ic [Gorgon] The Gods Themselves (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

North Bay

September 22, 2011

While interstellar monsters weren't the specialty of anyone on the Liberty League these days, the new superteam was on high alert as the Gorgon's approach brought a dawning chaos the world. They'd only been back from Switzerland a few days, but those had been busy days for many of them between the Gorgon's coming, Edge's visit home, and of course various changes in Wander's general lifestyle. The wealthiest neighborhoods in town had so far avoided the panic beginning to gnaw at the poorer areas of the city, or at least that panic had been confined to the interiors of beautiful mansions rather than on the wide streets. North Bay, the home neighborhood of Ace Danger and the Midnights, had locally been the scene of one particular set of bizarre local disasters: localized thunderstorms had rocked the area for nearly 48 hours, flooding the streets, blowing tiles off roofs, and worst of all setting several homes ablaze as lightning strikes rocketed down from the sky in the middle of the 'North Bay storms' as the news was calling them. No one had died, yet, but several people had been hospitalized from electrical shock and at least one home, the Munoz manor near the waterfront, had burned to the ground with total loss of property. It couldn't be a coincidence, and so the new team had gathered together beneath Midnight Manor to discuss evidence and options.

[Gizmo]

Midnight had brought the other heroes into the Manor through remote access tunnels, surreptitiously disabling any tracking or positioning devices along the way. There wasn't any helping them knowing that the underground base was in the North End, but he wasn't ready to give up any more secrets to Ace or Bombshell than he had to, and Cannonade had other loyalties to consider. Leading the group into main cavern, smoothly cut rock and polished hardwood immaculately maintained, Midnight stopped in front of a large round table of brushed stainless steel surrounded by high backed chairs. Already spread across its surface was a map of the area printed with meteorological data and hand written notes.

[Avenger Assembled]

The world-threatening apocalypse hadn't done much for Mark's peace of mind, particularly given his role as a putative protector of global peace. However, despite his great power, his youth and inexperience meant he just wasn't trusted with UNISON's big plans for how they were planning to ride out the disaster: he was on call, ready to step back to Geneva at a moment's notice, but he had enough free time to work with his friends and comrades here in his real home. Normally a trip to the Midnight Manor was a subject for squeeing and peeking around under the watchful eye of its usual inhabitants, but not when a serious emergency threatened. Instead he focused on the map and the data there, trying to make sense of things he honestly knew nothing about. "It's strange that there should be so much happening in North Bay," he hazarded. "I mean, you're not particularly high up, and I don't think there's a lot of conductive material around..." Well, except in places like Danger Manor and the Midnight Manor, but they hadn't been the targets of the storms to begin with.

[Electra]

Wander sat in one of the chairs and folded her hands in her lap, the black and purple of her uniform and mask in high contrast to the paleness of her face. There'd been more than enough to keep anyone busy for the past few days, and she and her friends hadn't seen much of each other since she moved into her new place. And if she looked more ill-at-ease than usual today, there were certainly enough reasons. "Maybe it's something to do with the currents and the ocean," she hazarded. "I mean, something as big as the Gorgon is probably going to mess up gravity and stuff like that, make weird weather patterns? Someplace with a lot of beachfront and not so many houses might see it first."

[trollthumper]

Cannonade hadn't quite been prepared for the scope of the cave. Sure, he knew Midnight was a legacy hero with a bunch of tricks to his name, but he had no idea how far those tricks stretched. It was overwhelming to behold, and almost too much to take in... but he couldn't let himself be distracted. The end of the world might have been imminent -- again -- but there were other matters to discuss.

"Could just be some guy with weather powers taking advantage of the chaos," he said. "Maybe Doctor Stratos is just pissed that Captain Thunder isn't returning his calls. Decides a little property damage is the way to go." He wracked his brain for other weather controlling malefactors, finally coming back to a recent incident. "There was this rogue valkyrie I dealt with a few months back. She didn't really like her style of therapy being criticized. Hit me in the face with thunder. She ended up getting sent back to Asgard, but there's always a chance she coulda broken out. Kinda doubt she'd be targeting the North Bay, though, even if it was her."

[angrydurf]

Ace pulled the blindfold from his eyes as he emerged from the tunnel, his own insistence not Midnights, one could never be sure when ones mind may be invaded and secrets not yours to give would be plucked out after all. And if you were a Danger that kind of thinking actually made sense.

The ageless hero had a faint smile touch his lips as he looked around, "I'm telling you they don't build em like this any more." he said fondly and patted one firm stone wall. "I'll take Freedom city bedrock over some lab monkeys concoction any day." he added resolutely if perhaps overselling a bit.

