ic Change is Necessary for Growth [IC]

[trollthumper]

The Dark Young reeled with the impact of Corbin's blow, shockwaves traveling through its semi-solid flesh. It tried to gather itself while parts of it resolved into a fine dew. The one Indira targeted likewise was trying to get its bearings, its many limbs slackening enough that Summers was slowly making headway in getting out of his confines.

Meanwhile, in her construction paper prison, the weakened Collins beat futilely against her confines. From outside, Koshiro heard what he imagined it would be like if milk rebelled against its human masters and tried to punch its way out of the carton. "Your powers are interesting," came her voice from the depths. "Odds are you're a mystic - I've seen many chlorokinetics, but none so refined to the point that they could manipulate raw paper. But all you have so far are sheets and cranes and little boxes. Sleight of hand for your kind. A man with fire and the right planning could take you down. Can you stay so strong when you know something so base would leave you naked and weak?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hey! Hey! Over here!" Citizen did his best to keep moving in the fight, flying back and forth between the Dark Young and throwing punches, but it didn't seem to have any effect. And no wonder, it had taken everything all of them had to handle one of them without any problems, how tough was it going to be to fight all of them at once? He was putting all his weight into this, but a phantom of electricity and shadows wasn't going to do much against all this dimensional power. Thinking about it, he called out, "Collins is the one who broke the dimensional barriers! Somebody help Ghost Girl and Papercut!"

[Electra]

Papercut listened to Collins' words, then laughed out loud, extra-derisively for her benefit. "Maybe I am, but what does it say about you that a naked and weak mystic can keep you stuck in a paper box? Take away your tree-monsters and I bet you wouldn't be so brave."

Unseen by Collins, he wiped away the blood that was running down his face from the shallow cut one of the Dark Young had left across his forehead. Bold words were one thing, but he couldn't take many more hits like that. His ears were already ringing! Keeping most of his attention on the box of villain, he drew another paper airplane from his pocket and tugged on the ends till it was big enough to stand on. Riding it like a skateboard, he soared into the sky, out of the reach of the Dark Young.

[Gizmo]

"Take that and that and that!" Ghost Girl shouted downward from within the watertight paper cube, slamming her immaterial heel down into the struggling mess of shapeshifter over and over again. While the blows passed into the hideous mass rather than dealing physical damage, the repeated exposure to Kimber's supernatural substance was having the desired effect, sapping the strength right out of Collins until she was nothing but a sickly looking puddle collecting around the origami construct's bottom. Satisfied that the unmoving gelatin was suitably defeated, Kimber let her jaw lower itself as if unhinged, ectoplasmic skin stretching unnaturally before releasing as howling blast on frigid winter storm that left Collins' soupy remains frozen in a solid block of ice that conformed to the shape of the paper cube.

Flipping over in the air so that her face was closer to the chilled headmistress than her feet, Ghost Girl narrowed her eyes in a surprisingly angry, predatory expression and whispered, "I'm pretty sure you're still awake in there, so if I ever hear about you going anywhere near a school again, I'll do a lot worse than this." Turning back around, she dusted off her hands and resumed her more customary look of determined innocence. "And I'm a poltergeist, you vitalist jerk!"

Ducking her head outside of the cube's walls so that she could look about, she called to her teammates, "You can drop the box! The headmistress is cooling her heels! And everything else!"

[April]

-Good job, Gutsy Girl,- Sage thought to the heroic spirit even as she detected a trace of fatigue staining the chipper poltergeist's psychic impression. Drawing on the established mental connection, the mindwalker drew the weariness out of Kimber while simultaneously bolstering the ghostly girl from her own psychic reserves.

In the meantime Sage flowed around the clearing, moving with preternatural grace, pulling the attention of two Dark Young away from her teammates. There was a tiny place in the telepath's mind that almost felt sorry for the abominations, and the world of hurt that was about to land on them. Almost.

