15663/Binding With Briars

Binding With Briars
Date of Scene:	18 February 2023
Location:	Donna's Office - Themysciran Embassy
Synopsis:	This is why Donna and Rae can't have nice things. Even when Mania and Misfit try to help.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Rachel Roth, Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe, Andi Benton

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Donna Troy has posed:
    It is late. This is a subjective statement, of course. It is late for someone to be working in an office, because it is well past midnight. There are others to whom this is the prime hour of the day. Donna is not one of those; though she often keeps strange hours if only to ensure there is some overlap in waking time between herself and her demon lover, she is by nature a day person. A morning person, even. Nevertheless, it is late, and Donna is working.

    Not the exciting, glamorous night-time work that is a common part of the life of any costumed hero, but office work. As well as being a superhero of some note, Donna is also the assistant ambassador of Themyscira to the United Nations, and this involves meetings, emails, paperwork, and a certain amount of tedium.

    Tedium which, notably, the senior ambassador has a remarkable skill at avoiding when she's in the mood for more interesting endeavors. Donna seems to be the appointed Amazon of Bureaucracy, because she seems to do most of the paperwork for the Titans too.

    Donna hits enter on her keyboard, then clicks the send button, sending an email through the ether to disgorge its polite refusals to an Italian trade commissioner who is requesting exactly the kind of things of Themyscira that Themyscira routinely refuses. She rubs the bridge of her nose, and gives a tired yawn.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Most of the time, late for Raven is around the time the rest of the world is starting to wake. On occasion, however, she has been known to overextend such that the end of her day is the same as the end of Donna's. It is a mystery when she makes this decision, yet it always seems to come at a time when Donna needs it the most; Not that the Amazon cannot handle the stress, but serendipitously, whenever life is at its most stressful, Raven simply seems to be there, in full sync with Donna.

    It is almost always followed by a 'refreshing, beautiful morning,' a set of descriptors Raven has, at time, debated being an oxymoron.

    Of course, today is not exactly the most stressful kind of day. Donna did not have to lift and throw a robot through an oddly shaped hoop so that it would not awaken and crush one or more members of the Titans, one of which would certainly have been Vorpal. If it had been one of those days, Raven might not be in her partner's office. Those are the days Donna can handle effortlessly. However, today, Donna's amazonian agility has not availed her in avoiding paperwork. She did not get to throw a robot today. It is a bad day.

    That is why, as Donna yawns, pinching the bridge of her nose, there is a sudden presence. There when it is needed most, the sudden, almost expectedly comforting presence of Raven. Donna's office has a small but soft couch to it. Raven is seated upon it. Neither of these things, Raven and the couch, are likely to have existed in the office mere moments ago.

    "You can come rest for a moment. It will still be there when you return."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna is not surprised by the sudden presence of another person in her office. Ever-alert, she was probably aware of it about as soon as the condition of being alone in her office ceased to be the state of reality, and the presence of Raven plus couch asserted itself as the new reality. She is not startled by this transition though. Such transitions are familiar to her, and it's a welcome one.

    Donna grins over to Raven, and powers her computer down.

    "It'll still be there in the morning too," she observes, standing up and walking over to the couch. She leans over the back of it, resting her hands on Raven's shoulders. "Could you use a coffee, Rae? I could. I've got some of your favorite blend hidden away in my drawer for when I'm not offering coffee to visitors. No Chemex though. Could you bear a French Press?"

    She gives Raven's shoulders a squeeze and retreats back to her desk to pull out a cannister of beans, tilting her head questioningly in Raven's direction. "There's a little Indonesian place around the corner that stays open to 3 am, if you're hungry. I am. Or..." she glances towards the door. "Ferdinand's a night owl. I could see if he's up and if so get some snacks sent up. If you're in the mood for... staying in."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    This is a question that Raven ponders. She certainly does love her coffee, perhaps as much as she loves Donna. However, she has altered her schedule such that they will be tired at the same time. To inject caffeine into the situation would mean that they'd both be more awake. More alert. For longer. Certainly it'd ruin any chances of a beautiful morning, because by the time the sun rises, they'll be tired enough again to fall asleep. That, too, is a benefit.

    While she mulls this over, Donna massaging her shoulders, Raven makes a small show of it. One arm crosses over her abdomen, the other bringing her left hand to her chin, as if this was a very difficult decision to make. She did like Indonesian food. She also liked... Staying in.

    "Hm. I do hunger... Indonesian /does/ sound appealing."

    She gauges this, the tiny responses from Donna will guide her further. Does her partner want takeout more? Or does the other woman want to... Stay in.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "They do a really nice karedok," Donna muses thoughtfully. "An amazing rendang. Or we could go classic and get an assortment of satay skewers. " She pours some beans into the grinder, dials in a slightly finer burr than she uses for the regular coffee, and sets it grinding, looking back at Raven with a thoughtful expression.

    "It's a nice evening. It might be pleasant to get a little fresh air and wander out for a quick meal. That would save us bothering Ferdinand. On the other hand if we get them to deliver some food, Ferdinand remains equally free to do his own thing, we still get to eat some delicious Indonesian food, and once the coffee's made there would be no reason to leave that comfortable looking couch right until there's satay at the door..."

    Donna makes a show of thinking this through carefully, but it's obvious she has already made her choice. The coffee finishes grinding, and while the water's heating up she transfers the grounds into the French press, then pulls out her phone and pulls up the website to order in. After tapping on a selection of satay skewers, she tosses the phone over to Raven to add her own choices to the order, and pours in the water.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Donna detaching from Raven does mean that she's starting to look thoughtful for no reason. Of course, she's also made her decision. It's a simple matter, really. Order food delivered. Have it brought to the door. The lovers can handle the rest. It's a foolproof plan. Delivery makes it easy to... Stay in.

    "I do not think we need the fresh air." Raven states, "We are outdoors often." This is a fair statement. For a person who doesn't seem to have ever met the sun in her life, if appearances are to be believed, the life of a Titan does mean that she's out in the sun quite a bit.

    She is careful to catch the phone, not with her hands necessarily, but as it flies towards her, its movement is softly arrested in the air, where it glides as if its trajectory were natural towards her hand. She begins tapping away, doubling up on the skewers and making sure that the selection of sauces is rather various.

    With her free hand, she makes a soft flicking motion. Beside the press, appears two cups, that would be recognizable from the tower. Not specifically that the tower has its own brand of mug, but because by this point, Raven and Donna have gifted each other one to use. Raven has one that Donna gave her, and Donna one from Raven. They are not the same mug, of course- and its anyone's guess which one is steeped in more irony than the other.

    "I think it best if we stay in."

