18911/HUNGER: Savage Lands - Ring of Fire

HUNGER: Savage Lands - Ring of Fire
Date of Scene:	29 August 2024
Location:	Southern Mountain Range
Synopsis:	The X-Men return to Mount Doom (again). It is a lot more doom-like, a land of ash and a great lava lake. At the caldera, they find evident converts from the local sun cult, casting down the name of their prior god 'Garokk' in exchange for some 'Firelord.' Gee whiz. Also they save a local virgin from getting volcano'd, because that's how that works. Valeria investigates the wifi, but all Jean can get her is a broken router.
Cast of Characters:	Jean Grey, Jubilation Lee, Monet St. Croix, Valeria Richards, Rogue, Ororo Munroe
Tinyplot:	Hunger

---

Jean Grey has posed:
It was about a year ago that X-Men last visited the Savage Land. They came in pursuit of Sauron, but soon found greater plots afoot. Shi'ar meddling, and genetic experiments to resurrect the Brood. Througuhout those battles, they faced a unique challenge: the very nature of the Savage Land itself.

A hidden valley circled by a volcanic ring, this unique habitat filled with out-of-time creatures held many secrets. Volcanoes alone could not preserve a jungle in the heart of the Antarctic, nor hide it so long from discovery. Nor did its residents ever truly evolve, maintained in a constant struggle. In truth? It was a zoo. More precisely, a habitat built by the ancient Celestials and maintained by machinery they had left behind. Maintained in harmony, maintained at a status quo, resistant to any outside force. That resistance had sapped superheroes of their powers as readily as it controlled the weather, the movement of day and night, every detail of the place.

To defeat their enemies, the X-Men had to /turn off/ those computers.

This has meant upheval in the Savage Land. No longer does an artificial sun move in the sky, instead subjecting them to the long days and nights of their extreme latitude. No longer do the strange machines play nanny over their conflicts, allowing many of the local wars to expand in size and scope. Nor does the simple failure of the computer safeguards mean the machines themselves are all /inactive/. Instead, the locals have been freed to experiment with them, their limited knowledge of such powerful devices leading to dangerous results.

One of those conflicts brought the X-Men back, to help Ka-Zar and their other friends. A routine enough mission, in which they are still involved. During their time in the Fall People village, they witnessed something unique, as did every other living thing in the valley... perhaps in the whole world. A falling star, a meteorite, an alien visitor to believe some news stories. One of three that arrived the same day the Silver Surfer did over manhattan.

Not long after? The volcanoes of the the hidden valley began to stir.

---

The X-Men have been operating from the village of the Fall People, a local tribe allied with Lord Kevin Plunder, also known as the hero Ka-Zar. At the same time, several SHIELD listening posts (built during the Brood incident) have been reporting on the strange events and seismic activity.

While they have some other fish to fry (like the so-called Neo Mutates), there's plenty of time in an endless night to take a trip out to the mountains and the shadow of Mount Doom (which, room desc aside, is not CURRENTLY housing Sauron, after it erupted violently in a prior plot!).

Jubilation Lee has posed:
Mere hours ago, Jubilation Lee was in bad shape, a stark contrast to her usual vibrant self. Her face was pale(er) and drawn, marred by exhaustion and hunger. Her leg was broken and immobilized by a makeshift splint courtesy of the healers of the Fall People Village. Her once-bright eyes were dimmed by pain, complexion dulled, hair lifeless and flat. She appeared fragile and weary, held back by a quiet struggle to maintain her strength. It was a quiet reminder that she died almost four years ago. Tonight, though? Tonight is a different story.

Back in Fall People Village, deep in the Savage Land, Ka-Zar nurses a strange, rapidly healing bite that mysteriously appeared on his neck, completely confused about when he got it and where it came from...

And, in related matters, Jubilee is, once again, radiant and brimming with youthful exuberance! She seems to revel in her restored vitality, moving with haste and style made possible by her two unbroken legs. Now, with her wounds just a distant memory, she moves with effortless grace and sparkling energy, broadcasting supernatural beauty. Jubilee's porcelain skin is flawless, untouched by the sun, unblemished by age. Her hair is long and full of life, styled in an array of ringlets and curls as it cascades down her back in rich, voluminous waves.

Her X-Men uniform -- a black, skin-tight bodysuit with pink trim -- is mostly intact. There are parts that are tattered and torn thanks to several encounters with Savage Land flora and fauna -- mostly flora. One of the legs of her bodysuit now ends a few inches above her knee. The yellow duster she wears over the black bodysuit is tattered at the ends, a once-straight hem now torn into jagged shreds.

"Don't you ever just wake up some nights and just feel /awesome/?!" Jubilee announces for the benefit of anyone within earshot. To really drive the point home, she starts doing random karate moves against an imaginary opponent. It's almost like she's trying to be obnoxious about her good mood.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet's X-Men uniform, consisting of a mostly red bodysuit with a yellow 'X' down the center of her hips and what almost seem like a series of leather straps put along into it, has been shredded some. There are bruises over her body from the fight earlier and the chaos they had run into the facility. Monet herself looks wary.

"Whom could have taken control of the facilities here once more? The utilization of the technology was too.. Haphazard for it to have been the same individual." The mutated monsters lacked any real sort of finesse after all with their deployment and creation. And they certainly would have had no need to take Fall People back to 'Site A' for further experimentation with most of those at Site B dead or in an extremely poor state.

Too many things didn't match up here. Whom had the skills to make use of the technology, even in such a metaphorically mutilated fashion for the results? Even soemone like Stegron would have been able to use the equipment mroe effecitvely. "I am always 'awesome', Ms. Lee." And superior. That too. She was always better in her own head.

