2550/Ice Palace: Frosting

Ice Palace: Frosting
Date of Scene:	21 July 2020
Location:	Ice Palace
Synopsis:	The Ice Palace in the Bronx has become dangerous: and investigation by the LBC and SHIELD finds more cracks to the mystery.
Cast of Characters:	Loki, Sera, Nessa Donovan, Melinda May, Daisy Johnson, Siobhan Smythe

---

Loki has posed:
A month ago, a beautiful, strange structure of ice was created out of nothing, like an icy coating on an abandoned warehouse in the Bronx. It is entirely out of place there: boardered by some cement yards, other warehouses and tattered fences. It is a beautiful creation, something out of a disney movie: a castle, with multiple levels, rooms, and details. Pictures are all over social media of tourists roving inside the place, sitting on an icy throne, sliding down ice bannisters. It has been entirely safe (aside from someone that slipped and cracked their head open, but that had to do with someone climbing the roof, not the structure itself attacking them or eating souls).

The safety has changed, though, rather suddenly.

The Ice Palace is now a turbulent twist of magical forces and danger. Multiple skeletons made of pure frost lumber about around the exterior, wielding icy axes, each standing eight feet in height (both the skeletons AND the axes are each that tall). They have bright, central pulses of blue magic in their chests and eyes, which slide back and forth as they move around the exterior.

A small crowd was present, interested in the sight, until one of the skeletons saw them and charged. They scattered, but there was an injury, and an ambulance was called down the block. The palace was no longer safe.

Sera has posed:
The Bronx! Featured in such movies as Double Impact, Heat, Lost Highway. Sera does twirls as she wanders down the streets, which elicits a few 'Hey watch where you're going miss!'. But hey, who cares. This place is magical in its own unique weird disgusting way. The Bronx!

Of course, there was the ice palace. How could she not? she's heard about it. If she hadn't been so busy recently she'd have been here sooner. After all, it is of interest to the Ladies Book Club - Especially now!. Life Jim, but not as we know it, has stirred inside. Now that is worth the trip.

So Sera finds herself standing in front of the beautiful structure, "Here I am, I've come so far...," she murmurs to herself and her eyes begin to glow white with angelic magic so she can witness its magical majesty. The turbulent twists and ebbing flows of magical forces have her clasping her hands together with delight.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
There's no way Nessa's not knee-deep in the situation. She was there when it was created, and there's a sense of responsibility there that she couldn't shake even if she wanted to. So, she approaches the ice palace once again, though cautiously. Especially because she's got a passenger in tow. Hiding behind a nearby building, she looks behind her to the 10-year-old who she'd been protecting.

"Okay, rules are... safety first. I've got your back but you need to let me know if you're in trouble. If trouble comes your way, try and hide and I'll take care of it, okay. If you see Sorcerer Vega and I don't? Tell me. He's the one that knows the most about what's going on and I'm certainly not the second best ice mage on the entire earth. I don't know how to dismantle this situation yet." Danger or not, Tristan was around the age she was when she started using magic, and he was just as involved. He was also smart: he hid when he was asked to and when it was obvious he needed to. It was a calculated risk.

Melinda May has posed:
Melinda May is sitting in an unmarked SHIELD surveilance van. The same unmarked SHEILD surveilance van she sat in the night before, while Jane Foster set up her unobtrusive sensors all over the place. Sensors, as it turns out, that didn't detect anything weird to do with the Ice Palace -- as far as May knows -- but did catch a mutant beatdown in the nearby alley. Which is partially what brings her back today.

Well, that and the mobilization of hostiles within the structure. That raised a fairly big flag back at the Trisk.

Now, the surveillance van has become a defacto mobile command centre, and May finds herself as the senior agent in charge... appropriate, one might suppose, for a field leader.

"Eight foot skeletons *and* eight foot axes, yes." She is speaking into a com, updating HQ. "Made of ice. Or snow. Look it's some form of frozen water, alright? So, get me those flamethrowers, now! This place is no longer a Disney attraction, it's an active theatre of operations." A beat. "Also? Tell Director Palamas. Magic is a possibility."

After all, tech guys don't typically go for the skeletons and axes route. *Robots* and axes, sure... but skeletons? Not usually.

"Keeping a chan open," she tells them, and steps out of the van, loading up on what few and situationally inadequate weapons she has for the moment.

But that flamethrower's coming. You can bet on it.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
To say that it's been a trying week for Daisy would be underselling it. After a mission where one of the Agents she had known for years died she had taken any opportunity to take her mind off things. And that included included being in a surveillance van nearby keeping tabs on this strange ice castle. Magic? That was way above her paygrade but if there was one thing she was good at was tech, and keeping an eye out on the sensors that had been put before. And to be honest, being in a van like this felt good, brought her back to her times as Skye, when life was simpler...

.... Though those thoughts fleet away when there was note of .. hostiles? "At least one wounded so far.." She informs May with a small frown growing on her expression.

As May starts getting out of the van she reaches into her bag, donning those gloves that help her keep those powers focused and gets up, moving out of the van.

"I got your back." She says to May with a nod. She was determined to not lose any other Agent on her watch.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
Siobhan had been coming to the palace every once in a while partially just to say hi to Nessa. The place was pretty fun to see and the changes lately have had her curious (especially that Butterfly) and so now when she arrives she blinks at what has changed. She actually has to duck back down behind something as she notes what is happening. Those are some big axes and big skeletons. She had no desire to fight them unless absolutely necessary and she really has no wish to do more than she already did with that one person on the Wrecking Crew. Sure. Maybe these skeltons weren't sentient but that isn't the point.

The point is that the Banshee is dangerous. And she doesn't need to make the situation worse. So, instead of doing that she peeks around, looking this way and that to see if she can see Nessa or any clue as to what is going on.

Loki has posed:
"I don't think he's here," the ten year old boy near Nessa answers her, looking around her. He has one white squirrel with him: just one. It's pure white, as if sculpted from the same thing that the palace is, but animated, with shiny dark eyes for eyes. It hooks its tail around the back of it's boy's neck, and rubs its face with white snow-paws.

"It just feels like a ...black hole. Can you feel it? Like when you see a dark hole in a tree-trunk and you're afraid to put your hand in it. Like you KNOW there's a... a scorpion or something," explains Tristan quietly to Nessa. His hands are shoved deep into his light gray hoodie, but he withdraws them to play with the zipper. Up, down, up, down.

--

Magic is more than a possibility: one of the skeletons was drawn to Sera's shiny show immediately, and a look at it screams magic. The thing has no reason to be held together at all. The movement of that one also draws attention of a second skeleton, and the pair troop towards Sera, gaining speed rather suddenly. The one in the back, further away, stops, and releases a shriek, projecting a cone of icy wind, while the other starts to close rapidly, axe pulled back. They are not subtle in any way about their guard of the palace, and they don't ask any questions. The intent is clearly to freeze Sera solid, maybe some decapitation. They seem at least pretty straightforward. ...Go after the shiny thing.

