12296/Trip to Tartarus

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Trip to Tartarus
Date of Scene: 15 August 2022
Location: Tartarus
Synopsis: Our Odyssey is finished. The heroes go down to Tartarus where they fight the wicked witch Circe. She calls forth tricks, taunts, torments, and traumas of ages past. But our heroes rally. The ship that sailed from Ithaca round to Tartarus has returned home. Not with riches but with memories and legends. But with a new enemy in the future. But this journey, this story.. Has ended.
Cast of Characters: Circe, Tabitha Smith, Greer Grant, Donna Troy, Diana Prince




Circe has posed:
Tartarus. Hades realm. Where those of the dead went to their rest. Where monsters ancient and mythic were imprisoned by the gods, to hopefully never see the upper worlds again. Where an ancient witch, old as the Trojan War, had been sent in so long ago by the Greek gods. That now, many millenia later, was seeking to escape. Somehow in the ages since having contacted those on the surface that would free her, and put a plan into action. Using artifacts from the war and from a traveler's Odyssey to both trigger her rescuers into action, and by the Gods to signal their warriors. Now, into the depths of Tartarus went our heroes.
    In the distance, darkness broken by the rumbling of volcanos, the moans of ancient things imprisoned. The creak of a bounder from Sisyphus' ancient and never-ending struggle.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Sure Tabby had come for a training session with the Themyscirans at the embassy. Someone them don't mind when Tabby gets a little wild with her powers. They still mostly all figuratively beat the pants off her.

Having finished just such a workout Tabby had been coming out all clean and showered and dressed to handle a commute back to Westchester. Ripped red jeans, fishnet stockings a blue tank top and sneakers. Spiky belt and collar in black leather. Less wild glasses in the for of some wire oval rims and yellow tinted lenses. Plus the bag with all her training gear. Mostly just her X-Suit and boots.

Of course somehow she got scooped along with anyone else for the jaunt to the underworld.

"Oookay. This is gotta be up there with Limbo for like Metal Album cover picturesque!" she says after a whistle of sounding impressed.

Greer Grant has posed:
This -really- isn't the sort of place Tigra should be. Tartarus? An actual underworld? Even for an Avenger this is a little out there, and she's more of a patrol the rooftops and alleys sort of hero, but she has mystic connections, and she's found herself involved in this journey, and so she's here to see it through. It's her usual togs for her, which is to say her normal black bikini with mystic amulet. Her tail's briskly in motion, uneasy and uncertain here, and her head's practically on a swivel as she looks about in the direction of the various moans and other noises, trying to be aware of threats. "Still better than New Jersey," she murmurs.

Donna Troy has posed:
    There are many ways into Tartarus. Far more ways in that out, because for many who find themselves here, there is simply no way out. One of those should have been Circe, banished here long ago. But sorcerers are trouble. If the watchful eyes of those who guard them here become lax, ways may present themselves.

    The easiest ways in to Tartarus, for those who are not banished here, are the Gates that lead between the world of Mortals and this ancient Greek underworld. One of those gates connects Tartarus to Themyscira, but this is not in fact the best way in even if you happen to be accompanied by Amazons, because it is a very challenging passage. The easier way in is via the Gates of Iron, not the Gates of Bronze. These gates stand beside the River Acheron, a river that exists in both worlds, and it takes only a simple charm to go from one world to the other when you travel the Acheron. On that darker shore, the Gates of Iron stand open, but not unguarded. Kerberos, the Hound Of Hades, watches here to stop those who are not supposed to be dead from leaving. For those still of the living, Kerberos is an unpredictable but navigable threat - a gift of meat will normally keep him calm enough to allow passage, so long as you don't smell like you should be here. The other guardians who stand watch at the gate are the Hekatonkhieres, the Hundred-Handers. Giant beings of terrible power, feared even by the Olympian gods themselves, they are fearesome guards indeed. They know who is meant to be here and who is not, but even those who are not are best advised to avoid drawing the attention of those ancient creatures.

    All in all, it is generally not a good idea to come here if you can possibly avoid it. However clues have been discovered around the Aegean in recent weeks indicating some magic is being performed somewhere deep in Tartarus, and on Themyscira the ancient and powerful sorceress Magala has reported concerning magical disturbances. Reasons to do what is normally not a good idea -- to descend into the depths of Tartarus to investigate.

    So it is that two daughters of Queen Hippolyta of Themyscira, with their allies, find themselves on a mission. Acheron has been crossed; the Gates of Iron entered. There, on the threshhold of Erebos they stand, prepared to seek out the source of these magical disturbances and determine whether they represent a threat.

    In the hands of the younger of the two Themyscirans, Troia, is a magical amulet, provided by Magala. A crystal sphere on the end of a platinum chain, in which floats a slender needle of enchanted electrum, pointing towards the source of magic Magala had been monitoring these last few weeks. "Towards the... let's call it north, for now, though that doesn't really apply," Troia says. "See the tall volcano on the horizon? That's the direction we need to go. Hopefully not as far as that volcano, though. In that rough direction there is a rocky plain to one side which I know very little about. To the other side it enters a region where the eidolon are imprisoned -- faceless spirits of those trapped here, who have forgotten who they ever were during their mortal realms. That's the more likely direction, because that region contains a number of buildings and temple-like structures. If we find we need to go that way be warned: do not let the Eidolons touch you. There is a maze-like series of stone walkways that rise ten feet above the plain, we will walk along those. The Eidolon are blind and cannot find a way up, but they sense souls and will come for you if you should leave the paths."

Diana Prince has posed:
Coming to such a place, is not something that Diana was ever eager to do. Tartarus had become all-too-common of a hurdle in life within recent years. Toying with such things concerned Wonder Woman greatly. They had been lucky thus far, but how long could that luck really hold out when dealing with such a place of torment and despair?

After Donna speaks, Diana stands there with her leather wrapped palms clutching the shaft of a long golden spear. On her back she has her sword and shield, the spear in her hands held horizontally in front of her thighs. The Princess' eyes are on the horizon, that volcano, and her dark hair waves against her otherwise bare shoulders. She spares a glance toward Donna, then looks toward the others.

"Stay together here. Close, and rely upon one another. What evil we come across... we will defeat it together, and leave as soon as we are complete with our mission." She says in a calm tone.

With a breath drawn then, Diana turns the spear vertical, and plants it in the ground at her left armored boot. She nods then to Donna. "Let us start this then, and end it swiftly."