He looked to cannonade and nodded, "Stratos isn't really the type for random property destruction nor anonymity." he shook his head slightly, "No if unnatural this is someone reveling in the chaos of the storm ..." He trailed off for a moment and poked about on a nearby shelf as he absently pondered possible causes.

[alderwitch]

Bombshell was making a small puddle on the floor of the lair as she did her best to quickly towel dry her hair. Whatever she'd been engaged in before the summons, she was still wearing her civvies and she was soaked through to her skin, with her mouth a grim line. As everyone here had been witness to how fast she could costume up when needed, her activities had been very deliberately not in costume whatever they had been before arriving in the secret lair.

"It's unnatural. The whole bloody thing is unnatural so why should North Bay be an exception." Bombshell offered flatly. "We'd be better off spinning a wheel for the reasoning than trying to find logic to explain a world gone mad."

She sighed and with obvious effort reigned in her acerbic words to pinch the bridge of her nose, "My money's on magic. Science has more rhyme and reason to it than this and its awful large to be a rogue mutant but frankly, I haven't the foggiest and I haven't had any time to look into things so I'm just shooting in the dark. I hate shooting in the dark."

[angrydurf]

Ace nodded agreement with Talya even as he rather blatantly appreciated her sopping wet form. "Yes I think this is certainly too chaotic to be generated with science." he agreed as he looked out over the mapped out clusters of strikes. "They are all over the place." he said as he studied them and blinked a few times in surprise before seizing the topmost map and rapidly scrawling out a jagged rune connecting the areas of most activity, "Or perhaps not so random." he said as he slapped it down and pointed, "My old Norse isn't what it used to be but I believe that says DONAR." he let the name ring in the vaulted chamber appreciating yet another feature of the excellent hideout, very dramatic acoustics.

[trollthumper]

"Donar?' Cannonade slapped his hand to his helmet, not hard enough to dent the steel but hard enough for the clanging impact to resound slightly off the cave's acoustics. "Great. More freaking Nazis. So, what are our options here? A, this is some fanboy who managed to get his hands on the same powers as the old Donar and decided to just cause some property damage. B, this is his ghost deciding to take it out on the Yanks in the most ineffective way possible." Something clicked soon after the words left his mouth. "Or C... it's the other Donar. Thor. Gotta say, that makes a hell of a lot more sense..."

[Gizmo]

Midnight made a curt noise in the back of his throat, a harsh sound through the filter in his mask. "Hnh, Norse." Never the most subtle of pantheons, the Norse gods were best known in more modern times as supposedly unwilling minions of the Third Reich. If they truly believed that the Gorgon was about to condemn the Earth to its effective doom, perhaps they would be looking to leave a few final marks on the globe. "Why North Bay?" Regardless of the source, it seemed an odd location for such overblown graffiti.

[Electra]

"Lot of old families in North Bay," Wander offered, her voice slightly strained. "People owning the land their great grandparents had and stuff. Maybe somebody messed with them or got in their way a long time ago and they want some payback. Maybe we should like look at the family whose house actually got burned down, see if they fought in World War Two or anything like that. But if the Pact is getting weak, you know, weak enough for things to come through, we could be in more trouble... or maybe he got summoned," she guessed suddenly. "People are probably calling on lots of gods right now, right? Maybe somebody in North Bay is trying to get his attention."

[Avenger Assembled]

"That is how gods have made appearances in the past," hazarded Edge at Erin's suggestion. "But why would someone call on Donar in particular? I mean, the Norse pantheon doesn't exactly have a great record, either for being good people or for actually accomplishing something except killing. I mean, there was that Norse superheroine active here, but I think she was probably just inspired by the Valkyries or something." Like most people who got their history from World War II veterans, Mark didn't view the Asgardians with any particular charity. He hmmed. "Why don't we-" Suddenly, there was from the invisible sky above a tremendous boom of thunder, clearly audible even down below at the base of Midnight Manor, the loudest yet that the North Bay residents had heard of this storm that hadn't yet gone away.

Looking on the Manor's security cameras, the heroes could clearly see what had happened: a massive lightning strike in the middle of North Bay Park just a half-mile away had done more than scorch the landscape: standing in the middle of the strike's circle of charred grass, ignoring the rain beating down on him, was the unmistakable figure of a broad-shouldered, long-haired man in Norse armor, his massive hammer just visible by the grainy image of the security camera at the park.

