1623/Danger Room: LEEEEROY...

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Danger Room: LEEEEROY...
Date of Scene: 11 May 2020
Location: Danger Room
Synopsis: Success! Dazzler is freed from the Mojoverse after FIRE!
Cast of Characters: Illyana Rasputina, Rahne Sinclair, Tabitha Smith, Julio Richter, James Proudstar, Marie-Ange Colbert




Illyana Rasputina has posed:
Where it all begins...

Before anyone enters the Danger Room, they get outfitted with... potions. Blue potions, in fact, contained in weirdly faceted bottles, stoppered with a golden lid covered in runes. Beside it, a glass cylinder contains a red potion. Neither of them is labeled in any particular fashion to their identities, but the thin leather belts coiled up -do- have each participant's name associated with them.

Nothing else at ALL to suggest something weird is about to happen. Well, other than walking through the doors and hitting something like a stone bridge that terminates in a very impressive stony tower thrust like a bloody middle finger up to the rubicund skies. The hour is late, making it difficult to see the stars, and the only signs of welcome are found in the large brazier burning at a stony vestibule leading into the tower proper. It's the only way to go forward -- or leave the Danger Room altogether by basically falling off the bridge that participants just entered on. Shadows cavort and leap excitedly behind the smoke billowing off the burning logs. Logs that smell oddly of...

Chicken. Fried chicken. Delicious.

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
    The blue and red potions get a once-over from Rahne, the petite redhead eyeing the glass cylinder with a wary eye. The belt gets an inspection, too. Mainly, she is seeing just how big the belt can go. It is very important, it seems, and there does seem to be a bit of extra length. Somebody might be expecting a little shifter madness. And, if not, well...it was a lovely belt while it lasted.

    Then, Rahne walks through the doors....and finds herself in a darkened landscape strangely reminiscent of Scotland. Well...the stone tower, at least...and the bridge. And maybe the roaring fire. And...wait, what was that smell?

    Chicken??

    That has the Scot's attention. "Ye all smell what Ah'm smellin', right? Ah'm not imaginin' it?" Over the bridge to find out!

Tabitha Smith has posed:
The potions are accepted, because that seems to be the thing to do, although Tabby doesn't appear to have any clue as to what any of that means. Then the bottles are shoved into a pocket and she steps through, to find herself on the bridge.

With the big F-U tower.

"Uh. So what were we doin' again?" She glances around, trying to check on if anyone else happens to remember the plan.

Julio Richter has posed:
The danger room was explained to Julio ahead of time, of course, but as he didn't really have a frame of reference for it, he mentally filed it as a sort of gymnasium. So it is that tonight, the uniform he showed up in includes gym shorts and a T-shirt bearing blocky "Xavier's School Athletics Dept" logos.

Whoooooops.

Worse, the sub-basement corridors are kept chilly, and the forbidding bridge is, if anything, even worse. He practically skips toward the brazier the moment he spots it, potion belt over one arm and both hands up to get to the warmth of the holographic flame faster.

He's so eager to heat up that it doesn't really hit him what he's smelling for several seconds.

"Wait. Are we simulating... dinner?" he asks, turning to give Rahne a baffled look.

James Proudstar has posed:
Jimmy Proudstar fits the belt on, after having inspected each of the potions. He steps out onto the bridge and looks around, testing the air as well. He glances to Tabby first, grinning just a touch, "I think the new guy might be right, but..." He looks to Julio then, the grin taking on a mischievous cast, "Knowing who's running this? Dinner might be involved." He extends a hand, "James Proudstar. Jimmy's fine."

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
As soon as Jimmy steps through onto the bridge, light bursts overtop of his head. Floating about four inches over him, a huge yellow ! manifests with a very loud, cheery //ping!//

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
As for Marie, she's more than willing to collect one of the belts with the strangely colored bottles; tying it quickly around herself before looking around to the rest of the group. "Oui, I /do/ smell that... though..." she can't help but stop, trying to look around for the source of the smell. That's a very, very distinctive smell and not seeing any /actual/ fried chicken around is a little disjointing for the French girl. "...I am not certain where it is coming /from./ Though, I wish I had eaten dinner before coming in, now..."

