ic [Gorgon] The Queen of Heaven (IC)

[April]

"Regrettable," Willow replied, amber eyes surveying the damage the massive vines had caused, a trace of sorrow in her voice. Those same vines had reached the apex of their upward growth and started to branch out; left unchecked they would soon enclose the entirety of the West End and in the distance, dotted all over the Freedom City skyline, our heroes could see similar towers of vines.

Small, roughly man-sized bulbs started to form along the overhead vines as Willow continued to speak. "All buildings crumble in time as too do all civilizations but if it would set your hearts at ease my friends, my beloved, no life was lost. It wounds me, terribly, that you think my intentions are malicious."

Four bulbs suddenly burst and from them descended four smaller, physical copies of Willow though their green hair, green eyes and mottled green skin set them distinctly apart from the ancient Guardian. As they interposed themselves between the Interceptors (and guest) and the dryad she sighed. "I am what I am, Jack. With the death of my Keeper, Authority defaults to the High Sister--the Gorgon--and she has assigned me my task." Willow's measured voice cracked at the edges slightly, and she looked away from the Interceptors, "I... I am the only one left, and there is much to be done to prepare for the High Sister. I will not abide interference."

[Ecalsneerg]

"Oh, blah, blah, blah," scowled Geckoman. "Shut up," he said, pointing at Jack. "Shut up." Pointing at Willow. "And definitely shut up." He waved a dismissive hand at the Willowettes as they sprouted nearby.

"Darlin', the only thing this stupid 'oooh, will not abide interference' and 'my intentions aren't malicious' schitck is accomplishing is making me reticent to punch you in the skull. Because you're clearly nutty as a fruitcake!" As he shouted the last sentence, he burst into a brief riverdance and spun on one foot, somehow going from the jaunty dance move, to having crossed a hundred feet in a flying kick towards a Willowette's face.

[Gizmo]

The construct regarded the rapid approach of the lime green clad hero dispassionately, tilting its head slightly to one side even as its expression remained flat, almost bored. It made no attempt to get out of the path of the attack, but instead snapped a hand up at the last instant to catch the flying foot. The force of the acrobat's leap still slid his target backward a half step before 'she' let him fall to the broken street, unconcerned even as he easily regained his footing. Along with the other plant creatures, the simulacrum began sliding forward eerily, root-feet tearing apart pavement with a crumbling noise even as they glided toward the rest of the heroes without a word.

[Electra]

"You're not the Gorgon's tool," Miss Americana told Willow, cracking her knuckes in a rather odd way as she spoke. "The Gorgon is going to kill every living thing on Earth when it arrives, you know that, don't you? Including your friends, including Jack there," she added with a gesture, making an educated guess. "Are you really going to be a party to murder on a worldwide scale, when you care right now about whether you hurt anyone just on this street? If you are, we're going to interfere. Starting right now." She turned then, spinning in the air and pointing at the trunks of the massive vines. Beams shot from her hands, but not the cheerful red, white and blue she usually wielded. These beam were a deep red, and looked like they meant business as they dug into the plants.

[Gizmo]

The vines Miss America was targeting sizzled for the briefest of moments before simply sublimating in a fine, green mist, the remaining smoking stalks sinking back into the broken pavement, thrashing as they went and causing further damage, though the innocent civilians in the area had thankfully been moved well out of harm's way.

"My continued existence is a pretty great argument for not destroying humanity," Jack agreed with the patriotic paragon, tumbling through the air past the crackle of some severed power lines. The acrobatic hero's voice was strained, though not by physical exertion; it was clear his light-hearted rejoinder was nothing but a pretense. By the time his feet touched the ground again, an arcing rapier of electricity had formed in his hand, lashing out in a warding strike across one of the plant matter doppelgangers. The blade exposed a thin line of black, blood-like sap, but the creature responded with surprising speed, catching Jack with a glancing blow that forced him to give up ever more ground.

As the crumbling buildings on either side of the melee gave way despite her best efforts, Jill released her force field support beams and instead threw her hands forward, encapsulating another of the simulacrums in a shimmering blue bubble of energy. "Wait, so... what?" the teenage medic asked distractedly as her prisoner lashed about. "Does that mean Willow's like... a sleeper agent who's been 'activated'? Why are -" The rest of her question was cut off as the creature gathered its strength and stuck against the sphere, punching a fist-sized hole in the force field with a sound like breaking glass and drawing back for another battering attack.