Sera has posed:
Sera's delight at the palace and the magical creatures is shaken by their sudden attention and build up of magic. "Gah!," she replies to their lack of hospitality. She sings out in a delightful alien language. The white magic leaps from her eyes to her hands, then her large angelic wings erupt with magic from her back.

A hasty retreat perhaps? Shield, something about shield feels right for some reason. Her song changes briefly and she holds up her arm as a large glowing white kite shield appears and she holds it up as she back pedals away from the charging skeletons and that blast of icy magic.

Hopping backwards out of the ice castle she catches sight of Nessa, "LBC.. unite?," she says shivering to her magical acquaintance. Chilled to the bone she starts to get the impression she didn't do the right magical handshake before trying to enter. She wipes the frost off the tips of her hair and notes their lack of further pursuit. The glow about her intensifies as she warms herself up. If there was any question about magic being here - well.. angel.

Loki has posed:
The skeletons both scream at Sera, coming to a lumbering halt once she is well away from the palace. They stand there like guard dogs on the end of a leash, holding their axes. One of them releases another icy cone of magic, but they don't leave the palace area: they act like guards.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
"Yeah, I feel it. It's not good. But if we just let this sit? It's going to get worse. You don't stick your hand in the tree, you maybe just block it off. We take it one step at a time, okay? First thing we've got to do is find a way to get rid of the skeleguards." Nessa's attention is quickly drawn from the boy to the skeletons where they go for Sera. "Oh crap," she mutters, then looks to Tristan. "So one thing you should remember is that the cold isn't going to harm me. Cold blasts like that? I'm fine. So don't panic if you see that, I'll be fine."

As Sera mentions the book club, she offers a quick wave, then looks to Tristan. "She's a good egg. She'll help." She does catch sight of Siobhan as well, giving her a wave over with a quick call. "Siobhan, over here!" She looks back towards the boy. "See, we've got allies. We'll be just fine."

Melinda May has posed:
May gives Daisy a short nod of acknowledgement. It's a sign of trust, actually, particularly since it doesn't include a raised eyebrow or a snirk. Treasure this. This impromptu mission may change that reaction later.

And, you know, agent evaluations are coming up.

"We need to redirect the civilians until backup arrives," she tells Daisy, shoving her arms into an armoured tac vest and zipping it up. "I want this place cleared of all non-combatants as soon as possible."

She eyes Sera in the mid-distance, registering the woman's reaction to the monsters... and the monsters' reaction to her. Including the apparent invisible leash. Magic, looks like. "People like her do *not* count as *non*-combatants," she notes to Daisy. "Magic might come in handy."

Especially in lieu of WAND on the scene.

Pragmatic. That's May.

"There's our perimeter line." That is, beyond the reach of the skeletons... and, preferably, their icy magic blast. "Mark it."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Daisy's eyebrows shoot up, first at the display of magic, both from Sera and also from the skeleton shooting blasts of cold. "That's just cheating..." says the Agent that can manipulate vibration. Yet once her own tac-vest is on and ready she moves forward, taking note of that perimeter line. "Got it."

Attentive gaze is taking in the scene, her eyes eventually falling upon the group of Sera, Siobhan and Nessa, along with the young child. "They have a young child close with them." she points out.

A wave is given over to the group. "Hey. This is a dangerous place. Are you guys alright? You should back further out with the child." she says in a higher tone, gesturing with a 'come here' motion.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
A blink as she watches that and for a moment, Siobhan worries for Sera. She wasn't sure that this woman that was so casually approaching the skeletons was going to be ok. Luckily, she pretty clearly sprouts wings and all that so...yeah, probably fine? Either way, she learns something about these skeletons pretty early. They stop. They don't keep chasing once they spot something. Then she is noticed by Nessa and she looks at her, "Are ya sure?" She asks from her spot and looks toward the things and then back at Nessa.

"Ya are seein' the large, angry lookin' skeletons dat I'm seein', yeah?" She asks and stands up slowly, looking at the pair of icey frames warily. Her steps take her at a wider berth than she meant as she approaches Nessa and then says a little quieter, "What is goin' on? Last time I was here de only ting to be worried about was an awkward butterfly." She looks over at Daisy as she calls out and blinks a few times before looking to Nessa and the child, "Ya know, I have to agree with her about havin' a kid here."

Loki has posed:
"Me and my squirrel aren't hurt by cold /either/," Tristan replies. It hadn't really come up before, but explains why he wasn't frozen to death when she found him inside the ice palace the previous day. What /had/ come up is that Tristan doesn't name the squirrels, because they are not real creatures and they don't last. The magic constructs are just that.

"We are hurt by axes though. The sorceror--- If he's here, he'd HELP us, unless he's being eaten, then he'd---" Tristan trails off, and is staring instead at the angel-woman, gaping. Look at the angel wings! So impressive! And magical and incredible! Tristan just stares at her.

--

The skeletons don't rush to engage Sera further, they do watch her well, as proper guard dogs. One of them paces in front of the other: which does put it outside of the supposed leash-line, but it only does that to cross. It breathes another gastly, frozen belch, freezing the cement and the area nearby, and the other one advances into the frozen air there, progressing forward in this new frozen area it created. It looks like a strange frozen tendril has extended out of the castle in the area where the skeletons are active, and they're staying to the frozen patch. But the perimeter line, it seems, is capable of moving, as the darkly frozen ground creeps out from the skeleton's magical blasts. The most recent skeleton turns a sweeping stare towards those Sera is calling to, icy haze fluxing near its disembodied, glowing jawbone.

There are other skeletons back by the palace, but they don't seem to feel a need to come over, either lack of awareness or not allocated to do it.

--

Daisy and Siobhan's input have dragged the boy's attention towards them, and he steps towards Nessa with a little petulant, childish frown, glancing at Nessa for support. "I'm almost /eleven/," the boy mumbles, as if that helped.

Sera has posed:
Sera tilts her head and smiles to Quake and May, "Oh, Hiya SHIELD people. Don't mind me, just checking out the tourist attraction. But if you're planning on going in there you might need a bit of special protection." She chuckles and then slowly her head turns back toward the guards as they start creating their own zerg creep to progress on.

"Oh sunnova... come on! This is discrimination you know, just because I //like// magic doesn't mean you have to kick me out. I wasn't going to break anything I swear."

She backs up a little further and says, "You know I get the distinct impression we might have to break these pretty skeleton guards D&D style if we want to understand this place better. That's a shame, because they're utterly gorgeous. Though, perhaps we could experiment and attempt to pacify them. That'd be better than sun up for frosty here."

Nessa Donovan has posed:
Nessa looks towards Tristan, studying him thoughtfully. He hadn't mentioned everything, but the explanation made sense. He said he was learning. He said Vega helped him with the squirrels. She offers him a smile. She gives Daisy a thumb's up, but looks back to the others, her tone lower as she addresses those closer. "He's a kid, but he's also a mage. A mage who is very much able to feel what's going on in there and has seen the kind of stuff these things do. If I didn't think I could protect him, I would have /never/ brought him with me. He probably can protect /us/."

