Summary:Dead Girl and a WAND Team stage a rescue and encounter two of Nightfall's most powerful allies. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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WAND Agents have been watching the 'ether' looking for the disturbance that everyone knew was coming. The Nightfall are moving and they're moving en masse, if the readings are anything to go on to.
The location this team of WAND and SHIELD agents plus contractors has been sent to, looks out of the ordinary. It's a …. house. In Queens. A rather nice one too. The team probably needs to consider the neighbourhood. Well, at least the people that live there.
They've got the blueprint of the house. The most recent ones, which are at least five decades old. Still, they might current, right?
Apart from the two storeys that sit above the street level, a basement descends below.
For those with the senses, magic is stirring. A dimensional kind. For those with the tech, it's hard to tell but there's at least a half dozen small heat signatures huddled towards the center of the house.
"This is Special Agent Pandora Peters. I'll be running your comms and support from WAND HQ for this operation. Other teams are being despatched about the city. We've only got one shot at this people. Let's make it count." R
Hellboy steps out of the van and rolls his neck, cracking a couple of oversized vertebrae with a sound like a log snapping on fire. "We really gotta talk to somebody up top 'bout the importance o' legroom, I swear to friggin'…" he mutters, then steps aside to let Sarah and any other WANDers out behind him.
"I'll take point, because I ain't gonna die if I do and you will cause I'm big and bad and you're little and squishy. Talented, but little and squishy. Capisce?" he says, drawing the massive handcannon he calls the Good Samaritan and levering it up to his shoulder, "Time to make a make the donuts."
"Oooh, yeah… I see what you were saying about the magical energies." Dead Girl says into the coms. "Yeah, this is absolutely the spot- the Astral plain is just hopping with activity. Always got your lookie-loos, you know." Dead Girl continues. "Oh! Point!" Dead Girl says then before she phases through those around her to hang out near Hellboy. "I'll take point with you, HB." she says with a nod, "I don't usually get a call from Wand, and you know how bad I want want of those hats. Like the FBI hats that say WAND on them. Those are so cute. In white. So I can Tie-die it."
Dead Girl seems happy-go-lucky, but her attention is rather strongly on the house and the mission. The air around her is colder. A sure sign that her Necromantic-kinetic spirit roiled in it's place between the worlds of the living and the dead. Messing with kids was one of those things that Dead Girl didn't allow to happen. She can be cruel to those who harm the innocent. Very cruel indeed.
"Works for me, Red," Sarah replies to Hellboy, as she gracefully exits the van behind him. "Just watch yourself. Remember what I wrote in my report about fighting these tossers last week. That necromancer of theirs was trying to do /something/ with my 'something extra', and whatever it was, I'm damned sure I wouldn't have liked it."
Agent Stitch rolls out the back of the van, catching a little air before landing. He laughs a little and grabs his medic bag from the back. That is his job. He's all dressed in SHIELD tac black but with a red cross patch on his arm. He addresses the group, "Where do you want me? Back here? Inside? I…heal. That's it so…protect the squishy, yeah?
(Agent Sarah Black is dressed in black-on-black SHIELD tactical uniform with the WAND insignia patch on the shoulder, and with what is getting to be a troubling habit for her lately — as in, ever since the fight against Nightfall and associates got serious — she has a standard-issue sidearm holstered at her hip.)
The entrance to the basement from the outside has been concreted over, so the best move is as Red is doing. In the front door, down the stairs on the left. It's a pretty big house but fighting in spaces like that is always more confined than anyone would like.
And when the enemy has time to prepare it gets nasty.
When Red hits the door something behind it explodes, peppering both Hellboy and Deadgirl with metal spheres and wooden shards. Booby trap. There might be more behind. And it can't feel pleasant to get exploded on, but it does save the squishier members in the back from a much more gruesome fate.
The second story windows errupt in gunfire. Not professional or aimed really, but very automatic. These will be the guards. Gang members or mercenaries. Whatever is making that magic is down below and that's gonna be the real challenge.
But first, time to get past the guys with the guns. There's three in the hallways just inside the door and two more upstairs. This might get uncomfortable for… everyone.
Agent Stitch brought a gun, right?
Hellboy raises the Hand of Doom, using it as a shield for a moment. Sure, most of him's pretty hard to hurt, but the Hand is extra hard to hurt and it doesn't hurt to keep splinters out of your eyes, no matter how fast those buggers heal.
When mooks start popping out to add some gunfire to the equation, Hellboy doesn't hesitate, aiming the Samaritan and letting loose with slugs frankly big enough to punch head-sized holes in a normal human being. "Watch to the right," he says and he sweeps, the Hand of Doom sweeping through a doorway and shattering it, crumpling some of the supports and causing a bit of the floor overhead to collapse beneath the second floor shooters.
