15307/The Town of No Escape

The Town of No Escape
Date of Scene:	04 July 2023
Location:	Three Brook, Nebraska
Synopsis:	Gabby, Nettie and Superboy go out to Three Brook, Nebraska to investigate why the town lost contact three days prior and people have been going missing. They encounter a trio of Skinwalkers, and find the survivors being kept safe in a nearby cave by a pair of friendly Sasquatch.
Cast of Characters:	Gabby Kinney, Jon Kent, Nettie Crowe

---

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Communication from Three Brook, Nebraska, had been lost several days ago. No one thought much of it given the weather at the time had meant there were trees down in the area and likely it was just a matter of some lines being down. Nothing at all was unusual about the situation.

Nothing at least until the electric company reported they'd lost contact with not one, or two, but three groups of repairmen. Their trucks had been found abandoned with the engines left running until they simply ran out of gas. There's no apparent sign of where they may be past some muddy footprints that led toward the town, and a single bloodied jacket hanging from a tree fifteen feet away.

An old, thirty foot tall tree.

With questions starting to grow and no way to get communication into the town to figure out what was going on, the horribly understaffed small town authorities from the next town over sent out a request for help to... whoever might help.

In this case, it's the JLD. Gabby had put feelers out for anyone who could help them get there quickly to investigate before things grew potentially worse. It meant that this time she was calling in a friend from elsewhere to ask for assistance, one Superboy. Nettie as well was informed of course just in case it was supernatural.

Jon Kent has posed:
"I studied these maps," Superboy says as he looks over some gas station maps of the United States. He looks like some sort of super tourist as a result. "I'm pretty sure I can get us there."

Gabby is a good friend and Jon would certainly have answered her call. He is outfitted as Superboy, of course, wearing his own version of possibly the most recognizable uniform on Earth. Due to his Kryptonian heritage, he hasn't visibly aged a day in the past five years. He still looks like a too-thin 15-year-old, but that facade hides a powerhouse who is ready, willing, and able to lend a hand to the Justice League's sister organization. (A dark, twisted sister.)

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    DID SOMEONE SAY TWISTED SISTER?

    Nettie was providing the transportation to the rather unorthodox grouping of two of the leaders of the Justice League, Dark Edition and one Kryptonian lad who she was very certain might have forgotten that they have an allergy to magic -- but she's happy to have the chipper lad along. She herself looks semi-touristy, semi-exhausted parent wearing gray jeans, black Doc Martens and a very faded T-shirt that might have once had Mucous Membrane scrawled on it in Sharpie Marker beneath a gray denim vest. She was leaning against The Bus, a 1949 Dodge Shortie bus that the S and H had been scraped away, so that now it was the C OOL BUS.

    If asked, she purchased it like that.

    "Good that you can get us there in case I can't, little lark -- this feeling's already giving me the heebie-jeebies." she states, reaching for the silk pouch that's normally in her vest and -- apparently thinking better of smoking around the Heir to the SuperThrone -- she tilts her head back and removes her sunglasses.

    "We're not too far out from Three Brook now. Nebraska. Brrr. Why's the Midwest so *weird*."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney flashes a smile at the pair while pleasantries and perhaps some snarking occurs between everyone. She's regarding the maps that Jon has as well trying to commit as much of it to memory as possible. Not just the roads, but the hills, rivers and the 'three creeks' that converge on the town making it a little triangular island unto itself.

"I know we can get there, Nettie, I just thought since it's involving a whole *town* we might need someone who can also get around to a larger area than we can alone. Plus," she adds gesturing out the windshield at the road they were going down. "Part of the reason they lost contact to begin with was due to rains and flooding. I'm not sure there's going to be an easy road straight in."

There were certainly quite a bit of damage along the way. Trees felled, a small mudslide that had taken out at least half of the road but was easy enough to drive around. Small things such as that which only seemed to be growing worse the closer they got to the town.

"Plus we don't even know if anyone in town is alive still."