Nearby, Geckoman was harried by the plant clone he'd attack, staying a step ahead by virtue of superhuman reflexes and the surprising combat experience of his young years. The final creature leapt into the air, thin leaf membranes sprouting under its arms and keeping it aloft as it dove toward Miss Americana, catching the laser firing heroine with a resounding punch across her slender jaw, which nevertheless seemed to side off her impervious physique.

[quotemyname]

"Please keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times," Ferros spoke, attempting to make light of the serious situation, "Hey, Interceptor Airlines is not responsible for lost or damaged goods, ya know?"

Ferros floated into the air on his signature Yin-Yang disc. Tiny, errant bits of metal began swirling around him ready to be used to deflect incoming attacks in the coming battle. He lifted his hands and the trolley-like transport began hovering in the air above the nearby buildings next to him, "Please, have a safe trip!" He made one last motion with his hands, like a airport runway attendant, and the trolley sped off toward a distant section of the town. Ferros set it down atop a building as far from the conflict as he could, while ensuring an accurate, soft, and most importantly safe landing.

"Now," Ferros rotated slowly on his flying disc. He had his arms folded, and his mask was a implacable sheet of metal devoid of any expression, save for the cold hard eyes carved into it. "Perhaps you'd like to stop destroying our home, which we haven't even been able to fully rebuild yet? Or are we going to have to make you?" He started down at the assembled plant beings, prepared to do what he had to to defend Freedom City.

[Avenger Assembled]

"No, I won't-" In the air, Willow seemed to be struggling with herself, or perhaps against some voice giving her commands that only she could hear. "Not them, they need to grow, for the sapling's sake-" She convulsed then, her plants convulsing with her, as a silvery sheen like the Gorgon's metallic body swarmed over her skin, her hair beginning to whip up over her head into a crown like metallic snakes. From the guardian's lips there burst a mechanical voice that rang with a tone of roaring command: everyone there recognized the voice of the Gorgon. "IF YOU WILL NOT DO YOUR ANCIENT AND ACCUSTOMED WORK, THEN PERHAPS YOUR FRIENDS WILL DO IT FOR YOU! THIS PLANET WILL BE PRESERVED!"

Suddenly, a giant flower colored and shaped something like a malignant purple alien daisy erupted on the ground near Geckoman, fast as a bomb going off and quicker than he could react. What he first thought was a spray of pollen erupted from the plant and sprayed over his body in a blast of reddish-green powder, smelling strongly of an acrid mixture of lilacs and burning garbage. When he opened his mouth to gag, he realized what was really happening: that "pollen" was motile and crawling on his skin like a million wriggling ants, working its way into his pores, into his nostrils, and into his mouth: and as it filled him everywhere he realized he could hear the voice of the Gorgon too. "DEFEAT THOSE WHO ARE TRYING TO STOP WILLOW."

[Ecalsneerg]

Geckoman frantically ducked and weaved to avoid his opponent's attacks, pivoting on one foot suddenly to regain a new fighting position, bobbing forward to try and deal a scything uppercut... but the pollen held him back, infiltrating his pores and his mind. Dammitdammitdammitdammitgetoutgetoutgetoutgetout.

He clawed at his head, even as he found himself darting up the vines towards Jack and Jill, fist drawing itself back as he rushed towards them in a mad blur. Ohdamnohdamnohdamn GET OUT OF MY HEAD But it was to no avail, as he swept his hand at a high speed toward's Jill's face, in a near-perfectly executed uppercut.

[Gizmo]

To her credit, Jill had put in the time to become an accomplished hand to hand fighter and an able combatant in her own right. Unfortunately, that was only enough to provide her the reflexes to almost avoid the speed and ferocity of an unrestrained Geckoman's blow. The young woman managed to catch the blow on her shoulder, but rolled with it poorly, crashing painfully to the broken concrete. Even through the pained haze that immediately accompanied the blow, the medic could tell that her arm had been wrenched, potentially dislocated. Not even having time to yelp, she instead let out a muffled grunt as she clutched her arm and attempted with difficulty to get back to her feet.

[Electra]

Miss Americana paced Willow as the seemingly-mad plant controller flew down towards the earth, drawing up a hundred feet above the city. Her eyes narrowed as she listened to the attempt at resistance, followed by the Gorgon's unmistakable commands. "I'm sorry, Willow," she called, "but we can't let you do this. I'm almost certain you wouldn't want us to let you." Taking aim, she extended a hand, her red, white and blue lasers shooting out with pinpoint accuracy. They struck Willow straight in the chest... and dissolved, doing no damage whatsoever.

