15911/Beneath the Pond II: Rise of Goosifer

Beneath the Pond II: Rise of Goosifer
Date of Scene:	01 October 2023
Location:	New York Harbor
Synopsis:	When Goosifer, a demon most fowl, rises from the deep to avenge Beetlegoose whose death in the spring brought Tommy Shepherd and Belinda Gutierrez into the JLD fold, the JLD responds. Nettie leads Pixie, Elixer, and Hellboy into battle, with Richard Stadler and Richard Swift (The Shade) accompanying their battle.
Cast of Characters:	Nettie Crowe, Richard Swift, Hellboy, Joshua Foley, Megan Gwynn, Richard Stadler

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Nettie Crowe has posed:
    The City that Never Sleeps is never a misnomer. The City also never sleeps in, especially not with the absolute cacaphony of thousands of Canadian geese as they converge on New York Harbor. The upper bay is thick with the weighty fowl swimming in the brackish waters of the emptying Hudson river. Almost as many are on the sides and parks, milling about, harassing joggers and those trying to take advantage of the waning days of good weather before the city experiences late fall and into winter.

    Among the pedestrian people picking paths precariously through a plethora of poop (have you ever seen a river shoreline where the geese have congregated?), there is a woman whose gray ponytail is poking out the back of a ballcap, visor over a pair of aviator sunglasses, wearing a dark gray shirt beneath a vest with many pockets, with a backpack, and a longsword strapped to her back. The crow perched on the back of the backpack was singing in shanty:

    "OH away and off we go my lads, off to the water away!
    "We'll catch our quarry and bring to land, off to the water away!
My bonnie lass remains ashore where she'll wait for me once more
To lift her in my arms again, off to the water away!

    "Oh such a dan'grous prey we seek, off to the water away!
    "Goosifer his revenge he reeks, off to the water away!
    "Our deaths will surely come to pass, so bid farewell my bonnie lass
    "We're ne'er again to meet, alas! we're off to the water a-waaaay!"

    Nettie Crowe makes a face, and she turns, looking to Corvax over her shoulder.

    "/Really/. That's not encouraging."

    "You got eaten by the last one an' required Fast Tom to blow you out the back end of the foul... fowl." Corvax replies smugly.

    Nettie wrinkles her face and brushes the bird off ehr backpack, who laughs while he crows and goes to take a better vantage point in the trees along this river-walk.

    The air, in spite of the crisp, beautiful fall weather, has begun to thicken and stink with the reek of rotten eggs and putrid goose fat, and the geese along their migratory patterns begin to get a little worked up, hissing more aggressively at passer-bys.

Richard Swift has posed:
The shadows congeal and then part for a dark dressed figure. The Shade walks several steps forward, before smelling what the air was offering at this time. Wrinkling his nose, the Shade adjusts his top hat, "cricks" his neck, left and right, then leans forward on his cane, pausing for effect.

"The signs are there of course. Perhaps this was not the day to arrive at the "City That Never Sleeps". It appears that somone has let in the riff raff. Sigh."

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy takes the cigar from between his lips and lets ou ta thick plume of smoke from where he stands not far away from Nettie. He has his massive trenchcoat on, the butt of his pistol jutting out just underneath, along with a large bastard sword strapped sideslung across his back. A dragonslayer blade, that supposedly belonged to St. George. That's what it said on the tag when he got it out of storage, anyways.

His nose flares, "Stinky," he says simply enough.

Joshua Foley has posed:
Even with his foot moving to push the skateboard as fast as he can, Joshua is huffing and puffing to keep up with the Greywitch and Corvax. "I'm brining noise cancelling headphones next time so I don't have to hear bad jaunties!" he calls out.

And Gabby was right. He totally needs to invest in a motorbike. She's considering selling the Trail, maybe he'll buy it himself. His foot pounds the concrete again, and he kickflips to slide up a railing to reach the next level of the street as he hits and follows.

Dressed in an urban camo hoodie over a black t-shirt and blue jeans with his well-worn Chucks, the golden mutant weaves between cars and twists to try to keep sight of Nettie and her crow, even as the smell hits his nose and makes him gag. "Uuuuurgh, glad I haven't had lunch." Another drop down and an ollie later, he's on the river-walk, weaving around the lights and barriers that are there to DISCOURAGE skateboards as he tries to spy where the Goosifier may be.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
The days are getting shorter, and cooler too. Especially near the harbour where the water causes temperatures to drop even more. Which is why Megan finally broke out the autumn gear, wearing a light, green hooded jacket over her green blouse and blue jeans, complete with running shoes. It's that annoying weather that's cold in the mornings and evenings but sometimes still warm ish in the afternoon. Be prepared for anything.

Speaking of, Didnt Nettie call her out here for..Something or other? Another crazy magic lesson? Peering around as she strolls along the docks, Megan spies the crow before the white haired young old woman and starts making her way towards her. It's hard not to spot Megan with her pink hair and luminescent wings no matter where she is.

