11649/Wanderers: Another One Bites the Dust

From Heroes Assemble MUSH
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Wanderers: Another One Bites the Dust
Date of Scene: 01 July 2022
Location: Inverness, Scotland
Synopsis: Inverness gets creamed by draugr, but the quick thinking actions of SHIELD and the Avengers prevent an outright massacre. The damned survivors of the Norwegian-Scottish Wars are decimated... but not before the corrupted Thorn of Yggdrasil is charged, unleashing the disir in their fury on Perth.
Cast of Characters: Jane Foster, Jamie Madrox, Mary Jane Watson, Thor, Tony Stark, Jessica Drew, Simon Williams, Jemma Simmons, Achilles




Jane Foster has posed:
All is not well in the state of Scotland.

A broadcast on the BBC's flagship radio station leaves the domestic population alarmed. Complaints pour into the government about incendiary warning about that. Several people more alert to trouble jam Police Scotland's lines in frantic demands they go rescue Doctor Sheehan and his children.

Nine minutes from time of broadcast: confirmation that some kind of shambling cosplayers in weathered armour besieged the ornate Town Hall and promptly started beheading the town mayor and officials.

Thirteen minutes: savage video of a man's last moments slam through SHIELD's networks. Relays tell Oracles and JARVISes of things gone horribly wrong.

----

Red sky bleeds across Inverness, the ancient northern capital of Scotland. Dawn should be well and truly there, but the bloodshot pallor to the sky gives long, forbidding shadows between church steeples and castle towers. Unnaturally thick sea fog rolls across the Moray Firth, dampening sound to muffled whispers. Visibility is limited by the dim conditions, a blessing given the sheer devastation that follows a bloody free-for-all against a mostly sleeping civilian population.

Fifty thousand of them, in a rather compact little town with an electrical grid brought down by a giant black vine.

A helicopter hangs mid-air, rotors whipping up the deep mists, a passenger leaning out as far as he can. The man's frustration is clear as he gestures. An eldritch green line forks through the fog and strikes him. A convulsion seizes him and sends him swinging lifelessly beneath the helicopter as the pilot swings it around. Too late; a vicious metal flagpole hewn off at the top slams from the underbelly, impaling him.

Jamie Madrox has posed:
"That's several thousand fucking shamblers," Jamie #14 says, checking his gun's clip.

"You do the math in your head?" asks Jamie #7, who has procured a rather large battle axe.

"He did the math in your mom," shoots Jamie #2, hefting a sledgehammer.

"That doesn't even make sense." Jamie #11 shakes his head and sighs. He has a rifle in his hands and he takes aim at the shamblers, looking down the sight and letting a single shot crack out across the street, right in one of the monster's foreheads.

The rest of the Jamies, filling out a roster of about twenty with assorted weapons and tasks in mind, snicker in unison.

Jamie Prime sighs from the back. "All right, boys." He takes a triple dose of migraine medicine and a muscle relaxer. "Let's hit it."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson is with the group deployed from S.H.I.E.L.D. She's wearing an outfit that doesn't necessarily make sense out of context (or even in it) and very much goes against any sort of normal field regulation wear. But Sonja has insisted strongly over upon it and brooked no argument on the matter. So it's what she would call in her barbarian rage a more traditional combat outfit for her own personal presentation. This will be a last stand in the way of the days of old. Armor will be of little use.
    Several weapons are on her back. A large sword recently made of great durability and sharpness. One of energy. A large mace. A large heavy blaster weapon. And finally a large deployable shield covered in spikes to be used at close range backed up by a spear. So she's ready and waiting for the engageemnt. Grinning near ferally.

Thor has posed:
    There is one thing that roils the mists, that can carry across the sky. It sounds in the span of time after the works of man spread the word of fear and fire and foes. For there is a peal of thunder that washes across that crimson sky, a darkness of clouds that wages what war it can with what elements hath wrought such a vile time for the poor people of the highlands.
    A crackle of lightning joins that sound, even as nearby it is clear that though matters are fraught with fear that often it is from above that hope comes. For out of those clouds and the ill portent given by them is the form of three figures slicing across the sky.
    With cloak billowing to the side, the source of such thunder crackling with power, Thor Odinson slashes downward toward those creatures that threaten the Town Hall, that have set to such grim business...
    And lands with a /CRASH/ and a loud /KACHOOOM!/ as around him electrical power roils, trying to smash away some of those creatures that raise hand against the people of Midgard. While on the comms is a strong steady voice.
    << I am come, the town hall is where I shall stand. >>

Tony Stark has posed:
<<Yeah, you go stand in the town hall with all those puddies, I'm going to stay up here where it's safe-->> Tony's voice cuts off for a moment as Iron Man banks to the right to avoid a streetlight being hurled direct at him. <<--er.>>

<<JARVIS, what am I looking at here?>> Tony pulls up to hang vertical as he keeps his gaze, and his sensors, on the mass of murderous monsters below. Scanning to get to some sort of sense of what they were, where they are from, and perhaps more importantly, how to get rid of them.

<<Anyone got any insight?>>

Jessica Drew has posed:
"What did Fitz bring for Christmas, Jemma? I hope they are deadly nasties. I asked Santa for a portable railgun," Jess bares her teeth on the word nasties, head swiveling to a muffled sound in the fog. Her bare feet make no sound on the wet road, shoes long gone in the bog where they landed and met the undead. Her jacket is bloodied and torn and her skirt split. She longs for a sporting good shop or better yet, something for hunters. A little body armor might be in order if they sell that sort of thing in Scotland - the agent is not invincible despite her spider healing factor.

Lightning illuminates the low clouds over head accompanied by a long roll of thunder. At the voice, she asks the other two agents incredulously, "That can't be, can it"?

Simon Williams has posed:
Hot on the heels of Thor and Tony's entry is Academy award nominee Simon Williams. Or Wonder Man, for the uninitiated.

Wonder Man's aura is thrumming a bright red as he zips through the air, the wool collar of his leather jacket whipping about in the air before he comes to an abrubt stop, sunglasses-shielded eyes taking in all of the damage.

