ic The Spirit of Revolution

[EternalPhoenix]

Knowing how powerful Lady Liberty could be and thusly taking no chances with her double, Terrifica took her staff from her belt and shook it open. This is my city. Mine. This is the city where American liberty took its first breaths, and I will not allow some ancient, deluded ghost to cause any harm to it. She yelled over her shoulder. "If you're not tougher than steel, be cautious. Ice wielder, if you can do anything about the civilians, please do. At the very least you can shield them from the this...travesty's wrath. Caradoc, you'll be needed up here. Try not to harm the host any more than you have to, please. That goes double for you, Miss Liberty. I know you don't like her, but she's currently inside a policewoman. The shapeshifting one? If you could help the ice wielder with evacuations I would appreciate it. However, your companion seems to have a nasty temper." She smiled. "Why don't we put that to use? And as ever, I'm not your boss. Think for yourselves, but do it quickly. That blow won't stop her for long." She returned her attentions to the opposite end of the common, where Southern Belle had landed. "Is that it then, Mary Preston Hammer? Is that all the Southern Belle can muster? Where's your Southern Pride?"

Edited July 31, 2014 by EternalPhoenix

[Gizmo]

"Apologies, oh T themed tactician, twas not listening!" Set explained as he realized Terrifica had been addressing him and looked up briefly from his smart phone. Rolling his shoulders in tight circles as he turned his attention back to his handheld device, the godling sprouted a fresh pair of wings, this set leathery, bat-like affair emerging from his back and covered in fine red fur the same shade as his hair. "Something about fighting a personification of chaos with a personification of chaos, I presume? An excellent idea!"

Kicking off of Temperance's ice sled and back into the air, Set quickly crossed the Common to catch up with Southern Belle. "Uploading... And posted!" Turning his phone about so that the display pointed toward the possessed police officer he indicated the rapidly scrolling list of comments it was showing. "Your verbal beatdown at the tongue of yon long coated stateswoman now adorns the Tumblrs! And tis trending! I be prepared to accept thy effusive gratitude whenever tis convenient." The grin he gave her would have driven a devout pacifist to question their vows.

[Avenger Assembled]

Miss Americana flew towards her downed opponent at super-sonic speed and nearly at ground-level, sending the tourists still crowding the Common fleeing in terror (with some actually having to dive out of the way of the oncoming heroine). If that was the Spirit of Liberty riding inside the patriotic paragon's body, it was showing much less regard for the people around it than usual. "You hear that? Even Pharoah's god laughs at your ridiculous pretensions, Mary!" She punched her downed counterpart hard enough to leave a crater in the soft, swampy soil of the pondside hill where they'd landed on the eastern side of the Common. "You're nothing but a traitor to your sex and a traitor to your nation!" Without breaking concentration, she looked at Set and said, "Hello, I'm feeling unwell. Could you call 609-555-4321 and ask for Steve-" 

 

She was interrupted by her antagonist, whose face was twisted with rage and hate. "Ah don't know that means, but go to hell, you-" Southern Belle called Set an epithet that had been inappropriate even in the 1860s. Struggling her way out of the dirt, she spat out grass and yelled, "And as for you, you're just a sanctimonious busybody who thought she was better than herself! You don't know anything about being a real woman, or living in the real world!" 

[Electra]

Inside Caradoc's armor, an urgent chime signaled an incoming communication. The caller didn't bother with the nicety of waiting for him to answer, instead overriding the system to make herself immediately heard. "Goddamn it, Steve, what the hell is going on with my robot?" Gina demanded, sounding angry, frightened, and a little congested from her recent nosebleed. "Something kicked me out, and it shouldn't have been able to do that, and the automatic safety protocols didn't engage. I can't get back in, and the satellite feed from Boston shows that something is driving it. You've got to stop it, whatever it is, you can't leave a weapon like that with... whatever the hell it is." 

