12891/Justice League: Eating the Everglades

Justice League: Eating the Everglades
Date of Scene:	06 October 2022
Location:	Florida - Everglades
Synopsis:	The Justice League does battle with more World Eater Hearts, this time coming across a veritable trove of them, along with two mysterious young people in a pizza van. Much grossness takes place, and crab dinners are enjoyed afterward. Diana also has to buy Cassie a new pair of shoes.
Cast of Characters:	Diana Prince, Johnny Storm, Cassie Sandsmark, Zatanna Zatara, Arthur Curry, Hyperion

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Diana Prince has posed:
The storm season in the Everglades starts in May and lasts through October. The storms that take place here can get so violent with lightning strikes that 25 strikes can occur in just a 10 minute period. Tonight, is one of those storms. The lightning had started before the rain, even, and because of this a fire had been set in the dry parts of the largest prairie section of the park. Thus smoke permeates the now rain swept wind!

Lightning everywhere, thunder rolling, rainfall so thick, and so hard, that it can only add to the near zero-invisibility within the wild area...

An engine rumbles loudly, a pair of headlights bound over a muddy road, as a Pizza Delivery van rolls rapidly down the small raod through the prairie-land! A hand comes forward within the vehicle to wipe at the fog forming on the inside of the windshield, the Pizza Delivery man breathing rapidly as he looks in his mirrors to see the madness that he's driving rapidly away from!

Wonder Woman, had sent out a call to the Justice League members to come here, that a fight was already in-progress!

Wonder Woman stands in the knee-deep flowing river water here within the park, the rain falling all around her, her dark hair plastered to the back of her head and shoulders. In one hand, she holds a sword, in the other... she holds the glowing orb of a 'World Eater Heart' and at her feet, is the sprawling corpse of a massive 100-foot long Burmese Python creature, distorted with spikes and strange bones jutting out of its body, but, the beast was slain, and now Wonder Woman stands over its corpse..

Had she finished the fight already?

Another strike of lightning flashes across the sky, illuminating the smoky night and being chased by a thunder-clap that shakes the earth, the water, and the sky itself.

Johnny Storm has posed:
With the Fantastic Four currently on hiatus, pursuing their own interests now that the fledglings have left the nest, Johnny is making his first foray out into public after recently getting out of rehab. He's a Justice League reservist from ages ago and, while he hasn't indulged the privilege in a while, when he sees the call go out from Diana, he hopped into action.

A quick ride in a hovering FantastiCar later and Johnny emerges from the hatch, letting it open as he puts the thing in the flying pod equivalent of 'park'. "FLAME ON!" he cries.

Johnny's body is engulfed in flame as he leaps out, flaring up and going hotter than usual to fight off the onslaught of the rain, steam going in his trail, "Watch out behind me, I'm running hot tonight!" he says over the Jusice League frequency.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
The thunderbolt has a significance to some, and that includes a particular pantheon's deity-in-chief. And so, Cassandra Sandmark's evaluation of the storm is one particular to their peculiar family: "Ugh. Why the tantrum, pops?"

She's nearby, although not wading through the water like Diana is, because it seems like a great way to get really wet, and her sneakers are new. Plus they can both fly. She's taken advantage of this to land in a tree branch, one hand on the trunk as she peers down from it at the corpse splayed out in front of her mentor, the other on her hip, where her lasso is fastened. It occasionally sparks in sympathy with the wild storm around them. "That another heart-corrupted creature, huh?"

"We got any way of like, tracking the big one?" she wonders, now leaping from the tree to get closer to the scene to investigate, although she keeps flying, keeping said sneakers hovering just above the water as she somewhat comically bends over in the air. She's got a rainbreaker hoodie on, although it's not doing that much good. "Feels like this one's bigger than last time. The mutant critter that is. Although I guess if it was some giant escaped pet python to begin with, maybe it had a head start, yeah?"

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
The smell of ozone and burning everglades smacks Zatanna in the face when she steps out of the portal. A purple line glows behind her like the afterimage of a lightening strike and fades away. She looks down at her feet and mutters to herself, exchanging elegant attire for a pair of chest high waders and a bright yellow raincoat.

Looking up, she says over the noise of the storm, "Another one?"

"Hey, good to see you all. A little damp for my liking."

Extending her hand to Diana, "I can put a tracker on it, if you don't mind lending me that heart a moment."

Diana Prince has posed:
The thunder rolls across the rain soaked prairie, with the lightning all around the members of the Justice League giving some additional visual aid here and there. But with the rapidly approaching Johnny Storm, Diana looks away from her protege in Cassie to look toward the fire-engulfed man. "Welcome to the fight." Diana says in her accented English, raising the volume of her voice over the sound of nature all around them.

The arrival of Zatanna has Diana looking toward the Magic Woman then, as she raises up the 'World Eater Heart' and tosses it up to the Mage. "Keep it away from animals. Even insects..." The Princess warns, which could be hard in this place of all places!

Diana then looks back to Cassie, and to Johnny as well. "We have captured five of these things up to now, this being our sixth!" She motions to the one she'd just given to Zatanna, then to the giant dead snake in front of her.

"They warp animals that they come in contact with, they cause them to become ... colossus creatures.... And..."