Donna Troy has posed:
    One advantage of the French Press over the Chemex is speed. You can argue the merits of different methods of preparation, and no Chemex fan would ever admit anything could entirely compete, but the French Press produces a cup of coffee that is, at least, acceptable. And fast.

    Food is ordered, and coffee is poured into the two mugs. Donna brings the drinks over to the couch and hands Raven's over to her with a smile before seating herself next to the sorceress on the couch. She sits close, then shuffles closer, shoulder to shoulder, and tucks her legs up onto the couch beneath her. "They're quite fast," she says. "We should have food in about half an hour." Donna holds her cup between her hands, head tilted curiously to one side, studying Raven's features. A faint smile, half mystery and half mischief, dances across her lips.

    "And after we eat... were you planning on going back to Metropolis tonight? It's such a long distance to teleport, and I do have a room here at the embassy you know..."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Truth be told, while Raven is able to tell the difference between the different methods of brewing coffee over one another... The differences between the French Press and Chemex in terms of quality are only really noticeable when the person preparing the coffee is experienced. Raven doesn't really care how it's made, as long as it's her coffee, and doubly when Donna is thoughtful enough to make it for her, it simply doesn't matter. She'll like it all the same.

    When the mug is presented to her, she takes a quiet sip, the heat not seeming to bother her at all. One of the few perks of being half-demon. "Oh my. An entire half hour? We will need to find a way to pass that time." Raven could be the worst influence on the planet, if she wanted to- but in this case, Donna might be the bad influence. She is not a mischievous person, and yet, as she leans against her partner, they are certainly not plotting anything innocent.

    With another sip, there is a moment of quiet following Donna's question. "I wasn't planning on leaving this building until you did. The couch is comfortable, and you have a room. We have... Options."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "It /would/ be nice to spend a night away from the Tower," Donna says, grinning a little to herself. "It's not that I don't love the Tower. It's not that it isn't home. But it's a very... /noisy/ home." There's a perspective Raven can see all too well. "I mean not just /noise/ noise. Mental noise. Things to do, things to think about. Responsibilities."

    Donna is always very forthright in her opinion that she is not the leader of the team, just part of the six-person leadership council. The reality is that the council of Donna and Raven sitting together and discussing things between the two of them probably has more impact on the way things happen with the Titans than the official leadership council does. Nobody knows how much that non-leadership weighs on Donna's shoulders like Raven does, with the possible exception of Diana. Donna is very duty-focused.

    "Normally when I sleep at the embassy I just bed down on the big sofa here in my office," Donna says, leaning her head on Raven's shoulder. "It's comfortable enough. Plenty of room for one person to lay down. I suppose I should really use that big expensive bed more often. Otherwise it would be a waste." Even the most duty-driven can find excuses to leave duty behind from time to time, when there's sufficient temptation...

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    Meanwhile outside the Embassy things are quiet as far as Charlotte, aka Charlie, Gage can tell. She has had a very busy day in New York. No classes today. An, for her, trip to New York from Gotham without even needing to use the hyper loop. So she did something she has been super keen on for a long time.

    She visited the Themyscira Cultural Center. She totally has on her Wonder Woman hoodie, beat up jeans, and stompy boots.

    Sure it closed hours ago, but since she was here, she also went and saw The Avengers on Broadway. Had a nice dinner too!. Now she finds herself mulling heading home, the hour having grown late, but did stop by the center and embassy. "I wonder what it takes to get a tourist visa ... I mean... I should have asked." she chews her lower lip. "Closed though. I could come back tomorrow and ask." a slow tilt of her hed. "They would probably be mad if I just bounced there.... probably have laws. Definitely should have a tourist visa..."

She does tend to talk to herself, often. For the moment just staring at the gates to the embassy.

Andi Benton has posed:
The dark of night is one of the better times to patrol. People with ill intent can be anywhere at any time, but under cover of shadow and darkness it's easier for them to ply their trade in terror. Opportunities increase with fewer witnesses around.

It's a perfect time for Mania to do her thing, swinging her way between buildings by way of weblines, phone in hand as she puts in an order for food to pick up on the way back home. Assuming no trouble, of course.

First mistake, right there.

<<Mania>> Do not forget the dessert, Andi.
<<Andi>> Let me guess. Something with chocolate?
<<Mania>> Chocolate with extra chocolate!
<<Andi>> You're lucky we don't get cavities.

Her path brings her in view of the Themysciran Embassy. It reminds her that one of their contacts in Young Justice is a Titan with ties to the Amazon island.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Within the Embassy, Donna and Raven are in the middle of not-so-PDA. For a few moments, Raven seems to have been content simply leaving her suggestions as implications. It is a serene sliver of time, punctuated by Raven taking another sip of coffee.

    She twists, one of her hands detaching from her mug to reach up towards Troia's face, before she stops, halfway. "Did you- Do you smell that?" There is, for Troia, nothing to notice. At least, not until it's already happened.

    What hit Raven does so with astonishing speed. So fast it is that Raven is simply gone- not just missing, not just some feet away- but gone. There is a hole in the wall behind where she was.

    What is the most worrying is that on the fringes of the aperture through which something seems to have just tackled Raven, there is a torn scrap of her sweater. It will occur to Donna swiftly that that shouldn't be possible.

    What will also occur to Donna, perhaps just as swiftly, is that she is not alone. Where it came from is difficult to ascertain, as it is simply There. It stands at just over six feet, its humanoid shape gaunt and wiry, with evident musculature. Its maw is a grouping of sharp teeth. Its skin is blood red, even evident in the dark- especially around its four glowing, yellow eyes.

    For those outside, admiring the Embassy is normally a wonderful thing. Even at this time of night, you can admire Amazonian architecture and discipline, especially if you're not afraid of a little trespassing.

    What can be admired /tonight/ however is a bit of Battle Prowess, as it seems that the Embassy has been... Invaded? There are no broken windows or gates- and strangely, the gate guards are rushing towards the doors of the Embassy as if in surprise.

    Either way- the Amazons aren't doing terribly, but the awkward thing is... They /should/ be doing a whole lot /better./ There certainly are a lot of these... Demons, it looks like? Yet the Amazons are legends- and they should be having little trouble with unarmed monstrosities.

    It is strange indeed that these beasts have not been cleaned up practically the moment they arrived...

Donna Troy has posed:
    This is an office. It has office furniture, though rather casual by office standards. It has a desk, a computer, files. All that kind of thing. It is however the office of the assistant ambassador to Themyscira, which means it also has a fair few weapons in it. Not purely decorative items to impress visitors, but sharp, stabby, very functional weapons. There's a sword in Donna's hand almost as instantaneously as the disappearance of Raven and the appearance of a demon with rather Trigonic-appearing features.

