Too Many Questions, Too Few Answers...(IC)

[Raveled]

Ironclad couldn't believe that the head cultist was still on his feet, but she wasn't about to stop attacking him just for that. Since her flight system was just about done with anyway, she dialed up the power on her wrist blasters again and fired off another over-powered shot -- only to sway with fatigue at the last second, sending the particle beam punching through the roof and vanishing off into the sky. She stared after it for a moment, hardly believing what had just happened. "Oops?"

[KnightDisciple]

Cobalt Templar practically snarled at the madman in front of him...Before a grin split his face.

"You look tired."

Suddenly, his sword dissolved, and a hand of ethereal blue flame grasped the wicked cultist.

"You should get off your feet..."

The hand tightened slightly, lifting the virtually helpless man off the ground.

"Maybe catch a flight to somewhere else."

And now the cultist was flying through the air, the blue hand having casually tossed him with strength to spare. His life was in no danger, but that didn't mean he was safe from, say, a broken limb or two.

[Quinn]

"What?! NO!"

The hand closed around him and he struggled vainly in it's grip.

"You fools! This...is impossible! I am the chosen of the Horned One! His emissary to this unclean world! I cannot be defeated like this...I am invincible! NoOoOoOoOoOoOo!"

The runes above the fire blinked out as he screeched, scrabbling at the hand as it reared back and threw him. His body flew across the distance and slammed into yet another crate, causing the ones on top to topple and bury him in wood and packing beans. As the avalanche covered him, the flames leapt high into the air, a mighty roar filling the warehouse...then were abruptly sucked down into the pit, vanishing...leaving only a small indent in the concrete filled with small scraps of canvas and a couple of charred sticks.

[Raveled]

Ironclad waited for the cultist to rise from the rubble, but after a moment nothing seemed to be happening and the heroine allowed herself to relax. That burst of speed and strength that she showed in handling the final flesh golem had left her drained and, frankly, exhausted. Still, she walked across the warehouse to where the man in the blue armor stood over Dragonfly. She gave him a careful nod and kneeled next to her friend, brushing the woman's hair back from her face. Ironclad wasn't at all sure what do, here. She was sure that Mara wouldn't thank her for bringing the other woman to a hospital, especially in her hero garb, but on the other hand she didn't want to risk that her friend might be seriously injured.

[Quinn]

Push's shoulders quivered briefly, followed by a ragged cough. He lifted his head, staring through dazed eyes, and struggled to his knees.

"Ow..."

He looked around, taking in the situation and giving a groan on sighting the prone Dragonfly. The hammerquake had cleared out the zombies, but he'd done more damage to her than they would have...a sense of shame filled him, and he slung his hammer over his back. Averting his eyes from the source of that shame, he managed to get his feet under him and nearly fell over as he tried to take a step. Every cell in his body felt like it was drained and/or on fire...he'd completely drained himself pulling that trick. Leaning on a handy crate, he took another look at the supine golems and the buried cultist, nodding with at least a small sense of satisfaction. He motioned at the the small mountain of crates and packing beans covering the head cultist.

"Who got him?"

[KnightDisciple]

Cobalt Templar wears a light frown on his face as he floats to the ground, closer to the others.

"I stopped his ritual, if that's what you mean. The fire's gone out and all that. Should have thought of what I did earlier, really. Maybe we could have avoided some unfortunate circumstances."

He gave Push a pointed look before walking over to Ironclad and the still-unconscious Dragonfly. He spoke a bit softer, with concern leaking into his voice.

"She's not too badly hurt, is she?"

[Raveled]

Ironclad looked up at the man in blue armor and back down at her friend. "I don't know," she admitted, rubbing at her face -- or at least, the blank helmet that covered it. "I could take apart and rebuild a nuclear reactor, but I don't have any idea how the human body is put together." She felt a sudden stab through her heart, and a surge of adrenaline suddenly banished her lethargy. The memory of her grandfather lying on a hospital bed not too long ago galvanized her into action. "I've got to get her help." She picked up Dragonfly and stood, turning to the warehouse doors, but stopped short of actually moving towards them. "But my flight systems are shot. Which means I can't actually get her anywhere. Damn." The suited heroine bowed her head, mind racing as she tried to figure out a way to help her friend.

[KnightDisciple]

Cobalt Templar frowned more deeply.

"I'm not exactly a medic either. I can still-"

~Heal the girl.~ whispered a voice in his mind. That it was speaking in ancient Hebrew was a secondary concern. CT stopped talking and looked around.

"What the-"

~Heal the girl. You hold the fires of creation itself on your hand. You have it within you. HEAL THE GIRL.~

In that moment, he understood that, somehow, his ring was...talking...to him. He shook his head, but knelt down and held his right hand out over Dragonfly's unconscious body.

