14623/Brooding Beasts

Brooding Beasts
Date of Scene:	19 April 2023
Location:	Fall People Village
Synopsis:	The infected creatures of the Savage Lands cause a frenzied stampede that engulfs a village of innocents. Wonder Woman, and the Amazons, call to arms the protectors of the Savage Lands from the X-Men and the Justice League.
Cast of Characters:	Diana Prince, Monet St. Croix, Xiomara Rojas, Cassie Sandsmark, Ororo Munroe, Tabitha Smith, Isalia, Meggan Puceanu, Clarice Ferguson

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Diana Prince has posed:
The sun is high in the sky, the midday hour.

The Fall People village is normally a peaceful and serene place, with the tribe going about their daily routines and rituals. However, everything changes when a horde of rampaging dinosaurs suddenly burst forth from the nearby jungle. The creatures, infected by the Brood virus, are mindless and aggressive, attacking anything and everything in their path. The Fall People are caught off guard and quickly find themselves in a desperate fight for survival, using primitive weapons and their knowledge of the land to fend off the dinosaur attackers. The once peaceful village is now a battleground, with the sounds of roars and battle cries echoing through the air as the two sides clash in a brutal and bloody conflict.

As the battle continues to rage on, the Fall People are struggling to fend off the unrelenting onslaught of the infected dinosaur horde. The village is being torn apart, with buildings and huts falling to ruin, and villagers falling left and right. But hope is not lost, as the sound of thundering hooves can be heard in the distance. It's the sound of a charging cavalry, led by Princess Diana of the Amazons, riding atop Kanga, and her trusted ally, Captain Eophi!

Over the comms shared by the super hero teams in the region, Wonder Woman's voice calls out in the heat of battle. "We are engaging a large Brood force near the northwestern Fall People village! Calling for backup from anyone within range!"

Atop Jumpa, Diana draws her sword, aims it forward, and with her line of 100 Amazon riders, the two armies rush together, Amazons versus Brood infected Raptors!

Who will come to their aid, and help the villagers of this once peaceful place!

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The Brood have spread their infection. Reached out of the containment zone that seems impossible for them to breach and clear. If the Brood spread and take over the Savage Land, the results will be catastrophic. And Monet is flying along with the group to try and see what they can do to contain the damage. She has equipment taken from the local Amazons that they're willing to share with a trainee. Long spear, mace, shield, sword, axe. The weapons twisted over her back or along her hips. The Brood are a bit risky to engage with just her fists.

She goes to fly on in to charge, moving to take out her spear in one hand, shield int he other, flanking along those racing to intercept and hit the Brood from the side!

If the Amazons had a battle cry, now would be the time to use it. But nothing has as of so far held mainstream appeal.

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Crush was a recruit... trainee? Honestly she didn't know what she was in the Justice League, she just knew that Superman introduced her as someone who could help, and help was what she was going to do!

When the call went out, she was one of the first to drop everything and join those headed to the Savage Lands. She had no clue what the Savage Lands were, but when Wonder Woman called you didn't bother the woman with inane questions.

<<Aim me where you want some real damage done, Wonder Woman! I ain't afraid of these messed up dinos!>> It wasn't exactly a war car, but it most certainly was eager sounded... it had been a long while since Crush got to punch something.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Where Diana goes, Cassie follows, and that even applies to this horrible place!

The two arrived ahead of the mission with a small contingent of their sisters, and after spending a bit of time smoothing over ruffled diplomatic feathers among the various native leaders, have been able to able to establish a local encampment. The Fall People have been very useful allies in gaining the trust of the other local tribes, and welcoming hosts besides.

All the more reason to help defend them!

"How have they come so far, so quickly?" shouts Chomak, one of their war council, a leader among the People. Among the defenders, he shouts orders to organize the tribe. "Send the young and elderly back! Defend the second stockade!"

As they scramble for defense, the Amazon force makes its charge, and Cassie is there atop Hoppa, and like Diana, she is armored and armed. This is more than a punching matter. And with the 'inconsistency' of their powers in the face of the Celestial computers, these traditional armaments are even more important. So far, this distant, everything is working fine. But you never know...

"Hiyaaaa!" Cassie shouts, with her typical enthusiasm, launching over a gap atop her mount, to come close to where one of the RaptorBrood is chasing down a tribesperson. She leans over in her saddle, far to one side, as they bound in, and slashes with her sword, cleaving one of its legs and sending it careening into a crash, where several of the Fall People move to finish it off with long spears.

Everyone is cautious of their... blood? Ichor? Whatever it is, out of fear of infection.

Ororo Munroe has posed:
For Ororo, the biggest challenge wasn't just the Celestial technology that was hindering her powers. It was the way the climate seemed to fight her every command. An attempt to bring fog was defeated by sudden, high winds; calling rain was countered by extreme heat drying up the skies.

Fortunately, Ororo is not entirely dependent on her weather-calling abilities. She can ride capably enough on a horse and catches up to the skirmish quickly. The weather goddess is clad in black and white, the only nod to ornamentation being a short cape and a short helmet that manages to look almost like a circlet. Sensible boots with a heavy heel offer plenty of purhase on the horse and on the rough terrain. Behind her, Ororo carries a quiver bristling with short javelins. She stands up in the stirrups with expert balance and sets one of the javelins in a strange block of wood cradled on her forearm. With a great shout of effort she hurls the javelin into the pitch and promptly picks up another one, readying her aim immediately.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha was not actually looking forward to this mission. She saw what had happened to that T-rex at the start of the outbreak. So she figured best not get any gunk on her. She looks horrible in chitlin but she does rock an X-Suit pretty well. Her usual black synthetic leather latexy thing in two pieces, the jacket with padding in yellow across her chest, shoulders, and most of her arms. A little at the knees and her boots are pretty good for protection too.