    "You just made a very serious mistake," Donna tells her visitor coldly. "I doubt you realize this just yet, but you will. And I /am/ giving you a chance to set things right..."

    In the halls outside, the guards are already rushing about to engage the small horde of demonic invaders, while rousing the rest of the Amazon forces present. It's late, a lot of them are asleep already. In the main foyer a trio of Amazons keep a demon at bay with long spears, forming a triangle of steel around it and fighting in silent but perfectly coordinated team work. Whichever way it faces there's always one Amazon behind it, stabbing it in the back as the other two keep it occupied and at a distance with defensive spear play.

    Other Amazons are in motion, guiding a few civilian workers to safety, checking the rooms off the foyer, rousing the larger force resident at the embassy and so on. A pair hammer at the door to Donna's office. "Basilea Troia? Are you safe?" The leader calls in. "The building is under attack!"

    Perhaps it's some sixth sense, or perhaps just the supernaturally good hearing all Amazons have, but both back rapidly away from the door just in time to avoid it crashing open in their faces as the demon that had appeared in the office is hurled through it, closely followed by an absolutely furious assistant Ambassador.

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    Charlie's eyes slowly widen as she takes in the unfolding scene. "Oh. My. God." she whispers in awe. "Demons."

    One hand reaches up slowly and taps her ear. "Oracle. Queue up my demon fighting playlist." even as she reaches up and pulls down a pair of orange lens goggles that were pushed up into her hair under her Wonder Woman hoodies hood. "Tonight I am gonna have myself a real good time. I feel alive. And the world I'll turn it inside out, yeah."

    She is already hum singing to herself as she reaches back down into her hoodie pockets pulling out two weighted yellow gloves and slips them on. Her stance shifting wider as she continues softly "I'm floating around in ecstasy..." and as she reaches the lyrics "So, don't stop me now..... don't stop me..." she brings her knuckles together in a smacking motion and a strong flow of magic flares on the street outside the Embassy. It pop bangs loudly to those with mystical senses as pure chaos. Not a little bit either. Runes start to glow red, invisible stitches in the working of the gloves flare to life in intricate mystical patterns. "Cause I'm having a good time, having a good time....." and the girl vanishes with a slash of purple and pink smoke.

    Moments later she appears above the demon being ringed in and held at bay in the foyer with Amazonian spears, up behind it's head falling about a foot with a solid donkey punch to it. o/~ I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky like a tiger! o/~ gone a moment later in another slash of smoke just to reappear by it's legs on the other side to punch a knee. o/~ Defying the laaaaws of gravity!! o/~

    She sounds thrilled to death to be helping amazonians fight demons. Like this is Christmas morning and santa got her a pony.

    Also. That enchantment on her gloves fueled with a wild abandon of magic, tailor made, literally, for punching the ever loving snot out of demons. The girl has a grudge to put it mildy. Each strike banging like a mystic drum with chaos magic too and flashing red like a Ruby.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania swears. The order she'd just placed is supposed to be left at a nondescript location, the better to swing by and pick it up later without any eyes on her, without a need to go back to her version of normal first.

The sudden commotion at the Embassy, the horde of demons, yeah, that's going to put a wrench in things.

Speaking of which, she grabs one she'd started carrying at her side from time to time. Why a wrench? The old man knew his way around fixing up the car or doing some general work around the house, and it feels so good with a little bit..extra to it.

Extra what? Well, tendrils of symbiote curl and lash around it until it doesn't just end in heavy metal, it's got some spikes to it as well. Sometimes a tool to work on things. Sometimes an impromptu mace.

As she swings her way closer, she calls out, "What are those things? Can we kill them?"

<<Andi>> Remember what I said about killing!
<<Mania>> Look closer, Andi. Do those look like people to you?

Sure enough, demonic appearances, four eyes - and not because of prescription glasses, either...

<<Andi>> You have a point.

Without much hesitation, a two-handed swing of the symbiote-enhanced wrench is aimed at the head of the nearest Trigon spawn, or whatever it is.

Mania does not have a playlist going, however.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    The demon in Donna's office does not hesitate... To allow the other woman to arm herself. In fact, it only seems interested in Troia /after/ she's picked something up with which to fight it. The moment she does, it leaps at her.

    This proves to be a bad move, as it likely ends up stabbed and/or cut, and then flung through a door. It recovers swiftly, rolling around and pulling itself to a low, hunched stand. When it opens its mouth, what comes from it is not a roar or shriek, but a gaggle of intense, stabbing laughter. It laughs with /intent,/ as if both amused at and by Troia herself.

    The one downstairs that is encircled seems to be having a rough time of it- after all, their numbers are superior, and so it shouldn't have to deal with three Amazons at once. The sheer /audacity./ Its horribly toothy mouth curls into a look of utter disbelief. Its eyes narrow. It gets punched in the head.

    This one lets out a few laughs of its own, even as the second blow drives it to one knee and its head seems to loll on its shoulders for a few seconds- before there's a crack, and as if someone pulled the cord to let the beast's joints go taut, its head snaps back up.

    It then charges without fear of the spears, but with genuine, murderous intent. Its mouth opened wide- its claws viciously sharp, all things that it seems to want to catch Charlie with- and all at once.

    Mania, meanwhile, has a minor advantage. With a swinging, spiked mace, in combination with her symbiote enhanced strength... There is a wet crunching noise, and yet, for her trouble, Mania has her wrench lodged in the head of a demon.

    That'd be great! Except it reaches for the arm holding the mace, and a low, gutteral laugh starting to come from the beast.

Donna Troy has posed:
    The demon charging Charlie may be heedless of the spears, but these are spears wielded by Amazons who have trained for thousands of years not just to develop an individual mastery of the weapon that is unsurpassed, but to fight together in perfect harmony. They don't have to spare a fraction of a second on considering the actions the other two are planning; they already know. Each Amazon moves gracefully to occupy space taken by the other as soon as they move, the symphony of martial movement ensuring that whichever direction the demon moves, there will be a sharp spear facing it. The demon has nowhere to move any great distance without impaling itself on one spear or another -- whether it cares about that is another thing.

    Donna is not as skilled as her sisters. As hard as she trains, you simply can't catch up on millennia with just a couple of decades. It's enough though to give her a precision in her martial skill that has only a few flaws. Body and weapon move together in a harmony not just in space but time; each step she takes, each slash of the sword, each motion of her off-arm to maintain balance is done considering not just the now but several steps in advance, to earn herself an advantageous position, to get a deadlier strike in later.

    Those flaws in her technique that a mere two decades of hard work and dedication leave are more than compensated by a significantly larger dose of those divine gifts that make every amazon a particularly dangerous foe though. Her sisters are scarily fast, but she's significantly faster. Her sisters are strong enough to bend steel, but she's much stronger.