<<I'll do a little crowd control,>> Simon remarks to his teammates, severing whatever force is holding him suspended in-air and dropping quickly down to the main street.

He rolls his shoulders and pops his knuckles, holding out a palm to a group of the shambling brigands. "Please, form an orderly line. I'll make sure you all get an autograph by the end of the day," he offers flatly, hands moving to rest on his hips.

Jemma Simmons has posed:
It had not been the best of visits to Scotland for one Jemma Simmons. Partly due to the fact that she has been ducking and dodging rather nasty individuals and such with nothing but a smartphone as a weapon. However, relief had came previously in the form of her partner in science who, in Fitz's infinite wisdom, brought Jemma her backpack from the R&D lab, as well as a few extra items. Things that they have been working on. And, as Jemma takes the backpack and the extra goodies, a slow smile forms upon her lips as Jess asks for presents.

"Well, considering that our ICERS are exactly that, portable railguns, we do have a couple of those that we can use. However, there is more that we have as well." As Jemma opens her pack, she glances up to Jess. "So, which do you prefer? Fire or ice?"

Clarification isn't necessarily needed as Jemma pulls out two additional ICER-esque weapons. However, one of them is a ceramic white, while the other is a jet black, darker than the bluish steel of the typical ICERs. "Because, we have options."

Other goodies in the pack remain inside, though a glimpse of tactical eyewear and a tablet can be seen...along with some sort of case. Lastly, Jemma produces a small wrist-bound computer, which she straps to her left arm. "It does look like Fitz overpacked for me. Not that I am complaining at all."

Jane Foster has posed:
Position gives little advantage for fleeing Scots. Supposing they can drive, they can only retreat south from the sea. Bodies throng the two main bridges about a half-mile apart, some neatly stabbed and others hacked beyond recognition. The River Ness cleaves the city in half, too cold and restless to safely brave. Scotland is cold but the current carries living malice. Fall in and discover why; the water has teeth. A Jamie might end up hurled in there trying to engage a draugr, and find out the hard way.

Smoke rises near the town hall, flames rolling from the front and side at ground level as a deterrent to escape. Several mauled vehicles look like they encountered a pack of werelions, a delivery lorry dented and a body jellied from the impact. The monsters hunt like wolves, cornering victims or peppering the fleeing with detritus. Movement near Jessica and Jemma fades into the fog, and then comes the rock hurled at frightening speeds, followed up by a salvo of weaponized fencing. Wrought iron and pointy. Sonja could end up kebabed.

To glimpse one is to see death personally: glowing eyes, skin like leather, faces drawn into implacable stares. And generally a stab to the guts, the face, with strength enough to crumple a car like nothing.

Ness Bridge is a decent jog down the hill, where a number of men in peculiarly old-fashion armour and shields rimmed in fingernails indiscriminately cut down anything they find. Sounds of axes smashing objects and people emanates from an open doorway, the ruined doors reduced to kindling. The fog obscures details until up close, and sound is likewise minimized almost to nothing. Whispers only -- even the scream of someone stabbed three times and hurled off a balcony. Where Thor stands may be clearer, but the peculiar air of silence remains. The stabbed old man ragdolls and goes still.

Bright red anywhere outside the bloody dawn receives an unsolicited strike of a wooden dart fletched in an unearthly green shimmer. Three of them are launched from the mists at various points to strike at Wonder Man.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
The draugr are very, very nasty. Red Sonja knows this from experience and from briefings. Which is what her weapons are for. Even things of such durability and strength will be vulnerable in some degree to the blades she has with her. They should at least inconvenience them and give her a way to hur thtem. Not ot tkae them down, but at least to get some clean hits in if best possible over to her enemies. She's over with some of teh other SHIELD Agents, ready over to go along with the defensive position. She goes to scan along and would take case of the rock being hurled at her. PHotonic sword slashes up. It's not a lightsaber, but it gives her a clean way to slash through the rock and not have to worry about the concussive force of cleaving through it. Sheg oes to a defensive position, even as fencing comes towards them. To this she goes to take out her shield, ducking low and bracing. Using it to knock the hurled blades aside and minimize the impact. The name of the game was efficiency. She couldn't take solid hits. Sos he had to minimize them where she could.

Jamie Madrox has posed:
Let's be honest: Multiple Man can't really fight draugr. They're Asgardian strong and he's just a (very, very, very, very multiple-)skilled small crowd of people. But he _can_ put all those skills and experiences into good use.

First, the dupes armed with firearms start to get the draugr's attentions, setting them up for people like Thor or Sonja to knock them out of the park.

The rest of the dupes are doing crowd control, moving people lifting cars (in a group) and other such things, making sure the coast is clear is no one is getting hurt that can be helped.

Thor has posed:
    It is a rarity in these days. When a time comes that the demand is made upon the God of Thunder to bring forth the wild and the wrath. Days spent between the needs of his homeland and his adopted people. Rare to be presented such raw aggression and hate. Yet it offers a freedom as well, for the lightning slashes across the powerful form of Thor, electrical power blazing as the creatures gather after the explosion of might then charge forth.
    Though their silence is met with a roar and a cry for battle. Quieter than one might imagine, though the very presence of the Asgardian seems to wage a war against the stifling of this mist, as if it and the deity were antithetical at the core to each other.
    The hammer swings, a whipslash of power lashing across the distance to break the monsters and their charge. Several wrought iron spears slash from the distance hurled with such malice, smashed away by the slam of Mjolnir. A creature leaps onto his arm trying to gain purchase while another tackles at his legs, each gaining a crackling crash of hammer and fist.
    Monstrosities all and the sound of battle though eased it is at the least a beacon. As each flash of lightning above will show to those within sight, with moments left to live, with only small glints of hope, that one fights with them and for them. And Thor will not fall.
    Not now at least, even as a wickedly edged blade slashes his shoulder, the wielder served with a crushing backhand sending him hurtling into a storefront with a crash shattered glass.
    Even as a sickly green energy plays across the wound, Thor's voice is heard on comms. << Ware their weapons, for an ill magic hangs heavy upon them! >>

Tony Stark has posed:
<<Wearing the weapon is my usual style, Point Break,>> replies Tony as he zips about, firing off blasts with his repulsor beams to try to create something of a ditch between the pursuing horde and the humans flying to the hills. <<Either which way you want to spell it, I suppose.>>

He swoops back towards the main battle after trying to do what he can, knowing that it will at best slow them down. <<Has anyone figured out a source yet? Like a pile of skeletons they keep popping out of that we need to hit physically before we need food badly?>> He lifts up higher to avoid another launched projectile. <<Because if we don't stem the tide, none of us have the juice to keep fighting them if more keep coming.>>

Jessica Drew has posed:
"Love options. I'm feeling fiery." Spider tingles fizz up her back, she rolls her shoulders, nearly dancing in place as she waits for Jemma to unpack her present. "Do we have coms? I didn't bring one in my purse. Good old Fitz, I think I love him right now."