[trollthumper]

Summers kept his eyes on his own Dark Young. It lay unmoving, looking like a tree felled by lightning - though he could still see the thing twitching and breathing, removing any hope that Wraith's blow was enough to dispatch it. Years of training in ropes and chains and stranger bonds still made extracting himself from the bulk of the otherworldly beast a matter of simple habit, and once he was free, he took a wild swing at the Dark Young with his cane. The sheer nature of the impact told him it had all the effect of a nine iron on a redwood, but it was worth a go.

"Good work, Kimber," he said. "With Collins incapacitated, we shouldn't have to worry about any further intrusion from things outside." He quickly became aware that the Dark Young he'd turned away from was drawing back up to its full height. "Of course, that also means that her pets have no master to call them off."

[Fox]

Wraith was growing increasingly suspicious of Summers' (admittedly not perfect) combat prowess; he didn't move like humans were supposed to.

Now that he was clear of the Dark Young, at least, she didn't have to be quite as careful; she brought both bladed arms down right onto the thing, taking as much advantage from Sage's distraction as she could manage. "I do not think she would have called them off if she was aware enough to do so," the alien offered, sounding a little frustrated with how durable her dance partner was turning out to be. "She did not seem that...compromising."

[KnightDisciple]

"You're kicking butt and taking names, Ghost Girl! You and Papercut both!"

Cobalt Templar willed the construct-him to grin broadly and give a thumb's up to both his teammates, while casually lifting one huge foot and smashing it down on the Dark Young in front of him like a hydraulic breaker, the ground likely compressing a bit beneath the creature.

"Wraith's right, that lady's too crazy to call these beasties off. We'll just have to smack them down like we did the last one."

He himself had noticed how skilled the Headmaster was, but he felt it wisest to not pry too deeply. Somehow, he instinctively knew that Summers would know, and that he'd lose a game of "I know you know" faster than Kansas lightning.

"You guys don't think any of them ran off into the woods already, do you? They'd be a pain to try and track down, even with a small army, as thick as these woods are..."

[Avenger Assembled]

Citizen nodded in satisfaction, glad to see that the duo had gone ahead and taken Collins out on their own. "Better keep that on Collins just to be safe," he called to Papercut as he flew through the air. "We don't need her getting loose when our backs are turned!" Still in the air, he engaged one of the Dark Young in hand-to-hand combat again, its flailing limbs whipping uselessly through his holographic body as he landed a magnetically-backed punch against a soft, sensitive part that squished under his blow in a way that didn't bear much thinking about. "We've almost got 'em!"

[Electra]

"Yeah, I got it," Papercut told Citizen, even as he banked to make another pass high over the battlefield. With most of his attention devoted to keeping an eye on the paper box holding the villain, Papercut had just enough concentration left to keep himself airborne. Those tree monsters knew who was keeping their boss tied down, and while they couldn't do much to Kimber, they could sure as hell pulverize him if he came into range. He wiped away the blood that continued to trickle down his forehead and kept an eye out to make sure that no new monsters were coming to join the party.

[Gizmo]

Floating the rest of the way out of the box, Ghost Girl's mind veritably glowed with a warn suffusion of pride in Sage's direction, taking the telepath's acknowledgement to heart and feeling refresh despite her exertion. Making a beeline for the least damaged on the hulking monstrosities, she swiped a hand through its form, using the same chilling effect that had reduced the thing's mistress to a puddle. It wasn't quite so effective on the more solid creature, but it did slow down a bit as it plodded right through the apparition in its way toward Wraith, Citizen and Summers. "H-hey! Get back here!" she demanded, following closely and doing her best to wear it out before it could pose a threat to her friends.

[April]

Slipping back across the clearing in as fluid a manner a creature of flesh and could. Slipping past Wraith and the Dark Young she was engaged with, the acrobat drew some of the abomination's attention. As the Dark Young turned to face the telepath, Sage rapidly changed vector, leaping from the forest floor to the overhanging branches to behind the monstrosity.