Oh and looks like she's late as others are already gathering. She smiles cheerfully and waves. "Hii! Hope I'm not too late!"

Richard Stadler has posed:
     Another day, another check in over at Fort Wadsworth for Stadler. 'Yes, I'm still at this address. No, the bank account didn't change.' He swore the Army just did it to annoy him and make him feel more like a pensioner every single day, but bureaucracy came with the good and the bad, and at least Von Briesen park was nice and golden this time of year... even if there were a lot of geese.

A /lot/ of geese.
Okay. This was far too many geese. Where the hell were they coming from? The harbor? Well, didn't he need a jog today, anyway? It was a scant mile and a half if he was being generous. Short blocks, and it was rather quick to get down and see, in order:

A woman with a broadsword and a talking bird.
Someone in a hoodie he was pretty sure had golden skin.
Congealing shadows.
An rather peppy looking teenager (no problem with the Pep, but maybe with the teenager.
And a large, red demon-looking- Huh, no. Wait. /That/ one looked familiar. Still, the smart thing to do would be to jog a mile and a half back to his car and try to get accros the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge before /everyone/ else did. Yep. The smart play.

"Hey. Sorry. Didn't get your name." He calls over to Hellboy. "But I think we might have met in Metropolis. Don't suppose you know what's going on?"

Oh, this is a mistake.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Oi. No one let me in. I'm thoroughly illegal but have the paperwork against it." Nettie pipes up to The Shade, and she looks him over."Come to lend a hand against the very water-waders of Hell, have you?" she gives a wry smile. Hey, always to know another in the know. If you know, you know.

    And she gives a grim nod. "Aye, Hellboy. Elixer, Pixie. This is the very scent of Hell, a creature most fowl, rising to take revenge for its mate's demise at the hands of my co-leaders and our Pixie and Miss Belinda Gutierrez--" she takes a deep breath, and then coughs as she lets it out, waving her hand in front of her face as she shakes her head.

    "It's getting stronger, innit?" she wheezes.

    And indeed, it gets stronger. Boats and barges pass by on their way in and out of the harbor, trying to avoid the simply enormous pools of geese on the water. People are taking pictures. It's actually relatively calm for New York City.

     Which, of course, just gives way to the roiling, boiling, lifting of water in the harbor.

    There is a dull roar, and Nettie's attention goes from Richard Stadler (who looked horribly ordinary in every way), but she turns and regards the harbor, lifting an unlit handrolled cigarette to her mouth.

    From the water comes the massive, enlongated skeletal head of a waterfowl crossed with that of a horse. Its orbitals glow with hellfire, and it has razor-sharp spines drawing down its neck. Its jaw parts as it expells water and murk-covered, stinking, rotting kelp. Its beak edges have sharp chips, as if appleid from past battles, and in lieu of a tongue with teeth on it (horrifying as normal geese tongues are), the slick, sucker-covered tentacle draws out slowly, dripping ichor from its decaying neck. Black feathers fly into the air, orbiting the creature lazily.

    This titanic sized creature is nearly fifty feet tall, and smells fetid, gross, like the rotting of pickled trotters and rancid fat.

    I AM GOOSIFER! I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE ON THOSE WHO EXECUTED MY INFERNAL BELOVED! IT HONKS, the call spreading over the harbor like an icy blanket as the air chills around them!

Richard Swift has posed:
Picking up his cane, and tucking it under his left arm, Swift moves to the left, watching what was unfolding carefully. His senses were on point, having felt something...wrong happening at this location, and wanting to check it out for himself. The darkness was always there if he needs it, but for now, he lets himself walk in the light.

Taking a moment to note everyone present, the Shade ascertains threat levels. Megan. Joshua. Nettie. Stadler. And Hellboy. Now his arrival raises Swift's eyebrows, because where Hellboy goes, darkness follows. A subtle nod was sent to each of these individuals. Now. The real threat.

With Nettie's comments, the Shade almost smiles. "Indeed. Water Waders of Hell. That sounds smashing!" He taps his top hat. "Anything I can do to help, of course."

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy slowly turns his head over at Stadler when he's addressed, "Call me Red," he says.

of course, any further conversational gambits are pretty much cut off by the sudden arrival of giant goose monster. Hellboy's seen plenty of kaiju and kaiju-adjacent creatures. He's chopped their heads off, disemboweled them, even climbed down inside and cut his way out. He doesn't feel any fear at the sight of the thing. This is what he does.

Still. "Fucking gross," he says.

He hears the great spiel of the mighty monster and draws his gun, aiming at one of its big eyes with an explosive shot, "Ehhhhhhhhhhhh, execute this."

BLAM.

