The Closing of the Year [IC]

[trollthumper]

The three skinheads looked up at Ironclad the second before the hound fell into the fire. As it did, it let up an infernal roar, breaking free from its imposed paralysis and streaming out of the blaze with parts of its fur still on fire.

One kept its eyes locked on her. "You're not meant to be here."

Another looked to the rest of the group, gathered at the edge of the park. "Not them either."

"Does it matter?"

"No, it doesn't."

"The night comes. Long and cold."

"And from it, birth. Purification."

"But now... hunger..."

"Long and deep..."

"Feast, shall we?"

"Yes. But on which?"

One pointed towards Cannonade on the edge of the park. "The SHARP," he said, his voice piercing the darkness. "Fool. Blinded by the old age."

"A new day comes as the wolf calls."

"And he will feast on his bones and grow strong."

Cannonade cracked his knuckles. "One thing I hate worse than boneheads," he said. "Boneheads with delusions of grandeur. Let's dance."

[trollthumper]

Cannonade was on guard, but he was a disadvantage -- he couldn't see into the inky shadows. All he could go on was the voices, and the neo-Nazis had fallen dreadfully silent. That changed, however, when one of them came streaming out of the darkness, bringing his fists down on Cannonade's helmet.

"Fool," the Nazi muttered. "You stand with the fallen, the corrupt, the dirtied. There will be no place for you when the tree shakes its bounty."

"Yeah, well," Cannonade said, "I might stand with the fallen --" He drove his fist right into the skinhead's stomach, exulting as he heard the man exhale in pain. "--but it sure beats treading in crap with people like you."

[Quinn]

"You ready?! . . . Let's go!"

From the sky came an eruption of music, rap blaring out at maximum volume from a single source. And as eyes stretched heavenward, it revealed a single figure hanging in the air, two speakers hanging from his belt belting the song as the flier smiled. He stared at the darkness, having heard every word from his position up above.

"Like the good book says...let there be light!"

His hand outstretched, a cylindrical object plummeted towards the ground, disappearing into the inky black. All went quiet for a moment, then with an earsplitting BAMF, light erupted, dissipating the shadows for the span of a heartbeat. Almost as in tableau, Cannonade and his attackers were lit up like a Christmas tree, their silhouettes clearly delineated against the ground.

One second, Push's hands directed to the ground.

Two seconds, warp orbs erupted all around his body.

Three seconds, the orbs streaked towards the ground, a rain of blasts striking with the force of hammers on everything they struck!

"Haha!" Push exulted as the rain of blasts continued, "Judgement from above, scumbags! You want a tree to shake it's bounty?! How do you like these apples!"

[trollthumper]

The light blazed away the shadows briefly, revealing the skinheads for what they'd become. Despite the biting cold, they were without shirts or coats. They seemed emaciated, almost starving. And their eyes gleamed with a strange light, reflecting the death of stars.

"Such light," one said.

"Such fleeting light."

The wave of kinetic force swept over the skinheads, battering at them and causing them to stumble... but they retained their footing, and seemed no worse for the wear.

"It's pointless."

"He will take all in his maw."

[Dr Archeville]

"You want a maw?!," the Revenant called out form above. On the journey over he'd shed most of his excess winter clothing, and had his trusty shovel at the ready. "I'll give y'all a maw! YEEEAAA!"

Hunh, these guys is really gaunt, an' gray. Shoot, I'll bet they'd ghouls!

Dead Head toppled off Mutt, falling like a stone right towards one of the Nazis. His open mouth revealed all his yellowed teeth (and the wind made his cheeks flap a bit), but at the last moment he swung around and brought his shovel crashing down right on the Nazi's temple. It stumbled, knocked off-balance, but did not fall!

"Dang, but yer a tough'un!"

