13755/Red and the Volcano

Red and the Volcano
Date of Scene:	05 January 2023
Location:	Mt. Kilauea, Hawaii
Synopsis:	Hellboy, Luke Cage, and Meggan Constantine punch some demons in Hawaii!
Cast of Characters:	Straw Man, Hellboy, Luke Cage, Meggan Puceanu

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Straw Man has posed:
    Hawaii's Mt. Kilauea is known for it's frequent eruptions. Today is another one. It isn't natural this time, though. Rutan Farquda, a sorceror from India, has appeared. He had not been known as evil. In fact, he had been quiet for months. His appearance was unexpected, and his activity even more unexpected. He stood at the lip of the crater, his knife in hand over his circle.

    "Utpeedan! Aage aao aur duniya ko saaph karo. Ham aapakee saja ke paatr hain!" He's summoning a hindu demon of persecution. Hindu demons are not known for their mildness. "Eleio! E hele mai a lawe mai i ka hopena o ke ola, i hanau ia ke ola hou!" A second language. Eleio, a Hawaiian cleanser. He's calling two of them, and from different cultures. The ritual started about 24 hours ago, and it's slow, but once it was realized just what was going on, several paranormal watchdogs leapt into action. Why Rutan has chosen this course, no one knows, but now it is less important than stopping him.

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy is in the back of a helicopter flying from the Honolulu airport directly to a drop point near the volcano. The multi-branch venture has swept up the BPRD/SHIELD agent, who isn't wearing the hearing protection normal on choppers. Red looks out the back of the chopper to the volcano. "Any of you immune to fire?" he asks. He's run with Meggan before, but he sees SO many supers, their powers all kinda run together. "I guess I mean are you immune to lava and possibly hellfire. Anyone? Show of hands?" He raises his own Right Hand of Doom. The environmental dangers on this mission felt a bit like a cakewalk for him, but there was likely another shoe to drop.

Luke Cage has posed:
    It was supposed to be a vacation. Well, a work vacation. And now...

    Earlier that morning, Luke Cage had been stretched out in a long chair by the beach, enjoying the rewards of his labor. Or more specifically, the rewards of getting his labor done in record time. The rewards for the labor itself had refilled his bank account, and was enough to keep the bar running for another six months or so. The type of client who can afford to fly a hero to Hawaii to take care of some business is also the type that can afford to pay well. But as with most folks with money, they do not throw it around - for others, at least. Given four days (with three nights) to see to "sorting out" their nasty business with a stalker, Luke was able to deal with it his second day on the island. Which meant he had the rest of today and this evening to enjoy the change of scenery. Hawaii was far more comfortable than Harlem in January.

    What he was /not/ expecting was to get called into hero duty. But with goings on at a volcano, he could not just sit by on the beach and let it happen. He COULD technically, but that's not what heroes do.

    And so as the rumbling and incantations were going, Luke was making haste to the source of the issue clad only in his swimming trunks. No reason to both putting on his shoes. He hoped they would be there when he got back, but constantly replenishing his wardrobe was just one of the costs of heroing.

    It is not until he gets closer and sees a SHIELD helicopter flying in that he realizes that this is not going to be helping people escape a natural disaster. He mutters to himself and doubles his pace, following the trajectory of the SHIELD craft.

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
The white-haired woman doesn't look particularly impressive compared to other heroes; she doesn't have the stature of a hero by most means. She just looks like an everyday English girl, save for the unnatural shade of her hair pulled back into a rather long braid, or the frosty fairness of her features.

When it comes to Hawai'i, she tries not to lean out the side of the helicopter when it's open to view the impressive approach to the towering shield volcano. The broad slopes loom over the Pacific, a beacon that brings out a faint smile from her. The question might go unnoticed while she stares at the landscape, sere and impressive, and she has to pull herself out of whatever reverie holds her fast.