Circe has posed:
Off, far off in the distance where the Daughters of Themyscira watch, along the temples of the Eidolons, the forgotten and the abandoned, there are cries. Fading into the distance, high pitched and wails. Above storm clouds made of ash battering the area underneath with fizzled rust and rain of acid cast upon the ground. Giving ancient shrines and temples within a battered veil of exhaustion. Even ancient, magical stone and whatever they were carved as fading away with time and teh eternal bombardment of the darkness.
    Cries echoing through the air faintly like those of a banshees, falling off into the breeze and the disconcordance of the background.
    If this were a realm of Dante's visions, one might very well read 'Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here' in the fading rifts of Hades' realm. But here, heroes had a mission.
    The magical disturbances are growing stronger. They are something not of the Eidolons, and yet not quite wholly of those that would tresspass. The beacons, the senses were of something within wakening. Something rended away of memory having it return? A poor victim caught and devoured? The path forwards lead inevitably towards those temples, and those clouds of showering ash and acid.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
The backpack Tabby had slung over her back for now. Sure she could change back into her X-Suit but any kind of hell is not the place a girl wants to get naked. "Least we're not walking straight into Mordor. So if anything here is like fire proof? Kinda lemme know? If it's everything. Ugh, yeah!" Tabby can do a lot normally but the whole hellfire and damnation thing could be a worry.

The blonde does try to keep up with the other women though sometimes she has to maybe job a bit more to do it but she tries. "So I know like diiffering realms and stuff all have different rules with their environments and stuff so.

"i'm not worried about a fight. Demons I've met, dated, and some I've blown up. But the whole realm is often out to mess with you if you aren't like careful. If you guys want I can set up a mind link. Don't think we get cell reception here." she offers to the group.

Greer Grant has posed:
    "Correct me if I'm wrong," Tigra murmurs as she moves along, half crouched in something related to a stalk, "but Hades isn't like the Devil, right? I mean, it's his realm here, but it's no that he's a...bad guy, it's just someone's got to handle this stuff, and he's not out to tempt or destroy people?" She looks to the volcano, taking note of it, trying to fix it in her head. Right. Walk on the maze walls, don't attract the attention of the Ides of Mars. Er, Eidolon of Hades. She flexes her fingers, extending and relaxing her claws absently as she listens to the Amazons. A grimace as Tabitha mentions the rules possibly changing. "I hope it doesn't do that kind of thing. Usually means can't get where we're going until we're supposed or some crap. Can't do anything swiftly."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Diana's right, the key thing here is staying close," Troia says, hefting her ornate Themysciran shield, and wrapping the amulet around the wrist of the arm wielding it. A pair of throwing spears are worn over her back, and her other hand holds a sword. At her belt her lasso glows a dull fiery gold, reacting to the magic of the place.

    "This basically IS Mordor," Troia corrects Tabby. "But I have been here twice before and did not require giant eagles to rescue me. If we are cautious and do not get lost, it's manageable. A mind link might not be a bad idea, but honestly -- if you think you're beginning to get out of speaking range, you're getting too far away. Getting lost here would be an incredibly bad idea. And there are risks that might come with a mind-link, too. I don't know about the rules changing, but things an certainly get deceptive here, and as such a mind-link could be as likely to pass false information from one mind to another as to protect us from the same. I know more about Tartarus than most, but that is still not a lot."

    They talk as they make their progress across the blasted plain and find themselves approaching the walkways Troia had mentioned. Dark stone like walls spread out in a labyrinth-like pattern before them, the tops of the walls paved for walking on. Ten feet below, a countless horde of the Eidolons shuffles and moans, human-like figures with blank features, nothing to distinguish one from another let alone who those souls might have been in their mortal lives. It's clear that the creatures can sense the passage of the living along the walkways above them, a ripple of motion bringing them stumbling towards the walkways below as they move forwards.

    When the talk turns towards Hades, Troia replies to Greer in hushed tones. "Hades is the brother of Zeus. He rules here as Zeus rules in Olympus. He is not a devil, no. Not a bad guy, exactly. But by all reports he is proud and dangerous. We would do well to avoid his attention altogether, even though what we are doing here is to his benefit. If we are successful in stopping what we suspect these magical disturbances represent we would be doing him a service, but I would not recommend expecting gratitude or compensation for that."

Diana Prince has posed:
"Do not take the place lightly." Diana casually warns, when pop culture references are tossed around. "This such place, is the reason we see representations of evil lands within our media back home. But those representations... miss the true depth of horror that you will find here."

The Princess spares a look to that amulet wrapped around Donna's bracer before she draws in a breath and squeezes her grip on the spear within her hands.

"Yes, a Mind Link is opening ourselves up to being infiltrated mentally, they will sense it, and exploit it to make us hear things that one another are not saying... We must stay close enough that our own voices remain our primary communication."

When they reach those ebony walls, Diana lets her eyes take in the sight of it, her senses all reaching as far as she can to pick up on al that may threaten them.

"Hades will want our attention, should we garner his. He will make far too large a ceremony out of us being discovered... I would very much wish to avoid such a thing." She states with a faint smirk toward Donna.

"This way." Diana says then, as she starts moving toward what she believes to be a safe route up above the shambling faceless monsters below. Her eyes keep a watch on Tigra and Tabitha, though she knows Tigra's dexterity is unparalleled...

Circe has posed:
The group of warrior women and their comrades make their way through the ashen zones. The dark clouds seem to be thickening above, growing weightier as the mash of pollution, dakrness, and magma seems to be congealing. What light there is from the volcanos erupting seems to be blocked off, leaving just the rumblings from their eruptions to shake the ground and teh temple. Amongst the temples, as the group approaches, are two large creations.
    To Donna's memory, they were not there before. Even as of but a few moments ago covered over in darkness and blocked off from view.
    THey are monuments, seemingly. Made of thick, heavy stone and surrounded by bars as if someone had carved in such things and then haphazardly laid bolts around them as if some sort prison.
     Dozens of meters tall, two things from ancient memories. One creature seeming as if a serpent with six heads, coils twisted around between the bars of stone. The other seemingly a whirlpool carved from chunks of stone put atop one another, looking like a tornado bolted against itself.
    Being tended to by a woman over wearing a long cloak, a shawl pulled over her head as she would go over them with a small mortar. Carefully adding more bastets of stone upon the bars in a powdery mix.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
"There's always someone that calls themselves the big D Devil in places like this. Sure Hade's and yeah I watched a bunch of stuff. Mostly gist. Sure Hade's had put on horns and threw a few pitch forks." she adds to Tigra's direction.

