Returning Home with the Spear

Demise of the War Gods 2020/06/16 	 Grimm Radical Harlequin Natasha Porter Zephyr Griffin Citlali Hellion Riptide

5

Nukeville Central
A nuked alien city, so radioactive it glows in the dark. Let's not mention the biological and chemical contamiation. Or the dozen or so terminator style war machines patroling the ruins. Some distance away, about a mile, on a hilltop, the White Army is setting up camp.

The Demon Lord has been out paced and Amelia Half-Demon bugged out to another dimension.

A wild rift opens and Riptide staggers out. Plucked without consent or forewarning off the streets of Colonial Bay and sent here.

Riptide, looking around after stumbling out, frowns. "Okay, that's... new." He looks around as he tries to figure out where he is, not facing others as he looks up at the sky mainly. "One moment I'm about to jump into the bay, next I'm... here?"

Zephyr says, "Who'd you piss off?"

A few seconds after Riptide appears another rift opens and a multi-tentacled hidious monster falls through it.

Riptide turns, looking surprised at seeing others. "Huh? Oh, no one on the divine side that I can think of... well, maybe Hera that one time, but she kinda dropped a bunch of skeletons on me." He turns as he spots the newest arrival. Then he says to the others, "... I wasn't fighting that." He reaches back to his sword because he's not sure what it is, really. He slides back to a fighting stance just in case.

A short distance ahead of Grimm and Natasha, the air begins to shimmer and distort, a vaguely humanoid shape phasing into reality. Resolving itself into the tall, bluish-grey form of Hellion, the demonic hero takes a puff of his currently lit cigar, eyes the oncoming sorceress and her spear-wielding baby dragon, and lets out a smoke-filled "Huh." of amused confusion.

Spooky spear? Check. Evil spooky dead city? Check.

"Alright," the big demon calls out to the group of heroes, yellow eyes shifting to glance toward the writhing mass of tentacles not far off. "Which one of you kids is trying to end the world?"

Hellion recognises the tentacled monster as an Arision sage. A creature so ferocious and deadly in battle nobody dared to challenge them. So, being left alone and un-threatened for eons, they became pacifists and knowledgeable sages.

Overgirl has kicked her alien biochemistry into chase mode, doubling her ground speed and vastly increasing her leaping distance. She is chasing after the spear, as that appears to be the McGuffin. She botes the arrival of the tentacular mass, and reminds herself that appearances can be decieving. The "monster" might not be anything harmful, but the spear is something that probably needs protection.

Radical shakes his head at Hellion's question. He pauses a moment, but then says, "None of us. There's a woman...Amelia Half-Demon...who claims she wants to kill Ares. But to do that, he needs to be freed. Then killed. We're trying to keep the freeing from happening."

Holding his oversized left hand out toward Grimm in a very clear 'Stop' motion, Hellion eyes the tentacle monster for a moment longer, before calling out to it with gruff impassivity, "Hey, great googly moogler. What's the story on this spear?"

Zephyr stretches her wings and flies after the others.

Grimm fights off the thoughts in her head telling her the spear belongs to her. Her shadow tentacle keeps Natasha held, and as the half-demon Hellion puts out its hand towards her, the tendril draws Natasha behind her protectively. "Anyone who looks at it is at risk of wanting to claim it. We need to keep it from being destroyed. And from destroying us at the same time," she says as she manages to keep her focus.

The tentacled monster looks over toward the heroes. Its tentacles go a pale white. "You have the Spear?" Its English is good but accented. Curling all of its many tentacles into a tight protective ball it opens a personal gate and quickly vanishes.

Natasha says, "It's mine!"

Establishing what amounts to a wireless connection to the terminal and data transmission hub up top via her psi-radio, Citlali looks down to the others. She does her best to get a bird's eye view of the goings on to see where she might be useful.

Grimm's eyes shift to the direction of where the tentacle monster was. "Whew. I was worried things were going to get...'interesting'." She's seen enough of the internet to know where that could've gone.

"Well hell." Hellion mutters to himself, watching as the tentacle beast ports out. Returning his attention to Grimm and Radical, he glances between them for a moment, mulling the situation over, then gestures off behind himself, further up the hill.

"Let's walk and talk. Either of you have a way to seal this thing away? Dump it somewhere this Half Demon can't get it?"