It still leaves that six pack of a midscection she earned on display. tactically sound, when dealing with what is a virulent biological attack? Hell no. FAB? Hell yes!

She had come with the rest of the X-Men Sunglasses on her nose and a flamethrower on her shoulder. It might have been a gift from Deadpool and technuically a war crime but someone might find it handy. Honestly staying out of melee range is probably the best idea. And fire, or plasma is totally the cleanser.

There's a bit of jumping and psyching herself up but soon she steps up. The first volley of super heated plasma bombs is made, charging them like she's spinning plates and doing some mix of kata and a hip swaying dance.

<<So like incoming BOOMS! Hasta lasagna, really don't get any brood gunk on ya!>> the bowling ball sized spheres should be enough to vaporise most raptors. Bigger than humans as they are, it's scorching and having enough heat and force to vaporise organic armor and endo skeleton she has to make sure aren't left behind.

And not catch anyone else in blasts or splash zones. Which means getting in closer to risk of melee range and directing shots over and around her comrades.

Isalia has posed:
    Isalia is not one of the riders, as she is far more comfortable under her own propulsion. Which means that above the line of Amazon cavalry flies a single archer. In her white and gold armor she almost gleams in the sunlight above the Savage Lands. Her bow is white as well, but she wears no quiver at all.

    As the dinosaurs come into view, she pulls back on the bowstring and what can only be seen as a distortion in the air forms where the arrow would normally be. As they close with the enemy, she starts looking over the area for likely targets. From her higher vantage point, she starts looking for villagers the Brood dinos may have trapped in the village. She knows quite well the line of Amazons will inflict grievous damage t the main body of dinos, so she's assigned herself to making sure stragglers do not get eaten/infected.

    Spotting one such straggler she aims at the creature threatening the woman and lets fly, the barely visible arrow flashing across the space to the Brood creature, punching a hole in it's neck and distracting it as it rears back to look for what hurt it. The villager takes this opportunity to flee towards the cover of the stockade.

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
If the Justice League lit a flare, they can probably expect Meggan to respond far more regularly than her worse half. John Constantine will no doubt find a dozen excuses for avoiding hyper-aggressive alien bug people, which is a pity considering the Brood probably won't stand for occupying him or his absolutely questionable trenchcoat. That's quite understandable, all said and done. Imagine trying to find a host out of that.

Wonder Woman lit that flare and behold, the blonde Tuath de Danaan answers. Not that much exactly remains to see when she is essentially the wind. Picking out her transparent silhouette moving that quickly isn't easy as long as the Celestial technology hasn't decided to undo her in the weirdest of ways. If it does, she's more than capable of dealing with that; her physiology can more than absorb a bounce off her mother's rocky skin.

Going to the Savage Lands is a new experience and so's a cavalry charge of Amazons. Their ringing cries transmitted through her turn into peculiar skirling whistles and wails, vibrating loudly across the shrieking breeze that should hopefully unnerve any of the Brood. That's the point, anyway. She plays crowd control as long as she can fly, knocking incoming troubles off course or stymying their approach. Even if the chaos in motion comes from unseen sources, it's better than relying on direct assaults.

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana leads the charge of her Amazon sisters toward the besieged Fall People village. The jungle is filled with the screeching sounds of the Brood-infected Raptors that had poured out of the dense tree line around the village. Mixed with the sounds of the Dinosaur shrieks are the terrified sounds of the Fall People themselves.



A grotesque Raptor lunges for Wonder Woman, its mouth wide open as it spews a filthy ichor from behind its claws, only to have Wonder Woman dodge via the agility of her faithful Kanga mount 'Jumpa'. In a flash, Wonder Woman's sword slashes through the neck of the infected Dino, severing its head from its neck, causing both pieces of the Dinosaur's remains to fly off in to the tall grass.

The Princess spins around to face the others arriving, as the line of charging Kanga warriors press forward!

Diana motions toward the locals. "Protect them! Make sure none of these creatures get close enough to spread the disease!" She shouts toward Xio, toward Tabitha and any others who are within range of her shouting voice.

For those in the air, a sudden danger emerges from over the tree canopy, in the form of infected flying Pterranadons, and Pterradactyls! Their own howling screams echo through the edges of the jungle as their heavy, leathery wings flap in the hot climate air!

Shadows play across the grasslands as the flying infected swoop down toward any of the fleeing people that they can sink their claws in to, with some of the infected Dinos even showing strange signs of severe disease, in the form of giant tumor-like growths coming out of their bodies, or across their face and heads.

In the heart of the village, some of the Fall People warriors have lit fires, and are producing fire-tipped arrows, but as they draw to shoot upon the Raptors, a smashing sound is heard from the trees, and a massive infected T-Rex emerges from the trees, snapping branches in half as it slams its heavy feet down upon the soft earth, then lets out a ear-shattering roar!

Diana turns to the chaos, her mount showing its anxiety about all of this with nervous jittery movements, but Diana pulls on the leather reigns and directs Jumpa onward, the Kanga leaping in to the air before slamming back down upon another Raptor, crushing it in to the ground beneath.

"Focus all attack upon the Tyranasaur!" Wonder Woman shouts to everyone involved who is not already engaged by the Raptors themselves...

And as one fights, they'll find that the more visibly infected Dinos, have a growth of 'armor' across their skin, making it considerably harder to penetrate through to the poor creatures who've been lost to the rot beneath...

Monet St. Croix has posed:
This is goign to be nasty. Very, very nasty. Have to stay at range, can't charge directly up into them.. Monet is familiar with the spear and shield, but she prefers to fight things with her fists. Her telepathy is of limited use in a fight as big as this.. At least, in an offensive capacity. What she can do is spread her mind throughout the minds of everyone that permits it. For members of the X-Men, a familiar maneuver. Likely the same for the Justice League and members of the Titans as Monet sets up a mental batlte meld for everyone to coordinate.