Joshua Foley has posed:
"Hi Pixie!" Joshua calls up to Megan, using codenames since they're out in the field. As he approaches the skein of geese, he hears Stadler's question and helpfully responds. "Couple of weeks ago, the Greywitch took down Goosifer, a really powerful demon, goose fiend." He can finally stop and get off his skateboard now that he's arrived at their destination, pulling back his hood to expose blonde hair -- and yes, Stadler is right, bright golden skin.

"We're here to try to take down the new goose fiend before it can consolidate it's power. Well, the rest are. I'm here to provide healing support and help where I can." Because Joshua is no powerhouse or super magical. He's Mercy without wings, the Doctor without range, a fairy without a jar.

With the chill in the air increasing, Joshua watches a breath come out in a chuff of white. At least he had dressed appropriately for the occassion. "That goose totally does not lay golden eggs."

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn grins and waves to Elixir but most of her attention is on the stench and gathering geese. She remembers fighting a goosefiend in the past. It seemed more or less immune to most of her tricks. But this time she's learned a couple new ones. Maybe she'll luck out. She wrinkles a nose at the smell and has already decided these are no ordinary geese. "Ugh, more geese, gotta say, I'm sooo not a fan of geese anymore!"

And then the king of geese makes his presence known and he is quite a bit scarier and bigger than the last as she recalls. "So gross!" and Pixie is already leaping into the air, circling the goose..lIfer?! and pondering a course of action as she surveys things from above. "Ewww, tentacles! An it's huge! You figure those gooselets are working with it?"

Richard Stadler has posed:
     Richard gave a look up to the slowly rising body of... /something/ coming out of the Narrows in front of them , it's form resolving itself in a slow, horrifying way as water sheds from the demonic apparition. It /was/ demonic, of course. The feathers floating around it would have suggested it, but that loud keening honk that was somehow understood as words seal the deal.

"...Ahh." What else was he supposed to say, when looking up at bone and blackness, to Josha's admittedly helpful summation, quickly reaching into his pocket and starting to text someone. "I... err. See. Giant goose. And you all... I'm guessing... 'superheroes'. He says, looking up briefly to return the nod Swift gives him, before back down to his phone. A furious few taps on the screen, before he takes a breath-

And coughs. God, that was a rank scent, even worse than a river like this normally put off. "Don't sell medical assitance short, son." He can at least say to Joshua. "Too many people focus on the teeth, not enough on the tail. I'm... going to need a few minutes."

Before looking over to 'Red', a large handcannon produced, firing what could only be described as satisfyingly large rounds. "Unless you've got something similar as a backup?"

He did not miss the names Nettie had mentioned in the beginning. One of those was familiar and he logged that a way for a... conversation.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "The regular geese are bad enough, but to my ken simply fowl instead of foul -- don't get eaten by it, we don't have a speedling to disrupt its molecules this time! Fight for the city lads and lasses! Raise arm and wing!" Nettie barks, giving a command to all as the leader she is, and she hops up onto a bench, and then a trash can to make sure she's very visible (as the shortest and not pink one here), and she brings her sword up (with a little difficulty -- SOMEONE'S been skipping arm day!)

    "OI YOU GREAT FEATHERED BASTARD! HERE I AM! THE GREYWITCH! SLAYER OF BEETLEGOOSE -- that is the most ridiculous thing I've said in the last two years -- COME AND GEDDIT!" she barks as the Samaratan sounds its grim report, and Goosifer, moving faster than anything on water has any business to, fueled by fel desires and revenge makes rapid encroach on the heroes on shore -- only to be SHOT IN THE EYE. The skull of the beast craters outwards, the sound of bone splintering feeling the air along with the unrighteous and horrible rage of its honk as it turns its attention to Hellboy first, and attempts to raise one wing up, a mix of skeletal and cursed, blackened feathers dripping with putrifying flesh and goes to knock the demon into the harbor full of geese! And grossness.

    It *is* a heavily traveled waterway.

    Its tentacled tongue rises up and tries to get a grip of Megan to slam her to the sidewalk!

    Josh may have the worst of it. There are some land geese who have locked onto him, and are approaching him, beady eyes... staring. Beaks... parting. TEETH ON THEIR TONGUES rattling against their beaks as they begin HISSING.

    Stadler is also approached by a goose -- this goose attempts to take his phone and run off with it!

Richard Swift has posed:
The Shade remains in the background, not jumping forward into the "fray" as per most heroes. He was not a hero. Looking up into the sky, the Shade's expression turns to one of disdain. Fowl indeed.

Hearing the call from Nettie, Swift pauses for a few moments. Watching the scene unfold, Swift decides to remain in reserve. If any hero gets in too deep, the Shade's shadows would be there to extricate them from certain death.

Swift puses his sunglasses back up on his nose, and leans forward on his cane. It was going to be a long day indeed.

Hellboy has posed:
Hellboy shouts out, "Sorry, pal, afraid the Samaritan's one of kind," he calls out about his beloved pistol.