Jon Kent has posed:
Certainly, Superboy doesn't enjoy being around smoking, especially in an enclosed vehicle, but he is quite immune to the negative health effects of the habit.

"I think we're going the wrong..." Blink, blink, blink. Superboy discreetly flips the map around so it's upside-up. "Oh, never mind. You're good." He clears his throat.

"I just hope that Mister Mxyzptlk isn't behind this. He was screwing around with Batwing and I last week, and it seemed like he was just getting started." Superboy purses his lips and frowns. It's expression that doesn't fit well on his normally upbreat, youthful features. He peers back and forth between Nettie and Gabby to see if that name registers a reaction for either of them.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Mxyzptlk?" Nettie inquires, saying the name perfectly as she gets back onto the bus, holding the door open as she starts it back up. "Name seems passingly familiar, but you hear an awful lot of names." she replies to the young lad, encouraging everyone to load up and go.

    The back of the bus is full of supplies. Food. Emergency blankets. Some medical supply from the JLD medical reserves (and most of it not dated to the last time she was a nurse), and she puts everything in gear.

    "Is that bauble of yours giving off any indicator that we shouldn't be here, Miss Kinney? And -- I'm sorry lad, what's your preferred address? Mr. Super?" she asks, somewhat uneasily. It's weird. He's so... upbeat.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"Mz... myx..." Gabby's face scrunches up a bit at the absurdity and difficult to pronounce name looking just rather completely confused. It's taken in stride as much as she can giving a small shrug. "If it is we'll deal with it. Not like there's another choice. Sorry to hear about Batwing though. I haven't run into him in awhile," she admits while pausing to check over her own gear. There were some normal weapons like guns, and knives, but she wasn't out here to kill someone. Hopefully. She also had other items one might find in a well stocked utility belt, no doubt a holdover from working with Red Robin so much that it had become habit.

Nettie's question causes her to reach into her neckline to pull out a simple stone pendant coiled with wire. It's nothing super fancy, nor is it green, thankfully. She peers it it a moment with a small frown. "Not sending off any indications of active magic at the moment. Maybe it's not a spell at least," she reasons with a thoughtful frown.

Jon Kent has posed:
"Oh, you can call me whatever. Superboy is fine." He shrugs and a perceptive observer might pick up that he doesn't really care for that name. He is 19, and even though his Kryptonian blood makes it difficult for him to escape his baby face, he no longer thinks of himself as a boy. "Or Jon-El, my Kryptonian name." Yeah, it's phonetically pretty closet to Jon, but there is such a vast difference in how he portrays himself when he is Jon Kent that there is little chance of anyone connecting the dots.

If the idea of going into a magic-rich environment has the half-Kryptonian nervous he shows no sign of it. He trusts Gabby completely, and if she vouches for Nettie then he trusts Nettie completely as well.

"I am glad that there is no magic detected so far." No point in pushing his luck given that magic affects him as though he were a normal human.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Well, young master El, given that you're in the company of two of the League Dark members, magic is not out of the realm of possibility." Nettie replies, and she adjusts her mirror so she can look back into the bus proper.

    "Matter of fact it might be very much possible, considering I'm lacking in the martial arts department." she gives a friendly smile, and she exhales, rolling her wrist a moment as if loosening the muscles.

    "HOw long has it been since the town lost call communication again?"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney reaches out toward Jon to lightly bump his shoulder with her fist in a reassuring gesture, offering him a smile. "We gotcha. Just need some heavy hitter backup, probably." She hopes. The question from Nettie has her sighing quietly. "Three days. This'll be the third night. Which sounds suspiciously like a potential magic number situation if I'm not mistaken." She could be, but, threes? Usually were something-ish.

They drive past a sign bearing the town name, and no more than a few moments after, Nettie would find a downed pine tree completely crossing the road. Just past it were the abandoned energy company vehicles proving that the tree was a new complication to getting further into the town.