She barely has time to yell, "Incoming," before a group of shamblers are on them, axes still grimed with grave dirt in their hands. Weapons raised they descend on the agents.

The three agents have fought together before, without consulting Jess springs to the wall of a flat. Two white, frightened faces, a mother and daughter, Jess decides, peer at her as she climbs the wall, Jemma's weapon tucked into her suit pocket.

With spider dexterity, she leans to fire phosphorous ammo straight into the skull of the lead dragr, revealing her position. No need to wait to exchange greetings, Jess unloads a round into the next, setting it afire. They dance in place as they burn from the inside.

Simon Williams has posed:
Simon cocks an eyebrow up as a dozen wooden darts come sailing in out of the mist towards his bright 'HIT ME I'M RIGHT HERE' energy signature. They bounce off of the man's chest, neck, back, and legs and clatter onto the ground. "It's Jacksonville all over again," he says with a grumble, kicking at one of the darts with his booted foot.

It's when he's distracted that the first draugr comes sailing towards him, catching him across the back with its enchanted blade. Easy peasy, right? No big problem, right? Wrong!

As the blade drags across Simon's back, it surprisingly finds purchase, slicing through the jacket there-upon and into the skin beneath. That's a pretty big deal! The wound that's left behind reveals the fact that what lies beneath the surface of Simon's skin is not flesh and bone, but a whirling maelstrom of blinding and crackling ionic energy.

Simon, surprised by this turn of events, grunts and steps forward away from the source of pain, a hand reaching back to press at the wound and a frown on his face.

<<Uh...bad news, team. Their swords can break my skin...>> he comms to the others, no small amount of confusion and worry in his voice. Simon's had containment breaches in the past. It's a bad day for everyone.

Still, there's people to be saved, and now he's on a timer. Lunging forward, he grabs the initial assailant by the throat, another hand punching through its midsection to grab its spine. With just a touch of effort and a wrenching of his grip, he tears the zombie into three pieces and tosses them their separate ways before just barely managing to zip out of the way of the other two. They each catch blasts from his hands for their trouble.

"Shit..." he says, pressing his hand back to the breach.

Jane Foster has posed:
The heavy fog makes coordination difficult. A pea souper from Helheim, the kind of thick gloom reduces how far anyone can see. Multiple Men might extend in a chain but they sure aren't visible end to end. Part of the risk in that coordination is friendly fire. Jamie-dupes shooting into the dark hit plaster and wood frames, victims. The pops are soft at immediate range. Past that, inaudible. A bullet splats through chain limned in verdigris and the draugr struck rocks back on its heels. It grabs the overhanging gutter and climbs with deft, Jessica-like ease, leaving a pattern of dents behind. The rooftop isn't far. There it throws roofing tiles in the Jamie's general direction to avenge the small hole and larger exit wound.

More troubling are the snipers. Shots skim across the air and follow priority targets. A tiny MINI slews out from a small shopping center parking lot. It breaks down the road, headed east away from the lightning and doom. Its headlights sweep forward as the panicked driver closes on a figure in a tattered, hooded robe. Iron Man might see the car passing nearby. He might see the draugr shift its weight and hold out a skinny stick like some demented Harry Potter fan.

The air burns a singed green. Rot from a thousand kelp beds and bogs assaults the senses. A fallen driver near Red Sonja starts convulsing. All around Thor the same is repeated, a cone of devastation reaping lives. The soldier that Simon rips apart spews black bile and eerie green strands of magic. Where they hit the ground, the splotches form runes. Runes one after the other: vengeance, damnation, curses on the gods. Inky stains streak steadily northward in an obvious radial pattern.

Where Jessica sets things on fire, a sentry steps out from behind an overturned truck. He snaps that short sword in hand three times, and a wave of force rips out in a hemisphere that smashes buildings, potted tree, signage and people equally well. The Spider better dance.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
The sniper has Red Sonja's attention now as she goes to evaluate her position. Things exploding in an area of effect, and Jessica's going for hit and run duty.. Sonja however has a half second over where she's not having anything on her. In a hand she goes to swing back her photonic blade to let the matnetic clamp on it latch it over to her back, even as her hands go to unsheathe the large plasma rifle she has with her. She goes to rapidly take a few quick shots at the thing. She's not particularly accurate nor good with the weapon. So she makes upfor it simply in autofire.
    Continuous streams of bright gream light flare from it,s keweirng out towards the thing attacking Jessica. Hopefully the energy blasts not striking it by accuracy but by quantity. The energy weapon having nonexistant kickback, an extremely large energy clip, and a simple to use method. The shots hopefully in the general direction strike a few tims, and while even if they do tehir ability to damage the target is questionable.. Well, hopefully at least they slow it or put it off balance.

Jamie Madrox has posed:
Some of the dupes take damage. Most are fine. But it's impossible for Multiple Man to come out of this unscathed and he was absolutely one-hundred per cent ready to deal with that.

Dupes get tossed, hit, and then one of them dies and Jamie Prime, several hundred yards away, grunts and grabs his head, taking a deep breath. He steels himself, as the dupes spread out to continue getting people out and playing distraction --or bait-- to set the draugr up for the other heroes' assaults.