She looks to Sera. "We can crush them and then I can make a replica for you for your front lawn, minus the attepts to kill people." She then looks back to Daisy. "We're /well/ aware of the danger, don't worry about us here. We're good." She smiles cheerfully, then looks to Sera and Siobhan. "I think we gotta get a move on if we want to do this," she says, her tone low.

Melinda May has posed:
May tracks the conversation between Daisy and the Mystics (oh, hey, a new band in the making) with one ear, the rest of her attention on feedback coming in from her incoming support team. "Flamethrowers two minutes out," she tells Daisy over local com. Which means the black helicopters can now be seen rotoring over the city towards them.

"Mage or not," she says, approaching the group, now, "You keep that kid out of harm's way. I do *not* want to fill out the paperwork on *that*." Her tone brooks no argument... not that those not under her command may care.

Yet.

"I'm Agent May," she says as she gets near enough not to shout. "This is Agent Johnson. We're coming with you." Just as soon as they get their flamethrowers. "Our people will secure the perimeter, but Agent Johnson and I will support you."

Personally.

Yeah.

It's gonna be one of *those* days.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
A sharp nod is given at the mention of flamethrowers. "Mmm, will be just like when we got the disco death ball truck rolling.." whatever that was! But no time for explanations now. She taps on her coms, helping the arriving agents to set the perimeter. She gestures. "Keep a good distance from the ice. And it can apparently expand so be ready to enlarge that perimeter if you note them advancing." she warns. Just in case the skeletons get frisky and decide to attack SHIELD base, or in this case their van.

When May moves in to approach the rest of the magelings she does so shortly after, greeting the group with a friendly enough nod, and a faint smile. "Does any of you know what is going on here?" the boy with the squirrel gets an odd look from her, then she exchanging a glance with May..

Oh, what she would do for some WANDies about! Just not the girl that summoned faeries on her hair. No, not that one.

"And yes, as Agent May said, we will have your back." she flexes her hands close and then open, focusing. If there was to be fightin' she'd be ready.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
"I'm beginning ta tink you're nothin' but trouble, Nessa." Siobhan nods her head in the direction of the woman before looking to the kid who is almost 11 and then she looks skeptical. She doesn't believe she should be here. Let along a kid. She casts her eyes back toward Sera a moment and blinks at hwo she's treating this situation. She hmms softly before looking with a wide blink at May. She tilts her head.

"Oh good, someone to tell us what to do." She chuckles and puts her hands on her hips before nodding, "WEll, this isn't my palace or my party so I certainly won't stop ya from comin' along." She glances to Daisy next and then tilts her head. Disco Death ball...she shakes her head and looks forward. Her hands dive into the pocket of her jacket and she looks to Nessa, "So, what exactly are we doin'?"

Loki has posed:
"Protect /you/? I was here with the sorcerer..." Echoes Tristan with a doubtful worry. He's quieter now that he's surrounded by a lot of adults, not to mention the Official Looking agents that have a Van and commands and flamethrowers and everything. Like many kids, cops and official adults are intimidating. So he mostly just sticks to Nessa, letting her speak for him and his presence.

--

The skeletons seem to have decided Sera has gotten the hint, and isn't too aggressive, and isn't in their perimeter. They actively fall back towards where the snowy and icy area was earlier, resuming a patrol: satisified with their job of pushing people out of their territory.

Sera has posed:
Sera winks to the little kid as she realises they've been staring at her wide eyed. Then, she tilts her head to May and furrows her eyebrows, "With all due respect Agent May and Johnson, that's a terrible terrible terrible.... terrible idea. I'm part of the Infinity Watch, leave this to us for now. Flame throwers, even if they did the melty, will only result in their magical potential exploding, and probably replacements being created t'boot." Wild assed guess, but if she made an ice palace, that's what she'd do. Infinity Watch? who?

Well, Sera didn't spend all that time in the subway and on a bus just to get shoo'd out by a snow golem. She hmms, "oooOoo-ooOOo," she sings playfully to it and then snaps her fingers, "Oh. I should try and see if there's a legitimate way to be in there. A friend or foe type thing. Don't you know there's part of me that longs to go, into the palace."

Sera has decidedly not learnt her lesson; she approaches the most interested of the skeletons but keeps out of that long axe and ice blast reach. She draws out a long line of magic between her hands. She picture frames with her fingers the glowing 'heart' of this creature to watch its magical harmonics, then begins to sing in her alien Enochian through her hand gap, trying to pacify, quell, convince this creature and the others that she is meant to be here.

Though, it's possible there are no backstage passes for this ride. The magic between her hands pulses and glows as she tries to synchronise with the magic within the creature, though it's not like she's attempted anything like this for hundreds of years, it's a bit of a stretch, she must admit to herself.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
"Tristan's safe with me," Nessa insists. "Trust me, he and I are a lot safer from this than a lot of people." But May's not telling them /not/ to go, so there's some ease there. Especially when they're offering backup on top of that. It does a lot to build some trust there. When Daisy asks about what's going on, Nessa gestures over her shoulder towards the ice palace. "That? It's not supposed to be like that. I was there when it was made. It was a lot of magic, but it was entirely harmless. Pretty, but harmless. A powerful sorcerer named Jianyu Vega made it. Tristan and I saw him yesterday, he fought off a much bigger creature inside."

She does spare a grin towards Siobhan. "Just because you always show up when there's trouble doesn't mean /I'm/ the trouble. You've been there too. Maybe /you're/ the trouble." She rests a gloved hand on Tristan's shoulder as some kind of comforting motion, glancing at him and offering the boy a half-smile before looking back towards those from SHIELD.

"I didn't get to talk to him much, but he said none of this was him, that something dark had sort of begun to suck the energy and magic out of it. He said it's /spreading/. I suggested just destroying the whole thing, closing it all up, but he said severing it would be dangerous. Explosions or worse. He didn't specify what the 'or worse' was, but given the nature of magic, I'm sure there are any number of awful things. So, if you're asking me what we should do here, it's not go in with a wrecking ball. I'm fairly certain you'll be fine if we just knock all of those guards down with a giant bowling ball, but I don't think it's a great idea to try and just... blow everything up."

Her gaze, however, quickly snaps to Sera who is given a /glare/. Yeah, she heard that. She tugs the cuffs of her gloves up under her sleeves just a bit more. "You know," she says, after a moment, "if all you want to do is get in it's not that hard. They aren't smart. I snuck in yesterday. Just don't draw attention to yourself and hide behind cover.

Melinda May has posed:
May glances to Daisy when she mentions the truck. "Hey," she says, "if I thought it would help..." It would be here. You know it would.

Sera's words do not deter her in the least. Though none of them know her well enough to know, she won't use her equipment indiscriminately. But, she *will* have it on hand. Just in case.

Because, there's always a boom at some point.