Jon Kent has posed:
While Gabby and Nettie talk shop, Superboy leans his forehead against the window and peers contentedly at the passing scenery. Unlike a speedster would likely feel, the young man of steel seems quite happy to be traveling by bus. When Gabby gives his shoulder a reassuring punch -- which doesn't so much as budge him a single micrometer -- he looks to her and beams. His genuinely warm smile and glittering, full-of-life blue eyes might convince anyone that everything is going to be okay.

"Oh cool!" the half-Kryptonian exclaims, pointing out the window. "Raccoons. I bet they're a family!" The kid could spot a cotton ball in a snowstorm twenty miles out, so even *knows* what the heck he's pointing at.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Not a bad assumption. Though I don't know if the male raccoons stay with the females, off the top of my head." Nettie states, and she frowns, looking at the downed pine.

    "Eyes up, duckies." the old witch who just looks young says, and she opens the door. She drws her wand from its pocket in her sleeve, and she steps out, wary of the surroundings. She breathes out, focusing her senses. You don't get to live so long by being foolish... usually.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"Could be siblings," Gabby suggests, though to be fair she was more of a city girl and only knew raccoons from the occasional raiding of trash cans. The sudden block in the road causes her to pause and check her necklace again with a shake of her head. "No magic," she assures again only to rise, and head for the bus door. "Let me off and I'll sniff around some, see what's up. Why don't you two head further into town and see if anyone is around still?"

Jon Kent has posed:
When Nettie suggests that the males may not stay with the females, something about that doesn't sit well with Superboy. That rare frown returns to his face. 'I would stay with my raccoon mate,' those so-naive eyes seems to say in their brief moment of shadow. Sheesh, those JL Dark people sure are...dark.

But the bus stops and Superboy shakes off the MTV Raccoon House drama and exits the bus at super speed. One moment he's sitting in his seat, and the next he is in front of Nettie and Gabby. He's out of his element here, but it's his natural mode, to put himself between harm and others. He begins to scan the wood line with his x-ray vision to see if anything interesting turns up.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    They're realistic. And what does Nettie know about raccoons anyway, she's British. They don't have Raccoons in her country.

    "Stay close in case we do come up against something magic. I feel that I'm a little more experienced in that department, duckie." she states in a friendly manner to Superboy, trying to give a reassuring smile before she locks the bus, and bringing her wand up, neatly removes a section of the pine by super-aging it like a brittle cheese and then giving it a hard kick.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney allows the others to go first since it seems to be a race she was bound not to win by any means. Descending from the steps she moves slower, more leisurely, as she walks around to the front with her head tipped back to inhale deeply. The corner of her mouth twitches with a little frown of thought. "I smell something... Familiar. I can't quite place it though."

Superboy's vision cuts through a wide distance showing the various animals of the woods still living their lives without any sign of being disturbed. At least in this area. Should he look closer to the town there would be an obvious lack of wildlife. Nothing dead, simply a void, as if they were heeding some natural instinct to stay away from the borders of the town.

Then, as Nettie breaks down the tree allowing it to crumble and fray beneath her kick, some movement from the first of the barely visible buildings comes into view. A woman cautiously peering down the road, and stepping out to be seen with hand raised to wave with a cry of, "Help us! They won't let us leave!"

Jon Kent has posed:
"Hmmmm," the young half-Kryptonian announces. "Everything seems to be normal." His head slowly scans left and right as he visually cuts through deeper and deeper layers of the forest. "Wait... a tick..." he adds. "There is no wildlife near the town at all. It's like the animal all just left."

Then he spots the woman calling for help. To the others, it's a woman far in the distance. It's abstract. For Superboy, though, he sees and hears her as though she were standing right in front of him. Every muscle in his body coils and tenses as he prepares to race toward her. It's what paladins do: they rush into help those who cannot help themself. But he remembers Nettie's words and it is every ounce of willpower that young man can summon to stand his ground. He looks to Nettie to see what her reaction is to this new development.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Maybe they know something we don't." Nettie comments quietly regarding the missing wildlife.

