15624/Lightning Strikes!

Lightning Strikes!
Date of Scene:	16 August 2023
Location:	Vasquez Home
Synopsis:	All Our Rocks are JLD!
Cast of Characters:	Billy Batson, Irie West, Nettie Crowe, Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe, Patience Alperen

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Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson knew lightning was fast. In fact he looked it up. Seventy five miles per second. That?s seven times escape velocity. The thought came to him when he agreed to touch tag with Irie West. She made lightning seem slow is what she did. The touch tag game ran across the Rock of Eternity. Billy threw a few dozen scrolls into disarray and lost a split second storing them.When he looked up, she was gone. "Hiding is not fair Irie! This is tag!?" He throws a barrage of ball lightning to banish shadows.

Irie West has posed:
    "Who's hiding?" teases Irie. "You're just too slow!" Indeed, for the fastest girl alive, dodging lightning is, while not a trivial task, something that can be accomplished. There's a streak of yellow and red and suddenly Irie is behind Shazam, poking him in the ribs. "Tag. Again."

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson lets out a very unheroic, "Eeep!" and flies several feet in the air.

"Don't do that!"

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Nettie hadn't been to the Rock of Eternity since she'd cleared a curse from one of its residents and felt like it was high time to make a RETURN TO THE ROCK.

    So of course she dragged whoever was in the Justice League Dark's HQ that was easily found with her by way of 'making an official visit to another magical group', and said she needed a trio in order to make it official.

    So right about when Shazam gets poked in the ribs, there is the crack of thunder, a flash of violet lightning, and Nettie's bewitching seal appearing on the floor before the trio is unceremoniously flung out of the portal that struggles to deal with The Rock's magical defenses.

    Nettie, of course, lands on her backside, skidding in her dark-wash jeans and gray tank top, hair excedingly wild and looking like she stuck a finger in a socket!

    "BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES!" barks the crow that follows her.

    Broom, her Besom, is also here, and attempts to catch the hangers-on as the portal dumps them out!

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    Charlie goes tumbling, and slides to a stop. It absolutely isn't a dignified superhero landing. It also isn't landing on her face either.

    The young woman goes skidding on her scuffed up steel toed foots and is braced out like she is skating as she brakes her forward momentum, arms spread for balance. "That. Was. Rough!" she declares loudly but happily. "Like. I totes thought I was bad at portals. That was something else entirely." she is maybe teasing Nettie. Cause she is relatively bad at group portals, and it isn't Nettie's fault at all after all.

    The redheaded teenager is decked out in a well loved Wonder Woman hoodie, dark jeans, boots, and tucked up in her hair is a pair of orange lensed goggles.

    She slowly pivots to look around arms still spread, as if taking in the Rock of Eternity and the warzone. "Is this place under attack?" she inquires after a moment. There is a very faint shimmer of red light hazing around her. Sort of a ruby color here that Nettie hasn't seen before.

Patience Alperen has posed:
Patience Alperen had stopped into the Candle to restock on tea for her place and was asked to join in on.. something?

One wild and crazy portal trip later, the AC/DC Highway to Hell tee and yoga pants (both in black) wearing Not-A-Nun(tm) finds herself unceremoniously tossed out in a new location she has never been before.

Tumbling and rolling sideways, she finally stops with a 'huff' before lifting herself off the ground.

"..that's it. Next time I drive.."

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson flies over to Nettie, hovering he offers her a hand up. "You know how to make an entrance! I know you can show up without the whole 'undue noise or commotion.' That was epic. Hello, Broom. How are you? Uh, Steve's in the library if you want to say hello. Through there. Hello Nettie, introduce me to your friends. I'm Shazam and this is Kid Flash. The pretty one." He drops to the floor.

Irie West has posed:
    "WAUGH!" It's hard to surprise somebody who can run at absurd speeds but somehow Nettie managed to do it with her thunderous arrival. Irie peeks out from behind the much larger Shazam, using him as a shield, studying the new arrivals. "Who are you?"

