ic [Gorgon] The Queen of Heaven (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

The Gorgon gave a brief, terrible cry and vanished at Ferros' and Miss Americana's attack; both heroes could tell it hadn't been in response to their approach, but rather a reply to Willow's silence. As the Gorgon vanished, the last of the animated plants crumbled away to ash, leaving the heroes with a very disordered square that had taken significant property damage. Thanks to their fast work and their direct engagement of Willow and her minions, they'd avoided deaths, though there were certainly plenty of injured to attend to. As for Willow herself, the Gorgon's final disappearance banished the last of her metal shell: the decaying "Gorgon-look" on her fell apart like so much decaying metal, leaving behind beneath a battered but very much Willow dryad.

As Miss Americana took stock of the situation, an armored figure that looked like Daedalus flew down to assist her, but it was Sharl's voice that came from the machine. "Miss Americana! Miss Americana...what happened?" he asked her, his own fears displaced by the tremendous battle he'd missed, bigger even than the fight with the Crime League. "Where can I help?"

[April]

Willow should have felt relieved--the Gorgon and her 'gifts' were gone from her body and mind--but she wasn't. There was visible tension in her body as she held herself against Jack and it was a good thing none could see her face because etched across it was guilt and shame.

She wanted to run, to vanish from the city and hide herself away until the memory of her faded. And it would be simple to do, none of the heroes present could stop her from running, and none could track her once she slipped away. But she couldn't, not really.

"I broke laws, beloved," she said quietly, voice somewhat muffled by Jack's neck. "I betrayed you, our friends, and our city. I betrayed the High Sister and my creators."

"And... and I hid the truth behind layers of meaning especially about your issue, your... child."

[Gizmo]

Considering how shaky Jack felt on his feet, it was a wonder either of them was remaining upright, especially since the unsteadiness wasn't entirely the result of physical exhaustion. Part of his had remained irrationally convinced that he had somehow misunderstood Willow's earlier comment, but there it was. "That's what you meant by 'issue'?" he blurted, his voice still quiet enough that it didn't pass far beyond the pair. "I thought you were talking about, y'know... the 'swordmaster's blade'." He raised his free hand immediately to ward off a response. "Sorry, cylinders are kinda firing at random here. Dios, I'm going to be father...?"

Running the hand across the side of his bandana mask distractedly, the fencer forced himself to focus his disjointed attention of the woman leaning against him. "Alright. Look, this, all of this... was pretty bad, yeah, but I get it," he told her seriously, indicating the devastation surrounding them. "You didn't want to... let down your family, right? But you made the right call in the end, and you've got a new family now." Despite a visible tremor rattling his nerves, Jack managed a lopsided grin. "I know you're not up on all the human social cues, but when a guy uses himself as a crazy space juju lightning rod to give your sculpted, immortal booty a chance to break free, it's usually considered a grand-freaking-gesture, okay? It implies things. About feelings."

[quotemyname]

"Miss Americana! Catch!" Ferros sent the ball of now dead metal through the air toward the flying heroine. He hoped she'd know what to do with it better than he would. Ferros had other things to take care of.

As soon as the ball of metal was in her hands he turned his attention to Jill, flying toward her on his disk, "Jill, I think we'd better attend to the civilians. They've been unattended since I set them down on that building, ya know? I'm not sure if any of them had been injured before I managed to send them away. So, hey, I was hoping you might be able to offer them your considerable talents," Ferros moved to the edge of his metal disk. His powers extended it so that there would be room for her to stand, "If you'd like to hop on, I can give you a lift over there while the others handle things here." Ferros gestured with his hand to the extra space on the disk.

[Electra]

Miss Americana, her attention pulled in many directions at once, almost didn't see the ball of metal as Ferros lobbed it her way. She bobbled it and dove after it like a hawk going for a fish, scooping it up before it hit the ground as though she meant to do that all along. Holding it in one hand, she flew over to Sharl while keeping one eye on Jack and Willow. "I think we're starting to calm down here," she told him, even as civilians began to creep out from their hiding places. "It got a little hairy for a minute. Aren't you supposed to be over at Freedom Hall with the other students?" she asked.

[Avenger Assembled]

"The Crime League attacked," said Citizen, sounding scared even through the armor as he helped Miss Americana set the ball down in a safe spot where it wouldn't roll onto the citizenry below. "Blackstar, Hiroshima Shadow, and Dr. Stratos. We caught Blackstar, and chased off Hiroshima Shadow, but..." He leaned close to Miss Americana and whispered as much as his mechanical body allowed. "Stratos took out the computer systems with an EMP charge. I just managed to jump into the suit. When we fought with him, he seemed to recognize us. All of us. And in the end, in the end it wasn't Stratos! It was a Curator drone!"

