Owner	Pose
Lucifer	"CORBEN. IT IS TIME," Kib'kur announces to Corben, in a sudden, bizarre, and very INTENSE way. Corben's slug is not usually so specifically intence and deep in vocal tone, perhaps the slug is possessed. For those unfamiliar, Kib'kur is an awful demon slug, approximately the size of a cat, with bat wings, a lamprey mouth, and a single big eye. May of these demons (some with wings, some without) had been loose in various places: New York, even Gotham has seen them burst out of buildings and wildly eat all manner of things with reckless abandon. Some stuck around: videos on social media have shown more than one being hit by a car, or caught in a cage (and fed twinkies until it got too big for the cage), and similar. They faded out, disappearing and forgotten, for nearly two months. "IT IS TIME," Corben's is saying, infused with a reckless IMPORTANCE. "I will keep you safe for the journey." And that is how Corben was engulfed by his little slug friend, and is now being flown 'first class' towards a building in the Financial District of New York. And he's not the only one: perhaps a dozen people have either found themselves engulfed by the now massively growing monsters, or have seen one of the slugs carrying some poor soul off through the sky, like creepy sluggly pinatas.
Mary Jane Watson	She's run into one of said slugs that had consumed someone or something. She had been redirected from some other, minor assignment and had charged at the slug to try and get it away from the person. It had gone badly, with her slash merely having her arm getting stuck in it. Attempts to free herself had merely gotten other limbs stuck to it. And while not being swallowed by it, Mary Jane was floundering along in midair, like a character from 'The Nutty Professor',d esperately trying to not get sick.
Shuri	The mystics are not, exactly, in Shuri's wheelhouse. It's important to get that out of the way first, but equally important to point out that the Black Panther, and to a lesser extent Wakanda, are steeped in mysticism. So she has some familiarity, if no real expertise, on the matter. Which is to say she's been exposed some spiritual stuff, but never deal directly with demons. This is how an afternoon at the Wakanda Embassy turns into being captured by a slug. If she weren't perpetually prepared this could have become quite the misadventure, but she has her gauntlets and komoyo beads... So we're playing it by ear. "Release me IMMEDIATELY!" She protests, flailing about in the creatures grasp, arms and legs waving to try and dislodge herself. Whatever the intent, she's a passanger for this portion.
Negasonic	She's seen weirder stuff in her time. But as it was, well... space slugs were not the strangest. Negasonic was kindly enjoying an afternoon on her cell phone, scrolling through this and that there... when Kib'kur breaks in and carts her off through the universe, in her jammies that consist of band t-shirt and sweatpants. At least she had the good graces to wear her sneakers right now, because no one walks through the mansion like a barbarian. "What the effffff....!" is her clarion cry through most of the trip, that, and feverishly texting people that might help her. But did she have bars here? Probably not. She ends up deposited on her shoulders, somewhere amongst the others.
Corben Kelly	"Okay, okay! Chill! Let me get my bag!" Corben barked back at his little buddy. Distracted by grabbing the bag, he realizes - just a moment to late to stop it - what's going to happen. He barely gets out, "Ki-," before it's over. Someone is going to have a good talking to once they get back home. ...it smells funky in there. At least he's not sharing the space with the toaster or a microwave. When he finds himself so very unceremoniously spat back out on the ground, he straightens quickly, trying to keep a little of is dignity in tact. "What the /hell/, Kibs," he hisses at the little thing. "Some warning would have been nice, dude. You know I can /fly/." Fortunately the spitting out leaves him very near Shuri. "Need some help there?" he asks. Nothing comes out of the leather bag strapped crossbody, not yet. He just tries to snatch up the slug Shuri's battling give it a shake, "Let go, spit her out! "Bad! No quarters for you!" he admonishes the thing, whether or not he manages to pull it off. He's not a big dude, he's struggling just a little.
Atrice Duckstein	Ducky had been unceremoniously swallowed up by one of the demony slugs and well...that is not a good part of anyone's day. It had choked her back up though for some reason and grousing about the 'taste'. "How rude!" she'd stated before it flew her off by the ankle, "Look, this is the worst Uber /ever/!" she shrieks. The slug-demon couldn't get to its destination fast enough really!
Jaime Reyes	Jaime Reyes is doiing that thing where he's messing around with his skateboard and tryin to do a couple of tricks down on the streets of the financial district. He's accompanied his sister Marisol to this job interview as a sign of support -- he also might've flown her here via Khaji Da because definitely cheaper. Either way, while she's inside doing her thing, he's been out here doing his own little annoying skateboarding stricks. Most of the Wall Street types are not amused. <Jaime?> Khaji Da's voice rings out in Jaime's head and he skips off his skateboard-- he wasn't ready for that. "What?" Jaime realizes he's surrounded by Wall Street Types that are not looking at him even weirder and he snatches his phone out to hold it up to his ear. "/What/?" <Look up.> Jaime turns his attention upwards and flailing about, struggling to not be completely swallowed up, are the legs of his sister! She's in headfirst otherwise Jaime would've heard her annoying yelling! "... What the...?" Before Jaime can react, Khaji Da has already started armoring him up and Jaime trips over his own feet to try and run away from the crowd that (hopefully has started paying attention to flying demon bugs instead of his bad skateboarding tricks) so that he can fully beetle up. "You can't just do that in public!" <But Marisol is in danger.> "Yeah, yeah. I know. Let's go!" The transformation sequence finishes and BLUE BEETLE explodes from behind some food truck, wings leading him off in the direction of... okay, there's a lot of flying demon bug things headed in this direction. "... This looks bad. B Horror Movie bad."
Caleb Dykstra	And it was really just a quiet stroll for Caleb on the Streets of New York by the Battery with his kid sister, Sheila, when they hear the flap of wings up from above them, then a big shadow coming over them, and... "Oh, shi..." *CHOMP!!* First his sister is with him, followed by a scream, then a slug's mouth engulfs her, and she's no longer there. "SHEILA!!" It's just about innate, his reaction, like he had seen it a thousand times in his head. He pulls out of his jacket two batons that unfold into swords, which he carves as deep as it can into its flash and starts stabbing and cutting away, intent on making an opening through the body to reach the girl - there's one flying slug that's high on the risk of suffering a massive case of indigestion, because he's pulling out weapons from swords to guns with explosive pellets and shooting an opening!
Lucifer	Most of the slugs are headed into an outdoor shipping yard area in one of the buildings. They are coming in low, along the ground. Some are fat because they have people IN them, some have people half in their mouths: it's sort of awful. The ones carrying people can fly, so going over some high, barbed-wire fence is pretty trivial, though. Many are in different states (Shuri's is weakened by her amount of flailing and twisting and Corben having been pulling at it, and came in sort of upside-down to splatter just inside the fence). Shuri's slug is not surviving that, and is a smear of goo. Kib'kur, who is Corben's transport/'kind of friend', spat him out just before the fence, so he'll need to contend with making his way onto the other side, unless he wants to choose AIR-KIB again as an option. "Inside! Must bring friends /inside/! It is time!" Corben's slug chants, starting to open mouth horribly wide and inch towards Corben again. Mary Jane's slug comes up alongside Atrice's, flying in parallel, as they come in neatly over the top of the building from a different direction, landing in the shipping area with relative grace. The slugs look particularly happy with themselves. Negasonic's slug pauses in midair near some others coming in: slugs that failed to get people, and has a little fight with trying to defend itself from the others trying to STEAL Negasonic. Fortunately, it keeps Negasonic, and she isn't dropped from a height. It lands sort of upside-down next to the one coming in that is carrying Marisol. In the Battery, the swords are very effective against the slug. With a lot of directed effort, the creature will release Sheila... while saying something like "No, no, she is my treasure!" at Caleb. Sheila is freed, (and it is really gross. Explosively gross, with that amount of force. Sorry about the clothes, Caleb). It dies, though there is still another slug passing by overhead, carrying someone else, perhaps. Or... no...There's a bark--! It's a dog. That one has a dog. -- Those that are landing in the main yard: In total, there are maybe twenty captured people, give or take a few, each with a slug (or what remains of a slug). There is one cat, with a golden collar, terrified. One of the slugs had a problem in the air, and the person it was holding, an elderly man in a green jacket, PLUMMETS towards the yard, though, screaming. This upsets a lot of the people, though the slugs milling around and pushing them towards the giant open door of the building is a pretty good distraction.