The exclaimation mark that pops over Jimmy's head, in turn, draws Marie close to the bridge. Eyes going up to the !, and then back down to him. "...are you well? Do you feel any ill effects?" Confusion abounds and she's trying to figure out what's going on.

Someone's never played a MMORPG before.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
The chicken smell from that brazier is absolutely delicious, but those scorched logs are absolutely sooty old chunks of wood, okay? Past the vestibule the tower begins its rise and fall: huge, ominous, proportioned to make even Jimmy look petite. Rahne gets the best look, but not exclusively.

Molten rock waterfalls in livid red and gold pour down the walls and the occasional brazier offers a handsome bit of disturbing illumination. Whatever the decor around here is meant to be, it's heavy on the 'evil dwarven chic' crossed up with 'edgelord dragon dark-knight lair.'

The wild spire twists downward, awash in dim lighting that crawls over the black, angular walls. Whoever designed this place thoroughly intends everyone to become rapidly disoriented. Roughly hewn corridors weave in a gradually descending corkscrew around a lava-filled pool, and not much stops someone from slipping over the low edges to their fiery doom. (DOOM IS NOT FIERY, HE IS HOT. -Doom) There don't appear to be any other pathways at first, though trudging, and trudging ever down reveal sneakily placed archways filled by a luminous kind of film. Not at all suspicious!

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
    There is one disappointed shifter when Rahne reaches the brazier. But...then she turns and looks over the tower and whistles in a low tone. "This...is definitely not what Ah expected." The green eyes take in the environment...the lava falls, the narrow path starting the descent downward. "Ah definitely didnae expect this."

    So, even if Rahne was first over the bridge...she is not moving forward. Looks like hey, she might want to figure out what the hell is going on. She turns to look back towards the others...as the floating exclaimation point catches her eye. The look of confusion is almost comical.

    Guess who else has never played a MMORPG before.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
"Uh. Jimmy, you should put that thing away before someone gets ideas." Tabby offers to Jimmy for his exclamation point problems, her eyes traveling upwards to stare at it. But then she starts to look around, "So.."

Right. So. She gives everyone a few seconds before she's just heading down that pathway! If there's a plan, she's not aware, thus...She's forging her own path.

Julio Richter has posed:
Risking the chill, Julio extends his right hand to return Jimmy's handshake. "Julio Richter," the boy answers, his words accented but easily understood. He hasn't generally given out his surname here, but the rhythm was set and the chill distracted him. A moment after he does divulge it, he smiles, feeling a bit relieved to have done so. "You can call me Julio. Or Richter." He shrugs. "Ric works, too. At my old school, most people used their last names."

His eyes wander up to the hovering punctuation, which he stares at for a drawn-out moment. "Ah, I don't know how to say this, but...I think Jimmy might be a mission critical NPC," he ventures. More on the video game ball than the girls, then, but still not immediately getting the reference. After a second, though, he snaps his finger. "No, wait... quest giver? Do you have a quest for us?"

He turns to Tabby, hand still clasping Jimmy's, and asks, "Is he a hologram? His hand feels so solid. And warm!"

James Proudstar has posed:
"What?" Jimmy replies to Marie-Ange's quiestion, then laughs softly, "Oh yeah, I'm fine." He grins at Julio and shakes his head, "I'm real. I think? Tabby, am I real?" He asks towards Tabitha, looking entirely amused. He releases Julio's hand and cracks his knuckles as he moves across down the path, speaking loud enough for all to hear, "So Dazzler is imprisoned somewhere in the tower. We've gotta get through whatever defenses we find in here and rescue her."

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
The bright yellow exclamation point vanishes from over Jimmy's head. In its place tumbles a cascade of glittering motes that lie like dandelion fluff on the man. Everyone else gets different colours: bubblegum pink for Tabitha, violet for Marie-Ange, deep emerald green for Julio, a warm rust-red for Rahne. It all glows slightly, offering the vaguest shades of 'armour'. At least as one /defines/ armour.

