ic (IC) Against All Of Me: Barren Immensity

[Gizmo]

Midnight had spent most of the brawl focused everywhere other than the whirlwind of reverberating blows and sickening impacts and coordinated Aquaria to do much the same. A version of Wander with abilities enhanced beyond what could generously be considered 'normal' had been the absolute minimum of what they were expecting and he waited tensely for the larger plan to be revealed, whether it be a secret weapon or additional opponent. Instead the fight ended if not easily than at least unusually cleanly and his jaw tightened behind his mask. "Spread out," he called insistently, escrima sticks raised and head on a swivel as he let a blanket if midnight mist deepen the shadows around him.

[Avenger Assembled]

Sea Devil had hung back during the fight both on the instructions of Midnight and because she wasn't at all sure which of these she was supposed to hit! She could tell Jessie by scent clearly enough, and her sister from here, but many of the others were either bizarrely close to what she knew or bizarrely away. Either way, it was unsettling, and she didn't relax until the bad Erin was subdued - at least until she saw the tension in her Surfacer allies. As the others scanned the perimeter, the goggled Erin and the one like Midnight taking out devices that matched Trevor's, Sea Devil studied the bound Erin - who she realized was trying to say something through her gag. Aquaria hopped closer, but could hear nothing clearly - when nobody stopped her, she hopped closer still and pulled the gag out of the bound Erin's mouth, her trident at the ready in case Erin tried to bamboozle her. 

 

Extra-dimensonal fiend she might have been, Erin wasn't above spitting in disgust. "Look at you!" she called to the others, loathing thick on her face. "Every last one of you! And the ones back at the Manor, and the ones in Seattle!" She spat again, but it didn't seem to be because Cowboy Erin's sock had gone in her mouth this time. "I can't believe I'm like this across every goddamned corner of the multiverse." She looked at the others, then back at Erin - the one from here. "You are her. The one they wanted." 

 

There were devices on the bridge pilings, down below the surface of the water, where they couldn't be seen directly - devices drawing a substantial amount of energy from extradimensional sources and storing it for some unknown purpose - energy that had grown substantially in the last few minutes. 

 

"I hope you're all taking a good look, girls," Erin was saying to her counterparts, her eyes bloodshot. "When they take you and they rape your world to death, you need to know it's her goddamned-." 

 

Sea Devil hastily stuffed the sock back in the other Erin's mouth, tying it tight behind her head this time. "Sorry!" she croaked, hopping away from the red-faced and furious Erin. 

[Electra]

"Oh for hell's sake, you stupid-" Scythe Erin had been wrapping a nasty gash on her arm but paused to glare at Aquaria (which was a fairly disturbing sight in itself) before giving the Evil Erin a boot to the side of her head. "The monologue is when they trigger their bomb or whatever they're going to do! Why would you even think-" 

 

"Yell at her later," White-Hair encouraged, looking off the side of the bridge. "We've got problems now. Hey Mark!" she yelled at the empty sky. "Get your lucky ass down here and rearrange some probability!" 

 

"Does that work?" Jessie asked, looking up at the sky expectantly. Her face was a melange of bruises from being thrown into a bridge support and she'd chosen to sit before she fell.

 

White-Hair shrugged. "Works in my universe." 

 

Midnight Erin, who was already bleeding sluggishly from a cut along her side, stripped out of her cowl and attached what looked like a SCUBA apparatus to her mask. "Belt and suspenders," she advised. "Remove the devices, clear the bridge, call in Edge." She did a clean dive off the side of the bridge, followed almost immediately by Deep One Erin and Blue Hair Erin. 

 

Erin tried to disguise the limp that was probably a sprained ankle as she moved to divert traffic. It was already considerably lighter than usual, thanks both to the hour and the savviness of Freedom City commuters, but better safe than sorry. The evil doppelgangers words were twisting in her head, despite the obvious unreliability of their origin. No time to think about it now. 

[Gizmo]

Midnight's dark silhouette plummeted from beneath the cloud of mist still rolling over the top of the bridge, silently maneuvering against nearly sheer surfaces before disappearing below the water with barely a splash, only just behind those who could manage the drop in a single dive. Air supply and goggles in place he made a beeline for the closest of the extradimensional dynamos, guided by the blinking LEDs woven across the back of his glove. Rather than immediately moving to disarm it he attached the most precise sensor he was carrying that could function at that depth, looking for some clue as to from whence the power was being gathered and to what end. Data spooling down his gadget's small screen he paused long enough to peer through the water to see how the Erin's he'd followed were faring.

[Avenger Assembled]

Stopping the bombs took all day, especially since they had a tendency to climb around, blink in and out of this dimension, and occasionally sprout lethal defenses - but when it was done, the day was saved. The bridge bombs had been defused, some of them cast into infernal realms, others rapidly dismantled, and the structure that meant so much to Erin and Trevor in many universes had been saved. There was still the question of what to do with the Erin left scarred and scorched by the fires of the Terminus, but first there was something else to do. For the battle had not come without casualties. 

 

"Oh the poor giant bird," said Aquaria sympathetically as she stood by Swander's body, hand over her mouth. She wasn't entirely sure what the proper rites were here, though she suspected that this Erin (much like Jessie) would prefer her flesh not be eaten. Big birds had never been her favorites, anyway, they didn't have as many crunchy bones. Confronted with her bomb, Swander had dealt with it by the expedient of popping it in her mouth - now she smelled distinctly cooked, with X'd out eyes and smoke coming from her open beak. 

 

"I guess birds don't have a soul," opined the hellish Erin, bending over the singed corpse with the half-sympathetic expression of someone studying pitiable roadkill. "Or maybe they go to Bird Heaven, I don't know!" she added when the white-haired Erin made a sharp noise and shot her a look that the other Erins recognized from the mirror when they were particularly annoyed at each other. 

 

"She's the last one who fell - and she died saving this place. We'll find a place to honor her. Maybe scatter her ashes in DuTemps, Eve has a nice-" 

 

Swander suddenly coughed, wheezed - and sat up! "Swack! That was a big one!" She put her wings over her stomach. "Gonna be feeling that one for a while." She craned her neck to look from one to the other of her counterparts. "...What?"