The mindlink being disuaded gets a shrug. "There's a big diff in range between us remember!" she points out as she every so often hops and jumps at a quicker pace. Fit as she is as a mutant. Speed and flight are not on her power list and a rockt jump is not a good idea when you wanna be discreet.

The big serpent thing gets a grin and Tabby chuckles. "Cut one head two more pop!" she says and shakes her nead. "Nazi Snakes. So that one's not fireproof! Hack the body, cauterize the wounds." she explkaisnas if none of the others had ever heard oif a hydra.

"The girl there I dunno. But that's why I'm following you two!" Tabby states to Diana and Donna.

Greer Grant has posed:
    "Right, right," Tigra murmurs to Donna. "Not someone whose attention we want, I totally get that, but not someone to necessarily maliciously get in our way, either, that's all I meant. For her part, as long as the ground, or the tops of the walls, behaves as it should and doesn't crumble away, her every step will go exactly where she wants it, graceful and dexterous without any effort or conscious thought. As they travel along she idly inventories the scents of her companions. If illusions are misdirection are likely, as Diana suggests, it could be important. She crouches down, balancing on the balls of her feet as the...monuments come into view. "Hydra? Or is it Scylla," she says pointing to the serpent, "and Charybdis?" she asks, pointing to the whirlpool. Shawled woman, face covered, working with apparent statues? Tigra's careful to keep her eyes averted from the person's face if they turn the heroes' way.

Donna Troy has posed:
    At the first sight of the woman, the first obviously sentient being they have met in this place, Troia comes to a cautious halt, keeping a good distance back, gesturing with her sword to indicate that the rest should stop too. She glances down at the amulet on her wrist, and gives a short nod. "This... may be what we're looking for," she whispers. "This is not normal, and has the smell of ritual about it. Greer has the right of it -- those two statues are representations of Scylla and Charybdis, the monsters that guarded the Straights of Messina. Odysseus passed between them twice, nearly meeting disaster both times."

    Her eyes scan the horizon, and peer into the shadows of the peristyle columns surrounding the nearest temples, looking for signs that the woman is not alone. She sheathes her sword and takes one of the two long spears from her back. "I do not think they are being created for the sake of art," she says. "Traditionally they are guardian beings. They may be being set to guard this way. Or to create some kind of magical resonance. Or... maybe they /are/ just decorations. It's hard to be sure of anything in this place."

    She hefts her spear, holding it ready in throwing position just in case, and nods her head to Diana. "We should keep our distance and be prepared for anything. But perhaps... would you like to address her?" she suggests. "Given your heritage, you would be the best choice of ambassador here."

Diana Prince has posed:
The bulk of Diana's attention is on their surroundings as they navigate the possibly treacherous terrain. She does spare looks up toward the horizon, as rumbling noises roll across the landscape. The flashes of light from the flowing magma off in the distance illuminate their immediate ambience, and it makes the Princess feel a forboding sense of something watching them.

As they approach those temples, with those barred visages of ancient warning, the Princess too halts, and plants her spear again upon the stone beneath her booted feet. She looks to Tabitha, and Greer, then to her sister on her right. She nods softly once, before her eyes go to the figure in the cloak and shawl...

"Greetings." Diana calls out as she takes two more steps forward, stopping once more. "I am Diana of Themyscira. Daughter to Queen Hippolyta, and Zeus. I come with my companions, seeking a dark magic that has been tracked across our world. If you are able, we have questions for you regarding this magic. We simply seek only information, and nothing else, and will happily be on our way if our questions can be answered."

Circe has posed:
It is, the two ancient monsters that plagued mariners of old. Carved of stone, imprisoned within blocks. The woman with the cloak and the shawl upon her head slowly pasting another layer of crushed stones atop one of the small struts over on the ground. She would pause over at the approach of the women. She would be sitting, moving to slowly turn her attention towards them. The hood of her shawl pulled over above her face, the heavy cloak seeming like a blanket upon her. She would speak.
    "There are so rarely visitors down here.." Her voice hollow, like an echo. Flat. "They.. Used to be more common." That.. That goes against everything that is of Hades' realm. The mortar and pestle she had been crushing rock in would be pushed to the side as she would turn and half face them. Her face would be almost serpentine and scaly. Where her eyes were had been hollowed out and left empty sockets. The shawl wrapped around her head buzzing, as if something underneath was twitching.
    "What brings you here then?" Her face to the side, not looking at them directly as the Princess would approach her. "And what would you ask?"

Tabitha Smith has posed:
The mention of a lack of visitors does get a nod from the blonde. "I suppose too many people snack on the fruit here. Stop being visitors and be like sudden residents." she ponders quietly.

She does let most of ther inquiry get handled by the Themyscirans. There's probablky really much a girl that can generate balls of super hot plasma like a mini sun can do right this moment.

Except maybe get mistaken for Hestia and her hearth fires.

Theer is a sudden inkling to keep looking at the gooden woman's feet. The eyes might be... somewhere else but staring would just be rude.

Greer Grant has posed:
As Diana moves to address the figure, Tigra takes a couple steps to the side, the better to watch their flank for trouble. She remembers crouched, balancing on the balls of her feet, but the twitching of her tail suggests she's ready to leap in an instant if needed. She resists the urge to say they came here in an Uber. Not the time, and very much not the place. A flick of her tail at mention of visitors. More common? Well, maybe she means people like the bard that came to bring his lover back. She stays quiet, listening and watching.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Troia observes Tabitha's averting of her gaze with approval, and whispers for the benefit of the others, "Avoid meeting her eyes whatever you do, this may be one of the gorgons." She raises her own shield high in front of her, presenting the reflective surface forwards; it's not buffed to a mirror-shine as you might ideally wish when facing a gorgon, but it should at least be a discouragement from looking too directly at the group.

    "We of Themyscira are amongst those charged with monitoring this realm," she calls out. "We have become aware of a curious magical distortion in this area. We simply come to investigate." Any further details she'll leave up to Diana's diplomacy for now.