The person running this scenario, unlike the developers of a CERTAIN game, knows armour intimately. Her brother /is/ it. So svelte, proportioned, and protective. Or in Rahne's case, she just glows.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
When Tabitha steps off the bridge and down the curling path...

"Welcome to the HALL OF FORTUNE!" crows a man's voice from somewhere, distorted by the acoustics of a giant, lava-filled tower. "Tonight, we bring you a SPECTACLE! A fight for the AGES! The performers will face the threat of their UNPREPARED lives as they contend with a ressssscue! A RACE through this VERY TOWER to reclaim their radiant, dare I say DAZZLING compatriot being held prisoner by yours truly! If they fail to move, they DIE! "

Sickly kind of sibilance rushes over the announcer's words, a slight way of lisping that suggests mania and influencer writ large. Might be familiar, really. Mojo has that way about him. "Look at that CHEEKY one, she's braving the unknown. If they LOSE, they become mine and thus, my pretties, yours! Welcome to the show, children! Surprise!"

"Are you ready to be ENTERTAINED, my adoring masses?!" There's a static charge of ozone and rocks crash down to block the way out. Thumping, searing music starts to filter through like a doom-struck rave.

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
    That look of confusion really doesn't disappear anytime soon, as the deep red flecks envelope her, like fireflies in a field. As they land, they leave that glow upon Rahne. And...then the announcement. "Ooookay. So, we're the entertainment?" She shakes her head, as that perpetually perplexed appearance finally leaves her expression. She turns to Jimmy. "So...we're supposed tae find Dazzler, eh? Ye gonna tell me ye can track 'er down in 'ere, right? Or, do ye need a little help in that? Cause...Ah got ya covered if ye need it."

    And, with that, there is definitely a change in the petite form. Rahne....isn't so petite anymore, as in less than a second, she gains about two feet, more mass, and a whole lot more fur. Looking to be a refugee from a Kate Beckinsale movie, Rahne shrugs and nods to the path. "So, let's get goin'..."

Tabitha Smith has posed:
"What...?" Okay, seriously. Is she REALLY cheeky? Maybe. Maybe not.

But Tabby can tell that she set something off, and she stops on the path, looking around while she thinks. Then she twists around to call behind her, "COME ON GUYS!"

Julio Richter has posed:
Julio leans toward Rahne and whispers, "He /did/ have a quest." Raising his eyebrows conspiratorially, he mouths, 'hologram.' Then he's getting glitterbombed, and holds his arms out to admire first the glow, then the stylish verdant armor it solidifies into. "Um. Okay. /This/ I can get used to. This is a lot better than shorts. Do we get to keep this?" A grin is just growing across his face when a booming showman's voice halts it, and in a flash Julio is wearing a look of dread.

"Jesucristo -- did he say move or die?" the Mexican boy sputters, staring first at Jimmy, then at the suddenly-wolven Rahne. "Did I hear that right?" Without really waiting for confirmation, he takes off after Rahne and Tabby. The half-wolf in particular seems to know where she's going. There's a barely-noticeable quaver in Julio's limbs beneath the armor. Adrenalin seems to have given him the shakes.

James Proudstar has posed:
"Yeah, I think that's what you heard." Jimmy replies to Julio, nodding to Rahne, "Think we're about even once you shift, Rahne. Go ahead and catch up with Tabby, Richter and I will be right behind you. And keep moving. If we get separated we'll meet at the end or whenever the scenario closes out." He does, however, try to keep the other pair in sight.

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
Marie can do this. The cards gave her confidence, that disembodied voice projected a little fear into her... and armor? Armor /never/ hurts. Especially when it fits her just like a glove. Plus, the color's pretty!

"Well. If move we must..." she leaves it at that, charging after the rest of the group, that six gripped between her pale fingers as she moves. She might not be the fastest of the bunch, but at the moment, she's enthusiastic enough to make up for it somewhat! "I'm right behind you!" she calls out towards Jimmy, racing to try and keep up as best as she can.

