14393/NOWHERE and Back Again

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NOWHERE and Back Again
Date of Scene: 17 March 2023
Location: East Village
Synopsis: NOWHERE strikes again. Luckily Divine has help to save her! What are they after?
Cast of Characters: Divine, Emma Frost, Tabitha Smith, Marie-Ange Colbert, Cindy Moon




Divine has posed:
It's another fine day in New York City. The sun is shining, the air is starting to warm a bit as spring approaches. Even the birds are returning, snatches of birdsong twittering through the East Village. The East Village is a nice place to be. Good food, good venues. A weird place for a person who barely has to eat and for whom drinking booze that isn't magic really has no effect.

Pastrami. It's always Pastrami.

Divine exits Katz Deli with a bag with a wrapped bundle in it, likely a pastrami on rye, as is traditional. She is, once more, in Soccer Mom chic of a fuzzy maroon sweater, leggings and her combat boots.

Okay, it's Goth Mom chic.

With a smile on her face, she walks down the street, actually heading for the subway, unaware that moments behind her is danger.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost is currently walking along, with Marie-Ange and Tabitha dutifully in tow. "Thank you, Ms. Smith. Your.. Experience in the matter will be useful." In an attempt at expanding some of Marie-Ange's horizons and experiences to help further her readings, she's had Tabitha guiding the two to various occult shops around. They're quite laden with some of the more exotic books out there. Some of art, some of fantasy. And Tobin's Spirit Guide.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
While the weather is still what some whould call chilly it's not all hat frozen. Enough you can sometimes get away with a little less than normal. In this case, Tabitha confident enough to wear a black leather bolero cut bomber jacket. lanskin lining peeking out the collar while BOOM! is embroidered into the back with an explosion behind it. A hint of a pink midriff tee beneath it allowing her toned abdomen to be on display.

In what might be something out of the normal for someone more refined like Emma to see Tabitha even seems to be wearing what looks like some plain if clinging and very flattering dark Levi's bluejeans. There is always her usual collar, belt and wrist cuffs in studded leather. Black for a change. The little leash rings jingling at her hands and neck.

The last is some leather boots, knee high, lace up, wedgheeled with more lambskin lining poking out where it captures the cuffs of those jeans. Cateye glasses, the red frames and yellow tinted lenses sitting on her nose while her usually long and wild blonde hair is actually pinned up in a bun. Though the wooden chopsticks used for it seem like the sort you might swipe from any Asian takeout joint.

The occult stores Tabby knows mostly because she'd done the rounds more than a few times with Illyana. Some of them were actual legit. "Just remember, first rule of magic book shopping. Never ever read anything aloud. Because you don't know what it means, or even if you do. Phonetics can have consequences." she points out. With a tone that sounds rather experienced. Aimed as much at Marie as it is Emma.

There's an old milking machine she stored in the basement of the school with her name on it and the word "DON'T" on a sign hanging from it.

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
Marie-Ange Colbert is more than happy to go along with this particular mission. Emma's always so supportive of her pursuits to better herself, and Tabby? Tabby is just awesome to hang around in general. A trouble-magnet like Jenny, to be sure, but bad influences can be the most entertaining of friends.

The French girl is carrying around her fair share of bags -- doing a better job of it than she would've in the past, thanks in part to her efforts to further her physical training in order to keep up with everything that T'Challa and the Dora Milaje have been teaching her.

Tabby's warning is met with a nod from Marie, "Read only in my head, refer to things only generally, 'this' and 'that' book, oui?" she replies, making sure she understood correctly.

With warmer weather out to play, Marie'S attire has reverted to something a little more normal. Black, ankle-length skirt, bright yellow silken blouse, fuzzy white jacket and a black beret sitting on top of her head. She didn't wear them often, but today was one of the days she just felt like it.

Cindy Moon has posed:
"I can show you the wooooorld!" Thwip.

"Shimmering, shining, splendid!" Thwip.

Cindy swings from webline to webline. She lands against a wall and fishes her cellphone from a webpouch on her hip to send a text to Divine, assuring her she's picked up dinner because she's thoughtful. She makes it clear how thoughtful she thinks she is too. She has to milk the moments.