He reaches back and draws his sword with his other hand, tucking the pistol away as he kind of looks around.

"Huh. Don't suppose any of you mugs is strong enough to throw me at Big Stinky? I figure I might be able to cut its head off with a few hacks if I get up around the shoulder area. C'mon, somebody fling me."

Joshua Foley has posed:
Oh great, a gaggle of geese goons have gathered to grapple with Joshua. He barely has time to respond to Stadler, "They're the superheroes, I'm just a mutie." So full of self-confidece, he is.

As the geese gird around Joshua, the young mutant grips his skateboard tightly, holding it like one would hold a broadsided baseball bat. He clearly does not want to use his powers to fight these geese.

He manages to get an overhead swing down on the first goose to rush him, but all that does is open him up to get hunted and pecked by the others as he twists, trying to smack some of the others away. The cloth of his pants and hoodie are being torn and ripped asunder as he continues to try to swing around the goosebasher, but he's starting to get overwhelmed a little. But where his skin is ripped, he yelps in pain, but almost immediately, the wounded area if glowing and starting to knit back up.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Well, that answers that question. Pixie swiftly ducks and veers around tentacles and pond slime, dodging both the goosifter and its gooselets. But when she sees the smaller geese making a beeline towards Elixir, she narrows her eyes, fluttering her wings faster and dives towards them. "Josh, duck!" she calls out a warning to him before unleashing a glitter bomb of faerie dust from her wings on the largest group. With any luck it'll set them to attacking each other rather than attacking any of the heroes gathered.

Richard Stadler has posed:
    "I'm beginning to think I might need to have one of those made." He says to 'Red'. Granted, he doesn't seem to be the one in charge. The woman straight out of Camelot does, with the call and challenge with that sword. Offering battle.

To Joshua, he shakes his head. "You're in it now, so none of that 'just a' stuff! I've got a phone and a pocket knife, and I'm still here, and you seem to have more going for you-"

It doesn't seem like these geese are as dumb as Stadler might have thought. Or they make up for it, like all Canadian Geese, with pure malice. But they went through the smart play of trying to grab the only weapon Stadler had at his disposal at the moment. "Ah- Goddamn it" He says, as that beak attempts to chomp down on case and cellphone together. He manages to wrench it out. "That's 300 dollars!" He says, moving to reach down, and grasp the hissing creature by the neck, attempting to swing it around and smacking it into another nearby goose. "Do you know how much the insurance deductable is!?"

There's a glitter bomb that goes off , clouding the area with something cheery and festive, and perhaps the crack of gunfire about a mile in the distance.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "They're not ducks they're Geese!" Nettie calls back to Megan, a little distracted. "Broom -- give Hellboy a lift!" she barks, and from her pack, here she had been storing her sword, her besom makes its appearance. Nice ash stick, good quality, definitely would be able to hold up Red due to the broomstick being Magic AF. It barrel-rolls quickly in place to show how hard it can roll, seemingly excited to work with Hellboy.

    Nettie's a witch. Of course she'd have a broom.

    Nettie, meanwhile, had raised her sword in anticipating of catching the wing meant for Hellboy, and since she was catching the wing, she is flung!

    Directly towards the shadows of the Narrows Bridge, flailing as she goes with a 'Bloody helllllllllll' coming from her as she goes sailing, but she holds onto her sword.

    Mostly.

    Joshua's anti-goose work is working, geese being discouraged to take a gander at his self and hissing as they give him a slightly wider berth, STILL CIRCLING around him until -- POOMF. There is a flood of magic around them. Sparkly effects, and the geese look rather confused. And they do what confused geese tend to do -- they go to take off to get to someplace that isn't confusing!

    HONK HONK HONK! they go as they take to the skies to get away from the fight, MEgan's confusion bombs discouraging their attachments to Goosifer!

    Stadler, meanwhile, has a goose that's taking a gander and doesn't know about insurance -- because it's a horrible goose. It is, however, picked up and used to strike another goose! The Gooseflail flails as it tries to dislodge itself from its compatriot, writhing about before they both start to try and peck at Stadler's shoes -- before one blows up into a mess of fowl offal (awful foul) and feathers go flying all over the place! BOOM!

Richard Swift has posed:
The shadows move and undulate around Richard Swift as though responding to his very movements and thoughts. His eyes scan the battlefield as the heroes become entwined in the fight against...the fowl? The duck jokes just seem to flow, which put Swift in an even more foul mood.

Swift hears Hellboy's request, concentrates, and offers a shadow portal near Hellboy that ends up exactly where he wanted to go..."Big Stinky". "If you wish to be flinged, jump in Boy of Hell. Broomstick from the witch (Nettie) and all. Courtesy of Shade Airlines." Wait, was that a joke?

Joshua Foley has posed:
'Hey Josh, duck!'

