ic Gathering Like Clouds (IC)

[Fox]

Indira smiled, giving a single deep nod; she'd gotten back to where the rest were gathering up in time to catch the gist of things. "I can swim, yes, though perhaps not as well as some."

She certainly hoped she wouldn't have to test that; it was true that she could swim just fine, but probably not in her more inefficient human guise. "I do not get seasick, either," she added, reflecting with small amusement on her lack of a stomach, "so that too should not be a problem."

[Electra]

Erin had stayed quiet through the appearance of the stranger, keeping her own counsel and keeping a very close eye on the Furion interloper. Redbird knew him and seemed to like him, which meant he probably wasn't a sinister imposter, but she wasn't ready to let her guard down yet. In her experience, strangers who showed up out of nowhere usually had a reason, and it was usually more self-serving than a present for the birthday girl. But until Max tipped his hand, she'd hold her peace.

"Lunch sounds good," she told Eve. "It's been awhile since I've been on a boat, but I don't think it's going to be a problem." Remembering Young Freedom's last pool party by the water, she had to stifle a rueful grin, but surely this one would be just fine. Eddie wasn't around, and Mark hadn't brought his girlfriend. "Lead the way."

[Avenger Assembled]

The group headed down towards the docks, Eve's boat and a fun party waiting for them. As it turned out, though, the party was about to get wilder than they could possibly have imagined. Suddenly, with now a triple-boom, three more figures on motorbikes came plunging out of the sky towards the party. This time, the two natives of the Terminus looked decidedly uneasy at the new arrivals; Redbird moving to protect Midnight automatically, while Max (for all his bulk and evident strength) looked almost embarrassed as three massive humanoids in black leather outfits adorned with jingling metallic ornaments from ten thousand worlds came roaring down to within shouting distance.

For the leader of the group, a big woman with dark skin and flashing green eyes, shouting distance was actually pretty far as she loomed a good fifty feet over all of them. Pointing with one finger at Max, she boomed, "Max Muscles! I might have known I'd find you here with your one-dimensional friends! You were supposed to be taking our son to the Wall of Ten Thousand Sorrows to learn the names of his fallen progenitors!" The Overrider on her left cracked a chain that glowed with supernatural fire for emphasis. "Instead, you're here partying with all these girls who aren't your one and only Hard Mama!"

"Hey hey hey now just hold on a minute Hardrina Helltiger! It's your cosmic spin with Junior, not me!" said Max, looking offended at the insult to his honor, the two Furions shouting over the backwash of cosmic engines like they had all the time in the world. "You can't fool me, it's in the schedule! You tell me you want to be my girl even though you're still with your people, but now you're trying to hand off my boy to me like he's a football?" His eyes narrowed. "Is this because of-"

"SAVE IT!" yelled Hard Mama. "You think you can tell me how to live because you gave me a baby? I'll..." Her eyes lit up as she studied the heroes below. "By the law of the road, I choose a new father for my son, Max Muscles! If you want him back, you'd better come take your place at my side back, by force if necessary!" And with that, her two peers opened up their gateway again an instant before the leader of the Overriders herself swooped down and snatched Mark Lucas up in her arms as easily as if the (fairly lightly-built) Mark was only a child, roaring up through the portal with Mark an instant later.

"Not like thiiii-" Mark was in the middle of exclaiming as he began to vanish up into the sky.

[KnightDisciple]

"Uh...nope. Hadn't heard I was apparently named Swordsman of the Millennium. Nice to know we're famous for that somewhere, without any skepticism."

He managed not to twitch at the thought of Mark on a Wyldride, though it was a near thing.

"Does look powerful, for sure."

'Redbird's better-looking, and that thing's just all brute-strength. Fitting, I suppose.'

Corbin kept his thoughts to himself, but let a small grin peek onto his face.

"Nah, no worries about seasickness here, Eve. Kind of hard to get seasick when you fly so much anyways, right? And you know me, Eve. Always up for lunch."

A grin and a wink followed that comment, before Corbin trailed after his friends, keeping a very slightly cautious eye on Max Muscle the whole "trip". He still didn't trust the larger-than-him teen. But before they even got to the boat (and thus the food!), drama intervened itself. Corbin blinked as a woman came roaring in on an interdimensional motorcycle and started yelling at Max Muscle, who was apparently a delinquent dad. And was now arguing with his Baby Mama about who gets the kid. While attending a party for the "Coolest Heroes Evar". His opinion of Max took a flaming nosedive from the barely-climbing altitude it had held, while his opinion of the Furions lessened a bit, for sending such an obviously immature person to be the bearer of their thanks.

