Manic Pixie Dream Girls [IC]

[Gizmo]

"Guy's gonna get through the fun part before we even catch up!" Jack cried, exaggerated outrage tinged with a barely suppressed laugh. The manic element of the swashbuckler's personality and manner was at the fore as he ran after Gabriel into the building, his movements closer to a series of fluid jumps than normal steps. While he was certainly determined to put a stop to whatever was being planned, the peril of the situation only made the toothy grin on his face spread wider.

[trollthumper]

"I guess a complete lack of subtlety works in this case," Nick said as he took off after the others. As they took the steps in twos and threes, the chants from above became clearer.

"Of mortal life comes the clay. What shall we make of it?"

"I shall make a key, to pick the crystalline bonds of our lady."

"I shall make a shield, to weather her from the blows of her spiteful liege."

"I shall make a bridge, to carry her fickle glamour to new firmament."

"I shall make a sword, for her to pierce the hearts of her enemies."

"And I shall make a crown, for her to reign over --"

The door, already open a crack, flew inwards with a good blow from Nick. The room was a study of some sort, with a bronze bowl full of water sitting on a plinth in the center. Over the bowl hang a glowing, translucent mass, shifting like smoke with tendrils stretching outward. Surrounding the bulb were five women, whose fingers ran through the tendrils, shifting the larger mass as if it were cotton on a gin. They were clad in jeans, blouses and T-shirts, with hair that ranged from icy blond to dead wood brown to obsidian black. They were nothing less than beautiful, ranging from "cute" all the way up to "exquisite." And they turned, as one, to face the doorway.

"Why stop there?" Nick said. "Why you could make a hat, a broach, a pterodactyl --"

The ladies just stared at him, drawing away from the mass. Their demeanor shifted, frosting over immediately, and their nails glistened in the weird light of the study.

"No taste for the classics these days, huh?"

[Heritage]

All but invisible to the naked eye, Grim quickly moved into the room and took in the lay of the land; seeing the occult ritual apparently in progress, she had a sudden impulsive thought. For a moment, she considered the wisdom of her strategy, weighing the pros and cons and the chance of it going horribly wrong, but she finally decided the shock to the five Wyrd Sisters might be the best way to throw off their collective mojo.

If I die right now, I hope Colt will forgive me!

With one swift action, she strode right into the midst of the fae women and knocked the bronze basin across the room!

[trollthumper]

The basin went flying with the impact, scattering water everywhere -- in the droplets, Grimalkin thought she could see a fading reflection of Avalon. The great mass of glamour hovering over the plinth began to unfurl, trailing away into multicolored shadow and the sound of cracking ice.

"No!" shouted one of the leanansidhe. "Quickly! Retain the weave!"

Two of the leanansidhe stuck their fingers into the mass; it quickly ran up their arms and into their open mouths, holding together just long enough to become a part of them. They raised their fingers, their nails glinting like knives. "You shall pay for the insult to our house. We shall flay you to nothing and plant a chill in your heart that will make warmth a forgotten dream."

[Gizmo]

While Gabriel strode forth inexorably and Grimalkin slipped from the shadows, Jack of all Blades vaulted into the chamber in a flash of royal blue and silver accents, his metamagi abilities plucking at the fae glamours that permeated the room. As his feet touched down, a long, lean saber solidified in his hand, bright cotton candy pink streaked with the orange of a sunrise but glimmering with a cold, razor edge. "Look, I don't want to be 'that guy'," he quipped as he continued his fluid movement to intercept the closet on the preternaturally gorgeous women, "but I was promised kinky sex magic rituals, and I'm honestly feeling a little let down here." Made perfectly real by the energy manipulator's powers, the illusory magics of the blade sliced into the fae with a lightning quick stroke.

[KnightDisciple]

Whereas Jack of All Blades entered the room almost cheerfully, Gabriel practically stormed in. He started to hover off the floor as he observed the room, and he moved to one side to allow Nick to enter as well. Even as he moved, the humming around his person shifted. Then, he began to speak.

"Liars! Betrayers! Seducers! Murderers! Slaves to the Fell Queens! I find thee guilty! Stained by sin! A menace to this world!"

Suddenly, he pointed to one of the sidhe, and said faerie felt a wave of crushing despair and self-loathing roll over her mind.

"Repent of your wicked ways!"

Fast as the sound he so easily wielded, he was pointed at another one of the otherworldly women.

"Renounce your evil!"