Then she tucks the phone away and jumps off the wall to swing down the street in a direction that is, COINCIDENTALLY, very much in the direction to which danger is approaching. "Tell me, princess, now when did you last let your heart decide!"

Divine has posed:
Divine's phone buzzes and she pulls it out of somewhere. She peers at it, stopping on the sidewalk as people pass her by. She, at first, beams brightly because it's from Cindy. Then she frowns a little, looking at the bag of TWO pastrami sandwiches.

Oh well. That's lunch for another time. Or it would be, if not what happens in a moment.

Unlike last time, it's not a van. It's a box truck. Instead of six armed men, it's three. All are in bulky powered armor. The lead one leaps out, people scattering and screaming as violence erupts. Divine lunges for the man, but a shutter opens in his chestplate, and a green glow eminates. Her eyes widen in terror an instant before the pain strikes. It's so much worse than the red sun blasters. She screams in agony, voice echoing down the canyonlike streets as she collapses. Veins in her face start to turn black as the lethal radiation starts to take hold. The other two move forward to sescure the target.

The sandwiches, sadly, are dropped. Left in the street.

Emma Frost has posed:
And Emma goes to pick up the mental tones of Divine. She's idly curious why her employee is going in the direction of the bus.. Right when she gets that immediate buzz of something that's surprise, then pain.. Then her stride is going faster as she's at a near sprint.
    "Tabitha, engage anyone after her. Marie-Ange, give her some cover and try and get her out of the way." Emma's meanwhile going to try and pull thoughts from anyone nearby that is not the attackers to get an idea of what they're up against.
    "LEave enough of them intact to let us ask questions."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
That flash of pain and anguish is picked up by both blonde telepaths and with a nod at Emma tabitha is already rushing ahead. It's a familiar pain to Tabitha but probably not to a Kryptonian, hybrid or not.

The first thing that gets Tabitha attention when she gets close enough to see what's goi on is the van. A flick of her fingers and streams of superheated plasma are already flying to melt and take out the tires of the vehicle. No driving off.

BOOM! Molten rubber and steel wheels.

That just leaves guys in power armor. "Hey! You know how dumb it is to try and snatch and grab in this city!" she yells charging a spheroid Bomb in each of her palms. It wasn't that long ago someone tried taking her.

Tabitha might still have some shit to work through.

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
"Oui!" Marie chirps. Her bags are dropped with no hesitation, her legs moving to match -- no, surpass Emma's speed. It's a full-on sprint for her. She needs her hands free, after all.

Her tarot cards are the first thing she goes for, of course. They had been stowed in the inside pocket of her jacket. The draw is random; she trusts her deck. She knows how to use anything she draws. The card? The Ten of Cups.

Within moments, ten golden chalices appear behind her, and with one motion of her arm, lurch forward at the power armors; roughly three at each, though the central one gets four. Are chalices going to destroy the armors? No. But they're going to smack into them over and over again like annoying mosquitos until they're dealt with, and Marie? Marie's trying to get to Divine's side to try and help her up so that she can do exactly what Emma said. It's...

...well. Even a little stronger than she was before, Marie's still not exactly a bruiser.

Cindy Moon has posed:
What is that buzzing in her senses?

Silk is use to threats to herself causing such a feeling, but a cursory glance around shows there's no immediate threats to her person, so why is she feeling like someone is about to hurt her? The cursory flow of her swing keeps her guided towards the scene of the crime when the buzzing rumbles in her ears again.

She very nearly falls from her webline with the intensity. Scrambling to get a web fired in time to keep from splatting on the sidewalk, she awkwwardly flails through the air in a long flowing arc back into the sky. "What are yo- oh god..." The buzzing hits her again with a spine tingling shiver that sends her towards the sidwalk with her arms and legs swinging in the air.

She lands in a stumbling crumple on the ground, scampering up to scream.. clutching her temples in both hands...

Divine? "Divine..." Suddenly aware of the source, Silk leaps up and fires another web, swinging with a purpose, following her senses guiding her towards the Kryptonian, "I'm coming baby."