    And then the woman appears. Nettie straightens up, and she draws her wand down and to the side as she calls out to the woman:

    "We're here to help! Stay where you are -- what is not letting you leave?" she asks, stepping through the hole she's blasted in the pine in the road.

    "Be ready to fly and grab her to bring her to safety, Jon-El."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
The woman appears emaciated. Starved, no doubt, if it had been three days with nothing in our out of the town. Still it was a quick timeframe if the people in the town had food in cupboards like most tended. The dark haired woman rests her hand against the side of the building to help prop herself up as Nettie calls out back to her.

"We--we don't know. They come quickly, in the trees." Her tongue flits out over her lips to wet them.

"I don't want to keep yelling they might hear. Come closer and I'll explain. Hurry!"

Some movement can be seen behind her as two men start to peer down the road as well with apparent curiosity to the newcomers bringing potential salvation.

Jon Kent has posed:
A heavy swallow. Make no mistake about it, Superboy is *no* coward. Normal teenagers think they're invincible and they're going to live forever, so imagine how he feels. But something is giving the young half-Kryptonian a moment of pause. He's impetuous, but not stupid.

"That...that is exactly what someone would say to us if they wanted to lure us in closer, isn't it, Nettie?" the invulnerable, young hero asks as he looks to the witch. The power dynamic here is very clear. He is deferring to Nettie completely. His parents didn't raise a fool.

"Gabby?" he says, in turn, to his friend. "What do you think?"

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Well that does it. Nettie knows what starvation looks like, and that didn't seem like three days.

    She treated some of the worst affected in WWII. Let that sink in.

    "Broom." she states neatly, and from under the bus an aged besom appears, floating over to the witch.

    "You two, follow me. Stay low to the ground. Watch the trees." she states quietly and she sits on her broom, lifts off the ground, and takes off. At her speed, should only take a few seconds to cross the path between the pines to the people in need of help, minding her flanks. She wanted to go first, into any trap that might be sprung.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney shares a glance with Jon at that look cast her way. There's no doubt in her mind judging by her uncertain expression that she, too, thought this was very suspect. "Yeah. More than a bit." More than that, though... Her head lifts to sniff at the air again. "Something just doesn't smell *right* here," she adds though she can't place WHY. The pendant she wears is glanced at again with a slight shake of her head. "Nothing yet."

With that last check done she starts to walk forward as well allowing Nettie to take the high ground.

From Nettie's airborne vantage point she would see what appears to be a ghost town. The buildings are all intact though there are a few broken windows here and there. Nothing more tha one might expect from a storm, or errant baseball player. What was most curious was the smoldering bonefire that had been left banked at the center of the town square. A place where it appears the survivors had been gathering using the light of the fire to chase away whatever shadows they feared. There were a few seats around it, some other chairs and desks broken up to use for firewood, and a grill pulled up with something still left on it charred and blackened.

The closer she gets, the easier it is to see the tiny bones. Ribs cracked open, and a round skull. Just about the right size for a toddler.

It's Jon that would notice the shift in the nearest woman first with his superior vision. While she herself doesn't move there's a *movement* to her entire being as if her skin itself were rippling with something beneath straining to get out.

Jon Kent has posed:
The House of El are warriors, paladins. Letting a normal human -- albeit one with magical powers -- go first violates everything that Superboy believes. But he is aware of how precarious this situation is and how he has precious little to offer against magic. So he offers obedience, and does what Nettie says, staying low and moving behind the broom-mounted magic wielder.

Superboy's sense of smell -- like all his senses -- is incredibly enhanced. Upon Gabby's announcement that something doesn't smell right he focus more on that sense to see if he, too, can pick something up.

In a low voice he says, "Pssst, Nettie, I don't think you should get closer. There is something really wrong with that woman. There is stuff *under* her skin moving around."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Ordinarily Nettie would totally let the young pups lead and come in on the clean-up. This, however, felt all wrong.