And then the woman grabbed Mark in some sort of incomprehensible claim of "choosing a new father" and grabbing Mark and heading for a portal. He didn't even change into his armor before he rocketed into the air, swearing the whole way (though not necessarily in English).

"Τι είδους άθλια δικαιολογία για έναν πατέÏα είναι αυτός ο Ï„Ïπος;? جلب هذه النÙايات جيري سبرينغر الثور إلى حزبنا! Ego nocere aliquis!! ×”×ישה מנשק הגמל עומד להתחרט לקחת חבר שלי!"

[Electra]

Erin barely took a moment to sigh over the disruption to the party, even as the discussion between Max and Hard Mama began to heat up. A fight would just be par for the course pretty much anytime Young Freedom tried to have a fun outing. She did, however, snap to attention immediately when Hard Mama's interest turned to Mark. "Oh no you don't," she muttered, unsheathing her bat even as she crouched. Mark could almost certainly extricate himself from any sort of mortal danger, but situations with women were a significant area of weakness for him. They couldn't let him go alone. With barely a thought, she leapt into the air, clearing the rooftops with ease and arcing to soar neatly through the portal. Whatever was on the other side... well, you just didn't desert a teammate to something they couldn't handle.

[Aoiroo]

She wanted to ask about the titles, the names, and events, but let the others talk for the sake of good curtsiousy, however that seemed to disappear when it was clear that Max Muscles was followed, and that previous companion of a past or current relationship was quick to do the unreasonable,

"Custos!"

If there was any shock, or questions, they were swept aside by the sudden appearance of a matron who was overzealously claiming people out of no where. The gargoyle flew from the docks and sweep her up with a claw. Well before doubling back and grabbing Eve as well since Etain remember the psychic could not in fact fly. The gargoyle flew upward following the trail, though Etain could not be so much to wonder as she rode higher and higher as she got a good glance of something flying over the motorcycle,

"That is peculiar."

Holding out her hand she reproduced the little bug like thing in her hand to show to Eve,

"Are you familiar with this creature, I am certain I have not seen anything like it."

[Gizmo]

Redbird let her holographic representation blink out of view the moment the new Wyldrides appeared, evidently expecting some sort of trouble if not the absolute debacle that followed. The moment Hard Mama began shouting, the Night Cycle's form shifted, becoming longer and more streamlined while notably adopting an aesthetic different from the gang's vehicles. The autonomic intelligence already had her modified shell in motion as Trevor leapt just off the ground, their timing so exact that his hands had found the handlebars before his legs had even touched the wing-emblazoned sides. "I seem to be experiencing acute embarrassment," the alto voice confessed.

"Beating them in a race help?" Trevor asked with a misleading casualness, bringing the hovering bike around in a tight circle to give Indira a chance to hop on herself before rocketing upward in pursuit.

"Very much, yes," Redbird confirmed in a tone that somehow implied a predatory smile, the pulsing spheres of energy at either end of the Night Cycle flaring with cosmic power as she poured on the speed.

[Fox]

Indira had no idea what was going on.

During most of the exchange between Max Muscles and the dark-skinned woman she'd stood toward the back of the group with a blank expression on her face, trying to keep up with just what in the world was happening. Something about...parenthood...and...was her name really 'Hardrina'?

When one of the guests (Mark?) got taken, though, it was no longer a time for bemusement. She was more than ready when Trevor got onto his bike, moving with a fluid grace humans didn't generally have to take a seat behind him before she got left behind. "Is this - is it normal for you?" she asked the driver of the apparently very unusual motorcycle. "I do not mean to pry, but if this is what I shall have to look forward to over the next several years...."

[Avenger Assembled]

The team hurled themselves into the void in pursuit of the intergalactic space bikers who had kidnapped their friend and ally, Young Freedom past and present leaping, flying, or riding through the gateway to find themselves in a place all the Claremont students instantly recognized: from the red starless skies to the eerie movements of distant sunless planets just visible beneath the great bowl of forever twilight overhead, they were in the depths of the Terminus! Not on accursed Nihilor, they could tell that right enough (and anyway, the Overriders wouldn't be there, not with the penalty Omega had put on all their lives!) Instead they were over a cool, wet planet, one of the Hundred Worlds of legend. Forests of pine trees rose high along the shore of the red-tinted ocean just nearby, the sand along the shore white and shining like something Hawaiian.