Her hand goes up, displaying the faintest scar that's far too ornate to be natural. An eternity knot marks the back of her hand, traces of silver Celtic knotwork climbing up the back of her hand. "Fire and magma oughta behave themselves, but in the event they don't, I can have a proper chat with it." Her fluting accent carries overtones of Welsh and a blurry smidgen of Gaelic, but for the most part, it reads as muddled British English.

She glances aside through her white lashes back at the sea, then down to the volcano. "Pele's probably not in town but supposin' she is, won't that be exciting?"

Straw Man has posed:
    There may be limited fire resistant sulfuric air resistant heroes about, but that's no skin off Rutan's nose. He looks up at the helicopter as it approaches, his blue and yellow robe blown back by the beating rotors. The pluming smoke is only mildly curled in a new direction, the heat from the volcano dominating the airflow.

    Rutan calls out, though it's questionable whether he can be heard. "It's too late, this is for the best!" he declares in English. "We've been a plague long enough for this world. We need judgment! That's what these demons are! Judgment! We resist the pu nishment we deserve!"

    He slashes open his hand all the way down to the elbow, bright blood pouring out and into his circle. The symbols glow, and he plunges the blade into the center of the circle.

    he blade turns red hot, and the volcano below suddenly grows quiet as Rutan plucks the dagger back, searing his flesh. He roars in pain, and then turns to cast the dagger out over the edge of the volcano, and drops to his knees, watching it plummet to the fires below. Probably not a good thing.

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy opens the door and jumps a full story before the thing lands. That throws off the center of balance, and the pilot has to work to center things and not crash. Red might have to apologize about that later...maybe fill out paperwork, but he's on a mission right now. Not averse to a bit of casual murder to get the job done--it's half his job description to kill cultists doing this kind of thing--he rushes the ritual circule, grabs Rutan's head with the Right Hand of Doom, and flings him off the side into the volcano. Moving close, he peers over into the caldera, watching him incinerate to a crisp. Turning to walk back to where the chopper is re-landing, the cambion gives a Right Thumbs Up of Doom. "I got him!" he calls out.

Luke Cage has posed:
    The path up the side of the volcano is steep and long, and running is not at all what Luke had planned for the day. He was giving his muscles a rare chance to just stretch out and relax. He is starting to regret his decision roughly a third of the way up the base. He had really only expected to get to the base and then help escort people off, but the mess up there looked like it needed something. Not that he knew what he was going to do. And based on seeing the helicopter fly overhead, he almost doubles back knowing he cannot get there in time.

    But then he is suddenly contending with a blast of wind. "What the f--?" He drops off as he realizes that he is not just being pushed forward, he is being pushed into the air. His arms flail for a moment of uncertainty, but he has been around enough strange stuff to recognize that this is intentional, and it is bringing him rapidly up to the edge of the caldera. He stops flailing and focuses on the scene before him.

    Arriving next to Hellboy with a thump just after seeing the crunching fist send the sorcerer into the pit of doom, Luke takes a moment to catch his breath. "That was a lot of running for nothing," he murmurs, nodding to the other hero. "Can we go back down to the beach now, or...?"

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
Kilauea rises more than a few thousand feet above sea level, and even a herculean sprinter would take some time to scale the rugged sides of the domed peak. From her position on the jostled helicopter, Meggan can spot a lone man making his laboured way up the path. It would be an impressive show if the robed man wasn't attempting to mar his body and invoke powers he shouldn't.

"<Go! If he wants to help, bring him here as fast as you can!>" The young woman calls to the wind in a series of hisses, exhalations, and sighs that nonetheless make her wishes extremely clear. The rotor blades whipping up the thin atmosphere already set the air in motion. All the wind has to do, jostled as it sweeps past the mountainous Hawaiian ridge, is reorient itself to capture Luke from where she spies the stranger.

It's after Hellboy leaps off the helicopter that the Tuath de Danaan clutches the ceiling of the chopper, bracing herself in an awkward position, her gaze drawn down. She doesn't know what the magician threw, except it's something, and throwing things into volcanoes has good or negative ends.