[trollthumper]

"Eh, I ran into the Norse girl," Cannonade said. "She seemed to be the real thing. That crazy valkyrie I told you about? She seemed to recognize her as a colleague, and vice versa. Mind you, Thrude wasn't exactly happy with what the valkyrie was doing, and property damage ensued." He shook his head. "But yeah, if her colleague was any indicator, the pantheon's got its screw-ups. Could be --"

Cannonade's thoughts were cut off by the loud crack of thunder. He turned his attention to the cameras, and noticed the smoldering figure emerging from the crater in North Bay Park. "...or we could just ask him," he said. "Bet he'd be happy to explain."

[Gizmo]

"Hnn. Talking," Midnight grumbled, his voice grating flatly even as he turned back toward the deeper recesses of the cavern. At some point he must have made a gesture or subtle command, because a bank of lights mounted on the ceiling suddenly lit up, illuminating one of the larger vehicles in the Manor's extensive collection even as mechanisms rotated to position it toward the twisting path back outside. This particular iteration of the Night Cruiser had enough room for all present and its black paint absorbed the light being shone on it like smooth tar. "Let's welcome Donar to the neighbourhood."

[Avenger Assembled]

Wet though the roads were, the drive to North Bay Park was easy enough. After all, Trevor had been navigating these broad streets since he was a child, and this car could handle just about anything. It helped that the storm had, if anything, gotten worse since the god's arrival, sending cascading sheets of rain down on the battered neighborhood as a god stalked its streets. When the heroes arrived at the park, they found Donar alone still, his massive hammer over his shoulder. Those of them familiar with the Ubersoldaten who'd borne the deity's name could see the changes in him; this was not simply the Nazi super-thug reborn, this was something, or maybe someone, else entirely. "AT LAST, THE GOD OF THUNDER HAS RETURNED TO MIDGARD!" boomed the mighty thunder deity. "AS RAGNAROK APPROACHES, WHO WILL DARE STAND AGAINST ME!?"

"Who's he talking to?" muttered Edge from his seat in the back of the Night Cruiser. "I don't think he's seen us, and no one else is out in this..."

Donar raised his hammer and a bolt of lightning cracked to Earth on the weapon he wielded, his voice carried on the subsequent clap of thunder itself. "YOU SEE, ALLFATHER, HOW THEY FEAR TO FACE ME! I SHALL HAVE ASGARDIAN JUSTICE ON THE CRIMINALS OF MIDGARD WHO DARED ASSAULT AND IMPRISON A GOD BEFORE THEY ARE TAKEN BY RAGNAROK!"

[Electra]

Wander, who had been quiet even for her during the drive over, took her bat from its holster and held it in her clenched fingers as the car drew to a halt. "Do we have a plan?" she murmured to Midnight, watching the putative god and his blustering with eyes that were just a little too wide. It wasn't as though nerves weren't a natural reaction when faced by a powerful godling stomping around at the end of the world, but they'd already faced down the armies of Omega. What did she have to be afraid of? "Do we just go in and try to take him down?"

[Gizmo]

Midnight made a flat harrumphing noise that managed to articulate his annoyed disdain despite its brevity. "Should try talking him down," he allowed, though he clearly had little hope of success there. The Norse pantheon was not known for its susceptibility to reasoned argument, and even among them Donor had a reputation for violence and mule-headedness. "Like any other rioter. Lashing out thinking there won't be time for consequences." Granted, the scale was different, but the motivations were frustratingly base.

[trollthumper]

Cannonade was taken by what he was seeing. Sure, he'd heard Thrude's side of the story - Donar had been lashed into bondage by the sorcerers of the Thule-Gesellschaft, made to fight for the Axis like a puppet with an atom bomb. It was little wonder the god of thunder would be angry with his captors, or that he'd want to take vengeance. But if vengeance was what he wanted, he was definitely pointed in the wrong direction.

"I'm leaning towards ass-kicking myself," he said. "Something tells me a polite lecture to the tune of, 'The Nazis are thataway' wouldn't work here."

[Avenger Assembled]

Mark shot Erin a look of confusion for a moment, not sure what was going on with her. It wasn't that Edge had gotten better at reading or understanding people, just that he had a lot of experience with faking your way through life. "Ahh...well, let's try this. If he takes a swipe at me, you guys can always do something." And so with fearless confidence, his cape dripping wet behind him as the storm intensified, Edge left the Liberty League and walked right up to the roaming god, standing between him at the edge of the park. Aw man, I hope this works... "Donar! I greet you on behalf of the people of Earth." There, he hadn't managed to call him out as Hitler's lackey, that had to count for something. "What brings you to, ah, Midgard today?" He was fearlessly confident in the face of divine wrath, which worked out well and also focused Donar's attention on him.