"Actually, let me try something."

He closed his eyes, and slowly, almost gently, soft blue flames rolled off the ring and over Dragonfly's body. Strangely, instead of harming her, Ironclad might sense that the energy is working to do just the opposite...

[Quinn]

Push sat, watching the waves work on her with a bit of discomfort.

"If...if that helps...ah, damnit, this is my own fault. I'm sorry, alright? Got so caught up in a bad memory I just acted without thinking."

Testing his legs again, he managed to keep his feet, and staggered slightly over to the group's side.

"I've got a motorcycle parked a few blocks over, I can carry her to a...well, I guess it's a safehouse, after Templar does what he can. Least I can do to make up for it."

[Fox]

"If you touch me," she commented, flatly, "I will shove that hammer so far up your anatomy that you'll have to cough it out."

Her visor twitched and lit up again, a barely-audible whine coming from her gauntlets as they spun back up. Slowly - and very, very carefully - Dragonfly sat up, putting a hand to the side of her head and wincing. accelerate work on full battlesuit - maybe - technical problems aesthetic concerns - full helmet would be lovely She gently fingered the crack in her visor, getting some twitching static on her HUD for a moment, and sighed. light damage - lucky - won't impair function

The young woman cricked her neck, pulling her legs in under her and giving Push a cold glare - obvious even obscured by her headgear. "You," she said, pointing, "are a menace."

[KnightDisciple]

The man in blue armor shifted his stance, and the placement of his hand, so as to not accidentally make Dragonfly uncomfortable.

"Please don't shift about too much. I should have you in prime condition shortly. If anyone else has wounds, I can keep this going for a bit longer, so line up while you have the chance."

'I'm amazed it worked, but I won't complain.'

He turned his attention to Push, quirking one eyebrow.

"I'd stay back for a while. You're lucky more of us weren't knocked out by that little stunt of yours, or this may have ended very, very badly. I don't know if I'd go so far as to call you a "menace", but you certainly need to do some reading on basic tactics and strategy."

His voice held no malice, however. Just calm advice.

The ethereal blue fire continued to pour out from the ring over Dragonfly.

[Quinn]

Inwardly, Push was rejoicing that Dragonfly was back on her feet. In the corners of his brain, his inner self was doing cartwheels and happy dances. Seriously. On the outside, however, that same relief manifested in it's usual way. Templar's advice didn't help much either, even couched in the soft words. He kicked out instinctively, letting a bit of snark sneak into his words.

"Like I haven't heard that one before. Next time, I'll just leave you lot to get swarmed by zombies then, shall I?"

He shook his head, turning and waving a hand, hiding the look of sheer relief on his face.

"Aaah, never mind. Glad to see you're in one piece, at least."

Hunching his shoulders and shoving his hands into the coat pockets, he walked over to the altar and started rummaging through the pages and books the Head Cultist had left behind. As he did so, he murmured something about "evidence", while deliberately avoiding the others' eyes.

[Dr Archeville]

The great bonfire had been put out, but the remains still smoldered, and now the rising smoke darkened and twined about like a great serpent. The coils resolved into a roughly humanoid form, with a stag's head and ebon antlers. His entire body was covered in dripping, open sores, and its hands ended in wicked talons, cracked and yellowed.

It threw its head back and let out a sound. It would be inaccurate to call it a howl, or a scream, or a wail, because those are all sounds one could find in nature. No, this was a wholly unnatural sound, made worse by the equally loud mental voice ringing in everyone's head.

You cannot withstand my touch. Your courage is but a wilting flower compared to my power!

[Dr Archeville]

Dead Head (and Mutt), Dragonfly, and Push all felt a shiver up their spine, but were able to shake it off.

Cobalt Templar and Ironclad fared considerably worse.

Corbin Alphonse Hughes suddenly flashed back to the time he first discovered his ring's power, and the fear he felt when his father walked in. As he relived passing out from those first exhaustive efforts, his ring's power faded.

Jessica Anne Parker was seized by the sudden and absolute certainty that Blake Salazar's home had just been broken in to by violent, strung-out punks, and they were beating him to death.

[Raveled]

Jessica Anne Parker was seized by the sudden and absolute certainty that Blake Salazar's home had just been broken in to by violent, strung-out punks, and they were beating him to death.

Ironclad felt a cold wave pass through her and settle just behind her temple, like the worse ice cream headache ever. It faded, as the terrible vision of her boyfriend getting savagely beaten replaced it. She went white beneath her mask and her moved even more rapidly that normal. There wasn't any faffing about with menus and screens; her mind reached out in some impossible way and her suit replied, reconfiguring in a thousand subtle ways. "Blake," she shouted, suddenly pushing the horned one and the confrontation at the warehouse out of her mind. "Hold on, I'm coming!" There was a sudden gold-and-green blur that lead to one wall, and a delayed sonic boom, then the heroine was gone.