"Not bloody likely, Smeagol!" might be heard in a defiant cry, and she lurches out of the open doorway into the perilous drop below. Not nearly worried enough about falling out, that one, she points down at the lava and spins her hands in a rough shape like a potter shaping clay. Save this clay has a melting point above basalt and would probably cause her skin to immediately combust on contact. Whether or not the pilot can actually keep her in the chopper is a matter she isn't focused on, gathering a heap of bubbling lava and presumably the sacrificial dagger, hurling it above the broad, ash-licked caldera.

A spinning globe of lava. Who wants to be a Hawaii Globetrotter?

Straw Man has posed:
    The plummetting sorceror screams out as he's pitched over the edge of the cauldera. Wait, is that a scream? It's a cackle. "It's over! We can embrace the en-" his voice cuts off as he draws close enough to the impossibly hot lava churning below, and explodes into flames, turning into a fireball that plunges as little more than a pop into the deep blood of the earth.

    The ball of lava pulses forward from Meggan's command, catching the even smaller splinter in the scheme of the landscape. It's over, things are quiet for a moment. Yes you can walk back down. A lot of running for nothing.

    Then the ball of lava rips against Meggan's command, opening a portal from itself of reddish black nature. A creature of color, adorned on all inches of furious decor pops out, holding the dagger from a moment earlier. Eleio. "Why have I come to wake?" he bellows. He lands heavily on the lip of solid ground over the blazing below. "Time has come to clear once again the life that has brought wickedness to the world." He holds the dagger aloft in his hand. "My servants of the deep, come forth!" From behind him the small portal, taking the full size of the lava ball starts to spew little winged creatures, raven wings unfurl as they start to tear forth from the hole held aloft.

    Then from below where Rutan fell, a second figure comes forth from the cauldera, standing a staggering twelve feet in height. A brilliant scorching mustache crowns his smile, eyes wide and ablaze. "The time has come!" My children shall rid your world of its paltry life, and my kin will be the only upon the earth. Any who survive will be slaves, and any who are slaves will be food." He looks to his hand, and looks a little surprised to find that it is holding nothing. "The dagger? Where is it?" he demands, looking up at the side of the cavern. The new colorful foe starts to climb furiously up the side of the dried molten wall.

Hellboy has posed:
    Just as Hellboy was sure he'd done the thing in time, he knew it always went down this way. Turning as the demons give their respective monologues, almost comical in their fractured focus. Maybe it should have happened one at a time. Hellboy's shoulders sag as he beholds the scene.
    "Aw, crap," he grumbles. However, steeling himself, the demon Anung Un Rama, himself secretly the rightful king of England and apparently at least one section of hell, calls out as just a simple agent of the BPRD. "Hey! One at a time! We can't hear your ugly asses' evil speeches!" He then draws his oversized pistol. Samaritan is breached, and Hellboy checks that the rounds are the right ones to fight demons. Flipping the barrel of the pistol back up, he's ready. Yup. Probably gonna be smacked around, but he's ready for that, too.

Luke Cage has posed:
    This is not exactly Luke's element. Not AT ALL. But, he understands who SHIELD is, he understands the concepts of evil sorcerers. He's seen The Lord of the Rings.

    "Alright, big guy, any suggestions other than just punching these things?" He rolls his head around on his neck and starts loosening up his muscles after the run as he watches the goings on below. "I'm not sure I can jump into a volcano, but I am guessing they'll be coming for us soon and I sure as hell can throw them back into one."

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
Meggan calls over her shoulder to the helicopter pilot, "Get back to safety!" Spinning blades present a threat, so she steps out from the open door to plummet a good twenty feet before she starts to fly. The silver wash of her braid lengthens into a crackling ribbon of light that trails behind her, throwing gold and pearly sparks, the kind of burning line intending on drawing the eye. Vestiges of fragile humanity slip somewhat as her otherworldly self bleeds through the fragile veneer of 'normal.'