Thor has posed:
    << Where are you, Wonder Man? I can make my way to you! >>
    Thor's voice comes across the comms again even as he's rising up, lifted partially into the air by a heavy swing of the Uru hammer. For a moment he's limned against the dour sky, lightning flashing out in all directions as Mjolnir draws power into itself, coalescing into a brilliant sphere of energy...
    Then it explodes into a grand tumult of electricity that washes outwards from him, sizzling and licking across all the creatures that rush forward as they try to charge and stab and impale...
    Only for the explosion to shatter the nearest, to set them all near to sprawling, and giving life to a flame that consumes those that are left unmoving.
    Yet more come.
    Though it is a small moment of respite that grants Thor an instant...
    Just to see what he has wrought. For the runes appear to him. Like the words of a madman scrawled. Vengeance. Damnation. Recriminations against what had passed all those years ago.
    One hand extends as Mjolnir spins in a blur in the other, Thor's voice rises as he calls out, "You foul souls! You fallen unworthy of Valhalla! There is one Asgardian here at the least who will defy you and remembers. Come to me if you think you can stand!"

Tony Stark has posed:
<<I said find out where they were from, not make them mad.>> Tony sighs. "Gotta do it myself," he mutters, and launches a bit higher. "JARVIS, run some analytics on the spread pattern and see if we can determine from there the location of the source. I'll take a looksie."

He takes another circuit around the mayhem, trying to lay down some more cover fire for those attempting to escape. <<We need to make a move on this quickly, folks.>>

Jessica Drew has posed:
Energy roils in the air, reaching for Jess, it boils into her shoulder. For a moment, she hangs by one hand, dangling over the street, her other arm gone numb from shoulder to fingertips. Without time to even curse, she launches herself to a row house across the street, landing awkwardly.

She is directly across from the window where the mother and daughter watch. The sniper's attention needs to be on her. Energy bolts follow her up the side of the house as she dances one-handed just out of reach. A chimney atop the house gives her shelter long enough to send more volleys of fiery shells on the group. From her perch, she seess something odd - water cresting the banks of the river. The Ness, she remembers from a map shown at the planetarium where this all began.

Simon Williams has posed:
<<Got some kind of runes popping up where these bastards fall. Where the hell are the wizards? Don't we have a bunch of wizards on payroll?>> Simon asks, clearly a touch frustrated.

He rolls his neck and shakes out his hands, exhaling sharply before he uppercuts an approaching draugr into orbit. Afterwards he starts to grumble to himself, snatching his sunglasses off of his face and hanging them on one of his jacket pockets. His eyes, normally placid pools of red, are pulsing chaotically

Huffing, his shoulders begin to rise and fall and he's shaking his head before barking into his comms <<I've got this, Thor! Don't need your help!>>

His feet lift a few inches off of the ground and he hunches over as he slowly begins to rotate towards a group of draugr. Taking what looks like a big breath, Wonder Man's mouth roars open and a crimson bombard of energy bursts forward towards the shamblers.

It shouldn't be overly hard for Thor to notice /that/.

Jemma Simmons has posed:
While Jemma has been pulling items out of her pack, there is one item that she actually puts *in*. A small green stone, about the size and shape of a perfume bottle, is slid into a pocket while yet another section is revealed, with the object nestled within the tactical fabric confines looking like nothing more than a black box with some apertures visible. Finally, a pair of tactical glasses are pulled free and placed upon the bridge of Jemma's nose. A tap on the left corner of the bow, and a shimmer across the lenses as the glasses sync to Jemma's wrist computer. Then, with the comm placed in her ear, Jemma looks to be about as ready as she will ever be.

With the glasses on, Jemma flicks a fingertip on her wrist-com, seemingly scrolling through some settings. However, the view shifts for Jemma, cycling through spectrums until she finds one that cuts through the fog...and causes the runes on the ground to stand out to her. And...immediately, there's a pattern to be had. The SHIELD agent's voice cuts through on the commlink, her British tones terse. <<The runes are orientating based on where they fall. They are highlighting a path.>>

More might have been spoken, had Jemma the chance, but she looks up just in time to catch an incoming projectile hurled at her. It is just the barest of centimeters that causes the spear (?!) to miss the scientist, drawing a thin line along her right shoulder. Though...it doesn't bleed. It seems to be just a scratch that Jemma hardly notices at all.

Anyway, back to work. <<pulling up satelite imagery now and filtering it through spectrums to get a solid fix on the enemy.>> The fog might be thick for the others, but Jemma has science on her side. While she pulls up realtime imagery, Jemma also seems to be working in a side application, those fingertips flying as she works to create a chemical concoction that might cause some adverse effects for their targets. <<Also working on a time of possible chemically based stun grenade. Something to slow them down.>>

How does Jemma know what affects them? Does she know at all? That doesn't seem to be stopping her now.

Jane Foster has posed:
The rooftop draugr harrying a Jamie and another fending off gunshots blowing bits of its flesh and armour away abruptly pause. They can hear that booming voice. Another keeps hacking at a door where the knot of writhing, screaming civil servants join the bloody light of not-day, the faltering swings suddenly frenzied. Red Sonja finds her opponents on the defensive if she's engaged with them still, though not open to all shots. They look to the lightning, the thunder.

Yes, Wonder Man, Thor can make his way to you!

He comes with a welcome wagon of green-sizzling missiles and hurled knives, bolas wreathed in black energy, and tearing concrete.

That's not all. Show them what he's got, Tony! Photonic blasts rain down on the hooded figure with the stick and the car. The MINI crashes into the hooded man. In the dust, the stunned driver looks up and might cheer. Too late: the back end of the car goes streaking into the plate-glass front of Eastgate Shopping Center. The draugr slices the wand diagonally. Several tonnes of broken glass and bent steel fly like a clumsy pelican chick after the Thunderer.

What's the bonus prize? Jessica, whatcha have to show them? Behind bridge number two... an angry river! The whirlpools dappling the surface mark the current lurching back on itself. Water slops over the bricked-up banks. Some small puddles escape, congealed into jack-frosted mirrors, but the great majority slurps back together. Low humps breaking the River Ness' back swell higher than the road, then ground floor level. All that as Simon belches cherry bomb blasts in air, and possibly receives an answer amidst the curtains of fog.