Mary Jane Watson	Going to struggle and pull herself away, MJ goes to roll away and oges to yank out a long basterd sword that's got barbs along it. Her other hand goes to yank out a long blade of ancient and almost magical make, so finely forged.. She goes to slash out at the slugs, only taking off small chunks of them that don't seem to accomplish anything as she goes to back away and takes several steps. Seeing others there, she calls out, "Anyone able to get a giant salt shaker out and operational?" Shuri she recognizes in passing (and from STORIES). Her fellow SHIELD Agent, however.. She goes to take a defensive posture, going to head towards Agent Duckstein to try and be available to back her up. The other woman outranks her after all.
Atrice Duckstein	Ducky dusts herself off when she is deposited onto the ground and there is a moment taken for the woman to look at the sluggy demonic shit-head, "Alright, who is running this show?" she asks it. "Can you show me to them, Lassie?" she asks them as she takes a look around. "That is without you grabbing me again with your grubby little mouth." she grimaces.
Negasonic	Negasonic's suspiciously-like-Kib'kur slug splats her out. And she ends up, as previously mentioned, on her shoulders with her feet in the air. Owing to her X-Men supertraining, she kipups with a swing of her legs. She has a resistance to using her power willy-nilly, when your power was literal nuclear explosions, you tended to be a light touch with it. Of course, in retrospect, grabbed by demon suspiciously-like-Kib'kur-but-not slug would be a fantastic time for a little bit of explosion. And so, the shorn-headed Teenage Warhead brings out her phone, the camera sound clicking as she takes a picture of one of the slugs, her expression and demeanor stoic. Although when one of the other slugs drops the elderly man... She curses, and starts jogging that way. Doubtful that she'd be able to catch him in time, but she might be able to check on him afterwards.
Shuri	The only thing visible of Shuri is one leg sticking out of a slug. It is kicking and flailing about, but it's just a leg. Until Corben comes to the rescue, shaking the slug that had eaten her before it's a chance to spit her out on it's own. When she slops out of the thing, the Princess is covered in Slug goo... which is doing absolutely nothing for her disposition. "What is going on! Why is America so very extra?!" Because this sort of thing would /never/ happen in Wakanda. She pats and rubs at her slacks, trying to clean the slug snot from her legs, but does manage a glance up to Corben. "Thank you." Much more decorum. Because it is important to be polite, even if one feels completely outside their element. Which Shuri most certainly is. Once it is obvious how redundent trying to clean herself is, she opts to pull her braids back into a ponytail, then twists it into a tight bun with a few twirls of her hand. Until she hears someone screaming. She's far enough away that she'd be virtually unable to get there in time, but she pushes off in that direction and begins to run, much like Negasonic. Betwixt them? maybe a life wille be saved and Medicare will pay out.
Jaime Reyes	Blue Beetle is doing that thing where he's flying close enough but also far enough to maybe not become a target. Also... <Shall I open fire?> "What?! No! There are people inside them." <And a dog.> "... and a dog." <And a cat.> "... more reasons not to open fire." While Blue Beetle has this little conversation with Khaji Da, he tries to remain stealthy and watch-y, locking in on Marisol to make sure that she's okay. Speaking of... Marisol's splat-outness has her sitting on the ground and looking more grossed out than hurt or anything. She really does not like the slug slobber that is all over her job interview fit. And so the slug gets a middle finger before she works on getting up to her feet and looking around for her phone. "... No. /No/." She looks back at 'her' slug. "... God, no. Please no." She does not want to go back in there to get her phone back. Gross. "I just got that phone."
Caleb Dykstra	One of the slugs goes down, but there are more in the air. Just as he gets Sheila out of the mouth of the one that had swallowed her, another swoops down and grabs Caleb instead. She screams his name, and is once again caught by yet another. It looks like there will be a lot of leeches dead tonight. But now, inside its bowels, Caleb needs to think. He saw more flying, so where are they taking them? This is a mystery he needs to get to the bottom of. They must want them alive for a reason, surely. So, he waits. And then...
Corben Kelly	"Stop /that/," Corben barks like one might scold a bad dog. He takes one step back and suddenly, where there was once a Corben, there's now a large and regal looking raven. It's an instant thing, just the flash of Corben getting smaller for a millisecond and there's a bird. "Run!" is the advice the talking raven gives Shuri. He looks at Kibs and once again uses that 'bad dog' tone. "Do not eat her!" It's a little less effective when he's a /bird/. And then she's running - not quite the way he wanted her to run, but that's not his business. It's really not. Honest. Indecision. The mental battle is real. Go after the girl to keep her safe or go along with Kibs to maybe, finally, get to the bottom of it all. In the end, he goes with the greater good even if, "Ahhh, this is a /terrible/ idea," A beat, "Go on then, lead the damned way," gets aimed at his little sprog buddy.
Lucifer	The man falling from the air-- no, few people were close enough to do much. His screaming has alerted at least one of the slugs, though: who does move over, to act as part of a cushion. The poor man screams in pain regardless, though. He didn't break his neck, but maybe a leg, from the fall! Slugs mill around some, backing away from those that threaten them, like MJ. "You precious," a slug says to Ducky, honestly. -- There's a scratchy intercom sound, and then a voice to those that are in the main gathering area. "Welcome. You have been chosen, the luckiest of the lucky, to be given everything you could ever want. Anything, and everything," continues the voice. It's warm, inviting. "Do forgive the manner in which you were brought here, but they are excellent at identifying things of extreme /value/. You are special, all of you." The main warehouse, with the mostly open door, opens further. Inside, is an extreme array of goodies. Flat screen TVs, piles of jewelry -- there's a money area. Someone could scrooge mcduck in it. Two extremely expensive cars are buried under the wealth within. And yes, there are slugs in there. Slugs who are spitting up items onto the pile. Iphones, watches, a special glass duck, fuzzy slippers, a fancy favorite chair.... All manner of things are in these heaps and heaps of treasures. As well as long, glinting golden ribbons, here and there, like shimmering strands of golden chain.
Shuri	Poor old guy. Shuri pulls a komoyo bead from around her wrist and runs her thumb across the intricate circutry on the surface. When she sets it upon the old mans leg, it becomes something of a brace. Capable of articulate motion, so he can walk normally, but support enough at the joints to provide unrivaled support. Then she kneels down to help him stand with an arm laid across her shoulders, and one around his back. "Come on, let us find out what this nonsense is about." So long as he can suffer the SLIME COVERING HER. She so sticky. Now stickling. Staring upwards, around, at the voice telling them they are chosen... and apologizing for how they got here. "I have seen Harry Potter, it would be much better to have sent owls, rather than slugs. In no situation imaginable does ''eaten by a slug'' begin an advanture of any quality except awful. "Whatever you are offering, I do not want it."
Negasonic	The last set of people that thought Negasonic was special used her as a human blasting cap for the mines. She wasn't down with those vibes again. Moving with Shuri to the elderly man, Negasonic glances towards her, and lowers her head in a nod. She moves to help her lift him up, throwing his arm around her own shoulder. Although there was curiousity in her face at the komoyo bead, her eyes glance up towards Shuri afterwards. "It's a bunch of stolen shit, looks like," says Negasonic, wagging black-painted nails at the pile of treasure. A glance to her. "I'm pretty sure I can get us out of here if we need it. But we low key might need the Avengers or something. You think these are aliens?" she asks, lifting her chin towards the slugpile.
Corben Kelly	"Fuck me," Corben mutters, still in bird form, when his keen bird vision gives him a glimpse of that golden ribbon. Finding someplace off and the the side, away from as much of the chaos as he can get, he takes his human form again. He drops down to one knee, slings his bag around to front and rifles through it, mumbling to himself. "...no, don't wanna blow it up, that'd be bad... can't see how releasing a plague size swarm of beetles would help any..." Finally he has what he needs. Three vials in total. One gets poured into another and shaken, while he palms the third, filled with powder in one of his gloved hands. When he's finished, he closes the bag and steps out from the shadows, so to speak. "Hey, everyone! Be a good idea to not touch those ribbon - thingamajigs. They're not Christmas garland!" Little bottles in hand, he's walking right toward where he caught a glimpse of the first one. "Seriously! Don't touch'm! Not unless you like picking up hitchhikers on the side of the road in a movie made for the ScyFy channel!"