    All. Wrong.

    And then she spies the grill. The skull. Its tiny bones.

    "... sweet mother of mercy--" she breathes out, and she stops, motioning for Jon-El and Gabby to halt as well, and she turns back down to the woman.

    She reaches into her pocket, and pulls out a faded deck of cards, a few small quartz balls, and she brings one of the quartz orbs up in her gloved hands. She whispers to it, and then casts it towards the woman and the hungry men.

    "Now! Show us wh at you truly be!" she calls out, her voice echoing with power as Corvax flaps out from the bus as well, taking to the skies to provide overwatch.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
What Jon smells is akin to an animals musk. Sweat. The stench of something that simply didn't care. It was slightly hidden beneath the regular smell of a human and further spritzed over with perfumes or cologne in an attempt to hide it further.

When the woman, and even the two men behind her are called out in such a way by Nettie that writhing beneath their skin becomes all the more obvious as they simply... Start to peel out of the skin.

It was an odd transformation leaving them into feral looking beasts. Not quite wolf nor coyote, not quite man, not quite anything though it walked on two feet with elongated claws and hands.

The human skin doesn't tear apart. They literally shrug it off and it falls by their feet rumpled like so much clothing. Like they were shedding their skin which had been oh-so-carefully preserved to the point that it appeared they may even have had a zipper of sorts down the back.

It's now Gabby calls out, "DEFINITELY magic and not good and oh shoot." A sound from the side pulls her attention away as she looks into the woods.

Jon Kent has posed:
"By the Light of Rao!" Superboy exclaims. Instinctively he begins to hover off the ground as the horrific sight of that thing crawling out of a human form freaks him out. Without even realizing he's doing it, Superboy releases a shot of heat vision at the lead creature. He is young and this is so far out of his wheelhouse that he has no clue how to deal with it.

Seemingly embarrassed by his visual outburts, Superboy looks to Nettie. Two days ago, he literally carried a jet on top of a bank vault out to sea. Some wonder at the very limits of the powers of Kryptonians. But at this moment, Superboy is peering helplessly at Nettie like a he was a toddler. "Nettie," he says, "What...what do we do about this?"

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    This is bad. This is Very Bad.

    "Not an ounce of Light has to do with this lot, duckies! Kinney! Skinwalkers! Don't let them catch you -- they WILL eat you!" Nettie calls out, and she keeps above, drawing her wand as she herself begins to crackle with energy.

    THis would have been a good thing to have Ketch, Pezzini, Reyes -- hell, Zatanna and the Constantines. The Big Guns.

    Instead she has Superman's son, who though a powerhouse... she's not expecting him to be prepared to do what has to be done with them.

    "They're no longer human -- they *have* to be destroyed --" she begins, swooping down to put herself between the unzipping skinwalkers and her two younger compatriots.

    "There is no shame in not being able to do it right now. If you go back to the bus, you will be safe." she offers -- to both Gabby and Jon-El, before she sails back up.

    "If not -- use those senses to find *anyone* who still smells baseline human!" Nettie doesn't smell baseline human.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Just as the Skinwalker in the front had shed it's skin, so two had the men behind her done the same, abandoning the facade of humanity they had once possessed entirely. The men lunge forward starting to flat out run with inhuman speed toward the trio.

The woman had begun to, but the flicker of laser eyes that Jon shot off cause her to reel back. There's no blood--It was cauterized immediately--but a chunk of her torso is now simply missing from the blast leaving her arm to hang limp and unmoving. Still it teeters on it's feet inexplicably 'alive' in as much a sense as it ever would be by now.

"Rescue," Gabby blurts out to Jon even as she fights the urge to run. Every instinct she had sent the hair on the back of her neck rising knowing these were predators. "Rescue any if there are any, and keep them from escaping." That was the best plan she could come up with at least. Popping her claws out from her hands she starts forward.

"I don't plan to be someone's lunch!"