Out comes the first of the enormous, beautifully streamlined flippers. Then the other. Jemma's overlay or Tony can probably superimpose the river becoming two streets wide. Buildings simply crumble before the rising river, washing away when she surges forward. Then forms the head. Eyes smutted green and black are probably as large as a newborn as they break the water. It takes no comprehension at all to know magic controls or aids her.

The great cryptid of the North turns its massive, equine head rimed in rows of icy teeth to Asgardian and actor.

And Nessie attacks.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
She shivers. She shivers. The magic. "Blackest Night!" She goes tos nap over in to her comm <<Foul sorcery and dark magics! Beware>> Red Sonja has felt many such things before. This is close enough to them for her to know what it is. She feels the darkness rolling off of it. Foul things. Necromancy. Of Blackest, Foulest things.

She's fighting to her best degree, even as she sees Jessica be flung through the air and then seeing the ancient beast rise up and out of the depths. On who's side? THeir's? The draughr's? Likely purely on her own. What does an ancient sea-queen care for thea ffairs of men, monsters, and immortals?

Blades in front of her, Sonja snaps the sheild up and over onto ehr back. One hand drawing a blade tempered with secondary adamantium, the other a photonic blade made of raw plasma. She holds them out in front of her and then goes to charge in to the mix. She goes to grin.. And leap through the air over to pull herself into a tight spiral, intent on landing over on the back of Nessie.

"Come, friend! Let us sink these things beneath the waves and let you be to your peace!" Sonja has ridden dragons. S onja has ridden spawn of Shuma-Gorath. Sonja has ridden leviathansa nd beasts from the sea. "Come, let us destroy all!"
    Now Red Sonja goes to hopefully stir Nessie over on to the full onslaught while also if the sea-beast permits sending her right through the massed ranks of the enemy. This was Nessie's Loch.

Thor has posed:
    << A path? >>
    As in the background behind him a crimson glow flashes into life, Thor lifts his eyes skyward as he shouts, << See you a path, Stark? >>
    Mjolnir blurs in a circle as it spins in the Asgardian's hand, hammer flashing in and out of view as the force builds, offering at the least some protection against the cascade of shattered glass and twisted metal. Pieces fly about like so much shrapnel sent this way hither and yon, even as thin slices slash across Thor's armored form, splashing Asgardian blood when they find chinks in the armor leaving tears and laceration while the hammer spins.
    It does not much harm to the Asgardian warrior, yet it serves its purpose. To pin him in place as the waters rise and the grand monstrosity that is Nessie rears its head.
    << Ware, Wonder Man! >> Though the use of the man's name would be swifter, Thor would indeed use it if he could remember it.
    The spinning hammer then /lifts/ the deity upward even as the ancient weapon flies forth leading the Thunderer straight toward the serpent's maw!

Tony Stark has posed:
<<Ok, you keep Barney occupied, I'm going to see what's /really/ going on.>> Tony swoops up towards the position JARVIS has id'ed as the possible source. <<So, temper your surprise, but I think they are all coming from a Church. So either someone really made them angry with their latest sermon, or there is something buried under there they probably shouldn't see the light of day.>>

Iron Man takes a few passes once he gets near the Church, allowing JARVIS to continue the scans. If they can identify a point, he will drop down into the miasma to investigate further.

Jessica Drew has posed:
"What the..." Still sheltered for the moment behind the chimney, Jess watches a back crested with armor break the surface of the rising water. Its great head veers left and right searching for something. Time for Jess to return to street level fighting. With a leap she arcs out over the street to land close to Jemma and face the boogie men. In utter disbelief, emptying round after fiery round into them, the agent watches the things advance unheeding while burnt body pieces drop smoldering to the street.

Simon Williams has posed:
As the fussilade of ionic energy comes to a halt, Simon's floating back down to the ground and clutching at his head, obviously still quite out of sorts. It's Thor's nearby voice that snaps him back to reality, though. And then...there's a Nessie?

Very clearly a new number one priority.

Simon catches an enchanted shortsword straight through the back that's bursting forth from his gut, sending him into a rage as he swings an arm back and crumples the draugr. Wonder Man, ripping the blade out of himself lifts into the air and begins blasting at the mythical beast with the twin beams of light now surging from his eyes.

Achilles has posed:
    The loch is deep and dark. The night is dark and muffled. With sounds carrying far less than they usually would, things are almost intimate, even the violence of the night feels that way. Even with the violence and degradation of this night, there is movement on the nearby pub's rooftop. A draugr's back can be seen from the ground, and it seems to be flailing away before its right arm flies away, severed. And then the head falls off of the roof.

    The body falls moments after, and then a muffled THUD can be more felt than heard... and the bronze armored Greek is turning to face the draugr that tackled him from behind. The two of them are falling towards the street even as the celestial bronze Xiphos in the hands of Angelo, aka Achilles... ends up stuffed down the throat of the draugr, quite literally... and then twisted. The creature goes limp even as the armored warrior hits the ground with a muffled metallic *thunk*... and for a moment he just lies there before sitting up and getting to his feet. "Ow." mutters Angelo as his eyes focus on.. a plesiosaur.

    Then his green eyes turn skyward and he mutters, "Really? Mother, is this -your- doing?"

Jemma Simmons has posed:
A hand reaches back towards a round opening on that mysterious black box riding along on Jemma's back. Out ejects a spherical object, slightly smaller than a golf ball, sliding into Jemma's palm. "I would rather have tested this more thoroughly, but beggers can't be choosers!" About the only person that might have heard that would be Jessica, and even then it would be muffled in the fog. Then...a shift, and the object is tossed seemingly into the dark fog as most lose sight of it.

But not Jemma. The visual spectrum she has on allows her to see the orb arc through the air, aiming for a group of draugr. If Jemma's aim is true, it should land in the middle of the group.

But, Jemma doesn't stop to see if it does. Already she is turning away, reaching down to pull the white ceramic hand railgun as she shifts the comms to a wider channel, hopefully to pick up the others fighting the good fight. <<Are there wounded? We need to pull them out of harm's way.>> A pause...then another. Then...a slightly exasperated british voice intones over the comms.