    No reason not to seek on extra piece of clarity though. "Though you are cloaked and hooded, your hood does suggest perhaps that beneath it might be one of the daughters of Ceto. Would our guess be correct, cousin?"

Diana Prince has posed:
The foul wind coming from the chaos at the far off volcanic activity has the Princess' dark hair rushing around her bare shoulders. One strand ends up across her face, and from behind it, Diana looks to the woman, but also does not make direct contact with the other's eye sockets. She hears Donna, and dips her chin just a little in a single nod.

"We wish to track this dark magic, we wish to know the source of it, and we wish to speak with the ones responsible for conjuring it in to our world. It is our duty to find answers to such quandaries, and we have come this far to do so."

Diana sends a look toward the mysterious woman's work, before glancing back toward her shifting shawl...

"Is there any information that you can yield to us? Recent activities around this region that are out of the normal, beyond simply our presence here now?"

Circe has posed:
The woman behind the shawl would look over, her shawl twisting over as something underneath it would start to rustle. Or rather, some-things. She would muse over, "I see. And yes.." to Donna then, "A great many distortions. I.. See." Her seeming to find some sort of humor over in this given her state as she would turn to face them. "Yes.. Yes you would. But for one thing." She would muse over..
    Pulling down the shawl and revealing the dead snakes upon her head, rustling over on it flatly. "And you seek the source of it. Well.." She would muse over and tap at her chin. "I can feel it. I can senes it. So yes.. I am able to help you with your questions."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
There's more whispers. "I always figured that the turn to stone thing was that they were just super hot and naturally some goddess got jelly. Kinda sucks really. How does the epitome of like beuaty or wisdom, or pick a portfolio, get tall poppy syndrome. Just glad I'm not the hot chick here. If I wanna get stoned I'll take a bong hit at home." she states with a nod.

"Not as bad as middle school though." she adds and nods her head.

She doesn't do anything to disuage the idea that she or Greer aren't from Themyscira either. When someone asks you if you're god. You say yes!



The dead snakes get a sad look. "Bad people wanting to do bad things. If they did you dirty helping us could, like you know, be a good way to stick it to them! A dead bee can still sting if it's stepped on!"

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Well then cousin," Troia says, smiling faintly. "Perhaps you can expand on that, and tell us what exactly it is that you sense? We have followed the distortions to this location, and we seek to learn the nature of them. An... investigation."

    She hefts her spear, held ready but not /too/ ready, the motion of the weapon intended as a reminder that it is there, though it is not held ready to throw quite yet. Not a threat, but a reminder that threats can come. "We are, after all, guardians of the Bronze Gate. It is sacred duty, placed upon us by Athena herself, to investigate such matters, and thus we do. Just a matter of... fact finding. I am sure you understand. "

    Troia gives a little shrug. "I'm sure it's not a matter that needs to be brought to the attention of Briareus or Gyges," she adds, naming two of the great guards of Tartarus, the hundred-handers. And there, not the spear, is the threat.

Diana Prince has posed:
The golden spear in Diana's hands is lowered down again to be placed horizontally against the front of her thighs once more, with her leather covered palms squeezing the grip once again. Is she expecting a fight here? Possibly. A glance toward Greer, and then to Tabitha, might be a sign of the Princess warning them of such a thing too...

When Donna replies to the snake adorned woman, Diana looks back to the writhing creatures upon the woman's neck.

"Yes. We merely come for answers, not any measure of confrontation... Just to convey the desire to preserve the safety of our world, and ensure such magic is not being cast for ill-intent. We are representitives of our world's many powerful teams of like-minded individuals wishing to spread nothing more than peace, and safety of the innocent. What help you can offer us in this endeavor... we shall be appreciative."

Of course the thundering noises in the distance, the plumes of dark smoke in to the air, and the spouting of magma geysers that cast flashes of hot damnation across the hellscape of this place, don't really sing a song of peace loving people here-in...

Circe has posed:
The seemingly gorgon would would watch over at the group over and then go to lean back, "Well, it's rather simple. The source of all of that is.. Me." She would pull down the cloak and her body would shift. Metamorphizing over to that of a Grecian woman over in a green toga.. And with bright purple hair.
    "Welcome, Princess of Themyscira. And your sister. It's been so long since I've met any Amazon. Or anyone at all." Her hands would witch over with power in them, the demi-goddess witch grinning.
    "And I've missed having company. All this time spent exiled.. I have so much time to catch up on and so many things to do." She would go to weave her hands together.
    "And what have we here, little dear?" Her fingers coiling together, trapping Greer over in a ball of mystical energy. "Amusing. Power so paltry and done on something so low. Transformed from something so weak to something barely even worth noticing. Let me show you waht true power is, Amazons.. Ape.."
    Her fingers would twist together as Circe, ancient witch would chant. And Tigra's form would change. Fur slicking back. Torso narrowing. Body changing over as testosterone would flood it. And where once was Tigra, furred female.. Was now a man, covered in streaks of fur and just as changed as she was in her original state. "Much better to the eye, isn't it?"
    Up behind her the large statues of Scylla nd Charbydis would shake, stone falling away as the two ancient monsters would cry on their release. Rage at their imprisonment echoing through the realm of Tartarus.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
The little things that hint violence might be iminent. Tabitha's had a long history of being beaten and battered enough she can kind of tell that someone might get hit.

So when the apparent gorgon starts shifting to something even Tabitha hhas to admit is much easier on the eyes despite being all evil and bitchy. Tabby lets her own power charge up. In her hands as she puts up a guard stance. around her in swirling balls of superheated plasma the size of bowling balls.

There's some wide eyes as Tigra is well. Given the transgender treatment. Then there's a look back. "I liked her better before. Put her back bitch ass!" she says and throws one of those orbs of superheated plasma towards Circe as a warning shot. "Or eat Star Stuff!" she threatens before looking up at the two awakening guardians.

Hell of a time to show up to a fight and in a tank top and jeans no less when you're out of your weight class. But you fight the fights that need fighting.

The rest of the bombs flying as hard and fast at both the giant creatures, aiming center mass. Just in case Hydra rulles apply to this multiheaded serpent.