Radical shakes his head, "Not immediately, no. But if we hadn't acted, she would have it now. So...we're having to play this by ear. I have no idea where to put it. Let alone how to find someone 'pure of heart' enough to look at it without becoming murderous.

The masked mage, Harlequin, stays back in the area where the Demon Lord is still trying to get out of the elevator shaft to the underground bunker. He raises his hands, makes a few gestures and half of the shaft is now covered in a silvery blue translucent barrier composed of perfectly tesselated octagons.

He raises his hands again to cover the other half but it takes a few moments.

Riptide looks confused, then the one meeting he was there for finally clicks. "Oh! The one that's supposed to bring back Ares or something?" He mentions, then shakes his head. "Great... I am so asking who's bright idea it was to stick me here."

He looks over at Radical, "I... uh... well, why not ask for a bit higher help on this one? Surely they don't want to see Ares coming out. Ruins the whole balance or whatever you call it?"

"Murderous?" Hellion questions a bit dubiously, once more glancing passed Grimm's sheltering form toward the little dragon and the spear that pulses with power to his mystical sight. "Huh."

Zephyr lands near Riptide. "My 'grandfather' hasn't sent me any dreams about this, but maybe Zeus could handle it, if we can find him?"

Riptide looks over at Zephyr, then to the others. "Also... wasn't there something about this place in the meeting and stuff?"

Radical chuckles and says to Riptide, "Who do I ask? I don't think either Chaos or Order is going to do me any favors."

Radical looks to Zephyr, "And of all the various gods, I'm pretty sure Zeus is NOT pure of heart."

Riptide rubs his chin, "... maybe Amaterasu, if you're willing to go across the ocean?" He shrugs, "I'm still confused why I'm here."

Natasha just relaxes and enjoys the ride for now, since no one's immediately taking the spear from her.

Citlali is looking down from that way up there antennae and trying to see what is happening

And Harlequin completes the spell to cover the second half of the elevator shaft. He then looks around and, since the powder just rolled off his defensive wards like water, takes a step and telepots ourside of the building to try to spot the others.

Another rift opens, and Amelia Half-Demon steps through it a dozen paces away from Grimm and Natasha. Of all the unlikely things, she's carrying a white flag. "Truce?"

After a moment of staring at the spear, Hellion blinks his golden eyes, horned head shaking with vague annoyance, and pushes the whispering temptation away. Drawing deeply on his cigar, he glances back toward Radical and motions toward Grimm and the dragon, "There's a little evil in there. But if you need me to take it some where I can handle it."

Overgirl heard the remark about the spear making people want it, so she stays back from the group with the spear and prepares to guard them against attacks. It sounded like the little dragon might be effected by the spear already...but hopefully the others can deal with the situation.

Grimm looks over her shoulder at Radical. "Does everyone know?" she asks after Riptide mentions balance and higher powers.

Natasha narrows her eyes at Amelia Half-Demon.

Radical shrugs, "I don't know, Grimm. I'm going to assume everyone does at this point. I haven't tried to hide it that well." He tries to teleport over closer to where Grimm is, as a test of the powder. He doesn't leave hte dimension, but he does fold the space for the short range teleport.

Okay. Unable to figure the details from up on high, Citlali makes sure she has a connection to the computer control system. She steps off of the mounting up there and begins to descend back to where everyone else was at. Presuming she can see the basic area of the gathering frm up there.

Grimm whips her head back at Amelia Half-Demon and scowls as she backs away, keeping herself between Half-Demon and Natasha. " your fake truce," she glowers, raising her hand at Half-demon with her palm out to her. "Back away now or I won't hold back."

"Huh. You look familiar." Hellion offers back to half-demon Amelia, looking over even as he strolls casually forward to angle himself between Grimm and the villainess. "You got some sort of offer that isn't world ending and wacky?"

Harlequin sees that the others have stopped mving and makes his way over towards them, picking his way around rubble, destroyed vehicles, and the occassional dessicated skeletal remains that dot this post-apocalyptic wasteland of a world. His face is fully covered by the faintly smiling mask he wears but his walk is...grumpy.

Riptide hops over towards where he can be ready to defend Grimm, Natasha, and the spear, left hand coming up as a swirl of water appears in front of him. He looks a bit confused even as he keeps pointing at the one that everyone else is pointing at. "Uh... guys? Why's she look like sensei Steinburg a bit? Well... half of her, anyways?" He moves closer, obviously ready to provide back up at least. Then he considers before he looks over at Radical, "Hey, what about the guy I'm champion of? Ryujin? Maybe he knows someone?"