Dead Girl's eyes glow brightly- casting a blood-red hue across her corpse-blue skin. Light pooling in the worst places. Her normally smiling face soon was terrifying- a vision of Death. A Death Angry at it's desecration. When she locks eyes with anyone against her who is very obviously mortal she brings them close to the edge. An outpouring of necromantic energy- one she's channeling from the surrounding area to 'bleed off' necromantic energy. To funnel it away for her own purposes of bringing an expression of Death to the living. To remind them all of their mortality- to face the spectres of their past. Victims. Family Members.
All the while bullets shred through her- stopped and slowed from hurting anyone behind her. The bullets seem to do nothing, even when she's struck anywhere it should be fatal. That which is dead cannot Die.
Seems like Stitch does a little more than healbot. Behind the medic's bag strapped to his chest is a handgun. 9mm, nothing special, holstered under his arm. That comes out as soon as the rounds start and he begins to fire. He's a decent enough shot to take down two and suppress another for a few moments.
Meanwhile, with a desidedly wicked smirk, Sarah gestures quickly, speaking an ancient word or two — and a pair of portals iris open in front of those second-story windows, rimmed with glowing magical geometry. A /pair/ of portals. As in, one is the exit to the other's entrance. And, well, they convey bullets just as easily as people.
And so before they realize what's happened, even while Hellboy's fire is making things unpleasant for them already, the thugs in those two windows wind up shooting… each other.
Stitch makes a good showing of himself and Sarah very effectively prevents the upper floors from coming into play, reflecting their own rounds at them. A couple more guards show in the house as Hellboy wades through the front, removing structural supports as the Samaritan does what soldiers call 'work'. The ones that Big Red does not get take one look at Dead Girl and run out the back door, ceding the house to the agents (and Dead Girl).
All that's left then is to go downstairs, deal with the magi and recover the children.
And that's when the staircase downstairs explodes upward.
A large red being in a white suit steps through what's left of the stairway and the door to the basement. The lower half of his face is almost all fanged maw, while the upper half is dotted with eyes. There's a mouth and eyes on the back of each of his clawed crimson hands as well. He smirks.
"Hello, Big Red. We've been expecting you."
Sarah, Hellboy and possibly even Dead Girl might know who this is. A demon who goes by 'Mister Twist.' Odd. Usually he's associated with a necromancer known as Master Darque.
Behind Stitch a bald man floats down, smirks and unleashes dark power from both hands the wheelchair bound medic, who might have half a second warning from the shadow falling over him.
Cheap shot to go after the most mortal member? Perhaps. But Master Darque doesn't play fair.
Hellboy spins the chamber on the Samaritan and flips in some new ammo, ecto-shot designed to deal with spirit and demon types, "Stay outta the way of these," he warns Dead Girl. He's not sure if they'll hurt her, but, y'know, just in case.
He aims the gun directly at Stitch, "Y'know, I been hearin' that kinda crap from devils for fifty years, since I was first goin' out in the field. I'd say you can ask 'em about it, but I spanked all their asses and sent 'em back to Hell. So you'll have to wait until I'm finished with you so you can have a tea party about it." he says.
The attack on Beau makes Hellboy snarl and he fires once, aiming between Stitch's eyes and planning to follow up with a few more slugs to Darque.
Dead Girl knows the face- and she feels dark powers from behind. She's supernaturally aware of the energy of Death. It flows around her like her very being- it's always familiar, even when used for evil things. The color might change, but the flavor is always a little bittersweet. Death.
Dead Girl quickly shifts- it almost looks like tai-chi how she moves along the ground. Drawing symbols in the air with clawed fingers and forming the appropriate spiritual circle. She tries, then, to push back. To catch and redirect the necromantic energies away from the living and back towards herself. To steal them away and lock them where they can't be gotten again without a struggle. "This feels familiar- haven't we met somewhere once upon a nightmare?" She asks of Darque as her eyes switch towards him. Glowing- almost hungrily so- as she continues her movements- necromantic warding movements that should hopefully help to protect the living from the very worst of such energy's affects.
Stitch catches the bald man from the corner of his eye and turns and fires off a round that goes wide. He wasn't ready for that. The fired shot gives him no time to brace for whatever's next.
As Hellboy pivots his attention to Darque, Sarah keeps hers on Twist. She gestures, gutteral words spilling from her lips — and a searing blast of blue-white /cold/ streaks toward the demon, leaving a shower of tiny glittering ice crystals in its wake where it freezes the humidity out of the air. "Thought you had more class than to work with the likes of /this/ lot," she taunts.
The frosty blast has Twist reeling but only for a moment. He focuses in on Sarah and makes a fist with his hand… and Twists.