<<Oh look, a cryptoclidus.>>

Seems Jemma forgot she had the com open. Oops.

Jane Foster has posed:
Inverness is flooding badly. Where the river doesn't flow, the North Sea rushes in to take over things. A few fish flop around pathetically.

Nessie is sheathed in water, and she's got ten miles to draw on. Fluvial surges undermine a shop and collapse what remains of a wall. Vauxhalls and Citrons whirl around in the chilly floodwaters, becoming the best game of bumper boats this side of America. Her sinuous neck twists to peer past a drunkenly slewing Indian restaurant. Wet nostrils pinch shut and open when something thumps on her back, the ancient chill of the loch depths radiating up through Sonja's legs. If there were ever a day to wear pants, it's today. Nessie tosses her head, proud as any thoroughbred steed composed of a dreadfully deep, ancient lake and corresponding river. Thor's charge at her, conveyed by Mjolnir, sends her flattening. Can't get in her mouth if she's parallel to the ground! That's the Nessie logic.

Her normal pleisosaurid shape and into a long, long column that blurs and zigzags around building foundations. An implacable force meets the path of least resistance, one that's unafraid to swirl around after Thor's heels. With Sonja aboard and Wonder Man trying to blast her, the sight is probably surreal. Ion bolts blow ripples in her and the flash-steamed holes suck up river water in a diluted bubbling. In retrospect, this is a very clever plan of ancient strategy to put out the fire in the Town Hall. Or Simon is filming NOKIA: Snake, The Movie.

In hindsight, Jessica goes surf-swimming with flaming draugr, who proceed to run-slog at her to share in a hellfire embrace. Uncoordinated jerking and jumping actually closes the distance. The ruins of their love will blaze in eternity. Jemma's shots crack silently through the night to splat a blazing draugr face-down. Two Multiple Men manage to cling to a window frame and hoist a baby overhand from the grip of a terrified parent. The hiding office workers go down in a sheet of gore and bone in another building.

Dashing the last ten meters through the mayhem past the church, down Friary Street. A man in a tattered hood, last spotted trying to strangle Jemma Simmons. In hand, a black oblong shape. No sword - a thorn.

Tony's path to the church is flooded, and the few patches of grass around the Old High Kirk completely and utterly dead. Flower baskets are full of dust. Black quivering vines that took down the grid knot around power poles, lines, a broken gate. The thick vines respond to Iron Man being near, shooting up and stretching out to get him. Lethal points coated in green poisoned magic bloom from the resilient, rather hellish takes on Jack and the Beanstalk. There's Jack. There's the plants. Where's the giant?

The caster hurls himself almost bodily to slam the thorn into a totally innocuous, ugly waist-high column. <<Suffer for your perfidy!>>

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
For the duo that are caught up in things, there are howls of laughter. As lightning and magical energy bursts over Nessie, something voer Red SOnja's aura protects her from it. Perhaps it's as she's on the back of the sea-beast. Perhaps something innate over to hereslf. Perhaps just all the energy in the background. But as Nessie charges and lashes, Red Sonja howls over with manic glee, blades out in her hands even though she's well out of position to slash at anything.
    "Come, steed! Let us rend all who would stand in our way!" And so Sonja tries to take on her own sense of blunt barbarian sensibilities, energy and water blasting over her, not even able to breathe.. But just attempting to drag a hand over onto a fin and if only by force of sheer rage and will -refocus- Nessie over on the columns of undead and savage Norse warriors that were sloughing their way throught he Loch. "Come, wild one! Do not let your grounds go to the dregs!" As if by sheer willpower and battle lust she could refocus the wild sea-beast over ot go in a direction of her choosing.
    Madness.
    The barbarian would have it no other way.

Thor has posed:
    The upswing slashes toward the sky taking Thor with it as he rushes toward the face of the great serpent of the loch. Only for the creature to slither to the side, flattening with deceptive speed as it twists with such ease that it leaves the Asgardian rising... rising. Only for him to have to twist while in the sky as the others struggle below.
    The hammer starts to spin until some of those plants, albeit distant, catch his eye as they slide through the ground and grow forth. << The vines, something is magical within them, links them... They seem of Asgard and yet... >>
    Whatever further he was going to say is lost as a flash of energy and metal slices past him, bringing him back to the conflict at hand. The upstrike missed, he gathers the hammer as power roils around him... and then he starts to smash back toward earth as that electricity builds aiming for the back of that creature...
    Only to realize that astride the thing's back is some red headed woman mad with the fury of battle which stays his flight and his hand though with much doing!

Jessica Drew has posed:
'Nerds', Jess thinks and smiles grimly as she pumps another round into the next dead warrior. She fervently hopes that it will split in half, burnt from the insides. Arm still hanging useless at her side, she weaves back in forth in front of Jemma while she does her scientific witchery, dodging the flaming corpses intent on having a hug out with her.

Out of the corner of her eye, Jess glimpses a hooded attacker joining the flaming fray with a pointed club in his hand? She turns toward him and tucks her railgun into the waist of her skirt. A palm held out to him, stream of yellow-green bio-energy enrobes the attacker.

Tony Stark has posed:
Trying to get a closer look at the Church, Iron Man finds himself suddenly engaged in a battle with the shrubberies. <<Someone forget the Roundup over here.>> He struggles to try to fly up and escape the grasp of the inky vines. <<This Church definitely has the answer, because this does NOT like me being so close.>>

Firing up the thrusts again, Tony sighs. "I hope we don't need the firepower later," he murmurs, as he activates an electro-shock emanation from the suit. The power flows out and burns through the vines that suit to hold him, but also drains the suit's power considerably. <<Heads up, we need to think about making this quick. I'm on a quarter of a tank now, and the next closest fuel station is on the mainland.>>

Freed of the vines, Iron Man starts charging towards the Church, moving quickly enough to try to avoid the grasping vines and get inside without having to set off any further bursts.