"We must be wary, we don't know much of what we shall be facing." Without someone like Forge or Cypher with them, delving into the technology would be difficult.

Valeria Richards has posed:
The sesmic readings and a bunch of what was dubbed 'weird' energy readings had gotten the attention of SHIELD, but a lot of the workload for their super big brains had been divided enough that it was the science teams that were spread thin.

Thankfully they also have access to outside consultants.

Which leads to the landing of a HERBIE piloted Fantasticar. The back seat containing a leggy blonde in a sky blue bodysuit with some visible motorcycle styled padding.

And a telltale 4 on the front.

It's not Sue, but you do get the allegedly smartest member of the Fantastic Four. Valeria Richards Von Doom, Brainstorm.

When the vehicle lands, the young woman had been stretched out on the back seat, a holographic haptic display projecting from a wrist computer as she swipes through the screen every so often until the engine winds down.

"Okay, wow! X-Men on the scene." Seeing some of the outfits worn, it does make her scrunch her features up in curiosity. "Uhh, are you guys between parties, fights, or just finished one or the other?" she asks.

In the mean time she's usuing her wrist computer to link into the SHIELD research teams local network to get her some updates on that holoscreen.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue had received a laser beam blast to her back at the laboratory on their last outting, and as such, she'd had a nice lather-up session with the good Jean Grey. Nothing fixed weird radiation burns, quite like a medical salve from a first aid kit out of the battle damaged Blackbird, right?

But still, Jubilee had suffered the most damage on that same outting, and when Rogue emerges from the hut she had been utilizing as a sleeping space, she was quick to see Jubilee looking much better.

It was still night time, afterall, as the Savage lands was under 'real world' sun and moon patterns, even if the machines that power this place could alter that, if someone were smart enough to get in to the strange machines that do indeed dictate the state of this land.

"Lookin' better, Sugah." Rogue called out to Jubilee, as she held a cup of coffee that had been brought to her by Scott. The Blackbird has a coffee machine? Sure, why not.

The Belle tugged her own suit up over her freshly worn white tanktop, and she zipped it up to mid chest level, covering that white cotton top to its hem across her bustline.

Her boots were dropped beside a log, and Rogue sat down beside them. Another sip from her drink was had, as she set the cup aside there-after. "I'm ready for a spa day." She said, her voice sounding a bit more smoky than usual, as her hands worked to pull her thigh high boots on, her fingers quick to zip them up, without damaging the zippers. One thing about Super Strength, you go through a lot of clothing, if you don't pay attention when groggy after sleeping.

Monet got a soft smile from the Belle, and the arriving vehicle got a lingering look. "SHIELD?" Rogue questioned to others, before Val arrived, and she tilted her head to the side. "Hey there, Missy." The Belle called out. "I remember you, I think..."

Jean Grey has posed:
One of the things the Computers had interfered with, back when they were online, was flight itself. Maybe not the power (although sometimes that too), but much more specifically the use of tech like the Blackbird or the Fantasticar. Did anyone ever think to try a hot air balloon? No! They just took a canoe, fell down a waterfall, walked, rode some dinos, took another boat... it was kind of a whole thing.

Point is, it's probably nice to have fast travel unlocked.

The environment of 'Mt. Doom' (called that by Sauron, obviously, who knows if there's a better local name) is still a bit hostile, however, with the top of the mountain seemingly continuing to burn, occasionally belching out ash and hot ejecta. Has it been doing that this whole time? A little bit. But it's gotten worse, since the recent incident. All in all, this creates a 'minimum safe distance' where they have to eventually land and begin their trip.

Jean is along, because it's hard for her to avoid investigating what might be space nonsense. But no doubt, among more familiar companions, it's a new arrival that takes her interest. "Hey Val." Jean knows her MOM well enough, and her kids by the transitive property. "Not surprised to see someone else out to poke around. You get any fun readings?"

From there, they hike. And hike and hike. Fast travel sure is nice...

Some of the route is even familiar. Did they get attacked by a Broodified Quetzalcoatlus around here the last time? For now, it seems quite dead, covered in all that ash.

Or maybe not? Crossing a ridge, meeting another trail, it's obvious in the dust even without a tracker like Logan along: footprints, clear as day, even though it's night, distinct in the ash and only partly refilled by newer settled layers. Now, maybe it doesn't make sense that their star-man would be trekking around, rather than, well, doing whatever star-men do, but it's still something, isn't it?

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would float along, rising up some to try and get a better view of the area. "Ms. Richards. Have you had any experience with the technology of this location?" Good, they have someone that can try and interpret it. She's rather wary of what they're going to be facing. She goes down to land upon not having seen anything that stood out. She rmeembers this route perfectly. Her memory, like all other things about her, flawless.

Fortunately at this point her powers are not suppressed, so she has no issues when it comes to stamina and keeping on moving. However, truly none of the group should have such a thing. "We need some information to start with. Are you picking up something?" She would glance down over at the tracks as they would pass them.

Humanoid in nature. Wearing shoes. She wasn't good enough at tracking to get an idea of how many, and with how much gunk there was in the artifiical rainforest, how smudged they were could mean nothing. Too many things in the general area for her to bother trying to scan telepathically without something to narrow down her search pattern.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
"Lookin' better, feelin' better!" Jubes tells Rogue with a big, fangy smile. To demonstrate, she stops throwing pretend karate punches and /starts/ throwing some pretend karate kicks into the air. The leg that was broken just yesterday just delivered a roundhouse kick of pain to an imaginary adversary that probably looked a lot like Monet in Jubilee's imagination. Speaking of Monet, Jubilation's smile fades as she hears that sickening voice. "You've never been awesome once in your life everyone knows it," Jubilee tells Monet, rolling her eyes behind her dark sunglasses.

