ic What's Eating You?

[Electra]

"Thanks," Fleur said, her face white and pinched but resolute as she headed for the stairs. When she reached the bottom of the stairwell, she tossed out a seed, and in moments a tall, thin vine was growing up the center of the stairwell, shooting rapidly skyward and twining itself around railings for support as it went. "Just one minute," she told the others, closing her eyes to concentrate on the vine's progress. It was a bit dizzying to let her consciousness travel upwards at the speed of plant, but she didn't take much in, just checking to see whether there might be anyone alive near the stairs. There was nothing, and she tried not to notice what might have once been alive. 

 

At the stairwell on the 85th floor, she tied off the vine with a number of sturdy runners and let a clutch of large zinnias bloom while she returned her attention to her own brain. "Okay, we'll have to walk the last two flights because I don't want to teleport blind, but it'll save us some leg cramps. Everybody gather round and hold hands." In a blink, she'd moved the entire group up the stairs, where it wasn't any more pleasant, but at least there were a few less bodies. 

[Avenger Assembled]

The decor in the GBN corridors had once been cool, gray, and dignified; but now each floor was a grim ruin of unspeakable carnage. Most windows were shattered by catastrophe, the world outside a spectacle of terror. In the openings of the broken windows, young spiders as big a man's fist weave their webs, chattering to themselves in an unholy tongue. As the heroes made their way up the stairs, quick security checks revealed two or three adult spiders, the size of a horse, maintaining clearly-marked territories on each floor. The few hallways not blocked with webs lead to empty offices - or rather, offices empty of people. Frost's face was expressionless as they went, the snarky cold controller frozen with horror at what they found. Finally, after two stories of watching their backs at every turn, they reached the upper level - the penthouse studio that had been their original target 

 

This had been a high-ceilinged, immaculate reception lobby. Now bones and refuse were piled in every corner. Blood stained the expensive carpet. At the reception desk, now smashed, a thing munched on a haunch of meat -- a thing that might (by the tattered remains of her clothes) once have been the secretary who worked there! Now she, or it, was a squat, misshapen insect with bulging compound eyes - one that hissed and scuttled up through a hole in the ceiling at the sight of the heroes! Behind the secretary's desk, a carpeted ramp leads up to a double door made of thick walnut and labelled EXECUTIVE BOARDROOM. Through it, came unsettling sounds of wet, liquid movement - and scuttling.

 

"Suggest we kick in the door. And destroy all in the room."  

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel had thought he'd been prepared for any new horrors on the top floor, but the sight of the horribly transformed bug-woman-secretary very nearly broke his tight control over his own stomach. Only closing his eyes for a moment and breathing from under one gloved hand for several deep breaths helped. The supernaturally-clean outfit probably lessened the smell just a tad. Another small blessing to give thanks for once this was all over.

 

Normally, he would disapprove of Frost's rather bloodthirsty (irony intended) suggestions. In this case, he was finding it hard to disagree. That said, he had a couple of minor alterations to suggestion.

 

"If there's anything or anyone that seems sapient and coherent, they should be left for questioning for the time being. And instead of someone stubbing a toe on the door, allow me to knock."

 

With that, the angel-inspired man floated forward and up the incline a bit before stopping. Giving in to his natural flair for drama, he twirled his glowing spear once before leaving the point facing the ground, his now-free right hand facing the door palm-first, fingers splayed. The others could hear, and almost feel, the hum of sonic energy he emitted.

 

For about three seconds, the heavy wooden doors shook in their frame, the rattle building up moment by moment.

 

Then they just exploded into sawdust and splinters, all of which flew into the room beyond.

[Avenger Assembled]

The room on the other side of the door was a nightmare made solid. A long, low-ceilinged room of walls that dripped a foul greenish-black slime with a scent of rotting flesh and worse. Dried blood painted the carpeted floor in strange ritual symbols; the very symbols of the Anopheles! Webs in the corners hold the dessicated bodies of executives who once worked here. There are smells of blood and vinegar and various human wastes. Along the walls scuttle former human beings, now distorted into a hunched mosquito shape - hybrids like the secretary who fled earlier, and in fact she, it, can be seen among them now!