[trollthumper]

The closest fae lady to Jack dodged the corrosive energy of the blade, but his backhand caught her right across the chin, sending her reeling. Her fellow ladies stepped to the forefront, the amber light glinting off their fingers. "You cannot hope to handle us, lord cavalier," one said as she lunged towards Jack. He managed to dodge, but he saw the other leanansidhe land a lucky blow on Grimalkin, who was clinging to the shadows. "We have left knights and knaves broken and bleeding on biers of burning ice, and drunk the fires of life in exchange for cold dream."

"And sin is not our stain," said the ladies Gabriel had addressed -- though her voice betrayed her certainty, quavering slightly. "It is our vestment and our armor. It is the first lesson of our court, and -- "

"And it feels so good, doesn't it?" Nick extended his hand, and a pool of ectoplasm bubbled up from the floor, barely visible. He closed it shut, and grasping hands erupted from the pool, tugging several of the leanansidhe to the ground. "I can see where you girls get by on artists -- any high school Goth writing in his journal would kill for those words. I'm surprised you managed to pass yourself off as normal."

One of the ladies struggled against her bonds, letting out unsettling giggles as she did. "Oh, we can be anything, mister," she said, her voice sounding chipper and buoyant, unlike the frosty rime she'd adopted earlier. "We can be seekers, and nymphs, and dreamers --"

" -- and executioners." A rush of alien glamour and cold, howling winds besieged Nick's head; too late, he realized the first sidhe had been distracting him, setting him up for a psychic onslaught from her partner. "We can make you do whatever we want. You are ours."

"...I'm guessing... you've got experience as ex-girlfriends, too?"

[Heritage]

Oh sh-

One of the hag's caught Grim right across her invisible temple, and the changeling saw stars; this was not a good place to black out! She shook her head to clear it, thankfully still unseen, but the lucky contact might have been enough to lead the skanks to her true position.

[Gizmo]

"I think you made the padre mad, ladies," Jack noted, bobbing and weaving through the chaos of slashing nails and ethereal hands as easily as though it were empty air. "But y'know, I think you've got me all wrong," the swashbuckler quipped as he transferred his acrobatic momentum into a haymaker that knocked out one of the leanansidhe Nick's ectoplasmic limbs has restrained. "Sure, there's knights," he continued as a smooth twist brought a spinning kick and a parallel slash of his luminescent saber across a second fae, "and there's knaves." Sliding a step back with a airy confidence that made their opponents look inept and foolish, Jack smirked broadly and pointed the thumb of his free hand at his chest. "And then there's this guy."

[trollthumper]

The blow drove right into the bound faerie's side, provoking a terrifying shriek. She thrashed against her ectoplasmic bonds before falling still, breathing slightly. "One wound against our sisters," said one of the ladies, diving after Jack with her terrible claws, "shall be repaid tenfold. It is the law of our court."

"And we always take our payment." Another lady was on Nick, trying to pierce his jacket with a volley of blow from her claws. The blows bounced off the toughened leather, however, only increasing her fury. "Be it in an hour, or a season, or a year and a day, all pay their tithes to us."

"You guys get the feeling they're talking to you?" Nick said to the others. "I think they've got this stuff pre-rehearsed for everyone who doesn't think they're the prettiest."

[KnightDisciple]

"If sin is your armor, then your armor shall be broken!"

The whole fight's a bit of a mess. However, Gabriel notices there are two of the leansidhe who don't seem to be in the top of their game, yet also aren't already being dog-piled. He had just verbally accosted one of them. He eyed the targets for a moment...

The first his right hand, and then his left, snapped up. The air around him shifted, and then for a moment, two lines of intense, highly-focused sound waves connected Gabriel to the two fell women.

"You face the judgement of the righteous! Today you pay for your crimes! Do not cloak your evil in pretty words! Do not shroud your taint with petty beauty! Fall to your knees and repent! Cry out your penitence and be spared the full measure of the Lord's Wrath!"

[trollthumper]

One of the fae started cringing under the aural assault, grasping at her shoulders as if she was suddenly feeling a chill. Her colleague smirked, however, and gazed up at Gabriel. "I've heard such blandishments before," she said as her sister managed to slip Nick's ectoplasmic bonds. "Always so holy. Your kind thinks themselves so invulnerable, with your god's love around you like a shield. It's a paper garment, truly. Our miracles are so much more tangible than his."

"You want a miracle, huh?" Nick said. "How 'bout flight?" The hands seized the leanansidhe like a rag doll, lifting her off the ground and hurling her at her crippled sister like a dart. When she collided, there was a sound like cracking porcelain, and the two ladies fell to the ground. Only one stirred.