She can keep it up throughout most of the heroes and leaders of the Amazons, but she's pushing her limits in doing so.

So she hovers somewhat away from the main batltefield, sos he can focus her powers on keeping up the mental network to help share resources and information!

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
With the knowledge of what was needed first, Crush literally jumps into action. Focusing her attention on the T-Rex,, she gathers strength in her legs and launches herself toward it with a massive leap and an almost girlish giggle. Under normal circumstances this is the point where Obelus would unwrap herself from the Czarnian's body to engage the chosen enemy first, but the thick metal chain wrapped around her body didn't move. There were no images shared in Crush's head from her, no indications of what, if anything, she intended to do. It was a first, and very unnerving, but the Czarnian was still going full bore into the fight.

Protection mode engaged, she chose a 'line in the sand' in the area she could cover and quite literally started punching dinosaurs. She'd learned from the Titans a little more than the standard street fighting she had started her career out with. She knew how to dodge, dip, dance, dive and punch the ever living snot out of things, but she also know when to pull her punches. She'd come a long way in a short time, but today was about protecting innocent lives with everything she had.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
The 'goo spitting' Diana witnesses is a new trick. Well, OK, it's all new to Cassie, but that one wasn't covered in the JL briefing. Not that she read the whole thing. You know, she kinda skimmed it for the good parts. Blah blah, 'genetic variation on original Brood swarm' blah blah 'alternate vectors of reproduction via infection' blah. Who has time for all of that?

Well, maybe she ought to have paid a little more attention.

After cutting down one charging raptor, Cassie pulls Hoppa to a halt before the next wave, just as behind them, Chomak shouts a word in his local language, and a massive volley of those fire arrows streaks over her head and into the line of dinos ahead of her, causing chaos. She looks back over her shoulder, and gives him a thumbs up and a wink.

And then, as she turns back, one of the unhit raptors 'returns fire' in a similar way to the one that spewed at Diana. She only barely gets her shield up in time, sending the black goo splashing over the surface. "Ew, gross."

The rest of the wave comes in soon, although the swarm has been thinned by the volley of fire arrors (and air arrows, from above). The remaining dinos are those which have grown heavier chitinous plates. Not easy marks.

As one charges right at her, she pulls Hoppa into a sharp turn, not wishing to meet the beast head on like that. But as her battle 'roo leaps away and the Brood instinctively turns to chase it, she leaps from the saddle, launching into the air, to make an arcing pass up, over, and then down onto it from behind. With its gaze focused on her fleeing Kanga, it doesn't see her come down from behind, aiming her sword into a gap in those big armor plates. It dies, but slowly, skidding to a tumbling stop.

It's only then that she looks up, seeing the pteradons pass over head, before the roar of the T-Rex draws attention in a second direction. "Oh you've gotta be kidding me with all of this..."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Blast after blast fly over amazons heads and anyone else fighting on the ground. her ability to shape anddirect the blasts forcing as many back as she is just vaporising as many to keep numbers down but Tabitha can only keep the high octane blasts up for so long.

She's at least working to zone as much of the brood as she can, but as people move in closer she has to as well. Which puts her in danger of being flanked by some of the smaller dino bugs That arnored chitlin going to take some doing. The har5d part is dealing with all the people using nlades and melee weapons and splashing gunk everywhere. "EWWWW, don't get any thing on you!" she yells. As much into the comms in her ear as just yelling over the racket of the fight. Some of the bigger splashes from one stab to keep her not being eaten gets itb all in her hair.

That restults in more direct blasts. "Someone needs to be a sugar mama and but be a jetpack so I can do this shit airborn!" she yells and pouts as she keeps trying to keep making room and sterilising the fighting area.

That's going to the hardest part. If one bug gets loose. Then might as well be coming back.

<<Dammit, of course this place still messing with the tlepathy. Too many people, too many bugs, too much goddamn Lemuring tech fuckery with powers!>> she tries to get a mind link going but it might be a bit much for her semi beginner skills.

Isalia has posed:
    Another arrow flashes across the gap between Isalia and the raptor she had distracted from it's prey, this time taking it in the head and dropping it to the ground. She starts to scan for other villagers to help when the host of fliers erupts from the trees. This is going to be a bit more complex than it first appeared.

    Snapping off a shot which takes a Pterodactyl in the eye causing it to crash to the ground outside the village, she begins to dodge flyers. She's got speed on her side, but the enemy definitely has numbers on theirs. Three or four of the flock decide she looks either tasty or Broodable, and start to chase her to the exclusion of all else.

    While she could easily evade them with speed, that would not help the Fall people with their current danger. As she flies in zigzags, she snaps a shot off towards one of the dinos on the ground. To her surprise, the arrow glances off a chitinous plate and the dino keeps moving.

    <Armor, right. Eyes are a weak point> she thinks to herself before swerving left to keep space between her and the Pterosaurs chasing her. She hears the order about the Tyrannosaur, but is otherwise engaged at the moment. She doesn't have time to take a shot, but on spotting a child being menaced by a particularly strange looking Compsognathus, she dips down and bats it away with her bow, shouting "Get to safety!" as she zips by the boy.

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
Pterosaurs as a clade rely heavily on stable wind patterns to fly about with those heavy, leathery wings. Great impressive wingspans don't adjust nearly so well as impressive feathery plumage. Just ask Meggan who has experimented having both at various times in life.

She takes a defensive run around the Fall People's village, interposing herself between the bulk of the civilian population and any incoming waves of Brood-infected activity storming from forest or skies in turn. Bit like having air defense to Monet's AWACS. Her rapid circling both gives a good line of sight and creates considerable turbulence where heat and humid air bubbles run erratically. Some savage updrafts form by her shifting the lateral orbit to a demented atomic pattern, swinging unpredictably around a constantly moving centre to ensure the Brood can't get very close.