Miss A raised a perfectly sculpted brow. "This... could be a problem," she said to no one in particular.

[Gizmo]

"Aw, nertz," Jack groaned, evading the continued attack of the plant creature he was fighting to see the bewitched Geckoman attack his sister. "This could be going better." Extricating himself from his current opponent, he acrobatically made his way over to the lime green clad teenager. "Sorry, Goggles, but I'm sure you'll give me a hard time about double standards when this is all over," he noted before delivering a solid left hook to his unfortunate teammate's midsection, not wanting to risk using his electrical blade. With any luck, he might be able to keep Geckoman busy long enough for him to fight his way free of the pollen's control. Then again, luck hadn't exactly been on their side that day.

The orchid construct that had been fighting Geckoman turned its attention to the swashbuckler in turn, working with it's identical sister to harry the suddenly well outnumbered hero. Meanwhile, as the cracked force field around it shimmered out of existence, the third simulacrum took flight to join the one already in the air, the pair of them speeding over to Ferros as he called out from his flying disk. The first of them feinted the young man with a near miss, but the second connected with the force of a tree truck, crashing directly into his metallic mask.

[quotemyname]

Ferros' head snapped backward. Narrowly avoiding whiplash, he slowly leveled his head again. The steely eyes of his mask narrowed. A small rivulet of blood trickled out from under his mask and down his neck. "Huh. I think you just broke my nose. Way to go."

Ferros all but ignored the two combatants in front of him. Instead of fighting, he raised his arms to the side, and turned up his palms. Every bit of unattended metal in the area from lamp posts, to street signs to the metal that used to reinforce the concrete of the now demolished buildings slowly began to melt. "Willow! Enough of this! You're hurting people, ya know? It's time to stop!" He clapped his hands together in front of him. The metal in the area leaped to life, propelled by his power. Many of the smaller pieces soared into the are to tie up the two simulacrums in front of him. Others attempted to tie up Geckoman and the combatants on the ground. A few of the larger pieces acted like giant staples, attempting to bind some of the giant tentacles to the pavement. One last snaky lamp post leaped to life, still fastened to the ground, the end of it coiled around Willow's legs, all the way up to her arms and midsection.

Ferros wiped some of the blood from the area under his mask. The mask itself, conformed to the nose beneath it, instead of providing it's usually featureless facade. The nose of the mask moved suddenly and there was a 'crack' as the bones in his nose became properly set. Briefly the eyes winced. Then the entire mask returned to it's normal featureless appearance. "Yea... MMmm... That smarts, ya know? Please don't keep doing this. Please don't make us keep doing this. I won't ask again!" He extended one of his hands, and clenched it into a fist. The metal ensnaring their enemies cinched tight enough to threaten cutting off circulation. The one binding Geckoman did tighten, but not by very much. Ferros was clearly not trying to damage his teammate very much.

[Avenger Assembled]

"FOOL!" As the metal bonds wrapped around her body, the Gorgon-hued Willow flexed cosmically-empowered muscles and shattered the tons of steel and iron encasing her as if they'd been so many licorice whips encasing a rampaging powerhouse. As she did so, Geckoman began to feel the voices in his head dying out as the severed connection to the control spores meant that they began to wither and decay where they lodged inside his body.

To the others, she added, "THE STEEL AND STONE OF A THOUSAND WORLDS HAVE TRIED TO ENSNARE THE GORGON AND HER VASSALS! YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME! I AM GOD AND MONSTER AND YOU ARE INSECT AND GERM!" Freed, she hurled a mighty blow at Miss Americana, a fist writhing with cosmic vines coming so close to the gynoid's face that far away in her cradle Gina could feel the rush of wind. Whatever was controlling Willow wasn't pulling its punches either; one good hit and the Miss Americana robot would look more like a Rock 'Em Sock 'Em patriot than the piece of high technology she was, not to mention what it would do to Gina herself through the connection.

Having missed, she took stock of the situation and gave a hiss like an alien snake as she seemed to come to a satisfactory solution. With the civilians rescued, she pointed at Ferros and added a menacing "GOOD! YOU HAVE DONE MY WORK, LITTLE POLESTAR! NOW THAT THE WASPS HAVE REMOVED THE ANTS, THE PRUNING OF THE WEEDS CAN BEGIN!" She began gesturing and plants began erupting everywhere, massive spiked weeds like something from a gardener's nightmare, pointed at the heroes like so many loaded guns ready to go off. If she wasn't stopped soon, something very bad was going to happen!

