ic [Gorgon] The Gods Themselves (IC)

[trollthumper]

Cannonade pulled himself out of the car as Midnight engaged in his own special brand of diplomacy. He was going to try something slightly more kindly.

"No one's trying to bind you, damnit," he said. "We're telling you the truth - there ain't any Nazis in the North End. If you're looking for Kantor, you'd better start looking for a graveyard in Germany - guy cracked in the Fifties, gave himself a stupid name, then got killed. I can tell you where to find his fanboys, but if you're gonna go in kicking their asses, you might try doing it without bringing the entire sky down on the neighborhood."

[Avenger Assembled]

"...why will none of you fight me!?!" said the thunder god, suddenly looking equal parts frustrated and furious. "Don't you know that this is Ragnarok, the end of all things? Your very world will soon be naught but cold metal ruin and soulless eternal-life-in-death!" He waved his hammer, lighting and thunder in the sky punctuating his every word. "I have earned my revenge, just as you have earned the honor and glory of battling a god! Is this how you want to spend your last days?" With one last great crack, the downpour above began again, now with gusto drenching not just the heroes but the god himself. "Is there so little fire in you? In ANY of you?"

[Electra]

"Do you have any idea what we've spent our summer doing?" Wander asked, suddenly sounding weary despite her nerves. She took a step forward, bringing herself front and center of the group. "It's been nothing but wall to wall gods and monsters. Omega, for Christ's sake. If the world were really about to end, it'd be kind of nice to get a little rest and downtime in with our families." She held up her bat as though getting ready for a line drive. "But since it's not the end, and people live here, we can't let you mess up the place. Go home, Donar. We don't want to fight you today."

[trollthumper]

Cannonade's last diplomatic nerve finally snapped under the assault of Donar's self-centeredness. "I can't believe it," he spat. "It's not about justice, or vengeance, or anything good or right. You just want to get your jollies before the world's reduced to slag. You want to go get your vengeance? No one's stopping you! I'm sure that there's some wizened old bastard down in Argentina who'd be real surprised to have you kick in his door! Or, hey..."

He pointed to the sky. "Maybe, if you actually gave a damn about the people who worshipped you -- their descendants, and the ones who still think you guys are awesome -- you'd do something about the big damn monster up in the sky threatening to kill them all. Maybe you'd actually try kicking the end times in the face. Maybe if it wasn't just thrill-seeking for you, you'd actually do something instead of just standing here bitching at us."

He stared down the god of thunder. "Y'know, I met someone claiming to be your daughter. Had the power to back it up, and she seemed real decent. I'd hate to have to meet her again and tell her that her dad was just a chump who knocked over sandcastles while a tidal wave was bearing down."

[Avenger Assembled]

Donar turned red; evidently the god of thunder was not used to being spoken to in that manner. "You...you DARE mention my rogue child to me!?! What I do as a father is no business of yours, you arrogant Olympian-headed buffoon! Let me show you what happens to those who DARE impugn the HONOR of the Asgardians!" And with that, he charged Cannonade, swinging his giant hammer as electricity crackled from its head! He was as fast as a crack of lightning, so fast he rendered Cannonade too startled to dodge out of the way from his deadly power. He reared back in a mighty swing, roaring an ancient Norse battlecry, but before his hammer could strike, Wander hurled herself between Cannonade and the hammer!

The girl who had traded blows with Shadivan Steelgrave and Omega was hit by the hammer...and suddenly rocketed off her feet, hurled backwards and away from the other heroes in a long, long arc that catapulting her way, way up into the sky, Wander visible as a hurtling, tumbling black dot that circled completely out of North Bay, right over the Narrows, and finally crashing down into the rising structures of the Ocean Heights Amusement Park, the same place where Young Freedom had fought mind-controlled people a lifetime ago, with a crash audible even across the river.

As the heroes recovered their shock, the god of thunder gloated: "Who's next?"

[Electra]

In retrospect, Erin wasn't entirely sure what strange impulse motivated her to step in front of Donar's hammer. Maybe she was afraid that Cannonade couldn't survive the hit, maybe it was simple force of habit that overcame fear and had her moving before she could think at all. Either way, when the electrified hammer began its swing, she covered the handful of steps in a heartbeat, pushing Cannonade aside and turning just in time for the blow to fall. It hurt it a way she had almost forgotten anything could hurt, and before she could so much as make a sound she was flying, bat falling out of limp fingers as she arced over the bay and far away.

She landed with a crash, and a force hard enough to knock the wind out of her again as wood splintered and people screamed. She caught the strong smell of sugary bubble gum and felt something sticky on her hair and skin. After a moment's dizzy disorientation, she opened her eyes to see she'd crashed into the amusement park, straight into a cotton candy kiosk. People were yelling in confused dismay and excitement all around her, but one helpful bystander pulled her to her feet and asked if she was all right.