    And these things have had the /audacity/ to attack Rae.

    Troia fights with a rare fury, but it's a cold fury of intense concentration. It does not challenge her focus but rather draws out of her more of the power within her she often, largely unconsciously, holds back. Diana herself would struggle to cope with Donna in this mood, and the demon's laughter seems only to lend Donna more strength as she strikes it again and again with her sword. She seems intent on cutting it to pieces faster than it can possibly regenerate.

    The hall starts to fill with more Amazons, roused from their slumber to the fight. Since before the days of the Trojan war it has been the duty of the Amazons to guard Doom's Doorway, from which the fiends of Tartarus occasionally sally to challenge the world; being roused from their beds to fight an invasion of demons is pretty much the job description of an Amazon, and there's quickly a dozen more ready to join the fray.

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
To Mania "Demons!"

    Okay. Usually the demon is destroyed with the flares of her demon ass whupping gloves. So she bounces back vanishing out of the way of the charging hellspawn wit hall the claws and fangs ever so quickly.

    Appearing behind the spearwall of Amazonians. "That usually works better." she mutters. Then she takes a moment to press her gloves together once more and channels even more primal energy into it, causing them to flare brightly and reality to hummm a tiny bit around her fists. "Shew..."

    She is gone once more teleporting as fast as she can, swinging a fist here, then gone, then a fist there, then gone. Trying to land hits and be gone before the demon can sink it's claws into her. Which is not to say it doesn't score a slash, one just has to hope that her underarmor weave of wayne-tech can take it. Well that and vanishing immediately after she is tagged and healing in the process.

    Somewhere in all that the singing starts up again too. o/~ I'm a rocket ship on my way to mars on a collision course.... I am a satellite I'm out of control.... o/~

    She isn't fighting with fury or anger or rage, despite the spicy hot chaos that leaves after trails as she moves through the fight. Risking being stabbed by an Amazonian really since her movements are incredibly hard to predict as she tries to put down the foyer demon with the spear walls help... Nope. She is fighting with reckless joy and abandon.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania's all-white, strange-looking eyes narrow. "Did you just..?"

<<Mania>> Did it just what, Andi?
<<Andi>> It's not letting go!

A chunky, spiky shoe plants itself against the demon that's starting to try to turn things around on her, giving a shove to create a little separation. At the sight of the creature's own claws and teeth, Mania swings the wrench again and it thunks once more into the side of the thing's head.

Still maybe not quite enough. "Fine. You want to be stubborn? We can do more than just use a wrench."

A line forms in the area of the mouth, indeed showing numerous needle-sharp fangs along with a very Venom-like tongue. The wrench is withdrawn again, let to return to its normal-looking state, and the already sharp fingertips of the black and white creature elongate a few inches, becoming even more lethal in the process.

<<Andi>> I don't think there's any bit of humanity in these things.
<<Mania>> Are you saying what we think you are saying?

"Yes," is said aloud, before Mania leaps into the fray with both hands seeking to do more damage than the wrench, an effort made to chomp down and tear out parts of demon as well.

No doubt, tasting terrible.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Indeed, the demon doesn't care whether it gets impaled. Its blood is a horrid thing- and the worse they spear it, the worse it gets. Vile and hot, thick as magma and after a moment, glowing with the contact in the air. Still, though it is strong enough to drag the amazons along with it- were they not too skilled for that to work- it is not capable of keeping up with the teleporting assault from Charlie.

    The worst thing of course may not be that it doesn't stop coming- that with another blow to the knee, its leg is gone. Instead of hopping, it drops to a slithering, three-limbed crawl that requires its limbs to bend at unnatural degrees.

    When it is halted again- this time by spears acting as mancatchers, the blood that spills from it is making the air around where it lands... Uncomfortable. To call it 'boiling' blood would be accurate, if not for how much more intensely it seems to be /searing/ the air around it.

    This time, however, it just starts laughing again, locked in place by impaling spears, as the last blow from Charlie shatters its head in a way that leaves it looking like a semi-deflated balloon of flesh. The skin is intact, yet the bones underneath have horrifically crumbled.

    Mania goes on a spree! The demons are tough, but they're far from invulnerable. They /do/ taste terrible, and also burning. They taste like burning. Mostly because that's what they are by now- like biting into a ripe peach, overflowing with actual magma.

    No, quite seriously- they are beginning to, in a way, mutate- their veins are erupting with horrible light, and that is punctuated by the one that Charlie -definitely- killed gargling out something approaching a laugh, before the orange light spreads through its veins.

    The resulting explosion is not one that will take down the building- but the heat and force are not natural- as if something is actively containing its /radius/ so as to not damage the building, but that containment does nothing to the power of an explosion that could level a building.

    For Mania's part, the ones she's slashing at, and biting at, don't look to be doing to well. They weren't glowing that way a moment ago.

    Donna is assaulting oen with swift strikes too fast for it to counter, which is odd. What hit Raven had done so with speed far surpassing Donna's own, even now in her enraged state. That makes sense. Raven has natural defenses against some of the most potent attacks the world has ever seen- set up so that she is not instantly killed or incapacitated by an attack too fast and powerful to react to. Even so, she sensed something- too bad she didn't get a chance to talk about it much.

    Which makes it all the more strange that this demon isn't able to keep up. It ends up in pieces- and yet the pieces are desperately trying to keep coming at Donna- so much so that eventually it's just half of a torso, with one arm, and its wings, with no lower jaw.

    It gargles with a laughing cadence. The center of its chest is glowing orange.

Donna Troy has posed:
    It's possible that the thought of what Diana will say if the embassy gets too badly damaged under Donna's watch is more of a worry to Donna than the demons themselves. Alternatively it may be simple practicality. Whatever the reason with the demons getting increasingly hot and explosive-looking, Donna quickly comes to the conclusion that having the demons inside the building is not a good idea.

    On the other hand letting them out into the streets is certainly a bad idea. Donna calls out instructions in Themysciran as she beats on her demon with a flurry of blows from the flat of her sword to keep it occupied while crushing its wings to pulp with kicks and stamps. A pair of Amazons peel away to open the double doors that lead out into the central embassy courtyard -- no roof to contain an explosion makes it far less damaging to the walls. One the doors are open, Donna punts the remnants of her demon outside.

    The growing crowd of Amazon warriors switch tactics, using walls of spears to herd rather than strike, trying to force the rest of the demons out into the courtyard as well. Three Amazon archers maintain a rapid barrage of arrows too -- not just to help in the herding, but aiming for wings, to pin them to demon bodies and reduce the ability of the demons to move rapidly in unexpected directions.