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
    That chicken smell is sooo good. The sudden influx of it when Rahne shifts to her hybrid form is almost too good to resist. She actually takes a couple steps to the brazier...but fortunately Jimmy's words snap her out of it enough to turn her lupine visage to him and give him a nod. "Right. Catch up tae Tabby. Ah can do that." And, with maybe only a glance or two back to the brazier, just to make sure there is no chicken, Rahne bounds off to join Tabby. It...should get better as she moves away from the brazier, right?"

    Well, that's the hope, anyways. It doesn't take Rahne much time to catch up...though she is adjusting her belt to make it just a little bit looser. Seems it was just a little too snug.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
Shaking ground begins to slowly give way behind them as the upper levels of the path get awfully slick, like black obsidian as the roughly hewn stone changes. Deadly slippery, that. Great way to end up tumbling arse over teakettle right into the lava pool at the bottom of the tower. Yay!

Led by Tabitha's start, the braziers send that delicious wafting scent of fresh fried chicken and roasted potatoes flowing back and forth. The dim shadows are just the right sort of mobile to leap at the periphery of one's vision, making the whole descent rather harrowing. The path that Rahne sniffs out leads to... a pile of bones on a plate, all inside another of those braziers. Aww. Someone gnawed them all.

"Aww, she followed her nose! Follow your nose!" Mojo crows as a disembodied voice. The skull in the brazier leers and laughs, jaw chattering. "Dead end!"

A keening, high pitched scream of a woman in pain echoes off the tower, and the ground

Jimmy has a slight edge there in deciphering human from chicken, sloping down another fifty feet and sliding into a doorway with a faint iridescent sheen. Not that there's a -door-, just some faint intangible resistance. Beyond the doorway are a pile of shadowy figures marching in groups of two or three. They maneuver around a lot of round, oblong shapes on the ground. Gemstones? Strange beings in armour with spears and swords or shields, they do not take long to notice anyone nearby. Strange because they might be covered in scales and prepared to belch fire at anyone who goes by. There's a brief moment to hide.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Catch up! Tabby doesn't actually wait for anyone to catch up, even though she was hollaring for everyone to catch up. She starts to walk again, then gets distracted by a very bright, rainbow shiny door. Then she stops, glances around, then she heads for the door to try and let herself in.

Julio Richter has posed:
A few steps down the pathway, Julio turns his head to one side and frowns, then drops into a crouch. His hands are really shaking visibly now, and when he presses them, palms down, against the stone, his eyes pop open wide. He rises out of his crouch like a runner, hops past Jimmy, and calls out, "Santa mierda, subí de nivel!"

He jogs a little bit faster, skidding to a stop just short of a doorway, its stones bright with a pale, rainbow-hued sheen. His face crystallizes into stony seriousness and he reaches out, trying to slow Tabby before she rushes through the doorway. He warns, "There are a bunch of things with tails stomping around in there, hard enough for me to feel them through the ROCKS."

Warning given, there is absolutely no way he's going to be the first through the archway -- he'll tuck in behind someone tough-looking and try to stay inconspicuous.

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
    The chattering skull gets a half-hearted swipe from Rahne's clawed hand, though it is clear that she really wasn't trying to hit it. It would seem that the wolf was being led more by her stomach than by her nose. The disembodied voice also gets an annoyed expression, before Rahne spins around and leaves her little dead-end, doing her damnest to ignore the smells and head for the rainbow door.

    The werewolf does pause before entering, those greenish eyes turning to focus on Julio. "Stompin' wit' tails, ye say?" There is a moment of hesitation to consider before the red wolf just shrugs and decides to plunge on in there. Maybe they will be scared of a 7 foot tall werewolf. And...if not, then Rahne may have another trick up her sleeves yet.

James Proudstar has posed:
Jimmy glances through the threshold and now that the group has all gathered together, he starts to articulate a plan, but abruptly stops when Rahne charges in. That was his job! He looks to the others and says, "Try to move on past us and get to Dazzler. Rahne and I will catch up."