Achilles has posed:
    The draugr mage, sorcerer, wizard.. whatever the hell you call an undead zombified spellcaster who has hell bent on vengeance and darkness... the guy is trying to stab that thorn into concrete. There are moment when the world seems to slow down, and the mind races. Tactical calculations go through Angelo's mind. He sees that thorn about to come down on the column.. pillar.. whatever. He sees the baby about to be consumed. It feels like he has an hour to make his decision, and he is no speedster but... it the time between one heartbeat and the next, he makes his choice.

    His sword vanishes even as his bow appears in his hands. He turns and starts running towards the window where the baby is about to become baby food. One, two, three of his celestial bronze Hephaestus enchanted arrows are fired at the sorcerer's body. His aim is fantastic tonight, and those arrows fly true towards the wizard.

    The moment the last arrow leaves his bow.. the bow vanishes and Angelo dives through the window.. his spear appearing in his hand just as he thrusts that hand towards one of the baby-eaters... running it through as he turns and brings the spear across his body to stab the back end through the other draugr's torso.... arm snaking out to catch the baby as it falls... turning to hand it to its mother even while his gore-covered, armored form stands there. "Flee and hide." he says to the mom as he turns to face the hordes once more.

Simon Williams has posed:
As his shots fly wide of the sea serpent, Wonder Man is growing more and more impatient, made very apparent by the fact that the aura around him is growing exponentially, small cracks of purple hued lightning now intermingling with it.

Clearly very fed up, Simon bursts through the air on a course towards Nessie, the holes torn in his body growing larger by the moment.

Wonder Man's trajectory is...unsteady to say the least. He's whipping into parked cars, knocking over food carts, flying through the occasional building. This man is a mess.

Jemma Simmons has posed:
The individual with the thorn...is rather familiar to Jemma. She had a closer view than most, after all, and the fact that he is present is not lost upon the good doctor. It was from him that she had wrestled the viridescent gem free, the very same gem that now rides close to her, within her tactical pack. There may be just a touch of resentment from Jemma. Resentment that is pushed aside as Jemma lifts her weapon to fire.

Jemma, however, doesn't follow up on if she hits or not. For, the moment she pulled the trigger, her attention is taken by the display upon her wrist. More importantly, the display of draugrs that are no longer moving....the same pocket of individuals Jemma threw her impromptu knock out grenade to. Well...that's interesting.

<<I believe I have discovered a way to eliminate the undead subjects in a mass fashion.>> The comms crackle, but the words are clear. Jemma might have figured out a way to stop the fighting. <<Present method involves aerosol dispersement of a specific chemical compound. Was able to incapacitate approximately 4 to 6 subjects with enough compound to fit inside a spherical container approximately 4 centimeters in diameter.>>

Does Jemma have time to refine the process to take out more? Probably not. But, she can sure as heck redo what she already has done. Did Jemma hit Mister Formerly Flamey-Hands with a cryo-round? Maybe...maybe not. But...it seems she doesn't immediately care, as the railgun is holstered to allow Jemma to do her scientific witchery once more.

Jane Foster has posed:
Nessie diligently ducks around a row of 19th century buildings squished together and pulls an impossibly tight right angle through an alley to surge after something she can barely see. Thor is up there and the raging, chilly river skirts around the eastern flank of her city. Their standoff lasts a few seconds.

Tony reaches the silent church, awash in water around the doors. Not many draugr must have reached here since only a few statues are demolished. The banded doors hold against intrusion, the churchyard spotted by standing dark pools that otherwise appear undisturbed. A few floating bouquets and knocked-over candles bob where Nessie zoomed past. The violence is a few yards over in an unremarkable, tiny park with a few stones in a wall. A column waist-high. A fancier new building wraps around it.

Bronze hail falls from Angelo. A sickly electric bolt leaves Spider-Woman's hands, infused by her uncanny accuracy. Explosive bits of wood rain down and the unhealthy green sheen, unnatural in all respects, burns through Yggdrasil's blighted touch. Jemma saw the nicer version of that blow into the sky. This is the corrupted kind.

Then a violent convulsion rolls through Nessie, ripples solidifying in visible, jagged sine waves. Sonja is jerked forcefully about as the water heaves and snaps back into plesiosaurid configuration, those huge eyes brightening to the same weird green. Nessie tosses her head, snorting and full of tiny whirlpools. She orients like a lost compass needle, flowing downstream to the riverbank right past Simon with the same care shown to actual banks, town halls, and a really tasty gelateria. He gets a clear shot, Sonja and all.

An arrow through the calf of the man in the ragged cloak out pins him to the ground in that small yard. Another through the midsection. The draugr sorcerer clutches his midsection. He topples forward, reaching out when he falls.

The last standing draugr press what attacks they can, a flurry of sparked spells or those nasty axes and swords being put to use. They eat life. They hate. Peeling away to run is impossible when Thor is there, and they will use anything at hand, even hurling people at him. A few have glutted themselves, and they cut terribly into living flesh. A child spared sees another Madrox fall against a different foe. Grateful father might see out the night even if mother is lost. Remaining dupes continuing their defense by attrition to haul victims away from attacks. Scientific witchery promises to staunch the pain, but not quite yet.

Jane Foster has posed:
The needle of history pauses for a second.

Bloody fingers barely brush the thorn of Yggdrasil that lies against the column before he collapses. The old, battered column falls in two, split laterally. Foundation stones in Inverness Castle crack. The kirk bell tolls for Iron Man, ringing in a plaintive voice. Nessie wobbles in confusion, swirling as the spell bites and cracks around her.

---

Perth. Another place, storied and ancient. A crown city that does not awake at all. A dozen disir wail their war cries. But that is another tale in the saga.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson goes to yank along hard on Nessie, bracing herself atop the sea-queen even as she would be thundered along. "Hold Serpent and stay fast! The fight is nearly over, you can have your peace. The invaders have been nearly driven, your work is nearly done and your home pacified!" Of course, that's with Nessie having been smashed arounda bit by THor, chased after Simon, and Sonja mostly egging her on for it. Someone -might- have to talk to the redhead barbarian sometime on efficient use of resources.
    The cotninued smashings of Nessie and blows and flush flashed magical water have Sonja holding on tightly. "Come! T o your home and take it back! TO the depths you must go nwo that you have reclaimed them!" Even as energy blasts over Nessie, of wahtever source Sonja is there with her comrade, her steed, and.. Well.. One can't exactly call Nessie the -ally- of the rest of the group now can they? But, Sonja is with her even while urging her to withdraw back to the depths with victory.