The Princess' little Mission Briefing is interrupted when a pair of headlights, and a rumbling engine can be heard, and seen, getting closer along a nearby dirt / mud road. The Van speeds toward the Justice League members, and doesn't seem to be slowing down. It even hits a big muddy patch of water, splashing it up toward the JL members as it roars on by at as high of speeds as it can get up to in this mess.

Inside, two faces can be seen, both looking out at the JL members as the Van roars by. The label 'Mamma Murray's Pizzeria' in bold font on the side of the vehicle.

Diana narrows her eyes at the passing vehicle..

"We should check on them." She says before further to the north, the sounds of breaking limbs, and falling trees echoes out over the sound of the rainstorm itself.

From the grove of cypress trees, a sight to behold comes raising up from above the canopy. A flash of lightning illuminates its ridged back, a unmistakable form of an elongated snout pushing out of the line of trees.

An aligator, the size of a cruise ship.

Diana just sighs softly. "It is going to be a busy night." She says before taking to the skies, "Cassie, come with me. John, see if you can intercept that van!" A look is given to Zatanna too, before Wonder Woman shoots off toward the massive aligator that stomps its left foot forward out of the broken trees, splashing down in to the swamp filled prairie!

Johnny Storm has posed:
Johnny Storm twirls and twists a few times, showing off a little as he cruises by overhead, like he's swimming on his back, "Gotta say, Mother Nature's really cramping my style tonight," he says, "Hoping I don't get a lightning zap myself!".

The Torch moves into a hovering mode as he listens to Diana speak, nodding as he's caught back up, "I've been on the giant monster train a few times before, your Highness. He takes off quickly at her suggestion, going in the wake of the van and trying to cut it off. He projects a jet of flame ahead of it, attempting to create an intimidating wall to block it off and scare the driver.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Cassie doesn't interrupt Diana's exposition dump, even if a lot of it is a recap. You gotta keep the audience up to date! "Yeah. But this one just seems kinda extra." She hovers lower, and nudges the upturned, defeated snake with the toe of her shoe, curious but also still somewhat visibly put-off by it. "Ugh."

In the midst of this, the van comes barreling toward them, and she reflexively flies back and up a short ways, pivoting to get a look. She even holds up a hand, seeing if she can get the attention of the speeding motorists. "Hey, heyyyyyy-!"

For her trouble she gets splashed by a big wave of swamp water.

"Augh! Worse than a freaking New York cabbie!" So much for her nice clean shoes! She pivots, as if ready to fly after the van, possibly more to give them an angry piece of her mind than actually rescue them... but this, in turn, is further interrupted by the crashing sounds that follow in its wake. You're safe for now, van-dudes! Again, she spins around in the air and...

"OK, well, now this is officially a shitty made-for-TV sci-fi movie. Mega Python vs. Gatoroid. You ever seen that one, Di?" She does not expect that Di has seen that one. "'Tho it looks like Mega Python is already out of the running. Alright, well. Into the fray we go." She has no particular plan for fighting a ridiculously alligator, but surely something will come to mind! She waits a moment, for her mentor to lead the way as is her place of honor (and so she gets eaten first), and then zooms along after, unhitching her lasso as she goes.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Zatanna makes a double-handed catch, the dangerous heart squelching in her hands. Raising cupped heart to face level, the mage whispers to it, ".uoy ot htap ruo etanimullI .doolb ot tcennoc doolb teL,"

Not two beats of a demonic heart later, one of its blood kin makes a cinematic dinosaur entrance. Insult to injury, her bright yellow raincoat is put to use protecting her from a wave of water produced by the pizza van.

Zatanna adds her sigh to Diana's, "Well, hell. It has friends. Think they ordered pizza? We can track the others, their trails will be lit for us. But, if they are all like this, who needs footprints. I'm right with you both." She levitates, eyes narrowed against the driving rain in Diana and Cassie's wake.

Diana Prince has posed:
With the end of the rainy season coming up for the Everglades, this is one big damn storm preparing to end said season until next year! More flashes of lightning streak the sky, and Johnny's fear of being a target for said electrical discharges, is one worth fearing!

The Pizza Van continues to trundle semi-wildly down the muddy road, with the driver looking out their side mirror to see the flaming figure flying toward them. His eyes shoot forward when the wall of flames appear in front of the vehicle, and from within, there comes the sounds of a girl's screams, as the van just roars right through that wall of fire!

It braves it, or stupids it, and just drives right through it, sending the flames around the van! As it comes out on the other side, the magic cast by Zatanna suddenly lights up the entire back-end of the vehicle, leaving a trail of magical energy sparkling around behind it...

Another rapid burst of thunder blasts the prairie as the aligator's gutteral noises roll out from its mighty snout. With Wonder Woman, and Wonder Girl bearing down upon it, it just crashes out of the trees, paying them no mind what so ever, as it pulls half its spiny-spiky-body out of the cypress tree forest, and toward the road that the van was heading down!

Diana looks back over her shoulder as she rushes toward the colossus reptile creature. "There are six million people less than 100 miles from here, if this thing is continuing to grow, we need to stop it, quickly...." She warns over the Justice League comms for both Wonder Girl, and Zatanna, not that they don't know already!

Diana produces her lasso, and wills its golden energy to shine in the rainy dark, unfurling it and lashing it out at the aligator to draw its attention toward her!

"Who wants to go in first?" Diana then asks over the rain, thunder, and madness of the moment!