Ground-level is another story though. "Dinosaurs were bad enough spoilin' Doctor Who! Least the Silurians weren't out for galactic decimation." Distortions play across her very much English accent with her mild grousing.

Following on the heels of another raptor bounding out, she jerks her airy hands in front of her. The soggy ground trod along the margins of the rainforest starts to thicken, squishy and treacherous muck that happily swallows up heavy things. Say, Jeeps. Or several-tonne animals infected by the Brood, or the Brood themselves. Churned earth gathers a few inviting puddles when the water table goes funny and the ground rebels to the ongoing whispers from the scion of the Tuatha's implored requests.

The results take a bit of time to be seen, but a raptor abruptly trips on its face where it certainly wasn't having problems before.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
Blink has been helping some of the locals of Fall People village while the others take the lead fending off the attacking force of dinosaurs. She wears her best savage land outfit of casualness. Her waves up to Meggan as she zips by and tries to signal someone else to help usher some of the older people to a safe spot but it's just chaos and there's really no totally safe spot to run to. She ushers a couple people between some huts, "Quick! Everyone back here! Watch out now!" she calls out much too often.

The Pterosaurs that zipped by Meggan begin to divebomb toward Blink and she gets in front of an older man who has fallen, "Oh no! Watch out, here they come!" she says. She tries to help the man but it's no use. She has to make a stand, turning back to the Pterosaurs, she BLINKS a portal right in the middle of one of their midsections, splattering it good. "Back up! Don't get that stuff on you!" she lets out, <<Monet? Tabitha? Where'd you go? Can someone help me with these people? I've got divebombers at 12 o' clock! I think they're coming back!>>

Diana Prince has posed:
The softening of the earth that Meggan creates, works out in a surprisingly effective way when a whole new host of heavy infected Raptors burst from the underbrush and land right in the muck! A wave of dark mud flows out across the ground, as the Dinos plunge down in to it, slipping, falling, flailing, and roaring at the sensation of it all!

The T-Rex stomps through the mud, his sheer-height giving him an advantage over it, and as arrows slam in to his armored hide, they just bounce right back off again. With a powerful roar, the infected Tyrannasaur knocks down a primitive shack where some of the Fall People archers were. He snaps his head down, and his mutated teeth spear right in to one of the Fall People warriors, lifting him up in to the air... where what comes next is not quite so good.

Tabitha's bomb throwing prowess is impressive, but in her focused aim state, she doesn't notice the grass behind her waving in wild patterns, and from it the leaping forms of more Compies suddenly strike! A whole host of the little buggers launch themselves at Agent Smith, some of them not even infected, they're just hungry and here for the party!

Monet isn't left to her own devices out on the fringe either, she's spotted by three of the flying Dinos, and with flappings of their heavy wings, screaching of their elongated beaks, they rush toward her, trying to pick her out of the air like a poised morsil just waiting to be devoured!

Diana, still on Jumpa, rushes toward where the T-Rex is, her lasso snapping in to action it untwines itself in-flight, until it wraps around the T-Rex's armored throat, she pulling hard back upon it to pull it back before it can snag another of the fleeing archers from that ruined shack of a tower!

The T-Rex writhes, thrashes against the lasso's binding power, and Diana's sheer strength. It tries to lunge down at her now, only to have Jumpa do what he does... and jump out of the way! Diana is doing her best to keep the T-Rex at-bay though, for others to increase their assault upon it!

The sounds of children screaming pierces the chaos, a long stone and thatch-roofed building under attack by a group of Raptors that lurked their way out of a copse of jungle trees. They've found the school building, and much to the dismay of the Fall People's soldiers, they're mostly undefended from the Brood Raptors trying to force the doorway open!

Chomak shouts to the heroes on-scene. "Get to the school! They're set upon it!"

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The winds from the air warriors break M's focus, and the whiplash of the winds nearly break her mind link, minimal as it is. She takes a moment to reorient herself over on the winds lashing about her, and the Pterrors.. She moves to snap out with the heavy spear in one hand, shield in the other. The first attack by a charging flier is met on the shield with a loud CLANG!

M's not quite as adept at wielding it as she should. Even in midair, she has to brace some to take the strike. She goes to strike out with the spear, missing but the lash driving away her attacker.. And leaving her to be pecked on the flanks by the otehr whirling ones!

This has her fully drop the mindlink after a quick mental apology as she has to focus on not dropping her hsield as she swings it about in a wild flail that manages to get her a little bit of extra room as she twirls about wiht the spear! She uses it more like a polearm than a spear, her smashing about managing to on the heavily reinforced wood flack the winged warrior away! The solid wood of Themyscira does not give, even as Monet is close to using it as a very long bat..

Those few moments give her time to rally herself as she keeps on lashing over at them, intent on just driving them away from her as they would circle away, going for easier prey. M has a few seconds to pant, theng oes to cycle up the mind link again..

Right in tie to pass along to everyone else the warning of the attack on tehs chool as she goes to abort and fly in that direction!

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
The logical choice would have been to land on the ground by the T-Red, but for the half-Czarnian logic wasn't always at the ready and this time it paid off for her. Just as Wonder Woman's lasso wrapped around the beast, and the ground beneath it went mushy, Crush landed on it's back and started wailing on it with full strength.

Seeing the T-Rex attack one of the citizens of this land, and still going for the Amazons, especially Wonder Woman, logic finally kicks in. Reaching to grab the lasso wrapped around the monster, she pulls it tight around the beast's neck. Less blood to contaminate things was likely the better choice, and with Obelus out of action the lasso was, in her opinion, the best choice for a bloodless kill.

