ic Change is Necessary for Growth [IC]

[Gizmo]

KImber cringed back from the dissolving monster, unconsciously floating a little higher and further away from the floor as it seeped away. As Indira's head reappeared an addressed her, however, all other concerns disappeared immediately. The phantom knew how important the hunt was to her roommate, as both a cultural matter and a point of personal pride, and being asked along especially after her earlier, embarrassing loss of control meant the world to her. Had the late Canadian still had a beating heart, it would have soared as she brought her levitating heels together and saluted smartly, grinning as she did. "Right behind you!" The instant she was finished speaking, Ghost Girl faded entirely from view, undetectable even by Wraith's formidable senses as she slid effortlessly through obstacles, an unseen but watchful presence next to her friend.

[Avenger Assembled]

"She's headed for the woods," called Citizen, knowing Sage would send that information to the others, disengaging from the system with a deep ache in his bones. Interfacing with the primitive system and pushing it to its utmost had drained him; his pain and fatigue adding to the overall creepiness of the day. As if he'd stepped completely outside the boundaries of the world again, and was desperately trying to keep his friends from doing the same..."Let's go!" Emitter in hand, he headed not through the walls but through the doors, lingering behind to make sure no security systems trapped his friends below when they were all in danger. "We've got to move fast! The last thing we need is the students rallying to her defense before we get there!"

[Electra]

Koshiro let out a mouth-soaper of an exclamation as the thing dissolved, running towards the sorry, soggy mess that had moments ago been his best weapon. Many of his origami birds still flew, though some of them with obvious damage that had them dipping and looping crazily, but dozens of the little sculptures had been on the ground or in the path of the pouring milk and were now soaked and smashed to oblivion. He gathered up the ones he could, straightening crimped wings and crooked beaks as best he could, then took off after the others, the remainder of the flock trailing behind him in a ragged train. "What are we supposed to do when we find her?" he demanded. "What if she's got more of these things? She'll kick our asses!"

[KnightDisciple]

Corbin took a couple of deep breaths, steadying himself until he was ready for more. At that point, he took off after Citizen and Koshiro. His long legs ate up the small distance they had gained on him, and he shouldered his axe-construct for the moment.

"Yeah. Would be hard to tell if the students are mind-controlled or just loyal. Either way, won't be pretty. Maybe if we stop her soon, she won't be able to mind-control them. Cut the head of the snake off and all that."

When Koshiro asked his slightly panicky question, Cobalt Templar couldn't help but smirk. He tapped his shoulder with his overlarge weapon as he took great strides to keep up the chase.

"If she's got more mutant trees, I guess we just have to do a bit of clear-cutting."

[trollthumper]

"We'll meet you on the edge of the forest," said Summers over the communicator. He nodded to Sage, and the two ran out of the main building onto the campus at large. Where the campus had been bustling during the day, it was dead quiet now that night had fallen. No rushing wind, no bird song, no chirping of crickets - it was like coming late to the end of the world. As Indira and Kimber tore out onto the campus, they had a different perspective of the night around them. Kimber could see clearly through the dimly-lit night, and had the idea of motion through the depths of the trees. And off in the forest, Indira could hear chanting in soft, hushed tones.

"I took some aerial surveillance of the school before we came," said Summers to Sage, "just in case. The forest is thick and untamed, except for a thin clearing in the northeast quadrant. It seems that would be the best place to pay homage to a broken god."

Summers was able to lead Sage to the edge of the clearing, just as Indira and Kimber were able to guide the other members of Young Freedom there. Where the rest of the forest was dark and looming, this part was clear and open, lit faintly by four braziers in the various corners. Four cultists stood at each of the corners chanting in twisted tongues, clad in black robes. Collins, who now looked somewhere between her previous matronly state and the allure of her youth, was neither - though any sort of appeal that might have had was somewhat ruined by the fact that her skin seemed to have the tone of runny pudding. She danced in the middle of the clearing, likely in worship to the Dark Mother, and parts of her took just half a second too long to catch up with the others as she twirled. And at the edges of the clearing, the members of Young Freedom could see more of those "trees," bending as if windblown despite the fact that there was barely any breeze in the forest.

"She came prepared," said Summers, "but it looks like the ritual's still going. One disruption should spoil the whole thing."

[Fox]

Wraith frowned at the scene, three eyes narrowing as she both studied and tried to ignore the part of her mind that was trying to reconcile the way humans normally moved with the sort of dance that was closer to what she'd expect from her own people. The contrast was...disconcerting.

"A disruption should be easy," she quietly noted, turning her head to glance at the others - mostly Summers, mind, but the others too. "But it is also likely to draw a great deal of attention onto the one who does the disrupting. Would it be wiser to all go in at once, or to send one or two of us in as a distraction while the rest flank them?"