Divine has posed:
The two goons in armor manage to reach the writhing Kryptonian. She's not quite screaming anymore, but whimpering as the black veins in her face and hands just seem to pulse and make her look paler. They reach for her when they are assaulted. The truck is, thanks to Tabby's plasma blasts, disabled. Possibly for good as the sheering heat fuses metal and blasts tires to molten globs. The armored men are beset by Tarot's bizzare powers, floating chalices striking hard enough to make them all stumble back, buying Divine a moment, but that terrible window is still open, bathing her in the green light.

Divine, at least, has enough strength in her to start crawling back, trying to get away, but she's in a way that the three women have never seen her before. Weak. Feeble.

Terrified.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would stride towards the men, moving to try and if she could telepathically paralyze them. Hopefully stopping them and whatever others there would be with them. SHe would catch sight of the glowing green thing.
    "Marie-Ange, get that thing far away! Then find something lead to put on top of it immediately!"
    Emma would rahter try and keep the Kryptonite somewhat intact. They didn't want to have any -more- of it floating around.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
If the chalices hit hard enough to make the armoreed thugs they might not like Tabitha's bombs. Lobbed under arm they fly at Boom-Boom's psionic control and with a very angry scowl aimed at them the fly and move.

"Tick... Tick... Tick..."

BOOM! They go off with almost the same heat as what happened to the truck and as much force it could probably have flipped the truck.

That much molten metak so close to a fuel tank is likely not wise for anyone to stay in.

"If not just get it airborn and yeet the fucker. I can slag it before that green glowy radiation turns us into hulks or something. These jeans ride up enough as it is. Though we'd so look hot all big and swole!" she adds. The toned but not She-Hulk toned blonde charging the thugs directly to get them further away from Divine, more plasma charging while she seems like she's about to get into a brawl with them.

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
"...the armor?" Marie asks, reaching for another card in hopes that the Major Arcana might make an appearance so that she could fling the suits away. Maybe.

Instead? It's more cups. Technically less cups.

She must have misunderstood somehow. Fate, after all, is never wrong.

A new quartet of chalices appear to replace the first set, though this time she uses them differently. Willing them into upside-down position and placing them in front of Divine. Something to give her purchase to help her get up.
    hankfully Tabby's words clarify the earlier instruction. "I'll try!" asserts Marie. The slender redhead leaving her friend's side to follow her mentor's orders. It's now that a little of her training gets to show off; the armors are are a couple feet taller than she is. How does she cope?

She plants her foot on the knee joint of the center one, and uses it to boost herself up a few feet. Marie lets out a primal yell as she flies... and falls, thrusting an arm forward towards the green glow to try and rip out its very heart if she can.

...and if she can get her hands on anything instead of getting swatted away? She's going to /run./ No idea where to find lead right now, but keepaway might be good enough!

Cindy Moon has posed:
Cindy is dipping deep into her weblines. Releasing low on her swing to fling her forward at a rapidly increasing speed, guided by her senses pinging on her brain with every motion until she can see the trio of women standing protectively around Divine laying on the sidewalk.

And something in her snaps.

There's a darkness inside Silk...

A fury that hasn't had an outlet. Now there's people harming the only living person left on this planet that she loves. She growls in the apex of a swing that launchers her in a small Asian sized missile towards one of the armored figures with a glowing green apperatus in his chest.

Does he even see it coming?

She's an atomic bomb tha connects with his chest out of a thirty mile an hour web sing. Her foot connects with his chest just beneath his sternum with enough force that if he hadn't been wearing armor.

He would be dead.

And he still very well might be.

He flies back away from her and smashes into the destruction of the truck left by Tabby's explosion. The malice radiating off the black and red clad spider palpable as she lands in a clinched fist stance... head turned to the side, staring through a mane of black hair hanging across one of her smoldering brown eyes.

"I fucking warned you. That one is mine. Leave or I /will/ kill you."

Divine has posed:
Divine, even as her consciousness fluxuates in and out, can hear the commotion. Voices she recognizes, voices that are here to protect her. And one in particular that loves her. It's almost enough to give her the strength to get up. She struggles, arms shaking with the effort of pushing herself towards upright, but her elbows buckle and she slumps back onto the concrete.