"Let's see if I can complete the split," he said. But in the back on his mind, he could hear the creak of winter branches, and had the feeling of being a very small thing in the woods, stalked by an invisible predator...

[Heritage]

After what seemed like an hour, the fog cleared out of Grim's head, and she was pissed. It seemed like all but one of them had been hit, impaired or both by one of her team, so she turned her invisible gaze upon the one unhurt 'sister.' Soon she was at her side like a whisper, and she plunged her claws deep into the siren's side. At the moment of impact, the Interceptor was momentarily visible, an angry grimace frozen on her face.

[Gizmo]

"And now we're yelling!" Jack shouted along with Gabriel's tirade and the leanansidhe's retort. "Grr! Argh!" Apparently undistracted by his own antics, he moved with fluid grace to come on the opposite side of Grimalkin's target, knocking the wicked fae out with the second half of an attack the teammates had practiced rigorously. The same flash of his blade took him to another of their opponents, who suddenly found themselves outnumbered by the heroes two to one and facing an undaunted assault.

[KnightDisciple]

"His miracles occur every day! Unlike your twisted parlor tricks! Say no more! My faith is shield proof against your blandishments!"

He stopped for a moment, concentrating the energy around himself just so, before picking out the Fae that looked worse off (of the two still standing).

"My own power was granted by his archangel! Feel a sliver of his power and wrath!"

With that, he sighted down his arm and fired off a blast of sonic energy that ought to rattle her teeth in place, if nothing else. He was clearly ignoring Jack's antics, seemingly halfway to his own little world.

[trollthumper]

The sidhe lady clasped her hands to her ears, but it wasn't enough to protect her from the sonic onslaught. She fell to the ground, twitching and shaking.

"I'd consider that something of a good counterarg --" Suddenly, the room was gone for Nick. He was in the darkened forest that he had seen in his mind's eye. It was cold as winter, dark as midnight, and he could feel the ground beneath him was tangled with roots and shot through with rocks. And suddenly, he heard something large hissing in his ear, its spittle bathing his neck...

To the rest of the room, Nick let out a panicked murmur and turned to run, fleeing some easy phantom. "See how easy they break," said the last of the maidens as she locked eyes with Gabriel. "Let us see how strong your armor truly is."

[Heritage]

Things were looking pretty sweet to Grim, as her and Jack pulled the old one-two on their hag, but then she noticed Nick was suddenly bailing and making a run for it.

What? Since when did he become such a pu- oh, damn it!

Recognizing a faerie terror when she saw one, having delivered more than a few herself, the changeling reappeared and ran after the fleeing necromancer. Catching up with him, she grabbed him by the arm, spun him around and planted a big wet one right on his lips! This was of course only to get his attention; the real work began once she let him up for air, and she locked eyes with him and hit his whammy with one of her own.

"Be at peace, mortal child." A serene glow seemed to flow out of her skin, motes of light that danced in her hair. "There is nothing to fear; you are safe now. The hunter has lost your trail, and you have found your way to my gentle stream, where you may slake your thirst and rest." She smiled, gently slapped the side of his face, and the glamour faded. "You okay in there, big guy?"

[Gizmo]

"Party foul!" Jack cried out as Nick succumbed to some private illusion and the last leanansidhe gathered her glamours about her for a mental assault upon Gabriel. "Have a time out." The swashbuckler sprung from his acrobatic footwork into an overhead punch with all the subtlety of a freight train, driving his sunny pink saber directly into the fae woman's face, the borrowed magics sliding through easily until the tip protruded from the back of her head and the fencer's fist connected with much for material force. The stunned creature staggered back, the sword slipping back out without leaving so much as a mark apart from her gaping expression. She attempted to say something, but instead her eyes rolled upward and she collapsed atop her fallen sisters. "Still with us, padre?" he asked with nonchalant caution.

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel realized what the Fae woman was trying to do. Ensnare him. Like that she-elf had done to poor Finnegan. Well, he wouldn't have it. So when she stared deeply into his eyes, he stared right back, the fires of defiance roaring within them. Yet his voice came out eeriely quiet and calm, still audible to everyone present even as he ceased his booming accusations. After all, the fight was all but one.

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

The armor of my faith stands strong, seducer. Can you say the same for your "armor of sin"?"

Right at that moment, Jack of All Blades struck the final telling blow, leaving only the heroes standing in the room. Gabriel spent several seconds casting his eyes around, trying to determine if anything was still amiss. When he saw that they were safe, he sighed, and his shoulders visibly sagged. He walked over to the nearby wall, leaning against it to look up at Jack with a small half-smile.