But, that's as long as she allows herself to wallow in unpleasantness. In an instant, Jubilee is standing next to Rogue, both arms folded across her chest, as the unfamiliar vehicle comes in for a landing. "No, wait, I think it's the Fantastic....One?" Jubilee mutters, looking from the logo on Valeria's uniform and then back to Rogue. She grins and shrugs her shoulders. "Both!" she answers with a big, fangy grin. The grin doesn't even fade once the hiking starts. That's how good Jubilee feels right now!

---

For the hike, Jubilee decides to take the lead, shoving past the others so she can decide which direction they're going. Though she's no Logan, Jubes can smell things others can't, so it just makes sense. "That way!" she'll say as they come to a natural fork in the clearing. "Over here!" she'll tell the others when it's time to pick which direction to go along a little stream. "Behind here!" she tells the group before peeling back a cartoonishly large leaf that can only exist in the Savage Land. "I should start selling maps to celebrity huts," she jokes while holding the leaf back so everyone can walk past it.

Valeria Richards has posed:
There's a lot of up and down scrolling on Valeria's wrist mounted display, almost as casual as most people would their phones. But with vastly more processing power.

She could even play DOOM on it.

Rogue gets a grin. Val turns up a lot here and there. "Uhh, when Supergirl was mind controlled into being stupid sexy evil and beat up M. One or two of the Hellfire Galas." Val offers some options for recollection.

"Some of the energy readings here kind of matched some of the things my parents scanned while dealing with the Hypepeople of Galactus." she explains.

At Jubilee's joke, Val actually finds it amusing enough to get a chuckle. "Four, but there's more than that. I think it's technically about Fantastic Forty. I had a lot of Aunts and Uncles visiting as a result." she adds back.

Hiking isn't much of a problem. Despite some wedgeheels in her boots, that make a five foot eight woman look nearly six feet one, she has no problems with the walking. And the weather in all it's potential muggy awfulness can't stand a chance against forcefields and climate controlled power armor. Not so much as a drop of sweat for a while.

"I'm personally not familiar with the tech that was shut down here. But the amount of weird alien tech I do play with." she's gotten used to speaking in more Layman's terms. "I'll probably be able to figure it all out."

Ororo Munroe has posed:
Storm is standing in the clearing waiting for Jubilee and the X-Men! Bam! Surprise! Jubilee found her! Hey, what's she doing there?

"Hopefully, that is not me you are smelling," Storm says after Jubilee (almost) runs into her. She smiles in a friendly way like only Storm can do. She might have thrown off the trail for the bloodhound Jubilee but at least she found her friends.

"I apologize for not joining you earlier," Storm says to them. She raises her chin and looks to each of them, "Are you alright?" she wonders. She is wearing her volcano Savage Land uniform and tough kickass boots.

Rogue has posed:
"Well it is good to see ya again," Rogue had offered to Val, prior to setting out. Her coffee had eventually gotten cold, and she'd tossed it aside in to a bush, which had caused some Fall People child to curse something at Rogue, since he had been spying on the foreign women from within the shrubbery. The foreign women were strange, and pretty, right? Well, that kid was covered in coffee now, and fleeing from them. "I didn't even know he wwas in there.." Rogue had said.

When they set off, Rogue had claimed her walking stick, and proceeded to avoid all the mud pits this time, now that it wasn't raining. She was in good spirits, and did end up with her suit rolled down around her waist again, as the heat build-up was inevitable in this humid environment. She just listened to Val and Jean talk along the way, listened to Jubilee and Monet too, smirking at the jokes, pitching in with her own, and letting Jubilee be their guide.

"You're gonna be the main tour host for this place some day." Rogue had told Jubilation, prior to them making that last turn around that comically huge leaf.

"More tracks..." Rogue said, eyeing the ash covered ground, and poking at one of them with the muddy base of her walking stick. "God, I don't want to fight more robotic monsters..." She said, a heavy heart, and a heavy sigh following her words.

"We really need to bring a lot more backup on these damn trips..." She muttered, as she started tracking the direction of the prints in the sodden earth.

Jean Grey has posed:
They make it a little further. The trail can't be that old, given the rate of the falling dust, but as they travel, they find more prints, linking up from other directions. It represents a pretty large group of people, when all is said and done. And while the first set they encountered were plain, like simple sandals, there's more variation the more they find, a variety of distinct shapes that start to blur and mingle together.

Apart from unique footprints, they don't encounter much on the last approach toward the volcanic peak. The cone rises ahead of them, distinct from surrounding mountains. Though familiar, its shape is subtly altered from their last visit as the geologic forces at play have done their work, rivers of molten rock depositing new material down the slopes.

There are a few intact 'paths' out to the mountain, rocky formations jutting from the dangerous fields below, where that volcanic slag flows like a slow, deadly river. Approaching, it's at this point that things start becoming more oppressively hot (beyond just sweaty hot), as all that energy bleeds off the slowly moving surfaces below them.

Jean raises a hand, feeling at the energies, maybe, or just trying to shield them a bit, as a wash of hot air hits her. "I don't think we'll cook, getting across, but it's... definitely dangerous. I guess almost everyone here flies-"

She looks at Jubilee. The bat counts, right?!

"-just in case we need to make a quick exit." Val is the one she's not sure about, so her attention ends with the blonde. "You have transport other than the car?"

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet St. Croix would close her eyes to focus, and then take a breath as the group would make their way along. "I'm pickig up a large concentration of minds around the volcano.. But I can't make out the specifics. It's at too far a distance and there are too many of them." She's honest in her limitations at least as she goes to turn her gaze to Jubilee, watching her for just a moment before turning her attention to Val. And looks irritated.