Arthur Curry has posed:
    Words carry their sentiment to the heavens and fortune rewards the prophecy of the Oracle Cassandra. It is more the comparison made, bringing awareness to the reality of that genre of film that will be so lauded by heroes of the world yet to come. That genre of the Science Fiction Original Made For Cable Movie. For all the pieces are in place. The gigantic python, the enraged monstrosity, the heroic defenders.
    Yet there is another element that is included in most all Asylum type films. And it is the third creature that serves as the spoiler.
    Out of the river, water sluicing off its chitinous shell and brilliant ivory fangs glistening as its great maw snaps open... a tremendous bipedal aquatic creature rears to its full considerable height. Like some mad concoction of crab and shark yet bipedal it plants claws on the bank and pulls itself forward while upon its nose and between its eyes rides a tall man in green and gold chain mail that shines with what small light the moon provides.
    It is definitely a large creature, though in comparison to the head-liners of this particular SyFy special it is positively petite. Yet big enough for Arthur Curry to hang off the side of its head and speak into its ear hole.
    "Ok Slammu, distract it. Try and keep it contained. Alright you got that?"
    The monstrosity nods its head slowly, burbling out of its blowhole.
    "Alright man, don't get caught." And with a light slap of the trident in his hand to the side of the creature he leaps off letting it go tend to what it can hopefully do while Arthur beats feet in the direction of Diana and her gang of ne'er-do-wells.

Johnny Storm has posed:
Johnny Storm drops down from his flying position, moving alongside of the careening vehicle, "Last chance, brake safely or I melt your tires, bud," he says, then taps his FF wrist communicator, "HERBIE, please translate that into Spanish for me, I'm rusty."
"One must have iron to rust, Johnny." says a hollow robotic voice with a strangely playful demeanor.
"I've told you I don't like metaphors. I don't trust them," he says, pointing a finger at the watch as he looks back ove rhis shoulder at the monster, "Oh geez, that's a big one. Not the biggest I've seen, but he'll smash your average sized city real quick."

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"I dunno, part of me wonders if it wouldn't be easier to like... toss Florida into the ocean and let the gator have it?" A beat. "What?!" Cassie's not serious. Well, probably. Mostly, definitely not serious.

Edgy youth politics aside, Cassie is no doubt cognizant that the stakes, as ever, are high! That's what heroing is about, even if it means you're out to save Florida Man. Still, as they fly closer, and the scale of the creature becomes more evident, she starts to wonder. "So uh, what are we even going to..." Where's that plan? Oh, it sounds like Diana has one. "Sure, right, go in- wait. In, like inside?!"

"Ughhhhh, not again." This isn't the first time, fighting one of these things. But that doesn't make it any less supremely gross. "I didn't plan on being Gatoroid chow, or I woulda worn my laundry day clothes... Alright, well, guess there's no use putting it off." First or last might not matter much when its mouth is that big. She takes a deep breath (not like she's actually going to be able to hold it), and starts flying faster, toward it's maw...

When a third crazy monster appears! It really is like a movie!

"Woah woah, what kind of crazy monster mash get together is-" Then she spots that THIS one has a rider. "Oooh. It's on our side." She squints. "Kinda... small though, isn't it? Ohwell. Yo Aqua-dood, wanna come along? Looks like seafood's back on the menu." And with that, she does a looping approach and ZOOMS toward the creature's maw. The laso is out and sparking now, and she's ready to use it, maybe as a shock-prod, if it tries to bite down TOO early.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Stopping just out of lasso range, Zatanna pushes her hood back enough to get a good look at the monster. Rain slicks down her face as she stares. It looks bigger lit by the golden flames of Diana's lasso.

"If we are going sci-fi, how about if I make it into a giant handbag?" she proposes. "No designer labels or nice lining though."

Hyperion has posed:
    Okay, so Mark Milton was in the middle of a project that he simply couldn't get away from. It was a meeting at the Bugle, with J. Jonah Jameson. Who can beg out of that? Sure, he got the call for League members, but had replied that he would get there when he could.

    Then he sat and listened to JJJ rant and rave about Spider-Man and how the whole paper needed to be posting things showing just how much of a threat the Webslinger was.

    But finally. FINALLY Jameson let the meeting go, and Mark dipped into the stairwell to ostensibly go down to the ground level. What he did, was go to the roof where as Hyperion, he took to the air.

    Angling upwards, he hit the edge of the atmosphere so that going hypersonic would not damage any cities or such in the line of travel.

    And thus it is that the falling meteorite named Hyperion angles for the site where Wonder Woman and company are dealing with things. Sure, magic is his weakness, but one does not simply avoid such things out of fear. One must do one's duty regardless. Right?

    Well, this black and gold clad meteorite is on a straight line course for the oversized Gator. "This is Hyperion." he says into League Comms, "Looks like you've a bit of a reptile problem. I'll see what I can do to help." he says just before he'd be impacting the Overgrown Gator from above.

Diana Prince has posed:
Johnny's persistence pays off in this regard! The van does slam on its brakes, causing its wheels to skid in the rain-soaked mud, gliding across the road before it finally catches and settles back against itself. Inside the cabin, two young 20-somethings stare back at Johnny with wide-eyed expressions. One a male, the driver, and beside him a young girl with black and blue spiky punk hair, her face filled with metal studs and rings.