[Fox]

Dragonfly blinked, shaking her head. For just a moment she'd felt...something, a chill up her spine, half-formed thoughts in her head, before her brain took over and swept them away. She knew that feeling. And given recent events, it wasn't much of a stretch to know where it came from. The young heroine got to her feet, force field twisting back into being around her profile as her best friend panicked and took off...through a wall? didn't know she could do that - head hurts - head ALWAYS hurts - focus

"This has been a very long - very bad day," she observed, turning an extremely unamused eye on the Horned One. "And you...you do not impress me." She raised an arm, firing off a twisting shockwave...that went wide, flying off to harmlessly impact against one of the warehouse walls. She swore, and started running a quick diagnostic on just how badly her gear had fared in that earthquake.

[Quinn]

Quinn snarled as he felt the assault upon his mind, staring the demon right in the face with a look of defiance, as he dredged through his memories.

"Come on...that the best you got?! Bring it!"

Memory after memory slammed through his mindscape, the massacre at the Museum, another warehouse in the Midwest filled with more of Scratch's handiwork, the burning corpse-smell of this place, eldrich beings summoned by his nemesis, spawned to hunt and harry him throughout his own chase, memories of the endless pursuit that haunted his steps every day and night...

Every single nightmare he ever had blew through his mind, and every single one he forced himself to relive, using them to drown out the demon's assaults on his senses.

"You think I fear you, beast of Old Night?! Your mind games are nothing more than an irksome fly to me! I fear your noxious stench and your ugly face more than your vaunted power, fell creature! After the places I've walked, I've seen far worse things than YOU!"

He slammed his foot down, the ground cracking ever so slightly, with his arms apart, as energy rushed through his arms and coalesced in his hands. Twisting warps of air, crackling and snapping from the sheer force wrapped around his hands, and he snarled once again at the demon.

"Bring it, monster! I'll take everything you got and push it back tenfold!"

And with that, he vaulted the podium, throwing a hand up and firing an overloaded bolt at the creature, and kept running as he hit the ground, not even stopping to see if it hit. Seizing the haft of the warhammer in his still-warping hand, Push charged towards the unholy foe!

[KnightDisciple]

Inwardly, Push was rejoicing that Dragonfly was back on her feet. In the corners of his brain, his inner self was doing cartwheels and happy dances. Seriously. On the outside, however, that same relief manifested in it's usual way. Templar's advice didn't help much either, even couched in the soft words. He kicked out instinctively, letting a bit of snark sneak into his words.

"Like I haven't heard that one before. Next time, I'll just leave you lot to get swarmed by zombies then, shall I?"

He shook his head, turning and waving a hand, hiding the look of sheer relief on his face.

"Aaah, never mind. Glad to see you're in one piece, at least."

Hunching his shoulders and shoving his hands into the coat pockets, he walked over to the altar and started rummaging through the pages and books the Head Cultist had left behind. As he did so, he murmured something about "evidence", while deliberately avoiding the others' eyes.

Cobalt Templar shook his head at Push's words.

"Look buddy, I'm just saying that you need to-"

And then, there was that horrible, terrible roar. That sound. It stuck to his eardrums like glue. It rattled in his head. It brought memories raging to the surface like an erupting volcano. He fell backwards, landing on his rear on the ground, the fires of his powers instantly dieing.

Corbin was kneeling there on the floor.

"Where...where did that come from?"

Suddenly, his father entered the room. Corbin looked up, his whole being suffused with fear at what was happening. This ring was just a trinket from Masada; why was it doing this?

"Dad?"

And then, suddenly, his worst fears were realized. His father's face was filled with fear and disgust. Rejection shone in his eyes, and he opened his mouth-

~NO! Don't give in to the fear, child! Don't give in to the fear...~

As suddenly as it had started speaking, it stopped. Corbin shook his head, remembering how things really went. But it didn't help. Even if his father hadn't truly rejected him, there had been fear in his eyes. Fear for his son, fear of this ring. The ring that was talking in his brain. His hands couldn't stop shaking.

Suddenly, he noticed his head felt lighter. He reached up, and chunks of his helmet fell away like cheap plastic. He could feel and see the armor crumbling around his body. The mask was still there, but much of his costume was already gone. Only tatters of his breastplate remained, along with one armored boot; the rest of his body was clad in the simple cloth under-suit of the armor. Barely controlling the shaking in his body, Cobalt Templar scrambled up from where he'd fallen on the ground and ran for cover behind a crate.

"No use now, no use, have to hide!" he whispered as he peaked over the edge of the crate. He was nearly in tears from the combination of old fears, new fears, and that horrible, sinking feeling of uselessness.