"Yeah," Wander muttered, trying to wipe some of the mess away, then giving up. "Gotta go, sorry about the booth..." She waved a hand vaguely, then took off in a limping run that was still several times faster than any human athlete.

[Avenger Assembled]

"ONLY ONE OF YOU DARED FACE ME! NOW WITNESS HER GLORIOUS DEFEAT!" Now that battle had been joined, Donar was in the full rage of a rampaging godling: it was a bit like watching a child's temper tantrum, assuming said child had the power of the storm behind it. "I AM NO LONGER DRAPED IN STOLEN FLESH AND BLOOD! I AM DONAR, ALL-POWERFUL! ALL-CONQUERING!" He raised his mighty hammer high, lightning crackling from the head. "YOU WILL FIGHT AND YOU WILL DIE AT RAGNAROK LIKE THE WARRIORS YOU ARE IF I HAVE TO KILL YOU ALL TO DO IT!" He brought the hammer down with a devastating blow that triggered an eruption of lightning from the sky, a storm of electricity that came tearing down into Ace, Bombshell, and Edge, stunning the first two and knocking the latter off his feet.

[trollthumper]

"No." Cannonade righted himself, shaking off the onslaught from Donar's thunderstorm. The lightning had surged through his body and sparks were still arcing off of his helmet, but he was fine. "This isn't how the world ends. We've seen worse, and we've come through it. You're talking about fighting, but you're down here, just taking a magnifying glass to ants. Some freaking warrior god." He raised his fists and stared down the god of thunder. "We're not gonna surrender. Not like you."

[Gizmo]

For all his stoicism and masked expression, even Midnight's body language was not restrained enough to hide his surprise as Wander went flying through the air. Donar was strong, certainly, but something was clearly wrong. "Mistake," he grated, just a hint of heat slipping into his voice as his arm whipped back and then forward again with eye defying speed. A cord of woven darkness shot from out of his sleeve, a nano-carbon rope the unspooled as it was pulled upward by the momentum of the hook at its end. Whatever attack the thunder god had been expecting, that certainly hadn't been it. The line wrapped around him tightly, entangling his arms and legs in a maddening manner.

[Avenger Assembled]

Holy freaking... thought Edge as he staggered under the weight of the god's attack, his costume smoldering from the effects of a near-miss lightning strike. Blinking back shocking afterimages, he realized the grim scene: Ace and Bombshell were down, Wander was missing (had Donar really hammered her all the way across town?) and he and the others were in a bad way. And even after the fight in Switzerland, he was way out of practice when it came to super-battles. "All right, you Nazi scumbag," he spat, "I'll show you what the end of the world looks like!" Up from the depths of his reading of history and a half-remembered Neil Gaiman poem, Edge gestured wildly in the air as he summoned a black longship cast entirely out a foul substance that was on closer inspection human fingernails: working on board were the skeletal forms of undead Vikings. Hopefully Wander's not close enough to see this...

"Time for the ship of nails to make a stop!" exclaimed Edge, who had no idea the boat of the dead from Ragnarok was called Naglfar. Instead, he rammed the creation into the very surprised god of thunder, the massive blow ringing off Donar's body without seeming to do any damage. Gritting his teeth so hard he nearly bled, Mark spat a foul curse and did it again, shoving around the massive construction by sheer force of will.

"No! You pompous excuse for a god, you don't keep standing! Not this time! Not after what you've done!" And with that, he simply hurled the illusory ship at Donar, fragmenting it entirely to pieces along the way: this time, one of those pieces struck Donar across the face, a nail tearing at his divine skin as he struggled against his bonds.

"WHAT? HOW HAVE YOU DONE THIS?"

"Because I'm MAGIC!" Edge yelled back as Donar's return bolt missed his face, the god badly shaken by all the commotion.

[trollthumper]

Cannonade watched as Edge summoned a boat full of zombies out of mid-air and threw it right at Donar's face. He'd seen Edge do some pretty powerful things before - like the time he took out nearly every Nazi in Roeun in one blow - but it was another thing to see the guy conjure a god's fear and throw it right into his face. He made a mental note not to get angry with the guy.

Instead, he took advantage of the immortal's confusion to run up and try to punch the bound god in the face. "Not so easy when they fight back, huh?" he said. "To think I actually felt kinda sorry for ya. I thought you might actually want to sort things out, get back at all the bastards who've called on you to back up their racist crap. Turns out you were just another thug, looking for someone to beat up."