As she landed, Sage struck. The psychic blade bit deep and though it left no visible physical wound the Dark Young gave a horrid wail, and then shook itself apart.

Turning to face the remaining Dark Young, Eve reached out toward it with her free hand. There was a flare of orange light in the clearing before the accumulated debris of the old growth forest lifted into the air and assaulted the creature, opening a hole in its defenses for Wraith to exploit.

[Fox]

And exploit she did; between Sage's well-timed misdirection and Summers' own surprising intimidation skills, Wraith knew a good opportunity when she saw it.

Her first blow snuck in behind the telekinetic debris, a straight jab that buried one scythe into the thing's body. It was effective, but not decisive - and it wasn't supposed to be. As soon as it was solidly anchored she was in the air, her silver body arching above the creature as she closed the distance she'd kept...and her other scythe arching above her body. They both came down at once, the anchored blade pulling the body, which pulled the scythe, which came down with so much force it nearly split the thing in two, shoulder-to-hip (or, rather, their equivalents).

She hunched there for a moment, blades still stuck in the thing, wicked and gleaming, soaking in the almost-forgotten feeling of just being a top-tier predator. Then she composed herself and stepped off her 'kill', straightening her shoulders and letting her hands turn back into...well, hands. "Is everyone alright?" she asked, rather politely. "I do not think there are any more."

[trollthumper]

The last of the Dark Young quivered as the blow resounded through it, and slowly began to break down to a milk-like dew, like all its brothers. The glade was quiet once more - the guards were long gone, the eldritch beasts had been reduced to their base components, and Collins was both still frozen solid and trapped in her paper prison. All that was left was the flicker of the braziers and the unnatural quiet - but even that was breaking, as slowly, the wind began to rise again. Summers trod across the clearing, checking over Koshiro's construct. "It's a shame it came to this, Samantha," he said, regret in his voice. "If I'd known..."

He shook his head, and turned back to Young Freedom. "You all performed incredibly tonight," he said. "You held up well under pressure, came together when at risk, and took down everything in your way." He looked back to the school. "We'll still need to get the authorities in here. We have no idea how many of those children were affected by what Collins was doing here... or how deep that 'Mother's Milk' has worked its way into their systems."

[Avenger Assembled]

"I'm contacting them now, sir," said Citizen without hesitation at Summers' words. He had his laptop out, the electronic rather than physical one, and was tapping away at the keys, foot resting on his projector. "I sent an emergency message to the local police station via wireless. Right now I'm getting in touch with the Freedom League through Miss Americana's direct line. They say they have magical," he couldn't resist making air quotes at the world, "specialists on retainer for dealing with this. Is everybody okay?" he called out, looking over at Koshiro and the other students who'd taken hits in this last big fight.

[Gizmo]

"So... we won?" Ghost Girl asked somewhat hesitantly, looking about the clearing as though expecting another foe to rear its head. Convinced after a few moments that had well and truly emerged victorious, the phantom rose into the air an extra foot and pumped both fists high into the air. "Woo! Go team! Butt was kicked and names were taken! Rad!" Soaring about in a wide circle, she made her way up to the still airborne Papercut, face split by a beaming grin. "Thanks for getting her in that box! We really showed that jerk, eh?"

[Electra]

Koshiro made a gradual spiral towards the ground, the paper plane lazily circling to land while he staunched the blood from his forehead with the edge of his already-ruined shirt. He looked up to give Kimber a faint smile, even as he was careful to steer wide of her acrobatics. "Yeah, we did all right. Next time I'll make it bigger so you can get in there and do your thing easier. She'd have got out if she wasn't frozen." By the time he reached the ground and jumped off the plane, his head had mostly stopped bleeding, even if it still hurt like hell. "Um, what do you want me to do with her, sir?" he asked Summers diffidently. "I mean, should she stay in there?"