[Ecalsneerg]

Geckoman coughed and spluttered as Jack's fist ploughed into his stomach, driving him back a few steps, and causing his system to begin retching... retching up chunks of pollen that had begin crawling through his system. Wheezing as he brought himself up from being bent double, he managed to casually roll under the metal that Ferros had tried to use to restrain his mind controlled self.

"Well," he said quietly, teeth bared. "Well, well, well." And he looked straight up, and winked at Miss Americana. "Anyway," he continued in a pained-sounding voice. "For all your so-called power, turning us against each other, destroying our city... we're not down, Willow. Come on, finish it off. Hit me! What's the matter, this weed not pruning as easily as you'd have liked!" He let out a harsh, gasping breath, praying Miss Americana would figure out he was trying to distract the plant lady so she could get a clean shot off. "I said, bring it!" This is going to hurt... Oh, yes, it's going to huuuurt

[Electra]

Miss A watched the combat below, wincing in sympathy as Jack delivered a punishing blow to Geckoman. It actually seemed to do some good though, she watched as the lizard-themed hero's personality seemed to seep back into him. Catching the wink, she cracked her knuckles in just such a way as to divert power from her targeting subsystems to the lasers themselves. The moment Willow's attention was diverted to the ground, Miss A fired, the beams sizzling from her fingertips and shooting right into the mad plant controller's chest!

[Avenger Assembled]

The beams scorched a visible hole in the metallic sheen encasing the transformed Willow, exposing the dryad's bare flesh underneath for a moment before the hole melted itself together again in a flash: despite the recovery, though, there was still a divot visible in Willow's skin, showing where Miss Americana had done some damage. "AAAGH!" screamed the warped avatar of the Gorgon, the metallic snakes in her hair hissing and snapping in chorus with their 'master's' pain. Miss Americana certainly had the rampaging plant controller's attention, for all that was something of a mixed blessing. "PUNY THING OF FLESH AND BONE! THE STINK OF CORRUPTION IS IN YOUR SOUL!"

[Gizmo]

As the blinding beams of light cut into the metallic sheen covering Willow, Jack caught a brief glimpse of familiarly coppery skin along with the note of pained reaction. To his metamagi senses, cosmic energy rolled off of the controlled woman in violent waves vacuum cold and alien disharmonies. Greatcoat thrown back behind him in the furious force of the surrounding chaos, the swordsman's expression was for moment one of undisguised agony before it abruptly set with decision. "...well, that'd be it, then," he muttered to himself almost thoughtfully before launching into a sprint for the nearest erupting mass of thorny plant matter.

"Alright hiss-for-brains, here's the score," he shouted as he lept upon the thrashing vine and used its momentum to launch himself further upward toward another verdant tentacle. "You attack my home, my people, and maybe there's not a lot I can do against a giant space hag looking to plastic-couch-cover the damn planet," Jack admitted as he tucked in upon himself and tumbled through the air before landing on a brick outcropping just as it crumbled away and he was back into the air. "But lady, you are going to have to find another dryad because this one's taken!"

The swashbuckler's mad path upward and side to side brought him finally to where the besieged immortal hovered, and before she had a chance to react his arm was around her shoulders and his lips upon her own. As he did, the energy manipulator pulled upon the untold oceans of unearthly radiation suffusing Willow and pulled at it, syphoned it into himself with nowhere else to put it. His mind and body shrieked silently at the misuse, but Jack continued, holding his lover close and refusing to let go.

[Avenger Assembled]

The stolen energy poured around Erik as if he'd put his face to a blowtorch; he was standing in a field of cosmic radiation that could have transformed him into a statue or simply flash-fry him into ash and fire in a second. But there were few men more nimble than Jack of all Blades, and he stood in the flames without being burned. As for Willow herself, the booming, pleading voice in her head seemed to fade to a dull roar at Jack's approach, letting her hear his words and understand them. She wasn't alone. She had her partner right there, and as she realized that, the voice in her head didn't get any louder: as the heroes looked on, the Gorgon-grey coating of metal over Willow's body seemed to grow thin and tarnished, as if ready to crack at any moment.

[April]

The metallic coating split and started to peel back, starting from Willow's fingers and quickly moving along the arms that held tightly to Jack of All Blades, flakes of the cosmic metal flaking off and rapidly disintegrating into powder.