The T-Rex instantly looses all interest in those on the ground and begins bucking around, attempting to get the thing off its back all the while unable to breath. When it does go down, sliding through the muck and mud, Crush goes with it, not letting up on the pressure around its neck until she is certain it is dead.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Be it pterodactyl-ish things or raptors with bug wings, weather powers are an efficient way of handling it, and so Cassie leaves the air-to-air to Meggan and her literal air-demigoddess of sister. Instead, she focuses the increasing carnage wrought by the tyrant lizard and on her mentor's command - and her subsequent engagement with the beast.

Lasso teamwork is a common theme with the Amazons!

Chomak, too, rallies to face the the T-Rex - and to help rescue his people from the destroyed hut. He has no powers to call on but his bravery... and his own brothers and sisters in arms. The Fall People are proud hunters and warriors, and absent the alien component... this is not the first raging seven ton dinosaur he has fought in his life. The Savage Land has always been a brutal place.

So as Diana 'leashes' the beast, he charges forward with his fellows, some hurling spears from short range rather than relying on weaker bows. Several bounce off the tyrannosaur's bug armor, but others find gaps, causing it to writhe and roar - and to focus on them, as others rush to grab their wounded comrades and pull them away. And though Wonder Woman has good control of it's neck, the most impressive thing about it's size isn't really its height - but rather its 40 foot length, most of it in its tail. In its Brood form, it's also gained their typical tail-barb, a vicious, possibly poisonous spike, here of truly grizzly proportions.

So as it thrashes against first Diana's binding, and then Crush atop it, it is that tail that becomes the menace, whipping around, lashing both at buildings and through the Fall people on the ground. One such sweeping blow comes right for Chomak!

Only to be caught by Cassie, as she swoops in at the last moment. The two have met, at the prior Amazon negotiations, so she gives him a little grin. "Owe me one." And with that, she bears down with all her own strength to keep the tail still, while Diana keeps it bound from the other end and Crush goes in for the kill, holding it until the alien-hosting beast's struggles finally cease.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
<<Blink!? I left a flame thrower back near...>> well she beams the location but she can't actualy make any mental verbal telepathic conversation. All those little compies and bug brood Dinos all sawam and jump on her.

There's screams and blasts and yells "Get off me, get off me!" she yells in repeat while she's spat at, bitten and clawed. Some brood, some not brood but probablhy will be soon. There's blood in the air, ick and ichor over her bared skin and eventually those close might feel air rushing inwards towards the dino slash bug piled blonde.

Mind link broadcasting terror and fear and a suggestion everything get herded towards her for some scorched earth as wide a reach as she can before the telepathy drops from her end as well and she's charging a massive blast. At her own feet. How much she can blast versus how long she can last before being eaten she doesn't know but she's puttingb a lot into it.

"Tick... Ow Tick... Tick ow Tick... ow" she counts down. At least if it really gets flarked up. She warned Monet at least what she was going to do back when they were training.

If this works she might not have to do the second part of her plan but that depends on which voices she'll hear in her head later on. The astral plane is lovely this time of year.

But for now, she can't wait any longer and has to let the plasma go.

Boom!

Blast rocks hard and loud at ground level. It would take a lot for anything in the hefty blast radius to not just disappear.

Tabitha however is moving upwards. Skywarrd bound and the expletive is loud like Goofy was yelling the F word. A trail of smoke and steamy burned compy and brood gunk smouldering while she flails her limbs like she's flapping her arms.

Please don't be out of juice now, please don't be out of juice now!" she mutters to herself. She'd really rather not die or anything that has her jumping Astral Ship.

Isalia has posed:
    The sound of the children grabs Isalia's complete attention. Ignoring her own pursuers, she suddenly hits the afterburners, as it were, and it's only the small size of the village that keeps her from breaking the sound barrier. She comes to a complete stop in the air and fires an arrow through one raptor's eye, killing it.

    Swooping down out of the air, the bow is suddenly a fraction of it's size and gets tucked away in it's sheath. She grabs a raptor's tail, goes through a full spin to get it moving, and bats another raptor away from the school's door with the one she is hanging on to. She has seen some of this time's video games so she sticks with the whirling attack and smacks another raptor with her improvised weapon, despite it protesting vigorously.

    Rising from the ground about ten feet to clear the rooftops, she releases the raptor's tail, throwing it into the small flock of Pterosaurs still trying to follow her. It hits one full on, carrying raptor and pterosaur out beyond the village, where they proceed to attack each other. More raptors are moving in on the school and she can't take all of them, so hopefully someone else also heard the call.

    She reaches down and pulls the bow back out, cutting her flight and dropping to the ground already on one knee with the bow back to full size. She's a bit upset and children are endangered, so there's no question if the arrow has formed this time because lightning is crackling across the bow. Focusing on the incoming raptors she draws and releases with blurring speed, lightning bolts cracking across the space between her and the raptors. One, then the next, then another are hit with a loud CRAK sound, dropping to the ground writhing in pain and lack of muscle control, others dropping unmoving. But even more are coming in, like a nightmare tide of creatures that should never have existed.

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
Terror tends to bombard Meggan in the worst ways. It's there and then suddenly not. Flowing through the world with empathy as a sense profound as scent or sight, only for it to stop, tends to come as a trembling shock to the system.

Her body briefly becomes visible, its intangibility at least given a blue-shaded colour. Shock crackles through her in a cry fed partly by the frightened children, Tabitha being swarmed, Blink calling out for help. The falling Brood too as they still have feelings.

The lack of feeling emotions is disturbing enough, very disturbing. Instinct drives her to the ground, splattering mud in a wave. She coalesces in the flesh not far from the school, and probably ten steps in, the tenuous connection snaps back into place and once more her body turns ephemeral. For Isalia or those children, witnessing the faerie goddess flash in and out of visible existence could be as weird as plaque-ridden monstrous dinosaurs stamping about.

She isn't Constantine's equal in magic by a long shot. But John, Zatanna, and some guy named Merlin all taught her important lessons, and those important lessons include big badda boom. Translucent fingers emanate a strange glow from the mana locked up in her system, burning its way out in a blatantly painful fashion. Vapors wisp off her amorphous skin, bleeding hues of verdant green and the lemony gold so common in spring.