"Thank you for the reiteration of that particular moment." And then rubbing at her temples. "So you're saying that your scans here /match/ those things?" Terrax. Morg. The Surfer.

"There could already be things related to them here? O rothers of their own kind which could have cleared the way?" This is bad. This is very, very bad.

"Or someone experimenting with some of thier powers?" That is even worse.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
"Rogue, if that happens to me, I have seriously screwed my life up," Jubilee tells her, apparently not-at-all interested in a future career as a Savage Lands tour guide. She doesn't even really know where they're going. She's just following the smell and trusting in her vampire instincts to bring them to what they're hunting. For everyone's comfort, Jubilee doesn't bother explaining.

And then there's Ororo. Jubilee steps around the giant leaf herself and flashes Storm a peace sign with one of her hands. "It wasn't you, specifically, but...now that you mention it...." Jubilation's voice trails off, signalling that she's not going to bother delivering a punchline to this joke. She's, instead, staring down at the mess of tracks on the ground where all of the unusual smells converge. Jubilee frowns, unable to make sense of them. She's not a tracker. Not a real one, anyway.

Feeling Jean's eyes on her, Jubilee looks up and turns to face her suddenly. "Huh? What? Yeah, yeah, sure," she answers, unsure of what the question is. It's a sudden reminder of what a goof-off she was when she was a student, barely paying attention until the exact moment when the teacher called on her in class.

Valeria Richards has posed:
Talk of quick exits and volcanos. And even seeing it gets Val hmming. "I have no idea if my forcefields can handle being engulfed in molten lava. I really shouldn't test it." she answers and hmms. "I can have part of the car here in a jiffy. It's likely just a bit too big in whole for any spelunking. But it can do volcano heat fine. Uncle Johnny proof." she adds.

More occasionally seemingly distracted looking at her screen. "Looks like there's still power all through the place. Just because the switch is broken, doesn't mean the light socket isn't still live. Even with Celestial tech. But I'm also finding a hole in it, which kind of matches cosmic energies that we've been picking up in space. So yes, those guys. So kinda be careful. If this was a keg, we might very well be standing where Galactus might insert the tap."

Rogue has posed:
The even hotter air that was wafting over them now, had Rogue frowning ever so much. She glanced down at herself, and pinched the fabric of her top, giving it a few waving motions to send air down inside of it, not that it did any good at this point. "How does this place manage to go from miserable, to more miserable-er?" She has to ask, no one in particular.

her green eyes wandered to that natural pillar, that had been reshaped since the last time they were here, noting the flowing magma was a rather pretty sight, if a bit intimidating.

A glance was given to Storm, and Rogue smirked at her, a bit of ash covering her face, exposed arms, and the rest of her clothing, including that poorly chosen white tank she'd worn. "Can you make it a bit cooler, Stormah?" She asked, knowing full well the Goddess would not, probably.

A glance was given to Val, and Jean. "Stick close t'me, Valley Girl. I'll get ya outta here in a pinch, if needs be." She said, as she used her walking stick to start forward again, not really knowing where she was going, but she was going to pretend like it until someone shouted at her.

Ororo Munroe has posed:
Storm just stands watching Jubilee as the girl moves around sniffing the air and peering at the ground like she's had too many energy drinks. She then turns and looks into the jungle deeper down the path, as if making sure nothing is coming down to get them. She hmms and looks back at Jubilee, "I believe some of these tracks were here when I arrived," she tells the bloodhound. She points down at the sandal tracks and tells Jubilee, "How long have you been tracking these three-toed people?" Storm asks Jubilee.

Storm looks at Rogue saying, "Yes I could make it cooler, but rain could give away our location. I am not sure if these three-toed people are far off," she indicates, trying to encourage them to be cautious, "I am not sure they are people either. If Monet is correct, we should be careful," she adds.

A cool wind whips down from the sky and through the jungle which an audible whish. The little breeze flaps against Rogue. How nice is that. The breeze dies off.

Jean Grey has posed:
"We'll try not to get erupted on, yeah," Jean agrees with Val. "It's well beyond my normal ability to handle, for anything more than a few seconds, anyway." 'Normal' may be an operating word there, but the fact remains that trusting a creature that gets off on a cycle of fiery death and rebirth to save them from a literal fiery death might not be the best plan.

Eventually, boldly, dangerously, they can make it out across the fields of fire. The heat is oppressive, as they get closer. Not quite enough to burn, but the kind of temperatures where heat stroke, dehydration, other things pose an active rather than a theoretical risk. A ticking clock on even just standing around. They reach the cone, where there are both a few cave entries, as well as pathways up to the caldera rim. The exact approach, they may soon realize, doesn't matter much. There are people everywhere, and all paths lead to the same destination.

The interior has been much widened out by the prior eruption, now a huge lake of lava at the center, replacing all those more complex caves. No sign of Sauron's chambers, labs, or even the machine core itself, if any part of it survived the prior explosion. But around that lake, on the rim and on many cave ledges, are a variety of people. Some human, some humanoid by different stretches. Pterons and Aerians, beast tribesmen. Perhaps a few rogue mutates, too. All the variety of the Savage Land gathered here. They share two things in common.

Each is garbed, in one way or another, in ways that suggest a religious cult the X-Men encountered on the first visit, Sun worshipers who had gained popularity, sway over Phangor's court and elsewhere. Some simply wear the robes still, others the sun-like pendants (either plain, or sometimes with a face inscribed inside).

The other thing they have in common? Well, they seem to be having a crisis of faith, as they reach the volcano only to rip off those pendants and hurl them down into the lake below.