 

There were perhaps twenty of them, but they seemed to have no stomach for a fight. Instead, they retreated, cowering behind their Queen - in this small space, at least, their God. The Anopheles Queen is huge, bloated, pale and doughy, like a tremendous mound of flesh. Two stubby arms and two atrophied legs protruded and above the repellent body, something like a small human infant's head, bald and drooling, held itself up with visible effort.

 

And it looked as surprised to see them as they were to see it! The Queen, with a repellent liquid sound, laid a huge quantity of eggs at the sight of the assembled heroes. They collected in neglected, viscous brown-yellow drifts, gradually slopping over and oozing down the open shaft in the back of the room. As if mastering itself, the Queen spoke in a voice that was a parody of human - and of the executive it might once have been. 

 

"Did the boys get your carpet muddy? Our bad! Tell you what, bring your giant bees in here and we can talk about a deal!" 

[Fox]

Gaian Knight looked ill, unsure where to put his eyes where they'd take in the least horror. The...thing...drew his attention when it spoke, though, and it hardened his stance and his gaze, little rock shards twisting behind him as if eager to be set loose. "I think the bees are happier where they are. I know I would be. And you're joking about this? About what you've done? Look at yourself! Look at-"

"No deal," Tiamat interrupted, sneering. "New deal, though, so try this one out: you tell us how you got here and how far you've spread, and I'll set you on fire."

"Or you'll set her on fire," Gaian Knight corrected, though from his flat tone he apparently shared her sentiment.

"Yesssss," she hissed, through an unfriendly smile full of entirely too many sharp teeth. "Or I'll set you on fire. Please, tell us about your...glorious hive."

[Electra]

Fleur dropped a handful of seeds as she walked into the room, letting her power flow around her and grow them into a leafy carpet over the foul mess that covered the floor. "You came into my world," she told the queen evenly, stepping around Gabriel, Gaian Knight and Tiamat. "My world, and you tried to invade it with your creatures." Vines climbed the walls, knocking aside the desiccated hanging bodies, then burying them. "For that alone, I should let the dragon kill you. She'd enjoy it, and I like it when the citizens of my world are happy." A thin, humorless smile curved her lips, then was gone in an instant. 

 

By now the walls were entirely blanketed with vines on Fleur's side of the room, the runes totally obscured, the smell nearly overpowered by the scent of greenery and flowers. Only the space the Queen and her minions occupied remained clear. "But then we came here, and I saw what kind of parasites you really are, and what you do to unprotected worlds, and it occurs to me that's not nearly good enough. You are vermin, preying on and destroying what you cannot build yourselves. Give me one reason not to crush you where you lay." 

[Avenger Assembled]

Comrade Frost's first instinct was to kill the Queen - it was his second instinct as well. Unlike the others he had seen the results of an attempted Anopheles invasion in their own world. The Soviet Union never had been able to close the gate left open in its territory, and only the detonation of multiple nuclear warheads (and the collapse of the surrounding mountains) had been sufficient to close the gate. But when the others hesitated, he found wisdom in their words. "Stay behind us," he muttered to the white-faced and shaking Daniels. "We will protect you." He didn't bother speaking to the Queen, though, instead he slowly circled the perimeter, keeping a watchful eye on everything as the insects spoke. Liquid - good. They'll freeze hard and fast. 

 

"There were people like you on this world once," gargled the Queen with a glutinous chuckle. "But we dealt with them. First the investigators, then the ones who thought being better than the hive meant they were untouchable. Don't be stupid." The great creature seemed to writhe, flesh pulsating unnaturally beneath its great bulk. "We'll be happy to cut your little homeworld out of the project if you get off our territory. "We already opened the door. No way you're closing it again." 

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel took a couple of steps forward, and struck the floor with the butt of his spear. The sound echoed more than it should have, especially with the blooming plants.

 

He stood there, next to a woman many might consider a goddess of the forest, a man others might consider something of a god of stone and earth, a dragon who may or may not have had a cult or two spring up about her personage, and a vampire older than the combined ages of everyone but the dragon who could probably flash-freeze way more than he let on.