Turning, thus, she waves over two of the newly arriving SHIELD agents, divesting each of them of their flamethrowers and other helpful ordinance and equipment. More than she asked for, all of it likely useful before the end. Possibly more useful than the flamethrower, and that's okay, too.

She passes one agent's gear to Daisy and dons the other's herself. Now, feeling vaguely more prepared than she did a moment ago (which is to say... not much, but -- what the hell! -- that's never stopped her before), she gives Sera a tight smile. One of those lips-only things that's all official courtesy and no ounce of warmth. "Infinity Watch?" .oO(Does it come with a super secret decoder ring? No?) "Great. Good to know. We're still coming with you."

As Nessa gives them concrete information, however, the Agent's demeanour becomes all business and entirely attentive. She's genuinely listening... and evaluating and extrapolating, of course.

"Blowing things up is usually a tactic of last resort," she tells her simply. "I have 3 priorties here: Making sure civilians are safe, understanding the threat, and neutralizing it." She sizes Nessa up. Not quite as confident as she'd like, but maybe not a pushover.

So, perhaps surprisingly, she concedes, "Look, I'm not a magic person. Way I see it, you're our on-site expert." At least until (unless) Director Palamas sends one of her people in to advise. "So, we'll follow your lead on this. Just be aware that we will act to fulfill our priorties using the best information we have at any given time."

Which probably means 'imperfectly'... and with a bit of improvisation along the way.

A beat. Drily: "I'd rather *not* have to pull out the disco ball truck."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
The mention of an infinity watch makes Daisy blink as well, another look given to May then back to the magelings, she offering a small shrug. "We prefer to be ready, just in case." she says, "And even if in many ways this goes beyond what we may understand we are still here to protect people." her tone firm.

The explanation from Nessa gets Daisy's attention too, she absorbing the information, thoughtful. "Yes, whatever this place is we can't have these creatures menacing any people that pass by. It's too dangerous, so one way or another they will have to go. Or go back into their ice castle. To begin with." a look given back to the skeletons. "Can't run the risk of them going loose around the city. If you say they may be getting corrupted...."

She takes in a breath, testing her flamethrower briefly (just turning it on really) and then saying as an aside to Melinda, low tone. "Disco death ball truck..." because the 'DEATH' part is important!

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
"Me? Yes, I'm the one with the ice powers. Makes sense I'd be involved." She rolls her eyes and then lets out a low whistle at the sight of all the gear that May and Daisy put together. She looks back at the ice palace and then back to them, "Goin' in ready for de Predator den?" She chuckles and nods her head, "Now, quick question." She gestures to Sera, "What is all dat about and also, are ya tellin' me that we're just gonna sneak in? And what exactly do you plan to do once we get in?"

She gestures to the place, "See how big it is. I bet dey could fit fifty of those big oafs in dere just waitin' to chop people up to bits." SHe looks at the ice on the ground and then up to the palace, "Don't get me wrong, it looks like a rat'er nasty tr-et but..." She pauses and hmms, "Ya know, those tings dere." She points at the skeletons, "I'm assumin' the glowy bits are what makes dem tick. Does the palace have a glowy bit, ya tink?"

Loki has posed:
Mageling Tristan doesn't do anything or offer anything of note, he's just quiet with his squirrel. Adults Are Talking.

--

Sera has directly engaged and approached the skeletons again, and thrust her magic upon the nearest one. It raised its axe immediately, centering focus on her.

As Sera reaches out to it's magical harmonics, she will find it is associated deeply with a larger beat, a heartbeat of magic from within the ice palace, it is connected. It is powered, from there. But the intellect, that is local to the skull she sees in front of her.

The skeleton stops, sort of puzzled and confused by her song, as if it weren't sure what to make of it. --- The other skeleton seems to notice this, though, and begins to approach, while it's buddy is seemingly entraptured by the angelic woman. It seems she's gotten one of them, but the other is still loose, and it isn't slow: these aren't zombies, the thing is coming up FAST.

-- Siobhan's question about glowy bit makes Tristan nod along at her idea: yes, a glowy bit... but he does not actually verbally comment.

Sera has posed:
Sera is getting the impression she might have to play patti-cake with these skeletons if she's to get anywhere, but at least she's learning something. She releases the magic and steps back from them, "Well! Aren't you just gorgeous then." She smiles and takes a few more paces back as she was instructed to do by the skeletons the first time.

"It seems there is some sort of heart within the palace, or perhaps the whole palace itself. Hard to say. But I can tell you, as far as I'm concerned.. these skeletons are living beings. And despite my utter and absolute desire to go //in// to the beautiful ice palace and take selfises, they seem to be instructed to keep everything and everyone out."

Sera paces back and forth, a quandry.. personal desire to go in to the ice palace and check it out, versus respecting the wishes of whoever made it. It's a tough one, a real tough one. Agonisingly tough. Indescribabl... yeah she wants to go in. "I think we need to do some //big// magic and make an amulet that'll let us through. Then we can sell tickets," she adds realising the potential commercial opportunities here.

"Does anyone have a trinket I could use?," she asks over to Nessa with a grin as she handles all the tough questions and also her lyrics from that Frozen sequel.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
"Cool, those priorities are absolutely what we're after here. So your first priority there is to keep civilians out. I don't think those creatures are complicated from everything I've seen. You get far enough away from them they stop doing anything to you. If they can't see you? They forget about you. You keep up a perimeter, they won't bother advancing it. Heck, you could make some kind of wall or fence they can't see through, I doubt civilians would draw their attention. I'm assuming, of course, that that's true until whatever it is doing starts to spread," Nessa looks around at the others.

There is, however, a very sharp glare leveled in the direction of Siobhan at the mention of ice powers. "I was making a joke. But right, /clearly/ I'm involved here. You'd better not be implying you think I had something to do with this." Regardless of what she thinks, though, she's trying to relay information and she returns to it.

"As for understanding it, well, I think that's what we've got to get inside for," she says, though the mention of glowy bits has her thinking. "I don't know if Tristan has any insight into what happened when he was in there. You were there when it started?" She glances in the boy's direction, though her hand stays on his shoulder out of concern.

"Neutralizing it is a bit trickier, but I definitely think it needs to happen soon. If Sorcerer Vega was /surprised/ by it doing something that quickly, then it may be spreading fast. I'm not an expert on /this/ in particular, though." As Sera's playing with the skeletons and mentions a trinket, Nessa fishes in her pocket until she pulls a keychain with a Route 66 charm on it, removing it from her set of keys. "This work?"

Melinda May has posed:
See... it's the *spreading* that has May concerned. Right now? That perimeter is totally manageable. Even without a visual barrier. But magic creeps. Everyone *knows* magic creeps. And it's *creepy*. So... Yeah. That microexpression right there? The barest hint of a crease between her brows that only an avid botoxer can see? Concern. Deep seated concern.

"No selling tickets," May tells Sera as Nessa hands over the keychain. "This is reconnaissance first, neutralization second, commercialization never. *If* we can save your pretty palace -- " and it's a BIG if -- "we will. But I'm not going to cry too many tears if it's a puddle by morning."