Amelia Half-Demon nods to Grimm. "I'll be watching. Call when you change your mind." She looks over at Hellion, "You... I remember." She back up a step, "I can summon in the worse from a thousand dimensions. Expect to be busy."

The next moment she is gone.

 Grimm says, "Tell me you know a place Amelia can't go, Radical..."

Natasha sticks her tongue out at where Halfdemon used to be.

"Sounds like a Tuesday." Hellion comments to the empty air where Amelia once stood, as confidently amused as ever. Turning back to the others, he tramps across the broken ground to join Grimm in the huddle, listening for now.

Radical shakes his head. "Not one I can go to. I've been tagged. So at the very least she can scry on me easily. And at worst, I can't leave this dimension with the powder on me."

Radical says, "But I haven't tried yet."

Zephyr says, "So how do we get it off? Will rain do it?"

Radical tests something. "Give me a moment." He clasps his hands...and focuses...seeing if he can remove it from himself with some judicial use of magic.

"Wherever you take that spear, if she can track you, they're gonna have a demon holiday." Hellion advises casually, puffing on his cigar. "Might be able to shake it with a dispell though."

Finally reaching the ground, Citlali lands gently and asks, "So, aside from my work keeping the war machines offline, would anyone care to explain to me what -else- is going on? I am feeling woefully uninformed."

Zephyr says, "And very fine work it is."

Grimm watches Radical attempt to cleanse himself. "If that fails, we got waterboy over here," she jerks one of her free tentacles in Riptide's direction. "Hey kid, you can rinse them off, right? WITHOUT killing anyone?"

Radical shakes his head, "I think I don't have the correct magic. Correcting my pattern doesn't work. So...I needed the tidiness spell I used to know. And I don't have time to relearn it now."

Harlequin stalks up to the group and stops at the edge. "Either destroy the spear or send it away. The only way to insure it's gone and that /this/," he gestures to the dead, radioactive, diseased world around the heroes, "does not happen anywhere else, ever. It is only one of four holding Ares out of the material universe. Decide quickly." He turns and starts back to the way he came. "I have an army to /try/ to get back to their own universe. And have to devise a way to cleanse them of the taints of this world in the process."

Overgirl says, "A Demon Holiday...aren't there places demons can not go such as sacred sites?"

Radical looks to Grimm, "I can't think of a place that she can't go. And my sanctum isn't warded well enough to keep her out."

Zephyr looks up to the sky and summons a spring rain.

Radical says, "Certainly not if she tracked me there."

"Sure are. But taking a tainted relic in there is a good way to make all that good magic go poof." Hellion answers Overgirl, giving Harlequin a quick look, followed by a big thumbs up from his oversized hand. "You're doin' good, kid!" he calls after the mage.

Riptide shakes his head, "I don't have control over water like that." He says towards Grimm. Then he looks to Harlequin, "Woah, slow down. It's one of four, yes. But that's less reason to destroy it, right? Who knows what the other four do?"

Grimm chuckles faintly. "Tidiness spell. That's so you, I can't believe you haven't relearned it," she smiles. She looks pointedly over at Harlequin at the mention of a tidiness spell. "Don't you know how to use a cleaning spell?" She thinks for a moment at Radical's comment and looks to him. "There could be a dimension where magic doesn't exist. Matt told me something about that. But she could possibly still find people to do her work for her."

Inclining her head, Citlali glances at the spear and shrugs, "This... is the impetus? The reason for all of this? I do not see why. If it need must be destroyed, then I would happily work to develop such a method to do so. Perhaps the right resonance of energy sublimating it at a molecular level?"

Natasha growls at Citlali.

Grimm's tentacle winds a little more around Natasha at Harlequin's suggestion, but there's no added pressure. "And we can't destroy the spear, remember? That's Halfdemon's goal. She needs the spear to be broken to open one of the locks to Ares' cage.

On considering the issue Hellion believes the Spear wouild likely take longer to corrupt a holy site than it would take Amelia Half-Demon to gather another gullible army to simply overrun the site.

"This may be dumb, but what would happen if you dropped the thing into a black hole" Overgirl inquires?