Back to flesh again. A gesture sends a magical blast crashing into the raptors and shoves her back several feet. Another arm raised flings a crescent arc ahead of her, brute force to bombard the incoming with a burning wall. Smaller creatures scatter away from the school, sent fleeing when their tough hides start developing some nasty patches of manafire.

Without the emotive link stabilized, she's not able to sustain any kind of control over the elements. The soil's still mucky but not actively trying to eat anyone. From finesse to fry them with what you got seems to be her primary mode at the moment. John would have some lovely curse, Zee some precise incantation, and Meg is just happy to be the wrecking ball.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
Blink turns to look down the dark path toward the school, <<I can see the school from here! Some raptors are trying to get in! There's a lot of em! I don't know...I don't really know if...>> she says on the mindlink and trails off while squinting at what she thinks she sees over there. Meggan and some of the others keep the raptors back and she's grateful for that. She helps the older man to safety with the assistance of a couple other villagers but a dive bombing Pterosaur makes it hard to move to the school or anywhere else very quickly, "Let's head the other way. There's some trouble over there."

The pink hero runs with the older people for a while until she thinks they're safe then BLINK! She teleports right back where she was and runs back toward the school, <<Tabby? Flame thrower? Where? I can't just explode them all! They're too close to the school!>> she tells Tabitha. She frowns and seems unsure of what to do in this situation. As one of the raptors chomps on the school door she BLINKS inside the school!

Now she's inside the shaking building as it starts to topple and crumble and everything starts coming apart. "Everyone! Get by me!" she yells to the children, "Quick! Come on!". She glances around and can't really count them all but hopefully there's backup to hold off the raptors for her plan. She then tries to teleport the group out of there before the raptors burst in or the whole thing collapses. She grabs for one of the kids who just isn't close enough, "That's it! Great! Now!"

BLINK!!!!!!!

Diana Prince has posed:
The combined efforts of Isalia and Meggan help give Blink time to get inside the school building. Whilst within its walls, a corner of its thatch roof is torn open, and the large beak of one of the giant flying Dinos comes snapping in toward some of the kids who look afraid of Blink... being that she's an outsider. The giant beak snapping in at them change the kids' minds though, and together they rush to join Blink just before the Mutant can use her mutation! The children, and few adults that were inside the building all get sent out of it, just as its northern wall crumbles, and a Raptor leaps in with its infected goo being barfed out of its mouth in every direction!

When the Raptor stops expelling that black ichor, it just looks around at the empty building interior... and barks curiously, before the flying Dino pecks at it! The two Dinos are left fighting each other now in confusion!

At the T-Rex: The stabbing of the beast continues, along with the efforts of the powerful Crush! Cassie and the Fall People take down its thrashing tail, and soon the mighty beast is left to its final gasps for oxygen.

There's an eerie silence then, before one of the blisters on its stomach suddenly explodes, sending black goo in all directions! LOOK OUT!

Wonder Woman raises her shield up to block the explosive goop, and while behind it, her eyes look up to see Tabitha sailing through the air.

"Monet. Try and catch your friend." Diana tells the French-woman through comms and whatever psychic mind-links may still be up.

Appearing beside Crush now, Diana gives her arm a light pat before she pulls the lasso from the T-Rex's throat. "Good work." She notes to the young Justice League initiate.

Past Cassie, some of the villagers are already moving in to start to pour flammable liquid over the T-Rex's corpse, and soon it is set alight with torches brought in by the fire-attendees.

"Come, let us send off the last of the Raptors." Diana says, motioning toward her Kanga who is soonm re-mounted by the Amazon Princess. Upon the saddle of her Jumpa, Diana bounds off toward the fight that Isalia and Meggan are left to fight. Those that Meggan unsettled with her sudden appearance are rushing past her now to hide amongst the village warriors that are all gathering around the fires... the fire pits are large enough now that the infected Dinos that yet remain seem unwanting to get near to them even.

This leaves a horde of Raptors moving around the school building to form up a line, to face down the Heroes in this fight. Their bodies are covered in those strange blisters, their eyes even seem to be glowing with a strange yellow light, while some of them even have boney spikes jutting out of random places across their bodies.

They stop, and just stare at the Heroes, deciding what to do... Screaches come, hollars ring out... and the last line of Raptors charge at the warriors of this village, along with their foreign protectors!

Meanwhile, far off from the village, atop a large grassy hill... a massive Spinosaurus stands. It is not infected. It looks entirely natural and healthy. It is watching the fight from its high point on the hill... almost entirely motionless save for its tail gently swaying...

Monet St. Croix has posed:
And there goes Tabitha launche dup through the air! The group seems to be making work at evacuating the school and corraling off the attackers. It's when Tabitha goes to make it out like Meowth that M receives the message from Diana. There's an affirmative sent through the air along Monet's strained mental link as far as sh can try and maintain it, keeping track of her fellow mutants, those Amazons, and.. The stabby bundle of joy that is Meggan rampaging on and off through the landscape spreading her happy hippy spring ways and cleansing the heretics.

And so Tabitha would fly up through the air, and Monet quickly adjusts to put the shield on her back, rearranging the weapons she had on her to secure them, and she's going in to fly and catch Tabitha! Then Tabitha lands, secure in her grip!

FWOMPH!

And Monet has goo on her. Black Brood goo. Dino goo. And god knows what other sorts of alien biomass and goo, along with gunk in the ground and.. Best not to ask. Or know. Unfortunately, MOnet's hyper-intelligent brain can tell her each and every single one of those things that ooze down her like she was just hit in the face by a charging Slimer. But made of mutated alien freaks.

"MY OUTFIT!" Even as she shrieks. "MY HAIR!" She should be above such things! But.. Murder Tabitha later for this. Hope no one heard her screaming. Unfortunately they likely all did.