The guy, wearing a Pizzeria hat, rolls the window down and leans his head out. "Uh, Flaming Officer? Yeah, we're trying to get this pizza to its destination on time, and you're totally holdin us up! I mean, if you got an order, the number is on the side of the van! Otherwise, dude, you're gonna have to pay for these orders we're gonna get charged late fees for!"

He vrooms the engine on the van, while... that magical tracking beacon that Zatanna lit up continues to just GLOW from the back of the pizza van, that which the driver and passenger, do not seem to have noticed yet!

Diana is about to speak back to her quippy side-kick when Arthur makes his arrival with his own creature of monstrous proportions! Flying above the massive colossal gator, Diana looks to Arthur, and nods her head before she sees Cassie making the trip inside the gator's maw.

"Be careful!" She warns over comms, her lasso lashing out to snare around one of the horns to use her considerable strenth to hold the gator's mouth open for those venturing within!

"Zatanna has lit up the Hearts locations, you should be able to find where any are located within the creature's body." The Princess adds before she looks up to see Hyperion descending at rapid speeds. "Welcome to the party, Hyperion. We are trying to clean up this latest mess before it gets any further out of hand..."

And just as Diana says this, the mighty gator lunges forward to bite at Arthur's own creature, trying to snap its powerful jaws, the size of small sky-scrapers now, against the bipedal creature that Arthur rode in on!

All while the lightning, thunder, and smoke from the fires earlier, continue to engulf the prairie around them all!

Inside the gator, Cassie will be presented with a horrid stench, of course, along with a massive highway-sized tongue that is lashing around toward the back of the beast's throat! And... somewhere within, the hints of a light source... magical glinting glowing, just like Cassie's own lightning rope!

Arthur Curry has posed:
    Slammu is big and a little slow, but he's still faster than the alligatoro that menaces the world. It had moseyed up quick as it could, maw parting to roar a challenge at its opponent...
    Only for that opponent to answer the call with that quick /snap/ of jaws. Which quickly convinces the SharkCrabCritter the better part of valor. It turns and starts to barrel away, thundering with a heavy thud-thud-thud of its hooves? Claws? Trying to build up some distance now while distracting the thing.
    Which hopefully gives enough of a window of time for the others.
    "Hey Wonder... Gal!" Arthur says, getting it at least part right as he hits the ground running. "I'm with ya!" He breaks into a blurringly fast run. Though not as quick as the flier, though only a handful of seconds behind. And if there's enough of a window of a chance he'll try and make that leap as well.
    Into the gullet.

Johnny Storm has posed:
Johnny Storm floats up in front of the van, his arms crossed over his chest, "Talk to the Amazon, pal. Wonder Woman tells me to stop somebody, I stop 'em, as any good citizen of Earth would do. Do you know how many times she's saved this planet? More than I have. And I've done it a LOT," he says.

Seeing the great gator lunging and snapping makes Johnny wince, but he sees Aquaman's arrived so, frankly, the odds were against the monsters at this point.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Inside the Gatoroid (she is absolutely 100% sticking with that name), the smell is every bit as bad as Cassie expected, the experience overall even worse than the last time. That big sea worm thing was kind of cavernous, but this... it's a lot more, wet, and squishy, and just overall a bit more tangibly alive, more obviously the inside of something's mouth. It isn't just it's own smells, but that of what it's eaten, large pieces of rotten meat stuck inside its teeth. And by 'pieces,' this means whole damn cows and whatnot. Add to that the wildly spasming wall of muscle that is its tongue? Yeah.

"Look, I appreciate a bit of tongue as much as the next gal but this is a bit much!"

Zatanna's magic provides a helpful quest marker, and she starts that way, trying to stay above the vast meat highway beneath her, and also not get flicked up into the roof of it's mouth or anything else. She can see something ahead, starts flying nearer...

...and then the tongue snaps up! It probably has nothing to do with her, as truly, the creature is so large that she's more like a parasite than an opponent. Rather, it's what follows in behind them as they enter the open maw - a surge of murky swamp water. Alligators use their tongues to waterseal their digestive systems, and so it's tongue closing up the door is a reflex. It also cuts her off!

"What the shit?!" Cassie, not being an Alligator biologist, knows none of this, and just gets tongue-blocked, as Arthur catches up. She looks back. "We gotta get 'im to open up. I can try the zapper." She tries the zapper, touching her lasso to the fleshy surface. There's a crackle, and a sizzle, but again... the difference in scale is just too much. "You got any ideas?"

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Besides making fashionable handbags out of alligator and pretty lights marking the position of the World eater hearts, the magician is stumped by what she can add to the super-powered mix at the moment. Head upturned into the lashing rain; she watches helplessly as the shirtless Curry and Wonder Girl disappear into the alligator's maw. She takes a step back as hot alligator breath washes over her, the smell enough to turn her stomach.

It's a fortuitous step back - a glimpse of neon purple out of the corner of her eye has her walking down the road in Blaze's fiery wake. Why would a pizza van glow the same purple as her spell?

Over coms, <"Blaze, what's up with that van? Did you see its rear end? It's glowing purple with magic.">

Hyperion has posed:
    And with a minute adjustment of his trajectory, Hyperion angles to strike the gator with the full force of his strength and speed at the base of its tail. He doesn't want to force the jaws shut on anyone who happens to be trying to pull a Jonah, but he wants to try to keep the gator from reaching the Sharktocrab if he can. But more important is his desire to stop it from harming anyone else.