Overconfident? Maybe, but he also knows he's the most combat-capable of the bunch here. Even so, before he charges in, he adds, "Aw forget it, let's wreck these things. Bombs away, Tabby!"

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
All it takes for Tabby to get through that doorway is a touch. Then really it's like falling right through with no more resistance than a pesky shower curtain. Beyond is a two-level chamber shaped like an E, with the central 'prong' a large pillar where Dazzler is very clearly trapped behind black rainbow glass. Hanging red crystals large as a toddler shine in the air, floating in the alcoves, totally harmless. But to Jimmy's nose, at least it smells like Dazzler.

Somewhere comes a vibration, starting low in the belly, low in the bowels of the tower. Soon enough the floor and the walls resonate with the acoustics, amplified by the dense floor heaving under them. The sensations trickle up as Tabitha is suddenly faced by be-tailed monsters -- bipedal dragons in fancy armour, definitely scaled -- defending their horde of shiny, glittery gemstones. Spears rattle, swords pulled, and chaos breaks out as they converge on her. Whee!

"He isn't fast enough! Look at that, she's triggered the DRAGONTHRONE SENTINELS!" Mojo howls in the background with sheer delight. "Beware!"

The first sentinel taking a hacking swing at Tabitha instead bounces his blade off the ground because a hell of a werewolf is /in/ the way. He goes stumbling ineffectively into a wall.

Several of those gemstones start to crack open near her, and behold what steps forth. It takes them a lot of wriggling, sending dust and shards up into the air. Tiny wyrms! Flapping wyrmlings! Snappy monsters with teeth and breath that belches flames or ice or a cloud of freaking SPIDERS. The cloud of spiders is spat rather effectively onto Tabitha and Rahne.

"Hope they aren't afraid of GIANT redback spiders and HORRIBLE funnel-web spiders!" Mojo adds for helpful commentary.

Tabitha Smith has posed:
Oops.

Tabby probably wasn't meaning to just cause major chaos. Maybe. Nah. She probably was, but maybe not this kind of chaos, and certainly not with spiders and things.

As things start to attack she screams, not because of the dragons, but the spiders. Just the spiders. As she begins to panic she summons up bombs as her hands start to flail, and she tries killing the source, and swiping at the spiders themselves.

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
Trying to stay in a dash is great for catching up... not quite as great for staying on one's feet. The change in texture to that slick surface is enough to take Marie off of her feet and skidding towards the edge.

"Eee!" It's not an 'eee' of excitement, but an 'eee' of terror.

It's fortunate that her mystical reflexes come before her physical ones. Instinctively, she summons forth the wands that decorate the card, and wills them in front of her -- creating a barricade for the lanky French girl to slam into rather than careening over the edge into the lava. She takes a moment to gather herself back up, before maneuvering the wands to either side of her, creating a 'guiderail' of sorts to allow her to carry forward without quite as much danger of falling.

At least, for now.

Of course, that is until her chosen path of chasing the group leads her to... Dragons? Dragons, armored and bipedal or not weren't that bad, they were just like dinosaurs! Reptillian and defeatable!

...but then came the spiders. Green eyes went wide, and a slender form /FROZE./ It's spiders that can't see you if you don't move, right? Clearly, that's the way to safety. Just stay /still/ until the others are able to take care of the creepy, crawly, ICKY spiders.

Hey, she was largely raised in a prissy boarding school. Of course she's going to have her girly-girl moments!

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
The spiders most definitely do NOT become invisible. They are not small either. Some of them grow big, very big. Piles of them just want to pour over the spaces around Tabitha, skittering like mad bats out of hell -- except spiders, in an evil Mojoverse tower -- to fling themselves so delightedly at Marie-Ange.

Hugs from the hug-monster!

Julio Richter has posed:
Julio sidles into Rahne and Jimmy's wake as they enter the next room. If the former being a werewolf didn't already count as tough-looking, she's also /Scottish/. And for now, let's all agree not to unpack the safe feeling Julio gets from being around Jimmy. There are significantly less-metaphorical dragons to slay.