With a Tabitha secured (mostly) and M looking like she just fell into a tar pit, Monet has to just fly along with Tabitha at high speed. "I fly, you shoot." Even as seh holds the girl mostly dangling as she goes in for a high speed strafing run over agaisnt some of the groups of dinosaurs. While mourning her outfit. And her manicure. And her pedicure. And her facial. And.. All those things. WHICH SHE JUST HAD.

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
Picking herself up, Crush doesn't bother to try and brush the gook, goo, blood and mud from herself, there's a lot more coming and it was already everywhere. With the T-Rex down and about to go up in flames, she starts looking around for a new target while listening for signs of people in need.

And then Wonder Woman is coming to retrieve her lasso and speaks directly to the young Czarnian. It takes all of Crush's willpower not to fangirl all over the place in that moment. There were still dinosaurs to punch... a line she never thought she'd think.

Doing her best to keep her cool, she responds to the Amazon Princess with a nod, and quiet, "Thanks." Before jumping back into action. A couple of the raptors in range find their necks snapped, before she notices the larger group near the school lining up against the others.

It was go time. Once again taking the required seconds to obtain the correct trajectory, she leaps to cover the distance between where she was and the others on the line. She's a walking wall when she needs to be, and even if she doesn't punch another dinosaur, she was going to put herself in the way of those sharp teeth and claws to protect anyone she could.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Cassie gives a whistle, summoning Hoppa back to her side like a trusty video game mount.

"I will ride with you, my people need me!" declares Chomak. And, powers aside, it's certain that he will do much to bolster those who protect the school. And so Cassie grins and turns back to offer him a hand, pulling him rather easily up onto her otherwise rather taller than average kangaroo.

Thus the two quickly fall in, riding behind Diana. On the approach, Chomak has his bow out, firing as they bounce along in approach. Then, as they near, Cassie leans down, whispering to the beast, before glancing back and offering him the reins. "You people ride dinos sometimes, this should be a breeze. Just guide gently with these, she'll follow."

With that, she leaps into the air, sails toward the raptor mass, and uncoils her lasso, whipping it about freely in the air. This is a typical trick of hers, using it less to capture and more as a wide-scale weapon, lashing it like a whip as she calls upon the fury of Olympus to make it a more frightening weapon.

... except nothing happens. The rope remains a rope. Flight and strength? A-OK, it seems. But lightning straight from the gods? Such divine meddling is rejected. Her leap finishes, landing her right before the raptor horde and she tries another trick, bringing her arms up and together in an angry metallic impact of her bracers. Also nothing. Well, aside from the loud CLANG. It was sort of loud... ish. "Oh, you've got to be... Seriously, whatever a Celestial even is, they can go get fucked."

With no fancy tricks to call on, Cassie has to do this the hard way. She falls in beside Crush, pulls out (again) the sword and shield, and... just goes to town, the old fashioned way. It's true hack-and-slash, blade versus claw. Fortunately, her strength, speed, and Amazonian prowess don't fail her. Indeed, after one shout in Themysciran Greek, which is echoed shortly after by Eophi, soon the other scattered Amazons begin to fall in, creating a shield wall as they are trained to do.

Chomak, riding in, LEAPS the formation on Hoppa, landing behind to rejoin his people. Those who can fight? Quickly grasping the Amazon style, he directs them to join the phalanx with their spears, fighting from the rear rank, held back from the lethal claws, fangs, tail spikes, and other strange weapons of the brooptors.

And like that, together, they make their stand!

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Tabitha is as she would term straight up fitlthy, That was a lot of mess that got on her and in some open wounds from the biting and clawing of all those now charcoal smears of Compies.

At least when Money catches her finally she looks up and grins.

The blonde is tired and hurting but she's not dead. There's worse worries than that. Like infections and Monet's vengeance for her outfit.

At least when she's caught and lower down, she's back in range of the fight her powers are back, diminished they may be. <<I'm not gonna have long. So much booms taking so much juice. Got any. I'll settle for a line of coke or a hit of MGH right now really!>>

It might burn her out if she did that but for now. Tabby makes herself a smaller ball of beat up and gunked up blonde in Monet's arms and easier to carry as a result while she starts laying down a strafing run.

Booms as big as she started but the numbers aren't as big as she starts working to conserve energy. But she keeps it up as long as she can. <<I hope we have a hot spring full of like disinfectant somewhere when we're done. I still haven't seen Themycira. I'm kinda done with Florida right now.>> she might be getting her Savage Lands mixed up. Her head's fuzzy, Tabitha's been throug a lot!

Isalia has posed:
    In what might be a somewhat ironic point, Meggan is actually the most familiar being on the field today. Thousands of years in her father's realm has made spirits and elementals as well-known to Isalia as her Amazon sisters, perhaps even more so. No time to go into that now, however. Brood dinos are _not_ familiar, and she really doesn't want them to be.

    Taking advantage of Meggan's attack on the swarm, she snaps lightning bolts into two that were still headed for the school, then lets the electricity fade, returning to the hardened air arrows. These seem to take advantage of the patches of fire on the fleeing dinos, punching through weakened armor to drop the things as they run away. It may seem less than honorable to shoot fleeing enemies, but they really need to kill all of these things so they don't keep multiplying.

    With that thought comes the realization that they may be here for a while. With even dinos as small as the compys getting infected, it's going to be really, really hard to root them out of the jungles. She doesn't slow down her barrage of arrows however, making shots that sometimes seem impossible to onlookers. When the raptors line up and charge, several more arrows strike from the rear.. and then the bow emits a few sparks and falls silent.

    This is a new problem, and not one she especially wants to have right now. She shakes the bow a couple times, trying to call up it's power, but it remains inert. With no other option, she pulls the short sword from it's sheath on her hip and continues to guard the door, not knowing that the children are safe.