[KnightDisciple]

"I can do a distraction really easily. Even better, I can pretty well take most of what they'd have to dish out. Especially if the rest of you are coming in from the sides."

He smirked as he dispersed his axe, the flames fading away for the time being. He looks to Summers, the smirk fading.

"Seriously though, if we need to out-and-out disrupt it, I should be able to get enough oomph to shake up everyone in that circle. If you think that'll work, I can do it."

[Electra]

"Why don't we just set the whole thing on fire?" Koshiro suggested, his eyes a little too wide as he looked around. All these trees so close together and looming down was enough to make him nervous even before you tossed in the fact that some of them were alive and evil and trying to kill them. "Collins obviously isn't anything close to human, so maybe those other cultists aren't either. We take out the evil trees, stop the ritual, and then Kimber can freeze everything solid, including the bad guys if they're trying to ooze away. We don't want to get close to those things."

[Avenger Assembled]

Sharl tried to think. What would Miss Americana do here? Blast them with lasers! As he took in the scene, Papercut's words echoing in his ears, he had to nod at his friend's suggestion. Why was every forest on Earth evil, full of monsters, or full of evil monsters? Tronik's placidly plant-monster-free slideways and tracks suddenly made a whole lot of sense to the electronic teenager. "That does make sense, those things look pretty fierce and we don't want to get pinned down by them..." He thought for a moment, then suggested, "Fire will only hurt me while I'm projecting if it hits me directly. I can get in there and scrap with her while people blast the trees, and anyone who can back us up with shooting stuff can help too."

[April]

"No."

Sage's normally soft, French-accented soprano took a hard edge as she whirled around to bracket Papercut and Citizen in her vision, the white-haired telepath's green eyes briefly glancing in the direction of Kimber. "That suggestion is so amazingly irresponsible, I can't believe you would suggest ...," she hissed, before trailing off. Sage was willing to admit that the kids--at this moment Eve couldn't help but think of them as anything else--had their hearts in the right place but they needed to start thinking things through.

She made a mental note to address this later.

"Let's think of something else; something that doesn't involve wrecking a large amount of old growth forest.."

[Gizmo]

Kimber visibly wilted a bit at Koshiro's suggestion and even sank low enough that her feet disappeared into the forest floor up to her ankles when Sharl seemed to be going along with it. The phantom really did think setting the forest on fire was a good idea, but that last thing she wanted to do just then was remind everyone of her paralyzing fear. It wasn't until Eve's reprimand and subtle flick of her eyes in Ghost Girl's direction that the poltergeist really felt something crumble inside her. Her friends were in danger and they were arguing and it was at least partly her fault. If she hadn't panicked, they wouldn't have all rushed to the basement, and she could have actually scouted ahead, gathered information so they could plan and take their time. She literally couldn't remember the last time she'd felt so low, and with everyone otherwise occupied, she gradually faded from sight.

She'd just gone completely invisible, head unseen hanging in shame, when something about Sharl's comments crept in among the self-reproach. They still needed a distraction, and by jams she was at least as hard to hurt as the holographic teenager. She didn't know everything about being a superhero, she didn't even know a lot, but she knew that a hero cleaned up her own messes. Before anyone had a chance to stop her, even if they could have seen what she was up to, the determined spirit had made a beeline for the center of the ceremony, carefully the braziers and strange, tree-things, immaterial form or not.

When she reappeared just over Collins' head, it wasn't with the hard-to-focus-on blur that usually accompanied her arrival, but with a sudden suffusion of the pale blue luminance of frosted moonbeams, pouring forth like the light at the end of a long tunnel. Like the unnaturally fluid headmistress, the figure that appeared there held recognizable features despite its transformation, but the similarities between the two ended there. In a long, billowing dress, an ageless Kimber floated, no longer marked by youth but neither of any definite year. Her complexion was beyond flawless, lit from within with lovely radiance so frigid it seemed to freeze eyelids open. She was altogether too beautiful and terrifying because of it, a cold angel of certain, unhurried death and eternity. "You would worship something unnatural?" she whispered in a voice that was the sweetest of all melodies and the howl of the most violent blizzard. "Then kneel. Worship and despair."

[trollthumper]

It could easily be said that the ritual was disrupted. The security guards stopped their chanting, their eyes locked on Kimber and their jaws hanging down somewhere around their sternums. The tree-like things had stop swaying in the stillness of the night, their dozens of eyes turned onto the phantom's luminous form. In fact, the only one who didn't seem utterly enthralled by Kimber's unearthly beauty was Collins, and even she had stopped her ministrations to her strange god. She stopped her twirling, her body settling, as she looked upon the ghost's corpus.

"Interesting," she said. "I've always admired the potential of ectoplasm." Her flesh began to run like candle wax, resolving and shifting into a new, inhuman form. "But the gifts of Shub-Niggurath are greater than you can imagine. The initiation must be completed."