Jon Kent has posed:
In his right frame of mind, Superboy would vastly outmatch these creatures. But he's not in his right frame of mind. Is he supposed to kill them? Is an evil creature irredeemable? If it is not, does that give Superboy the right to kill it? What would be the long-term repercussions of capturing them alive and imprisoning them? These are the questions that our young, noble-hearted Kryptonian was never prepared to answer.

Still aloft, he rockets into the center of the village at mind-numbing speed. Glancing around, he begins to employ a combination of his x-ray vision, his super hearing, and his super smell to suss out any still-living humans.

"Hello!" he calls out. "Is anyone still alive here?" And should one of these creatures be so foolish as to get within arm's reach of Superboy, they will be dealt with most severely by a teenager who is ill-equipped for such encounters.

Thank Rao for the Justice League Dark.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Then don't be anyone's lunch! Jon-El the minute you don't feel up to it, *ReFuckingTreat*. You focus on the living, let us take care of the dead!" she calls out to the boy, knowing in a pinch, of course, he would be able to handle himself.

    She just worried about the aftermath. Kids were resilliant, sure, but she'd rather not test a Kryptonian on it.

    She wheels about in the air, and with the lady taken care of, two men are now her focus. She slings fireballs at them with righteous fury, screaming like a banshee as she divebombs the two.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
The town was unfortunately silent. No sign of heartbeats. No sounds of the living. Nothing that might need saving, or give Jon any sense of hope.

Not IN the town at least.

With his attention focusing trying to hear heartbeats, there are many obvious. A good many, but outside of the town. Not toward the road but toward the woods where they grew heavy and the terrain rocky. At least fifteen people together, alive, with heart rates that were of a frightened but not terrified level. They were all gathered in a cave, a bit worse for wear, but alive. Alive, and whole, and together... and guarded by eyes watching from the trees.

Fire was one thing that was the bane of a Skinwalker, and as such the flames send them screaming. One still tries to get close enough to attack Gabby for she was the one left on the ground. The other catches fire and falls screaming into a pile. Thrashing and writhing, an ominously dark oily black smoke rising from it's form.

Jon Kent has posed:
"Survivors nearby," Superboy calls out. "I'm going to go check them out. If these things are going to overtake you, call out for me." It doesn't take Jon long to master himself. He has been trained by none other than Superman, one of the mightiest beings anywhere. Of interest, he observes how well Nettie's fire attacks are faring against these creatures and takes a mental note of it.

Taking to the air once more, Superboy speeds toward the cave. He scans the ground and the trees for the sights, smells, or sounds of these creatures. Any that he detects, he rockets toward and punches. Like, punches *hard* -- Kryptonian hard. If it is wrong to destroy these murderous beasts, he will have to atone for it later. It is a conversation for Jor-El in the Fortress.

Once he has cleared the area near the cave of creatures, he lands at the mouth. "Hello? It's okay, you can come out now. I'm Superboy. I'll keep you safe."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Go! We'll cover you!" Nettie calls out to Jon, and she wheels about in the sky, wand in hand.

    "YOU LEAVE HER ALONE, FIEND!" crows Corvax, who wheels about, the crow coming down with talons bared to scratch at the skinwalker's eyes!

    "Atta boy, Corvax!" the witch calls to her familiar, and she launches another volley of fireballs, of lightning. She's not got anything too spetacularly strong, but she's happy to start eliminating them, hunting them down one by one and terrorizing them, making them *Fear*.

    Today she's not a good witch.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
There are no more of those creatures as Superboy finds the survivors in the cave. There are a few other creatures nearby... but they smell distinctly different. Slightly musty, and older like the trees. Of soft moss by riverbeds, and unfortunatel of dank rotting trees deep in a forest. Not human at all, but also, somehow, not giving off the impression of being a danger. They do not stop him from going to the people in the cave.