[Raveled]

Ironclad's sensors tracked several viable targets in the area, but the one that was focusing on was the blazing hound streaking through the night. She really thought that it wasn't going to wake up, even when she dropped it into the fire. In the future, web it. Regardless, the heroine darted off after the beast. In a matter of moments she had recalibrated her wrist blasters to a more damaging setting, and as the beastie surged into a straight sprint she came to a sudden halt, hovering perfectly still. She took the time to line up her shot and slammed a mighty blow out, hoping and praying that the thing wouldn't get up again.

[trollthumper]

The hound stumbled out of the bonfire, embers still clinging to its fur... only to be caught full on by the force of Ironclad's blast. As it flew back into the fire, it let out one wretched howl and collapsed into tangible darkness. Darkness that seemed to leech some of the heat and light from the fire.

"His avatar crumbles."

"But he hungers still."

"And will feed."

"Soon."

[trollthumper]

As Mutt soared overhead, the other skinhead closed with Dead Head. He jabbed his fists right into Dead Head's exposed midsection, cutting through mystical protections and biting with a cold like midnight in winter.

"Why do you fight?" he said to Dead Head. "We have seen the same light. The same hunger fills us. The great cold that cannot be warmed. If you would just feed..."

[trollthumper]

"Would you just shut up and fall down already?" Cannonade yelled, driving his fist at the skinhead who'd come after him -- but the blow missed as the shadows crept up around him once more. "You think this is scary? You guys are just idiots in bad makeup compared to some of the stuff I've seen."

The man before him roused and looked right in Cannonade's eyes. "You doubt now," he said. "But soon the wanting dead will return. The tree will burn. And all will be known."

"Yeah?" Cannonade cracked his knuckles. "Think it'll happen before, or after I feed you your teeth?"

[Quinn]

Push cursed under his breath as he cut the barrage, seeing the blasts do next to nothing against his enemies. As the shadows closed in yet again, he reached into his bag for another flashbang...and came up empty.

"Son of a..."

He hung in the air momentarily, feeling the leftover energy from the barrage coursing through his hands, and cursed again. He needed something big. Something to blow right past their defenses. One big blast...and he knew just the thing. The kineticist's hand shot to the haft of his hammer, and he swung it up, spinning it overhead. A mammoth orb of force began to coalesce above the spinning weapon, crackling and warping the air loudly enough to be heard even down below. A familiar move to the nearby Ironclad and Dead Head, the same one that had sent Dragonfly off her feet during the warehouse raid! This time, though...he made a slight change. Closing his eyes as he spun the hammer, he felt the kinetic energy of all the nearby heroes, blasting and swinging away in the melee beneath his feet. He reached out with his mind, extending the power connection to every one of them, a subtle leech that slowed down their movements only perceptibly...but it was neccessary.

His eyes opened with a flash, and with a mighty roar of "OO-RAH!", the orb of force rushed into the hammer's head, as he descended towards the ground at breakneck speed. Swinging it down with an almighty crash, it hit the ground with a mammoth eruption, wave after wave of kinetic force crashing upon the skinhead ghouls. At the same time, he kicked the connection into gear, leeching as much kinetic energy from the blast as he could from the others. For a moment, everyone within the blast radius felt as if a huge wind had rushed by them, kicking up dust and sending whatever they had loose to billow as the backwash rolled over them. Push fell to one knee as the blast's energy left him, nearly dropping his hammer as his body's cells burned with the exertion, his mind completely concentrated on keeping the other heroes from getting hit.

[trollthumper]

The blast washed out from Quinn and over the Nazis. The one facing down Cannonade managed to keep his balance and weather the blow, whereas the one facing Dead Head got caught up in the blast, falling ten feet away from the revenant. Their companion, however, was not so lucky; the blast caught him in the legs, whisking him off the ground and into a nearby tree, with which he collided in a meaty thud. He fell to the ground and lay still.

"Should not have done that."

"He will remember. When the hunger comes."

[Dr Archeville]

"Dangit, Push!," the revenant yelled as he braced himself for a reckless kinetic wave, like the one he'd seen in their earlier encounter and knock down one of their own. The look of irritation quickly faded to confused relief as the wave went around him.