Greer Grant has posed:
    Staying on her toes, literally and figuratively, Tigra listens to the verbal sparring between Donna and the presumed gorgon. An absent nod over her shoulder at Diana's glance and she readies herself, a quick glance towards distant thundering, and then back, and then more quickly a focus on the gorgon when she claims to be the source. Uh-oh, this isn't good. A glance towards the Amazons. Continue talking, or scream and leap time?
    And then she draws Circe's attention, and like a cat caught up in yarn, she's caught up in mystic threads, struggling against them as best she can. "Hardly worth noticing, why I oughta--" she snarls, the snarl turning to a gasp of shock and then a cry of dismay. "What--what did you do?!" she says in a deeper voice, staring down at herself, dumbfounded to not see anything familiar. No fighting while Greer reboots her/his brain. *modem noises*

Donna Troy has posed:
    "I am the daughter of Phoebe Krysostephanos," Donna replies. "I stand next to the daughter of Zeus Olympios. I share a bed with the daughter of Trigon. Last I came to Tartarus I spoke with Hekate herself. I know what true power is."

    As she speaks, she swings her spear up and casts it -- for one trained in throwing spears, there is remarkably little difference between having a spear held not-quite-ready and having it in position to throw, and she makes that shift in a smooth motion, swift as the wind, the spear flying with a force that causes the wind of its passing to howl. Aimed high, as Tabitha's bolts of fire are aimed lower, straight towards one of the heads of Scylla. After all, hydra rules do not generally apply, even to the large majority of hydra, which Scylla is not one of -- the Lernaean hydra was a special case.

    With the spear cast, Troia reaches not for her sword or other spear, but rather her lasso, the golden glow flaring to brighter light as she uncoils it in her hands. She runs forwards, slipping her shield back to her upper arm, and leaps into the air, lasso swirling, to bare down on Charybdis.

Diana Prince has posed:
A concerned expression befalls Diana's visage as she sweeps her eyes over to Greer to see the magical casted incantation result in the gender swapping of her companion! Tabitha's response, along with the groaning sounds of the statue sentinels waking, has Diana dropping her spear and raising her hands up to cross her armored forearms over one another... only her spear doesn't fall...

Diana's fists clutch her own lasso of golden twine firmly within her palms, which is looped around her spear, holding it horizontally in the air in front of her lap! With her armored boots apart, Diana twists her arms and sends the rope-held spear in to a twirl in front of her. with its shaft, and sharpened tip, buzzing a cutting motion through the sulfur stinking air!

As the Princess' own lasso comes to life with a golden light, her simple arm motions have her spear buzzing in the air in front of her as it twirls at an intense speed, like a propeller on a plane, it buzzes in front of the Princess as she steps toward the Magician who changed Greer's form.

"Cease these actions, or suffer the consequences." Diana warns one last time...

Circe has posed:
For Circe, this is a game. Even as she would watch as she would let Greer tumble over from her control, the newly made cat-man hitting the ground in whatever sort of ball he might go on. She seemed to not care for the dancing with Scylla and Charbydis. Watching over at Tabitha, "Oh? Is that what they call those new splices of genetics? No art to them at all. Just randomness. What has the world fallen to since I slept?"
    The hurled plasma bombs from Tabitha go up to detonate over in the midst of the giant would-not-be Hydra, Scylla letting out a gnashing wail of pain as fire would erupt over it! The spear thrown by Donna would pierce through another head, more than half of them down in but the blink of an eye.
    Also freed, Charbydis would hit the ground. OR flow to it. Making now a cyclone of wind, water, and spears. A gale now starting to funnel up the ash, the acid, and everything cast from around the area. The cries of the forgotten and the damned of the Eidolons ringing through as whatever was happening would be calling to them. Crying as th storm swould rage and Charbydis would swallow up more and more material into a watery void!
    Circe would watch, speaking casually to Diana, "When I heard that.. Antiope? Whichever one it was of your silly Themyscirans or whatever they called htemselves then had fallen at Troy, I let out a small laugh. You thought so much of yourselves back then. Thought that coming to the defense of a city that had been damned by the Gods you could turn the tides against Fate. You were so haughty. Now.. now you've grown even more delusional."
    The lasso goes to lash over towards Circe. "Forged of Hestia?" Circe would go to take her hand up and blast the Lasso of Truth with power.. And the lasso slows. To a crawl as Circe's power fights with it. "So.. What is it that you've made yourselves? The souls of your sisters thrown in here do tend to babble so much.."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
"Hey..." Tabby stage whispers to the naow masculine cat. "Can't you like human again on a whim. That might girl you back to normal maybe?" she asks hopefully.

The regailing of Donna's achievemnst and parentage and friends gets a kind of embarrassed look. "We all stand with like powers way more awesome!. I dated the Queen and Sorceress Supreme of Limbo. I'm educated..." yes she graduated. "By the woman that tamed the Phoenix Force itself. And the most powerful minds on earth and any other world. I have been taught to fight by well. You're looking at two of them. By the most powerful of the Apache. I spark suns!" she looks at the Themyscirans. Still charhing up the next batch of bombs. Basket ball sized.

"Lemme know if I'm over doing it?" she whispers.

"This random mess of genes in jeans is like part of the first line of boots that are gonna kick your bitch ass back down here. It's only gonna get worse for you. You think you wanna put up with that. I say march your skanky ass back in your hole and just kick back. Easy life or it's your ass!" she says and lets the next batch fly, focusing her psionic ability to direct each bomb at a head with a serious squint of her bespectacled eyes.

Greer Grant has posed:
    Tigra stands up, a touch unsteadily, but he's starting to find his new feet. He's extremely grateful that fur hides blushing as...things...shift about in the somewhat loose athletic shorts that his bikini bottom's turned into. "It might," he says to Tabitha with a quick nod. "First things first, though," he decides, dashing towards Circe, and stumbling a little as he does so. Not so much of the unconsciously graceful putting feet right where s/he wants them right now. Not with sense of balance, center of gravity, hell even field of view changed at the moment. Starting to get some feel for it, though as he tries to get close enough to claw at Circe. He doesn't list his accomplishments, just lets loose a throaty snarl.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "You're good!" Troia's reply comes to Tabitha's whisper, called down from the sky above as she flies towards Charybdis. Her hearing is good. "Keep up the blasting!"

    She flies over the top of Charybdis, pulling her remaining spear from her back as she goes, and when her arced flight brings her down towards the ancient stones of the temple portico beyond, she slams the spear point first between the slabs, jamming it into place, and starts to swing her lasso. Three times it spins above her head as she pays out the length, and at the end of the third turn she casts it towards the whirlpool.