Atrice Duckstein	"I am most certainly not running this show..." Ducky gives her sluggy friend a confused look. She looks to Mary Jane and there's a nod to her, "These are gluttony demons, don't take anything from them and don't touch any weird ribbon..." she sees some of it, "Like that gold ribbon. It possesses people." she states. "Generally they are pretty killable with most weapons." she explains as she walks towards one of the warehouses and gets her phone out. She sends off a quick text to Larry: 'We've got a huge slug problem.' it states. If he shows...he shows...if not, well...they'd figure it out! Then there are more people, "Hey guys, these are demons. Gluttony to be exact. Don't touch..." then there is Corben, "What he said!" she nods.
Mary Jane Watson	Mary Jane Watson would keep her sword in front of her, "Well, lovely. So is there any effective way of neutralizing them?" Remembering the words of 'don't take things'. "If they get cut up do they just remerge?" She isn't going to suggest fire, not when they're in a location of close quarters, civilians, and many things that can burn easily. And there's nothing around that could be used to try and freeze things improvisationally.. "Uh.. Can anyone make a lot of ice?" There are a few magic users here, so maybe one of them can?" She goes to keep her swords out, moving to flank Atrice.
Jaime Reyes	Stumbling up from the rear is Jaime Reyes! The Blue Beetle is no more! He's in a completely different outfit from when he was on the street but that's what happens when Khaji Da is in control of the outfit it is pretending to be. This time it's a blue based hawaiian shirt and some black jeans with some blue and white 'Air Beetle' sneakers. His stumbling is totally because he definitely also got spat out by a flying slug of grossness. Yup. Despite lacking any stickiness or slime. He just needs to get up and next to Marisol so they can just walk on out of here and away from all this. "Not without my phone!" Marisol /points/ and somehow she's able to pick hers out of the giant pile of stuff. Mostly because it's the one that's Day of the Dead'd out. She knows her phone anywhere! She customized the phone case herself! Jaime rolls his eyes. "We can get you a new phone." is muttered at his sister. <Now can I open fire?> "NO!" Jaime yells, probably too loudly but whatever. "-- ah! My foot. So uh... sticky. Groooossss." He's super bad at acting and wiggling his very non-sticky foot. Marisol starts looking around for the source of the intercom'd voice so she can talk some more ish. "Hey! Gross Thief Person! I want my phone back!"
Shuri	Shuri returns the nod, but is noncommental about the raised brow in reference to the komoyo bead. There was no question there, only implied. It isn't impolite to not answer implied questions, afterall. Her mother would not scould her for this. Once they are within view of treasures aplenty, and Negasonic is asking the difficult questions, the Wakandan Princess shakes her head, but there's really no way for her to be certain about the answer. "Maybe, but in my, admittedly limited, interaction with Aliens, they very rarely offer 'whatever you can wish for'." No, she peers around. Still helping the Old Man betwixt the two young women. "Without my equipment-" She has some, but not enough, "-I can only offer, at best, a hypothesis: There is some manner of mysticism involved. These slugs do not appear to be augmented with scanning equipment and that voice said that they were exceptionally talented in finding persons of ''quality''." "Which, in some of our case-" She's not pointedly looking at the old man, but she's certainly implying that's who she's talking about it with side glances, "-That quality must be of a nature of ''wanting something'' in exchange for whatever ''payment'' is going to be required." BECAUSE CAPITALISM.
Caleb Dykstra	The two siblings are spat out by their respective slugs, Caleb being covered in mucky and yucky fluids - it's a dirty job to save a little sister from peril, apparently -, all just in time to hear this conversation, and the pile of really valuable stuff being deposited by the slugs. Sheila, a kid that she is, is almost mesmerized, but when she gives the first step, Caleb bars her path with a hand. "Remember our life back in Gotham, Sheila: there's nothing that's ever free." And to that, she looks at the pile of valuables, and nods. "And we already have what's most precious in life." Caleb nods. "Each other." Now, to the voice on the speaker, he clears his voice: "Excuse me... Can you really give everything? Anything?" He sees a lot of materials there... But also sees a chink in that armor. Or plot.
Lucifer	Lots of shouting, lots of concerns about demons are being yelled. One of the men is trying to climb the fence while yelling about the Russians. So there are some mixed messages going on. Demons blends in with concerns of alien abduction. But not everyone is as concerned. "That's right I'm special," agrees a brunette in a bright red shirt and jeans. Nobody else wants the ENORMOUS pile of money? "You can all leave, I'm getting that CAR. I CLAIM THE PORSCHE." She's heading in towards the items, sliding on some jewelry underfoot. That nothing happens to her encourages others to start to look at this as less harmful too. The older man in the green jacket looks between Negasonic and Shuri. "If it's safe... I could use some of the money for my family." And maybe his medical bill. "I don't think it's broken." But he can't stand on his own, so the help is nice. -- The intercom voice is silent, as if agreeing with silence that Marisol is welcome to get her phone back. Or perhaps it doesn't HAVE an answer for Caleb's question? Amid the sound of some slugs throwing up what might be a whole jewelry shop's inventory into a pile near the doorway, and shrinking down afterwards. The size of the slug is equal to how much it has swallowed: they get pretty small, it seems. But they are acting non-hostile, letting people decide what they will do. But then, the intercom finally answers, "Just //ask//." That was at Caleb. DING goes Atrice's phone: 'Where?' is given, with a sword emoji and a fire emoji ...and a winky face and a dancing man.
Corben Kelly	When Corben gets to the first gold ribbon, he opens the tiny vial filled with liquid and lets a drop fall onto it. Next he Next he spreads a bit of the powder over the tips of his forefinger and thumb. Very carefully, protected by the powder on his skin, he touches the ribbon and says, "These people are not yours, they're not going to fall to your lures. From gold to mold, you're not getting their souls." He's not a poet, he's a painter! He's also doing this on the fly, the magic is in the mixture, the intent is given life by his voice. Rhyming in English is way easier than chanting in Latin, right? He pulls his hand back, waits and watches. While he's watching he shoots a side glance to his slugbud. "Kibs, tell me what's going on in there? Something big coming?"
Caleb Dykstra	Caleb looks at Sheila, handing her over some of the objects he's got. And he makes a silent stare that shit may be about to go down. And he asks. And it's nothing to do with material possessions. "Then I ask you this... Can you bring back my mom, please?" He waits to see what happens now...
Negasonic	"Well, it's about as safe as anything else. That is to say... nothing comes for free, just be careful what you're selling? Or what they think they are buying," says Negasonic with a pat on the guy's shoulder. Shuri's hypothesis brings Negasonic's thoughts to mind, and the woman runs her tongue over her upper teeth. "So you're going with super scientist who made living slugs," she says. "Because I don't fuck with mysticism," she adds, supporting the old man enough, but she imagined with Shuri's wonder-brace, he was probably wanting a piece of some of that gold. She then recognizes Corben through the crowd of people, her eyes narrowing at the thought. "Or faerie shit, that guy there?" she tugs on Shuri's sleeve, old man or no, and points that way. "He's on like goblin hitlists or something like that," she says. Of course, everyone wants something, and some little piece of her heart twinged at that hidden desire, until she stamps it down in herself with her big old stompy boots that she wasn't wearing right now. "Maybe these slugs were people, once upon a time. Until they got turned into this because of gold or whatever," she says to Shuri, making vague gestures.
Atrice Duckstein	"I think once they were down they were down...but they come back rather fast in numbers, might not be today, but next week or another day." she frowns at that. "We just need to make sure no one..." she trails off as people actually are going to pick up stuff. Ducky cups her hands around her mouth, "I LITERALLY JUST SAID THESE ARE GLUTTONY DEMONS. YOUR SOUL IS WHAT THEY WANT. THIS ISN'T FREE AS MUCH AS YOU THINK IT IS!" she calls out to the people who are just gleefully going towards their doom. Calling in some back up." she tells MJ. When Larry texts back there is a sigh of relief and she responds with 'Real sorry to bother and thank you' and the address as well. Then she is starting to see where exactly her gun got off to just in case.