    A pair of Amazons advance towards Mania with spears raised uncertainly, not sure what to make of this combatant given she's got a fairly demonic appearance herself. "No Gala, Althea! That one's a friend!" Donna calls out -- switching to English to do so, so that Mania can understand. That message will be reinforced by the fact that the two Amazons do not hesitate to take Donna's word for it, and switch their attention to /actual/ demons, lessening the pressure on Mania.

    Donna follows the battered torso of her original opponent out into the courtyard, and skewers its remaining arm to the ground with her sword. "You may think this is funny now," she snarls at it. "But we Amazons command powerful magic. If I order it, you can be taught to feel pain. And you can be kept alive to feel it... even if you explode. Tell me what has been done with her. Now."

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    Charlie's eyes go wide, though not in glee as the demon she just crushed the head of starts to get very hot and glow a deadly orange through it's veins. "Oh crackers." she hisses before yelling "GET BACK" to the Amazonians with her. She took the time to yell a warning to the Amazons instead of just teleporting out, which means everyone loses sight of her when the thing explodes with the force to level a building. Even if it is contained in a way to not do that.

    Moments later the chaosmuppet goes skiddddddding across the floor from where she teleported to. Her hoodie smoldering and the flame resistant armor underneath exposed. Not at all looking civilian issue. "ow .. ow .. ow...." as she skids skipping across the foyer floor from the force but isn't dead.

    She with a whine kips back up to her feet. "Ugn." then looks down. "My favorite hoodie!" one can still make out that is was a wonder woman one too in the smolder.

    Taking a moment to hiss in pain and dump even more juice into her gloves she steps forward. Vanishing once more.

    The girl appears in the courtyard where demon herding is happening. Still smoldering and sucker punchs one. The bounce .. proverably back in her step as teleporting seems to heal her. Just not her clothing.

    The dance begins again. More serious. Less singing.

    They will regret her hoody.

Andi Benton has posed:
Amid the fighting, Mania spares a glance toward Misfit and the Amazons battling to protect the place, but soon there's a hiss of distaste and something more. The bleeding from the demon is..excessive. Not in the amount, but the effects of it.

<<Mania>> Too hot, Andi!
<<Andi>> I can feel it too!

"Too hot, too hot.." she repeats aloud, putting some distance in place to reconsider tactics. Don't want to get any of that molten-hot blood on her, and that bite was not one she wants a second round of, the effect of it clear in her expression.

There's a moment where it looks like the Amazons will move to attack her as well, but Donna vouches for her and that does the trick for now, allowing her to return focus to their opponents. "We'll keep them off balance if you finish them off! They don't go down easy!" She sees how blobs of webbing to the faces of a few of them work, but before long she's putting her nimble quickness to better use, darting in and out of the fray to slash at demonic limbs and faces, causing them to divert attention between the Amazons and herself.

Then, the way many of them begin to glow and change, leading up to more, gives Mania /another/ reason to pause. "Hey, what's hap-" Not enough time to finish the question, and the blast of heat spreads out enough that she recoils and covers up, a ripple going over her form.

<<Mania>> *pain-hot-discomfort*

It comes out as more of a mental sense than a verbal one, and the grimace is clear with the mouth formed. There are a few areas where it looks like bare skin beneath the black, whatever it's made up of. Amazons quick enough to see it can spot things reforming, patching back over as Mania shivers.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Taking the fight outside is a fine idea, in a way. The demons seem to have stopped flooding into the embassy, and additionally, it is impossible to take flight in these numbers without becoming a pincushion: So they are on the ground, though it takes effort. They do not fear the arrows, but the Amazonian guard is too accurate, so any of them that don't care for fighting on the ground are delivered there.

    /Getting/ them out is a different story. It essentially involves the creation of a sweeping phalanx with multiple ranks- The demons impale themselves on the spears with reckless abandon. They are rabid and do not seem to feel- or care- about pain, and as a result, they have to be actively forced out by raw physical might. Thankfully, the Amazonian guard has that in spades.

    With the fight taken to the courtyard, more of the demons seem happy to explode rather than crowd the spear wall. Impaled as they are, they start using that tactic against the Amazons, forcing themselves forward while run through. The horrible, wet noise of them SCHLORPING down the haft of the spear echoes in symphony, every last demon at the front of their ranks deciding to take this tactic simultaneously.

    As the demons explode, Donna's torso skids to the ground outside. Inevitably, despite how the Amazons might handle such a thing, what is left of the demon Donna was fighting is continuing to laugh at her, now without its lower jaw. When it speaks, it does so in a way that is now anatomically impossible. Not a difficult thing to expect, considering it didn't have lips before its lower jaw was removed.

    "She is being disciplined. By the other six. She forgot who she was."

    Charlie suckerpunches a demon, and the punch is absolutely enough to destroy the beast- her hand goes directly through it, and its blood does not seem to burn her... Thanks to the glove. It does however become altogether difficult to remove her arm from: As if she just punched into a bag of molasses. Worse still, its chest had long since started to glow- and she has, perhaps, moments to figure out how to get out, or be rescued.

    Mania, of course, should not have made the dire mistake of being vulnerable to fire, or not being immune to being cut or bitten. The moment she shows that she can be hurt, more demons are upon her, sensing and smelling that, even if for but a moment, Mania was hurt in the explosion- like blood, in the water.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna decides she's not going to get anything more out of the broken demon than she's got already. She suspects the creature is too limited, a demonic construct more than it is a true demon perhaps. It certainly doesn't seem to have much imagination.

    The 'other six'? Donna doesn't know, though she has some vague suspicions. "No," she tells it. "But perhaps /they/ forgot who she is." Her sword comes down hard, splitting the thing's head in two.

    The rank of demons running themselves onto the spears of the Amazons soon discover that the impeccable training of Amazon warriors can be as effective at engendering unspoken simultaneous action as any magical imperatives. Amazons have fought many demons and monsters who'll think nothing of their own lives and try a tactic like this. There's are techniques for dealing with it, and the appropriate one here, according to Amazon practice, is to utilize the enormous advantage of leverage that great long spear shaft gives. Each Amazon slides their arms down to towards the ends of their spears and leaps upwards, the great power of their leaps multiplied by the arm of moment to tilt the creatures backwards, the weight used to pin the spear heads into the ground, leaving them impaled like a group of incredibly hideous butterflies pinned to the floor. Forcing yourself along the shaft of a spear when it's horizontal is merely suicide that gives you a chance to strike a final blow; when the shaft is vertical it's a whole lot harder to get anywhere.

    The Amazons -- with a few more latecomers still arriving -- move on to prioritize the most mobile of the remaining demons, and Mania soon finds herself surrounded by warriors fighting alongside her to even out the numbers as demons swarm in on her. She has proven herself vulnerable, but also proven herself able to dish out a lot of damage, so the Amazons closest to her act as a defensive screen for her, intercepting attacks to leave her more free to respond in kind.