Luke seeing Lord of the Rings will help. If Galadriel could fly? That's about on par with the winter-aspected Tuath who stares down at the Polynesian being popped out from her lava ball. Seeing that's an inconvenient matter spawning demons, she promptly hurls the globe back into the source it originated from. They'll have to fly a little further to crawl their way out, while Eleio remains at a distance. "Nothing good over here," she calls to Luke. "That bloke has your dagger," she points at Eleio in case the Indian demon doesn't know. "Probably not givin' it back, so you better take care of it!"

Maybe the two of them can be convinced to fight one another. Especially when she gives the well-mustachioed demon an empathic nudge toward distraction.

Straw Man has posed:
    Eleio, standing a good ten feet himself, gives a head tilting stare to Hellboy, and then to Luke. "You would stand against the purging of evil?" he asks. He licks the back of the knife. "Then be the first to fall!" he lunges forward, Hellboy the first in his attention as he sprints on bare feet forward, his ornate masked face changing from a mischevious smile to a roaring face of wood and paint.

    Utpeedan makes it to the top of the cliff, and spots the knife. He then looks up at the sky to spot Meggan's sparkling descent. A sneer beneath his mustached face forms, and he makes a beeline...charging Eleio?

    Eleio's winged allies flutter, perhaps a half dozen of them, making their way toward Meggan and screeching wildly as they extend their talons toward her.

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy's glowing, ember eyes are narrow as he considers Luke's question, pretty much ignoring demon speeches and threats. He considers all his training. "We should be in the kupua Pele's domain," he says, echoing Meggan's comment from before. He gestures with the barrel of his pistol. "I don't think that's Pele or even a kupua."
    He lowers the weapon to his side and points with the Right Hand of Doom at the other. "I think that was supposed to be a rakshasa," he says. "Those can be killed, if you've got the right stuff." He holds his firearm up and out, supporting his left hand with the Right Hand of Doom. "Hopefully holy water, silver, and peach wood is the right stuff," he concludes.
    Then, as Eleio charges Red: BOOM! The weapon's first round of the day explodes just like it's supposed to, sending a round filled with some generic anti-demon paraphernalia toward the demon with the dagger. Really, they're more anti-undead rounds that are supposed to pull double-duty. Hopefully these are the kind of demons allergic to silver and not cold iron. Thankfully, Hellboy has anti-fae rounds on standby...somewhere in that nebulous coat of his.

Luke Cage has posed:
    "Huh." That is about all that Luke can muster up, watching everything go down. He has been in enough fights to know that if the two baddies want to square off against each other, you generally let them as long as there are no civilians in the way. And right now, the only one who appears to be "in the way" of anything is Meggan.

    Luke may not be entirely sure, but he suspects she was his mysterious benefactor of the wind. And even if not, he is not the sort of man to stand idly by while demons beset a colleague. "I don't know if I can kill 'em, but maybe I can knock 'em off target," he says to Hellboy before crouching down and grabbing at the various volcanic rocks edging the caldera. While under ordinary circumstances Luke might jump into the fray, he cannot fly and he does not plan to go by "Eaten by Volcano", and so instead he starts chuckling rocks with all of the force his enhanced strength can muster at the swarm near Meggan, hoping to give her a bit of clearance to do what she is trying to do.

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
"She's not, I'd recognize my sister!" Well, half-sister, but it's a matter of technicality there. The flapping shapes that Eleio unleashed converge on the blonde, and she zips closer to the crater rim to lure them in. A slow drop back; their hostile intent adds to the predatory emotional stew that only heightens her own tilt to violence.

Meggan utters a sound halfway between an airy laugh and a hiss, like the wind-drawn blade dragged from its sheath. The noise blends alarm and delight in a disquieting way, since a human larynx simply cannot produce that sound in that range without an assist from technological methods.