Shuri	Corben also seems to be wrong. Since already people all around them are starting to flood towards items laid in the collection of goodies. Greed is a powerful motivator, but it certainly doesn't seem much the sway over Shuri. Whom remains steedfast. Though she cannot fault any of the individuals moving to grab riches, despite the unknown price they almost assuredly will have to pay for them. Her charge, because she's chosen to take it, is the old man. And she gives him a furrowed look. It's not disappointment, not even anger, but a kind of... sad understanding. While there are endless things Shuri 'could' ask for, certainly things she wants, there's a keen understanding that ''nothing'' is free and there's been no conversation at all about ''price'' save Corben's poem. "I will not fault you for taking the benefisciaries offer, but I warn you to think back to the last time something given was free." Aint nobody out in these skreets handing our porches. Not even Tony Stark. And he could. Regardless, with the brace, he probably could stand under his own weight, so she removes herself that he may make the decision for himself. Hoping, deeply, that she's given him enough food for thought to make the right choice... while she glances to Negasonic. "Any science advanced enough is mysticism to the unenlightened." She murmurs, peering around at those who have opted to grab bits of jewelry, cars, or pointless baubles that will offer only temporary releaf to a greater systemic problem of poverty. A quiet sigh. Caleb over ther asking for his mother's return... Shuri looks in his direction. Then to his young sister.. and nods. If there were anything worth her soul, perhaps, her father might be it.
Jaime Reyes	If Jaime wants something, the combination of keeping Marisol from falling for this and Kahji Da's Bond is keeping him from falling prey to the offer. He's too focused on holding Marisol back from rushing in to get that phone. "Marisol! No! Papa always told us we gotta' work for everything we get, right? Nothing's free!" "But it's /my/ phone! I already worked for it!" Jaime moves around to stand in front of Marisol and push her back and away from the potential pile of greed. "It's the slug's phone now. I'll buy you a new one. A better one." Marisol stops and looks: "... from Stark Industries?" Jaime narrows his eyes but sighs. "From Stark Industries." "Okay! Let's go." Marisol seems to no longer be under the potential thrall of this offer. Jaime looks around now to see if there's anyone else that looks like they are ready to get out of here. He sure is.
Mary Jane Watson	And then she's moving to get in front of the people going to try and take things, putting her fingers to her lips to let out a piercing whistle. Then she moves to bang both of her swords together to make a loud CLANG that will hopefully get everyone's attention on her. "SHIELD Agent, you heard the lady, don't touch or take anything." Another ring of the blades is given against one another. Instructions given, then she turns her attention to Shuri in an expression that seems about to disagree before going quiet. Now was not the time. Even as she goes to quickly use her work phone to start putting in a request for backup from the nearest avialable WAND team.
Lucifer	The intercom crackles a little, as Caleb asks for his mom back. "Yes." Erupting out of the heart of the pile of money, comes a humanoid form. It is hard to know exactly who it could be, as it is really just a skeleton, pieces of skin and clothes hanging from her bones. "Kkkkkkhhhhhhh," sighs the destroyed body, eyes lit up with horrific orange light as it starts to walk, slowly, out of the money pile. Is it Caleb's mom? Is it something else? "What else would you like, my loves?" asks the intercom, gently. "Holy //SHIT,// your mom, dude?" says Porsche-girl of the zombie, dodging out of the way of it's path, towards one of the golden threads on the ground. -- Two things happen at the same time: Corben unloads a spell on a golden thread, and it automatically moves right at him, at his face, trying to wrap around him to stop him from speaking. One end of the ribbon goes for the face, but he manages to get his spell off just in time: and it crumbles into soft dust, a silky caress of his cheek, instead of climbing into his face. The other golden thread grabs onto Porsche-girl's wrist, and she orients, curious, picking it up. It drapes like a necklace on her, before jumping at her face in face-hugger style. "Mmmph!" she says, though she doesn't seem in pain, just surprised. This does alarm others, though, who stop, and look at Atrice for more answers. Plus, well. /ZOMBIE/. Other things start to shudder under the pile of treasure, too, though it is unclear exactly what they might be. "You're right, child. Look at the price," the old man agrees with Shuri. "I hope that is not really his mother. I would not ... want to see my wife that way."-- Remember the slugs? They are just hanging out in a loop around the edges now, forming a circle. Kib'kur is with them, but does answer Corben, "We will be family," in a happy way.
Corben Kelly	Corben stumbles back as the thing lunges for him, he barely manages to not fall on his ass. "Ngggghh, this isn't going to be fast enough," he mutters before glances about. Kibs' response has him stopping in his tracks though. His heart skips a beat. He really is fond of the fugly little thing, just the same as a person would be fond of their cat or their dog - his heart would break in the same way if something happens to Kibs. So, he wipes his powdery fingers on his pants, shoves the vials in his pocket and walks over to go do one knee in front of the little sprogling before another vial gets pulled out, this one he drinks himself - and somehow manages to not barf it back up again - what's it do? It makes his voice carry around the area, on the breeze, like a whisper to each person. "No, Kibs, we won't be. Because we won't be /free/. You and me? We're family." He makes a broad gesture with one hand, "This? All of this? This is lies. This is a prison. This is no more cartoons in the morning, no more rolls of quarters, no more knock-knock jokes, no more adventures to the desert, no more eating my toaster to keep it safe for me. No more sitting on my shoulder while I work. No more donuts and cakes. No more sleeping in on Sunday mornings and waking up to the smell of someone cooking bacon in the kitchen, no more walks in the park hand in hand, no more kissing your child at night and scaring away those monsters under the bed, no more first steps, no more little league games, no more Christmas mornings... this isn't a happy family, this isn't life and life is worth fighting for, so fight." It's obvious that not all of that was meant for Kibs, but it's a plea to everyone here if they'll listen. Having said all he can to his little buddy, he straightens again and calls out, "We need to take care of these ribbons! I can't do it by myself but I have the stuff you need to pitch in! Anyone that can kick ass and take names, get ready for something big coming out of that pile! Anyone else? Help me with these ribbons!" Corben, new and improved, reluctant member of the Justice League Dark. Reluctant or not, this is his damned /job/ now.
Negasonic	"Well, color me unenlightened, magic techno girl," says Negasonic, again glancing to the brace. "Yeah. I don't think zombies are gonna do it for me either. And I don't wanna see what kinda Monkey's Paw BS I get from what I want, so I'm not even gonna speak it," says Negasonic, taking a minute to jam out a couple more texts. "Hey. Do you care to watch my cell?" she asks of Shuri, waggling it at her. "I'm gonna need a little space to work, and it'll fry it if I don't keep it safe," she says. Either way, she tosses it - either to Shuri or onto the ground. She'd find it later. Maybe. "Yeah," says Negasonic to Corben when he shouts his orders. "Something like that," she says, starting to loosen up, grasping her shoulder and rolling both it and her neck, her eyes narrowing on the pile of gold. "Is there a fancy term for a lantern fish?" asks Negasonic to Shuri. "You know, those fish that catch people by dangling a light?" she asks.
Shuri	Shuri isn't overly big on ''I told you so'', but yes she is. If this weren't dire circumstances, she may well say so verbally.. Things being what they are, she remains steedfast. She has chosen her charge in the form of the elderly man. She's one person, who believes, fundamentally, in freewill. She's very proud when he makes the choice not to attempt to grab some treasure, despite the hardships it may have availed his family. Offering him a shallow nod. Until zombies are up in this bitch. Oh hell nah. In her hubris, shallow as it may have been in hindsight, she didn't consider that other peoples poor decisions may have adversely affected her and those she's deemed to protect. One person at a time. "Stay with me, okay?" She rests a hand upon the old mans forearm, then reaches to turn his hand over. In it, she places one of the small round beads and closes his fingers over it. A slow nod, and a tight smile. It may prevent her having her armor, if it is needed, but if someone... even one person.. is protected? Certainly that's worth the trade? When the time comes, the old man will suddenly be encased in her Vibranium 'hard light' armor to protect him. It wont make him capable of her training, but it will, hopefully, keep him from harm. Because she's stepping away, over towards Corben's call for 'ass kickers'. With her gauntlets thrust down with a shift in the outter ring. Two spheres drop, just above her fists, and loosen around her knuckles. It produces two glowing ''light blades'' running across the top of her hand. "I am your huckleberry." She says to him. "I have seen Tombstone." She murmurs, smiling as if this is a really big deal. ENTER the old Man. Shuri may be occupied becoming an ass kicker, but he's free! And armored... so he catches Ellie's phone, juggles it a few times, then holds onto it. Perhaps Lucifer will be okay with this. "Marine biology is not my scientific area of expertise, but I believe this fish is called an Angler Fish." Said to Negasonic, who, she hopes, for dramatic purposes steps up beside her. Two young women ready to kick demonic ass. Queue cool, high energy, music. Etc.