 

There he stood, gleaming silver armor, thick leather coat blowing in what looked like a breeze, except there was no breeze to be felt, spear held in one hand with light pouring from the shining tip, and he locked eyes with the twisted thing that had once been a human being.

 

"The way shall once again be shut. Your only choice is whether you flee through the door intact, or are reduced to ash in our wake."

 

The words hung with an unnatural gravity in the air. Gabriel's eyes carried great anger within them, and he was as deadly-serious as any of his comrades had ever heard him.

 

"So run now, run immediately, and run far. Or die. But we shall cleanse this world of your taint and bolt shut the door you forced open. Count yourself blessed by whatever passes for gods where you come from that we shall not be bringing such fury after you and yours that the pit from whence you spawned is reduced to ash and dust."

 

He paused, then spoke again, a whisper as loud as a shout.

 

"Run away. Now."

[Avenger Assembled]

The fight, when it came, was anti-climatic. Comrade Frost was not one to appreciate strife, favoring fast, decisive blows in the middle of the night against unprotected targets, but even he was left with a strange sensation of dissatisfaction when it was all done. Ice crunched under his feet as he walked among tangled plants to where the fallen monsters lay amid the things that had destroyed or bound them - the dusty aftereffects of sonic shouts, licks of flame and barbed plants, and the rocky underpinnings that had smashed their way up through the floor. Looking around, Comrade Frost's team, even their all-too-human companion, had been unhurt. "Well, that was...easy enough," said Frost cautiously as he stood by the half-frozen queen, left insensate and immobile by repeated ice attacks. Ready to leap away at the first sign of trouble, Frost peered into the hole where the queen's eggs had fallen. 

 

"Oh, thank God! Oh thank God!" Daniels, their escort, looked around wildly amid the scene of devastation, tears in his eyes. Running over, he kicked the head off one of the frozen drones and looked ready to desecrate the corpse before turning to the others. "Now all we need is to take out the other nests in the other buildings with their queen, and then the ones in the other cities, and then we can close the gateways that brought you here." He seemed to realize what he was saying and paled. "That is, er, the only way we have found to close a gateway. Close the passageway from the side where it opened." 

 

"We need not travel by your road," said Frost, "We have no fear of trapped in your world." He frowned, standing up from where he'd perched over the foul-smelling hole in the ground. "There is another gateway here. Probably where those extra eggs went." He hmmed. "Anopheles would seek to raise their young on homeworld. Gateway here must be original one." 

 

Just then, Fleur de Joie's commlink sounded with a familiar, booming, buzzing voice. "WE GOT THEM! LAZT OF THE BIG MOZQUITO THINGZ." That did explain the noises they'd heard during their own battle. "BAD GUYZ LOOK REALLY ZTIRRED UP, LIKE WE'RE AFTER THEIR HONEY!" 

 

"I am dimensional portal," said Frost suddenly, as if coming to a snap decision. "And cannot be stung by insects. I can go through and close original gateway, and return to Earth-Prime on own time." 

[Fox]

"Anything that can open portals to other worlds and control biology well enough to convert other living creatures probably isn't limited to stinging," Gaian Knight frowned, eyeing the hole with clear but thoughtful distaste. "I don't like the idea of you going in there alone, especially when we'd have no way to contact you - and you'd have no way to contact us - when or if something went wrong."

"On the other hand," mused Tiamat, not looking particularly concerned with Frost's likely impending danger, "it'd free up the rest of us to clean up here. Nothing so far has been a huge threat; we're not short of high-speed travel options if something went wrong. While he's off in bugland, we could be clearing out other queens, other nests. I'd kinda like to see how well those eggs burn, if they aren't all going into portals like this one."

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel's expression was close to Gaian Knight's.

 

"Even if they don't have overly man exotic abilities available, I would be worried about the sheer numbers. Certainly you can withstand more punishment, but just how much? And will your own dimensional abilities work as well the further away from home you get?

 

On the other hand I'm not sure any of the rest of us would be equipped to survive over-long in that place.."

 

He looked down the hole with a critical eye.

 

"How many of these portal are there, and just how extreme will we need to be to close them all?"