    While he doesn't expect the gator to behave like a toothpaste tube, he -does- expect that he will have its full attention here shortly. And so he impacts, and hits the ground running, whooshing off a couple hundred yards at hyper-speed... but making sure to do so in a direction and angle that the Gator can see him.

Diana Prince has posed:
With the Gator having quite a bit of distractions outside of it now, at least its not continuing its trek forward through the storm riddled Everglades park! The three distractions of Wonder Woman, Hyperion, and Slammu are all doing their job well enough to keep the Gator busy as the Siege Party of Cassie and Arthur make their way inside its maw!

Just as Cassie is expressing her frustration at Gator biology too, things get worse....

Its mouth manages to grab part of Slammu and the entire, colossal Gator, starts to spin! It starts to try and roll in the muck, the mud, and the countless broken trees and the edge of the river way beside the road that the Pizzeria van is parked upon!

Diana is trying her best to lasso the beast to keep its mouth at least partly open, so their people will always have a back-track route, if needs be, but with the madness of the creature starting to roll, Diana is brought back down in to the water with a splash!

She bursts back up out of the water and sheds it with a shake of her head. "Try to keep it steady!" Diana shouts specifically to Hyperion. "We have to keep it steady while they find the Hearts within!" She adds with her hands clutching the golden rope of the lasso of Truth!

Cassie's lighting lasso, meanwhile, causes the rolling Gator to rumble out a disatisfied noise as its massive tongue tries to push back and shove she and Arthur in to its throat! This, however, will move them closer to the glowing magical light within its chasm-like body... The Heart is visible, locked away behind a boney-rib-cage-like structure of spikes, and strange jagged bones. Worse off, inside the Gator's belly, a whole host of massive Pythons are slithering around, snapping, and hissing as they are rolling with the rest of the bile and body filth within the Gator's form!

Zatanna shouts to the Fantastic Four's Johnny Storm, just as the driver is stepping out of the Pizza Van, with the punk girl following behind him, pulling her hood up over her head. "Wonder Woman is here?!" The girl asks with a laugh, right as the Pizza Delivery guy looks back toward the Gator. "Holy shit..." He says. "That is wild." He does a double take at his glowing Van's back then. "Yo, why the hell is my pizza chariot all lit up like a radioactive missile?" He asks as the two start to step twoard the back of the vehicle.

Just as two massive dents come from the sides of it, from within! Something inside the Van groans loudly, and causes both the guy and the girl to jump back in surprise!

A second later and the back doors are smashed open, as a massive, dark and hairy, spider leg extends from within the van to touch down on the muddy road!

Arthur Curry has posed:
    Inside the confines of the Smelligator, Arthur's landing isn't exactly elegant or graceful. He staggers a bit, stumbles, then straightens up as his own trident glowing adds to the illumination in the creature's gob. A mess of green ick seems to have besmirched his chainmail tunic, likely from an errant lick by the monstrosity. He sidles up beside the smoller amazon and squints at the mass of flesh and muscle that blocks their path.
    "I tend ta be a carpenter with only two or three tools in my kit, kiddo." Which likely means he's going to punch it. Or stab it. Which he does with the thrust of the trident forward hoping perhaps to trigger a swallow reflex which might be a good idea. Or might not.
    Outside, Slammu is still beating feet rushing away as its claws dig into the earth and leave Volkswagen sized prints in the ground as it thump-thump-thumps away. Over its shoulder it ROARS! Though slows perhaps realizing that Hyperion now has its attention...
    Which is the moment it /bites/ on poor Slammu's tail and _yanks_ it back where it begins that twisting spinning death spiral, suddenly setting the smaller giant critter into a whirl of chaotic crashing. Trees are smashed, water splashes, and ichor splatters the surroundings as the CrabShark is torn as its tail crackles then /snaps/ free sending it skidding forward into the river with a crash.
    Inside the thing it's suddenly an anti-gravity funhouse as the world spins and Arthur reaches out to try and brace himself. "Hold on!" He shouts just as that tongue convulses and suddenly flushes them deeper into the monster's vitals.

Johnny Storm has posed:
Johnny Storm almost felt relaxed, or as relaxed as you're going to feel within striking distance of a massive kaiju alligator thingamabob. Wait, wasn't it supposed to have some sort of jewel or heart or something....?

When the spider leg emerges from the back of the van, however, Johnny doesn't give it much chance, "You don't look like the Spider-Man I know! Are you from one of those alternate universes? If you are, you have to tell me, it's interdimensional law. I think. Don't quote me," he says. He creates a wall of flame, but this one is more intense, more palpable and definitely more dangerous, flaring it in the spider's direction to try and corral it, "You don't want any part of me, Aragog," he says, making his own flame rise up and radiate.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
"Of course," she comments to the universe. Imperatively, she shouts at the two befuddled kids getting out of the van. "Watch out. Get back!"

Despite her suspicion of the two, she acts on her instinct to protect. Making a wide gesture, she casts a shield between them and the hairy legs breaking out of the van. In the nick of time, it would seem.

When the crab is slam dunked a wall of water sloshes over the road nearly making Zee lose her balance. Arms windmilling, she stumbles and rights herself. Instead of getting wet, a wall of flame singes both hairy spider legs and a dark lock of mage's hair.

Urgently, she shouts over the noise, "We have to get the heart, Johnny or it will make the alligator look like a stuffed toy in no time."