When he's ordered to rush in, Julio starts forward, only to falter as the environment itself starts cracking apart into flying lizards that belch! clouds! of spiders!!! "Ayyyy /mierda/," the youth hollers, putting his arms (which are still shaking) up over his head and just running as fast as he can.

With any luck, Tabby's bombs are going to give him a bit of cover, but the moment he notices creepies crawling on him, he's going to throw his arms back, let loose a blast of enough seismic energy to pretty much obliterate anything within a radius of about five meters, and scream.

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
    Rahne might not have played a MMORPG before, but she is no stranger to just barreling into danger. And...it seems that her initial bravado was best, as her 7 foot form crashes into a bipedal dragon and sends him skittering off. But....then, there spiders. Of course....there had to be spiders. And...they're getting bigger? The idea of unfairness scuttles across Rahne's thoughts.

    Well, two can play at that game.

    With a howl, the werewolf unleashes her full lupine fury, as the Scottish werewolf somehow gets even *bigger*, shifting to a full, 10 foot long snarling red dire wolf. A *glowing* red dire wolf, which only serves to increase the intimidation factor.

    Time to go to town. Claws flash, swiping the air viciously to rend the spiders asunder. Yet....she is still moving forward. Towards that central pillar...and woe to anything that gets in her way.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
Monstrous dragons about six or seven feet tall with long, sweeping tails proceed to charge into the fracas without much concern for themselves. Is someone in each of stabby spears or slashing swords? They mince and whirl like the most horrific of combatants, having absolutely no comprehension of their own survival beyond blocking and parrying. Almost like they are spawned from the ether itself.

"Oh, take that! No impaling through the stomach, he has a surprise! More where that came from, Team Green!" Mojo shouts, and there is some sense of the back of the room going blurry as something else spawns. Totally unfair. But another grate opens and out come more Dragonthrone Sentinels. Frozen in place, Dazzler just looks totally horrific with her mouth yawning open and head thrown back like she's singing an especially emotional solo.

Speaking of, when a few bodies blow up in spectacular form, exploding with seismic energy that flings them off their booted feet, so go dozens of gems. The pulverized shards become extremely sharp projectiles on the outer reaches of the walls, but the tower holds fast. A giant stone F-U to the sky. Vibrations and tremors crack open even /more/ eggs at a distance, however.

More wyrmlings come slithering out, and like the trash mobs they are, they converge. One blows out darkness in a cloud, and the other screeches with the worst harmonic refrain that sounds a bit like an exploding speaker. They swarm every which way, trying to separate the mutants from their friends. More nuisances than anything but WILD FLAPPING will do that.

Claws flash, spears clatter around the wolf, and something has the audacity to -bite- at her tail. Maybe it connects.

James Proudstar has posed:
Spiders and dragons and wyrmlings, oh my! Jimmy surges forward, grabbing the first dragon-warrior he can reach by the neck, and seeking to bodily hurl him into a cluster of his companions. The spiders aren't too much of a fear for him. But as the numbers increase, and the wyrmlings start spitting and spewing smoke and screeching. Particularly that screeching, which is awfully distracting for someone with hyper-sensitive ears. It doesn't throw him completely off, but he's soon in the midst of a heap of various enemies. Punching, kicking, probably even biting, headbutting, kneeing, elbowing, and stealing weapons from the humanoid Dragonthrone Sentinels to do unto others as they would do unto him.

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
Sometimes even the best laid plans fail terribly.

As the vision of the spiders' proves NOT to be movement-based, Marie reacts as any prim and proper girl would. She SCREAMS, and she flails her arms wildly. This includes flailing those wands that surround her, and she's able to use them to bat away the first one, two spiders that come near her...

...but there's only so much that wild flailing can do. The third of these eight-legged freaks powers through the defenses of six staves and two arms and knocks the redhead backwards and onto the ground, the summoned wands disappating as she falls. She's not normally an arachnophobe, but these aren't the common spiders that she could just casually avoid. No, these are /giant murder machines/ that are coming /right/ after her and that's just a whole different level of bad that she wasn't prepared to deal with!