    As Charlie struggles to pull her hand free, a sword blade suddenly protrudes out from the demon's body worryingly close to her fingers. The blade rips down and around to cut through demonic flesh and give Charlie a better opportunity to escape the gluey grasp, and at the same time the glowing yellow of Donna's lasso comes down over the creatures neck to pull it back and away from her.

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    Charlie gets stuck, which causes her to shout "Not Fair that's cheating!" and then a sword is sliding in and lasso is trying to pull the thing off her.

    Of course it is about to blow up with hot sticky demon fire in a moment, which if Donna succeeds means it will blow up in Dona's face which may be bad. She isn't sure if that will hurt the other woman to be honest but these things seem mystically deadly.

    "Frack" is what she mutters and there is a warp of chaos magic as she bounces. Doing something almost no one has seen her do. Which is take the demon with her when she goes.

    The world strains as her magic convinces reality that she was never there by Donna with a demon about to blow them both up. No she was always over in a clear spot of the courtyard. The catch is... while it seems to work well for her... it does not work well for her passenger.

    The demon blows apart moments before it BLOWS UP... spraying hot explosive demon all around her arm.

    Critically though it isn't stuck to her anymore either, so when she tries to throw herself in a bounce on the exhale of pained breath later it doesn't come with even as the explosion washes over her.

    She lands in a heap back at Donna's feet. Not dead. Not even missing an arm. Though she is burned impressively across the left side of her face where she isn't wearing the armor.

    Also out cold.

Andi Benton has posed:
Everyone has weaknesses. For symbiotes, fire is one of them. Demonic fire? Probably a level or two worse. While Mania can handle taking a few wounds and recover from that quickly enough, the intensity of the heat is more problematic.

So is the multitude of demons now turning more of their attention toward her, seeing her as one of the weaker links here.

This could be a mistake.

"Oh, is that how it is? If you think we're easy..." she hisses, tongue flicking out as if to taste the air before it disappears back behind a dangerous grin, hands change further.

One becomes a scythe, the other looking closer to a battle axe. Sharp as expected, especially when two demons that close in on her find their heads lopped off with one swing apiece. Stay in motion, don't give them a chance to close in too much.

The spiky elements to arms and legs also flex outward, adding an extra bit of protection to her. A wordless nod is all she can spare for those who come to her aid, helping create space for her to decapitate heads and limbs. The idea is to not be close when the demons explode and things get excessively hot again. What a mess.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Charlie is either clever, or this demon is stupid. In the end, it doesn't matter, because she tries something tricky and... It definitely works! The demons are not immune to the horrible end that befalls anyone that happens to travel /with/ Misfit. Sadly, that amount of cleverness is more to spare others, rather than herself- as the demon has made the decision already to detonate.

    Without any sentience, it is not difficult at all to get clear. The timing is difficult, but it's possible. That's all that matters. Charlie is unconscious, but she had a hand in dealing with... Well, multiple demons- including one she dropped herself- and that latter one wasn't able to hurt anyone else. Pyrrhic, perhaps, but a victory.

    The Amazons are tactically genius, and latching the demons to their spears on the ground is more than clever. That leaves the frontmost wave of demons trying to push and pull themselves up off of the spearshafts- but with their clocks already ticking, it's all to late. The caucophony of explosions is enough to wrack the body, but it is still the sign that most of the demons have disappeared.

    For Mania's part, strike quickly and deadly is the best way about it. Dismembering demons only means that they must be revisited later- and decapitating them makes them start the detonation process immediately... But that tradeoff is acceptable in present company- as Mania, Donna, and the Amazons will have little trouble dodging the explosions of corpses, rather than sapient monstrosities.

    All in all, the demons' numbers are starting to thin, and yet that doesn't seem to be deterring them. To a man, they will fight- and though the Amazons and collected heroes are going to be victorious, it may not be without casualties.

    That, it seems, is all that this invasion force cares about.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna does not slow down to check on Charlie, but instead stands over her unconscious form so she can't easily be attacked while no longer able to dodge or defend herself. She returns her sword to its scabbard to concentrate on her lasso. If demons are going to start exploding, the important thing is to get them outside into the courtyard to explode there rather than worrying about finishing them off first, so she focuses on lassoing and launching demons out through the doorways rather than worrying too much about what happens to them once they're there. She's joined in this by another Amazon; her lasso doesn't glow, but this other Amazon lasooist is expertly skilled nonetheless.

    "Acantha!" Donna calls out to one of the Amazon warriors close at hand, who isn't currently engaging a demon. "Wounded. Get her out of the way and tend to her. Melia! Take a few guards and grab heavy tables. These things seem to want to explode. Shove them outside!"

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania continues as a force all her own, leaving pieces of demons in her wake.

<<Mania>> Andi, look.
<<Andi>> They're getting those..things moved before they blow up.
<<Mania>> Yes. Should we change our strategy?
<<Andi>> Yeah. Let's herd them up.

Cutting instruments shift more into puncturing ones, similar to sword or spear, but as they're jabbed into and through, the ends of the blades morph so the demonic victims won't just slide off. This allows her to swing and hurl them toward the doorways, releasing them at just the right time.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Herding the demons is a double-edged sword.

    It becomes clear that their tactics have changed, to someone as keen as Donna, as well as the rest of the Amazons. Having known war, they know when someone abandons all pretense of self-preservation.

    The truth of it is exactly as sinister as it sounds; Some short moments ago, the demons could be fought, they would engage, enjoying and revelling in the chaos and violence, and not wishing it to end until they were rendered incapable of combat. That has evaporated over time- and now, the demons clatter to do naught but push past the guardians, to get within the building, to explode and injure, maim, and destroy as much as they can with their last weapon.

    Inevitably, when this demeanor overtakes these demons, amazons lash them together with spear and lasso- only for them to somewhat horrifically seep into each other, producing a mass of limbs and shrieking faces.

    The logical conclusion isn't hard to come to, and the amazons are quick to it, even without Donna's orders. When they merge, as if their flesh were putty, the explosions resulting from them magnify exponentially. They seem not to be smart enough to do this on their own- but the writing is clear, should they come to this realization, it would not be difficult to form a Hecatoncheires of themselves. That cannot be allowed to happen within the Embassy for sure.

    Though the thought is likely not one to be allowed to linger, it would be /really/ great if there were a half-demon that could teleport or banish demons in large quantities.