[Avenger Assembled]

"She is possessed by something unwholesome," replied Steve. "Some sort of nationalistic American spectre. Could it be the Liberty entity?" Steve had met Earth-Prime's Lady Liberty early on during his time on Earth-Prime, and of course he had encountered countless versions of her elsewhere - but he had never seen anything like this. As he spoke, he advanced on the scene, pressing buttons on the haft of his all-too-obvious blade until suddenly Caradoc the shining knight seemed to fade from view entirely. "And there is something else. The entity ejected something - a creature of racial hatred. An entity called the Southern Belle. It has possessed a bystander and now they are struggling. I will try to subdue them both without damaging either." 

 

Invisibly he went for the Miss Americana robot, recognizing it as potentially a greater threat than the others realized. With Gina ejected from the robot, there was no heroic heart there to war against the magical being inside it; only a near-mindless robot with no autonomy of its own! He made his move, coming up from behind and dropping back to visibility, bringing his pike up and around as he tried to pin the robot's powerful arms against his armored chest. But she proved too strong for him; grabbing his sword and hurling him deftly over Southern Belle to land on the other side with a loud THUD that dug a crater in the dirt. 

 

"AM I THE ONLY SANE ONE LEFT?" the thing inside Miss Americana demanded. 

[Gizmo]

Sekhmet bared her pronounced canines with an angry growl as the fight began in earnest. "Rrrowrr... Betrayer or not, none of the Ennead shall be spoken to with such bilious disrespect!" she roared as she began sprinting forward, smoothly dropping to all fours in her lioness form mid-stride. She covered the distance to Southern Belle with the speed of an apex predator and did not slow, barreling into the possessed police woman claws first. The goddess retained enough restraint to hold back for the sake of the innocent host but was shocked to find her attack failing to find purchase at all across impossibly tough skin. "Wretched sorcery! I shalltake satisfaction, blasphemer!"

[trollthumper]

"Oh, let me tell you about the real world."

Temperance remained stock still on her ice sledge, locking eyes with the possessed Southern Belle. "Things have changed quite a fair bit since you last strode the plantation grounds. For one thing, we 'them' seem to know what's in our best interests, no matter who else insists they know better. You wanted a world where your way of life - which I guess involved us knowing when to avert our gazes, keep our mouths shut, and dare not raise a hand to 'the good folks' - stayed preserved. Sorry to say, that time has come and passed." Frost gathered in her hands. "Which means this will likely come as a rude shock."

The ice flew out at great speed towards Southern Belle. Hopefully, she'd been able to curb the ire long enough to make it count. She didn't want to hurt the police woman, but it might help to keep Belle wrapped up in ice long enough to deliver a good old-fashioned exorcism.

[Avenger Assembled]

To Temperance's (and everyone else's horror), the Confederate-empowered paragon shrugged her shoulders and shattered the ice with a single flex of mighty muscles. And then, her eyes glowing an ominous shade of red, white and blue all mixed together, she focused directly on Temperance! "Ah know you, Jessie Belle!" She pointed a finger at Temperance and erupted into the air until she was within inches from the watery elementalist, this close the spirit that possessed the policewoman writhing with hate and madness behind the living woman's eyes. "Has SHE summoned you!? Do you mock me even from the grave, SCARLET TEMPTRESS?!?" She reached out and with lightning-fast speed and grabbed her by the throat with both hands and Eliza felt her begin to squeeze with greater-than-human strength. "Ah sent you to Hell once, AH CAN DO IT AGAIN!" 

[EternalPhoenix]

Terrifica had been holding herself back. Wary of the dangers of fighting someone as strong as Lady Liberty in close quarters. Not wanting to (again) have to solve the problem of the week by punching it. She was better than that. But with the young ice wielder getting strangled, the time for caution had clearly passed. Sorry, love. Caution isn't going to work today. A few taps on her wrist computer and she was ready. She ran a few steps and then leapt higher than a unenhanced human possibly could. She soared through the air and brought her staff to bear. "Put her down, Mary!" The strike itself was perfectly on target, as Southern Belle took her eyes off Temperance to just in time to take the blow right between the eyes. Unfortunately, it didn't look like the living incarnation of Southern Pride even felt the hit, much less took damage from it. "The war is long over. It's 2014, Mary. We've evolved past you."

