Another One Bites the Dust (IC)

[Cyroa]

The sprinklers had all pretty much stopped spraying water at that point which made the demons' lives significantly easier. The sudden and explosive bath from the suprisingly hidden reserves of holy water had a devestating effect on the regular demons. 4 of them burst and disappeared instantly. Only 2 of those left, and both seemed more concerned and focused on their pain as the water ate through them, distracting them from anything else. The big demons fared much better however. 4 managed to avoid most of the explosive water. The other two didn't fare quite as well, one of which took a particular large spash of water to it's face. The pain-filled roaring of demons was almost a physical force as it crashed through the area.

[angrydurf]

Phalanx gathered James and Psyche under each arm protectively. He crouched for a moment and shouted to Erin and Mark. "I have James get out of here!" Then shot skyward, twisting to protect his injured friend from the grasping claws of the beasts that pursued them.

[Cyroa]

Phalanx launched himself skyward, his two friends held tightly in his arms. For one brief moment, it looked like he was going to make it. Suddenly, James was yanked from his powerful grip. James fell back to the ground, a barbed and hooked whip wrapped tightly around him. He crashed to the feet of a cloven hoofed demon with leathery wings as it stepped around the mausoleum. The burned grass under its feet was spider-webbed with cracks and glowing lines.

The four regular demons continued their assault though one was shaking it's head and trying to focus. They all jumped to attack Wander but she easily avoided two of them, only 1 managing to land a clawed strike.

[alderwitch]

Psyche didn't think about leaping after James as she launched herself from Phalanx's grip. She twisted and kicked free, the corona of her own flight power flaring into a bright light around her as she dove after their fallen friend.

[Electra]

Erin barely paid attention to the demons attacking her as their claws scraped uselessly along her toughened skin. The one bloody clawmark she had was already knitting up as she watched Mike fly away. She was already planning to disengage when the flying group was suddenly yanked backwards by something new, bigger, and even worse. It wrapped its whip around James and pulled him back to the sodden earth, away from safety and back into the fray.

In an instant, she was in motion again. One giant leap took her away from the demon-scrum and brought her face to face with the hideous new demon. Her heart was racing, but she wasn't even thinking enough to be afraid right now. Shifting her bat to her left hand, she reached out and grabbed the whip around its thick, leathery handle, yanking it away with all her strength. "You don't belong here," she growled at the thing. "Go back to hell."

[Cyroa]

The demon scowled back at her as she actually managed to pull the whip from its hands. "Foolish mortal. Take you, your friends and your playmate from the City of Brass and begone! Enjoy what little time you have left. This prize is ours and has always been! Or you will be joining him in hell sooner rather later!"

The tougher demons charged forward as the tables continued to turn in this battle. Three tried to tear into Wander's back as she rushed to the winged demon. The others went after Edge as the only other combatant on the ground.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Wait, what?" Edge was taken off-guard by the demon's words, falling back on hazy childhood memories. The City of Brass? What's he talking about? That was... The other demon smashed Mark in the face, brutally knocking him down and breaking his goggles with a sickening crunch. Mark dropped, hard, nearly clocking his head on a tombstone as he fell to the shattered ground beneath his feet.

[Electra]

Erin had little time to consider the demon's taunt before his fellows were upon her, coming from all directions at once. With whip in one hand and bat in the other, she fended them off, fighting desperately for a little more time for Mike to come back and try again. She managed to avoid one demon entirely, ducking his strike so he hit nothing but the tombstone behind her, but that left her back open for two more to rush her.

One struck only a glancing blow across her shoulders, doing little, but the other was luckier. Erin cried out in pain as its talons tore into her back, shoving her down face first into the holy mud. She rolled quickly back into a crouch, but she was still winded, and with a face full of sticky mud to wipe off.

[alderwitch]

Psyche watched her friends fall. She blinked back tears of frustration and fear as she dove back to the ground. She took up position between Wander and Edge and the big demon. Never in all of her experience had Alex ever wanted to hurt another creature as much as she did in that moment.