Hyperion has posed:
    Okay, so nobody told him that the goal was to hold the gator still. Had he known that, Hyperion would not have impacted so hard. But as instructions are given, he does a one-eighty, and races back in. He has a really REALLY stupid idea. But those are the best!

    A surge into the air takes him just above the bottom jaw of the creature... and then he tweaks his gravitational field to slam down into the ground with his full strength. Feet trying to hold the bottom jaw in the muck while his arms come up to catch the top jaw if it closes. But there is the equivalent of something like two hundred tons of force pressing the bottom jaw of the gator downward. He is trying to hold it in place by the mouth... whole Diana and her lasso do their thing. But this -may- keep it from doing the death roll spin routine. Maybe...

    But, even as he lands there, and prepares for the top jaw to come down, his eyes glow green and then FWASH! Nuclear Vision starts burning into the roof of the Gator's mouth.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
The death roll IS something that Cassie has heard of, even if her scientific expertise is only in mega movie monsters, and not the real thing. Still, experiencing it from the inside is something else. First, it poses a question: when one magically flies, what precisely is 'up'? Do you act relative to a gravitic force, or do you move abstractly, untethered from any physical reference frame, buoyed up by the cosmos itself?

Cassie, it turns out, doesn't have time for these metaphysical ponderings. Either she spins with the gator, or the gator spins around her, but either way, their world quickly transforms to resemble the inside of a washing machine. Moreover, there's enough physical debris, including a falling chunks of mneat (both pre-chewed and rotting, and newly-torn fresh Slammu Bites), and splashing waves of half-swallowed marsh water, that she can't help but be swept along, battered this way and that like a lone sock.

But whether it's the jab from the lightning lasso or just a result of the spin cycle, they DO find themselves washed somewhere useful. 'Hold on,' Aquaman suggests. "Hold on to wha-" Burble burble. For a moment, she's dunked in... swallowed water? Bile? Who knows, it's gross.

At the end of the ride, she rises from what is presumably stomach juice, judging by that oh-so-pleasant sizzle. Diana always looks like a shampoo model, even when she rises from a horrible swamp. Cassie looks like a drowned rat. As not to be digested, she flies up above it, facing the bone cage concealing their goal... and the wall of Mega Pythons.

"Snakes, why'd it have to be snakes." She's not actually afraid of them, but she enjoys her references. "I think this is where we have an epic fight scene and try to break that thing."

Which is what she does! Zooming forward, Cassie meets the Python Army with her electrified lasso, sweeping it like a whip. This works well, scattering a number of them before her, until one drops upon her unseen, falling from... well, wherever (they rolled over several times!). Quickly it starts to wrap around her while she struggles to find a grip and dislodge it!

Diana Prince has posed:
The combined efforts of Diana, and Hyperion, get the massive Smelligator to stop rolling in the wampland waters! This, hopefully, gives the Siege Team time to get the Heart within the beast, while it also lets Slammu get up and free itself! Diana looks over to the beast that had traveled here with Arthur, watching as it starts it retreat again. She raises up out of the water and jumps backward to further tighten the slack on her rope as her eyes go to where Hyperion is. She watches that radiation eye-beam do what it does, tearing in to the flesh of the Gator, digging a hole straight in to it, while the creature's body tenses and it tries to free itself from the tiny, but very strong, duo!

The damage from the radiation eye-beams works for only a moment though, before the massive gator starts to heal the damage done to its fleshy form! It continues to heal, and grow, making it twice the size it had been when it first emerged from the trees before.

Inside, the pythons are indeed swarming now that the rolling has stopped, a horde of them moving to cover, and constrict both Arthur, and Cassie, should the two get caught up in the mass of slimey writhing snakes! All while the magical Hearth just beats there within that boney rib-cage....

At the Van down the road, the fire wall that Johnny erects, along with Zatanna, cause the spider within the Van to jolt backward back in to the van itself, only for it to grow in size also, suddenly bursting from the van's interior while tearing the pizzeria vehicle to shreds! The top of the van rips open, and the spider starts to unfurl itself from within, carrying SIX of the pink-glowing Eater Hearts beneath its body, all clung to its hairy form, as they glow brightly, feeding the new creature's growth as it crawls out of the torn-open Van.

"My fuckin van!" The driver shouts, putting his hands on his head, as he and the girl both start to back up away from the fire, from the Sorceress and most of all, from the massive growing spider that is covered in six more of the damn hearts!

Arthur Curry has posed:
    In the guts of some great beast is not where Arthur saw himself this evening. Maybe back at Patty's with a good plate of wings and a couple of beers. That would be nice right about now...
    Slowly Arthur pushed himself to his feet to look upon the disgusting tableau of internal intestinal worm snakes inside the tummy of the Gatorsaurus. A hand wipes at some of the grime and grossness on his armor as he scowls across the distance, hearing what Cassie says but likely not parsing it at first. He answers with a simple, "Yeah."
    Then when he looks around quickly he starts to come back to the here and now as he adds, "You do that, I'll cover you."
    He breaks forward into a sloshing run, trident spinning as he builds up some speed to charge at the horrors in the gator's innards. He twists around, that trident blurring as he lashes it out and around to the side, the tip slicing over the surface of the nastiness and abruptly sending it splashing outward into a hundred spikes of water that suddenly crystalize into ice and slash into those snakes.
    Spinning back the other way he lashes out with that trident again and sends more lethal projectiles toward another gathering of those creatures before he espies the one dropping toward Cassie and seeking to engulf her. He closes a fist, clenching it, then slashes it forward sending a larger ice spike toward its head to hopefully free her as he snaps, "Go be the hero, kid!"

