ic Cast of Four

[Avenger Assembled]

"How-how DARE you!" spluttered Stratos as the sand sinously surrounded him and snared his legs tightly to a nearby piece of broken ceiling. "I am the victim of a crime! I am the injured party here after that crazy Weather Floozy burst into my house, blew up my perfectly innocent death, I mean peace, peace ray and locked me in a cage and you, you HOOLIGANS," he said, pointing a finger at Thrude and Set, "have the audacity to beat me with your giant hammer-murder thing and tie me up with sand!" He kicked futilely at the bound limb before adding, "You know what, I am tired of this. You both want to play with mad science? Well, you should know what you're getting into!" He fired a blast of lightning from his fingers, not at the two godlings who were so bedeviling him, not at the fallen Weather Mistress, but at the powerful weather-controlling wand she had dropped after Stratos had knocked her unconscious. The fallen vane leaped in the air, electricity crackling all up and down its length, but alarmingly it continued even after Stratos' purple lightning blasts had dissipated. 

 

"There!" he said, putting his hands on his hips as the Weather Vane continued to jerk and spark with a truly ominous glow and growing whine. "I overclocked her internal hypercell controllers, just like I did right in Thunder's gazpacho back in 91. And you don't even know what that means, do you? Is it going to explode? Is it going to do NOTHING? You don't know, and because you were such big jerks, I am not even going to tell you." He crossed his arms and looked away, full of superior pride. 

[N/A]

Thrude turned from Stratos and plummetted to the ground. She snatched the Weather Vane out of the air without hesitation, seemingly oblivious to the lightning swirling around it. "We have not time to bicker!" she shouted. "Comrade!" she called out to Set, "I trust thou canst defeat this foe, or at least occupy him until my return! I shall dispose of this thaumaturgy far away from any mortal bystanders. These ROTTEN DEGENERATES have ALREADY put TOO MANY lives in PERIL this day!" The Daughter of Storms raised her massive warhammer to the sky, the haft resting above her head parallel to the ground. Lightning flashed, thunder roared, and in a fraction of a second she was gone. The shockwave shattered every window in the warehouse and left deep cracks in the concrete floor, radiating out several meters from where she had stood. A few seconds later, she floated into a stable orbit a few hundred miles above the surface of the Earth.

[Gizmo]

Set's dreadlocks flailed wildly behind him as he covered his face with his forearm against the force of Thrude's departure, looking upward after the goddess as he recovered. "...Ra's morning breath. You see, tis exactly about which I have been speaking! Bold acts of untempered heroism!" he observed to the still captive Stratos, thrusting his fist emphatically heavenward. "Tis exactly as Horus would have done. I think you may appreciate, Doctor, how such does not come so easily to us all." With a heavy sigh, the godling shook his head, apparently lost in his own thoughts. "For instance." Without warning Set's right arm came up in an underhanded pitch, flinging a barrage of inky globules of pure shadow stuff toward the mad weather manipulator. Several of the scattershot projectiles smacked squarely into Stratos' face, covering his eyes and effectively blinding him. "Effective? Certainly! Heroic? Eh..." The Heliopolian waved his hand back and forth in the air in a gesture of ambivalence, though no one was actually able to see him doing so anymore.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hey, who turned out the lights!?" asked Stratos irritably. With something of a sigh, he crossed his arms and said in Set's general direction. "You know, you're lucky I'm still on my medication, because otherwise having a blind weather controller going medieval on your ass would be pretty bad for you, and this whole freaking neighborhood! Hey, that reminds me - Set, I need you to do me a favor. Get your cameraphone ready and take a picture of Thrude when she gets back, because things are gonna be great!" 

 

-

 

Up in the sky, so far above the Earth she could make out the curve of Midgard beneath, Thrude felt the magic rod she'd grabbed grow hotter and hotter even in the intense cold of deep space - until it exploded in her hands with a powerful BANG! She tasted carbon as super-heated metal erupted against her face and hair, the latter being blasted backwards to stiffened expansion like a miniature sunburst, the former dusted with an infrablack coating of high-tech alloys and unnatural energies. Looking down, her armor was equally blackened by the blast - albeit curiously undamaged. 