[Gizmo]

"I hear that," Jill agreed with Geckoman's assessment, waving his apology off with one hand as she let her gathered energies ebb away at the Gorgon's apparent retreat. "Don't sweat it, greenjeans. You punch like a girl anyway." Offering the acrobatic animal-themed hero a weary smirk, she hobbled over to Ferros and his flying disk, taking a seat heavily on the side so that her feet dangled off of the hovering platform's edge. "Hoo. Alright, you can drive. Gonna need a minute." She agreed with the newest Interceptor that tending to any injured was the priority, even as she cast a cloudy glance toward her brother.

[quotemyname]

Ferros set his hovering disc to an easy coast away from the rest of his teammates and toward the civilians. He flew slow enough that it wouldn't threaten Jill's hold on the platform, but fast enough that they would arrive before any of the civilian's injuries could likely worsen.

Ferros noticed Jill's expression, and the focus of her attention, "He'll be okay, ya know?" Ferros told her without turning around. The wind swept his voice back in her direction so she could hear him well enough. "Jack is... Well, he's one of the guys you look up to. One of the good guys, ya know? See, I haven't been a hero that long. And hey, before I was up here flying around, I used to admire the West End's Witty Epeeist." Ferros paused for a moment as they sped onward. Just before he set them down on the rooftop where the civilians were resting he added with a certain finality, "So, Hey, Guys like him don't just give up or quit when the going gets rough. They fight back, ya know? So whether it's the Gorgon, or just some emotional stress, he'll be okay."

Ferros didn't have to say it. But they were both thinking it, He is the Jack of All Blades, after all.

"Is everyone okay?" Ferros called out as he strode off the disc and addressed the small crowd that he'd air lifted from the battle, "Is anyone hurt?"

[April]

Willow had pulled away from Jack, just enough space so that she could look him in the eyes. "As much as I would have desired it, I could not have been able to make that choice had you not said what you did, had you not done as you did," she said after a few moments of quietly searching the swordsman's face. The dryad's familiar impish grin made a brief return and she nipped at Erik's chin before resting her head against his chest.

"I should have told you." She breathed. "Stesha suggested that I should tell you about how I felt and about the baby, but I wasn't sure how you... I wasn't sure."

"But I am now."

[Gizmo]

"Wait, Sprouts knew before I did, too? Argh, man..." Jack groaned, still sounding a little off-balance as he placed a hand on the back of Willow's head. "Uh, right, leadery stuff. Ah..." Looking about to take stock of the larger situation once again, he found things already well in hand. Jill and Ferros were seeing to the civilians and damaged buildings while Miss Americana seemed to have already moved on to other concerns in the frantic chaos of the Gorgon's approach. Speaking of which... The swashbuckler scanned about until he found Geckoman approaching. "Alright, not out of the woods yet, we should still get you out of... range, I guess. Can gab a ride with Gecks. ...ah, Dios, have you been to see a doctor yet? There are... tests or something, right? And the kid's probably going to be a meta, too...!" Resting his chin atop the dryad's white hair, Jack's expression gradually turned more and more stricken as new concerns presented themselves one after another.

[Ecalsneerg]

Geckoman was visibly leaning on the dashboard of the Pitchoo as he steered it over to the group, one walkway hanging open to allow easy entrance. "Depends on the basis of the metahuman powers," he said helpfully. "But this isn't the time."

He busied himself pushing down one of the chairs until its cushion and backrest were both horizontal to the ground, forming a makeshift stretcher. "Load 'er up, bossman, and we can get the heck out of here. To wherever you think is best, really, at this point we've not got the most overabundance of options, but enough for a buffet. Sadly, a buffet isn't one of the options." He grinned and stood up sharply, grin fading as he heard something clicking near his stomach.

"Anyway... flying now," he said in a pained voice.

[Electra]

Miss Americana immediately flew Sharl a little bit away from the group, well out of hearing range. "A Curator drone?" she repeated. "Are you certain?" When he confirmed, she was silent for a moment, chewing on her perfect lower lip. "The intel we have," she said finally, "suggests that the Gorgon and the Curator are related in function and purpose. It could be that the Gorgon has a few drones working for it in various capacities. Hopefully, you were able to destroy it before it could upload any new information about you. We'd better take a look at it." She looked around, checking to make sure that the Interceptors had things in hand, then nodded to Sharl to lead the way.

[Avenger Assembled]

With a nod, Sharl led the way back towards Freedom Hall, Miss Americana in tow. They'd helped the injured and stopped the Gorgon's herald, as he'd find out later after Miss Americana told him what had happened to Willow and what Jack and the other Interceptors had risked to bring her down. Now they just had to make sure they hadn't saved the world once only to see it fall into danger yet again. The idea seemed unfair. Unless, he mused grimly, this particular threat hadn't been to the world at all. Maybe the Curator just wanted back the thing he'd lost.