She swivels to face the winged demons, spreading her hands wide as she bends in an extremely deep flourish while hovering over solid ground. A rock sails overhead, not risking knocking her off her pedestal unless Luke is really inaccurate. Then she dodges to the side, trying to lure the lava-born beasties her way while giving him plenty to throw at. Those pauses to tease them closer are interspersed by irregular bursts of movement to back off from the fire. If they don't manage to utterly swarm her, she stays relatively focused on toying with the emotional chords around the Indian demon. His very name meaning harassment, entirely accurate for her to harass /him/ then, as Eleio's friends harass her.

Straw Man has posed:
    As Eleio charges, the first round strikes him in the shoulder. It draws blood, but nothing so lucky as a reaction to silver. He stutters one step and then continues forward, throwing a step kick at Hellboy for the infraction with a big bare foot.

    As one of the flying beasties takes a rock to the side of the head, it goes hurtling to the side. the sound of the windblade causes them to scatter and regroup, two of them peeling toward Luke in retaliation.

    Utpeedan shakes his head as he approaches, shaking it from the infraction from Meggan as he looks dazed for a few seconds, then returns his wits. He looks up at her, understanding who has attacked, and flexes his muscles. His fingernails grow into tips, and he claps his hands as Hulk might, only instead of a shockwave those fingernails go searing through the air at her, at least one of them catches another of the fliers, leaving her to be harrassed by two.

Hellboy has posed:
    "Crap," Hellboy repeats as all that happens is drawn blood from his first shot. Normal rounds would have done more than that! He tries to brace himself, but he takes the brunt of the kick, being sent backward. He skids across tephra to a stop. Rolling over, he clambors to his feet and stands. Popping his neck, he looks at the helicopter pilot. "Ugh," he groans. At least the SHIELD agent was getting a show.

Luke Cage has posed:
    "Saw that coming," Luke mutters as the demons peel off to come towards him. "Better me than her." He starts crouching down to reduce the size of his profile as they come closer and also letting him cycle through rocks faster. He does not actually need to throw them with full force - they cannot actually kill or even hurt the demons much it seems - but the faster he knocks them off the target the more effective it is.

    He tries to catch an eye towards Meggan to see how she is managing, and if there is any more assistance he can render to her. But she seems to be the most capable of the bunch, so he just sticks to his plan of being The Distraction.

    And waiting for him to inevitably become the lightning rod for taking the abuse from the demons. Who hopefully cannot pierce his skin. Hopefully.

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
Meggan floats, generally speaking, which gives her the advantage of avoiding earthquakes, but not so much disruptions in the air. Hulk-style claps truly amount to a serious bane, and nail-related accidents outside of a salon come a rather distant third or fourth. Seriously, utterly and totally gross.

Utpeedan earns a contemptuous look right about the moment the thin nail slashes through her shirt, rending a nasty line along the sleeve, and sends her toppling butt-over-tea-kettle back down the slope. The wicked rotation at least gives her time to tuck her knees to her chest to avoid an unfriendly collision with a cracked basalt bomb that's most definitely close to being pulverised. Ash and fine material sweeps up into a cloud when she comes to a stop.

The slope close to the twelve-foot-tall demon shudders. Crackling, brittle rock jolts up to cut at his feet and the fine scree becomes even more treacherous, winding and twisting, that very section of the mountain taking umbrage to his treatment of Gaea's youngest daughter. She pushes herself up onto her hands and knees, a bleak smile touching her lips, the soot streaking her icy braid and bare skin inevitably making things look all the worse. Rocks all but spring to Luke's hands, rolling his way or just conveniently being at hand.

The two fliers might take that as their opportunity to strike, and they might well find their position advantageous until she twists a volley of blackened or reddish volcanic shards up at them. Magic missile, if the missiles were completely unmagical, extraordinarily sharp, and especially bad tempered.

Straw Man has posed:
    Eleio beats his chest with a primal laugh. "You are no match for Eleio! I shall cut you to pieces!" He holds the dagger, swapping it to his other hand and rolling the shoulder that trickles blood angrily. He slashes wildly toward Hellboy, trying to back him up toward the edge of the cauldera.