And this is why they call him that. Sarah can feel a sudden assault on her being. Not physical, nor psychic. No, this is a good old fashion attempt at possession. An attempt to have her turn those powers of hers on Hellboy, right next to her. After all, he's trusting her. He wouldn't expect it. "As if a human knows anything of class. Especially someone wearing all black. So pass%<233>."
Darque moves his own hands in circular, defensive motions to deflect the bullets from Stitch and the Samaritan. Those big bore, magically infused bullets from Hellboy's gun take effort, Big Red can tell that. Dead Girl can tell something else. Darque is hurt. Someone or something took a chunk out of his spirit. He's weaker than he should be, even if he is hugely powerful.
Which is probably why he reaches out to draw power from the already dead cultists and gathers it to him, or at least tries to, through Dead Girl's interference. "You did, little corpse. I recognize your face. You cannot oppose what the master wills. See it in your Mortal Companions…"
And then he unleashes his spell. Not necromancy, no. Temptation. Bo is offered a life where he can walk once again, where his powers do not confine him to his wheelchair. Where the love of his life never left him. Sarah is offered her Brother back. And Hellboy…
A world in which the Elder Gods hold no sway over him.
Dead Girl is not offered anything. Darque leaves it to her to try to counter him, or watch her companions struggle and fall.
Or is he grossly underestimating the will these heroes have to oppose him? He has done that before, and to his cost.
Hellboy feels the temptation, of course. He's no saint. He's a demon and a very special one at that. His purpose has been a chain around his throat, leashing him to a future he didn't want, from the moment he's begun to even get the sketch of it.
But he remembers his father. And he remembers his lessons.
"Free of the Elder Gods? I'm already free. That ain't nothin' you can give me. I took it my own damn self," he snarls. "But don't worry, I got a gift for you, pal," he says. He curls a fist and leaps, throwing himself at Darque and trying to strike with the Hand of Doom, the hellborn talisman his greatest weapon, a weapon he intends to smash right in Darque's self-righteous face.
It would be a waste of time to try and change Dead Girl's mind on protecting the living. It won't change. She does exactly that- she fights. There is a weakness there- and she has no qualms in using it against Darque.
The weakness is prodded at- pulled at. Tearing more at the spirit that has already been torn- to further open the wound.
However, those are primarily potshots- no, her attention is primarily on protecting the living- the agents of WAND. They asked her here for a reason, after all, and what better reason than to protect the living?
Beau has that look. You know it's not right. You know it's probably a trick. And he thought that after these few years, he was used to it all. The heartache. The pain. The loss of his ability to walk. He really, really thought he was over it. His DNA might read mutant on some page somewhere. Some bit of data filed away. But in truth, his heart is mortal. "…What's the catch?" He asks, as if a catch actually matters. He'll do anything in this moment.
Twister's plan is a good one. Or it would be. Against someone who isn't already partly claimed by another demonlord, one who may just call in the marker for the power suffusing her one day. And so Sarah sets her jaw, grimacing as she's feeling the opposing forces grasping at her soul, and snarling at the white-suited atrocity in front of her, "Not today. Not bloody today." She gestures, speaks a word, and a portal opens beside her, to her left. Its twin snaps open as well — behind Twist's back.
And with her other hand, Sarah opens up into the demon's back with cold iron slugs.
As for Darque's offer, she feels herself choking up for just a moment, before the faith she was raised with steels her, and she mutters under her breath, "No. He is beyond your reach, in a better place than I'll ever see. Your promise is empty, bastard."
"All you have to do is come-" Darque never gets to finish his offer to Beau. Hellboy arcs up, descends down on him and smacks him bodily from the air, bearing him down with his full weight and the Doom Fist in his face. Or somewhere near his face. It's a testament to how infused with power Darque is that the blow doesn't powder his skull. The sudden cessation of the influence can only strengthen Dead Girl's already firm resolve as well. Seeing Darque get pummeled by Hellboy can't hurt either.
Sarah's shots land true, filling the back of the demon with cold iron. Which hurts, even if it's not his specific bane. WAND makes these rounds as multipurpose as it can. He snarls but the noise from outside the house gets his attention. The attack on Sarah stops as well.
"Not today, heroes." Twist says as he turns and smashes a structural support. And then another. A chunk of the roof caves in. "You want those kids out? Better hurry."
Then the demon goes through the wall, limping and moving stiffly from Sarah's attack and makes right for Hellboy, and Darque.
Below the kids can be heard screaming in terror. The gambit is clear. Finish off the bad guys, or get the hostages before the whole house comes down on top of them.
Beau can see one of the kids break from the group they're being held in and then get pinned by a roof member that dislocates his shoulder. He looks up, the child does, right at Beau and then at Dead Girl, eyes pleading for help.