Donna Troy has posed:
    It's a thought not far from Donna's mind, though it's not one she is able to do much about right now. Normally when someone is mysteriously vanished by demons with grabby hands, she'd consult Raven. When it's Raven who's been vanished then Jinx would be a useful fallback, but the pink-haired sorceress isn't to hand and there are a bunch of exploding demons to deal with. All she can really do here is to lament "Raerae? Could really do with your help here. Where are you at?" through gritted teeth.

    With the change in tactics from what's left of the demons, a change in tactics by the defenders is called for too. They are no longer in much of a position to fight back and are instead trying to ooze together into strange demonic agglomerations. Well, whatever the demons want to do, it seems like a good idea to do everything you can to stop them.

    Where demon bits may slip out of a lasso, or ooze around a skewering spear, they may be blocked by solid objects, or obstructed by increasing the distance. The defender shift into a different gear, using heavy furnishing to bat bits of demon across the courtyard, or to box them in smaller groups to explode less destructively. As they demonic parts gather into larger heaps, there are Amazons on hand to cut them into smaller chunks and separate them again.

    There are other approaches being tried out too. A pair of archers comes out with flaming arrows ready, firing them into the glowing hearts of some of the smaller chunks that look ready to go off, to see if fire will trigger an explosion early. Another Amazon is trying the opposite, dousing a demon with a fire extinguisher. Even the doughty kithotaur chef Ferdinand is trying something, laying about him with a giant cleaver to try to cut the demonic bits into even smaller demonic bits.

    Donna's going about things a slightly different way. She has her lasso around one of the larger heaps of congealed demon-stuff in the courtyard, and has taken to the air. She flies circuits, wrapping the demon-stuff in more and more loops as it grows, and drags it across the courtyard. Her reasoning -- that the demons are trying to assemble into the largest possible mass -- suggests that she might be able to use this larger mass as a kind of magnet to pick up smaller bits of demon, and by watching the intensity of the fiery glow, fly it up and out of the way when it looks like it's getting ready to blow, or feels like it might be getting dangerously large.

Andi Benton has posed:
And now the conglomeration of demon bodies and parts is..growing. Going by what the smaller ones did earlier, a larger one doing the same thing would not be very good for anyone or anything in the vicinity.

Mania hesitates, her visible expression slipping as thoughts formulate in her head and fizzle out, tongue flicking a few times in an almost snake-like manner. "A little guidance, here? Everything we're doing, they're adapting to it!"

It remains to be seen what Donna's, well, Katamari Demoncy effort is going to do, with the symbiote-bonded one adding, "Are you sure that's a good idea right now?" Anything flame-related, she's still keeping a distance from. /Maybe/ Donna can get it out of there in time?

For her part, Mania shifts focus to providing cover for anyone who needs it.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Predictably, Donna calls out- and Raven does not answer. What is disheartening is the response from the demons. When Donna calls Raven's name- even the nickname, apparently- they all begin to cackle. It is a horrid thing in many ways. Its tone is unnatural, and gutteral- even moreso for the wounded ones. It is disgustingly simultaneous, this belly-laugh that they all utter.

    It is, too, almost as if they are being forced to do so. As if some/thing/ is laughing /at/ Donna, and doing so through the ever shrinking horde of demons. This laughter ends after a few moments, as the demons- including the many of whom are merely disembodied heads at this stage- speak.

    "The key will serve! The key will die! The key will serve! The key will die!"

    It persists, an echoing, horrid noise of the same phrases being spoken in an unending repetition. Worse still, as Donna executes her surely Vorpal-inspired plan (Help them do what they're trying to do! It's clearly the last thing they expect!) it grows in volume, as the mass becomes able to send its booming voice from many new mouths that sprout upon the ever-growing sphere of demon.

    Luckily, Vorpal is clever in his incompetence- if Raven were to phrase it- and this plan is a kind of success. While the flaming arrows do not spark the explosions in the demons, as it is of a magical nature, what forcing them to combine does do is very slightly move the timer back.

    It will still require speed, and it may even require help, but it is a plan that could /work./ Very clearly, the demons are adapting- in a way- to what is going on- and it becomes very clear that if these are disposable foot soldiers, there is no doubt about exactly why Trigon is so capable of conquering not just worlds, but realities.

    Despite that the furnace within the orb of demon limbs and heckling maws dims very slightly with each new added lump of demon, it does not appear to be staving the timer off by /very/ long. No matter what, it is very much time to work quickly.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna's good at working quickly. Oh it would certainly be a big help if Wally was here, or Bart, or Irie. A speedster's just what you need when you're working against the clock, or the ticking of a demon-flesh timebomb. Saving that, A Kryptonian would be useful. Or Diana. And don't the X-Men have a guy? Short of those though, Donna's not a bad call if you want speed.

    Nor is she alone. Once it becomes clear what she's doing, the other Amazons help -- kicking, throwing and batting demon-bits into the path of Donna's growing Katamari Demoncy, an ever-growing ball of demon-bits.

    It's not just speed though, it's timing. Each added bit of demon may extend the countdown that little bit, but it also decreases the number of remaining demon-bits on the ground, and thus increases the time between each addition. And so the clock ticks ever on.

    Donna chooses to err on the side of caution. The bulk of demon-matter is in her demon-ball now, but there are still a good few smaller bits left when she decides it's time to get this thing out of range. Heaving the demonic mass up on the end of her lasso, she rockets skywards.

     The Amazons know the scheme now though -- keep the remaining pieces small, keep them apart -- and there's quite a lot less for them to deal with. Hopefully Donna will be back before long to hoover up the remaining parts with a second Katamari Demoncy.

    Up is the first and most important part of the equation. Distance from the ground is everything - distance and the inevitability of the inverse square law. Double the distance, quarter the blast. Ten times the distance, a hundredth the blast. If a few windows get broken by the shockwave of her passage through the air, it's a price worth paying to reduce the damage of the blast. At ground level, here in busy Manhattan, an explosion equivalent to a ton of TNT would kill thousands. A mile up and nobody would care.

    "Mouthy thing aren't you," Donna snarks at the demonic mass. She's not wrong, it's got quite a few mouths now. "And wrong. She would die before she serves your master. But she won't. She's not the key. Once, maybe that's all she was, but she has become far more than that. She's Raven, and if your master knew what that meant, what that means now, he wouldn't be bringing her to him. He'd be running from her."

Andi Benton has posed:
With the bulk of the demonic blob established now, Mania understands that the explosion 'timer' has been getting dragged out with each addition. The chanting draws a scowl out of her, mouth, tongue, and teeth still visible. "What the hell do they mean by that?" She isn't exactly in the know about Raven's story.

"Oh. Yeah. Get that far away from here. Good idea," she adds, turning her attention toward what's left of the stragglers. Now, lines of webbing are sent at them, not just to make it more difficult for them to attack, but also less likely for them to come together for any sort of repeat of what Donna's dealing with.