As she's assailed by certainly more than just the one that got passed her makeshift shield, she rolls to her stomach and, rather than trying to fight the creatures off, focuses on trying to grab for another card. Will it be enough? Will it be too late? It's hard to say!

Julio Richter has posed:
Recovering from his seismic blast with a ragged gasp, Julio resumes his sprint for the pillar, but as more wyrmlings spawn, he gets, well, mobbed. He's trying to reach for more power from the ground, but he can't focus, instead beating with his fists at his assailants. As his left arm flies past his face, he sees something odd, and suddenly remembers: he's carrying /potions/ for some unfathomable reason.

"Does anyone know what these actually do?" he hollers over the din. Then, fuck it: he uncorks the blue one and takes the biggest gulp he can.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
Horrible bodies go bouncing by. Some of them hit the walls, and some of them get impressive pokes and bites in on the mutants. Okay, Jimmy might prove more of a challenge, but something /tries/ to jab his chest and another angry, chompy wyrmling bites him before he uses it like a dart. Shrieky the wyrmling keeps howling away noisily in the background until silenced. A Sentinel with some purpose of mind hurls his flame-tipped spear at Julio.

Marie's card manifests as an impressive white-skinned woman with great black wings and a helm totally covering her face, skulls on her stomacher-belt and armour sufficient to be called armour. She wields no scales, but a sword and a big shield serving to smash something in the face. That face happens to be a Sentinel, who tumbles over the side into a pit of lava. Bloop!

Then Julio drinks the blue potion. It's icy cold going down, but a mana potion might be. The world starts to get a little blurry around the edges, and his hair is on fire. His arms are on fire! Lots of mobs chase after him as he hollars, and -they- are ablaze too.

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
    It is a shame that there are no telepaths in the party....because Wolf-Rahne has some choice words that flashed in her head at the sheer gall someone has to try to bite. her. tail!! The wolf may be large, but she is definitely agile as she manages to yank her tail free, minus a tuft of fur from the very tip that hopefully tastes awful for the Sentinel that tried to make a meal of the wolf.

    Of course, losing that bit of fur only made Rahne mad. And, despite the fact that she can't speak in full wolf, it is plain to see exactly what Rahne is saying as the wolf rears up on her hind legs, pulling herself up to her full 10 foot height, and just SWINGS a giant paw down. If it hits, something's going down hard. That's what you get for tugging on her tail.

    The swarming guard do appear to be doing a good job with the wolf. Those spears are most certainly a nuisance...and being a large target doesn't help. A thought floats in the back of Rahne's mind, a distinctly human thought, almost lost in the wolven rage. What if Rahne was smaller? Could she get past the wall of spears and get closer to the endgame...the dark crystalline prison holding Dazzler in check?

Marie-Ange Colbert has posed:
With her summons is how Marie usually excels. The girl herself is fairly frail and not exactly the greatest of fighters, but when she can command the deadly warriors that adorn the Major Arcana? That's when she's a proper threat to anyone more than just a defense of herself.

So while the redhead proper tries to make herself as small of a target as possible, her sword-and-shield wielding avatar fights mightily in her stead, flashing steel like a woman possessed, slicing into one Sentinel with one arm as the other deflects an incoming weapon attack. Fighting rather admirably. It begs the question; are Marie's minions 'living' creatures or, with enough confidence in her own training, could the redhead fight like that too?

Most who see her right now will likely suspect the former, as the rail of a girl starts crawling along the ground towards the pillar, trying her best NOT to be noticed while the looming figure of Justice does her best to defend the redhead. Hey, sometimes being the least obvious threat can be handy!

James Proudstar has posed:
Jimmy is still playing one man wrecking crew. He's got cuts and scratches and bites, and his uniform is the worse for wear, but it doesn't seem to be slowing him down much. He twists turning that trident-stab into a slash across his chest instead of a stab into it, and he yanks the trident from the Sentinel's hand, hurling it towards that shrieking wyrmling that's been annoying him so much.