    Luke's attacks seem more effective perhaps than expected, as the first he struck has stayed lifeless on the ground. The other two have taken warning, though, and try to duck and weave around his peltings. They can only dodge for so long, and one of them takes a glancing blow which knocks it out of the air onto the ground where it starts to gather itself in the ash. The second swoops down in vengance, sharp teeth and talons on the three foot beastie grabbing for his human flesh.

    Utpeedan roars with laughter, which was premature. "Pathetic mortal, you can in no way harm- he is cut off as the shards of the mountain pierce up as he finds himself backpedaling off of the sharp recoil of the mountain. He becomes distracted, looking for safe space to stand, and finds himself unable to return the offense, dancing like a fool in spite of himself.

     The final two little fliers who had been attached to Meggan spear away from the attacks, violently thrashing as they try to dodge the little blackened darts. One takes a fierce direct hit, sending it back and flopping helplessly down the mountainside, while the other has its wings shredded, causing it to be at least grounded as it clumsily takes to the earth, screeching angrily.

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy ducks back to dodge the blade. As it comes back, he grabs the demon's wrist with his Right Hand of Doom and shoves the barrel of Samaritan against the being's center of mass. Pulling the trigger, he'd cross his hooves for more than broken skin, but he's not exactly using the rounds that will crack dragon skulls, here.

Luke Cage has posed:
    Watching the demons drop with some of his hurled rocks, Luke starts to feel like he is slightly more than a distraction in this particular fight. But just as he starts to get a sense of confidence he sees Meggan go down. He immediately starts charging down the side of the slope towards where she has tumbled, as if worried that is will get over run by demons. But once she rises, he just gives her a grin. "My kinda girl," he says, giving her a respectful nod.

    And that's when the demons start trying to peel at his flesh. "Get off of me," he says, swatting at the ones trying to puncture his skin. If he can sucessfulyl ward those away, it is back to chucking rocks as fast as Meggan's mother can put them in his hands.

    He is not questioning that, either. Not one bit.

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
Torn clothes and volcanic grit everywhere don't exactly leave Meggan looking ready for the runway, unless Derelique ever becomes a thing and Derek Zoolander saves the world. The mucky appearance can't be helped after being tossed aside like a hankie. "This bloke gone barmy? He sees 'red skin an' horns' and thinks to himself, 'mortal?'" Contempt laces her bell-bright voice launched at Utpeedan a bit like the physical, practical weapons Hellboy has. "Ground control to majorly wrong!" That would be to the demon; Eleio might be keen enough to catch her warning - - and that grateful grin to Luke. The sharp slant of her ears, tapering in classic elven style, peek though the loosened wreck of her braid. "Drinks after, you reckon? Because I'm about over them trying to wreck this paradise island."

Whatcha going to do about it? Race around in an attempt to get behind Utpeedan, since he's bigger and a whole lot - presumably - slower than the 'mortals.' Racing in circles might be an annoying distraction, fair, but it also opens up the possibility for Luke, Hellboy or a passing Patriot missile to trip him up and send him crashing down the mountain. Or for her to potentially hurl herself and him to the ground.

Straw Man has posed:
    Eleio feels the impact of the barrel, looking down just in time to see the muffled bang up against his ribs. The point blank did seem to do quite a bit more than the first shot, and he opens his mouth to pour some blood. He staggers back, tethered to Hellboy in an attempt to stay right end up. He then shoves himself forward, looking for a last vengeful act of taking his foe with him as he tries to force both toward the edge of the cliff and to the lava.

    The last flying nuisance is no match for Luke's strength, clattering away into obscurity amongst the ash.

    Utpeedan twists both feet out in a rage at the ground, and staggers backward from that ringing sound from Meggan. He has one trick left, though. He opens his mouth, and a spray of hot reddish greenish fluid ejects from his throat, straight for the already messy Meggan. Yep, he's vomiting acid. Because why wouldn't he?