    You cannot bind a whirlpool, even a living one, but that is not the intent. As one end of the lasso reaches into the vortex and is held there by the powerful swirling motion, Troia loops the other end around that spear and it's connection to the stones of the temple and their apotropaic power, the temple sanctums protected from entry by the more monstrous inhabitants of Tartarus. She grips the lasso tightly, and it surges with energy, drawing the growing magical potency of the whirlpool through its coils and into that sacred ground.

    "NOW!" Troia calls out. "Hit it with all you've got, Tabby! Let's give Greer and Diana a free hand to deal with the sorceress!"

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana's lasso is targeted by the Mage, and it slows down the spinning spear, resulting in it no longer buzzing like a plane's propeller. Instead it just twirls slowly in mid air like a lazy windmil. Diana watches Circe closely as she keeps track of what Tabitha, and Donna are focusing upon.

She steps around her own slowed lasso and spear, her forearms held up still, Diana peers past her clenched fists as she steps between Circle and her slowly twirling lasso and spear.

"You've made your point." She calls out to the mage. "We came in peace, and you have pushed us past that now. Your disappointment will be remembered for eons to come..."

lunging outward upon her right leg, her left extended out behind her, Diana slaps her bracers together, causing the wave of Aegis Shield energy to burst from her wrists, and a kinetic wave of golden power to spread across the wretched landscape of this plagued place! A sudden whoosh of air is pulled in the wake of the Aegis energy, sending rock, dust and debris out from the Princess' location toward the temples beyond!

But this wasn't Diana's main attack, it was meant to be a destabilization of the Sorceress, as Diana's right hand dips back behind her to grasp her spear out of mid air, stopping its slow turn, as she pulls it from the looped glowing lasso, and thrusts it forward toward the Sorceress' abdomen, it's golden pointed tip aimed right to skewer the magic caster!

Circe has posed:
Circe would muse over at Tabitha, "Oh? Defined by everything others do? That's sort of sweet in a pathetic sort of way. Taught by this, feats of that.. There is only -one- thing that is important. What -YOU- can do. And I.." She would gaze into Tabitha and grin. "I see nothing particularly of note." She would go on ."I see a girl that was lucky and coasted off others, and thinks that if she pretends seh's important she can hide how empty seh is. That if she distracts herself she can forget."
    There are images going through Tabitha's mind. "That if she denies it, she can escape." Images of Tabitha on the floor in chains at her parents. Arms raw over from the chains. Scarred. Eyes wide. Desperate. Body raw. Anchored to dirt. Wearing rags. Father walking towards her with a belt.
    "That was what you were supposed to be. It's what you were meant. And you think you're better than that." On Tabitha's form, the welts themselves from Circe's machinations might be rising, as if lashes were across her body entire.
    Scylla's body trembles from attacks, even as more and more blows and bursts go into it. It starts to crumble down to the ground, turning to dust as it would tremble. Greer going to charge towarsd Circe is meant over with but the faintest care. "And another paltry thing. Let me give you something to play with." In front of Greer is another Greer. This one the way she looked like moments ago. Feral. Claws raised. Going to charge into her former half with a feral like frenzy! Lashing at Greer in a full berserker state, more than happy to slash off chunks of him and rend him apart! "It's you by the way, so don't worry. Kill her and never be back the way you should. Or don't defend yourself and die here."
    To Donna she watches as the Amazon goes to leap up and over in to it. "And what are you? The first of a bunch of little children after however many thousand years that the Amazons had to be all proper and chaste? When they were eprmitted to have children again. How lovely that you let the gods control even your bodies so wholly. That your sisters were so empty that they swore to eternally abandon and deny part of what they were. Motherhood. You're just a child after the fact."
    Charbydis swallows up the lasso, even as Donna rends into it as more and more echos of rage and war flood through the realms underground.
    "And Diana of Themyscira. Made from Zeus and mommy. Mommy was so sad. She wanted a child when no one else could. She wanted to be special and have something none of the other Amazons could. Growing up you must have been such a slap in the face to them. Mommy's dearest. The Queen was so important and got to have what they were denied. You might as well have been forged of clay. You're a role and a toy. You serve the goddesses. Hera, whom's eternal humiliation by her husband leads her to rend the world? Artemis, that has men rended by animals because she was bored? Athena, that let Athens burn and be destroyed because it did something to offend her? Troy, torn apart by a spite over a present given and taken? you all serve those wretched things to maek them feel important. I'm the wicked woman here?" Lasso seemingly frozen in midair. MOnsters falling. S laughtered. "Children playing at being heroes for a world falling apart. Made to ruin. Why bother?"
    Mid-monologue, Diana goes to charge her. The shockwave sends Circe staggering over, even as Diana goes to charge her and slams a fist into the abdomen of her! Diana then moves to thrust the lasso into her in a move that would gut her.. And Diana's blast goes fully through her as it leaves her over with a huge hole blasted through her gut! From one end to the other as she goes to fall down over to her knees, shorn clear up from her stomach!

Tabitha Smith has posed:
There's a psychic duel and tabby might as well be a two year old fighting a heavyweight.

Those beatings and lashing cracking against skin. There's whimpers and cracks of bone. It's a fight and Tabby even starts to look the very part of a physically damaged girl.

"Daddy... noo." she whimpers before the taunts include mentioning her friends, her actual family in Westchester. "If I was nothing. They wouldn't have bothered taking me in. They'd have just left me on the street. I've survived. But I don't have to stand on my own. I've stared down even those from beyond. And I did that MYSELF!" she snarls at Circe with enough anger and maybe distractions from the others to end the psychic melee. It doesn't fix that Tabby's face is a mess of bruises and broken bones of her skin is a mess of lashes and welts and more beatings. The most she does is lean forewards to catch her breath, wipe away some of the tears.

Tabitha has been keeping the explosions to just enough to inflict pain. On the snek with many heads It's not too difficult. It's making sure Donna and her Sister aren't risked in the blasts. same with Tigra attacking Circe directly.

The tactics Donna calls out get a nod and a grin and there's a wink over at Circe that is almost a flirt before she raises her arms over head and starts channeling again. It's one bomb and it's growing bigger. Blue eyes glow with bio-electricity. Psionicallly directed and dscharged above her head in a rapidly expanding ball that starts glowing brighter and brighter while it reaches the size of a family sedan in diameter.