Hellboy had every intention of continuing to pound on Darque until he did indeed pound that pasty skull down into a fine powder or at least some sort of jelly. But kids in danger come first, even over the joys of supernatural ultraviolence. Hellboy spits on Darque once and then dashes for the stairs, trying to lever himself up next to the kid, using his superhuman strength to try to keep the passage open, "C'mon, run for it, ya little rascals, move your little orphan asses!"
Dead Girl is always a sucker for kids- she always has time for kids. ANd one of them needs help.
Dead Girl growls, taking a final 'swipe' at Darque before she's hurrying to help Hellboy get the kids out of the shit. "Come on now, you're all going to come stay with Auntie Dead Girl for a little while, come on. We'll have a lot of fun, and you can eat candy after six PM!" she's hurrying to help- she can't let these poor kiddoes die.
Sarah sees the kids making their escape — and that it's going to be close, between how quickly they can get out and how soon the structural integrity of the remains of the house will give way, despite Hellboy's heroic effort to keep the escape route open. And so the young Englishwoman acts. Scrambling past her large red colleague, she drops down into the basement, doing her best to keep out of the escaping kids' way. She lands hard. Her ankle didn't appreciate that much. But she ignores that for the moment.
Portaling the stragglers out will take time — not to open the portal itself, but to shepherd the terrified kids through it. Time she's not at all certain she has. And so, instead, she begins casting a different spell.
And spanning the space in the basement above Sarah and the remaining children, a dome of magical force flares into being, its surface traced with glowing runes and mystic geometries. Dropping to one knee, Sarah sets her will to one thing only — maintaining that shield, and keeping these innocents depending on her safe. Nothing else matters.
Beau swallows down his disappointment and refocuses on the injured child. "Hey! Come to me. I'll fix you right up." He says as the kids pour out the opening. Any that seem to lag behind just draws Beau closer to encourage. "I fix boo-boos like a boss, git out here!" If the child with the shoulder injury passes him, the child will be caught and held. It only takes a moment before Beau yowls in pain. Now /his/ shoulder is busted. Worth it.
Nearly half the kids run out past Hellboy, following Deadgirl. The rest are shepherded out by Sarah. The all wind up in the front lawn of the house near the one that Beau healed. Of course his shoulder is now the one with the problem yes. But it's just a dislocation. Someone will fix that up for him. Hopefully soon.
If anyone is paying attention they might see that Darque does not rise. Mister Twist scoops him up and then vanishes in a puff of red, foul smelling smoke. The necromancer didn't look in good shape.
That's everyone. Agent Peters says over the comms. I've got no more Nightfall in the area. The other teams are reporting success as well. There's a short pause. It looks like it's over. Bring those kids home.
Hellboy makes sure all the kids are clear then he makes sure not to leave any of their own behind. He extends his massive right hand out to Sarah at the perimeter of her shield, "C'mon, kiddo, ain't your time yet. I'll toss you through the front window on your keister before I let you get caved in on. I ain't losin' anybody today," he says, managing to be both encouraging and threatening as he'll try to yank Sarah free and push them all out towards the lawn with the other escapees, levering the roof up one more time with a broad shoulder before he lets it collapse with a slamming crunch behind him.
Sarah smiles at Hellboy, saying, "Don't worry. I'm not planning on checking out anytime soon. Especially while this lot's arses remain insufficiently kicked. I knew I could count on you to dig us out if it all fell in on my shield. But it was the fastest way to make certain nothing landed on the kids who were still down there."
Once all the kids are safe, Dead Girl looks up to watch Darque and Twist go. She frowns slightly, "I'll need to know where these kids end up." She says to one of the Wand people, "I'd like to make sure they're looked out for. I know some people who will be glad to help them out." Including, of course, Auntie Dead Girl. "But first, I need to go hunt down a necromancer." She growls quietly, looking back and shaking her head. "This has to end. Too many kids…" she frowns all the deeper. "Not in my New York! Not in my city!" she then begins on her way- back towards the Village and The Store. "I'm going to get my hunting gear."
Hellboy grins to Sarah and nods, "Good. I'm just gettin' to know ya, I want ya to stick around awhile," he says, patting her on the shoulder and going to the van, "I appreciate waht yer sayin', DG, but I gotta tell ya, I'm gonna count this one up as a win for tonight. The only huntin' I'm gonna be doin' is for a cooler full o' beer an' a TV set with the game on."
"Definitely feels more like a win than the last dance I had with them," Sarah agrees, nodding. "But Darque made it personal this time. He tried to use Simon's memory against me. He needs to lose a few teeth over that one."
After a beat, the young WAND agent looks up at Hellboy, with a wicked grin, and adds, "I surely wouldn't mind someone holding him down for me."
Hellboy grins, "I might be able to help ya out with that, kid. I think I might've loosened a few of 'em already. He ain't gonna forget gettin' hit by me anytime soon."