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy isn't exactly a 'cow down and back away' kind of fighter. He sees the blood, knows he's doing SOMETHING against this fella, and unloads the last two rounds. That's...something, right? Out of ammo, he shoves Samaritan back in its holster and catches the knife that falls from the demon's hand. As the demon swoons, Red holds up the dagger like an angry parent. "Didn't your mother teach you not to play with knives?" Taking a bit of a spin, Red tosses the demon into the caldera. "Take two!" he concludes watching the demon splash down into the orange-hot lava/magma mixture.

Luke Cage has posed:
    "First one's on me," replies Luke, winking over at Meggan before resuming the hurling of rocks at the demons. He seems content for the moment to serve as distraction as Hellboy is handling the actual major demons themselves. Until he sees that there is about to be a gout of...something...hurled at the pointy eared mage. Or whatever she is.

    He has seen her take a bit of a licking and keep on ticking, but not knowing what is about to come out and knowing that he has taken quite a beating in the past - not to mention that he has far less attire to be ruined by whatever is about to come - Luke charges in that direction. He cannot get to the belching demon, but he can at least try to put himself between whatever foul spray he is unleashing and the woman who is also clearly doing far more damage to these things than he is.

    Yes, Luke is just making himself a meat shield. But at least he's good at that.

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
Acid has a way of burning through skin. Thin, not-so-pricy jeans and the already slashed t-shirt covered in fine tuff and tephra were already struggling, but a belched wave of acid would surely do anyone in. A meat shield goes a long way to helping matters, but Meggan cries out when Luke interposes himself against some of it. "You do--"

The gush of flesh-eating, highly caustic liquid still reaches her, and it utterly sucks for the first second of incandescent, agonizing pain inflicted on her. Pointy-eared Galadriel, though, isn't just for show, for all her skin burns and the livid pink turns red or even yellowed in places through her clothes that are absolutely sopping. Disgusting rags that drop to the ground sooner or later.

It's not her heritage from Gaea that saves her, but that X-gene spontaneously reacting, lashing out to transform her mutable body into something else. She rather looks like a woman in shape and form as her battered skin turns from solid to gaseous. Sublimation of the strangest kind means the wind moves with her, and she lifts herself forward to wrap a mantle around Utpeedan's head. One that yanks the air /out/.

If he has to breathe, he won't be.

Straw Man has posed:
    Eleio goes careening over the edge of the cliff, unable to overpower Hellboy any longer, and lets out a scream of rage as he plummets into the lava below. With that event, the small ravenlike monsters all pop out of existence, flashes of fire announcing their exit. Most likely their death, as they were tied to their master.

    Utpeedan finishes his belch, but as he does, he attempts to take another inhale, only to find that there is no air around him. His eyes bug, having already expended his last breath, and he flails desperately about for oxygen. Apparently this particular demon does indeed need air. And he indeed does not have it. He frantically sputters and grasps at what cannot be held, for how do you hold the wind? And after a moment he drops to his knees, and then forward, mustache first, into the hard black volcanic rock.

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy is tempted to write 'do not drop in lava' on the knife, but all he's got is demon blood, which seems counter productive. He turns the knife over in his hands wondering what to do with it as he looks around at his teammates. Finding the demons dealt with, he looks toward Luke and Meggan. Acid is a pain to deal with. "Hey, uh...you guys want me to put newspaper down, or..." A chemist, the big guy is not.

Luke Cage has posed:
    The blast of acid evokes a cry of pain from Luke. His skin may be most impervious, but that doesn't mean it won't at least STING. He rolls across the ground and gets up, only to see that Meggan simply ... transforms. "Well damn," he says, shaking his head a bit as he sizzles. Yes, it's painful, but he has dealt with that before. And watching Meggan do her thing is worth it.

    He looks over towards Hellboy and laughs for a moment. "Big tough SHIELD, you don't have some kind of chemical wash or something?