That's the easiest version, anyway. From one of the other cave entries, across the magma lake, a group seem to be dragging a struggling individual toward the edge, ready to toss them over.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
They're sacrificing people. Those wretched, damned things. Monet calls out to the rest, "Stop them!" Even as she goes to immediately close her eyes and moves to send out that as a brutal telepathic signal. An overpowering one with no particular finesse over to it. It's a rush job with an unknown number of minds that are in a panic and fanatics, of which are always difficult to influence. She has no time to try and figure out a more effective way to do so, no time to try and get past thier heads to resolve this.

She can just give a brute force command to those that have within them the Fall People they intend to throw into the volcano. The brute force gives a desperate few seconds, if even that as Monet's mind flashes out and smashes into each group that is trying to shove a person along to sacrifice them. And it works. For just a few moments.

They spasm, held over in place and stalled as Monet gives a few seconds in which for the others to try and quickly stop there from being any mroe casualties here. She's not fast enough to get there in time to save them. But maybe she can slow them down enough for those who are fast enough to get there and do so instead.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
Jubilation shrugs at Ororo, folding her arms across her chest. "I dunno. Like, a while?" she answers, not even trying to sound confident in what she's saying. What Ororo calls 'three-toed people' was just a smell in the air to Jubilation. A smell she tracked for, I dunno, like, a while.

When the team arrives at the vast fields of molten rock and flame, Jubilation's eyes widen, eyebrows peeking over the top of her Ray Bans. The corners of her mouth curl upwards, revealing her razor sharp fangs as she struggles to hold back her natural response to the fire. Every ounce of her wants to hiss and flee, like many vampires want to do at the sight of fire, but she -- so far -- remains with the X-Men. Dehydration and heat stroke are barely concerns for her, but there's a deep-rooted fear of fire that comes with her dark curse.

The urge to flee is almost overwhelming for Jubilation and she's nearly ready to succumb to it... but then Jubilation decides to lean into this fear and use it to inform her next move...

"Quick decision!" she announces before transforming into a terrifying, blood-sucking... teeny-tiny bat.

The bat flutters awkwardly around for a few seconds before crossing over the firey chasm. After gaining some height, the bat transforms back into gravity-obeying Jubilation Lee, who immediately begins to fall.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Look! A distraction!" she shouts at the cultists working on getting the sacrifice into position. She even launches a beautiful cloud of plasmoid explosions in the air before gravity forces her to quickly turn back into a bat and flutter up into the air again.

Valeria Richards has posed:
Val's forcefields are kept pretty close to her for now. The ambient heat being absorbed enough to keep it charged. But it would be a huge test if she got doused via an eruption.

Blue eyes spotting the worshippers doing their thing around the rim gets a hmm. "There's a trick to walking on hot coals. Usually it's be fast so you don't make too much contact and start the chemical reactions that turn flesh to burnt flesh. But standing around is not going to be advisable." she adds

The people doing the sacrificial stuff, on either end of the act gets a frown. "They've probably been doing that for a while now. Will probably go back to it soon as we're gone. Fanatics and all that. Expect a lot of the people falling in to be willing. Just a mater of if they think it will appease whatever deity they believe. And settle the seismic events. Or do the opposite and get the volcano to erupt." she nerdily exposits.

"I expect what we want is under the hot mess. The lava that is. Anyone of you actually heat proof? Might need to take a dive." not exactly a great idea but it's still a valid question.

While the X-Men might be in hero, saving the divers, and the dropped. Val keeps scanning to see if she can find any tech, or even safer access to it. "Okay, I should probably have the car flown in, drop the people you catch in the back seats." she's already queuing up for HERBIE to bring the Fantasticar around. Arms can only hold so much, but leather bucket seats are much more spacious.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue had smiled at Storm's reaction, but had pressed on for their trek up Mount Doom. "So this is what Frodo and Sam felt like." She muttered, the heat way worse than she remembered it last time.

Eventually, they came across the giant natural bread bowl of lava, and with it, Rogue's face soured more and more the closer they got. She scanned her green eyes around it, taking in the sight of the familiar local races, or at least those she remembered, and maybe some she never saw before. "God, this is why we invented the internet, so we could just flame each other with text, instead of... hot /lava./" Rogue stated, as she threw down her walking stick.

"They probably have been doin' it awhile, Val..." Rogue agreed, as Jubilee took off, and Monet was clearly doing her mind games. Rogue glanced toward Jean, giving her a 'look' before she started pulling her body suit on. "But, the person they're about t'toss in probably cares more about them doing it right now, to them." Rogue finished her thought, as she took off, flying in a direction that would take her right over the molten magma lake of Hell, and right toward the sacrificial lamb.

Sweeping in low, and coming in hot, the Belle didn't just try to yank the poor soul up out of their arms, no, her flight power was a bit off because of the damn strange tech of the Savage Lands, and instead? She flew right in to one of the people pushing the sacrifice toward the edge..

Rogue cross-bodied the fuck out of the person leading the lamb toward the lake, landing ontop of them, and scrambling up to move toward the poor soul next. With her gloved hands out, Rogue tries to grab them, and take off with them back in to the sky!

The distraction was certainly helpful, right?

Ororo Munroe has posed:
Storm hmms as her little breeze dies off faster than she thought as she hikes across the fields, "The heat is quite extreme here," she mutters, "The cool wind becomes overcome by the extremities quickly and I personally cannot stop lava," she explains to Jubilee. She probably already knew that. She hmms skeptically as Jubilee flies off.

Storm looks up the side of the mountain at the cultists and frowns, then rises up into the air as the hot wind picks up again. "Rush ahead! Now is the time, before they see us!" she lets out, "I will try to catch the prisoners..." she says, sounding dubious she can whip the wind around well enough in such a hot environment. She tries anyway.