Tabby and Marie unload on the goons trying to take Divine, bombs bursting, floating cups battering. They're being driven back, forced away from the, in reality, slowly dying Divine. That green glow menacing and terrible. Marie climbs the armor and, unluckily for her, punches a pane of some kind of acryllic. The upside is, it cracks really well! The downside is, no grabby the Kryptonite. Which means she's swatted at with a brutal backhand.

Luckily for everyone, the guy only gets one.

Silk comes in like a bullet made of fury wrapped in despair and terror. She impacts the man in the armor hard enough to crack plating, the acryllic window shattering to pieces. The force hurls him into the derelict truck. The impact knocks that green glow loose, sending it rocketing out to bounce on the street. It's a chunk of green crystal, the size of a man's thumb.

The impact site was very unlucky for the man in the armor. Instead of hitting square, he hits the side of the back, low hanging bumper.

Which punches clean through his chest. Blood splattering on the inside of his helmet. Is he dead? He will be soon enough.

That green rock is going to be a problem, though. It's there, irradiating Divine in its presence. Her condition visibly deteriorating.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma Frost would glance over at Silk for a moment, "Leave enough of enough of them intact that we can get something useful from them." She would sigh over. "Tabitha, be a dear and see what you can rip from them." She's seen that Tabby has some issues as of late she needs to get out of her system.

"That one will do." Emma means that one that Silk had given the offer to 'run' to. "I don't particularly care whatever's left of them." Emma says that quieltly, even as she goes along with Marie-Ange. "Well done dear. I'm sorry for not having been mroe specific." Emma puts herself between the others and Marie-Ange.

The girl doesn't need to see what Silk is going to do, and what Emma has given Tabitha implicit permission to do. "Just put some shields around it and look about for some thick metal. Lead. We need something to block out the radiation." She would gesture at the rock. "Quickly, it's lethal to her."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
"Huh. Could have sworn she was white." Tabby seeing a Spider-Chick swing kick the crap out of onbe of the armored goons. Though she might also be unaware there's like a million Spider-Chicks. "Hey umm, I get the protective girlfriend thing. You should meet some of my exes. But I think a Spider making a kill maybe kind of counter productive for the brand." she advises with a warm smile aimed at Cindy.

"We can do way, way, waaaaay worse to these guys and keep them alive." she points out. Though the impalement gets a wince and a brief dry heave. She's seen way too much death to not be a little squeamish.

Marie being swatted away gets a wince. The runnner he might not get very far. Those subsequent bombs Boom-Boom was charging. They fly up and in front of him and blast the soon to be victimed thug right back and on his back, head tight at Tabitha's feet.

The blonde soon squatting.

Most people would jump to have Tabby hunker down like that but a hand glowing with super heated plasma is grabbing that helmet. Using the heat to slag any latches and catches that keep it on his head. "Now, try and not think of what you were tasked to do. Try not to think of where you came from. Hope there's no GPS running on your tech." she taunts and starts working at probing. One denim clad knee resting and pinning that armored chest while she trails a firey seeming digit down along his chest and much more southerly. The pain of being burned as badly as any heat vision.

Tabitha making sure that pain never goes away while she pulls as much information as she can.

Emma being a more experienced telepath might just pick up on levels of Sadism that might just be a bit much, doubly considering it's Tabitha. Cold rage scarier than her usual hot scrapping rage.

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
"O--!"

First Marie's hand hurts; it wasn't a palm strike or a punch, it was a grab, so the sudden stop of her fingers as they meet the panel? That smarts. That's going to, at best, sprain dainty fingers.

Then she's sent flying by the backhanded swat before she can completely process it. It's the kind of his that makes her bounce across the concrete like a stone skipping over a lake, before landing in a heap.

It's gonna take her a moment to recover. Even with her training, /actually/ getting in the front row and fighting is still beyond her. Which might be for the best because the time the girl is taking to try and get back to her feet is going to allow the girls to do nasty, horrible things that innocent eyes probably shouldn't see.

Cindy Moon has posed:
Cindy takes in a deep breath and lowers her self down in a crouch beside Divine. The telepaths with their mind witchery are busy extracting information, her focus need be on the reason for her manifest fury. She lays a hand upon the Kryptonian, unable to directly shield her or give her live, but she can try.