[Gizmo]

"T--!" Set's eyes widened behind his makeup and he sprinted forward a trio of steps as Temperance was grabbed about the throat, the might of the storm gathering within him. The godling came up short as he realized that he was more likely to do harm to the water magister than the apparently nigh invulnerable madwoman holding her. A direct attack was not the way to go. Instead, he raised his phone to continue recording and laughed loudly and pointedly in Southern Belle's direction. "Hah! You truly would not last five minutes on the Tumblrs, oh most basic of &*!@#es." Making a show of tucking the phone into his jacket pocket, the godling adjusted his rolled up sleeves and walked calmly toward Southern Belle, making sure he had her undivided attention even as the other heroes attempted to hit her. "Little ghost, know me as the god of chaos. My elder self spent decades possessing a mortal shell; think you that I could not banish you quick and easy as breathing?" He raised his hand as though about to snap his fingers and instead gave the anachronistic bigot an infuriating smirk. Bringing both arms to chest level and spreading them to open his jacket and draw attention to his mesh top, he made a beckoning gesture with both hands. "Let us make this more interesting, hm? Come at me, sis."

[Avenger Assembled]

"That's right, Mary!" declared a taunting Miss Americana, whose manic intensity had now focused like a laser on Southern Belle again. "This is a united army of Americans of all shapes, sizes, colors, and species, come together to send you back to Hell! You dare lay hands on a freedwoman fighting for her liberties? TASTE LIBERTY'S FURY, MONSTER!" she boomed before raising her hands and firing a pyrotechnic array of red, white, and blue lasers from her lovely fingers - laser beams that slashed burning score marks across the nearly-invulnerable body of Southern Belle and the rather more vulnerable body of Temperance! "And then when you're out of that poor woman, we'll put YOU in chains and see how YOU like the taste of SHACKLES on your flesh!" 

[Avenger Assembled]

"Do not shoot the captive!" declared Caradoc with great authority as he waded into the fray, leaving behind the maddened form of the Miss Americana robot to attack the creature that was shrugging off the blows from so many powerful-looking entities. Rising up from behind, he smashed the blunt end of his pike against Southern Belle's back, sending her slamming forward as she released her grip around Temperance's throat. She is already focusing on the godling. Good. Unable to speak inaudibly into his microphone, he kept up a running commentary on the battle for Gina's sake, knowing she was probably even now looking for a signal from Boston's electronic computer network. "We are engaged in fierce battle against Southern Belle! She is a doughty foe, but Set, Sekhmet, Terrifica, and Temperance and I will be victorious against yon monstrous ghost!" 

[trollthumper]

Temperance was extremely happy to breathe again, and quite happy she could plant her feet fully back on her ice sledge without falling to the ground. It would be a hell of a thing to go from "near death by choking" to "near death by plummeting." She regained her focus, and looked right in Southern Belle's eyes.

"I'm not your enemy," she said, trying very hard to hold her tongue on that one. "And I understand your problem. You woke up one day and your world was gone. Everything you were raised to believe, the order you thought defined existence... it all faded away, where it wasn't routed. You tried, oh you tried, but you could never put it back together right. You wondered why it had all gone wrong, and you felt that sadness in your soul. That I understand."

The frost condensed on her hands. "But you have to understand... part of your world was treating people like me like we were prize horses. Or worse." The icy torrent flew from her hands, once more trying to catch the possessed cop in a snare. "So you'll have to excuse me if I don't shed a tear."