    When her wall of defense moves to greet the newcomers she gives them a smile and a wave. "Hello!" and when she's introduced as Kid Flash (and pretty), she looks at her civilian clothes and blushes. "I'm, um, you can just call me Irie. I'm Irie west. It's short for Iris, and that would make me Iris West, but I'm not //that// Iris west, so we just say it's Irie."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Hullo Shazam, good lad, thank you." Nettie greets as she's helped to her feet, and brushes off her jeans and looks about to the... upset Rock of Eternity.

    "It appears that a pair of speedsters has possibly been playing some sort of... game." she supposes, stopping to scratch her chin a moment before she motions to her two accomplices.

    "Shazam, Kid Flash-the-Pretty-One-who-is-Irie-not-Iris-West, this is Miss Charlie Gage, one of the most talented teleporters that I know of and a fine addition to any punk-pop band of the local era, and Miss Patience Alperen, who I hope will be agreeable to helping out at a self-defense skills night in the near future, a fantastic exorcist and enemy of all things unholy and unclean -- and this is Broom." she introduces the witch's broomstick, the straw flipping about a moment before Nettie sighs for effect.

    "Yes, yes, go bid hello to Steve." she waves -- and Zoom, Broom goes off!

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    Charlie adeptly lifts her hand and wiggles her fingers in a friendly hello to Irie and Shazem as it were. "Aww.. that is so nice!" she seems genuine too, not sarcastic as she beams a smile at Nettie. "I am very good at teleportation magic." she notes to Shazam and Irie.

    She stands up straighter from her brace and peers around slowly. "I'm slowly learning a lot more than just moving myself from spot to spot. It is slow though going cause my magic makes things.. a weee bit unpredictable sometimes."

    That Ruby haze around her intensifies and there is a slash of pink and purple smoke and she is gone, appearing next to Irie and extending a hand for shaking.

    To the mysticlaly attuned there is a thunderclap of Chaos magic.

    Worse than usual as far as Nettie can tell.

Patience Alperen has posed:
Still brushing off her jeans, Patience looks to Nettie and Charlie before blinking at Shazam and Irie. She offers a puzzled smile, moving over to stand closer to Nettie.

"Hello. It's, ah, nice to meet you.." A curious look is aim at Nettie about the self defense comment snuck in there. "Well if anyone wants to know how to fight with a spear.. I'm willing to, yes.."

Watching Broom go on its way.

For those who can sense the Mystical, the silver amulet with a gem as pale blue as the heart of a glacier hanging around her neck certainly fits the description.

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson notes the amulet. He raises an eyebrow at Charlie's teleportation. "You can call me Billy if you like. I sort of did an exorcism... I think. A bunch of people at Happy harbor were being mind controlled. Well, I get my powers in part from King Solomon and Zeus and neither were slouches at banishing bad influences. Next thing I know my uniform is all white and I broke them free of whatever it was. Channeling Zeus' power is really epic. We just get the myths about him being a horn dog but there's much more to him." Irie's ducking behind him gets her a belated grin a shoulder pat. "You need to get used to booms around here."

Irie West has posed:
    "Wait a second..." Irie drawls, peering at Broom and Corvax. "Magic broom. Talking familiar..." She points a finger at Nettie, "You're a witch! Oh em gee, I've never met a real witch before, unless you count Raven, which I don't since she's more of a dark magician type of person, so it's really cool to meet a real live one, assuming you //are// alive and not like some kind of zombie which, which would be cool too!"

    She blinks as Charlie poofs and is suddenly next to her extending a hand which she takes. "Hi! Yes! Teleportation is neat, too! Can you do other magics other than teleportation? I mean, it's okay if you can't. I just run really fast, that's my whole thing, though I can do some neat tricks with it but otherwise it's pretty much just that."

    Patience just gets a sheepish grin and a wave. "Hi."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Charlie's heightened Chaos has caught Nettie's attention, and she gives a soft 'mm' sound.

    "Charlie, d'ya know you're glowin' a bit crimson there, poppet?" Nettie asks gently, looking to the young mage with a little smile. "Just be cautious. We don't want to break the rock."

    "Zeus EARNED that reputation, Shazam." Nettie addresses Billy, and Corvax lands on her shoulder, flapping a moment as they both look to Irie.