She passes orders through her com to her agents, telling them to start errecting a sturdier perimeter to keep the lookieloos out, but returns her focus to the small group of Mystics before her. Her lips purse for a moment. She looks down at Tristan.

And the softest expression Daisy may ever have seen on the Field Leader's face appears. May may not be a kid's go-to adult in most situations, but she's not actually afraid of them. She just doesn't treat them as kiddies. She treats them as small people instead.

"You've seen everything that happened here, haven't you?" she says to the boy, actually crouching down so she's on his level and can look him in the eye. "Can you tell me what happened? I don't want us to make a mistake and hurt anyone or get hurt because we don't know what happened. It would really help."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
The quick advance from the skeleton makes Daisy lift one hand to it, not her flamethrower..., talk about instincts.. and whatever she'd be able to do with that .., hand? But when Sera retreats again she lowers it, again hoisting the flamethrower up on both hands. "Or for the Aliens den, still undecided.." then a grimace. "Or is it AVP? Because noone likes those..." movies.., never get her started on those. But it's mostly to get people more at ease, she letting all the BIG seriousness to May. She is here to counterbalance...

... Or at least until she sees that soft expression on May's expression that melts hearts. It makes Daisy lift her brows. It also makes her wish she had a body cam so she could be shooting this moment. Damn, lost opportunities... She just sighs instead, but smiles as well, warmed at the senior agent's knack with childr-- I mean, little people.

"Well, we are following your lead for now. So whatever you choose. Stealth or fight. If needed we can even create a distraction." she suggests, but then looks at the necklace being exchanged.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
"Hey, sorry. I didn't mean anythin' by it but just sayin'. I'm definitely not involved in this craziness." She nods her head, "Well, more so dan I already am." She nods her head and looks over at Tristan briefly before looking to Sera, "What...what are ye exactly? Some kind of angel dat fell inta the role of a teenaged business girl?" She asks and tilts her head, "Ya are actin' real daft about the dangerous ice palace of potential doom." She nods and then looks to May. Her idea of asking Tristan seems wise.

She glances briefly at Daisy, "Pick one. Dey all fit in deir own way. I elect we sneak in personally." She shrugs her shoulders, "Seems less slashy and smashy dat way."

Loki has posed:
Tristan looks at Nessa when she asks him if he were there when it happened. He shakes his head no to that specific question, but all of his attention is then taken up by Melinda May who crouches in front of him to ask for more specifically. "Not ... not everything," Tristan flounders a little verbally.

"I'm learning magic, from my - from the Sorcerer." Odd little self-correction in there, as if he knew he had to use the title, not whatever familiar name he might have for the sorcerer. "He made the castle but I didn't see him do it or anything. We were making animals and stuff FOR the palace all week, to make it more alive," Tristan continues, showing her the snow Squirrel. It's a construct, just like the skeletons, but made of mostly snow: soft, cute. Harmless.

"So I was going to have a lesson, but when we teleported here, and this huge monster woke up. It's all black ice and gross, it came like, out of the floor. I hid upstairs and they fought. I don't know if he's okay; he would have come for me. I think maybe all my animals turned into evil monsters. The animals I made from before." He curls an arm over the squirrel a bit protectively. And looks down with guilt. Lots of guilt. "So it's my fault. They were MY animals. I'm ... I'm so sorry." Or the monsters ate his animals is also probable, but Tristan's focus is on guilt.

Sera has posed:
Sera accepts the route 66 charm and nods her head to Nessa, "This'll do. If it works, ..great. It's entirely possible it won't. These guards are smarter than they look after all." She looks over to one of the ice skeletons, "No offence. Also I haven't actually enchanted enchanted something in a long time. A really long time."

Nibbling on her lower lip, she glances up to Siobhan and says, "Hi there. I'm Sera," she offers her hand to her, "I'm an Angel from Heven. And this ice palace of potential doom is amazing. I mean, look at it." She thumbs to the kids explanation, "Some sorcerer made it after all. You have to appreciate the artistry of it right?"

To Nessa she says, "I have a plan, not a terribly good one. It seems there are songs that these things like. If we can sing it to the heart of the palace, may be we can make it safe again."

At this, she kneels down and holds the pendant before her, cupped in her hands. She begins to sing to it, closing her eyes as the white magical glow about her intensifies.

She begins to sing to the route 66 and it rises up in to the air, rotating slowly, speeding up faster and faster as she imbues it with the song she constructed from her understanding of the golem. The pendant spins faster and faster until it cracks down the middle and falls in pieces in to her hand.

Sera pries her eyes open and frowns, "Well... dang. Small problem, I am too unpracticed to enchant something."

Nessa Donovan has posed:
"I don't think it's going to damage the cause of this to take down a few skeletons. So I figure, maybe some people play distraction, take some down if they can, a couple of us sneak inside and check to see if we can figure out some better way to take down the magic," Nessa seems comfortable with her suggestion, though her attention is mostly drawn to Tristan at his information. She squeezes his shoulder before she looks at him.

"It's not your fault at all. Whatever that thing is, it's just taking whatever's around it and using it. It's taking the magic from everywhere. Even if your constructs weren't there, it'd still have created something. You're not at fault at all." There's a moment where she stops think about that carefully. "... I really hope there's not a dragon in there." Mouse-turned-dragon would be an unfortunate enemy.

"The ice palace is nice, but it's whatever's in it making the doom. Like I said, it was harmless before. Something just... fixed on it. An object? A person? I'm not sure, we'd have to feel around and see what's there." But then Sera, having a plan? Nessa's all prepared to listen... until she says the plan. "... oh hell no. I am not singing. /Nope/." She's going to pretend that Sera didn't suggest anything and she turns her attention back to the others. "Okay, who's going in and who is on distraction duty?"

Melinda May has posed:
"She's right." May actually lays a gentle hand on the lad's other shoulder. Her tone is at once gentle and firm. "This is *not* your fault." Wonder of wonder, a small smile appears on her lips. It's a serious smile, not a frivolous one, but this time it's echoed by kindness in her eyes. (Yes. Kids get better treatment than adults. Suck it up, buttercup.) "I don't know much about magic, it's true, but what I *do* know is that when something surprises you out of the dark, takes your toys away, and uses them to hurt others, that isn't something you can control." Not at his age, anyway.

Again, adults are held to a different standard. Herself included. She gets to feel guilt when the bad guys steal her toys and hurt people. The kid does not. Not his fault.

At all.

"Okay? We'll figure this out, kid. I promise."

It just may take a while.

She straightens and watches Sera for a moment or two, eyes flicking to Siobhan and Nessa in turn before returning to watch the angel's progress. Or lack thereof.

"Right," she says with a sigh when the spell fizzles. "So, the problem is the darkness at the heart of the castle, that I'm assuming needs to be magically contained." Damn. She really needs a WAND operative here.