 

- 

 

"...so anyway, I've been thinking, there are a lot of gods that nobody even worships  these days. What if I went to one and said "Hey, I'll be your Earthly avatar if you power me up a little!" I'm not a chump like what's his face, Baron Samedi, I wouldn't go all crazy with it! Then I could be Dr. Stratos, God of THUNDER!" He demonstrated his point by making lightning jump from his fingers. (He'd been talking for a while.) "What do you think?" 

[N/A]

Thrude floated motionless, stunned, for a moment. She touched her index finger to her tunic, dug a trail through the soot, and raised her finger to her face, examining it intently. Then she gritted her teeth and snarled. The goddess flew further out into space, and then turned back toward Earth and shot down like a bullet aimed at the ground. She didn't flinch against the friction or heat of the atmosphere against her face. She didn't even close her eyes. She made tiny alterations to her trajectory as the city, then the building, and finally Stratos himself came into view. She aimed herself, and all of her momentum, squarely at the mad doctor. This. Ends. NOW!

Edited August 10, 2014 by ShaenTheBrain

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hey, here she comes! Maybe Thrude wants to-" BOOM! And then that was the end of Dr. Stratos talking, and as far as the two heroes could discern, the end of the fight. Knocked out and dangling from the sandy snare around his ankle, Stratos hung like a macabre pinata inside the smashed-up warehouse that had once been his home away from Providence. Up in the sky, the clouds had faded and the weather stopped, and it was by all accounts a beautiful sunny day, just the thing for two young godlings who had just savaged their way through two opponents whose greatest weakness had ultimately been themselves, and frequent blows to the face as well as divine magic. Two opponents. 

 

Hey, where WAS Weather Mistress, anyway? The spot where she'd landed was now noticeably empty, and the door to the alley outside was still swinging open. 

[Gizmo]

"Ah. Goodness," Set opined after a pause, tapping the display of his phone to take a snapshot of Thrude, hair and cheeks covered in what looked like metallic soot, which probably would have been funnier if not for the expression which communicated very clearly her desire to commit unspeakable violence. "You do not believe strongly in moderation, I'm sensing," he called upward as he allowed the pillars of sand to gradually fall away into a sizable dune for Stratos' unconscious form to rest upon. Quickly checking the raving doctor's pulse he found with some relief that the Aesir had gauged the necessary force well and gained a greater appreciation for her target's surprising durability. "Well, that was bracing! Have you plans for dinner, oh prepossessing pummeler? Once you have had a chance to... ah, tis a little..." The godling indicated a position on his own face, his pointing finger taking in more and more surface area.

[N/A]

The fog surrounding Thrude's legs dissipated. She fell through the broken roof down to the warehouse floor, landing on her feet in a crouch. The impact kicked up a small cloud of sand around her. "Thy invitation is gracious, Fellow Storm-Lord. But my first duty is to the peoples of Midgard." She reached down into the sand, grabbed what was left of the mad doctor's shirt with her free hand, and heaved him up over her shoulder. "This vermin must be shackled and thrown into a dark hole somewhere, before more of this fair city burns."

[Gizmo]

"Naturally, naturally," Set agreed with an easy nod, heading for the warehouse door once Thrude had scooped up the unconscious Stratos. "Duty tis my middle name! Well, were I to have a middle name. Or a surname. Well, tis the intent which carries weight, aye? I shall accompany you to the Freedom League's temple, they're all terrible fond of me over there." Stepping outside, he looked up at the sky, keeping an eye on the dissipating storm that had drawn his attention in the first place. The blonde goddess had a good point, the damage would have been severe had they not intervened in a timely manner. "...hm. I nearly forgot about the second one. Where did she land...?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Set's implicit question was answered when he opened the door to see a car racing towards him at fantastic speed, Weather Mistress behind the wheel! The nimble nocturne of the Nile dodged out of the way as the car smashed right through the warehouse's cinderblock wall only to smash itself against a steel post with an enormous crash that shook the entire building! Safely belted in as she was, the driver of the car looked dazed but largely unhurt - at least until the walls of the building began to shake and the already-stressed structure began to crash down around the ears of the godly pair and their now out-for-the-count compatriots. The wail of approaching sirens let them know that emergency response crews were on their way, probably from the nearby base, but they wouldn't come before the building came down!