Max Muscles was just behind them as the portal slammed shut with a whispering sound, the big Furion's bike accomodating anyone who couldn't cram onto Redbird. He didn't look like a too-young man debating with his baby mama now, he looked angry, and not a little frightened. "That...something's wrong!" he yelled, the distant shapes of the three bikers and their cargo just visible on the horizon as they roared along above the beach line. "You guys, Hardina's wild, but she's not stupid, and she'd never take someone who wasn't into it! And another thing, this is her week with the baby. Something's the matter with her and the others...and she's got my son!" And with that, Max Muscles roared after the disappearing shapes on the horizon, his jaw set. "I'm coming for you baby!!!"

[Gizmo]

"No," Trevor assured his passenger as they tore through the fabric of reality to emerge in the most feared dimension of the multiverse. "Usually dress more casually." The dark haired detective's deadpan was such that the Kinigosi immigrant could have been forgiven for not being certain if he was making an attempt at humour or not.

Regardless, the commented reminded him to place his palm flush with the curving metal in front of him, the Night Cycle's transformed plating splitting apart to reveal a compartment from which he retrieved a featureless black mask set with ruby lenses. Putting it on beneath his fedora, he called to Eve across their permanent mental link, --Sorry about the distraction. We'll wrap this up and get back to your party.-- He knew the telepath had been looking forward to the all too rare opportunity for catching up and socialization and didn't plan to disappoint her.

"I believe Max is telling the truth," Redbird offered. "I detected Terminus energies about the Overriders but... I cannot be more specific." The autonomic intelligence sounded rather perturbed by that; having been designed specifically to combat the forces of entropy, she was not used to such vagueness.

[April]

--Don't apologize,-- Eve thought back to Trevor. --Besides, something doesn't feel right about this...--

--...and Etain spotted something,-- Eve finished as she mentally linked her party guests together (Max Muscles included) as she shared the illusionary image of the creature Etain had discovered across the mental link. --Max, are you familiar with this sort of creature?--

While she waited for a response Eve settled in more comfortably on the back of the gargoyle Custos, which merely meant she ended up holding herself tighter against Etain. To reduce wind resistance, she told herself, feeling a little guilty at finding some enjoyment out of the moment.

[Electra]

As soon as they were through the portal, it was obvious that Erin wasn't going to catch the motorcycle gang on foot. She was fast, but not that fast. Instead, she looked up, gauging the speed of her teammates overhead. "Hey Redbird, catch!" With that she was aloft, launching herself through the air towards the flying motorcycle. Redbird had just enough time to extend a third seat onto the back of the bike before Erin caught hold of the rear fork and flipped herself on board. She landed just behind Wraith, nodding to her and Trevor as she settled in. "Thanks for the lift," she told Trevor, deadpan. "Do we know anything about these people?"

[KnightDisciple]

"They've got Mark. They're clearly in need of a beating. What else do we need to know? Oh, and Max has decided he's suddenly not a deadbeat dad. Amazing what you can do with an audience."

Mind control over "Hard Mama" or no, it was clear Corbin was still not in any way impressed with Max. His tone was terse, and his body language as he flew was tense, choppy, almost rigid. For one reason or another he still hadn't changed to his official costume, though all those present knew it didn't really matter if he did so.

"So if they're being mind-controlled, because that's what's popular this year, who's doing the controlling? Do we let them lead us to their "boss" or do we intercept them ASAP?"

[Aoiroo]

"Likely whomever has produced those sprites. I am able to identify they are in fact magical, but not much else from this distance."

She spoke in the wind, but with a minor illusion everyone could hear her perfectly,

"A direct interception at this time seems counter productive, once we catch up, if we are not already being led to such, I should be able to trace the magics left from the sprites back to their creator. I also feel, it may be better if when we do arrive they are not in fact aware of our presense. I can project a complete concealment to anything senient to anybody up to a certain distance around myself, and would like to request we pull into a tighter formation for greater ease."