"So... Johnson and I can play distraction while you guys go try to figure out what the bad guy's doing in there." A beat. "And maybe see if there's a viable rescue mission possibility?" The sorcerer, she means. The kid's... what? Guardian? Dad? More than a teacher.

She looks at Tristan and then at Nessa. "I think the kid needs to stay outside."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Daisy's attention gets more serious as the boy explains what's going on with more detail, lips pressed to a line, some worry... Though May's speech to the kid seems to embolden her as well (she is a kid at heart!). "And besides...." she tosses a wink at the kid. "... we are certified skeletonbusters." take that Ghostbusters! "We got this." as much assurance on her tone as she can muster.

The failure on the enchantment makes her blink. Magelings! But then as the plan shifts to the diversion she nods. "One moment." she rushes out quickly to the couple of agents nearby. A gesture about. "Going to need your comms. There are more on the van." she tells them. Poor guys, first stripped of the flamethrower, now of the earpieces.

She returns a moment later, configuring the pieces quickly (tech-savvy!) and then distributing them if any of the mages will want one. "I got these into a frequency you can use to talk with us." she says. "So if any of us needs backup we can keep in constant communication." because communication is key!

"I am ready." she then tells Melinda.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
A look over the kid and she frowns. She knows what it is like to think you are the source of all trouble. She looks for a longer moment, sucking in a breath and letting it out before turning her gaze to Nessa. She approahces Nessa and shakes her head, "I am not sure I should distract. I will go in with you." She nods her head and looks to Sera briefly before looking to Melinda and Daisy. She gladly takes an ear piece.

"I am not sure how much help I can be but I'll be glad to do what I can." She nods her head, "Just want to see dis finished. Given I saw it start. Not to mention I can't let people I know run off into danger alone. Not really my style."

Loki has posed:
Tristan's eyes get big at the super secret agent communicators, and he steps up with hope that he'll be given one. He's part of this, right: part of the base camp? "I can do invisible-ness but it doesn't last very long." That's his helping - 'short invisibleness'.

"I don't have attack-magic. I wanted to learn 'magic missile' but we haven't gotten to it," mopes the boy, who very obviously wanted to shoot magic missiles into the darkness as much as possible, but somebody was responsible and didn't teach him that.

--

The skeletons don't seem to understand or know what is being planned, but they have collapsed back further: as if it were like a hive, and as the danger apparent reduces, the defenders fold back and get more comfortable with their current situation. Within the palace, there are some beautiful aurora like lights, that move and swirl behind the icy windows, old to fade out into darkness quickly.

Sera has posed:
Distraction sounds fun.. but, "Well if you're not going to sing to the heart, then I'll have to. So, ... sneaky it is." She smiles to Daisy and accepts the comms. She places it in her ear and says, "Check check, one two, one two." With a shrug she rises back up, dusting the remnants of the route 66 pendant on to the ground.

Sera lifts an arm up and the white glow around her, her wings too draw up in to the hand. The white magic then jumps back to her glowing eyes. "Sneaky. I can do sneaky." She joins Nessa and says to the Agents of SHIELD, "You've got this, just don't get hit by one of those ice blasts."

Nessa Donovan has posed:
There might be some sense to the idea of Tristan staying behind, though Nessa is clearly not a fan. Her attention goes to May. "I told Sorcerer Vega I'd protect him, so I'm going to trust the responsibility temporarily over. Make sure he's okay?" She's also not a fan of speaking like someone's not there in front of them, so she turns to Tristan. "I've got to go see if we can find a solution, and maybe where the Sorcerer ended up, okay? I know you've got the invisibility and that's been helpful so far. It might be weird in there and I did promise to keep you safe. You stay safe, and I'll be right back." She pauses. "And I'll make sure you learn magic missile. It's my favorite." By magic missile she's going to teach him to throw snowballs. Safety first. She goes to get set up with a comm. "Never had backup I was able to call in like this. Kind of neat." She is /definitely/ not used to this sort of tactical maneuver.

She looks to Siobhan. "To be honest, I don't even know what we're gonna do in there. Investigate, see if we can take care of it, and if we can't... we get safely out." She shrugs. "Okay, better get a move on. There's /something/ in there and I don't like waiting."

Melinda May has posed:
Nessa may not be used to operating with backup, but May will concede she seems to have a good head on her shoulders. Perhaps she'll mention her to Director Palamas as a potential contact or recruit...

In the meantime, however, she looks to Tristan. "If I get one of my agents to show you our super secret command van, will you promise me you won't turn invisible and run in to help?" She beckons one her minions with a brief gesture he's more used to seeing on the training (trouncing!) mats than anywhere else. As the agent approaches, May tells Tristan. "This is Agent Marcus." She eyes the agent briefly so he gets the point she's giving him orders while talking to the kid. "He'll take you to the van and show you some of our video feeds." And if Marcus doesn't realize that 'some' does *not* mean 'the really dangerous ones', he's totally getting busted back down to Trainee. "If you see something on there, you tell him and he'll radio us and tell us. That's how you can help. Deal?"

Providing the kid agrees, Marcus the Babysitter offers his boss a quick, if sloppy, salute and leads him away, leaving the lead agents and the mages to their tasks.

"Okay," May says, finally. "Let's do this thing. C'mon Johnson."

They've got Skellies to deke out.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Poor Marcus. Babysitter duty. Daisy makes a mental note of offering the agent a drink after (non-alcoholic!) and then it's time to get to business. So her game face comes in. She gives another small test to the flamethrower and steps forward.

A nod. "Divide to conquer?" she suggests to May. "I can keep part of them separated while we handle them." because there's a reason she is called Quake!

She circles to one side, waiting for the mages to get into position and offers then a nod of assurance. "Good luck in there. And if you need us ...." she taps on the earpiece.

It was time to get serious!

She brings one of her hands up, focusing, preparing to what is to come, just the faintest of vibrations felt beneath her feet.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
Looking at the others, honestly, Siobhan is not really going to be much help in the planning phase. In a weird sort of way, she just hopes she can do something simple and see this through. She knows she can do more but...

"Well, lets go." She states simply enough, "If you think we can sneak in, we sneak in." She gestures to Nessa, "You say you've done it before than we should be able to again." She looks to Sera briefly and then looks to the two agents and nods to them, "Stay safe...don't want to hear about ya gettin' filleted on my behalf." She shakes her head.

Loki has posed:
"I meant I can turn YOU invisible briefly, but okay," Tristan says. His tone is only slightly grumpy from the sense of being misunderstood (ugh, adults never LISTEN!!), but the coax of the secret awesome van is clearly finding a good mark with the kid.

"Like secret cameras? Yeah. I want to see it. ... except I shouldn't go into a van with a stranger." Tristan somewhat puts the brakes on there, clearly torn, but not a stupid kid. "This doesn't qualify, right," he asks, with an intelligence of a kid that might one day make a good mage with good judgements.

--

The ice palace doesn't do anything yet: it might not know what's about to hit it. The skeletons are still on patrol: a count will reveal that there are five on the exterior, but they are expecting at least six, so one may have gone inside.