    "Aye, Raven is not a witch; she has a most unfortunate bloodline and is a very strong magic user, but I *am* a witch. This is Corvax, my familiar."

    Corvax eyeballs Irie.

    "You're another speedster, aye? Is it true that you all have a tendency to eat everythin'?"

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    Charlie shakes hands with Irie and grins broadly. "I sure can, portals, fireballs, I even made demon and angel punching enchanted gloves.... though the fire magic should still be in a warding circle because it tends to be waaay more explosive than it should be!" chipper, hyper, ADHD, something something.

    She blinks at Nettie's words and then steps back from Irie and holds her hands up. "Huh.. that is odd and new." understatement, she spins around looking at herself. "Weeeeeeeiiiiird.... also neat. I do like red." she blinks and bounces a bit. "How would I break a rock... like... this place feels 'mazin'!"

    Her attention bounces to Billy "Zues and Solomon, that has to be intenssse.. like are they even in the same dealio .. uh.. pann...theon... pantheon." she got there in the end.

Patience Alperen has posed:
Patience Alperen notices Billy's gaze at her amulet but offers him a simple smile while listening his explanation. That gets a slow nod. "Impressive..."

Looking to Iria who seems to keep zooming around, Patience smiles back, "Hello."

She offers simply, "Patience.. as Nettie said already." Since they're sharing, she offers, "I'm called the Magdalena. I help the Church hunt down and banish evil." Which of course is a relative term. One man's evil is another woman's livelihood. Just visit Salem.

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson nods. "Solomon and Zeus bump heads a lot. But there's a lot more to gods and God than people expect. Being a pagan doesn't make you a bad person. Iiiiiit's kind of like Santa's helpers? Anyway they do shut up and get along for 'What We Do in the Shadows.'

He smiles at Patience. "It'd be more impressive if I had a better idea how I did it. Sometimes it's like that, I do stuff. Other times I have to ask the Chorus what to do."

Irie West has posed:
    "Well, not //everything//," admits Irie. "I can't eat, like, rocks or anything like that. Just normal people food. But I have to eat a lot in order to keep my energy reserves up. I mean, like, a lot a lot. It's how I can run so fast, and heal so fast, and... well, not really //think// all that faster than normal people, not normally. When I'm channeling the Speed Force I do, though. Everything is just ZIP! I can even learn things at super speed, but then I just kind of forget them soon afterwards. Really good for cramming a school test, but my dad said that was cheating, so I don't do that anymore." Does this girl ever actually inhale?

    She gasps at Charlie. "Demon //and// angel punching gloves? So cool! How does that work, like, with fire magic, you hit something and BOOM! It explodes? That would be good against more things than just demons and angels, I would think." She blinks as Charlie continues to glow red. "Maybe it has something to do with the Rock of Eternity? Or maybe it has something to do with how close you are to a Speed Force conduit. I know that the Speed Force is, like, the bane of every physicist known to man, so maybe it throws magic for a loop de loop as well."

    Her spastic attention turns to Patience, now. "You're the Magdalena? That sounds pretty impressive. Are you, like, a battle nun? I don't see a habit or anything, so you must be one of those cool nuns that don't have to wear them. But I dunno. I'm not very religious. I mean, it's kinda hard when literal angels attacked Manhattan, and there's the God of Thunder that works for the Avengers, and all the other gods that help make up Shazam, so who could pick just //one// religion right?"

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Nothing like a good Greek Chorus to determine your fate." Nettie gives a small smile, stepping back from the attention a bit as Irie focuses on Charlie and Patience, much more her age. She gives a small smile to Billy.

    "How have you been faring, young fella?"

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    Charlie can almost give Irie a run for her money with run on sentences. "Waaait they are all in your head?" her attention does bounce back to Shazam. "Awwwkward." she notes and looks dismayed. "That sounds very difficult sometimes I imagine."

    Then back to Irie "Oh yeah I mean, demons suck, so I end up punching them a lot.. Demons Three and I have like major beef. Then the whole angel thing. I was like.. gosh darnit my usual toys don't work on them very well. So I studied the enchantment books at Shadowcrest and worked the runes into my gloves with a magicl thread so I can actually channel my magic into my hits. I've never tried using it on normal people.. but I don't feel bad about demons you know." somewhere in there she breathed maybe.