"... hunh."

But more pressing matters were at hand! Specifically, the hands of the Nazi-Ghoul-thing clawing at him (though the flesh swiftly re-knit itself), though now the two that were on him had been flung away, and one was stone-still.

"Same hunger?," Dead Head roared, and raced towards the Nazi-Thing, shovel held high. "Only thing I hunger fer is justice!" The last was punctuated by the resounding CLANG of his shovel against the side of the Nazi-Thing's jaw.

"Buddy, you think I seen the same light as y'all," he said with shovel blade directly over the thing's heart, "y'all need t'be gettin' yer eyes checked! I ain't even from th' same pantheon as y'all! Now, how 'bout ya tell ol' Dead Head what y'all are doin' up here, hrm? Last I checked, Hel's boat weren't ready t'set sail, so y'all got a while 'fore Ragnarok kicks off."

[Raveled]

Ironclad's armor rattled with the force Push's blast, but the energy warped around her and she wasn't moved from her spot in the air. Her scientific interest was piqued, but there were more important things just at the moment. Her targeting system cycled through the Nazis on the ground. Her eye lit on one that had been thrown to the ground by the kinetic mutant's massive blast, and she oriented on them, preparing another over-powered blast of her own. The street shone gold for a moment as superluminal particles blasted into the bigot with the glowing eyes, but amazingly he wasn't out of the fight yet.

[trollthumper]

"Ragnarok?" Cannonade looked at the skinhead. "Thought you guys gave up on that crap after I sent your snake-thing back downstairs." He lunged at the Nazi, but the Nazi was quicker, bringing his fist down on Cannonade's helmet.

"The time was not opportune," the Nazi said to Cannonade as he fought off a concussion. "The way was open, but the fields were fallow."

"Now light vanishes as the darkness is longest."

"Now all is right for his feast."

"Yeah, well... I think he's gonna have to take a rain check, whoever he is..." The joke hurt even worse than the pain, but it helped him to keep focus.

[Quinn]

For the second time that day, Cannonade spotted a flash of movement in the corner of his eye...followed by a resounding CRACK as the buisness end of Push's hammer connected with the inhuman being assaulting the blue-collar hero.

"FEAST ON THIS!"

The hero had charged hell-for-leather, covering the distance within a few seconds, the hammer engulfed with what energy he had left, even tapping into his own movement energy to power it. Everything he had left, he stuffed into that blast, and watched with grim satisfaction as it slammed into the scum. Every nerve in his body felt fried, and a crushing weight of fatigue settled in on his shoulders, but he stayed standing beside his newfound comrade.

"Second...time...heh...you owe me...big..."

[Dr Archeville]

Dead Head looked at the staggered Nazi-Ghoul-Thing stuck between a tree and the business end of his shovel. He noticed that the Nazi's wounds were bleeding freely, as it would with a being, not an undead. Yet these three all had the stench of undeath about them, the same way someone possessed by a demon stank of the infernal.

And that gave Dead Head an idea.

"Bad enough you lot's tryin' ta hasten the world's destruction, but ta open yerselves ta this kind'a corruption? That's jes addin' insult t'injury."

He spun the shovel around in his right hand, sinking the blade into the earth, while bringing his other hand around and placing it on the cultist's chest. "But I'm bettin' that if'n this lil' dark seed were taken outta ya," he said, the balefire in his eyes flaring, "well, ya jes' may start singin' a diff'rent tune."

Buck up, Deady, this is gonna hurt. A lot.

The balefire flames in Dead Head's eyes spread down his left arm and slammed into the Nazi-Ghoul's chest; the cultist's body began glowing with a sickly purple light. The cultist's light (both of its body and the weird red light in its eyes) flickered and began flowing towards the chest, concentrating in the spot where Dead Head's hand was; as it did, the Nazi-Ghoul's skin coloring shifted to a pinker hue, and its claws and nails shrank. The Nazi-Ghoul shrieked, first the shriek of a feral animal but turning to the shriek of a frightened man, as Dead Head pulled his left hand back, taking the eerie light went with it, concentrated into a ball of deep purple flame.

YAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH bestrongbestrongbestrong bestrong bestrong be strong

"Now...," the revenant said, ignoring the twin streams of black ichor falling from his nose, "you... gonna... talk?"

[trollthumper]

If the dark fire seared through Dead Head, it must have raged through the death-touched skinhead like an inferno. He let loose something that was equal parts scream and injured howl as the darkness around the park billowed and shifted like a veil in a windstorm. As the black flame burned away, the unnatural darkness lifted from the park, leaving a snow-covered copse lit by street lamps and a flickering bonfire.

The neo-Nazi shivered and shook on the ground -- half from the wracking pain, and half from the sudden onset of winter chill. "W-w-wha -- ?"

Cannonade lifted the man up to his feet... and then quickly seized his hands around the Nazi's arms. "Hey, there," he said. "Now unless I was mistaken, I think you and your friends said something about ripping me apart and making me an example of those who don't have a place in the new age. Unless you want me to return the favor, I suggest you talk. Now."

"Y-y-you're t-too l-l-late," the skinhead said, his teeth chattering. "H-he's got it all ready --"

"Who?"

"T-the Weaver. T-that's what he c-called hims-self. Said it had t-to work to-tonight. The l-longest night, wh-when all light v-vanished... i-it wouldn't c-c-come again for c-c-centuries..."

"The lunar eclipse," Cannonade said, "on the night of the solstice. It's been all over the news. Of course." He shook the Nazi once more for good measure. The brief measure of satisfaction was just a fringe benefit. "Where is he?"

"I... I won't..."

"You won't?" Cannonade said. "Oh, that's a great idea. Instead of giving me an easy answer and letting you walk out of here on your own legs, I now get to treat you like my own personal pinata. It's like Christmas came early!"

"The warehouse!" he shouted. "Lamont and Keever! That's where he is! Just let me go!"

"Okay." Cannonade dropped the shivering Nazi to the ground and turned around. "Well, guess we gotta go stop the delusional bastard."

[Quinn]

Push took a step, seemed to falter, then rallied, slinging his hammer back over his shoulders. He gave a weak grin, nodding towards Cannonade and the rest, before tapping his ear-commlink. An engine roar sounded in the distance as Lazarus's engines fired up, the on-board GPS aiming straight for the park and Quinn.

"Heh...'m game for more if you lot are. Who else'd pull the helmeted wonder's butt out of the fire next time, eh?"

The bike came zooming down the park trail, stopping beside the hero, and he swung his leg over it with a sag of relief. Looking up, he motioned to the Nazis lying in various stages of pain and unconsciousness, and spoke in a highly nasal accent, winking.

"Anyone want to ensure these upstanding gentlemen recieve the fine hospitality of the state?"

[Raveled]

"That's my bag," Ironclad said, touching down on the pavement and running a quick sensor scan of the area. Everyone was down, so she logged onto one of the city's newest resources -- FCPD's Twitter feed. The police in Freedom were always trying to stay on the cutting edge, and to that end they had established a Twitter feed especially for the city's superheroes. She posted on there, 'N-Nazis + ghost dog down. Need arresting. Bring firetruck for fire,' and double-checked that her GPS-tag was right. It was, of course.

[trollthumper]

As the sound of sirens split the air and began to trail towards the park, the group took off for the warehouse described by one of the skinheads. They arrived to find it darkened, with no power streaming in and the main doors locked by a heavy length of chain. Cannonade put his hands on the chain, then drew them back quickly.

"Christ, it burns!" he said. "...it's so cold it burns. It shouldn't be doing that." He put a hand to the door. "And it feels like there's power running through the walls... not electricity, but something."