The people inside look wary, but the suit was distinctive. Even if it was a bit different than the one Superman wore it was a sign they recognized. One man speaks up over the others. "Yes, we're fine. We got out into the woods and... and they protected us," he explains lifting his head to glance out of the cave toward where two large shadows loom just at the treeline. Watching.

"The sasquatch. They've been keeping us safe."

The fire attacks are working quite well it seems. Though Gabby knows she could fight and fend them off if needed, it was also clear she was in the way of Nettie's attacks. When Corvax lunges in toward the one coming for her she dodges to the side out of the way. It draws her attention past the newly flambeed one toward the woman that had been wounded. Currently she was trying to crawl back into her shed skin.

"Nettie! Destroy the skins!" If something wounded wanted back inside it, it must have some kind of power and she didn't want to find out what.

Jon Kent has posed:
Superboy begins ferrying the people one at a time to Nettie's bus. Each trip takes mere seconds as the young half-Kryptonian wraps arms so powerful that they make hardened steel seem like rubber around each person protectively. Before long, every person is in the bus. Superboy returns again to the cave for one last sweep. He sees the two large, looming shadows.

"I don't know if you can understand me, but it was an amazing thing you did. Thank you."

He gives them a little salute and the rushes back to the village to see if he can be of assistance -- not that the two powerful women need any help.

"Nettie, the survivors are in your bus," Jon reports.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Good lad! Smart boy!" Nettie cackles, the edges of her eyes showing darkness -- and a lot of exhaustion. She's ducked down and is brooming her way, the skins of several skin walkers hanging charred from the handle of her broom. She gives a feral sort of smile, wand still in hand as she looks to Jon. "The bus'll protect them -- Corvax!"

    No answer.

    "/Corvax/?"

    She hitches her breath, and then turns her wrist to look for a watch (and of course, she has none). "KINNEY! We need to wrap this up in short order, poppet!" she bellows -- and she goes for the grill in the center of town.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"I'm fine, Nettie!" Gabby calls out from her spot by that woman. Whom she had... dispatched with a stab to the face. It wasn't something she was proud of doiong either, but when someone was trying to eat you, there was a sharp curve from 'is this right?' to just survive. Not a lot of talking out there.

Swallowing against a dry mouth she whirls around to jog back to the bus and Jon, and hopefully Corvax as well. Having not heard a reply from him she sweeps her gaze around looking to scoop him up if needed as well. "Heading back, Nettie!" She calls out to the witch overhead... and frankly, she was ready to just light this whole place up and go if she had her way.

Jon Kent has posed:
The Teen of Steel lands on the top of Nettie's bus to stand overwatch for the witch's retreat. If by some miracle any of the creatures survived Nettie and Gabby's wicked assault, Jon will light them up with heat vision. He saw how effective fire is against these things. Like Gabby, Jon will pay the moral tab for this onslaught later, in those quiet, solitary, liminal moments when all good people gather their wits and pay for their sins.

"Come on, Nettie," he yells. "I got you covered!" His voice has a gravelly tone now. He is worn down emotionally. Superboy is not meant to dwell with the Justice League Dark and fight the battles they fight.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    And Netti would take her time, later saying because she was an old woman, she had to make a pit stop.

    When she returns, however, she smells of fire, of cremation. Some of the buildings are going up in smoke -- just to make sure.

    She takes a deep breath and lets it go as the witch returns, cradling something wrapped in black linen in the crook of her arm.

    "Sorry, sorry everyone. Old lady's errand." she states quietly, and looks around to the gathered.

    "You're all safe now. We're members of the Justice League. We'll see you to the next town, and have relief and counsel available to you." she states to the gathered survivors.

    She turns back to the town, and brings her hand up to her mouth and gives a loud SKREEEEE sound that echoes over the burning village, then turns.

    She goes to get on the bus.

    "Keys are in the ignition, Gabby. Be... a dear and let me rest a while, yeah?" she asks, going to sit in the very back with all the other supplies.

    She didn't need any remaining family members to see the little skull she had retrieved from the pit.