The others here should find it easier to attack what's left and ensure the dangers from their fiery insides and explosions are minimized.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    It is starting to become clear that there are not many remaining demons. Donna is balling up the great majority of them, and the developed strategem is caught by both the Amazons and Mania alike.

    By far the most helpful in this situation is Mania; The demons are not used to the webbing, and do not have the strength to break it in time. This strands the stragglers that Donna has not merged with the ball where they stand- with much less hope of adding to the incoming blast.

    This frees up the amazons to essentially clean up, carving many of the demons into managable pieces that effectively create small potholes in the ground beneath them, when they do explode. The sphere that is being taken skyward has gathered enough mass to amount to... Well, it's not enough to kill a lot of people, because of the nature of the explosions: They do not have a great radius to them, just great force. They are meant as a form of living landmine, in a way. When they go off, they do so as if contained in a sphere, allowing the force to bounce around and amplify.

    It would have caused incredible destruction, but the beasts must still get close. For as large as the mass is to Donna, she is qualified as 'Close.' Mania is keeping her distance. That's clever- so the symbiote and its wearer get a gold star.

    It really is hard to say "It gets worse" anymore. Nonetheleast of which is because the threat is nearly if not over. Yet, for a scant couple of seconds, it does Get Worse. So far, the demons have been heckling in their own horrible voice- which, really, is bad enough. It sounds akin to someone managing to speak while choking, and is an utterly wretched thing to hear.

    After Donna snarks back? The voice that comes from them is different. It appears that they can channel His voice for so very short a time.

    "She WILL Serve. She WILL Die."

    The voice comes from everywhere and nowhere, all at once. It rattles the very molecules from which the world is made, and hearing it is agony. The pain lasts for a while after it has finished speaking, of course, a sort of echoing sensation that is just the body reacting to pain from nowhere.

    Being the recipient of His voice for any amount of time causes the demons to end their timer- surging the magic that fuels their explosions with a sudden influx.

    The blast in the sky is... It's bad. It is on the scale that- well, Donna, is used to dealing with. Had it been left within the embassy, there would be no more embassy. As it is, the demons on the ground are popping like what they are, horrible blemishes upon the world. While not exactly harmless, thanks to the strategy at play, they are not exactly harmful either. The gardener is going to have a bad day, tomorrow.

Donna Troy has posed:
    The explosion high in the sky will be remarked by a fair few people on the ground, even if there's never an explanation for it. It will probably be dismissed as a small bolide meeting its final fate from atmospheric friction; rare enough to be exciting over a big city, though there are hundreds every night over the planet somewhere.

    Of course there's always the alternative explanation: 'superhero activity'. Things seem to explode in the air quite a lot these days.

    It's a couple of minutes after the explosion that Donna descends back into the Embassy courtyard. She looks frazzled, though it's not so much the explosion as the voice that's responsible. Her armor seems to have stood up very well to the blast. A pair of Amazon guards run over to her as she lands, but she ushers them away to tend to the injured with a wave of her hand and a few quick words of Themysciran.

    Her eyes quickly take in the scene in the courtyard; the danger seems to be dealt with for now. She nods her head to Mania, and flashes them a smile and a "Thank you, Mania." Yes, she recognizes the symbiote from the Young Avengers. Either that or she simply recognizes /a/ symbiote and is unaware there's more than one.

    There's no hanging around though. Straight away Donna rushes back into the Embassy building, and the hole in the wall where Rae had vanished. She touches the edge of the hole experimentally, and recovers the scrap of Raven's sweater that had been lodged there. That's a curious thing, and Donna isn't sure what it means. There's a possibility it's intentional.

    The hole doesn't appear to /go/ anywhere. It's just a hole in the wall. Nevertheless, Donna thinks it's worth a try. Holding the scrap of Raven's sweater tightly in one hand, she calls through the hole, "Rae? Can you hear me?"

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania's grin is a very toothy one as it looks like they've finally got the upper hand. Things are on the right path toward a successful end, especially with Donna putting some distance between the ticking bomb and everybody else.

Then, there's a sense of dismay, discomfort worse than what was felt earlier. It goes with those promises, those vows, coming from that voice.

Any Amazons not dealing with the effects in their own way, those who happen to look toward Mania, they may notice another round of rippling and fluctuation of form as the symbiote appears to be trying to retreat back within its host. There's a glimpse of purple hair, pale skin, hints of a goth/punk style in attire.

<<Mania>> Hurts! Andi, it hurts!
<<Andi>> I..know! Keep it together! We..have to!
<<Mania>> *wordless fear, pain, panic*
<<Andi>> I'm here! We can leave, together!
<<Mania>> Yes. Leave. Go. Now, Andi. Now!

Right about the time Donna's returning after the big boom up in the sky, Mania's getting it back together. No mouth now, just those expressive eyes as everything covers where it should once more. Still, there's something off about it all. Something that leaves her unsteady, a hand against a nearby wall for stability. "W-welcome. We need..to go." That dual voice cements the shakiness, and without any more pretense, she turns to seek the fastest way out of the embassy.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    The way the sound of the demons disappears leaves the calm of night to its own devices is eerie. It seems for a moment like there should be more. Yet more waves of unending demons. Enough to bathe the world, such that gravity would be the death of them, that the surace of the planet was naught more than a mass of demons tearing each other apart in lieu of other targets.

    Yet, crickets. A light blinks at the edge of the courtyard, with an audible click, clack every perhaps ten seconds or so. The sound of breath among victory.

    Searching for Raven inside the embassy is, sadly, fruitless. All that is left within is the scrap of her sweater, which should not exist; Raven conjured the garment, and has enchanted it deeply, such that she can wear it throughout the year and remain warm or cool as needed. Tearing the fabric requires great force, and once pulled apart, it should simply discorporate, effectively "healing" by returning to the whole.

    Outside, a figure has begun to cross the courtyard. It's feminine in shape, and hooded- the Amazons, at least, recognize it. One or more certainly rush to fetch Donna. Their tone is one of emergency when they call her. "She is outside!"

    What awaits Donna is a lot of blood. Raven isn't exactly superhuman. She cannot lift cars without the aid of magic, and she won't be dodging any bullets. Normally, she doesn't need to do either of those. Still, she is /tough./ What she can withstand in terms of punishment is inhuman, even if what it takes to injure her body certainly is.

    Immediately evident is that she is not standing on her left leg properly. She is... Trailing red, behind her- a number of open gashes and claw marks are littered across her body. Listless, she shambles ever forward- her breath a ragged semi-gargle. Untended, the worst of it seems like a wound in her exposed midsection that, though not immediately obvious, runs from the front of her body to the back: As if she was run through by a very wide blade.