[Gizmo]

At the precise moment Cannonade's punch connected with Donar's face, Midnight wrenched on the binding cable encircling the thunder god, the timing and technique of the move adding momentum to the reeling deity's tumble. Even an airborne being could be knocked off balance and the combination of unorthodox attacks and defiant shouts had clearly set Donar off of his game. The Æsir fell toward the ground for a few seconds before unsteadily halting his decent, still struggling against the distracting cords entangling his might.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I'm tired of this," said Edge as he glared up at the writhing god at the end of Midnight's rope, Donar looking as though he was in the process of tearing his way free any second despite the sound beating he was taking. "I'm tired of your stupid religion, I'm tired of your stupid pantheon, and I'm tired of you constantly coming down to this planet and starting this crap! We have outgrown you! We have outgrown you, and your stupid wars, and everything else about you, you petty fascist in god's clothing. I don't care if you're just the German aspect of a real Norse god. GO AWAY!" And with his words, a giant rockspire erupted from the ground and cracked across Donar's back, bending the god double with a howl. "LEAVE!" Badly hurt, the god began to fall, just catching himself before he crashed to Earth.

[angrydurf]

Aces mouth tended to get him in trouble. Particularly when deities were involved, you could only fight so many gods, demi-gods, and elder things before you developed a certain degree of audacity after all. In the end it was not so surprising that the god had called down the thunder, literally in this case, at the affront. Of course that did little to blunt the rather shocking strike. Shaking his head to clear the static he took in the surroundings with wince, Donar was a bit tougher this time around, that or wander had learned to fly and developed a rather out of character fear of electricity, probably the former.

Drawing himself up and facing down Donar himself he adopted his usual cocky smirk and adjusted his hat upon his head, "While I appreciate the offer I dare say any so called deity those incompetent rubes in the Thule society could bind is going to have a rough time delivering me into the halls of the einherjar." he taunted with a dangerous gleam to his eye hoping to pull the asgardian of guard. Seeing his opening as the god was pummeled by Edges attack he lunged forward and snapped up his fist into an uppercut throwing the whole of his body behind the blow.

[Electra]

The impetuous god was obviously reeling from the combined attack of so many determined superheroes. Suddenly from outside the park came a whirring noise, like running feet on wet pavement, but much faster. In an instant, Wander was back in the park, covered in wet cotton candy and wood splinters, and with blood in her eye. Barely stopping to pick up her bat where it had fallen, she plowed into the god full force, clotheslining him and then skidding away on the wet earth. Amazingly, even after that he was still standing, but she reversed her stance, ran back, and finished the fight with one more bat to the head. "Should've gone home," she admonished Donar, before dropping her bat again and putting her hands on her knees to recover from the run across the bay.

[Avenger Assembled]

Wander's mighty blow finished the god, sending Donar sprawling back to the battered soil of North Bay Park. The storm overhead broke as he fell, and the clouds overheard parted as if in stop motion to reveal the beautiful blue sky overhead. Maybe there was still a much larger threat out there to face, but as a rainbow appeared in the sky, shining colorful and bright, Edge decided he was content with having defeated this one threat. They'd get the Gorgon, just like they'd gotten Donar, and they'd make sure no other cowardly thugs in god's, alien's, or time-travelers clothing would try and take advantage of one crisis for their own evil ends.

"Nice hit, Wander. And everybody else! Wow, we stopped a god! You don't do that every day." Donar had knocked Erin around pretty good, which meant he'd had a lot more mojo than Mark had expected. Before he could speak further, that same rainbow came reaching down right out of the sky to scoop up the fallen god. "Hey! Hey, we were going to arrest him!" he yelled as the rainbow rolled up like a carpet, scooping away the fallen thunder god in its rolls as it and he disappeared into the bright blue sky, leaving behind a mysterious black cauldron with the gleam of yellow inside, the wrought-iron bowl so heavy it nearly sank into the earth softened by rain and explosions. "Hey...hey, I think that's gold!"

[trollthumper]

Cannonade had seen many things living in Freedom City - gods, aliens, monsters, and all other sorts of weirdness. Seeing an actual, literal pot of gold emerge at the end of a rainbow was definitely a new one - especially when said rainbow was Bifrost, the means of getting to and from Asgard.

"Thought it was leprechauns that did that," he said when he finally managed to say something sensible. "This kinda screws with my entire world view." He walked over to the cauldron, taking a peek over the lip. "Wonder if this is the other gods saying, 'Sorry for the ranting assclown.'"

[Electra]

It only took a moment for Wander to have her breath and composure back, though she looked a bit put out about the fact that Donar was so quickly out of reach. She picked up her bat, collapsed and sheathed it, and walked over to have a look at the pot Edge and Cannonade were examining. "It's probably not real," she opined. "One of those, whatchee called, hubris things, where they try and get you to spend it so you get in trouble." Up close, Wander smelled like wet candy, which was the substance she appeared to be caked with as well. She reached a hand into the pot for one of its coins, ready to jerk her hand away if it tried to bite her or revealed any other malicious traits.