"Okay, so the spear must be secured then. Is there a material that functions like a blocker to mystical energies? Such as heavy concentrations of iron blocking radio signals?" She inclines her head and shrugs, "I seem to recall something about cold iron and the fae. Would a restraint of cold iron conceal the spear from magical location means?"

"Best we not break it at all. Things like that keep the spooky in." Hellion advises Zephyr, before casting a thoughtful look toward the spear held in Natasha's claws. "Not sure about blocking the signal, outside of using a spell, but...The girl in the red cape might have had a point. Moving it to holy ground and putting a guard over it could buy some time. Keep the demons away for a bit before we have to move it again."

Riptide sighs, then looks at Grimm, "That's what I just said?" He looks thoughtful, then shrugs and looks at Radical. He looks very considerate before asking, "Hey, demon lady." He says out loud, "If you got some deal that's not giving up the spear or breaking it, we might listen."

Radical thinks about it. "I don't know the answer...about who would need to break it. The Oracle of Delphi would know."

A large rift opens and a massive T-Rex rushes out trumpeting its anger. There are fresh wounds on its flanks. Maybe it was herded by force.

"Frickin' wash the powder off of them already, Riptide!" Grimm hollars as she sees the T-Rex.

"Ah Hell!" Hellion curses, rounding on the charging T-rex and charging toward it, big fist raised. As he goes he calls back over his shoulder toward Grimm, "You got a good holy spot?"

"And... here we go. Let us find some place that we can secure the spear. I will stand watch over it while the rest of you do your thing."

Citlali says this and turns to face the portal, lifting her brows. "What is it with the fascination with reptiles that have been extinct for sixty five million years?" She asks.

Zephyr says, "I might be able to locate the Oracle...and she might talk to me."

Riptide looks at the T-Rex. Then at the others. "... uh, you guys have fun with figuring it out? I'll see what I can do about this." He heads for the T-Rex. Then he comments to Grimm, "What do you think the rain's doing!? I don't have full on water control powers, and I'm not going to injure someone just because you people don't want to listen!"

Now this Overgirl can handle, she runs towards the dino, taking her cape into her hands as she does. She knows how to fight larger creatures...

Radical stares at Riptide. You people? Really? He shakes his head...and then tests to see if he can shift dimensions yet..trying to get to their normal Earth and back.

Overgirl charges forward and LEAPS up, trying to land on the neck above the arms, where neither the jaws nor the front legs can reach. She can hopefully grab abd climb on...and seriously distract the T-rex in the process.

"Holy spot...yeah, back in our home dimension. St. Augustine's church," Grimm says to Hellion after thinking for a moment.

Radical sighs, "The rain is working, but it's only removing dust from the top half. Worst case, I can take off my armor, and we can get out of here."

Grimm nods and looks to Radical. "Is it stopping your magic from working for that, or you? What if I opened a gate between worlds? Can you walk through?"

Zephyr takes to the air as the rain stops falling. She aims an air lance at the huge beast.

Radical shakes his head, "I don't use magic to move across dimensions. It's physics."

Grimm clucks her tongue. "Damn...right Do you think high winds would get it off?"

The T-Rex roars. It felt the blast from Zephyr. Although its charge isd unaffected.

Natasha regards her much larger, very distant relative with some dismay. She fears it may be planning to take the spear from her by swallowing them both. So she opens her mouth and exhales a meteorite at it. That's what kills dinosaurs, right?

Radical shakes his head, "Just getting water on my lower half might do it."

The T-Rex roars again, even flinching a little from impact of the heated metal.

Zephyr says, "Can't take the heat?"

Natasha is beginning to be disillusioned in television.

Grimm looks between the T-rex and Radical. "We need to get you and the others cleaned up so we can get out of this poisoned dimension. I'm...I'm slowly losing the fight against this spear, so the sooner, the better. I'll try and blow the powder off of you," she says as she looks down at her feet. Black energy begins to whirls about her and spread out, her hair whipping about from the challenged energies as it expands to a growing maelstrom.

Radical pulls off his coat...to helpfully let the water and wind get at his lower half more easily. "C'mon..."

A rift opens beside Harlequin. "You're not going to do it in time." She says to Harlequin. She is in her Holy adviser guise. "Stay where you are and get ready to anchor your end of this." She starts forming a far larger rift bridging between Harlequin and herself.