[Gizmo]

"I do not fully ken thy madness," Sekhmet admitted in a low growl as she reared up on her hind legs and resumed her human form, fists bursting into scorching flame the instant they ceased to be paws. "But Temperance has the favour of She Who Mauls and thy soiled hands shall not touch her again!" The possessed police woman weathered the goddess' initial combination of brick shattering jabs but in doing so threw herself further out of balance, limbs tangled in ribbons of ice. Sekhmet smoothly clamped one fiery hand around her foes' wrist and twisted her arm about, locking the Southern Belle in a fierce wrestling hold.

Set visibly let out a breath he had been holding in. "Hah, thank sweet fluffy Ra. The second step of Operation: Poke the Proverbial Bear had continued to elude me." Sniffing, he straightened his jacket briskly and hurried over toward the continued brawl. "Naturally I knew you required no assistance," he assured Temperance with a light cough, "but one must cultivate a public reputation for teamwork, aye?"

[Avenger Assembled]

The maddened ghost-in-the-flesh struggled against Sekhmet's grasp, but proved unable to escape from the lioness's flaming grip. "Narrr..." She snapped her teeth, eyes wild and face as feral as the cat-god who wrestled with her. "Ah'll kill you! Ah'll kill all of you! Miserable uppity scum!" The words were wrathful but the voice behind them was high-pitched and close to hysterics, terror flashing in those bright blue eyes. "Ah'm not going back in there! Ah'll skin you and use you for moccasins, you foul excuse for a feline!" 

 

Having seen villains at bay before, Caradoc was briefly brought up short by the look in Southern Belle's eyes - was that the unwilling host of the escaped creature, or the creature itself? 

 

"Feh!" sneered the possessed robot who was her archrival. "It's better than where you'd go if you were getting your eternal reward, monster! You should be thanking Liberty!" 

[EternalPhoenix]

It had been bugging Terrifica ever since Southern Belle's appearance, but her own emotions (the pesky things) had flared and driven it from her mind. But now, as the living incarnation of Southern Pride showed real fear (hers or the host's, it made little difference. Wait just a moment... She spun on her heel, knowing the current foe was held firmly by the wrathful feline woman. "Something bothers me, Liberty. You're willing to chain up and lock away an aspect of who you are, just because she disagrees with you? I don't approve of her rhetoric. Her way of life is gone, and good riddance to it. That said...you threw the first punch. She was escaping confinement, something that you ought to approve of wholeheartedly. You turned it into a fight, where one wasn't needed. How long has she been imprisoned? Since the War ended? Need I point you to the Eighth Amendment? That little rule against cruel and unusual punishment? Or does the Bill of Rights not apply to the living incarnation of American liberty?" She pivoted slightly so that Belle could see her. "Oh, don't misunderstand me. You possessed an unwilling woman, and you must answer for that." She turned back to Miss A. "That said...the question remains. Has your anger overwhelmed your ideals? Is this what liberty is? Beating up someone fleeing from their long-perhaps overly long-captivity so that they may be returned to it? I admit, I was guilty of a knee jerk reaction myself. But look at her, Liberty. She is afraid. You have done this to her. And what's more, if that is truly Mary Preston Hammer...then the Spirit of Liberty is guilty of imprisoning a human woman's soul for over century, refusing to allow her to go to her eternal reward or punishment as her deity sees fit." Terrifica spun once more, attempting to grab everyone's attention. "Tell me, is this what we are? I thought we stopped fights, not started them." One last look for Miss A. "If that is your America, I want as little part of it as I want a part of Mary's America."

[Gizmo]

"Ooh, never point out a lack of internally consistent motivation to a spirit of chaos, oh garrulous genius!" Set cut in with one hand to the side of his mouth in the manner of an audience member shouting up to a speaker on stage even if it wasn't entirely necessary at that distance. "Makes us cra~a~azy. Besides, afterlives be far overrated. Conceptual gestalt tis as good a gig as any." The godling didn't let his gaze wander far from the unrestrained of the two possessed women and as he idly wandered a few steps closer to Miss Americana Temperance could see that the hand Set held behind his back was poised to snap its fingers.