Reaching down the psychic link she shared with Phalanx, Psyche pulled on the raw Terminus energy that she knew was barely tapped and pulled. She didn't need to ask Phalanx's permission. In this, they were of one mind and one purpose. If it had even a chance of changing the outcome, it was worth any risk. Any price.

Rather than fade, the corona of power brightened around Psyche until it near blinded her. Earlier, shielding James, she'd pushed the boundries of her mental powers. Now, Psyche knew she was at risk of burning her brain out utterly.

When she could hold nothing more, Psyche released the energy. She channeled that raw energy through her own brain in a single lethal blast that drove her to her knees.

[angrydurf]

Phalanx came to a stop as soon as James was yanked from his arms. He ALWAYS held back some of his strength, some of his power, even on a subconcious level he never tapped his true potential. As Psyche pulled on their bond the dam on that power broke loose. A red-gold corona of rippling energy flared around him as he streaked toward the demon responsible, his form a blur.

He called on all of his prodigeous might for one earthshaking blow to the creatures midsection. Turning as he connected to let loose a ferocious blast of energy from his eyes that lanced out cutting deep into the demon nearest his fallen roommate. But there were too many of them he stuck close to his friends hoping to stop the demons claws from striking home. He howled out a challenge to the demonic forces arrayed against them, "YOU CAN NOT HAVE HIM!"

[Cyroa]

The huge demon roared in agony, one hand moving towards it's head as Psyche massive psyche onslaught blasted through it's considerable mental defenses. Even as he shook his head and tried to focus, Phalanx's power dive slammed into the demon's chest. There was a crunch as the multiple ribs cracked and the demon screamed again and was rocked back. Shaking it's head, it focused past the pain as the lasers bored into one of the other demons. It gasped in surprise and pain as the lasers ate right into its chest.

The two regular sized demons, both injured and staggered as the holy water ate at them vanished as they returned to hell rather than die permanently....

[Cyroa]

The massive demon's arm blurred forward and grabbed Phalanx by the front of the young man's costume. "Oh but I can manling. I can and I will. Tough as you are, you are no match for me. As succulent as your soul would be, you are a small fish and will get better. See me when your tasty soul is worthy." His massive strength overpowered the paragon amazingly. With that he threw Phalanx at Psyche, the ultra dense teen colliding with Psyche at ridiculous rate of speed. "I have other places to be." With a harsh and guttural word, the ground between it and James ripped open and sucked them both down before sealing up.

[Electra]

Erin wiped the filth from her eyes just in time to see James and the demon disappearing under the dirt. She cried out in inarticulate protest, reaching out futilely even as they vanished. Her first impulse was to dive after them, but it was already too late, and the strong instinct to survive was taking hold. Standing and turning, she saw the three demons surrounding Edge, one of them reeling, but the others looking ready to pounce again. It was impossible to tell whether Mark was even conscious.

She took a step forward, intending to go after them with her bat, but reconsidered. She could reach one from here, if she wanted to. The whip in her hand was oddly cool and hadn't gotten muddy when she'd fallen. It sat snug in her grip as though it wanted to be used. Fair enough. She'd played a bit with whips during her training, and though they weren't her favorite, she knew how to wield one. And she got the oddest feeling that this one would help her... With one deft snap of her wrist, she sent the lash of the whip racing towards one of the demons, where it wrapped itself securely, almost as though it wanted to be there.

Several things happened almost immediately. The demon shrieked in the voice of nothing that had ever come from earth as the whip wrapped around it, tighter and tighter, more like a snake than a weapon. As the whip tightened, the demon seemed to grow thinner, then paler, almost translucent, while the whip began to glow with a sickly red light. As the demon crumbled to ash and the whip released, the red energy raced up its length, over the crop, and into Erin. She stiffened, but couldn't seem to drop the whip. Her hand wouldn't quite obey. The energy didn't hurt, though. It felt sort of good, knitting together the last of the claw marks on her skin, wiping away even the smudges of scars that would normally take a few minutes to fade. The red energy was power, she realized, and it was inside her. She could use it, if she wanted, she could make things happen with it...