[Avenger Assembled]

Protected by Etain's psychic shield, the team watched as Max Muscle raced ahead of them down the deserted alien beach towards the rapidly disappearing alien biker trio. Maybe Max had made some lifestyle choice mistakes to bring him to this point, but the Furion-by-adoption seemed determined to make up for those mistakes by sheer ferocity and determination, hurling himself forward faster and faster after the fleeing Overriders. He wasn't totally lost to the battle-fury, though, and in response to Trevor's question said, ""

He fell silent for a moment as their group cleared the beach and found what was evidently the destination of the Overriders: a small island no bigger than Claremont's campus, dotted by irregular stone columns that might once have been part of this world's civilization before it had plunged into the Terminus. There, the group of mind-controlled Overriders and their passenger landed their bikes in the middle of a clearing in the stones. ""

"" It was Redbird's voice who came through the link, her warrior's voice full of urgent concern. Max responded instantly; an instant too late as he reached an area a few hundred yards from the island and slammed into an invisible wall, a gong of struck force revealing a translucent dome over the island that hadn't been cut to allow the Furion through. He fell, bike and all, towards the alien sea a dozen yards beneath, having turned in time to avoid a headlong collision but still having smashed into the invisible wall at nearly full speed.

[KnightDisciple]

"Aw, nuts."

Corbin, so far maintaining the same speed as the rest of his companions, surged ahead, his flame aura flaring even as his armor-like costume snapped into place around him, his cape serenely flapping in a non-existent breeze as he sharply turned and dove toward the now-falling not-quite-Furion. He tucked his arms in to his sides and squinted, before a clear visor formed over his face in the "T" of his helmet, easing the breeze off of him.

It took him several seemingly-infinite moments, but he caught up with Max's bike, then passed it. Cobalt Templar positioned himself under the falling vehicle, before bracing his mighty shoulders against the underside, and then starting to push up. His legs swung down, going to an almost 90 degree angle, and in a fit of morbid amusement, small "jet engines" formed on his calves and shot out tiny tongues of "exhaust flame" as he slowed the bike, then stopped it, then began to move to the others, smoothly, and soon moving almost as fast as the bike had been before. He quickly took his previous spot by Redbird and Custos, raising his voice a bit to be heard from his spot under the Wildryde. It was laced with faint amusement as he jibed with his friends.

"And here I am not prepared for a light workout. Go figure. Next time you throw a party, Eve, I'm bringing a gym bag! Anyways, what now, folks? I could try cutting through the field. Or we try bypassing it?"

[Aoiroo]

Etain looked at the barrier and had Custos come in closer,

"This magic, there is semi-sentience in it to partially allow those. Maybe I can perhaps."

She held out her hand and suddenly the whole barrier went down. Her eye brows raised before she looked back,

"That was not my doing. It seems we are expected,"

She glanced back before resuming the concealment. Even if they knew they were there, there was still an advantage for them not knowing exactly where.

[Fox]

Indira found herself sandwiched between two experienced and admirable fighters for the ride down the beach, something she was finding increasingly distracting as the group pursued the other-dimensional kidnappers. Not that she could have done a great deal even with her full attention on other things - for the time being, she was stuck where she was.

She wasn't sure what to think about that.

"We do not seem to have many options that are not moving forward," she pointed out, leaning her head out a bit to look at the island. "Expected or not, we must still give chase, or we have come for nothing."

[Gizmo]

Midnight made a restrained sound of annoyance from behind his mask as the Night Cycle pulled up alongside the gargoyle. The black clad mystery man did not much care for walking into a trap in the first place but one so transparently obvious was especially galling. Still, they couldn't very well leave the Overriders in their addled state or leave Max Muscle's child in peril. Mark he was fairly confident could take care of himself but there was no sense leaving that to chance, either.

"Redbird, equipment," he instructed calmly. Almost instantaneously, a cylindrical object popped into the air in front of him with pneumatic poump, followed by a hissing sound as a compartment revealed itself along the left side of the vehicles paneling. Catching the compressed bat with one hand, he held it over his right shoulder, offering it to Erin past Indira while removing the belt around his dress pants with his left hand. "Hold this, please," he requested of the current Young Freedom member, similarly holding the leather strip over his other shoulder while retrieving the pouch and tube laden belt and sliding it on.

[Electra]

Wander took the proffered bat, keeping it a hand-length baton for the moment as she studied the place where the barrier had been. "Mind control is tricky," she observed. "If anybody starts acting controlled, the people around them have to be ready to intervene." She looked at Midnight then, just for a second, but it was enough. "We all need to stay together and watch each other's backs. Getting Edge free is our first priority. If he's turned, even temporarily, we may not have any chance of winning. Redbird, what do you know about Madrigal's hounds?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Fierce warriors," replied Redbird: there was no admiration in her voice, just a statement of fact. "And deadly killers. Annihilists don't work together easily. Those six have been allies for an age. Nightmare Doom is their mystic; Hellstorm their weather controller, Omnibeast their hunter, Discordia their killer, Razorwhip their warrior, and Blood Diamond is their leader." She gave the heroes of Young Freedom, past and present, the best rundown she could of the powers and abilities of the Hounds. "Hounds are the Madrigal Martinet's eye and fist. If they are here, and if they have moved against the Dethroners, it is by her will."