Quake's sudden rumble under the Ice Palace actually gets mixed results. Something fights back, and the ground moves a /lot/ more than Daisy probably anticipated. The icy ground shudders, tiny cracks appearing throughout the frozen cement around the palace. There's a pulsing quality to it that only Daisy may entirely decipher: like a warning. Daisy may have rung the doorbell a little, though the skeletons don't seem to go rushing anywhere.

"/Big monster/," Tristan says in pale horror, and decides the van is very attractive, going with Marcus without any more debate.

Sera has posed:
Sera folds her arms as she peers back at the ice palace and then her eyes widen as there's a rather unexpected earthquake. She spreads her arms out and looks around, "Are we about to start the finale of Ghostbusters or something?" The concern remains for a bit longer and then she looks back to the team, "Okay, well, if we're going to be sneaky, I like the kids idea, we should do it with style."

She smiles and begins to sing as the white light from her eyes flares brightly and Sera, Nessa and Siobhan -- vanish. Well, to everyone else but them. They have become invisible. She places a finger to her lips, as if to say shhhh, because the invisible doesn't make them silent. She motions to the entrance, and makes a hasty little hop and jog in to the palace once more...

Nessa Donovan has posed:
The sight of the cracked ice does startle her, but Nessa's not really backing down. "Good idea. The invisibility worked well before, so if there's another of those in there we should be able to move on past, provided we're quiet. Remember, if it gets bad, get out. We can come back later if we need to." As Sera signals for silence, she moves forward towards the ice palace. It's the same route she took yesterday, right in the front door, right past the skeletons, though this time she doesn't need to duck and weave to make her way in. While her attention is visibly and audibly on the world around her, she keeps her senses sharp magically, so that if there's a spike or a source or anything that they grow closer to, she'll feel it.

Melinda May has posed:
May actually looks vaguely approving as Tristan and Marcus retreat to the van. She then gives Nessa and crew a bit of a sloppy salute, herself.

She nods to Daisy's suggestion that they divide and conquer, though there may be occasion for a goodly bit of teamwork if they pay attention.

Then, of course, the palace responds to Quake's subtle vibrations and she arches a brow. "Just don't give me a sink hole to try to explain, okay?"

With that, regardless of the cracks appearing, she starts heading for the palace to draw the attention of the skeletons at the entry way Team Invisible is headed for. "Hey! Slushie! Come play." She ignites her flamethrower just enough to show the flame and feints forward, keeping an eye on her distance from them so she's not going to end up a SHIELDscicle.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"I won't but ..." And then Daisy goes silent, head canting to the side as if she was -listening- to something. "There is something under this structure." she warns. "A ..., cavern?" a frown. "Tristan mentioned the monster came from below. Perhaps it's lair is under there? Though it's empty now." how does she know that?! Maybe she is a mage too! Nah, just a Quake.

Yet as the others go invisible it's time to go. She moves shoulder to shoulder along May, also turning on her flamethrower. "I don't think they understand Common, May." nerd SHIELD agent.

One hand extends and she begins forming a vibrational blast, more a barrier really, as she attempts to separate the two from the front (and closer to them), from those that are in the back.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
A blink as she is made invisible and she looks at herself and then at the other two before looking at the others. She closes her eyes for a moment and then nods to what Nessa says, eyes reopening. She sucks in a breath for a moment and lets it out very slowly before moving with the pair toward their goal. She feels another twinge of guilt at the realization of something before just shaking her head and moving.

Loki has posed:
The skeletons orient very rapidly on May's request for them to come play. The fire is seen, most certainly, and then they execute the same thing they did when they originally double-teamed Sera: both come forward. The one towards the back stops to release a massive cone of heavy duty freezing air - directly at the back of it's cohort, who moves forwards inside the freezing cone, swinging the massing axe in a sideways arc. It's intelligent: one of them is covering the other with the big frost blast, while it closes to engage. It might seem more intelligent if this wasn't the second time they had done this combination manuever.

No harm relying on something effective, though.

The SHIELD group just have the two for now, but from the left side by some warehouse dumpsters, come two more, drawn by the fire. Seems that is something that pulls interest from the ICE creatures.

--

Those that head into the palace find a torn up room where a battle clearly took place. There is a /huge/ multi-limbed ice skeleton on the ground: four arms, multiple weapons, a mix of heads, and weird extended bone-wings. Were it standing, it would hit maybe 12-15 feet. It is on it's face on the stairs, in a crumple, an aftermath... Is it dead? There does appear to be a slowly beating icy heart inside the cavernous chest, and one of the jaws rattles.

Underfoot, the floor is transparent: it is like standing on a slick, frozen lake, where just below, weird shapes flit in the icy material. More like a pond, from the size, that covers most of the back area of the palace's main room.

To one side at the back, there's a bit of movement Siobhan may catch .... SQUIRREL! ...Maybe Tristan's, maybe not, but it is there, and not invisible. Could be what the rattle was aimed at.

Sera has posed:
Sera takes a moment to look over the creature. She is quiet though, it could just be sleeping and who wants to wake it up. Also, may be there's a cavern beneath them? who knows.. but she does know that this story of 'darkness' isn't sitting right with her, they were not acting evil in anyway, rather rational in her mind. She shrugs to the ground and starts to wander around looking for the heart of the palace. It must be near that throne people took pictures of right?.. she heads in roughly that'a'way.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
There's silence, at first. Nessa doesn't want to say anything. They're invisible and they're silent, so for the most part things shouldn't be after them. Right now, things seem a little more high-stakes than when she was here with Tristan before, so she's going to stay silent until she's certain it's at least safe to speak in low tones. "This one was what Sorcerer Vega was fighting, I couldn't find him after that. Either he fled to recover or he's still hiding somewhere, but there's no trace that I could find."

While her gaze does land on the squirrel, she's not worried about it. It's not corrupted as far as she can see, which means it could be Sorcerer Vega's or Tristan's. Likely not going to harm them, she thinks. The floor, though, she didn't get a good look at the first time. She holds up a finger in a 'humor me' sort of gesture as she tugs one of her gloves off and puts her bare hand to the ice.

Melinda May has posed:
May takes in the info Daisy gives her about the cavern. She's just not sure how to use it.

Yet.

Instead, she ducks the axe. Fast as they are, she's a trained martial artist at the top of her game (okay, okay, for her *age*, yes... she's no spring chicken any more -- but no slouch, either!). She blazes that flamethrower over the weapon's haft and head, looking to see if it melts and letting the heat from the flame mitigate the waft of cold from the edge of that icy blow.

Her eyes dart to how the skeletons move. "They're sticking to ice," she says over coms -- not that it'll affect the invisible hunters in the palace much. "They don't linger on the concrete." Daisy may appreciate that info.

She retreats, thumbing her com to the van. "Get me info on the structure underneath this neighbourhood," she tells the agents monitoring there. "Sewers, old subways, prohibition tunnels, abandoned construction, I don't care what. I want to know what subterranean access points we have."