Mary Jane Watson	Now Mary Jane goes to advance, blades in front of her and hopefully herding people away over from the piles of things, keeping a wary eye over on the slugs. A glance given over towards Shuri, Corben, and.. Anyone that seems to have an idea of how to stop these things (which most assuredly does not include her). She's in a defensive posture, ready to slash at anything that seems to be going after one of the civilians or to try and give the civilians a 'warning' to stay away from any of the shiny things put out. She gets a decidedly certain idea that they're all being toyed with here - or at least certain people are. THe rest of them are just along here for the slime.
Caleb Dykstra	A shot rings out, hitting the zombie-mother right in the head, shattering its head to pieces. Caleb has a gun extended, fuming. "Yeah, I'm gonna call in the fake product clause; that was but a souless husk." He points out, "My mother was one of the kindest women I've known. An angel on Earth, loved by her husband and son, and passed away happy for giving birth to a beautiful girl." A tear falls down his face, but his face is pure resolve. "I speak to her every night when I dream. I turn to her for guidance." He scoffs, "You hold no power over me. Over us." He points at his kid sister when he says 'us'. "And one fatal mistake... You dragged my kid sister into this sham." He pulls out weapons from under his coat pockets, "Once I'm through with you, you'll /wish/ you were suffering in Hell!"
Lucifer	"Such a foolish human idea, to resist love, stubbornly. I know better for you." Intercom voice grants. The slugs in the ring behind begin to rapidly push in, rushing at the group, trying to funnel everyone into the warehouse of treasure! One of the slugs eats another slug, with doubles it's size, to threaten the middle of the group: who probably were all mostly looking at the main threat of the treasure pile. The design? To push everyone into reach of the golden threads. Which, really, are better described as Hell Tapeworms at this point: no need to mask what they are. Red-shirt girl's tapeworm has melded with her, disappeared. She seems fine, but is headed into the treasure pile, towards the car now, with assurance. "The car's MINE," she says, as if that were all that mattered. And not the churning, odd rumble under the treasure pile. Vents of air puff outwards, stirring the money, breaking one of the flatscreen TVs. The Caleb-mom zombie fell, face down, and peels away into nothing: bits of black hellish ash. -- At the fence, Larry has showed up, though easy to miss in all the ruckus. Larry's an ordinary guy with ordinary hair of an ordinary color. He does wave at Atrice, though, in a 'come over here' motion, as if none of the chaos was going on, and she were just in the middle of a busy concert, not a demon crushing pile.
Negasonic	Why would Negasonic turn down an opportunity to be all dramatic and cool? She wouldn't. In fact, before the toss of the phone to Dan Archibald, she steps up, still texting, before she flings it over her shoulder towards the man, glancing back to him to make sure he caught it, and give him an upnod. "By the way, my name?" she says, folding her arms and letting just a little bit of her power flow, enough to make her eyes glow all cool. (Just a little radiation, you get less from the sun, promise.) "Negasonic Teenage Warhead," she says. And the jammiefied superheroine adds. "You wanna take out that alien-ass Angler fish, science girl?" she asks, even as the ash-dust mom fades away. "Because I'm so waiting for whatever it is that's trying to get people to climb on that pile of crap to come out," she says. "And when it does..." she brings her hands up, and makes a widening gesture. "... boom," she says. Red-shirted girl is lost, in her mind. That's what she wanted, after all. She gives Dan a thumbsup after.
Atrice Duckstein	People are making very bad decisions and Ducky is feeling overwhelmed here. But that's when she sees the hand waving Larry and there is a moment taken to head that way... But she gets cut off by the sluggy demon bouncers. She looks at the slugs and speaks to them in a very very foreign tongue. If they didn't move she was going to shoot them right in their squishy little faces.
Mary Jane Watson	Well, the slugs are advancing. That definitely resolves what to do here. Mary Jane goes on the attack even as the civilians are hopefully backing away some from the ill gotten gains. She's going to slash at the slugs moving to try and cut to lots of little parts. They've shown they can merge back together, so hopefully lots of small bits are harder for them to remerge over than big ones. She's going to swing madly, going for as fast as she can to try and slash as many of the demon slugs going to herd them as she can. Swords hopefully going through them cleanly and rapidly, blows having neough force to them to take chunks off the invertebrates and send the goo flying in a direction /away/ from the civilians. Because you ooze, you lose.
Corben Kelly	When people still seem to be willing to throw away their lives over a little material wealth, Corben lets out a sigh. "Shoulda figured." But there's still work to be done, so he pulls the bag around again and digs through it. When he finds more of the same thing he used before, he's about to start getting a set ready for anyone that needs them when a small voice speaks, "No more bacon? Or donuts? Or pets on the head?" It's Kibs, it's the reason he started that whole speech to begin. Corben looks down and replies, "That's right, Kibs, no more real family." Can a slug-bat demon's lip quiver? Kind looks like its lip is quivering. "I like bacon and keeping your toaster safe." Corben drops to one knee and lifts the little thing up to his shoulder. "Okay, then tell me how to stop this?" With the little sprog wrapped around his neck like a slimy scarf, Corben looks around for the next gold ribbon, asking his buddy, "Will those things hurt you?" Anything that gets in his way, is kicked, stomped and otherwise smushed beneath his heavy boots. "Get'm girls!" he calls out to the warrior women ready to hand out smackdowns.
Shuri	Dan catches the phone as the armor erects around him in a protective shell of vibranium. Which he spends the rest of the interaction marvelling at. Why wouldn't he? It's super tight, because it's made for Shuri's tiny frame, but it'll keep him safe. Which frees her to do the things. The Princess upnods to Negasonic and swishes her glowing wrist blades about expressively. "This is a solid plan." Uncertain which one of the slugs is the Angler fish, Shuri picks one, the biggest one, and rushes at him. Naruto running in his direction! Blades out behind her until she slides at the last possible moment to achieve maximum speed and velocity and comes up twirling those glowing blades in a wide arc. One at a different angle to provide two different points of contact should they play salt to the slug.
Caleb Dykstra	As the demon slugs are now approaching, Caleb pulls out a number of shurikens, each equipped with small explosives that he sets to maximum. Sheila is right behind him, holding a sword of her own, and a weapon on the other hand. And he throws the shurikens - one, two, three... Upon contact, they will explode. "Trying to make an opening for people to escape!" He looks at Sheila, "And you're gonna follow." She shakes her head, but he stops her, "No arguments! Go!"
Lucifer	"Wouldn't you prefer... more //power//, Negasonic... Teenage Warhead?" The intercom voice asks. The super long title makes the offer sound really lousy, since the person speaking it doesn't sound like they really wanted to even get all the way through that name. Way to trip up the villain: make it spout your long name while trying to sound coaxing. "Only gifts. There's plenty for all. I won't harm any of you. Only love, power. No control. Freedom to be your BEST selves." Indeed, red-shirt girl is being her best self, sitting in her new Porsche and rubbing her hands on the dashboard like a crazy person entranced with all she ever wanted. However, it really does seem like the girl is the only one that has been fully taken by the ruse. The heroes have done a LOT to cause the others to have pause, to resist. One of the men seems willing to punch demons if he needs to, helping MJ. He picks up a big silver platter to try to help shield from the huge sprays of ooze that MJ is creating as she beats down a slug. She kills it, successfully, and it spits out a smaller one that was inside it, like a horrible russian doll. The smaller one squeaks and tries to dodge MJ's rapid assault, but she stabs down into it and makes a clear path for some people to escape to the fence's far end. They can't climb it, not with the barbed wire, but they are AWAY from the treasure pile now. Ducky yells at the slugs in a strange language; they back off a little, confused, and follow her look toward Larry... and decide to not mess with either Atrice OR the person by the fence, and head to one side, letting Atrice through. This makes one of them bump into another, and Shuri's target can't dodge or move, jostled, with the other slug there: and Shuri ends up with two, for the price of just one! -- Caleb tosses his explosives, and that splatters one of the slugs headed away from Atrice, and also blows a nice chunk of fence away! A nice escape spot. Larry fans away some of the dust from the fence exploding right next to him. He seems okay. "Hi," Larry says to those at the fence area: mostly Atrice, since she's the one that called him, but Shuri is close by now, too. He's got some lungs, she can hear him fine. "Forgive my tardy arrival, looked into this. It's siphoning soul energy. I don't want to get close on this side, that would be -- bad. Sort of... a soul toilet, all clogged," Larry calls. "Unearth the ritual circle and break it. I'll flush from the other side." He offers Atrice a thumbs up and big smile. No problem? They got this?