A rush of wind picks up and it cycles around, a funnel pressing down from the sky, pushing against the cultists, attempting to keep them from throwing stuff in the lava or themselves falling in. She has to stand there and keep it going because that's the other thing she can think to do. Hopefully Rogue can grab the victims but there are so many...

Jean Grey has posed:
They are, by all appearances, mostly normal people, for certain definitions of 'normal' (and people, for that matter). So telepathy can serve to hold them back, at least in the short term, on the small scale. The gathering as a whole is too large for Monet to control, permanently or properly. Could Jean do it? It's hard to say, but her furrowed brow suggests that she may be pondering the possibility and not liking the answer. Religious fanaticism, fervor bleeds through every thought. It is a strong defense, as telepathy goes.

Still, with combined efforts? It's not hard to save _that_ life. Monet makes the ones dragging her forward reconsider. Jubilee, her sudden appearance in their midst, causes uproar (which is like distraction x10!). Most now turn their attention to her, and eventually toward the X-Men on the far side.

Even as those originally dragging out the sacrifice hold back because of Monet... others step forward, proving Valeria's thesis. They rush, doing it with less ceremony, tossing the woman over the edge...

...in time for Rogue to sweep under and catch her below.

"I can try and handle that," Jean answers Val. Maybe this is why she doesn't bother with the telepathy. She's going to need her mental strength elsewhere. The gesture is familiar, one hand to her temple, the other outstretched. At first, there's no sign of success or failure, but slowly, surely, like in a certain popular movie, an object of great size begins to rise, the lava surface bubbling then bursting, as the metal cylinder is pulled from its depths. It looks...

...melted and nonfunctional.

Is that the reason for some of Valeria's readings? A 'hole' in the overall system, centered here?

With slagged device rising, and the X-Men otherwise making themselves obvious, the many cultists begin turning their attention from sacrifice to murder. Most are far away, but not all. And some can fly, themselves, the Pterons and Aerians taking to wing.

The swarm can be held back a bit by the hot wind that Ororo commands, and the sacrifices have stopped for the time being, but the requestion remains: now what? What to make of all of... this?

Jean, straining, looks to Valeria. "Is that thing... any use, still?"

Monet St. Croix has posed:
While Ororo is going to use her winds to help throw back the crowd, Monet goes to focus on setting up a batlte mind amongst the group to free Jean from having to split her attention further. She goes to charge forwards towards the group, ignoring the rising hunk of metal and the chaos going on at the center of the volcano. Monet goes to first put her attention on the fliers moving to call out along the mental link <<Engaging fliers>> As she moves to charge into the midst of them. Her intent is to pick up speed, going to subsonic levels. She doesn't want a bloodbath here. There's already been too much of that today. And she'd rather not add to it if she can.

She goes to apply geometry and physics. She's not Valeria, she's not Scott and his instinctive awareness of ricochets. But she's still adequate. What she does is simply act as a battering ram. Going to smash through one Ptera to slam it into another, then going to repeat the process over to an Aerian, intent on ricocheting them over to one another. She's slamming them -away- from the lava, making sure to not send any of them cascading into the magma pit rising up. Chaos they want? Chaos she will add to it.

Monet can't keep the skies clear - there are far too many enemies to count here, but she can at least try to add to the distraction and thin the herd, while playing a game essentially of flying bumper cars. But not nearly as well as Rogue could. Or Val probably when she went to get her driver's permit for the Fantasticar.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
Success! Jubilation cheers for Rogue as she capitalizes on her distraction. To the untrained ear, it might sound just like random bat noises -- high-pitched screeches and screams -- but chances are it can't be heard at all over the emerging chaos. The bat continues to flutter its wings and begins to gain altitude, soaring higher and higher to get a better view of the battlefield as the skies begin to fill with fliers. The bat-squeeling seems to become less random over time, but that has to be a coincidence, right? It almost sounds like the bat is singing a song, but it's way, way, way too high pitched to be understood. It just sounds like bat screams.

Suddenly, the bat stops fluttering its wings and begins to dive towards an unsuspecting pteradon that just took an interest in Jean Grey as she continues to work to keep the enormous computer above the magma. The bat screams get louder and louder as the bat continues to dive, occasionally fluttering its wings to make small adjustments to remain above the pteradon as it continues to fly towards Jean. Really, is that bat singing? It really seems like it might be singing a----

SLAP! Suddenly, the bat transforms back into Jubilation Lee just in time for her to land right on top of the unsuspecting pteradon's back. She grabs each of its wings and continues her song, now with the benefit of real vocal chords again as the pair begin to fall out of the sky together.

"Ohhhhh, I wanna dance with somebody!
I wanna feel the HEAT with somebody!
Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody!
Somebody who loves meeeeee!"

The pteradon slams into the ground suddenly, just a few feet away from where Jean stands with Val, with Jubilation Lee triumphantly riding it until the final moment.

"Whitney," she explains with a shrug as she rises to her feet and straightens out her sunglasses.

Valeria Richards has posed:
So the computer gets dredged up and with a new scan from Val she makes a sad pouty expression. "Yeah, I don't think a power cycle is going to resolve this issue." she laments.

"And being submerged in lava, installing a replacement if we can get our hands on one. Might just set things back to where we are now." she adds while the Fantasticar swoops in, providing that cushy spot to dump the formerly lava bound. HEBIE being a much better, and safer pilot than Valeria herself doing all his own math to calculate catch vectors as the car swoops around.

