out of no where definitely count as magical weapons. So sadly Dane goes to block with it, only to find that the scythe goes through and cuts his shield arm, even breaking the chainmail.
"Do you know how tough it is to find a person who can make chain mail these days? Man the bad guys are so inconsiderate." There is energy flying around as well as the Scythes though, and that Is something that he can deal with. Sure even if he wasn't told to, he would try and do something. This time he lets his sword just absorb the energy for a little bit. Once he does that, he follows Batman's orders and tries to send it flying back at Eclipse.
"Try me, little corpse." Doctor Eclipse taunts Dead Girl as the two struggle. She's holding her own, Dead Girl, definitely. Slowly she starts to turn the power of the spell to her own.
The scythes are cold as a lonely night and sharp as a cruel word. The one aimed at Hellboy bites into his arm. Not far of course. That arm has seen worse but this is clearly something he wouldn't want hitting him anywhere else. The bullets he fires gouge great bigs furrows out of the amalgam, dispersing it's form into harmless necromatic energy that Dead Girl can add to the torrent she's already controlling.
Eclipse takes a hit and glares down at Black Knight. "Only a flesh wound, fool." He says and returns a bolt of his own. The construct isn't holding up well at this point and that's evident on Eclipse's face. Maybe the souls weren't up to snuff?
"Perhaps our god does this, but if they are in paradise, what would be the harm?" Doctor Eclipse looks around as he retorts to Batman and realizes the kids are gone.
"Bah! This isn't over, meddlers." He says and zooms into a portal that opens right in front of him. That leaves him gone though the construct is left and it appears to be some kind of self sustaining feedback spell that yes, Dead Girl does have to get some kind of a handle on.
This is made MUCH easier when he departs but this thing is still quite dangerous and with Batman out of reach it focuses on Dead Girl and Dane while one scythe keeps hammering futilely at Hellboy's arm.
Biting into the Hand of Doom isn't exactly the wisest of maneuvers. Prophesied arbiters of the end of the world don't tend to react well to scythe abuse. Hellboy turns his fist and just punches, hammering away at the thing with the hand as he rolls the Samaritan around in an underhanded grip to fire more ecto-rounds at Eclipse.
"I'm pretty sure Dead Babe just kicked your ass, so why don't you and your god go flush?" he shouts, finishing off the th ing on his arm with a savage blow.
"Awww. Thanks Red!" Dead Girl calls out as she's called a Babe- things growing easier without someone else actively powering the spell behind it. Her own powers are a mixture of Necromantic and Necrokinetic abilities- a one-two punch that most Necromantic spells and entities have difficulty working against. She starts to pull apart the spell with all alacrity and skill as one might expect a creature who's literal life force is made up of the stuff she's working with.
Dead Girl is not her body. She is something more- something that exists sandwiched between the planes of the living and the dead, by choice. She is an entity that bridges the gap between living and dead, and does so kindly and naturally. She is part of this world- perhaps a way for Death to know better the living, or something all together original- a gift of a Mutant Gene that fired off sixty years ago on the eve of a murder.
Either Way, Dead Girl is quickly and expertly pulling this energy apart and freeing the souls of the wayward sorcerers that were used to create it. To send them onward where they belong, and not enslaving them any longer.
With the kids free, and away from Doctor Eclipse's grasp, Batman is free to rejoin the fray. Batarang prepared, this one is added with a little extra. After his first run in with the mages, he's packed a few extra items. In this case, some salt, blessed by the Archdiocese is added, and he flings it towards the creature as he frowns to where Eclipse disappeared to. But his attention is also on the man that has fallen and his 'belt'.
Making his way over to it, he crouches down to start to check it, his eyes on the battle in case he needs to jump back into the fray.
They always make the flesh wound jokes, man he should be allowed one free stabbing per joke. That aside though, the guy was nice enough to fire a blast at Dane before leaving. Once again the handy dandy magic sword, saves the day. He absorbs the blast with it once again. The prime target has decided to run away with his tail between his legs though.
So of course Dane releases the absorbed blast at the creature that is still around. Hey maybe they will get lucky and he will also run away.
Every blast, every bullet, every batarang tears more of the creature loose. Agent Turner fires several emerald blasts into it, though being more or less mortal he frequently has to take cover. Hellboy shatters one of the scythes and the arm that was holding it just drops off and disintegrates into ectoplasm. Then a rib drops off. One of the heads. In a matter of about forty seconds the whole thing has come undone and Dead Girl harmlessly dissipates the energies.
"The kids… are they?" Agent Turner says as he steps fully into the room and looks around. Not seeing their bodies - and knowing that he saw Batman with them a few moments ago - he sighs in relief.
"You've all done a great thing today. Look, WAND is going to be taking charge of this scene but if you don't want to answer questions or want to avoid the inevitable media attention…" He jerks his thumb doorward. "… I definitely understand."
The sounds of fighting from outside have stopped as well. Seems like this is all cleaned up. For now. Doctor Eclipse though, he's still out there.
As the creature falls apart, there's a little grunt from Batman as he takes the utility belt from the fallen man. He already has a staff. As Koa makes his appearance, he turns his attention to him. "I will be finding Keiko soon." he states. A simple fact of matter, as he raises his arm, and fires a grapple line. Because yeah, paperwork? That's not his thing.
"WAND knows where I am." Dead Girl replies simply. "If you have questions, you can come and ask them in my home. Anyways, I think we'll need some hot cocoa after this- I'll make your's with some Rum, Red!" She offers over to Hellboy with a grin, "You should come out! The kitties always like it when you come to visit." she offers as she finishes her work- the souls are unbound- shimmering a moment before Dead Girl takes a breath and then blows- The souls free to return to wherever it is they were destined to go. "My work here is mostly done. I'll be back to do some clean-up once everyone is gone." she explains, "To tidy up the necromantic strings and whatnot."