[April]

Sage wasn't one to rush into battle; the acrobat was all too aware of just how fragile she was in a straight up fight. But she also wasn't one to leave a teammate and friend (though the telepath tacitly acknowledged that she wasn't as close to--and made a poor effort to get close to--this incarnation of Young Freedom) in a jam. Besides, Eve thought to herself, I want another crack at Collins.

Taking two steps toward the disrupted ritual, the telekinetic launched herself from the ground into the thick overhead canopy, blending easily into the shadows. Through a combination of incredible balance as well as telekinetically anchoring herself to the limbs she traversed, she made her way quickly and quietly to where her blade would soon be needed.

[trollthumper]

Duncan Summers had been moving for the shadows when he ran headlong into one of the tree-like thing, which slithered along the grass at a speed that seemed impossible with its bulk. He raised his cane and took a swing at the thing's mass, but between the darkness and the unnatural swaying of the creature, the cane struck at empty air. The thing tried to return the blow in earnest, but fortunately, it telegraphed its moves blatantly, giving Summers time to evade it.

"What happened to you, Samantha?" he asked. "This isn't how you were. How you are. How did you fall into this?"

Her voice echoed out through the night. "I didn't fall, Duncan," she said, "I rose. I always had the visions, even when I was a little girl. That was when the transformations began. I fought them off for so long, even confined myself when I was most afraid. But I soon realized they were a blessing. I found the Dark Mother had given me these gifts. And it would be nothing but the utmost betrayal not to share them with the world."

[Fox]

The attack on Summers was the last straw, really. He was a man she respected, and though he moved with admirable (and suspicious) predatory grace, he was still just another squishy human.

Wraith lunged out of her cover, an awful rattling sound echoing from deep inside as her body shifted down into something sleek and dangerous. Both arms became thin and jointless, a pair of whip-like tendrils that ended in terrible, razor-sharp scythes; hammers were for simple fights, fights where you were concerned with the well-being of your enemy. These were not hammers. These were her weapon of choice, and it showed.

The first attack came from above, and fell short of its mark as the thing tried to return Summers' blow; that didn't stop her in the least. As the blade embedded itself in the ground she used it for leverage, bringing the other in sideways and straight into the tree-thing's body.

[KnightDisciple]

"Man, if the bad skin tone wasn't enough, the sheer crazy this lady puts out makes any fanservice null and void."

At this point, Cobalt Templar abandoned what little stealth he had undertaken and heaved himself from the ground with a push of his legs and some assistance from his ring. But as he rose into the air, his form rippled and grew. A shell of energy formed around him, before fire violently filled it, solidifying his form until when he landed right next to one of the not-trees, he looked like a 9-foot tall quarter-ton wild man, wearing nothing but ripped pants, muscles bulging everywhere over his huge frame, an angry snarl playing across his almost comically masked face.

"Time to weed the garden!"

And with that, he brought his right fist crashing down on the creature with incredible force, hoping to fell the gruesome thing in a single blow.

[trollthumper]

The creature swayed with the impact, flowing like a palm tree in a hurricane but still remaining rooted to the ground. As the blow hit, Collins surged forward across the clearing, closing the distance with Cobalt Templar.

"Your children are impressive, Duncan, I'll give you that," she said. "Some of them may be of great promise to the Dark Mother. I will need to find something special for your young specter, of course." Her eyes locked onto Corbin and his glowing bulk, and she raised her arm, the appendage snapping into rigidity like a whip. One of her fingers shot out, sharpened to a fine point, and bridged the gap between her and the young hero, lancing through the holy fire and cutting into him. Once the blow connected, she danced back across the grass towards the center of the ritual, flowing like water. "But there must be a penalty for those who'd do such things to her beloved."

[Avenger Assembled]

When he was sure Sage was gone and everyone else was busy, Citizen muttered to Papercut, "Listen, if you want to set those things on fire, be my guest! It looks like Ghost Girl's busy with whatever the that thing is," he said, waving a hand over at what had once been Collins before he flew over to engage those hideous trees in hand-to-hand combat. He didn't really think Koshiro would actually do it, probably, but it was satisfying to say when everything was so thoroughly messed-up. He threw his emitter down like planting a gauntlet as he flew, swooping by one of the trees and landing a magnetically powered punch with all his strength. "C'mon, let's do this!"

[Electra]

"Think that ship's sailed," Papercut replied, but Citizen was already gone. He deposited the lump of sodden cranes behind a tree, then reached into his bag for another sheet of paper. With a few quick folds, he fashioned a paper airplane, but instead of throwing it, he held it in his cupped palms and blew on the tail. The little plane immediately took flight with none of the loops and wobbles of normal paper flight. It came to rest in the center of the circle, just behind Collins, and unfolded itself into a much larger piece of paper than it had been when it started.