She shoved the thought aside. It was too dangerous, even now, to use that sort of power. Behind the initial rush of confidence came an almost nauseating feeling of sickness and fear. What had she done to herself? What had she let inside? There wasn't time to consider it now, though. Still glowing a little all over, she called to Phalanx, "Help Edge!"

[Cyroa]

The three demons looked at what happened, at the whip in Erin's hand before they attacked. Even with her neglecting her own safety for the need to destroy and seek revenge, the demons weren't exactly thrilled to be attacking. In their hesitation, one missed outright, another just nicked her clothing. Only one managed to sink it's massive claws deep in her chest...

[Avenger Assembled]

Edge's head hurt; heck, his whole body hurt. Barely able to see out the lenses of his shattered glasses, Edge concentrated desperately, calling on a deep inner reserve of good fortune he believed was his with the utmost of effort. "We'll get out of this," he muttered to himself, "we'll get out of this..." As Edge concentrated, the air around them began to crackle, reality itself bending palpably all around them. "Getoutgetoutgetoutgetoutgetout..."

[Cyroa]

There was a ripple, followed by looks of surprises, as the ground ripped opened and a gate to hell formed. Around Wander, they were sucked down and vanished as the ground sealed closed. Only one demon remained and it was just shaking it head, throwing off it's previous wounds and trying to fight on.

[alderwitch]

She braced as Phalanx came flying at her, the glow around her brightning automatically as she deflected the brunt of his weight away from her fragile body without thinking.

Psyche's gaze flicked from the place James had been dragged down to hell, and then narrowed on the one remaining demon. Without gesture or corona trail to show and with an ease she'd never before possessed with her telekinetics, she sent the demon careening into a headstone with a sickening thud.

[angrydurf]

Phalanx strained to correct his flight as the demon threw him but to no avail. He collided with Psyche and rolled to the ground after impacting her potent forcefield. As the demon and James vanished into the fissure he was already rolling to his knees ready to pounce but was too late and the fissure sealed.

With a glance he unleashed a torrent of energy at the remaining demon and came full to his feet sorrow and rage warring across his visage.

[Cyroa]

The demon exploded in a burst of flame as the lasers tore through it's damaged form. As the fires vanished, all the demons now gone, quiet reigned. The cemetary was in rough shape. Burned grass and soot were everywhere. Combined with the mud generated by fighting on wet grounds, the place had certainly seen better days. As had the young heroes pulling themselves together now that there was nothing left to fight. Heroes don't always win it seems...

[Avenger Assembled]

Mark sat up, a glow visible behind his broken goggles that matched the gleam from the recently-opened portal to Hell for a second or two before he shook his head. "Oh...oh God," he said out loud, slowly and painfully pulling himself to his feet. He was bleeding and battered, but he wouldn't stay down. "Is everyone all right?" he called. "Did we...god, James..." He sounded a little out of it; and in fact he was.

[alderwitch]

Psyche turned back to her friends, her sparkly corona of energy not looking like it was going anywhere at the moment.

"I think you have a concussion. Hold still," She said as they all tried to re-group. She picked her way over to Edge and reached out to touch his head, the energy spreading from her hand over his face as she focused on putting the parts of his skull back where they belonged. Psyche was surprised as anyone that it worked, even more, how easily and intuitively it was to manipulate things down to a molecular level. It was something she was going to have to look into later, they had more important matters at hand, clearly.

When she pulled her hand back from him, even his shattered goggles were restored. She twisted to Erin then, holding out her hand as she asked permission to help Erin the same way. "May I?"

[Electra]

Erin shook her head, carefully coiling the wicked whip into a shape she could safely carry. "It doesn't hurt," she replied woodenly. Indeed, though her uniform was torn and bloody in several places, she didn't look to have a scratch on her. The red glow of energy had faded when the demons did, though the whip still tingled a little in her hands. She walked over to where the big demon and James had disappeared, dropping to her heels to study the ground. There was no fissure now, not so much as a crack to show where they'd gone. Erin pressed her knuckles against her forehead for a minute, leaving a muddy smear on her face. "Where do we go now?" she asked of everyone or no one. "How do we get him back?"