Mary Jane Watson	The point is hack them into lots of little bits. Mary Jane calls at the man, "Thanks, keep behind me!" He's a civilian, she doesn't want to put him at direct risk here. These things should have to go through her first. She has the impression if they do that it's not going to just be her getting stuck this time. Her blades go up and slash on down as she goes to keep on dismembering the things. Occasionally launching into a kick with a heavy combat boot, trying to spray more of the slugs around. The point is to make them little enough that people can get out of there while the slugs are focused on regeneration or osmosis. Thankfully their budding is just making smaller slugs, not ones just as big. That's a small favor here. "Anyone have an idea for how to put these things down and keep them that way?" She would call out while keeping her blades slashing, flashing, and trying to spread out the ooze as much as possible to keep as big a path open as she could. "When there'san opening, run for it and get out of here!" To the civilians.
Corben Kelly	"Oh no, ribbons won't hurt me," Kibs replies, now eager to help. "Good, then gather up as many of them as you can to take them home, we can neutralize them there." "Okay, Corbs! I got this!" the little sprog yells, well, it's sort of a yell. Or maybe more a shrieking squeak? Either way, the little guy's all about gathering up gold ribbons now. With that part of the problem being handled, Corben offers a mock salute to Larry and then calls out to Atrice, "Need a hand!?!" He's already trotting to catch up to her.
Negasonic	Negasonic snorts when the voice over the intercom says her name. "It's such a cringe codename, isn't it?" she says, with a little lift of the side of her lips back towards Shuri. Who was busy with slugs. Dammit. So she looks at Dan instead. She breathes out a long sound, and kinda... relaxes. A lot of her power, and stuff, it was more about stopping it from coming out. Stopping her from grabbing the ambient power and turning it nuclear. So she relaxes. And the air around her starts to thrum. Brown and caustic energy, although hers was a cleaner sort of boom, she was getting ready to live up to her nickname. "You know what?" she calls into the intercom. "Maybe I do! Where you got that, somewhere in this pile?" she asks, pointing a fingertip towards the pile as she walks towards it, a bit of a breeze starting to whip around her as she sucks in the ambient energy, causing all kinds of electron shifts and displaced air and shit. She steps onto the pile, and... Relaxes just a bit more. The explosion would be deafening in this small space, like a small missle strike. And Ellie was hoping to get the anglerfish hiding beneath the treasure pile that she suspected was there. "... heh."
Shuri	Shuri out here cutting up slugs or angler fish or whatever. She's so far out of her depth right now. Everyone's all 'this is fine' and she's internally freaking out trying to put on a brave face for the sake of personal identity. When has she ever fought an army of slug people controlled by some demonic force offering riches in favor for souls? Never. That's when. She has glowing blades of blue, sizzling through slimy flesh in a, admittedly cool, but short motion. While Negasonic is splitting atoms into a nuclear explosion pointed down into a treasure pile. Her brow furrows, shielding her eyes from the sudden flash with the curve of her fingers. Only to rush over and help the other teen should the Megaton bomb not prove effective in ending this threat. She, obviously, has questions. Endless scientific questions. Which definitely should wait, but she keeps glancing over at Ellie with a look that screams ''to be continued''. At least with regards to science. "You seem entirely at home in this chaos." She murmurs to her new companion, the blue blades having retracted back into her gauntlets. She has other weaponry at her disposal. Dan finally catches Ellie's phone from the juggling and clutches it to his chest. Precious.
Atrice Duckstein	"Hello!" Ducky gives a look to Larry and she listens to him like everyone's life depends on it. "Okay, let me find that. I'll enlist help for it." she gives him a thumbs up. "Just be careful." she adds. Then she is off to find the ritual circle. "Hey guys, we need to find the ritual circle and break it!" she calls out to the others.
Caleb Dykstra	As people start to leave - and Sheila along with them, though she glances back to her brother in worry -, Caleb looks at the others who stayed behind, the fighters. "Okay, I mean to keep my promises." He looks at the remaining assembled, "So do we got some hot enchantments for demon slaying? I intend to use'em /really/ slow..."
Lucifer	Somebody (Ellie) set off (is) a huge explosion in the heart of the treasure pile area. At first, it was just a tremble, flux, pressure shift---, but then objects flew all over the place from the concussive blast, in a massive wave! Many of the items aren't ones that will hurt people, but some are: there are some heavy and sharp items amidst that pile. Half of it is flung into the back of the warehouse, blowing out the windows and tearing off some of the roof. Both cars are flung sideways into either end of the place, before the Porsche hits the door and careens around it, end over end, half into the yard. The girl inside is unconscious, though probably not dead. The golden tapeworm up her nose comes loose, uninterested in a person that can't move. Kib'kur was pouncing on golden strands at the edge of the treasure, and was flung back too, but he's able to grab the one by the car, pouncing at it. Hopefully the other heroes can tell Kib'kur from all of the other slugs that are in total disarray. Because slugs are absolutely in disarray, as if they lost connection with their mother ship. Those engaging heroes back off in confusion, and try to pick up all the items raining down. Shiny! Shiny! They have given up the attack entirely to just scoop up all of the wonderful things that Negasonic has caused to become airborne and shower downwards. Thank goodness Dan is in a suit, because he would have been KILLED by a set of beautiful knives flung out of the treasure pile. But he's okay. Larry's just... gone. There's a lot going on. It looks a lot like one of those booths that they put a person in and tell them to catch money out of the air, but all over the warehouse yard. Chaos. -- From the smokey center of the treasure pile, there's a cleared area now, and the burned in, magical ritual circle can be seen. As well as a squat demon, about four feet in height. He is as round as he is high, in a gray-green color, short broken horns, stubby tail. He is COVERED in bling, as well as some sort of shiny gold thread chestpiece made of tapeworms. "Kkkkhh! You could have anything!" he says, baffled by Ellie's destructiveness, echoing into the intercom. "But instead, you choose to be consumed." The ritual circle spins a little, counter-clockwise, as the demon places one hand down on it. The demon isn't moving, but Ellie may very well feel a deep, navel-level pull towards him. This is all, perhaps, one big meal: a huge clog in a hellgate, and him eating everything on both sides. All of the treasure? Probably half of it is a cursed thing from hell. The other half, stolen, heaped, for the ritual of the Gluttony demon and his worms and slugs.
Mary Jane Watson	The instructions were to break the circle however possible. The slugs seem disoriented. Mary Jane disengages from the degenerate demons. Then she goes to espy the rather petite demon held up in all the bling. "Hello there, freakface." She goe sto then charge on in to it at full speed, both blades held up high! The loot is almost (from her perspective) being absorbed into the demon. So the redhead goes to do what in her other's lifelong experience solves most problems in life. Brutality. She's running in at the thing at more than forty kilometers an hour, even as the burning starts to sizzle, making part of her outfit melt as she goes. Parts of her uniform start to rain off like acid. She has both blades held up and over even as the frontal portion of her combat jumpsuit slides off, just some small ceramic plating covering her upper torso ever partially, the lower parts of her outfit mostly disintegrating as well to leave barely her hips clad in the armored mesh. THen once she's in range of the seemingly small demon, she's going to try and slash over at him madly. BOht blades going to swing about, intent on making a merry, murderous mess of him. One Hyborean steel at the core with a layering of secondary adamantium. The other a dwarf-forged blade of a fallen shieldmaiden. Neither magical. But hopefully blades would cut deep. And messily. And murderously.