Meanwhile, down on the island, the mind-controlled Overriders could be seen working on Hard Mama's bike: the unconscious form of Mark Lucas, mercifully free of those swirling, mind-controlling insects, was laid out on the sandy beach in between the pillars. Though he was evidently at their mercy, none had made a move to molest him. Yet. Indeed, by all appearances, they hadn't so much as noticed the arrival of the concealed heroes, even when Max had suffered his ungraceful fall.

"

[Aoiroo]

"Then Nightmare Doom is the one responsible for the mind control. I can free them, but to prevent her from regaining control immediately after I would have to concentrate to keep their senses clear from another attempt."

Custos glanced back and looked,

"Aren't those sprites the ones doing the controlling, you can see'em, I bet I can blow them away."

Etain leaned forward,

"It is possible, at the very least you would not be hurting the others. I will lift the concealment if you would like to make an entrance."

There was a toothy scary grin on Custos face,

"Sure, why not, been a long while since I've gotten to scare some folks."

Custos moved low onto the ground and stopped a couple yards behind the scene. Etain climbed off his back leading Eve along with her as she took a few steps back. She let him open his mouth and he put his large clawed hands on the ground to brace himself against it as he opened his mouth. Etain kept the concealment up on the lot of them as Custos suddenly became visible and let out a piercing roar that shook the ground and glowed with his power as it crashed into the mind-controlled overriders, leaving them unharmed but hopefully destroying the sprites that held them in control.

[Avenger Assembled]

Custos roared and the swirling mind-insects popped like soap bubbles; the Overriders dropping to the ground like puppets with the strings cut. Roused by the shout, Edge started to sit up on the beach a moment before a swirl of purple and black energy atop a nearby column transformed itself into a bizarre figure: a squat, purple little reptilian man like a minature Gigantosaur or mutant Serpent Person, incongrously wearing what looked like an early-20th century business suit

"Greetings!" he called in a voice at once stridently loud and boomingly bass. "And welcome to the Stone Forest!" He gestured somewhere in the direction of the still-invisible group. "I'm Spiegel, your master of ceremonies for today! Do any of you have anything to say before we begin? Remember, today's show will be viewed by uncounted giga-billions across the Hundred Worlds and beyond, so try and be memorable! But brief," he added, checking a watch. "We have a limited amount of time."

Down on the sand, the now-conscious Mark didn't so much as blink at the strange set of circumstances. He was sure his friends were there, ready to come to his aid, just like he would be for them if the situation was reversed. "Yes, I want to know something! Why was it necessary to kidnap me?"

"Because, my good fellow," said Spiegel, happy to be interlocuted, "our law forbids us from invading your world without an army at our backs. And would any of you have come voluntarily to your own destruction? I think not! Please make sure you don't try to leave," Spiegel added to the others. "The barrier around this area of the planet is quite tough."

[KnightDisciple]

"Wait, wait, wait. You're saying you lot went through this whole layered shenanigan, all this trouble, all this pomp and circumstance...to get us out here so you could try to kill us? Really? I'm not sure if I should feel flattered or insulted."

Cobalt Templar lazily flew through the air, sparing a glance at the "master of ceremonies" on his pedestal, before turning back to look toward Mark. He wasn't moving too fast, for fear of some other barrier being in his way. But the slight overconfidence he felt was still pretty clear in his voice.

"You lot are in for a sore surprise."

[Fox]

"Hold this, please," he requested of the current Young Freedom member, similarly holding the leather strip over his other shoulder.

"Yes, I can - wait, what?" Indira blinked at the belt; she was trying to remember if it had any sort of human significance, but between unfolding events and personal distractions she couldn't quite place it, if there was anything to place.

Custos snapped her out of it, though, and by the time Spiegel was done and Cobalt Templar was advancing she'd decided that maybe the motorcycle wasn't the best place for her to be. Rather than upset the other riders she just melted, turning silver and running down the sides of the bike to fall to the sand below in a more natural, three-eyed, metallic form.

Well. More natural for her, anyway.