[N/A]

Thrude ran back into the warehouse toward the car that was now wrapped around the support pole. A quick scan of the driver-side door revealed it to be wedged shut inside the twisted metal. The goddess glanced up and around her at the crumbling walls. No time... She knelt down, reached under the front end of the car, and grabbed the front axle. She heaved and wrenched the car free from the pole. A swirling mist appeared at her feet, spinning faster and faster as it wrapped itself around her up to her waist. A few sparks crackled around the rim, and then she launched into the sky.

[Gizmo]

"Truly?! Truly." Tossing around lightning bolts and hail storms was one thing but there was something about attempted vehicular godslaughter upon his person that Set just found insulting.Scrambling up from the uneven ground where he'd landed after flinging himself out of harm's way, the godling couldn't miss the crumbling infrastructure all around him. "Tis why your remain a third-rate pretender, witch," he muttered largely to himself as he made sweeping upward motions with both arms, knowing that Weather Mistress was unlikely to be able to hear him. "No class!" Howling winds erupted from his side as he gestured, a palpable gale that pushed falling cinder blocks and twisted girders to either side of the demolished vehicle while Thrude freed it from its point of impact.

Turning a strained grunt into a more polite clearing of his throat, he spared enough concentration to call through gritted teeth, "Could... easily parry debris, ahrn, indefinitely, L-lady Thrude but mayhap some haste...?" The Norse goddess was already gone before he could finish, carrying the villains out the collapsing warehouse to safety.

[Avenger Assembled]

Eventually the deed was done and the heroes, for all that they'd had to go the extra mile to earn that particular title today, were standing outside the smashed remains of what had been Dr. Stratos' laboratory. Both Stratos and Weather Mistress were down for the count, leaving the heroes to explain the situation as the authorities arrived in the person of Freedom City PD squad cars amid a welter of flashing lights and sirens that quickly surrounded the place - despite having missed most of the festivities. No fools, they'd evidently stayed away during all the super-thunderstorms, explosions, and other superheroic shenanigans that could be awfully tough on mundane police officers!

 

The fallen warehouse had left quite a gap in the neat row of prefab cinderblock buildings all around, but luckily the police were used to property damage and superheroes mixing. While a few uniformed officers went about the process of police-taping off the broken warehouse, Detective Fischler, a dapper young woman in a woman's suit and tie who looked fresh out of whatever program had elevated her to the major case squad, took their statements - starting with Set. "Set, wasn't it?" She gave him a professional smile, her freckled cheeks dimpling slightly, and asked, "What happened here today?" 

[Gizmo]

Leaning nonchalantly against a pile of rubble and running a hand over the top of his head through his brick red dreadlocks, Set favoured Fischler with a heart-stopping smile. "I like how you feigned uncertainty as to my name, tis cute," he told her coyly, lowering his hand to run a thumb across the edges of its other fingernails idly, the very picture of casual confidence. "As to what transpired, well! The Lady Thrude and I were merely discussing the weather with yon accident prone pair. In the manner of storm gods, naturally." Set reflected inwardly that were he to turn his current expression into a .gif, sunglasses would have descended from the heavens to grace his countenance. He mentally added that to his do to list.

[N/A]

The nearby ground shook when the mangled car dropped back onto the pavement.  The driver-side door fell down beside it a moment later, rent and twisted near the hinge where it had been torn off.  Human fingers had left deep grooves in the metal.  Thrude floated down beside it, holding Hridgandr in one hand, the limp Weather Mistress in the other.  Doctor Stratos was still slung over her shoulder.

 

Thrude strode up to the detective and unceremoniously shrugged and shoved the defeated villains off herself onto the street at her feet.  "My THANKS, Reeve.  I would have conveyed these WICKED DEGENERATES to your doors, but thou hast saved me the trouble.  Their PETTY BRAWL threatened to CONSUME this FAIR CITY, and all appeals to REASON or COMPASSION fell upon DEAF EARS."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hmm. Well, it looks like the two of you won the argument." Fischler, like many a new police detective, was obviously doing her best to seem professional - even in the face of the figurative tornado of Set's personality and the quite literal tornado that was Thrude! "Hey, is that Stratos and Weather Mistress? It is!" Her face actually lit up at that, at least until she evidently reminded herself that she was on the job. "Er...well, this is good news. Providence has had a lot of trouble with Stratos escaping; maybe this will get them to put him back in lockup where he belongs. Ever since Weather Mistress and her husband the Mad Maple left the Thieves' Guild, she and her husband have been a thorn in the side of law enforcement all through North America."