"I am still among those free of will, Jack. For whatever that's worth."

[trollthumper]

The dark woods faded, and Nick found himself locking eyes -- and lips -- with Grimalkin. "...um." He slowly pulled out of the kiss. "If this was a consequence of getting a mind whammy, I think more people would be lining up for it."

His senses regained, he hurried back to the study. The leanansidhe lay unconscious on the ground; their bodies were cold and unmoving, but they weren't pinging his death sense, so he assumed they were okay. Two of them, however, seemed to be leaking. A strange, almost ephemeral fluid was running from their lips and sublimating into mist almost before it hit the ground.

"The weave, they called it," Nick said. He searched the study until he found an empty decanter lying on a tray. Removing the stopper, he gathered what he could of both the mist and the liquid. As the liquid coalesced in the bottle, it took on a sheen like a mirror and began to show faint, dancing shapes. "This must be what they took from their lovers. Normally, they'd come to their senses in the time, but this should help with the recovery."

He took a look at his watch. "And speaking of time... crap. I've overblown my twenty minute break by a measure of... well, thirty. Don't suppose anyone would be up for vouching for me with my boss?"

[Heritage]

"If this was a consequence of getting a mind whammy, I think more people would be lining up for it."

Grim playfully wrinkled her nose and whispered, "Just don't tell too many people."

Returning with Nick to the ritual space, she was happy to see things seemed to be wrapped up nicely.

"And speaking of time... crap. I've overblown my twenty minute break by a measure of... well, thirty. Don't suppose anyone would be up for vouching for me with my boss?"

The shapeshifter's hand shot up. "Oh, me me me! Who do you want me to be?" She transformed into the world-weary shape of Detective Morena Colby, in black jeans and a loose gray sweater with a pistol holster over her shoulders. "I'm sorry we kept your employee a bit past his lunch break, but he was assisting us with a police matter. You should hold on to him, he's a keeper."

[Gizmo]

Jack glanced over to confirm that Grim had taken care of Nick's brief mental manipulation as the pair of heroes reentered. Despite his irreverent attitude, the swashbuckler left the necromancer's terrified retreat uncommented upon; as far as he was concerned, it had never happened. Confident that his shapeshifting teammate had their chalk white makeup wearing friend's employment dilemma well in hand, he turned back to Gabriel. The white robed man's abrupt shift from enraged to melancholic concerned him more than a little, but admittedly he didn't know Gabriel well enough to judge whether he was acting out of sorts. "So, you really get your powers from an archangel?"

[KnightDisciple]

"Nick, if you'd like, I can also pitch in. I've been known to be somewhat convincing in my speech. Between Grim and myself, we'll get you covered. And unless you think there's no more threat, you might want to consider staying out for a bit longer. Not sure, though."

He turns his gaze to Jack, quirking one of his eyebrows at the question.

"Yes. Several years ago, in fact. It was the Archangel Gavriel, sometimes pronounced "Gabriel". Hence my name. But it's not angelic in source, if that makes sense. I had Miss Americana examine me; she determined that it was an intentional genetic mutation. So my power's completely from my own body and biology. Like he kick-started something latent, maybe. Point is, someone pops up a field to disrupt magic and the like, thinking I'm part-angel or something...and it won't matter a bit."

He shrugs.

"Just how it is, I guess."

[Gizmo]

"Huh. That's cool," Jack responded affably, leaning against the wall next to Gabriel and crossing his arms over his chest. "Explains why I don't get a juju vibe from you." After a silent beat, he added without being asked. "I was bitten by a radioactive playing card. True story." For all he was attempting to lighten the pious hero's somber mood, that really was fairly accurate. If Gabriel had been a latent mutant, his origin ran parallel to Jack's own, although the metamagi of the House of Swords took a more active hand in 'kickstarting' their own powers. Raises a few new questions.

[trollthumper]

"I died," Nick said, as casually as if he were saying, "I went on vacation to New York." "I wouldn't recommend doing that unless it's absolutely necessary. Though it did come with a nice walking tour of the various underworlds. I came back after three minutes, and in the next few months, the death sense kicked in. The really interesting stuff took a few years longer, though." He looked to Grimalkin and Gabriel. "And I'm pretty sure a FCPD officer and a presiding superhero will help with my case. Just let me find somewhere to get the corpse paint off. And when we get there, we can probably find someone who knows what hospital those guys went to. I'll try to get the stuff in the decanter back to them when my shift's up."