"I know you," growled the thunder god in a voice like the raging storm, his rage seeming to momentarily calm but in no way abate as he focused in on Mark Mason Lucas. "You, and your like. If you would see this world pass peacefully into its end, TELL me where I can find those who assaulted and imprisoned me during my time here seventy years ago. If they hide from me now, I shall hunt them down one by one and their SOULS will be mine ever after!"

[angrydurf]

Ace examined the angry god with a perplexed look for a long moment. "Now I'm no expert, but last I heard gods were not supposed to be able to manifest on this plane." he mused glancing around to the others. As Edge stepped forward to confront the raging Asgardian he slid from the car to follow, though at a safe distance, whatever meaning that had with a being that could summon thunder and lightning. Donar or Thor or whoever it was seemed at least to recognize that his chosen quarry was not in evidence at the least. "The ones who imprisoned you are long dead." he spoke crisply and clearly above the din, "Those who still follow their fool ideology cower in shadow and deceit. Why would you give them the privilege of death in battle? Why not let them perish as they have lived cowards and fools?" Something about this didn't smell right to Ace perhaps some answers may be forthcoming. If nothing else it may keep the god busy long enough for Midnight, Bombshell and Wander to get into a more advantageous position.

[alderwitch]

Bombshell slid out of the car, having managed to change wet clothes for her black-on-black costume. She narrowed her eyes at the norse god and muttered to Ace, "I don't think the knock-out-lipstick will cut it. I am going to make myself scarce. You talk to him. The Norse always get so bloody handsy. All 'wench' this and 'ale-maid' that. Feh."

With a sniff of disdain that appeared to have some sort of history behind her dislike that went above and beyond the whole Nazi issue, Bombshell glided silently into the shadows to start working her way towards the thunder-god's back. Because if one simply HAD to hit a god, it was best for it to be a sucker punch from behind. At least that was her line of reasoning.

[Electra]

Wander slid out of the car almost reluctantly, spinning her bat to its full extension and following Mark through the rain and up to the posturing god-being. "It's been too long," she told Donar, her voice carrying over the noise of thunder. "In this dimension, the Nazis were defeated when our grandparents were young. You'd have to go to someplace like Erde to fight actual Nazis these days. This isn't really a good place or a good time." She held her bat in both hands, raised in a half-defensive posture that was ready to brace for a swing.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Aye, I will smash down Wilhelm Kantor and the others who have enslaved the Asgardians." The god peered closely at the heroes, particularly at the all-too-familiar Ace Danger: it didn't seem like he'd noticed either Bombshell or Midnight as they made themselves scarce. "But this is Ragnarok, the end of days, the time when the Pact falls away along with all else that keeps aside the world of gods from the world of men. I will not stop with those who once enslaved me." He pointed his hammer at Ace. "I. Know. You. Ace Danger, I call you out as a mortal who dared lay hands upon the flesh of a god. None may enslave a child of Odin! None may oppose his comings and goings, enslaved or otherwise! What have you to say in your defense before divine judgement is passed on you?" He pointed his finger, and lightning seemed to crack down towards his hammer.

[angrydurf]

Ace flashed the raging god an almost mocking smile, perhaps not the wisest of courses, but no one had ever accused Ace of that virtue, and replied easily, "Ah come on now we had some good times there Donar." he made a show as if recalling, "I mean there was that delightful evening at the cabaret in Munich after all." he suggested tone tilting up almost questioningly at the end. It wasn't perhaps entirely accurate but all the more likely to keep the gods attention focused squarely on Ace rather than his companions. Yes. Wisdom most certainly not one of Aces gifts.

Turning aside to Edge he murmured, "Really, You take a mans giant compensation hammer one time and he never forgives you." He paused, "Wish I had thought to bring those dwarf made bracers ..." he mused almost as an afterthought.

[Gizmo]

The Night Cruiser's driver had remained behind the wheel for the first round of dialogue with the posturing god, feeling he could do more good with the vehicle's compliment of equipment than in trying to talk Donar down. But at the thunder deity's latest round of boasts, the headlights of the oil slick coloured car sprang to life, hi-beams shining directly at the red-haired warrior. Cast against the blinding light calmly strode a silhouetted figure, a cloud of stygian smoke roiling about its feet. "Fought your slavers. Should be thanking him," a toneless voice carried across the air, clear despite the quiet sureness of its delivery, so unlike the shouts of their intended recipient. "Not the end of the world. Another threat, soon to be ended." Though without heat or emphasis, the implied threat hanging in the air was clear, all the more disconcerting in its nonchalant delivery.