Thor has posed:
    Landing in the path of the confused sea serpent, Thor holds a hand out as if trying to stay the great beast while in his other Mjolnir is ready. Sidelong he turns his head to keep an eye on the Draugr that had been raging but moments ago. His voice rises, "You have the beast, flame-hair?!"
    Likely meaning Sonja. But if it's charge and rush and wild is checked then it leaves him to focus on the attention of those undead that still stand. Yet it's the ones that still offer violence, they get the bulk of Thor's wrath.
    "What has brought you so low, creatures of dark! What has tasked you so?" For there is confusion, puzzlement, but also rage in the features of the Avenger who then takes several quick strides, even as a energy spear lashes toward him only to be swatted aside. Another blade seeks his flesh and finally he crashes amongst those who would still give battle.

Achilles has posed:
    Emerging from the room where the baby was almost a bite sized treat, Angelo has the father holding said baby at his side. Shield in left hand and spear in the right. "Go. That way." he instructs as he uses his spear to indicate a direction towards safety to father and child. Then he turns to face the direction of potential threat... a lone still figure in armor. The only motion being the horsehair in his helmet catching in the minimal breeze in the air.

    And then he begins to slowly stride towards everyone else... eyes searching for threats as he moves. But... things seem to be resolving here... though he remains on guard for now.

Tony Stark has posed:
<<Soooooo...this was a dead end. Please tell me you all have something.>> Tony retreats from the Church, and casts a glance around finally at just what is going on in the other theatres of the battle. <<Whoa, Nessie>> he murmurs, as he takes off into the air once more for perspective on what else may need to be done.

Jessica Drew has posed:
Backing up to stand next to the intrepid scientist, Jess holds out a hand to her. "Got any more of those? They're wizard!"

The mutant agent is blind to magic but not to the menace that emanates from the fallen man and his cohort of dead. She keeps him in her watch and to assure herself, wraps him with in sticky webbing. Slowly, sensation is returning to her deadened arm.

They have a moment of quiet. Turning to face the river, she catches some of Natalie's wild ride and stores the image to tease her with later.

<Angelo? Are you with us?>

Simon Williams has posed:
Closing in on Nessie, Simon snaps back to some semblance of himself and hangs in the air for a time, reaching up to clutch at his temples again. He hears Tony's voice through his earpiece and jerks his head towards the man.

"STAAAAAAARK!" he bellows, spearing through the air towards his erstwhile business rival before his path jerks to the side and sends him on a crash course with the church.

Rocketing through the roof, Simon manages to get his feet under himself and he skids to a stop within the main hall.

<<Get...clear...>> he rasps into the comms, a vine ripping into him as he makes his way towards the heart of the issue. More vines join their friend, doing their best to grab and tear at Williams, but he presses forward, clothing and skin being torn from him left and right.

When he finally reaches his goal, Wonder Man is less of a man and more of a man-shaped figure of shifting purple and white energy with a pulsing red 'W' on his chest. He may be going out of his mind from the containment breach, but you bet your ass that Simon Williams is /always/ on brand.

As more of the plant's tendrils reach out and snap their way around him, he's finally pulled to the floor of the house of worship and his body begins to assume impossible shapes, the aura of energy surrounding him growing bigger and bigger by the second.

<<GET...CLEAR!>>

Jemma Simmons has posed:
With the cryo-gun holstered and the wizard taken down with a rain of golden projectiles, Jemma puts her portable science lab to work once more. This time, instead of one crystalline globe to show for it...she has two. Two gas knock out grenades that somehow Jemma was able to key to work on the draugr themselves. And, it comes down to relying on how good of a throw Jemma is once more.

Except, this is Jemma Simmons. She has a computer strapped to her arm and a healthy knowledge of physics and mathematics. Oh...at it seems she has Jessica at hand as well. One of the two grenades is passed gingerly to Jess as Jemma shifts to explanatory mode. "Concept is similar to the dendrotoxin in the ICERS. Gas is inert until exposed to air which causes rapid expansion. Should be keyed to the creatures' particular biological signatures. Just toss and go. There are a fair number on Thor. Aim for him."

Did Jemma just say to throw that gas grenade at Thor?! It seems that she is comfortable with the fact that it shouldn't affect him. At least...none too badly. As for Jemma, she steps up to be besides Jess. "I will ensure the cover is large enough to take care of the majority. Throw at my signal."

It is just a matter of moments before Jemma offers the nod, giving a clear sign to chuck the grenades. Both are launched...and Jemma tracks both with her eyes, watching with veiled hope as her little crystal matrixes fly through the air. All the while, as Jess remains close to Jemma, that arm of Jessica's continues to mend...perhaps faster than expected.

Jane Foster has posed:
Crunching grenades land among the draugr, falling stars to send them to sleepytime land. That is a mercy for those who haven't received it for seven centuries of hate.

Nessie does not exactly enjoy being hit. She does, however, poke her great snout in Thor's direction and fixes him with a black-eyed look. The fabled cryptid's dangerous array of icy teeth snap. You try talking when composed entirely of the namesake river of Inverness. "My city is violated. To robbery, slaughter, plunder, they give the lying name of honour." The waters shudder. Predictably, she speaks with a distinct Highland Scottish accent tempered by a deep, bubbling quality. "They make a solitude and call it peace."

Sonja will soon enough find herself stuck on the wet ground as the serpent takes on her best known form, albeit long-necked enough to span fifty feet. She curls around, staring at Tony flying around the church near the water. To Jessica and Jemma nearby, and then Angelo coming out from some kind of building. The River Ness' bed is filled by the inflow of the North Sea, but not for long when the river waters collapse back.

Just in time to be ruffled by the promised back-blow.

Big badda boom.