When did this become Duck, Duck, Goose? No matter, Josh hits the deck when Megan magic-bombs the flock and drives them off. As he rises back to his feet, he gives a wave of his hand to Megan in appreciation of her assistance with the swarm of ghastly geese, he turns to try to help Hellboy and Nettie with Gossifer!

But how can he help? He's pondering that for a moment. Distraction, distraction. Then he looks down at his hands. OH RIGHT. It's a terrible, horrible plan, but if it distracts the demon goose long enough for the others to do their thing...

Off comes the hoodie and t-shirt. Now topless, with shirt in one hand and hoodie in the other, he starts to jump up and down, waving the two shirts as his golden skin makes him stand out like a sore thump.

"OVER HERE!" he cries out and does the Griddy as he tries to hold the goose's attention. "It's the GOLDEN EGG you've been looking for!"

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn grins and thumbs up to Josh once most of the geese clear the ground to take to the skies. "Right, time for the big du--Err goose!" she makes a face at Nettie's correction, and shrugs, far as she's concerned, they're both big winged creatures that honk and stink. Details, details.

Narrowing her eyes upon Goosifer, Pixie summons her soul dagger, flying circles around the creatures as she waits for an opening. May as well start with the tentacles, and she ducks in closer, taking numerous swings with her dagger at the tentacles, trying to slice em off with a little focused effort going into solidifying her dagger, although either way, if she connects and if hopefully this thing has some semblance to a soul, it'll hurt like hell either way.

Richard Stadler has posed:
     "And these shoes cost me 30!" He says, moving to kick at the two that were causing trouble, before his clothing and precious shoes were just /covered/ in what used to be a bird. "God!"

Joshua seems to have finally regained his confidence... in the absolutely worst way possible. Stadler was really looking for something, anything to help, especially as Nettie was just being flung out to the middle of the Narrows.

"Finally, there it was. In the chaos that had mostly stopped traffic comes someone's Toyata Camry. Whose was a mystery; the driver seemed to be some scared out of their minds Coast Guardsman in his late 20s trying to keep it together through a mass of feathers, flapping, and bird droppings.

The trunk's popped after a second, the window rolled down a crack. "Hey, is one of you-"

Stadler's already moving back to the trunk itself, "Yep!" He says, pulling out the M16, and what looks to be the first cheap canvas tote they could find loaded with clips.

"I think you-"

"DRIVE!" Stadler yells at the man, slamming the trunk down and closed, and then there's a screeching of tires down the street as Stadler raises the rifle, and takes a burst off of a geese that might be around Joshua.

OKay, so maybe they were just pecking at his shoes, and he was /wildly/ overcompensating, but. Time to go Emu War on these hellbeasts.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Details, details, Nettie was never eaten by a duck.

    Broom the Besom sees that Hellboy's request is being handled by The Shade, which puts the broom in a predictament -- FREE TRAVEL? Or... y'know. Rescue Nettie.

    Who goes ka-THONG-ONG-ONG against a pylon of the bridge and falls into the water. Besom chooses -- BOTH -- zip through the portal to Goosifer's neck. Zip over Goosifer. Zip over to the water and dive beneath the waters of New York's harbor!

    Nettie is extracted, coughing up brackish ocean water. Ew.

    Josh ducks. Josh strips. JOsh is now a bright golden example of what not to do when confronting an ancient bird of any size as displayed by Dr. Ian Malcom in Jurassic Park. Which is to say 'Not that'. The massive creature turns to Joshua as Hellboy passes through the portal and gets to the large foul's back side, with a grin and a raise of that massive sword that used to be Saint George's he is about to impale the beast -- when coincidentally MEgan slashes one of the tentacles of its tongue away.

    There is a retching, screeching sound from Goosifer as it suddenly rolls, sending Hellboy, alas, into the harbor, skipping over the water for two strikes and then head-first into a garbage barge. "What the... crap." can be heard muttered, although if that was from the unfortunate Hellboy or from the skipper on the boat, that's up to anyone's guess.

    And then Stadler takes out an M16, which the scene writer had to go look up and figure out what the effect was because she didn't consider someone showing up with pre-1986 automatic weaponry, STADLER.

    THe geese though don't stand a chance against automatic rifle fire. The completely normal geese that were not hit by the confusion powder are now becoming ex-geese. There are broken geese bodies piling up. They asplode in what used to be geese. It's a grim time to be a goose.

    GOOSIFER IS UNDETERRED. EXCEPT THAT ITS TONGUE GOT SLICED WITH A SOUL DAGGER.

    THe howling, wailing, honking of the goose demon lord as its head fails about, and it rises from its watery... swimmingness. It rears up, calling, crying, echoing its fel voice over the city. Birds of every sort begin to go mad. Budges squeal. Parrots squawk and curse. Chickens on rooftops peck at their own eggs! Pigeons -- are pigeons! ONE EATS A WHOLE-ASS RAT and shocks three kindergarteners into sobbing!