Johnny Storm has posed:
Johnny Storm raises his hands into the air at Zatanna, "Then, like, get it, I guess! I don't know, I'm the new guy here! I'm just going to fight the monster. If I can burn a hole in something to get you to the magical rock, by all means, point me towards it and I will burn it up. In the meantime, me and Tarantulon here are going to dance a little," he says.

He flies up quickly, zigzagging throught he legs of the spider for a moment before coming out up above and saying into the communicator, "Hey, should I just roast this spider or what?"

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
The snake around Cassie gets an ice-spike to the brain, which, according to Mega Python biologists, tends to be fatal. Its muscles slack, and she twists to free herself and toss it clear. And with a heads-up from Aquaman and a path that is relatively (if briefly) python free, she takes the opportunity. Re-orienting in the air, she bolts ahead, heading for the boney blockade. Nothing fancy here, she...

No, screw that, this is totally a chance to be fancy.

Stronger than she looks, she could probably break through, but the cage structure is pretty vicious looking, with all those totally Metal spikes and such. So the whole 'just crash through' thing seems like it might be a little self-impaley and suicidal. And with the pythons already swarming in to try and fill the opening, she doesn't want to waste time on more complex maneuvers. So it's option #3: Maximum destruction.

(When is that not the best option?)

A flick of her wrist coils the lasso so it's not in the way, her flight stops just short of the structure, she holds her arms wide...

...and then brings her forearms crashing together, making the signature Amazon salute with her bracers. The metal impact rings not just with the expected sound of near-indestructible metal crashed against its counterpart with super strength, but echoes with the underlying magic, causing a massive shockwave in front of her, shattering the brittle bone.

Diana just taught her that one!

The heart, maintained in the fleshy structure at the center, is loosened but not quite freed as the blast disintegrates various flesh and bone around it, but she follows up with a quick flick, re-extending the lasso to snag it, and then with a great and mighty pull, yank it back toward her. Caught! "Got it!" She starts to turn. "Lets get out-"

There are pythons all around them! And how the heck are they even getting out?

"- uh, how are we getting out?"

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
<"We've got a giant problem," Zatanna takes a deep breath then reports urgently over coms as the spider explodes out of its incubation van.

"I think we have the source, right here. This spider has a bunch of heart-eggs on it." After a hurried count, "Six, by my reckoning."

"Get on over here. We have a spider to wrestle."

To the two bystanders. "Never mind your van. Keep low and watch out for monsters."

As Johnny flames into the spider, Zatanna gathers her lore for an attack on the egg-hearts.

Hyperion has posed:
    It's not like the Nuclear energy pulse from Hyperion's eyes was intended to actually do lasting harm. It was more to say.. HERE I AM! in a painful way. But as the creature continues to grow, Hyperion exerts more and more force downwards. It's an interesting methodology for how he flies and operates with such strength. Gravitics.

    To fly, anti-gravitons are surged through and out of his body. This is just the reverse, propelling him downward with as much force as he can generate.

    Into his comm, he murmurs, "Holding the exit door open for you two. But as big as this thing is getting, that won't last too long."

    Indeed, it won't be long until the downward force he generates is more of a nuisance than a real obstacle or anything that will hold the creature in place. He decides to go for more tnder flesh, and his Nuclear eye-beams begin burning into the beast's tongue. Again, not with any intent to truly harm it so much as to just keep it off balance.

    Hearing Johnny on coms, he replies calmly, "Best way to deal with spiders. With fire."

Diana Prince has posed:
The Pythons are not very pleased with this situation, and are continuing to show it by lashing out at each other, and anyone else nearby, thus... Arthur and Cassie! Of course, Cassie's Aegis Blast is quite the definitive answer to any tantrumming snakes, no matter their size!

When the Heart is pulled free within the colossalgator, there comes a sudden extra writhing against the force hold it in place! Diana, and Hyperion will both feel it, the beast is putting up one last battle... but with Hyperion continuing his eye-blasts, and the Heart removed, the Gator has lost its ability to regenerate! Now, the surface of the creature is losing its natural coloring, its surfaces hardening as the magical Heart is no longer fueling its grwoth, but now creating an ever rapidly hardening shell of what was the once living gator only moments ago!

Another thing happens inside it, as well. The snakes, the dying Gator beast, it creates a rumbling in the acidic fluids within its stomach, and with one last dying breath, the entire beast moves in a wave-like slumping motion, and from within it, a gulping geyser of gas sweeps over Arthur and Cassie, quite literally belching the two of them toward the throat of the dying Gator again!

The two, are pushed on a hurricane level gust of gas toward the mouth of the creature still held open by Hyperion!

One big burp rolls out over the swampy prairie-land, followed by another clash of lightning and thunder!

The rain has at least slowed down some, but with the warnings from Zatanna shouted over the comms, and the question from Johnny, Diana averts her attention from the hardening Gator corpse, toward the torn-apart Van down the road.

The lasso of Hestia swirls away from the Gator as she sees Arthur and Cassie get burped out from within, and she lunges down the road toward the van!