The ancient Guardian could sense the Gorgon's displeasure, could hear its scream of rage in her very blood, but the voice was growing more distant now and the suppression of her will was easing. But it hurts, the dryad thought, Makers preserve me it hurts. The intensity of the pain sharpened and Willow tore her lips away from the metamagi and let loose a sound of utter agony as the metallic coating suddenly, and violently, peeled away from her face.

The coppery-skinned woman buried her face into Jack's neck with a sob. "The High Sister...she and I are the last of the Preserver's constructs. I fear she will not let me go easy," she whispered, her voice raw. Then she added, "Nor the child."

[Gizmo]

Jack's weight pulled down upon Willow's arm and shoulder as he went largely slack, a reminder that he was in no way airborne himself underscored by the faint charred smell the lifted from his cosmically singed coat. "Jus' let 'er try..." he managed to croak with a shaky smile even as his vision swam in and out of focus. He attempted a chuckle that came out as more of a hacking cough before continuing, "Musta take more outta me than I thought... Sounded like y'said..." Trailing off into silence, the fencer craned his neck to look toward the white haired head pressed against him.

[Avenger Assembled]

Suddenly in the sky overhead, a grey-skinned face of metal and snakes appeared in a torrent of light: for a half a second, the heroes thought the Gorgon had arrived early. Instead, her image was simply projected overhead, hovering above the street at some minuscule fraction of her actual size. At the sight of Willow in Jack's arms, she gave a great cry of terrible grief so loud it rang across the West End. "Sister, in the name of those that made us, I beg you not to abandon your charge! In uncounted eons of time and unmapped vastness of space, I have met only one of us who still remembers our ancient and mighty cause." They'd spoken of sending Willow's child along as the Gorgon's herald, out there in the vastness of space, but that seemed not to be on her mind at all. "Sister-daughter. Do not abandon all that we have been. All that we can be. Together."

[Electra]

With Willow's metallic coating peeling away and Jack of all Blades in little condition to hold himself upright, much less in the air, their situation vis-a-vis gravity was beginning to look rather grim. In an instant, Miss Americana was there, catching both of them at the waist and sweeping them towards the ground. "Get her out of here, Jack," she told the swordsman with quiet urgency. "If you can get to Freedom Hall you can join the evacuation to where the Gorgon can't follow. We'll..." She looked up at the sky, at the relatively small but still massive face above them. "We can buy you some time, at least." Setting the pair on an unbroken patch of street, she rocketed back up into the sky, a defiant arrow in the face of the ancient stone goddess.

[Gizmo]

"Feel like I should be surprised he's trying to save the day by making out," Jill remarked as she staggered over to Geckoman's side, closing ranks and gathering mystically amplified bioelectricity about her in readiness to hold the line, "but it's kinda been that kind of couple of months, huh?" With the Gorgon's hold on Willow splintering away, the plant matter constructs withered where they stood and floated, falling apart into shriveled leaves and broken twigs before they could hit the ground. Similarly, the massive outcroppings of vine and trunk curled in upon themselves, settling among the ruined buildings.

[quotemyname]

The metallic staples and coils created by his power remained, even as Ferros let his influence drop. He turned his eyes to the sky, seeing the metallic face of the Gorgon, created from the dust of the strange cosmic armor that had encased Willow earlier.

He hovered to a place near the others. Hovering just above both Jill and Geckoman, he looked skyward and cleared his throat. "Hey! 'Sister', ya know? I've had about enough of your Armageddon bull crap." He waved his hand, and the metallic dust that formed her lips pulled shut. "So, can it, ya know?" Following her lips sealing up, Ferros began to compress the metallic particles smaller and smaller. Hoping to remove her image from the sky.

Well now, can't have her scaring all the people...

After a few seconds, the entirety of the Gorgon's face had been compressed down to a small metallic orb. Ferros brought it near the rest of the group. The others could see the particles in a sort of liquid metal, almost Mecurial state, struggling against his influence. But he managed to keep it in check. "Now this," He accepted the orb into an outstretched hand, "Should make an interesting study..."

[Ecalsneerg]

"Eh," remarked Geckoman to Jill. "There are worse ways to save the day than ramming your tongue down a girl's throat." He looked up at the sky, frowning at the giant face. "Sorry about the punching, by the way."

He rolled his shoulders and leaned his neck to one side with a nauseating click. "Ow." With that, he began limping his way towards the Pitchoo, pulling out the remote as he went to make it come forward and meet him. "We can load Willow in here, get to an evacuation point quicker. Or take her to my base, I should be able to rig up something to stop the Gorgon busting in unless she bodily comes to the planet."