    Goosifer splits its attention. And that requires a shapeshift and boss music as a second head errupts from its chest, sending gross, rotting flesh and rancid goose fat in every direction as a skeletal goose head and neck comes up, rising from the harbor, the one with the tongues going after Megan to try and knock her out of the sky, and the more skeletal head going after Joshua, screeching in echoed, damned honks!

Richard Swift has posed:
After the Hellboy fling, the Shade waits in the background, and wonders what brought him there that day. Adjusting his bow tie, the Shade leans on his cane, and stays in the support role. "Fascinating, the trouble these mortals get in nowadays."

So far, the heroes were surviving. That allows the Shade to relax, lean back, and enjoy the show. The shadows move around him, keeping him safe. If he was a betting man, he'd put his money on the good guys.

"Noisy. Indeed. Rude."

Joshua Foley has posed:
Good news. Joshua distracted the bird.
Bad news. Joshua distracted the bird.
Worse news. Joshua is now being chased by a giant goose skull.

What to do what to do what to... he runs, throwing the skateboard in front of him and jumps on top of it, giving it a hard push with his foot. He's skating for his life, trying to really... well, Goosifier is chasing him, so he's head towards where he last saw Nettie go off to, because if he can lead the goose to Nettie, he might have a chance. Or at least, get something to defend himself with.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn grins as she gets the goosifer's attention and more, "Well, guess you don't like the soul dagger, huh, well there's more where that came from!" unfortunately that's when chaos breaks loose in the form of more mad birds, flocking to heed the evil goose king's call!

Pixie gulps and swerves this way and that in the sky, narrowly missing getting chomped in half by an angry goose or two. "Alright! time to calm y'all down!" and with a snap of her fingers,she dissipates the dagger, fluttering higher and faster as she circles the mad birds, unleashing another glitter bomb on as many as she can, trying to calm them down..

Unfortunately she missed a few big angry geese who ambush her from behind along with more creepy tongue ten tales that sack her from the sky, sending her spiralling at an alarming rate to the ground below...

Richard Stadler has posed:
     Okay. So. This wasn't the best situation to be in currently. It was... better, honestly, at least for Stadler's point of view, because he was finally holding a firearm and doing his best to make sure the seagulls were going to get a thanksgiving two months early. But there were a /lot/ of geese, still, and they were motivated, aggressive, and /angry/, and he only had so much ammunition.

Now he knew how people in zombie movies felt.

Still, he's able to back himself up toward a part of the harbor that was a bit harder for geese to squeak through, before muttering as Megan starts falling to the ground nearby. That's one reason things were going bad, and at least he might be able to break her fall. But the big gun they had was on a garbage trawler heading up river and Joshua was just being peak Gen Z bringing a skateboard into this, and leading Goosifer away toward, really, the only heavy hitter they had left.

He does glare at the Shade nearby, slapping another magazine into the rifle and firing a single round into a goose's neck. "You might want to help out a bit!"

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    A couple of geese who don't want to fight chill with the Shade. They honk softly and preen in the shadows watching.

    The skeletal goose head opens its beak, slowly gaining on Josh before it hits the end of its neck. There's an ONK?! of questioning, and then the skull detatches itself from the goose's neck, and CONTINUES TO CHASE JOSH! TEETH ON BEAK SKULL IS GAINING -- GAINING!

    And that's when Broom, with NEttie on it, speeds by, damp hair flying back, ballcap and aviators missing as she grips her sword in both hands.

    Nettie releases her grip on the broom, and her boots skid as she draws down, correcting her stance as she brings the sword up, and SWINGS.

    SMASH! Right into the open beak of the skull, hitting the hinges of it and slicing the skull cleanly in half.

    Her eyes are blackened, with violet iries as she hisses Leave My Son Alone.

    Someone called for a Heavy Hitter?

    Nettie pulls her wand from her sleeve as the Goose with its now headless neck and headed neck turns towards her. One of the slayers of its beloved.


    It LAUNCHES itself at her, paddingling as the garbage bardge turns, with Hellboy taking a place at the lead as he calls out "GET ME CLOSER! I'VE GOTTA HIT IT WITH MY SWORD!"

    Megan is rescued from a dangerous fall via shadowy portal.

    The geese continue to explode with Stadler's shots, and enough of them have met a grim demise that the tides are beginning to turn. The geese take to the air in fear, causing flights to RAPIDLY be grounded at nearby airports as they take off en-masse

    "Elixer! To Pixie! Besom! To me!" s he recalls her broom, and she lifts off on it, wand in one hand and sword in the other!

    "Mr. Encouragement!" she calls out to Stadler, "BROADSIDE THE BEAST!"

Richard Swift has posed:
The Shade chills with the, well, chill geese. They all lean back and enjoy the show...