[Electra]

For a moment, Fleur looked very much as though she'd like to agree with Frost's plan, but then she firmed her jaw and shook her head. "You're not going in there alone," she told him flatly. "If the gateway needs to be closed from the inside, I'll go with you and we'll do it together.  I'm pretty hard to kill myself, and I haven't found a universe yet that I can't get in or out of. But we don't send anybody out alone, that's not the Freedom League way." She looked at the others. "Do you think you guys can handle the rest of the nests here?" 

[Fox]

Gaian Knight visibly wrestled with that one for a while before finally swearing - a rare occurrence, and one that got an amused snort out of Tiamat. "I really don't like the idea of the two of you there alone, but it's probably the best option we have. Just do me a favor and bail the moment anything goes wrong - better to leave the portal up and regroup here than take a risk we can't afford. We'll take care of things here."

"Hell yes we will," his companion chimed in, grinning as only a top-tier predator could. It wasn't humor or hunger so much as...raw malice. "Been a while since I got a good rampage in. It'll be like old times. You just stay safe, and don't let the ghoul trick you into setting him on fire."

[KnightDisciple]

At this point Gabriel looked like someone had fed him an expired jalapeno pickle. He closed his eyes and took a half dozen breaths (not too deep, even with all the flowers) to calm himself. 

 

"I'd rather send the entire League through with an Army division and a handful of nuclear weapons. But failing that, this is probably our best option. We'll drive out the vermin on this side while you tear them down on the other side."

 

He opened his eyes and gave them a serious stare.

 

"Be safe. We'll see you both when we're all done. Now, go with God."

 

He ignored the irony of saying such a thing to Comrade Frost and made the sign of the Cross toward both of them. 

[Avenger Assembled]

On the roof of the wrecked skyscraper, the assembled heroes were joined by their guardian phalanx of giant bees, and a whole heap of trouble. "YOU GOT THE SUB-QUEEN? MUZT BEE WHAT ZTIRRED THEM UP!" The other nests were disgorging their own guardians in great swarms that made for a maddening noise - a mosquito's whine amplified a million-fold! It was a good thing the bees were keeping their distance, orbiting the skyscraper's ruined antennae like so many circling blimps, or the noise echoing over the dead city would have been absolutely deafening. 

 

"ONWARD, MY ZIZTERZ!" declared Super-Bee in a voice like thunder. "WHEN OUR NIECEZ NIECEZ TELL THIZ ZTORY, THEY WILL TELL THE ZTORY OF OUR VICTORY!"

[Avenger Assembled]

Comrade Frost and Fleur de Joie made their way down the shaft the queen had used to drop its foul eggs, a thoroughly disgusting process that was only marginally improved by use of flowering plants to speed their way. But then they were down by the hatching pools in the building's big sub-basement, one of the foulest places Comrade Frost had seen in his long life. Foul chemicals bubbled and younglings swarmed in an organic soup all-too-clearly made of red, rotten meat, meat that had clearly once been flesh that walked the streets above. Before they could be distracted, Frost gestured quickly to a nearby glowing shape on the  basement wall - a portal like the one that had brought them there in the first place! 

 

Together they stepped through, and found themselves somewhere...unexpected. The red brick walls and floor had not yet been replaced by concrete; the clanking furnace had not yet been replaced by central heating. But this was clearly the same room they had just left - albeit changed! 

 

From their sheltered position behind the furnace, Frost and Fleur could see a strange central apparatus, a crowd of figures, and a mad-eyed cult leader! There were over a hundred cultists, all wearing slime-green robes tied at the waist with beltchains made of bones both human and animal. 

At their arrival, the cultists chanted in unison in a language neither knew - some of them painting frantic symbols on the walls that matched what they'd seen on the walls of the other version of the building. 

 

The room stank of sweat and the blood staining the strange apparatus; the atmosphere tense and expectant.

On the apparatus itself, a grim, almost scientific scene could be seen. Seven people, clearly helpless victims, were strapped head-down on tilted granite slabs inclined above another. An apparatus of shiny brass-colored pipework supported the seven-layered setup - which reached all the way to the ceiling. 