Harlequin can sense she's getting mana funnelled to her from multiple sources through a dimensional link.

Harlequin murmurs in English. "Amelia Half-Demon, if you harm these innocents I'm aiding, I'll leave nothing of you at all for the Lords of the Netherworld to feast upon." Otherwise, he simply keeps a very close eye on what she is diong.

Overgirl sholds on to the back of the T-rex and swinhs her capr for what she jueges to be the mos rensitive reacable point for her...the creature's ears. Cracked like a whip, the end of the cape will hit at nearly the speed of sound.

Amelia HD looks at Harlequin haughtily, "Why would I harm them now? It serves no purpose and I might want to use them again." she tells him.

The T-Rex turns its head away from the side Overgirl snapped the cape, changing its course from a trampling run through the main group to a path at the side of them.

Narrowing her eyes at the sight of the dinosaur, Citlali steps back a half pace. But she says, "This feels like an attempt to divert our attention to a big threat, when the -real- threat is coming from elsewhere."

Harlequin murmurs calmly, "Because, Amelia Half-Demon, it is in your name as to why. And because of the despair that drives you." He continues with his spellworking while keeping a close eye on her aid.

Hellion increases speed as he approaches the towering lizard, boots crunching over the blasted ground and big fist rearing back behind his head with an omenous sort of power. "Get the spear there, then come back for us!" he calls back to Grimm, before all of his attention lasers in on the side of the strafing Rex. "Sorry about this, big guy..." he mutters, heart twinging in sympathy as he launches himself forward with a roar, Left Hand Of God powering forward in a mighty hammering blow.

The T-rex utters a roar of sheer shock as the tiny, relatively, figure in front of it knocks it end over end a full 24m backwards. Shame Overgirl was on top. Well underneath now.

Grimm catches Hellion's voice through the whipping winds of her own dark maelstrom. She looks his way, then back to Radical questioningly. She's hesistant to abandon him here.

Radical shakes his head. . o O (If she wanted to follow us...locking us down to this dimension doesn't help her. So that's not her goal.)

 Grimm shares over her mindlink with Radical only, since Natasha is corrupted, "Hellion said to take the spear to the church and come back for you all later. But...I don't know how much longer I can resist."

 Radical says, "Go for it. Hopefully the holy ground will help."

Hellion pauses after walloping the T-Rex to shake his oversized fist out, making a face as the aftershock rolls up his arm.

"Distract the dinosaur. I will get Overgirl." states Citlali calmly. She's not panicking or even seeming emotional.

Riptide was about to shout something as he noticed something wrong with the whole clobbering picture, then he realizes, "I'm on it!" He leaps to try to get closer to the dinosaur, then reaches out to try and grab the overgrown reptile and swing it away from Overgirl.

The T-Rex hits the wall of a ruined building and starts to fall on top of Overgirl. But its thrown to the side into another wall by Riptide, and the accumulated pounding is finally sufficient to render the poor little thing unconscious.

Riptide looks over to make sure it's still alive for that matter. Kinda hard to judge how much to throw something the size of a bus, after all.

The moment the T-Rex is dealt with, Overgirl's body twitches, and then begins floating towards the group. Citlali draws upon her psychokinesis to carry her back to the party. She's not super strong with it, but she -is- subtle.

"Good work kid!" Hellion calls over to Riptide, having not even lost his cigar in the brief exchange. Taking a moment to glance around the area, he turns to head back toward the group, casually flicking ash to one side.

Riptide calls over to Hellion, "I'm just glad I didn't injure it!" He says towards Hellion, heading back with Overgirl's floating body. He looks over at Citlali, "You got her, or need me to carry her?" He does look to see how injured Overgirl might be since he's one of the closest.

In moments, Overgirl's inert form is in Citlali's arms. She shakes her head, "I can carry her. You may find more need for your hands than I will." she offers.

Natasha wriggles a bit in Grimm's hold, which she finds is getting annoying.

Grimm keeps her grip on Natasha as the maelstrom winds die down after sweeping over her and Radical. "Okay, church, or as close as I can get to it. Hopefully that wind got most of the dust off of you."

"Red Cape alright?" Hellion asks Citlali as he rejoins the group, looking just a bit abashed at the state of the younger hero. "Didn't mean to flip the thing over on her. Nothing broken, is there?"

Radical pulls his coat back on.