Good thing about plasma and it not just being plain old fire. You can ignite it in fluid. You can even make it in water. But for now.

Boom-Boom sweeps her arms down and sends the ball of energy through what passes for air down into the whirlpool that is Charybdis.

"I love making a splash!" she wickedly says even as Diana's own blast knocks her on her butt. And over and rolling about. No super strength to brace the battered blonde but that just gets a maniacal laugh out of the blonde while she keeps guiding her own impending BOOM to it's target, getting close enough Tabby smirks as she works herself to at least all fours.

"Tick... Tick... Tick..." like a numberless countdown.

Greer Grant has posed:
    Greer stumbles to a stop when he sees...herself facing him. What fresh hell is--His snarl is strangled as the doppleganger charges into the attack and he finds himself doing all he can to block and dodge her attacks, ducking and weaving, trying to use a stumble to lead into a rolling dodge with a leg sweep, and then a backflip away that he doesn't land with a perfect 10.
    "I'm not going to die here! And if I have to stay like this to keep you here, well, I've gone through worse!" Might even believe it. He'll try to grapple with herself (phrasing!) if he gets the opportunity, to try to pin and control her, but she's not having to adjust, even if she isn't fighting with her brain he hopes.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Troia keeps bracing the lasso, draining power from Charybdis, stopping the whirlpool from growing and keeping it weakened in preparation for Tabitha's blast... Tabby is building this one up nicely, and it should be a good one.

    But not all battles are quite so physical, and Circe's words contain more in them than spite. This too is a form of attack, intended to impact all of them. To find levers that can be pulled, and to fill them with doubts and weaken them. Yet in Donna's case, Circe has pulled the wrong lever. She couldn't be expected to know, very few people do, but there are assumptions in what Circe has said that don't hold up, and doubly so given the things Troia has learned about herself in the last few weeks.

    Troia laughs.

    "You think we aren't aware of the mistakes the gods make?" She sneers back. "The foolishness, the jealousy? Far from it. It is their ideals we serve, not the gods themselves. Is that the best you can come up with? Petty complaints, so easily answered? Do you think we'd be distracted by something as shallow as that?"

    The golden glow of the lasso grows, pulses flowing down it as it drains more and more power from the summoning of Charybdis. "You must think yourself so wise. Think us so easily cowed by your babbling. Yet you know nothing. Nothing of the Amazons, and nothing of me. 'First of a bunch of little children...'? No, my parents are far older than the Amazons, sorceress. I am the /last/ child, not the first. Is /anything/ you said correct? Were the words you aim at my companions as filled with error, nonsense and poorly-crafted barbs? I know them. They are strong. They are determined, And we fight together."

    "Flee, sorceress. Flee while you still can."

Diana Prince has posed:
The threat that the Sorceress poses is more important to Diana then rebuking her attempts to get beneath her skin. She's heard it all before, from the countless foes that she's faced in the past century of fighting far from home. Those who have known her, often know her legacy, and often try and use it just so... It is irrelevent to Diana, she believes in herself, and what she fights for, including what her mother has accomplished, and how she accomplished it.

Would she make the same choices as her mother? Probably not, but they are different people.

After making her attack with that spear, Diana pulls it back and grasps her lasso out of the air to swirl it around her right hand as she holds her spear at a diagonal angle in front of her, her feet still far apart, her eyes upon the Sorceress.

"WE did not come here to debate what you believe, and do not believe. We offered you a chance to talk, and you denied us. Return to the depths that you have crawled from, or we will carry you back to that edge, and throw you down in to them ourselves..."

Circe has posed:
Tabitha is at the center of a hugely building explosion. Massive.. Massive.. Massive.. Then it goes off! All around her, she is enveloped by the detonation of power and the tick tocking ending over. And she feels.. A breeze? Yes, a breeze. Namely as Circe had dealt with her the simple way. Rather than meeting wtih brute force, simply teleporting her up several hundred meters into the air, even as her detonation makes much of the huge acidic, ashen cloud vanish to nothingness and causes the last of Charbydis to expire. But she's still far, far up and on her way falling down!
    Greer faces off against Greer. Female-Greer is feral. Lashing out at him like she had rabies. Lashing, attacking, claws going for blood. There is no higher thought functions in her mind or skills beyond slash, gut, skin! Greer's greater mass and what he's been made into is actually an asset, ironically in this fight as it gives him better leverage as he pins his struggling female self underneath his heavier body.
    Donna's counter-taunt, however strikes home for Circe. Even as the massive hole in her abdomen is vanishing - whether there by witchcraft or healing, or just another taunt.. She hisses over at Diana, at Donna. "I will make you SUFFER, Amazons. I will make your sisters sob and your island shatter. I will feat upon the wails of your anguish and your pain. I will make you mourn that you ever fled from th world of war. I will make you SCREAM for what you have done to me. What the gods have done. For what you have TAKEN from me out of your service to their spite!" A woman scorned? or a woman thrown away? Her rage at the gods, thier pettiness, thier servants..
    Then Circe holds her hand over her gut where the hole would be sealing. And then she would flash and vanish to air. There were few, few ways out of Tartarus. Apparently Circe knew one. Or was powerful enough to simply go out under her own rage.
    They're left with two collapsing bodies of what used to be monsters that ancient mariners feared. One female-Greer pinned beneath male-Greer.

    One Tabitha several hundred meters up in midair glowing like she's from DBZ.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Eventually escape for Tabitha is probably going to need some help. Getting up off her knees is going to be a fight.

BOOM!

The explosion goes off and it's loud, and bright like a thunderclap and a sunny day in a vision of hell.

Charybdis is no more but when you'er in the after life where are you going to go? Detroit. Scylla not doing much better it seems.

This does leave Tabitha with a new problem. The teleport might have actually saved her life but she is a very long way up from the ground and probably far enough that even her telepathy is out of range. Though that will be changing soon.

There was a lot of energy in her boom and despite glowing Tabby isn't sure she's got enough power to arrest the fall to something less than lethal But she does try.

The glowing hopefully isn't a bad sign.

Aiming her feet downward, one knee bent her hands wide apart as she starts channeling as much energy as she can.

"Crap crap crap..." she keeps yelling as she descends and her hair trails behind alomst as much as a Tameranian princess, if she even lands near the fight it'll be a miracle. Let alone without injury, more injuries really looking everybit the abuse victim Circe tried dredging up out of her mind.