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel's eyes narrow at the oncoming insect storm. He stands a bit straighter (no mean feat for a man floating in midair) and is suddenly holding his shining spear. In a blur, he is standing upon Super-Bee's back, the spear pointing toward the foul things flying toward them. His own voice echoed like thunder after Super-Bee's own.

 

"To war, my friends! Today we drive back this foul pestilence to whence it came! We ride, to cleanse this taint! To purge it with fire! These demons shall know our fury!"

 

His words stirred the hearts of bee and dragon and man alike. Then, he shifted, and was sitting astride Super-Bee's neck, as if riding a large horse, and the spear was suddenly an otherworldly trumpet.

 

And then Gabriel began to play a tune on it, and the hearts of his friends and allies stirred even more. They somehow knew they would win today.

[Avenger Assembled]

As Gabriel's music filled the air, two mighty hosts collided in the skies overhead! The war over the murdered city was a war like no other, one that saw gigantic bee pitted against gigantic mosquito amid fire and flame. Daniels, their contact, stood agape at a war that, even after all the horrors he had seen, was like nothing he'd ever known before! In the skies, Super-Bee was in trouble - trading blows unsuccessfully with one of the giant mosquitos before the two caromed off a ruined skyscraper, sending chunks of debris and writhing insectoid forms plummeting down to the streets below. Another bee was doing her best to burn down a mosquito, but the giant insect pushed through the flames and nearly went for her. Warriors born, the bees were fearlessly locked in battle against the Anopheles hordes - but it was clear they would need help from their friends to win the day. 

 

- 

 

"Well." At the all-too-familiar sights of cultists, ritual, and unholy magic, Comrade Frost didn't hesitate. He stepped out from behind the furnace and removed his glove, standing to one side of the body of maddened fiends as he reached inside himself and opened a doorway to another world. The mystic rites that connected him to Nifleheim worked here as well as anywhere else - icy cold poured from his hands as heat, energy, and all that made up life itself was drained out of the cultists before they had a chance to react. They collapsed like felled deer, shivering and gasping, icy hoarfrost having swept over their stained robes at super-speed. Only one of the cultists was left standing on the floor; along with the leader still on his podium by the great machine. 

[Fox]

"HahahahahahaHAHAHAHA!" Tiamat disappeared in a wave of fire, stretching and flexing her mighty dragon form as her human guise burned away. Great red eyes flicked across the raging fight for a moment, full of...something. Something no prey animal (and most predators) could look at and remain happy inside.

She offered no real warning, no boasts: jaws that had devoured mythological knights hinged open and roared a torrent of fire up into the insects above.

Gaian Knight was a bit more somber, but no less determined; he said nothing - in fact, he barely moved off the ground - but at his call the cement fragmented into a thousand whirling shards - a serpent of piercing stone that wound and coiled its way around the bees in hopes of distracting or supplementing the melee. "Watch your backs," he noted, the rocks already hovering around him seeming to split and multiply. "Don't let them gang up on anybody - they're likely going to have numbers over raw power."

[Electra]

"Creepy chanting cults, never, ever good," Fleur muttered, rubbing her hands along her arms to ward off the creepy-crawlies that permeated the room. "Especially not the lead creepy chanter." She placed a seed on her palm and flicked it with her fingers like a paper football. sending it in the direction of the lead cultist. As soon as it landed it began to grow, twining itself into a long, narrow vine and sprouting a trumpet-shaped orange flower next to his head. Fleur snapped her fingers and the flower burst open,spraying pollen generously over the cultist's face. He hardly had more than a chance to take a breath before he fell unconscious from the fumes.

[Avenger Assembled]

There was a wild battle in the skies above the ruined remains of Freedom City - the bees were definitely making a dent in the overwhelming power of the mosquito swarm and their various horrible insect allies, but it was a tough battle. Working together in a flying V formation, the bees picked away at the sheer numbers of the mosquitoes. Ironically they were the ones acting like parasites, distracting the swarming mass of insects from closing on the heroes as they warred against the tremendous numbers all around them. The heroes were doing damage too; Tiamat's scorching firebreath had singed the wings of one great monstrous insect and sent it scrambling away and Gaian Knight had at least confused a horde of creepy-crawlies that had been ascending the skyscraper after them. This was no mere super-struggle, though - this was the battle in a war. 