[Quinn]

Push got off his bike with a groan, walking up and gently pushing Cannonade aside as he unlimbered his hammer and made a few stretches. His body still felt like every nerve had been fried at once, but the ride here had given him a chance to charge up again, stealing a bit of kinetic energy from all of them rather than just slowing one down.

"These jerks risk innocent lives...threaten Ragnarok...and now they're holing up in my part of town. Right. 'scuse me, I think I need words with these S.O.Bs."

And he swung the hammer back, taking in two deep breaths, channeling his energy into the head of the hammer, feeling the focus...

A few seconds later, the four heroes looked through a rather gaping hole in the side of the building, where the door used to be. The masonry surrounding the frame was cracked all over the place, windows all over that wall shattered inwards from the impact, and another loud crash was heard on the other side of the building. Push blinked as he let the hammer head hit the ground, staring. Maybe he'd used just a little tiny bit too much juice on that one...

"Uh...oops?"

[trollthumper]

"...well, that's one way to make an entrance." Cannonade stepped forward into the shadows, looking around to see just what was going on. He was relieved to find that unlike at the park, the darkness here was perfectly natural; he could see to the center of the warehouse. He could also see what was going on, however, and that cancelled the brief feeling of relief.

A man stood before an immense fire, clad in only a pair of fatigue pants and combat boots. He wore a wolf skin on his back, and his beard reached down to his chest. Bloody runes bedecked his chest, and the source of the blood soon became clear -- a skinned wolf carcass, laying at his feet. He stood there, clutching his head, as if something large had just hit him. Inside the fire, a tree -- maybe an ash tree, but who could tell with all the soot and charring -- burned, the trunk cracked and the branches broken, perhaps from impact. And around the fire, six wolves -- black as night, silent and grim -- lay waiting.

The sorcerer looked to the entrance and pointed his knife at the party of heroes. "Kill them!" he shrieked. The hounds leaped to their feet, charging forward.

[Raveled]

Ironclad stared at the big hole Push's warhammer blew in the side of the warehouse and made a mental note to examine it later -- the hammer, not the wall. At the moment she had slightly more immediate concerns. The armored heroine powered up her weapon systems and scanned the interior of the building. Her sensors easily penetrated the dimness and her targeting systems locked onto the bearded man by the fire and his pack of canines. She drifted into the air a few inches, sighing, even as her tactical display was filled with interception paths and straight lines of attack. "Why is it that every time I come out to the docks, I end up in a fight?"

[trollthumper]

"Idiots like the real estate?" Cannonade said. He could see the dogs bearing down on him, rime frosting their teeth, vast stretches of darkness visible from the back of their mouths. "Man, I'm getting really tired of these things." He drew his arms out. "Now... HEEL!"

He clapped his hands together, bringing out a wave of concussive force that swept across the far end of the warehouse. It swept across the hounds like a hurricane, flinging most of them against the walls and the ceiling, causing them to burst into pools of congealed shadow. One managed to weather the torrent, however, and kept bearing down.

"Huh," Cannonade said. "Guess they don't make 'em like they --" His words were cut off as a burst of frost erupted from the darkness and hit him across the head, causing his helmet to rime over and robbing the warmth from his bones. "Christ!"

"Not in here," the sorcerer said, stepping forward. "You taunt the hunger of Fenrisulf, but soon he shall devour. Soon the lights that shall vanish, and from the darkness shall come the light of a new world." The sorcerer drew a combat knife from his dirty fatigues. "One where you'll have no place."

[Quinn]

Push stepped up, raising his hand to fire a blast at the sorcerer in retaliation...and nearly ended up floored by the pain. Fatigue set in on his bones, and he gritted his teeth, biting back a cry of pain, as the nerves in each of his limbs screamed in rebellion.

Damn it! Come on, you've weathered worse than this! Throw the damn blast!

Reaching his arm back, he pushed back the pain and channeled yet another blast, flinging it at the sorcerer's head as he focused on the ice spell assaulting Cannonade.

"Oi, Suzy! Catch!"