    She fishes out a pair of yellow gloves, weighted knuckles, from her hoodie pockets and slips them on with practiced ease. They look familiar-adjacent to anyone familiar with the bats.

    "I dunno about speedforce, not sure I've met another speedster. Something here feels remarkable tho." she looks at her fists and then punches her hands together three times in quick succession. Nettie knows it activates the enchantment on her gloves.

    It defnitely does that. Threads not visible flare with a deep ruby light and a pattern emerges across the gloves with a very bright flaring. There is a pulse of chaos as the girls magic is focused into the gloves. Definitely running hotter than usual to Nettie's senses.

    Charlie seems obvlivious though to it.

Patience Alperen has posed:
Patience Alperen listens to Billy and nods. "Yes. We are agreed on views more than you might imagine from my affiliation with the Church. It is something they are not as pleased with" which suits her fine it seems.

Looking to Irie, she smiles. "I'm not actually a nun, no.. I was in a convent for a while but I never started my Novitiate. I.." she glances toward Nettie then back to Billy and Iria, explaining to both of them, ".. I am one of many women from a long lineage that traces back to Mary Magdalene and Jesus of Nazareth. Which is a statement that usually goes over 'great' at parties" she jokes. "I an the guardian of the Spear of Destiny and can channel its power into fighting true evil." Because witches and warlocks and ghosts and ghoulies aren't really evil, usually. No matter what the church says.

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson feels the wild magic. He feels the Rock fairly bristle at it. How does one reassure the most powerful magical fortress on Earth? After a moment the magical tension fades a little but doesn't abate. The Rock is watching.

"Yeah you might want to tone it down a little. The Lair has a weird effect on magic sometimes." To Nettie he gives a wink.

"He points to Irie. "She does lots of stuff. She can go through walls. I mean I can too but it's a lot harder on the walls, hunh?"

Irie West has posed:
    "Oh. Em. Gee!" Irie exclaims as Charlie shows off her gloves. "That's so cool! I should get myself a pair of enchanted gloves for when //I// have to punch demons! Can you imagine that? Me punching demons at a billion miles per hour with enchanted gloves." She demonstrates this as she shadowboxes the air so fast that her arms are just blurs and Speed Force lightning arcs from her to nearby objects. "They wouldn't stand a chance!"

    Her punching pauses as she listens as Patience explains herself, her nose scrunching as she tries to think back to what she knows about religion. "The Spear of Destiny is, like, the spear that pierced Jesus' side, right? That sounds right." She shakes her head. "Like I said I'm not really religious and I just kind of picked up stuff here and there."

    She nods at Shazam. "Yeah. Phasing through things was one of the first tricks I learned. I actually figured out how to do that before I learned how to run, if you can believe it! It's just a matter of taking all of your molecules and vibrating them just _so_ , and they all kind of shift to the left and let you pass through stuff. Here! Let me show you!" Her form blurs as she channels the Speed Force within herself and she passes through one of the statues, just kind of casually strolling through solid matter. "See? It's kinda neat!"

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    "I'm pretty sure if you punch a demon at a million miles per hour it will be very punched without magic gloves." amusement. "Also it needs me to push my magic into it to make it work... so I can't make you one. Dipping your hands in holywater then punching them will work in a pinch though I found out."

    She lets the magic go when Billy comments about being careful. "Sorry.. I ..." she blinks down at her arms. "Why am I glowing light red?" did ...

    Did Charlie forget she was glowing that hazy red.

    She looks up to watch Irie vibrate through an ugly statue. "Wow.. okay that is very very cool."

Billy Batson has posed:
Billy Batson looks at the gloves. "Oh, I thought only I saw that. Yeah like I said the Rock interferes with some magics." He gives Irie a look and then the statue. "Ye-e-e-eah excuse me, I need to check on something and I'll get some snacks." He passes the fridge and microwave up and zips into the library. "Steeeeeeeve!"