Meggan Puceanu has posed:
Ew. Black goo everywhere, erupting from pustules and gaping maws, is enough to make Meggan scramble away in something of a mad rush not to get caught in the foul pestilence.

She may be brave about many things, but not in a situation with projectile infection vomit. This situation resembles the horrible ooze scene at the start of the Neverending Story far too much for her comfort. "Keep that to yourself, you awful things!"

Her opinion may endear her at least to a few people, if unexpectedly, because what hardened citizen of the Fall People really want a dinosaur to spew the ichorous bile all over them? At least they share something in common other than a capacity for violence.

She gives the villagers some berth, nodding to Blink. The pointy-eared mutant's skillful teleportation has removed multiple non-combatants, a worthy endeavour. No need to crowd them when a raptor doom seems to be at hand.

Seeing the Amazon cavalry mounting up again, she gathers what energy she has left to join the defense of the school. Being back to her physical form and deprived once again of the empathic read on others doesn't exactly suit her very well. No war roos or Isalia's bow here, so the choice is really to fight on foot. Floating counts, surely, that a gift of her mother and not that nameless mutant father.

With that gift still at hand, she angles for one of the nearest raptors charging at them. Not at all the peer of a Themysciran warrior by sheer combat training, her methods here will not constitute brilliant by any means. It's really a game of chicken, who flinches first. She flies straight in, as one of Isalia's arrows shot true, almost to the point of impact.

The raptor gets there first, hitting her fairly head on with those awful slashing claws coming up. She shrieks. Then she's not there, coming back as a tempest. But then the dino has the actual problem of going... up. Cue a startled hissing shriek emanating from the dinosaur no longer among its peers, especially when Meggan whirls around with her new clawed scythe. Her jagged flight pattern crashes down into dinosaurs and spins up, using the discombobulated makeshift weapon to smash its friends off their feet and out of the way. Loosing the raptor into one of Tabitha's booms, or roughly that way, is just a cherry on the messy cake.

Clarice Ferguson has posed:
Teleporting back to the dark path, Blink appears with the group of kids (and the adults) from the school but she looks cautious around the kids, "No it's alright. We made it! Don't be afraid," she tells them. She looks sad that her mutant appearance makes things worse, "It's okay! Don't cry! But we're not safe, we have to go. Up the path. Come on," she tells them. The children just look upset from /almost/ getting barfed on and it's not even fun like on Nickelodean, so they don't move.

"Come on, we have to..." Blink repeats and sighs as the children don't seem easy to motivate. She turns back down the dark path, and she's suddenly confronted by the older people, who have returned! They must have run all the way back after she left them. They stand there and extend their hands to the kids, "Don't worry," an older villager tells Blink, "Thank you," he tells her. Finally, Blink smiles. She looks back down the path toward the school to find out what happened to Meggan and Isalia and Monet and Tabitha, "You should thank my friends..." she mutters, "They're keeping them back. I think we're safe here..." she says though doesn't look confident as Meggan heads off one of the raptors nearby.

Diana Prince has posed:
Clarice will see a group of Compsognathus' running past her in to the jungles, but they all look natural and healthy, none of them look to be infected.

The children point to this display, along with three natural looking Raptors that are rushing across a nearby stream of water. Their heavy feet splash in the water, displacing it as they bound back in to the jungle....

In the heart of the village, the warriors putting up the fight continue to the very last infected Raptor. It's put down with a thrust of spears, arrows and more... before its last gasping shriek is uttered and it collapses in to some of the soft mud Meggan had created.

Everyone backs up rapidly, away from the hissing body of the creature, but it just falls silent...

And then it explodes.

A gush of black and green, yellow and red, fluids blossom out in all directions, falling in different consistencies on to the earth with wet plops, slaps, and glugs... yes glugs.

The village falls quiet, save for the sounds of the crackling fires, the villagers frantically moving to set fire to corpses...

The last of the Dinosaurs have disappeared, and a large shadow sweeps over the village above, with the last Pterrasaur dissappearing back over the jungle canopy.

Out on that grassy hill, the massive Spinosaurus looks on, watching all of this unfold. It watches the Amazon riders rushing around the edge of the village, its huge tail gently swaying, before it finally turns to the north and starts to disappear over the hill with only distant thundering sounds of its footfalls in its wake.

Diana, atop Jumpa, walks around the edge of the village, met by Captain Eophi who gives her an update on the infected Dinosaurs being dropped, while the healthy seem to have left. "They seem to be frenzied by the infected, Princess. Bring the infected down, and the Dinosaurs calm themselves."

Diana nods softly once to this before she looks to the others, while Chomak approaches. Chomak speaks up after planting his bow in the mud on one pointed limb. "We would not have survived this without all of you." He notes. "Thank you for coming to our aid..."

"We are here for this very purpose. We are glad to have helped." Wonder Woman says back to the man. Meanwhile, behind Wonder Woman the form of the Invisible Jet shifts in to view, being very visible now. It hovers twenty feet over the grasslands just beyond the edge of the village with its dagger-like shape, and cloud-hued surface, making it quite recognizable to those who have seen it before.

"All of you, who have been near to these beasts," Diana speaks up, her voice loud enough to carry. "Step beneath our ship." She adds, motioning out to the grasslands, and the Jet. A rainfall begins to pour out from beneath the vessel, gentle and misting the grass beneath it.

"It is cleansing waters. It will purify you from the taint that these creatures were carrying."

It takes very little further coaxing before the villagers begin to file out toward the Jet and its washing rainfall.

Diana sweeps her eyes over all the heroes who'd come to her call, she nods her head once to them. "All of you as well. We cannot spread this virus. We have to keep our strength, and we have to keep fighting it. Thank you for this..." Diana says with a sincere grateful tone to her voice.

Somewhere in the village another infected Raptor corpse burps, then explodes...