From where Val and Jean have the computer, the blonde starts adding other scans. "If there's Celestial WiFi..." and it's clear she's putting more thought into the understandable nomenclature she's using. "Maybe I can get in remotely, set the system to function how we want. Dial down the unstable seismic events and eventual violent release of volcanic pressure. But also making sure the system defenses that caused you to render the terminal inoperative in the first place don't cause problems for people here in the long run. Less need to try sacrifice people."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is in the air with the possible virgin sacrifice in tow, but unfortunately she's got a bunch of those Aerians on her tail! Flying as quickly as she can, while holding a utterly terrified person is not exactly easy to do, and as the sacrificial lamb actually wiggles out of Rogue's grasp, and begins to fall toward the lava pool below, the Belle is unable to evade the Aerians behind her. Focused on grabbing the girl's arms again, Rogue is swarmed from all sides. She is clutching the girl, while pulling her up, to hug her against herself, as she is punched and attacked from every angle. Freeing up her right arm, Rogue delivers a powerful haymaker right in to the face of one of the Aerians, knocking him away a good thirty feet, right in to a rocky ledge. One of the remaining two Aerians, bites in to Rogue's shoulder, causing the Belle to shout, as she flies off again, her suit being torn from shoulder to wrist, removing an entire sleeve, and part of the suit down her back. But she's freed again.

With the 'lamb' in her arms, Rogue flies toward a ledge that seems to hold an empty set of natural stairs, the same ones they had arrived on. She swoops down out of the sky, depositing the young woman upon them, and motions for her to run.

When Rogue turns around again, one Aerian is right there to meet her face to face, leaving Rogue to raise her fists.

They square off, a true bout to a degree that even Captain Kirk might approve of, though Rogu's shirt is still on.

Blows are exchanged, positions are swapped, the two dancing together, before the Belle delivers a powerful hit to where she believes the Aerian's liver probably is, and sure enough, she sees the Aerian lock up, the pain shooting through their body, leaving Rogue with a open spot to slam another fist right in to their left eye, dropping them in a heap upon the floor, their winged body twirling in a full 360 circle in the volcanic ash.

Rogue, drops her fists, and releases a heavy sigh, before she turns to run toward the others.

Ororo Munroe has posed:
The winds continue to swirl around the rim of the dangerous volcano and Storm causes some of the cultists to stumble or fall down, where they tumble back down the gravel of the mountain. As more of the crowd press forward, more of them will tumble backwards as they get caught in the funnel of wind. Hopefully a tiny bat and the Fantasticar won't get hurt by the wind. Some of the gravel gets picked up by the wind though.

"Rogue! I cannot keep this up for long! There are too many to hold back!" Storm lets out, "Perhaps I could collapse this volcano with lightning?" she asks.

A few of the cultists frown at Storm and seem to get clued in to what she's doing, and start running at her. Uh oh.

Jean Grey has posed:
Once they engage in closer combat, the X-Men do not find their foes to be silent. "The sun is dead! Lord Garokk is false! The new fire cleanses! All shall perish! Embrace your end!" These and other charming slogans are among the things they shout, screech, growl, at least where those noises are comprehensible at all. Weirdly a lot of English in the Savage Lands, when they're not making outright bird noises and dino-squawks.

Jean, amidst her TK trance, blinks and lowers her hand as Jubilee 'lands' a rowdy Pteron next to her. It will survive, with a few broken bones. "Thanks." It is a bit of a distraction from what she's doing, but as far as Valeria seems concerned, it's not clear the thing she pulled out of the volcano is actually worth anything.

So she lets it back down, where it starts to slowly sink again.

"Connecting to them has always been tricky. Doug did it, but that's... well, it's his whole power, and he was still talking face-to-face. We were able to log in using Queen Leanne's ancestral 2-factor security dongle once, too." Brand new sentence. "There are _other_ cores, so we could try at one of them- I think we picked this one for the same reason you did. And not for nostalgia."

That being that something landed there. That this new set of events seemingly started here. "If someone was coming here to mess with things, why would they pick the dead one to start with, though?"

Rogue gets to experience her passenger up close. She is wearing one of the same pendants as the others have been taking off and throwing into the fire. Yet as Rogue flies her all around in what must be a terrifying ordeal... she clutches it for dear life.

A group charges Ororo, but as they get closer and she turns her weather powers against them, there is a kind of clear hesitation. "Is she another one?" one asks, of another. They argue. "Another new goddess!" "Another false one!" There's clearly some stuff going on, for all these people.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
There's not a huge amount that Monet can do here beyond trying to support the others. As she sees a large group heading towards Ororo, Monet goes to turn on a dime, and moves to try to charge up and over at them to slam into them from behind! Her intent is purely to give a quick brutal slam and then a fall-back, just stunning them for a few moments to give the Weather Goddess time to unleash more wind and fury if she felt it was necessary!

<<I suggest that a tactiacl withdrawl within short order is necessary. We cannot hold the field without killing many of them>> There was only so far they could go before they were being hurt more by such numbers and having to hurt them even more strongly back.

She goes to grab the ankles of one flier, moves to slam it over into another, and pants heavily as she does so.

Then she goes to recall one of those stranger things that she'd seen in the chaotic experiments in the Savage Land, and goes to project a huge BEAST.

A massive Tyrannosaurus Rex with a metallic head with two huge cannons over on the side of it. It would go to let out a massive blast of fire and flame from it's mouth, cannons firing about wildly as it would 'stomp' and seeingly shake the volcano!

It was however merely an illusion of a large nature, and soemthing that at best might last for a few seconds if even that. But it was something so chaotic, so unknown and so monstrous that it might slow down the rioting.