Expression clouding over in spite of his affected nonchalance, he added to Terrifica, "You've not had the misfortune of dealing with a wicked past incarnation, or so I sincerely hope, mortal." Something impossibly old flickered in his flashing grey eyes, a spark caught between bitter weariness and inciting anger. "Aspects one can neither destroy nor in good conscience cast aside, only bottle away like a poison in the deepest, darkest corner of one's heart." He grinned, abruptly the irreverent teenager once more. "Or so I have heard, ha!"

[Avenger Assembled]

"And so I shall," agreed Miss Americana, advancing on Southern Belle with intent burning in her eyes. "I've kept her bottled away since her death all those years ago, and back to the prison will she go. Come now, Mary," she went on, sounding honestly curious at her would-be victim's terror. "If you go above, you'll see her. If you go below, you'll see him. Better an eternity with me than your eternal reward." 

 

"Ah never...ah never meant to kill them," replied Southern Belle, her voice still shaking with fear as she confessed a sin beyond the understanding of anyone there. "He just wouldn't...wouldn't ever leave them alone! Not any of them, and especially not her!" Her pretty teeth set in that snarl again, and for a moment they could actually see the face of the policewoman beneath the ghost, as if her rage and terror were distracting her from the business of possession. "Always walking around with that look in her eye, and oh she may have said she hated it but I knew she must be a fallen woman to tempt him so!"

 

She looked around, pleading for mercy from a world that had rejected hers a century and half earlier, even as Miss Americana moved in close for...something, it was hard to say what. "I knew he was doing it, again and again, every moment mah eyes weren't on him! When Ah came back, after Appomattox, Ah caught them together again, and he tried to apologize, and tell me it was all a big misunderstandin'! So Ah grabbed him by his lying mouth and I..." Her hands tightened into fists and she went on. "And then she started screaming, and I held her down until she was quiet, and then...then I didn't have the powers anymore, and the plantation was smashed, and it was all for nothing!"

[Gizmo]

Set heaved a heavy sigh as the possessed Miss Americana continued to menace the increasingly wretched Southern Belle, wearing the petulant expression of someone who had had the fun of a game ruined by someone else being a poor sport. "Say what one will, my elder self never subjected heroes to such morally grey, ethically challenging malarkey." With a flick of his wrist the godling snapped the fingers held behind his back. In response crimson lightning surged abruptly downward from the clouds above with a rattling boom of thunder, crashing into addled paragon like a freight train of electricity, power arcing up and down her limbs and torso.

Shrugging broadly, Set looked to the other heroes. "Yes, yes, I know. We were going to have to knock the thing out of the technology maven regardless, truly. I invite you all to berate my fickle nature anon; tis shaping up to be a terribly trying afternoon, emotionally speaking."

[Avenger Assembled]

"How dare you! I-WHOOP!"

 

In the middle of rounding on Set, now with a smoking hole in her cape, Miss Americana had suddenly been attacked from behind by Caradoc! Knowing the robot's design, Steve was able to pin it against his armored chest, his sword coming up in front of her shoulders and pinning her arms in place. 

 

"You must not breach her skin!" Caradoc called, Steve thinking fast to cover for his girlfriend's secret - unfortunately confronted with the hard reality that he was a poor choice for such deceptions. She is so much better at this than I am. "Her powers come from...American radiation! Hence the red, white, and blue lasers!" I am lying and they know I am lying - look at their faces!  He tore himself away from contemplating his failures to try and stop the rampaging robotic powerhouse. "If you breach her skin, she might EXPLODE in a shower of gamma particles and turn this park into a blighted cinder!" 

[trollthumper]

Well, then. Smack the crazy racist ghost in the face before her trip down a particularly pothole-filled stretch of Memory Lane spelled bad things for all of them... or turn her attention on the much more powerful possessor, now riding a body that might possibly explode into fireworks over Chernobyl. This was one hell of a decision to made. Temperance swiftly cast her gaze between the struggling Southern Belle and the pinned Miss Americana, trying to decide. In the end... she couldn't.