Shuri	Dan holds up the phone after, finally, figuring out how to connect to tweeter, or whatever the equivilant is here. "Hello, followers of Negasonic Teenage Warhead! I am Dan Archibald!" It's a super close up image of his old person nose, then he pushes the reverse button to, instead, show Ellie and Shuri, and all the others too ofcourse, ready to fight the forces of Evil. "Don't forget to hit that like button and subscribe." His grand daughter would be so proud right now. "SON OF A BISCUIT EATER!" Dan suddenly shouts when KNIVES fly in his direction! He doesn't realize just how durable that armor of Vibranium is and ducks as he gets a ''Waynes World'' worthy ''super close up'' of very ornate daggers flung in his direction very suddenly. They don't damage the phone (or the armor), but he still ducks and takes it across the shoulder. *CLANK!* the weapons hit and fling off harmlessly upon his arm. Then another. Then another... they plink harmlessly, and with the added support of both brace and armor, he's out in these streets teasing big homie demon by dancing around in circles. "Hack'n an' wack'n an' slashin'. Hack, wack, slash that meat." Fallout is big now. This will /probably/ get more followers? That or reported for copyrights infringement.
Corben Kelly	Find the ritual circle, it's always a ritual circle. Corben's hand dips into his bag, this time he knows exactly what he's looking for, it's something he's kept on hand and ready since the last of these adventures. He cracks the vial in the palm of his gloved hand and stops trailing after Atrice... And is literally blown off his feet by the force of that blast. He lands hard on his back, but blessedly not on the bag that holds all his little tricks and treats. For a moment, he just lays there stunned and trying to catch his breath. That breathing thing, it hurts a little. Meanwhile, Kibs is making sure everyone knows... "I'm with Corbs! I keep his toaster safe! Don't smoosh me! He wouldn't be happy! He's a powerful wizard." Even though the little guy knows that one's a lie now. He prattles on like that while fighting his way through the throng of tossed slugs. Until he reaches Corben and says, "This is no time to be laying down, Corbs." "Nggggghh..." Corben groans and rolls himself over before pushing up to his feet again. "Hey, Ellie!" he calls out. He still has her number somewhere, he remembers her too. "That was awesome! Little warning next time! But you should get the fuck out of that circle yesterday!" ...even as he's heading toward it himself. "Fuck fuck fuck, another terrible idea." Back to his bag, he probably has what he needs to mix something that'll at least part of the way work, but it's not something he's going to have done in seconds. More a matter of minutes.
Negasonic	She probably could have thought that through a little more. But it always felt so fucking good to explode. "Life is chaos," says Ellie to Shuri. "You just gotta roll with the flow some..." Although, speaking of chaos, the spinning ritual circle and the magic tug towards the demon had her feet scrabbling against the ground. More alarmed now, she turns, and tries to run. With a lot of her energy expended in the pop, it would take some time for her to gather some more... one of the problems of doing one so large as that... and the stoic woman's face actually takes on some concern. "It's not alien shit, it's demon shit!" she calls. "Help!" she says, eyes glancing towards Shuri. And Corben, who was guiding her to get out of the circle. If she could just get a few seconds, she might be able to charge up another explosion and boost herself out of there. But just a few moments...!
Atrice Duckstein	Ducky is moving to help with breaking the circle and she stops short when the squat demon appears. ROUND. Almost short enough to drop kick, but there are others going after it. She moves around to where Negasonic is and offers her hand, "Let me give you a hand out of there." she states to the younger woman. "Before it takes you with it!" she adds.
Caleb Dykstra	Caleb pulls out just about every item in his armory once he notices the demon that's been hiding under all that pile of 'wealth'. He shakes his head, now the tinnitus hitting him badly - thanks to the very angsty, explosive teen that is Negasonic. Whenever MJ's not hitting the little demon, Caleb is shooting it with sticky pellets - exploding kind, corroding kind, binding gel kind, what say you; he's not intent on letting that little critter go without his best regards. And if that helps Negasonic or whomever else from being pulled away, all the better.
Lucifer	Mary Jane comes at the demon hard and /fast/. "Attack me in my trap? Oh nooooooo," the demon says to MJ sarcastically. He's just taking her abuse, letting her lay into him for now, with an obnoxious unconcerned air. He's in his ritual circle of power, what does she expect? However, one of the dual blows is a lot harder than the demon expected, and he's forced onto his back by MJ. Sone of his pretty threads on his vest break, and shrivel, like the golden tapeworms. His tongue whips out, a lashing whip to try to drag her in towards him (likely to consume), only to get some pellets in the eyes from Caleb's shots! In fact, all the shots feel like they 'home' into the demon, because he's drawing things in. He fails to catch MJ in the tongue - MJ cut the tip off while he got blinded, licking them off his face to EAT them. He snarls in anger, and flings two of the vest tapeworms right at MJ's face in return, trying to get her into his control! His gravity is strong, hopefully MJ is not required to resist for long. The demon is clearly just trying to wait her out, while he's in his ritual spot. But his attention IS on MJ for the moment, which means there isn't any extra attack aimed at the others. Ellie isn't under his direct attack, and Atrice can get close: though even putting a hand in there will make it feel like she could be swept up and dragged in. They have a moment to try to do something to the spinning ritual circle. But how to make it stop?
Mary Jane Watson	She ducks back, altenrating letting Caleb shoot at the thing and the others blast at it, then going to slash at it. "Bigger things than you have tried and FAILED." She starts to cackle, moving to shove ehr blades into it and slashing faster and faster, abut has to slow down as the tapeworm is flung at her face, both blades popping up to slash it and fling it to the side. Before she goes back on the offensive. "Because, you're going to get indigestion. Let me HELP." Her next slashes are aimed at the thing's gut, just to make.. The point.
Corben Kelly	He doesn't have /minutes/. So Corben does what he usually does, he wings it and hopes for the best. With a little of this and an a little of that, some of the other thing and a whole lot of some stuff mixed together in a rush, he /thinks/ what he has /might/ work. It's actually in a smallish bowl carved from a solid piece of glass. What he pours inside of it has the consistency and appearance of mercury, silver and not quite a liquid or a solid. With the demon distracted, he starts in on the circle. When the stuff hits the magic of the circle, it hisses and burns through it like acid. This time he didn't make the mistake he made last time, using it sparingly - as any acid-y burn concoction should be used - there's enough to walk the entire circle if he's not interrupted. The magic is in the mixture, the intent is in his words, he doesn't even bother to rhyme, there's just no time. "Don't let the door hit you on the way out, because I'm closing this bitch." If it works, well, it'll close that bitch. If it doesn't? The explosion might rival Ellie's own.
Shuri	Unlike Dan, Shuri isn't as excited about the transgressions of this extradimensional anomoly. She's out of her depths by such a widen margin that it's safe to assume that her lack of action is, in fact, some kind of action. Which is to say, it takes a second for her to come to terms with what's going on. Digest all of this, from Dan to Demon. When she does? It's all action. Her gauntlet comes up and fires in the direction of, or ribbin, coming in her direction. The concentrated laser shreding through matter... it gives her a second to think. It also gives the demon a second to try and suck her new friend up into some kind of... what is going on right now? Is this real? She shouldn't have eaten the extra spicy Pho. A komoyo bead rolls off from her bracelet and she runs her fingers across her gauntlet mounted computer terminal to program it for a specific purpose before hurling it down at the treasures where it creates field of gravitational force to assist Ducky in pulling Ellie out of her situation. Another is hurled, with the same programming, right into the open chasm from which said Ellie is being pulled. To assist Corben in closing it... or if that doesn't work? Making it worse!
Negasonic	Ellie was kinda lost at this point. Usually, when she blew up at things, they stopped, but see? This stuff wasn't, and now it was a magic black hole, and aaaaaaa... She reaches out her hand, to grasp Ducky's own, her sizzling hand just really warm to the touch, maybe bordering on hot but not really. Her jams survived the explosion, too. Ellie was the lean, whipcord sort of frame, and not super duper heavy. Still, as Corben starts to do his work on the circle, she clutches Ducky's hand tight, using that as her feet scrabble against the ground, to help pull herself from the demonic field. Was it going to be enough? Her brow knits, and she grimaces as she pulls against Ducky's hand, maybe threatening to tug Ducky in there too as Ducky helps her not fly back into towards the center of the circle... The anti gravity stuff makes it easy mode. With two pushes against the ground, and the help of the hand, Ellie tumbles forward out of the circle, hitting the ground in a somersault and landing flat on her back, breathing deeply as she stares skyward. "What the actual fuck?" is the first breathless thing she says. Does Shuri and Dan get a thumbsup? Damn straight. "My heroine," she says to Ducky, for realsies. That was spooky!