 

-

 

Frost disposed of the last standing cultist with a snap of his fingers - and a sudden cold snap in the room. "Well, what fresh Hell is this?" he muttered, trusting Fleur to untie the victims still bound in the machine. On closer inspection, Fleur could see the captives were still conscious, albeit bruised, with crude IVs in their veins. The IVs themselves were empty - she'd stopped the masked leader before he could grab the great lever by the side of the machine. "Is this just alternate version of dimension? But no, there would be Anopheles everywhere," Frost muttered as he looked over the glyphs on the wall. "This is original dimension but in deep past! Must have predated Anopheles penetration here!" 

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel continued to sound the battle call on his weapon-turned-instrument, taking a few moments to let his voice echo out once again, the words, and the sheer force of personality behind those words, making the geokinetic, the dragon, and the giant bees (fire-breathing or otherwise) feel infused with courage and determination. The group knew, from the bottom of their hearts, that they could win this!

 

"Stout hearts, my friends! We have the strength to purge this putrescent pestilence from our presence today! Fight on, and purify this land of their taint!"

 

With that short but sweet speech he went back to providing rousing battle music that kept the morale momentum of his words up, the powerful notes lifting the spirits of his fellows and infusing them with just a bit more strength.

[Avenger Assembled]

The aerial melee was turning destructive now - the giant bees were slamming into mosquitos and hurling them into broken buildings, using their sheer mass to destroy the ghoulish nests built in the murdered city below. The bees seemed to be driving the mosquitos back now, Super-Bee rallying from her earlier low point, to send one mosquito out of the sky by simply ramming it down and sending the broken-bodied creature smashing into the highway cloverleaf far below! Other blasts of flame were incinerating the swarms of smaller mosquitos and other vermin as they approached, protecting the all-too-vulnerable humans as they engaged the swarm across the city. 

 

"COME, ZIZTER!" Super-Bee had appeared alongside Tiamat, flames crackling around her insectile mouth. "LET'Z ZHOW THEM WHAT WE THINK OF HORNETZ!" 

[Fox]

"YESSSSSSSSSSSS," Tiamat growled, fire lighting her throat and leaking from between her teeth - but even as she blew it up into the air she flared her wings and took off, leathery limbs cracking the air like thunder as she went from terrestrial to airborne at a speed entirely unreasonable for a creature her size.

Her fire never made it to its targets, for indeed it had no targets: it served to screen her assault, and the last thing one of the mosquitoes saw before its life was snuffed out and cast aside was wide and terrible jaws bursting out of a wall of flame. She wheeled in the air, what was left of the thing dropping out of her jaws in two pieces. "WE RULE THESE SKIES, PARASITES!" she bellowed, trailing fire and ichor from her mouth. "<RISE AND BE CAST DOWN!>"

Gaian Knight had significantly less luck - the earth around him that had once been covered by cement exploded into a rapid-fire assault of shards toward one of the foes left standing, but like Hollywood anti-aircraft fire it did little but keep his target on its toes; the distance and (relative) slow speed of his projectiles made them too easy to dodge. He frowned, and with a wave of his hand lifted rose into the air on a platform of patchwork pavement. "If we make it out of this, I need to run more ground-to-air drills."

[Electra]

"It's all right, everything's going to be okay," Fleur reassured the tied-up captives as she approached them, hands raised nonthreateningly. "My name is Fleur de Joie and I'm with the... and I'm here to help you. Nobody's going to hurt you anymore." Who knew whether the Freedom League even existed in this dimension?  Taking a small pair of pruning shears from her belt pouch, she began cutting the captives loose, removing the IVs from their arms and spreading herbal unguent on their cuts and bruises to melt them away. From what she could see of the machine, it was designed as some sort of steampunk faux-medical sacrificial altar that would suck out the blood of the victims and either mingle it in their bodies or put it into some holding container. The results for the sacrifices would've been the same either way, so it hardly seemed to matter. 

 

"Do you live around here?" Fleur asked them once she had them untied. "is it safe for you to go back to your homes?"