Another grab gets a Sentinel by the tail, and he spins the thing about to scatter Sentinels around him, buying him enough space to uncap that red potion and gulp it down. Also conveniently clearing some of the space on the route to the goal!

Julio Richter has posed:
Julio, flaming like the Lighthouse of Alexandria, stares at his arms for a second, then starts laughing like a madman. "Yes. YES!" He makes a beeline for Dazzler's prison, waving his fiery arms at anything that gets even remotely close. "BURN! Burn, pequeños hijos de puta!" He practically trips his way up toward the faceted prison, still lunging this way and that, hungry for a baddie to incinerate.

But after a moment, he refocuses on the task at hand. Lifting one shaking arm, he presses it from elbow to fist against the surface of the glass, and /pushes/ that vibration into the structure, transferring a self-destructive vibe that, if there's any justice in this hellish simulation, ought to tear the crystalline prison apart.

Staring at the woman just on the other side, he takes a second to catch his breath, then says in his best action-hero growl, "Who the hell is this, anyway?"

Rahne Sinclair has posed:
    Wolf form means wolf senses. And...those senses are telling Rahne to keep the rabble engaged to allow Julio and Marie the opportunity to get to the crystaline prison. The thought to get small is shoved aside, as the large wolf stays large...conveniently remaining a large target for the mobs to concentrate on. If Rahne actually knew the terminology, she would most certainly be doing her best to draw aggro.

    And...once she had the Sentinels undivided attention, Rahne falls into another time-honoured tactic that just makes sense for her. Kiting. Or, in Rahne's mind, follow the big red wolf! Agility does pay off as the wolf runs around, giving the dragon sentinels something to chase....with occasional swipes to those that get too close.

    All in a bid to make sure someone else gets to the goal.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
A tiny wyrmling probably notices Marie-Ange, and belches a caustic cloud of smell mixing bad gym socks with apples left in the overly warm basement for a month. Marie is closing on the pillar behind a great red wolf and a bipedal dragon totally tail-sweeping trouble from her. Possibly knocking Justice sideways, those black wings haphazardly flapping around until it can right itself and stab something in the face. But the French girl reaches that black crystal. "Oh, you cheat! Who gave her a marketing campaign? Solange, FIX THAT!" Mojo bitterly snarls, probably unleashing another wave of spiders to be unfair.

Jimmy's red potion shuts the wounds all over him, knitting them together and leaving him with some pretty freaky glowing red eyes. Apparently when Illyana thinks of healing, she also includes a vastly improved array of vision: infrared, full back into the ultraviolet spectrum on the other side. For reasons. He can see the fires and the faultlines in the crystal. Good times to punch out flappy chaos monsters.

Useful, for a _little_ furious wolf is closing in to bash things. Exciting times are on the way! Watch Rahne smash furry fury into the monsters holding up Dazzler. "Now what are those little teensy paws going to do for such a lordly -- dare I asy /presidential/ -- challenge as this?" The announcements boom overhead, soured, irritated. Confluences of smashing goodness collide with Julio burninating his scaled arm. Yes, as it vibrates, there are brief flashes of green scales, a bit Trogdor the Burninator going on. But a punch, and a crunch, and Dazzler comes atumbling down to his arms.

                                  "You win!"                                  

The Danger Room illusion shatters, too. They're all standing on a flat metal box, Julio is about to have a stuffed scarecrow kept over from Hallowe'en fall on him. Rahne is chasing after a dangling sock on a wire. Jimmy has been flinging around a broom with an evil happy face painted in marker on the handle. The rest, though? Totally illusory.

Julio Richter has posed:
Julio reaches out to catch Dazzler around the waist -- very gentlemanly -- and instead only manages to arrest the fall of one of Dorothy's friends. The scarecrow's head lolls right off, bapping him in the forehead before dropping to the metal deck, shedding straw the whole way. Stalks of hay stick in the youth's shaggy hair, and he blows a bit of it away from his face.

"Is it... always like that?" he asks, turning slowly to face the others, his expression one of utter perplexity.