Greer Grant has posed:
    Claws go for blood, and they draw blood, but not enough to stop the real Greer from continuing to try to hold off and take hold of the female copy. He's starting to realize the advantages that he has in this fight and starts to use them, the longer limbs, pushing hard against the more bestial copy, and manages to get a grip, and then shift it into a wrestling hold, and finally pins the female version. Damn, I look good, he thinks to himself briefly, looking down at that embodiment of how he was just recently.
    So supposedly killing this...whatever would leave him like this, but even assuming that's true, does possessing her get him closer to being herself? How would it even work? For a long shot or desperate move, he'll try to kiss the female version, if possible with as much of a feral fighter it is, even pinned.
    And then he jerks his head up, able to hear Tabby's yelling. "Oh hell," he murmurs. "Oh Tartarus," he amends, suddenly releasing the female Greer and running towards where she thinks Tabitha is going to fall, hoping to make a leaping catch and then roll with the impact.

Donna Troy has posed:
    When the Scylla-form loses coherence and disintegrates under the bombardment from Tabitha's plasma and the draining of Troia's lasso, Troia whips her lasso back to her grasp, and yanks the spear from the ground. She takes a few steps in the direction of Circe, but there's no sign of the sorceress and Diana's right there...

    Tabitha however is not where she had been, and the 'Crap crap crap' of her panicked descent draws Troia's attention from intervening in Diana's conflict to intervening in Tabitha's.

    Tabitha's plunge groundwards is taking her ever closer to the milling horde of the Eidolons below, and as she gets nearer and nearer, they seem to sense her approach. Faceless heads turning blindly upwards, the shamble forwards, gathering in a mass beneath her. Their hands reach up, clutching uselessly at the air.

    Just forty feet above them, the glowing gold of a lasso coils itself around Tabitha's waist. She can feel the resistance to her fall, but it's not a sudden jerk which might cause injuries, just a slowing of her descent.

    Twenty feet above them, Donna comes into view, hovering overhead with the other end of the lasso coiled around her arms, following Tabitha's downwards motion just a little slower than she is falling, and Tabitha starts to feel a change in direction, the rope tugging sideways against her.

    Ten feet above the Eidolon horde, her motion has become far more sideways than down, as she swings on the end of the rope like a giant human pendulum.

    The upraised hands of the Eidolon are just a foot below her when Tabitha feels herself moving /upwards/ again, as the motion of the rope hurls her towards the safety of the pathway.

    And before she reaches the pathway itself, Troia's hands grab her and let her down gently, saving the effort of trying to land on the narrow walkway without tumbling over the other side.

    Troia settles on the walkway and gives her a grin. "Sorry about that. When someone's falling you can't just catch them. Hitting a pair of arms at speed isn't exactly any better than hitting the ground at speed. I had to slow you down first. You good?"

    She glances towards Diana and the two Greers, but that's a mess someone who's not on rescue duty will have to deal with!

Diana Prince has posed:
After the Sorceress blinks out of existence, Diana hears a rolling of thunder off of the horizon. The volcano is voicing its status to the entirety of the land. The motion out of the corner of her eye has her looking over to the Greers then, as the male one jumps up to assist with...

Diana sees Donna going after the falling Tabitha, and she knows that her sister likely has that in good order... her eyes drop to that shambling horde down below, then to the Lady Greer.

A whizzing through the air, and the unbreakable Lasso of Hestia snares around the Lady Greer, Diana holding on to the opposite end. "You will be coming with us, at least for the time being." She notes before she waits for the others.

"We should leave!" Diana will call out after she sees an opportunity for her voice to carry.

Circe has posed:
There's the Eidolons rampaging. The sounds, the fighting having gotten their attention. Their exile broken, now they lash out and rage and charge. There is to be no rescue over for our heroes. Nor aid from Hades despite their attempt to maintain the security of his realm. Just the rage of those eternally abandoned here and that had everything stripped away, now on the attack for the group!
    They have their way in, and they also have their way out.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
All the while she falls and Tabitha starts bringing her hands together. Will this work or will it just one one last Final Flash. All the while she panics even as that lasso of Donna's snares around her waist.

The blast brewing would have launched her laterally and away from the Eidolons. Breakneck speed maybe at a gorizontal level instead of a vertical fall.

But she starts slowing and Tabby isn't sure if she boomed early. Premature Explosions can affect many Boomies!

It takes a moment to realise. Mostly when she moves upwards like maybe she bungee jumped that she looks up and sees Donna on the other end of the lasso. At least the blonde has the sense to just discharge the blast asa stream concentrated proper downwards at the Eidolons which maybe might speed the upwards and into a much better gold that is Donna's arms.

Sure it might also have Tabby encircling the Amazon with arms and legs but when you're being floated to the ground you might wanna make sure the work done isn't undone by squirming blonde bodies that could easily fall off.

Donna's explaination gets an emphatic nod and she does have to make an effort to let go before Tabby's feet are on te ground and hands are not grabbing. "Last time it was me or the ground I kinda had to put a building in the way. I'll take physics and gorgeous Amazon goddesses over that any day, thanks!" she beams very, very appreciatively. "Umm, maybe we should do what Diana says. Right now I'd probably do anything and everything you say! Bitch dead too?" she looks around with a wince. Tabitha still beat up and almost unrecognisable to maybe anyone but herself. The mental image in the mirror on her bad days.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "I hope I make a more comfortable landing than a building anyway," Troia replies to Tabitha with a grin. She raises her arm to look at the amulet, but the electrum needle is now swinging freely. She gives a nod to Diana.

    "Dead or gone, hard to say," she says. "But the magical distortions are subsiding now." Sure enough, even as she speaks, the Greer duplicate struggling against the bonds of Diana's lasso fades to dust and blows away on the dry winds.

    Below, the Eidolon are attacking the walls of the raised walkway, battering themselves against it in their blind rage as they try to reach the souls they can feel above them. There's no immediate threat, but the way they're charging blindly forwards, clambering over each other, it seems quite possible that before long there will be a sufficient mound of them against the walls that they'll be able to get up onto the walkway itself.

    "Diana's right," Troia says. "Let's get the hell out of here. Or the Tartarus out of here, to be more accurate. Back to the Iron Gate and the Acheron. And hope nobody's stolen our boat when we get there, or we've got a long swim ahead of us!"