Caleb Dykstra	"Wait, it can't leave yet..." He pulls out a series of pocket knives, "Not without something to remember me by!" And he thwrows those all at once at him. Now, there are two effects that happen: one, is that mid air, these projectiles flare up to connect and continuously burying deep into its flesh. The second, is that they will explode violently, hopefully shattering it to little bloody pieces before they go back to their dimenson. "Nobody messes with my kid sister and goes unpunished, asshole!"
Atrice Duckstein	Ducky gives a smile to Negasonic, "Hardly, but I try." she muses to that as she pulls her out of the circle. "I've seen what's through there and believe me...you don't want to go." the redhead states. "Better to keep your feet up here." she nods to that. She was thankful that folks were working together. "Where did Larry get off to..." she looks around. He was probably hip deep in trouble!
Lucifer	"NO, not like THAT!" The demon yells at Corben, suddenly realizing what these people have in mind. Destroying the circle is one thing, but Corben is altering it into a different spell. Whether he realizes it or not. "A hellmouth will kill us ALL," snarls the demon, with a humorous lisp, missing part of his tongue like this. He starts to work to stabilize the circle again, which means he can't pay as much attention to MJ. She pushes him most of the way out of the circle, while he scrambles to try to fix the ritual circle back. All of the demon's threads on his vest have come loose, and are impacted by the bead shoving them out! The demon doesn't realize, he thinks they are ditching him, and are inching away from the circle. "Traitors," the demon snarls at them, as they fail to protect him, as MJ comes down with a nasty assault on the back of his head, making some demonic brains ooze out into the slowly spinning ritual circle. Caleb's explosives find his head... and make it a pulped mess. -- And then, the circle adjusts, recalibrates... and changes form, into a proper, full-on Hellgate. That's what Corben wanted, right? No longer flat on the ground, the huge Open Door rotates upwards to become a 'normal' portal, flares of flame a warm skyward geyser into the sky around it. The pull stops. The very large hellgate stands there. And the tapeworms and every other demon nearby tries to get away from it. Things are stable: other than the giant fiery gate to some hell dimension. It's impossible to see inside, other than to feel the intense heat and smoke of what lays beyond. The slugs are in full 'gtfo' mode, everything is running, including some of the people, though many of them prefer to stay by the heroes. "Now what?" asks the man with the silver platter from earlier, letting it drop with a clatter to the ground that is loud enough in the new silence to make some of the others jump.
Corben Kelly	Corben takes a step back. He studies this new development and his shoulders shrug up to his cheeks. "Well, it kind of worked?" The Big Bad Boss didn't like what he was doing, so. He considers that a win. "I don't exactly have anything with me that can shut /this/ door, but I can whip something up in a few days?" He shoves his bowl back into his bag, wipes his hands on his pants again and turns to Ellie, "Unless you can implode the thing?" It's the thing about magic, it's always messy. Sometimes the messy works, sometimes it doesn't. But either way, it's always a Terrible Idea. From way over there, far far from the door, Kibs pipes up, "That's way bigger than a toaster, I can't keep that safe for you, Corbs."
Shuri	Shuri has, so many, questions as she stares into the open mouth of a Hellsgate. It's almost dull, slow, after thoughtish, that she raises her gauntlet to start taking scans of this anomoly. With her mouth hanging agape, eyes blinking over her big round brown eyes staring right into the abyss against all the advice anyone has ever given about how poor that'll turn out for her. Enter Dan. He steps up, in Shuri's armor, and lays a hand upon the smaller Princess' shoulder. "There'll be time enough for that, young miss." Grandfatherly. "'Spose'n you'll want your armor back." It draws her attention away from the scans, the anomoly, and back into reality where one might not suddenly be cast into a void. "Oh... yes." She nods to him and taps a button on her console that brings the armor back into the komoyo bead she'd provided to him. Which he hands back to her with an appreciative smile.. she returns it and pats his arm. She doesn't say so, but his bravery has earned him great favor from the Wakandan. Where he could have taken treasures, he instead took the stage and danced the combat away. She pats his arm, squeezes it, and then makes a note to have funds tranferred to Dan Archibald... for his family... before rejoining Ellie. Looking her over curiously, head tilted. Several braids have come loose from the bun she'd put them up into. "I would liek to take scans, in case you have carried any residue from across the void back into our reality." Nerdy, but at least she asked first. nodding to Ducky. "Hello."
Negasonic	And so when Ellie sits up again, looking up across the warehouse to the actual Hellgate that sits there. She looks between Shuri, and Corben, and Ducky. It was Shuri that her eyes settle on. "That looks like sufficiently advanced technology to me, and..." to Corben now. "So if I get near that, and it sucks me up, uh... why do we think another explosion is going to do anything about it?" she asks of him, clearly a bit rattled. Accepting her phone back from Dan, she nods her head to him. "Get a good shot?" she asks. She'll feel terrible with the knife shot, although it'll make for great content. "Scan away. Just don't use the information to clone me or whatever," she says to Shuri, holding her arms up like she was at the TSA.
Mary Jane Watson	Over to the side of the area where the chaos had been on were two teenagers. One wearing an AC/DC shirt, the other Metallica. Both boys with braces that were moving as if they were playing air guitar. "Fire, fire! FIRE IS KEWWWLLL!" "Heheheheh Buttmunch."
Atrice Duckstein	"KIBBY!" Ducky shouts as she sees the little demonic sprog. She loves that thing. She really does. But then the hellgate is upright and she looks over it with a bit of a frown, "Alright...no one try to go through that." she sighs as she moves towards it. "Sadly I'm not sure how to close these yet." she shakes her head. There is a respectful dip of her head to Shuri, "Hello your Highness." she greets her with a smile. "We've not met, but I work for SHIELD." she explains. "Well, that didn't go as bad as it could have." she admits to the group that was gathered now...or close to it.
Shuri	"Excelsior." Shuri exclaims with a big, enough anyways (there's a hellsgate over there and she's still covered in slug snot, grin. She does her scans of Ellie, passing the gauntlet down over her to take any readings she may use to further her understanding of exactly what in the name of seven hells just happened. Also there's dead slugs right? Oh, bet your ass she's taking samples. We're not out in these skreets not collecting samples. Not to the exclusion of acknowledging formal greetings from Ducky. Whom she smiles, tight, polite, and bows her head. "Ah, so you work with my brother." Sort of. "Please do not tell him about this? I would appreciate my name not showing up in any reports... less my tenative free movement be restrained and poor Sergeant Barnes is, somehow, blamed." Okay, that's enough 3pr for me.
Caleb Dykstra	Ordeal complete, Caleb falls to his knees, taking deep breaths. "Okay, somebody clarify me on what a Hellmouth is?" And he finally introduces himself, "Caleb Dykstra, to those who don't know me..." He chuckles, "We gotta stop meeting like this, you know? I mean, grab a bite, catch a movie, go to a dance club... The normal stuff, y'know?" He looks at Shuri, "...I'm not gonna have to give a sample of my brain tissue, am I?" (Top marks for whomever remembers that reference...)
Lucifer	Something comes out of the hellmouth. The hellmouth twists a little, as a form emerges from it. The ground nearby starts to turn to ash, the concrete set on fire in soft patches here and there, as the heat ignites the ground. from the hellmouth being used. It's... Larry, from the fence area before. Just ordinary Larry. Unremarkable, hard to remember, even. He comes out a few steps, hands loose, to look around. He rests his hands then on his pockets, and scans the immediate area more critically, perhaps for demons, or something else. He doesn't seem to mind being scanned. "Good," Larry says cheerfully, simply, looking at the demon corpse. He's got a big voice, easy to hear. He moves a short distance, to use the side of a shoe to roll the demon's head into the hellgate with a little swat. It bounces once, and disappears inside. 'Larry' gives everyone a warm, overly vibrant smile. And maybe a little lift of brow at Atrice. "If anyone suffers a bad curse, let me know. Hardly a good reward, after all." And with that, and a complete lack of information of HOW to let him know, Larry strolls back into the hellgate. His hands come out of pockets, and he gestures backwards with palms once, a smooth motion, as he disappears into the Hellmouth. The mouth shuts after him, in shudder of colder air.