Her knees pull up to her chest with her arm wrapping around them. Peering out from behind a curtain of black hair at those who remain. She's seen it happen before, this is somehow different. And inwardly she wishes it was something she could punch their way out of.

Unfortunately it's not.

So she rubs her thumb against Divine's arm and lets the other people do the things.

Being there is important to.

Divine has posed:
Divine is, somehow, still vaguely conscious. Her eyes flutter weakly, and her hand, black veined and ghastly, reaches up shakily to touch her spider. "C-cindy..." The hand falls as she loses consciousness again. Hopefully she's comforted by the presence of her spider, but it's hard to say.

Tabby effectively intimidates the guy she has pinned. The first thought that flashes in his head is 'N.O.W.H.E.R.E.' The second is a bunker somewhere upstate. Near Lake Erie? Under it? It's hard to tell, the fear is muddling his memories and thoughts, making them stormy.

That kryptonite still sits in the street. Untouched.

Emma Frost has posed:
Emma would watch for a few moments. "Marie-Ange, make sure to keep this away from her. I'm going to check to make sure that she's safe." Emma would lean in to squeeze at Marie-Ange. KEeping her focused on the Kryptonite rather than what would go on. "Find a way to cover it. It's radioactive. It hurts her. If you can seal it in metal.." Emma pleads softly and gently.

THen she's going over towards Divine, moving to take off her cloak and wrap it around the girl. "You're safe. We'll keep you safe." Helping Divine up. "As soon as we've got what we need, w'ell be out of here and take care of you." Does that mean getting in touch with the Justice League? Alura? Anyone else? Emma will do whatever it takes. Even with those she doesn't trust. No interference is made with Silk's beatings or Tabitha's interrogations.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
A lot of the time, people will say torture doesn't work because people can come up with just about anything to end the pain. But successfully lying still requires consious thought about what you need to omit. Which puts it on the surface, muddiesas it might be.

But she gets what she wants and extracts that hand just above the man's armored crotch. The novice telepath leaving the man mostly with superficial burns. He'll live, scarred for life and possibly having trouble peeing.

The real damage is leaving him feeling the same pain everytime he so much thinks about taking or keeping anyone hostage or captive. That pain will come back as fresh as the day it was inflicted.

"I got a group name. And a rough location. I wanna throw up too." she states and picks herself up to head over to the others.

Divine is still not doing great. "I don't think we're finding any lead around here. I vote yeet it and let me blast it." she says and points up at the sky well away from any of them. I can maybe help try healing as well." she waits for any incredulous stares. It's not normally her power after all.

"I heard Kryptonians do the sunlight recharge thing? Kinda like Sunspot. He can absorb my plasma energy like sunlight. Maybe if I make it bright and hot enough. Same diff!" she ponders.

It may also get unsafe for Emma, Marie, and Cindy.

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
Back up to her feet, Marie nods. There's a moment or two of thought as she scamper-stumbles to scoop up the rock -- and draws another card. This time, she smiles to herself.

"Tabitha, Madame Frost, focus on helping her, I will take this!" ...Marie doesn't know the spider's name. The only one /she/ knows is the original, and he's kind of a jerk. This one at least is protecting Divine, which earns Silk points in Marie's book.

How little she knows.

It might be time to call the Ghostbusters, because a twenty-five foot tall, very regal woman is the next creation she summons. One hand holds a scepter, the other? Reaches down to scoop up Marie (and thusly the Kryptonite, too). The redhead limp in the giant's grasp as she moves to carry the girl, and the offending rock away

The Empress does not run. But with legs of that size? Striding will get her out of the way quickly enough.

Divine has posed:
As the rock leaves, the black starts to recede in Divine's face and hands. The longer it's gone, the more color returns. The more she seems like herself. Consciousness returns slowly, and she eventually sits up. She looks pale and wan, but she's alive, the sun beating the remaining Kryptonite out.

"What...again?"

The last remaining armored goon scoops up his living pal and books it, just running the hell away from this place.

The day is saved, some information gotten, but what is this about?