[Gizmo]

"Well, not all possess a disposition as measured and temperate as you, oh serene eye of the storm. Ooh, hold! Pick the brigands up once more!" Set instructed with a inspired clap of his hands, producing his smart phone and waving over the law officer. "Come, Detective Fischler! Quickly, now!" Hopping in front of Thrude once he had Dr. Stratos and Weather Mistress back in hand and ushering Fischler in beside him, the godling stretched out his arm and called, "Say 'papyrus'!"

Snapping the photo, he admired the results on the phone's display. "I shall message you the self-portrait, Lady Thrude, if you would provide me with your-- hm." Reconsidering his approach, Set tucked the device away somewhere in his shendyt and turned to face the Aesir head on, hands placed on his hips and expression serious. "No subtlety, very well. Thorsdottir, I think you to be terribly attractive. I know I am. I would propose a further exploration of that shared quality, mayhap over refreshments or a meal of some sort." Tilting his chin upward, he raised one eyebrow expectantly.

[N/A]

Thrude blinked a few times and rubbed her eyes after the flash from Set's phone camera.  She opened her eyes to see the pint-sized deity standing confidently before her.  She rubbed her chin thoughtfully as her eyes drifted from his head to his feet and back up again.  Then she glanced back down at her huge axe-hammer.  Her shoulders slumped a bit as she sighed.  She gave a quick squeeze to a wad of cloth near the center of her chest, where a finger-sized chunk of stone hung under her tunic from a simple leather thong around her neck.  Over a millenium had passed on Midgard since she first pulled that largest piece out of the mound of gravel and powder that used to be the man who had forged Hridgandr, since she had turned from her father and joined Freyja's sisterhood.  Her eyes shot back up, looking down at Set's face with a slight smile.

 

"Thy wit is quick, fellow Storm-Lord.  Thy courage is battle-tested and true.  Thy honeyed words are kind, and forsooth, I cannot protest thy reckoning.  Nor can I promise that all thine appetites shall be sated this night.  But thy aid this day merits a hearty helping of mead at the least."  Thrude gripped the haft of Hridgandr and slammed the end against the ground.  A bolt of lightning shot up from the hammer-head into the heavens.  A dark cloud formed overhead, expanding to cover the entire sky above Lonely Point.  A huge blur of green pierced the clouds from above and descended slowly upon them.  A tree branch thicker than the Sentry Statue, coated with oblong leaves the size of 18-wheeled trucks, bent down to rest its end gently upon the ground.

 

"I have a standing invitation from Lady Freyja to visit her palace at Sessrumnir.  I do not think she will mind if I bring a guest, especially one so pleasing to behold as thou art."  And if I do not decide to indulge thy desires, if I decide to let yet another age pass without a fellow warrior's touch, then surely Freyja or one of her handmaidens will take a liking to thee.

 

[Gizmo]

"My wit, courage and reckoning be some of my best qualities," Set agreed amiably with a half bow, flourishing with one hand and nodding his head deeply enough to cover the flicker of concern that tugged at his features for the span of a heartbeat. It didn't take a master of linguistic intricacies to hear the note of poorly healed loss in Thrude's voice or the slight deflating of her squared shouldered stance. The Heliopolian wondered for a moment if his boldness had overstepped but straightened his posture and resumed his confident grin as it occurred to him that the hammer wielding warrior would not have been one to mince words were that the case.

"Pleasing countenance withstanding, in truth your hospitality tis more than I have been extended in a great age, Lady Thrude. Consider my expectations already far exceeded and my humble services at your beck and call." Turning to the representative of the FCPD, he took her hand in both of his own and lightly brushed his lips over her knuckles in a courtly gesture. "Excuse us, dear Detective Fischler. God stuff, hmm? Oh, do tell the Doctor I shall make a point to visit him in his confinement, would you? Tis a surprisingly genial sort!" Walking back over the Thrude and the absurdly massive foliage he pursed his lips. "One supposes you would have heard all manner of variations on 'make like a tree' already."