[Avenger Assembled]

The chest did indeed turn out to be full of real gold, at least as far as anyone assembled there could tell. Bombshell, who had some experience dealing with priceless objects, made a close inspection of the valuables inside and hmmed, taking out a little jeweler's loupe and studying the gold coins inside. "Hmm...looks like Norse pennigar, but cast in gold rather than silver." She bit down curiously on the coin and smiled in satisfaction. "Currency-grade, too!" A quick inspection by the master thief revealed a layer of silver underneath the gold, followed by copper. While there wasn't enough here to break the local economy, there was potentially enough to make everyone there effectively rich!

"Why do you think they left it?" asked Edge, shooting Bombshell a curious look. While it made sense to him that a descending magic rainbow would leave gold in its place simply as a fact of how the universe worked, something about this particular encounter had raised his suspicions. In his experience (which was to say, from his considerable readings of the history of World War II) the Aesir tended to do things for a reason, even if that reason was hard for mortals to follow.

"A bribe?" Bombshell speculated, casually pocketing the coin she'd been chewing on. "Or, to be more appropriate, darling, weregild. They pay us so we don't go up there looking to return the favor Donar did the park and those houses."

[Gizmo]

"Hnn. Bribe," Midnight observed sourly, looming for a moment as though considering finding a way into the halls of the Norse pantheon to deliver retribution there on general principle. Despite the classier spin Bombshell placed on the practice, it seemed nothing short of crass to him. Ultimately deciding it probably wasn't worth giving Donar any more attention, he instead turned to Wander and nodded his head subtly toward the over-sized iteration of the Night Cruiser, indicating that he wanted to have a private word with her.

[Electra]

Wander picked up on the subtle cue from Midnight, but looked reluctant to respond to it for just a moment. "It'll be nice for the folks who have injuries or damage from this whole Gorgon mess," she pointed out. "We've had so many goddamned disasters this summer, there's probably not a lot of rebuilding funds left to tap." She tossed the coin she'd been examining back into the chest, then squared her shoulders and turned to follow Midnight to the car. As she went, she picked a few splinters out of her hair, but the cotton candy was a lost cause.

[Gizmo]

Arriving at the far side of the vehicle first, placing its glossy black frame between himself and the irksome pot, Midnight leaned against it slightly, knowing well enough how to avoid scratching its admittedly durable finish. As Erin arrived, Trevor straightened to absently pick a piece of wreckage free from her auburn hair that she'd missed before unfastening his featureless mask so that it hung about his neck and folding his arms across his chest. "What was that?" he asked without preamble, knowing she would know exactly to what he was referring. His expression was somber and inquiring, worry subtly creasing his face.

[Electra]

"Mmm, about a five mile trip, as the crow flies," Erin replied evasively, brushing off the cuffs of her uniform. "I made a quick trip to Ocean Heights, misjudged the landing, and hit one of those cotton candy stands. Might be a good place to toss some of those coins, come to think of it." When he only continued to look at her, she rolled her shoulders in an uncomfortable shrug. "It was a sucker punch. I was still trying to get him to stand down, but I wasn't going to let him hit Cannonade. No harm done, and I even made it back for the end of the fight." She spread her arms to show off that, though her uniform was a bit of a mess, she herself was undamaged.

[angrydurf]

"Tribute I think is more apt a description." Ace said simply. Having posed as a petty godling on more than one occasion himself over the years the concept was not un known to him. "The Aesir are a warrior culture. Defeat of a champion in battle earns the victor right to pillage, rather than have the halls of Odin pillaged they send tribute to the victors." he explained in more detail as he let a stream of the coils fall through his fingertips.

He glanced to the couple retreating to the cruiser with mild vexation but let it pass. One did not expect a midnight to be the most forthcoming and he trusted that if whatever the young couple had to discuss affected the team they would be informed. Perhaps he should see to it that young hunter was equipped with a cursed gris gris...

[Avenger Assembled]

With Erin and Trevor occupied with their personal concerns, the other heroes debated what to do with the Norse tribute until Edge, still pushing hard, opted to pop it into the Midnight Manor's ample storage facilities so they wouldn't have to load it all into the trunk of the Cruiser. Normally Mark would have asked of Erin what had happened with Donar, he'd fought alongside Wander long enough to know that something amiss had just taken place, but he felt uneasy doing that with Trevor, Ace, Bombshell, and Cannonade there; Erin and Trevor had obviously talked, and though they were all on the same team, he didn't want to make anyone from Young Freedom look bad. "All right, well, I popped the hoard over into the teleport locker." Absently rubbing the coin he'd swiped in hand, he said, "I guess we'd better get going."