"Burn it!" Diana says back over the comms. "Flame it to ashes! Remove the hearts at once!" She says, drawing her sword up and slashing right through one of the growing spider-s eight legs, severing it right off, leaving a gross hairy stub where leg once was about to strike toward the pair of Van drivers that are now running further down the road from the madness!

Arthur Curry has posed:
    "You mean you don't know?" Arthur says sidelong toward Cassie as he grasps his trident with both hands and holds it high to intercept the /leap/ of a snake creature that dives at him. He plants it in the muck, crushes its back with one foot then twists his weapon free.
    "Don't worry, I got this all figured out." Arthur says as he turns and deflects another charge by six other creatures, raising an ice shield between them as he knits his brow. That tone in his voice does have a good bit of confidence to it...
    But also a twinge of uncertainty. Until...
    There's that rush of non-fetid air and a hint of illumination off in the distance. He motions, "There, just as we planned! Good to have teammates." And as he says that he breaks into motion in the direction of the safe harbor provided by Hyperion. Only for suddenly that explosion of gas and the internal disruption to the creature abruptly /propels/ the heroes forward.

Johnny Storm has posed:
Johnny Storm shrugs, "I just know this is gonna smell so bad," he says.

But then there's a bright, sharp flare from his position as his fire ramps up, forming a whorling cyclone of flame around him for a moment before he un leashes it downward in a flaming lance. It punches through the spider first, a pillar of flame ripping through the center mass, then spreading outwards, sizzling meat and burning hair. The result is, without a doubt, totally rank.

"Sorry about the smell, but if you want some help burning your clothes later, look me up!" he calls down to her.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Flaming spiders! Why not? Zee calls on the elemental magic that courses in her veins. She calls on fire to augment Johnny's attack, concentrating specifically on the hearts that could infect more animals.

One simple word channels the element, "!eriF".

Johnny's brilliant fire becomes the heart of a furnace, white-hot cooling to a volcanic orange. Six gouts of flame shoot from the hearts clinging to the Spider's abdomen.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"I didn't even know how we were going to get down here before we got swirly'd!" Cassie exclaims. "We try can going back up, but there's a lot of muscle! Peristalswhatever?" Freshman bio wasn't THAT long ago... "And what if the tongue locks us in?" She looks around, unsure. "I wonder if there's anywhere the chest cavity would be closer to the outside. They start to die when you take the hearts out, so mabye you could use your trident to cu..."

All of this discussion ends up being spectacularly moot! Because they're going on the Gatoroid Wild Water Park experience (tm) again.

"What's that sound? Oh shi-" WOOOSH! Being regurgitated out of a dying giant alligator is probably not Cassie's overall most heroic moment. She comes flying out, partly under her own power, MORE partly under a massive jet of really gross hot gas, and goes sailing waaaaay away from the mouth of the thing before nearly landing in another swamp. She only barely catches herself, hovering face-up over the water.

More for the sake of her prize, which is clutched to her chest in both arms like a precious sportsball. They lost the last one in the desert because they weren't careful! No way she's letting this one go. "I got it!"

Hyperion has posed:
    Yep, it's a good thing Hyperion is tall. His hands hold up the top jaws, and about eight feet under them, his feet press into the teeth at the bottom. The gap is small compared to the size of the creature, but it's large enough for a few people to squeeze through.

    And then comes the real prize as Arthur and Cassie blast past him, carried by the worst belch in the history of belches.... And he can't even move a hand to cover his nose. AND he has hyper senses.

    Scrunching up his nose, Hyperion waits for the teammates to go past him, and then he lets go and launches himself up and away from the beast. But only far enough to land beside Arthur and Cassie. "You guys okay?" he asks.

Diana Prince has posed:
Johnny and Zatanna's combined fiery blast sears right through the core of the growing spider! It's regenerative powers try to fight back, but the heat that Zatanna's magic adds to the flow of flame just goes right through the Spider's body! This weakens the Hearts ability to regrow what is damaged, and with Wonder Woman swooping back for another strafe run with her sword, this time beneath the spider, all six Hearts are suddenly detached from the beast's body with one gliding swipe of her Athena-graced blade!

All six Hearts fall side by side back down in to the ripped-apart van, where they clunk against the interior, while the Spider's body is caught in flame, with its remaining seven legs all curling upward as it falls off to the side of the road in to the wet brush, only to have a completely random aligator snap and grab one of the legs, pulling on it like it just got a timely feast!

The two fleeing Pizza Delivery kids are running down the road now, their boots splashing in mud, as they pant and freak out, glancing back now and then...

A golden lasso wraps around their legs, and drops them both face first in to the mud!

Diana steps over the two as they start to roll on to their backs, both looking up at Wonder Woman, as she looks out over the watery prairie to where Hyperion, Cassie, and Arthur are.

"Hi, Wonder Woman." The girl with the facial piercings says, smiling up at Diana. The Driver? He just chokes up some of his own bile as he vomits off to the side of the road.

"We... have some questions for you both." The Princess says down to the pair, before she looks back to the burning corpse of the spider, and beyond that the Van where Johnny and Zatanna are, and beyond THEM... the massive building-sized corpse of that monsterous Gator, now frozen in its deathly statue-like position across the water-soaked ground, momentarily illuminated by another flash of lightning as the storm seems to be heading out over the sea to the south now...