The moment Collins stepped onto the paper, it seemed to explode back into life, twisting and folding itself into a dizzying array of folds and tucks. Within moments, the shapeshifter was encased in a square box of paper, the diamond-shaped seams all folded neatly into one another so as to prevent any easy escape. "Go for her!" Papercut encouraged. "Hurry!"

[Gizmo]

For a beat, the impossibly beautiful figure hung in the air at the center of the chaotic battlefield, unaffected by the melee surrounding her. Then all at once her features refocused into the youthful, hooded visage of the Ghost Girl they all knew, albeit tangled up into a look a supreme aggravation. "Y'know what? Fine!" the poltergeist fumed, rolling up one billowing sleeve of her reaper's cloak then the other to bunch about her elbow, exposing her forearms and clenched fists as she managed to stomp through thin air toward the paper box that had sprung up around Collins. "I'm having a really lousy day, and the last thing I need is to be talked about like I'm not here by some, some..." Kimber ground her teeth audibly as she searched for an appropriately extreme insult. "Gloopy hag!"

With that, the ghost stormed right through the walls of Papercut's folded prison to face the Headmistress, glaring all the while. "How's this for 'something special', you creep?!" she demanded as she threw a walloping punch that sank deep into the melted mess that had formerly been Collins' face. Though the force of the blow was lost upon the fully corporeal is fluid madwoman, the deathly chill that radiated from the point of contact was not. Strength sapped from the shapeshifter's form in frigid waves, hypothermia of the soul setting in. "And this if for violating the implicit trust between student and teacher!" Ghost Girl's second fist connected in a furious uppercut to her opponent's vague midsection, further reducing Collins to a barely mobile puddle.

[trollthumper]

Collins' semi-solid form pressed against the walls of her paper confines, but she wasn't doing much pushing when Ghost Girl sunk her spectral hands into her running flesh. "Let go of me!" she said; she began to run, her legs collapsing into a puddle, looking like the Wicked Witch of the West halfway through a heavy shower. "You have no idea what I'm doing for these children! What wonders I'm showing them!"

Meanwhile, two of the great beasts, in response to their summoner being trapped in a gigantic piece of origami, rounded on the members of Young Freedom, pulsing across the clearing. One of them took a swing at Wraith, but the dancing shifter managed to swerve out of the way of the slow blow. The other, however, came at Papercut like lightning, swinging out with a "branch" and cracking him upside the head.

[April]

Sage kept a close watch on the unfolding battle, hidden among the branches of the old forest. While she primarily kept an eye on their headmaster, the telepath smiled a faint little smile at the coordinated assault by Koshiro and Kimber. Ghost Girl and Papercut, Sage thought correcting herself as one of the Dark Young assaulted the paper sculptor.

Sage dropped out of the branches next to Koshiro, her blade of focused willpower cleaving a furrow in the Dark Young's hide. Her blade abruptly unraveled, dissipating into mist like tendrils which wrapped around the monster. Even as the misty tendrils began to solidify into chains, the Dark Young flexed and shattered the mental construct.

Eve frowned slightly. "Merde."

[trollthumper]

"I've seen what you're doing to them, Samantha," said Duncan Summers, as he danced around one of the Dark Young. "Doug Malick, for instance, was all over the Freedom City news. Wasn't exactly hard to miss. And I can't say I see what wonders lie in turning them into that." He locked eyes - what eyes he could - with the Dark Young, trying to stare it down. To a certain degree, it worked, as the thing drew back from him in fright. But then the creature pushed forward, its mass swirling and coalescing around Summers. The headmaster tried to evade the bulk, but it flowed too quickly, drowning him in his depths. He turned towards whatever sensory organs were unoccupied and growled, "You're going to have to do better than that."

[Fox]

Summers getting snatched up by the Dark Young was pretty much one crack to the soft human skull short of exactly what Wraith had been trying to avoid, and she made that awful metallic rattling noise deep inside her body as she advanced on the creature, arms lengthening as her scythes swept in a swift, shifting pattern around her body, tethered only by the two tendrils that used to be her arms.

The dance-like motions of the twin blades was probably less appreciated by the Dark Young itself, given that every swing was aimed at its body.

[KnightDisciple]

The assault by the twisted headmistress left Cobalt Templar reeling for a few moments, but he quickly shook his head, clearing the spots from his eyes. Seeing that Papercut and Ghost Girl had things well in hand, he shot them a grin.

"Great work you two!"

He turned back to the Dark Young that was in front of him. He really hoped it wasn't actually some poor, twisted student who'd shapechanged too far. But he was committed to the fight, now.

"You should take a nap, or whatever it is crazy flesh-tree-things take."

He then slammed both hands into what was roughly the middle of the creature, the force enough to probably snap a regular tree in half. On such an amorphous being, it would probably only give it a few moment's pause.