Ororo Munroe has posed:
Storm rises up into the air, "But Monet we have not saved all the victims," she reminds her and looks skeptical at their progress. The whoosh of hot air and gravel off the ground whaps the numbers rushing at her, who are not inerrupted by Monet's helpful assistance.

Storm rises off the ground again and flies away from the other cultists, where she can see ther others nearby. "This /is/ getting chaotic," she adds, perhaps now agreeing with Monet. As the large beast stomps around in front of her, Storm flies backwards and says, "Jubilee! Tabitha! Fall back! Are you okay?" she lets out, her voice echoing on the wind.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
Jubilation shrugs and gives Jean and Val a mock salute before shifting into a bat again. The bat flutters across the fiery chasm to deliver Jubilee back into the fray. She appears as herself, catching a trio of cultists completely by surprise. She lifts her hand and creates a cloud of brightly colored plasmoids in front of their faces, momentarily blinding them. Jubilee sweeps her leg underneath the cluster of fireworks, bringing all three of the cultists off their feet and tumbling to the ground!

Jubilation rolls forward and transitions back to her feet so she can charge at another cultist. This one saw her move against his friends and expects the blindness-leg-sweep combo, so he reacts by turning his head and bracing his legs. This time, Jubilee's cloud of fireworks appears low as she dives over it and tackles the cultist to the ground. Jubilation gives the downed cultist a light double-smack on one his cheeks before she rises to her feet.

Hearing the call to retreat, Jubilation throws both of her hands into the air so she can flash double peace signs. "Bye, boys!" she calls out before transforming back into a bat and flutters away!

"These guys are dweebs," Jubilee remarks as she appears near the others, shaking her arm out as it lags behind the rest of her transformation back into a person.

Valeria Richards has posed:
The extra info from Val likely helps as she moves her fingers along the haptic holographic display while she holds up her wrist computer. "I've had my hands on numerous civilization's computers. Kryptonian to Kree. Attilanian to Z'noxx." she sounds kind of boastful but she also needs to do things to occupy her brain while her own science projects cook in her lab back home. Goofing off is a great way to learn sometimes.

The positive side to 'Fuck Around, Find Out'.

But knowing what to expect with celestial security helps. "In the end, it's all software. And it can be surprisingly easy to figure out." she says and when she's just about to look extra smug her screen flashes a big red X.

Access denied!

"Okay. So. Good news and bad news. Good is. This whole mess can be shut down. The bad news is not here. Not remotely. But we can do this elsewhere. The cosmic energy isn't helping. And I think because... and this is as my uncles would call this, a "Wild Ass Guess". The break in the network here is what likely made this the ideal spot for the cosmic energy to push through. My ass is amazing so good odds I'm right. "It's just all muddled up because we have us an active volcano." she adds.

The lightning and weather being generated by Storm to seal up the volcano gets a frown. "Tabitha?" Val looks around to see who that might be. "Anyway. Sealing the top might be a bad idea. Like shaking up a champagne bottle with a cork only half in. We want to reduce pressure. Likely by widening any existing magma venting normally keeping the volcano from erupting." she suggests.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue was in a full run to get back with the others, but a gap in the rocks required her to take flight again. She leapt in to the flight, with both of her fists forward, and as she came up on where Storm was hovering, Rogue joined her at her side. "hit'em with some lightning, Storm." rogue said, a bit breathless. "Just scare'em off. Make our ear drums regret existing." She advised, as she tilted in mid-air, and took off again toward Jubilee. She arrived at the side of her friend, just as she finished off peppering that cultist with some humiliating smacks. "Nicely done, you're gettin' good at this stuff." She noted, as she jogged on toward where Jean was.

Rogue looked toward the slagged computer core, a grimace touching her ash strewn facial features. "That thing looks as fucked up as the public library computers..." She quietly grumbled, before her green eyes went to Jean's own.

"That girl, the one they were gonna throw in? She had a necklace on, like the one we were given by the Queen. Seems kinda odd, right?" She asked, before her gaze swept around the team on the whole.

"We better get outta here, Val, are you good?" Rogue called out, knowing the Fantastic One had a special ride all her own...

Jean Grey has posed:
Turning the tides back is not too difficult, at least in the shorter term. Monet's illusion is perhaps more effective than direct control. Zeal is one thing, but everyone is afraid of a T-Rex with lasers. Heck, in the Savage Land, it's a fairly practical survival instinct, since it comes up more often than you'd think...

Thus, a good many of the land-bound ones retreat back through the caves where they may have entered the caldera, to regroup wherever they may have come from. Explosive plasmoid barrages and unfriendly weather effects have a similar if more direct impact. These guys don't really seem big on the ranged weapons, so there's not a lot they can do when getting battered like that, and Storm continues to inspire what seems like religious fear on top of the practical survival kind.

Others chant at them, whether they flee or the X-Men do, as both are technically true: "Garokk is nothing! The Firelord is all! His fires will find you!"

Thus, the retreat can be more orderly than panicked, with Val's car there to pick up anyone who needs a ride. The heroes don't, but-

Rogue called?

-the woman she saved reappears next to the car, unbidden, and leaps over the side. Evidently, she rates her odds of survival higher with these strangers than on her own. On the side of a blackened, barren volcano, without food or water and hunted by her former co-religionists, that might be a realistic assessment.

Her necklace is not like Leanne's, but it is one they have seen before. The sun symbol, with the face on it. Hers is a bit more elaborate than some, with the inner face made of some polished stone, and the flaming halo of gold.

With everyone aboard, the car can soon be away. There's a reason they didn't fly it in, as they have to dodge the occasional bit of flying, burning debris, but Jean can help a bit with her her telekinesis, as they make a more rapid escape. "I guess we need to find a friendlier volcano..."