Joshua Foley has posed:
When Nettie comes to his rescue, Joshua is immediately relieved. "Oh my god not gonna die by goosing, not gonna..." and he cuts himself off when Nettie gives him new orders.

His eyes scan the skies, looking for Megan -- just to see her rapidly falling towards the river. "Got it!" he yells as he takes off in a run, leaving the skateboard behind as he dives into the cooling waters with a yelp as he feels his body warm up and he starts on a heavy breast stroke to get to Pixie.

With an arm around her waist, he starts to use his one free arm and his legs to push the pair of them back to shore. Climbing out of the water, his hands take hers to pull her out of the river. And with his hands touching her bare skin, he starts to glow brightly, his healing powers kicking in and channeling his healing abilities directly in the fairy mutant.

Richard Stadler has posed:
     Oh, God. The flurry of feathered fowl flying fast and fearful was something Stadler wasn't expecting, and for a brief moment, he can imagine the calls from the FAA he's have to endure for the next week. Maybe Hellboy could help. He was in SHIELD, right?

Maybe he could even get paid for this.

Still, suddenly the tied turns, the geese threatening him on the ground becoming less of a problem as a clear target presents itself. His eyes briefly look up toward the falling Megan, seeing that she's being handled. All right, one less problem to concern himself with, especially as Ms. Skull Splitter calls for fire support.

He would, if he had more time, had a rather vigorous argument that this was like shooting BBs at a cougar, but he didn't, so he simply turned the rifle toward the creature looming over all of them at the command, flipping to three round burst and pulling the trigger rapidly at the creature's remaining head, aiming for the eye socket's and beak through the damned iron sights, ejecting a magazine and feeding a fresh one inside of a few seconds, before repeating the process.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Here's the thing about Goosifer. He's rotting, mangled, corpse of a giant demonic goose. Do the bullets do a LOT of damage? No. But shoot enough BB's at a cougar and it's gonna get tired of being shot.

    Tentacles and necks flail. Joshua retrieves the fairy from her fall.

    The goose rises up one more time, and with a terrible haunted honk it lashes out at the broomstick-bound Nettie, who launches a fireball for its tongue (... does anyone else smell calamari?). Its breast bursts into a thousand splintery pieces of rotting gooseflesh and fat and bone as he hits it, Nettie baring down on it with fire before -- at last -- the beast launches into a death throe and ... explodes.

    Goose guts and rancid fat everywhere. Giant bones that sizzle and slowly turn into ash, polluting with not dark magic... just... gunky dirty rotten goose.

    And Nettie comes down to the ground. She breathes out, covered with goose gunnk, and then goes over to Stadler.

    "Fair shooting, sir. Nettie Crowe." she states in introduction. "Thank you for your help."

    And she looks up to Swift, just chillin'. ANd she gives a wave to him as well.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn has hopefully managed to subdue at least some extra geese with her glitter bomb, and thanks to Nettie's portal, she only enjoys a short fall into the river rather than something that might snap her in two. Then Elixir is on it, diving in, swimming her to shore. She coughs and sputters, thankful for the quick healing that seems to soothe her before she even realizes she got assaulted by a flock of angry geese.

She smiles weakly at Elixir, "Heh, golden egg, that's a good one.." she spits out water, trying to regain her senses. "Sooo did we get 'em?"

Joshua Foley has posed:
"You alright?" Elixir starts to ask of Pixie, looking down at her with his blue eyes. And before he gets that answer, there's an explosion, and suddenly, Joshua is covered in rotten, putrid, goose pate fois gras.

And fortunately for Megan, Josh made a /great/ umbrella to keep her from mostly getting pelted, possibly. "...this is... so gross. Almost as gross as the river. I'm going to need to soak for /hours/." He pushes himself to his feet, offering his hand to Megan to help her up.

Richard Stadler has posed:
     Stadler was going to worry about the FAA more when he wasn't coated in exploded goosefat. Which, despite certainly having smelled worse things, was not pleseant in the slightest.

He lowers the rifle from the firing position, carefully placing it to lean aganist the ground, before taking off his glasses and trying his best to wipe off bits of flesh and smeared fat from them, as Nettie comes up to him. "Given the lack of an optic, I'd say it was more than fair shooting. Just like that was more than fair swordsmanship." He says, grimacing, before putting his classes back on and pushing them onto his nose. He extends a hand over to her.

"Richard Stadler. Did I hear you correctly in that you sent Belinda Gutierrez after one of these things? A 17 year old?"

Perhaps this is the only way he can focus on something other than rancidity invading his nostrils."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "She stumbled into it. I hired her part time at my tea shop to make sure there were no lasting ill effects like a responsible adult." she states to Stadler, giving him a shake of her hand as she re-holsters her sword. The stink will be taken care of later. She crosses her arms as she looks at Stadler, and then back up to his gaze, and she pulls from her pocket her wallet, which is very late 90's Hot Topic in that it has flames and a cat on it, and then flicks it open to show she has a Justice League Identification -- giving her designation as Greywitch.