[Fox]

"The paper box was very impressive," Wraith insisted. "Everybody was! I particularly liked the thing that you did at the beginning, Ghost Girl -" - the alien paused, her features briefly taking on an echo of the haunting, ageless figure Kimber had become. "It was very frightening - very cool! And...thank you, Sage."

That last bit was accompanied by a fluid, not-quite-half-bow in Sage's direction. "You were a great help in my fight. These creatures are...tougher than anticipated. I may need more training, perhaps."

[KnightDisciple]

Cobalt Templar frowned when he saw Papercut trying to stop his head bleeding. His teammate didn't have quite the natural protections some of them had, or the uncanny grace Sage had. His paper was a formidable asset in a fight, but the other teenage boy was apparently still working on the whole "superhero fight" dynamic. The hero in blue closed his eyes as he shrank back down to size and walked over to his teammate.

Light flames suddenly flew from his ring hand to Koshiro's body. The few moments of panic would fade when it was clear the flames didn't burn him at all. Instead they worked to knit together wounded flesh and restore a bit of energy to the other young man. Not a single bit of damage was done anywhere, not even to the origami that was his signature tool.

"Don't move around too much, I'm a bit rusty on this trick. It might tingle a bit."

[Gizmo]

"Well, I just, I felt really bad about the whole... about freaking out earlier," Kimber told Indira, her expression falling a bit as he costume's domino mask evaporated into the air like a wisp of smoke. "And I was so mad about the whole thing - you're supposed to be able to trust teachers of all, people! - and everybody was arguing about how to stop them, so I just... did that!" Visibly cheering up again, the phantom shrugged broadly. "Not sure what it was, really, but it felt pretty good!" Normally changing her image felt like pulling on a mask over her whole being, an odd if not entirely unpleasant sensation, but the way in which she'd stopped the ritual had felt more like peeling off a layer of chapped skin from one's lips. Or so she supposed, not actually having skin in the first place.

[April]

The telepath was surreptitiously checking on Headmaster Summers making sure he was unharmed when when Indira made her comments. The telepath gave the shapeshifter a faint smile and a curt nod. "You had things well in hand," Sage said, leaving the Headmaster's side to approach Indira. "But it never hurts to gain an edge; and that's what I'm here for."

Sage looked around the clearing, focusing on the new core of Young Freedom. They had a few rough edges to file away, she reflected, but they did well tonight. The faint smile returned to the telepath's face; she was proud of the newbies.

[trollthumper]

By the time he reached the ground and jumped off the plane, his head had mostly stopped bleeding, even if it still hurt like hell. "Um, what do you want me to do with her, sir?" he asked Summers diffidently. "I mean, should she stay in there?"

"Just in case," said Summers. "I trust Ghost Girl's capabilities, but it's been some time since I've seen Mercuri... Collins at her peak. If she manages to thaw out, I don't want to give her an inch."

Collins didn't thaw, however - at least, until the authorities, backed by AEGIS, arrived. The hand-off was made, and the slippery former heroine - finally reaching room temperature - was slipped into a set of power cuffs. She didn't say a word as she was led into custody, merely staring daggers at Summers. AEGIS had guards posted on her, just in case, but there were other matters at hand.

It would take a while to fully process all the students from Dunwich Prep. While a few were obvious cases of full saturation with "Mother's Milk," getting the AEGIS occultists to devise a test that would detect every trace of the substance was going to take a while - and it would take longer to find a way to fully purge the substance from the students in a way that didn't have unfortunate side effects. Then there was the matter of what would happen to Dunwich itself. With Collins's money no longer pouring into the school - and no idea of who on the board of directors hadn't been turned to her particular way of worship - odds were the school would not survive in its current form. Summers, however, was quick to offer to take the students in at Claremont. And as he strode the grounds amongst the chaos, he took note of some of the things Collins had done - while she'd been in the grip of madness and in thrall to a cosmic perversion, she had known how to adjust for the special needs of her students.

Perhaps, one day, Dunwich would rise again. Not as an exercise for visions of madness, but as a true place of realization.