[Dr Archeville]

Dead head ran forward, shovel at the ready, and struck at the Horned One with a dead-on shot... to no effect! Like Push's blast, it passed through the incorporeal spirit, leaving it untouched!

The Revenant spat, "Mutt! Sic 'em!" He turned his head 'round to face the others, "any'a y'all got any ghost-bustin' tricks?"

Mutt charged forth, the spittle at his jaws glowing with an eerie light. He lunged at the Horned One, but the great spirit turned at the last possible moment and evaded the spirit-dog's jaws!

[Dr Archeville]

The Horned One let out a deep, rumbling laugh at Push's words. "Insolent whelp! Like so many others, your mouth runs on and on, because you are too scared to look back to what you did, or forward to what your future holds! All those people in the museum... all those people you disappointed... all those people chasing you... with a Scratch you can't itch. Deep down, you are naught but a scared, lonely child!"

At that last word, another pulse came off the spirit, catching Push and Dead Head in its wake. Both heroes felt a tingle, and both felt something neither had felt in a long, long time: fear.

"Ah, Dead-Man," it spat at Dead Head. "So cavalier with your own life, so protective of others... but that's not how you always were. Your brother, bloodied, battered, broken, while you did nothing but stand there and watch, frozen in fear!"

"And you, little worker bee," it growled at Dragonfly, "oh, so many people dead by your hands... so many lives ruined... you think you can atone for it all? You think you can really escape the Hollow Man?"

It turned to Cobalt Templar, and its face suddenly twisted in rage, "You! That ring!" In a burst of acrid smoke the Horned One disappeared from the bonfire pit and towered over the shaken hero! "Die, Ring-Bearer!" It raised its arms, prepared to bring its mighty -- and now terribly solid -- claws down on the shaken hero, when Push and Dead Head both suddenly leaped in the way; the spirit missed completely!

[Raveled]

Ironclad probably could've made some interesting observations as the sped through the city, dashing between cars literally too fast to be seen. She wasn't thinking about science for the moment, though; the only thing running through her mind was a constant mantra of OhgodBlake ohgodBlake ohgodBlake.Before long she came to her destination, slamming to a halt in Blake's dorm room in a flash of golden light.

The superheroine scanned her surroundings, but couldn't find any sign of her boyfriend. She opened the door to reveal a startled man made of mist and fog. She grabbed the Claremont student -- or rather grabbed at him, since the mutant was apparently as insubstantial as he looked -- and demanded, "Where is Blake Salazar? Where'd they take him!?"

[Fox]

Dragonfly's mouth worked silently as she stood, all but frozen, staring at where the stag-headed thing used to be. how could he - he couldn't have - haven't said didn't think - think - didn't feel - oh god - always remember - bad enough - can't - won't -

She spun around, the world moving in slow motion as she tracked the sound of fighting to where Cobalt Templar had run for cover. In an instant she'd teleported to the side, getting a line of fire on the fear-feeding abomination, firing a shockwave straight at its head with a face full of cold determination and anger. "Had no right. HAD NO RIGHT."

[Dr Archeville]

"Ha-" the Horned One began to laugh, but then Dragonfly's shockwave hit it head-on -- and blew its head clear off! The clawed hands reached out to grasp at Cobalt Templar, but the body was already melting into a foul-smelling goo that quickly evaporated into a greenish mist, which blew away to nothing.

A trick? Or was it just that fears tended to go away when faced boldly? Corbin and Jessica both still felt fear in their hearts, and Push and Dead Head both felt that tingle still with them.

Speaking of Jessica, the RA she was roughing up fearfully told her that Blake was probably off in the library studying for some exams.

[Fox]

Dragonfly slowly lowered her arm, panting as the emotion drained out of her. She took a step back, leaning up against a pile of crates and slumping with a hand over her face. get a grip - have to keep control - know better than that - oh god - hope that doesn't get out

"What," she finally asked from behind her hand, "in the world....was that thing?"

[Quinn]

Push looked at the spot where the oversized demon had been, about to slash Templar before he'd gotten his hammer in the way of one of those claws. Thank heaven Dead Head was fast enough to do the same with that shovel...he then looked up at Dragonfly, then back at the spot, then back at her. He reslung his hammer, violently squashing the part of his mind still gibbering in terror under those past memories again, and nodded towards her.

"Aside from rudely interrupted? Some kind of demon, I'd guess."

He almost felt his legs give way as the full weight of what the beast had said hit him, and his eyes flashed to each of the heroes nearby, including Cobalt Templar...who was still huddling beneath him and the zombie with half his armor just...gone. Bugger. He kneeled down, looking him over, and held out a hand.

"Oi, CT, snap out of it. Thing's gone, it's dust. Dragonfly turned it's head to fine powder."