    Which, of course, if Stadler knows his WWI and WWII history, makes her FREAKING OLD.

    "Now she calls me Abuela and if anything bad should happen to her --" and then she motions back at the rapidly sinking demonic goose carcass.

Megan Gwynn has posed:
Megan Gwynn flinches as goose guts go flying. Fortunately Josh manages to take most of the brunt of yuckiness. She grimaces, taking his hand and climbing g to her feet, "Yeah, thanks for the rescue, but.." she wrinkles her nose, trying her best to wipe off what she can from his clothes, "It's okay, I'm sure it'll come out easily, just take a really good shower.." still, at least the goosifer is dead! right? She glances around and laughs, "Yeaah we did it...Right? I hope that's all for evil birds! Really it's getting tiresome."

Joshua Foley has posed:
Joshua's attention swivels from Megan, now that she's okay to Richard and Nettie. To Megan, he says quietly. "I'm really glad that mom usually goes for women, he seems like a jerk." he murmurs, before his attention turns to scrapping some of the gunk off of his chest and arms. "Oh, shower and a soak. Definetly in order."

He goes to pick his skateboard and he walks back over to join the others and pull back on his hoodie. "I'm calling an Uber to get home."

Richard Stadler has posed:
     Stadler peers through fat-fogged glasses at the presented identification (and not judging the wallet), grimacing slightly, before giving a weary nod, and taking a moment to lift his glasses up to rub the bridge of his nose. "Well, they don't just give those out in cereal boxes, and I recall seeing that name in a few history books. I'm sure you're very protective. Maybe a good influence in some ways. Others..."

He sighs. "I am... going to walk back to the Coast Guard's Sector HQ down here to turn this," He slightly moves the rifle he's gripping by the carrying handle," In, along with the magazines. Then see if they'll let me shower, and then see if I can catch... God, a ferry? Over to Battery park, and, Jesus." He says, moving to gather the bag of clips. "But. You and I need to have a talk. DO you have a card?"

TO Joshua, he holds up two fingers. "One. I am a /perfectly/ pleasant person. Two. You are covered in rancid goose fat. Take the train."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Nettie gives a smile. "Better than a card, I have a shop in the East Village. You should come by some time." she smiles, and does, in fact, give Stadler her card. And then she gives a *harrumph*.

    And she turns, raising her wand, and a violet portal opens.

    "In you both get. That'll take us to the Fledging room an' you can get the showers from there," she states to Joshua and MEgan, and then turns to Stadler. She gives a slight smile.

    "As for you -- enjoy your walk, Mr. Stadler. I look forward to meeting with you soon." she smiles, and then turns to usher her young people through the portal -- EVERYONE needs a shower. And she has just the right soap made for removing demonic goosefat.

Joshua Foley has posed:
Nettie-Express. Way, way cooler than an Uber or a train. He lifts his nose at Stadler as he moves towards the portal. "Don't stay out too late, Greywitch." That said fondly to his adoptive mother before giving a reassuring smile to Megan. "You did pretty awesome, Pixie!" he offers to her.

As he steps through the portal... he looks back. And to Stadler, he lifts his hand as if to wave to him, then he closes one finger, then another, another, another, and finally a thumb. Guess which finger is still up as he steps through the portal. Fight the beauacrcacy!

Richard Stadler has posed:
     :takes the card, and, get this, takes a picture of it with his phone! He's somewhat in touch with how the kids do things... though he still ends up taking out his own wallet and slipping it in there. Of course, he did earn that harrupmh. And the fact that two kids got to snag a portal back to East Village and one was very clearly not offered to him.

The pain of being crotchedy.
And he certainly doesn't miss the bravado of the golden kid lifting his nose up, and giving him a particular type of salute, to which Stadler just stares at with tired eyes.

He keeps staring at the portal after it disappears, and the harbor is full of dead, rotting geese, the loudening call of carrion birds, and someone pushing 50 who really should no better. He looks down the tangle of coast, then back up the road, before sighing again, and beginning to put one foot in front of the other.

"Goddamn teenagers."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Aye, but that one's mine, you'll have to forgive him." Nettie states. In spite of the fact that the lady looks like she's fresh out of college at least and maybe in her late 20's. In spite of the fact that she carries a moniker coined during World War One, which would make her *easily* over a hundred and thirty years old. And she would have offered him a magical clean if he wasn't snippy.

    She'll save that for later.

    And she passes through the portal.

    And then, about fifteen minutes after everyone's left, there's not a sign of Goosifer -- all his offal remains, fowling up the area, have been turned to ash, save for what Stadler carried.

    Truly, his Goose was Cooked.