Man, I hope this works. She pulled back slightly, giving her enough space to catch both in her sights while minimizing risk of a shot going wild. The ice swiftly formed in her hands, and shot out in a storm of blunted darts. With the Belle, she aimed for the chest, taking pains to try and avoid Sekhmet's grip. With Miss Americana, she aimed for the torso, especially the parts covered by what she presumed was ablative Atomwear - the rounds would be blunt enough to hurt, but wouldn't be going at sufficient velocity to break skin.

Well, if this goes badly, I can buy everyone a coffee. Assuming I haven't nuked Boston...

[Electra]

"Steve? What's going on out there? I don't want to take the time to hack into a satellite and camera feeds are too fuzzy!" Gina's voice was a frustrated buzz in Steve's ear. He hadn't heard her this annoyed since the time when the substitute Peapod guy had tried to insist on delivering the groceries into the house. "If I can just get my damned nose to stop bleeding, I'm going to try and take control again. That bitch does not get to run away with my robot and go on some kind of disaster spree, not when I've spent two years rehabilitating ArcheTech's image! Try not to let anybody shoot me, okay?" She disconnected suddenly without waiting for an answer; apparently the question had been rhetorical. 

 

Miss Americana, meanwhile, had taken advantage of the momentary break in Caradoc's concentration to push hard against the joints in his armor, shoving them apart just enough for her to slip away and back into the open sky. "Freedom!" she crowed, climbing to put some distance between them as celebratory red, white and blue sparks shot from her fingertips. All at once, she jerked to a halt in midair, her spine snapping straight and her knees locking while her gaze fixed on some invisible middle distance. She rolled once in the air and then she was falling, fast and face-first, heading for the concrete far below. 

Edited August 31, 2014 by Electra

[Gizmo]

"I demand explanation!" Sekhmet shouted irritably as she tossed the unconscious police officer aside unceremoniously and began sprinting to place herself under the suddenly falling Miss Americana. The warrior goddess had not been able to follow any of what was going on during the battle, still not entirely clear who the plummeting woman even was and only understanding the bout of possessions in the most general of ways based on what the other heroes were saying. "What madness transpires?!" Confused as she was, she didn't hesitate for an instant, leaping impossibly high and tackling Miss Americana midair, catching the patriotic paragon in a similar pin to the one that had effectively held Southern Belle immobile.

[EternalPhoenix]

Terrifica glanced at Set. "I don't know if I have any past incarnations living inside me, so I can't speak to that. However...I do know a little about dealing with the darkness of one's own heart." She flashed him an impish grin. "Honestly, removing all the idiots in government and taking over would so much easier than this, you know?" Leaving him with that, she stepped into the path of the falling officer and gently lowered her to the ground. Do they not know that Caradoc was lying? Radiation doesn't explode. It also doesn't come in white, not in the damaging variety. "Can you please not fling the unconscious to the ground? They don't catch themselves." That said...there must be something he's hiding about her. And of course, with Miss Americana being known for her affiliation with ArcheTech, the first place my mind goes is "she's actually robot." Or a cyborg. Something mad science-y. Respect the cowl, young lady. Cover for him. "You've got that backwards, Caradoc. It's the energy that explodes and burns everything to a cinder. It's the radiation that poisons the survivors and gives the ones who escape that cancer. So please be more careful with her, lioness. I'd rather not be incinerated today."

[Electra]

Moments after Sekhmet landed with her pinned trophy, Miss Americana raised her head and blinked her stunning blue eyes, seeming neither overly pained nor upset by her confinement. "You can let me go now," she told Sekhmet, "I'm feeling much more myself again." The afflicted paragon certainly looked much more rational than she had a few minutes before, with neither the near-crazed patriotic fervor or vacant uncertainty she'd previously displayed. "Though I'm afraid I'm not exactly sure what just happened," she admitted.