Because if the cavern's empty, maybe they can use it against the darkness...

Daisy Johnson has posed:
With the rest of the skeletons still away means Daisy can focus on the two that are immediately a threat. She tosses herself to the opposite of May, getting out of the way of that shiny axe and focuses on running interference with the one shooting the cold blast. Cold, meet fire. She shoots the flamethrower directly ahead towards the creature in an attempt to stop or hamper it's ability to freeze them.

"Think it will work trying to affect the ice beneath them?" She also takes a small step back, to the concrete, aiming her flamethrower low to test that theory and shoot the ice directly. The one under the creature's feet.

An eye is out for those additional two approaching though. Prepared if needed be.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
Siobhan mouths out 'Holy crap' at the sight of that massive beast. She isn't sure what to think of that. Part of her isn't as surprised as she might normally be if she didn't turn into a screaming skeleton woman at times. Still, that thing is freaky. She listens to the words from Nessa and peers at her before looking around carefully to see if she can spot any signs of the sorcerer but then she blinks. She reaches out and jabs Sera and Nessa with a finger, "Hey." She whispers out and points in the direction of the squirrel. She looks at Nessa with an arched eyebrow before looking back at the thing.

Loki has posed:
Nessa places her hand to the ice. There's movement below, a darkness, something that isn't quite solid mass. Ice water, maybe. Maybe something else.

The darkness is a puddle, inky, like fog. And then a pale form floats up from below, long white hair flowing outwards away as his frozen face comes up under the surface, just under her hand. Sorceror Jianyu Vega. He moves slowly under the ice, floating from Nessa to Siobhan, drifting...

The mouth moves, soundless: 'BELOW'

Something just under the castle, something connected, grows in heartbeat, feeding on the castle's power, and the huge multi-limbed skeleton's heart starts to glow brighter. It draws massive axe in, releasing a ghastly, cold breath: aware of foes, perhaps, but blind to them for now. And still grounded. But it's just another guard. The palace itself is where the mages will sense the issue: the floor, and the lower walls. Something is taking over the palace's magic for its personal use, but doesn't yet fully have it.

--

Outside, the skeleton's weapon and grip does melt, losing one hand: it stumbles backwards after another awkward swing, towards the other one: directly into the icy cone, using that to recover, to reform a bit (though it just swaps axe to other hand), before trying again, in mostly the same way. It evades the area that Daisy is clearing of ice, coming around in an arc from the side on the fully iced ground, ground connected back to the ice of the palace. Seems the flamethrowers, used intelligently and not carelessly, can be used to sheep them around. At the very least, they are kept busy.

Sera has posed:
Sera pauses and folds her arms as she watches Nessa 'let it go' with glove off. The sorcerer under the ice has her eyes widen a touch and she ponders the nature of what she's seeing. It all feels otherworldly, but less of a game than it did before. Especially as the big guy starts to wake up. Sleeping after all, dangit.

In a hushed tone she says, "May be we don't wait around too long for it to get its senses." She points down, "Down seems to be the best direction. Let's make a hole." She lifts up her hand as it glows immensely white hot, sacrificing her invisibility she punches her super hot hand down to the icy floor, trying to penetrate through and cut a hole.

Loki has posed:
The glowing scorch of the ice is difficult: it's knitting back over just as quickly as she pierces it. But then she gets help.

From below, there's a flux of ice magic, and together with Sera, they make a brief hole, and a hand extends up, seeking aid. The mage Jianyu Vega.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
There's more than enough going on that the magic is hard to isolate. Even amplifying it with magic resonating with her own, Nessa's not entirely sure about everything. There's just a /lot/. This could require some more thought than she expected. The visage of Sorcerer Vega beneath the surface /does/ startle her, and she nearly jumps, but she's not sure of what she's seeing. It's all a bit overwhelming, and she moves her hand back to put her glove back on. Her attention turns to Sera as she blinks at her attention to the hole. When she realizes what's happening, though, she's over there in an instant to grab the extended hand to pull him up.

Over her shoulder, she looks to Siobhan. "That dead skeleton, the big one over there? It's got a beating heart. We should take it, it might help." She, however, is trying to focus on getting Jianyu out of the hole and to safety.

Melinda May has posed:
While May waits for feeback from her team, she observes the skeletons' behaviour, and the new ones approaching. Noting Daisy's success, she mimics it, dodging her erstwhile opponent and using her flamethrower to clear ice and keep the skeletons away from the entry and away from both their fellow constructs and the (hopefully!) soon-to-be-retreating inside team.

"Your egress is clear," she tells Nessa and crew over coms. "We'll keep the door open for you."

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
A blink and she shudders. <"Siobhan..."> And Siobhan looks behind her and then stops a moment and realizes she didn't hear that out loud. Her eyes closing for a moment. Then she hears it again, <"Siobhan...look at him..."> And she looks down at the Sorcerer under the ice. She shudders a bit as she looks at the man under the ice and then she looks to Nessa, "Something is wrong...he's dying...or something..." She shudders and then looks to the beating heart and then she clenches her teeth before she points at Sera and Nessa, "You saw nothing and you'd be wise to remember that...nothing...." She then turns her eyes on that skeleton and she clenches her fists.

A flash of white light flares around her and moments later what was Siobhan is something...far more befitting this environment. White hair similar to her own is the only recognizable thing. Below that is a skull. A skull face with glowing white eyes and liquid shadow flowing in the gaps. The darkness mixes with silvery tones in an odd body suit of diamond shapes across the front and swirls along the arms into a white sleeves. She glares at the thing before her and walks out, "~I'm gonna need your heart, big boy...~" Her voice is an echo of eerie Irish sound before she suddenly leaps toward the thing's chest and she slams into it. She suddenly screams up intos head and while wrenching at ribs and trying to rip free a space so she can grab that heart and pull it free.

Loki has posed:
During the brawl outside with the two (make that four, now) skeleton guards, one of them gets cut off from the others, burned onto its own island of ice. It doesn't freak out and run back, it just ... starts to topple. With the connection lost to its life source, it falls to its knees, and then collapses fully, into just so many loose, inanimate bones. The magic leaving it causes the whole of the skeleton to shrink down, to more of a 6' height, of a normal person. The axe remains, a slowly melting ice construct. It's buddies don't care, they continue to fight, though they start to use the ice-breaths more liberally, to overpower the flamethrowers. Took them a bit to learn, but they start to really focus to mute that, and advance, to re-paint their safe ground zone that was being taken away and caused them to lose one of their number.

--

Inside, between Sera and Nessa, they manage to haul the dying mage out of the icy water before it seals up. The snow-squirrel excitedly paces them. The mage seems... entirely unconscious, and freezingly cold.

Siobhan (or whatever it is she turned into) must use a lot of focused power, but is able to apply enough energy to shatter the huge magic ribs, and steal the heart before it is able to re-knit itself. The thing spasms and twists, as the beating blue, frozen heart is taken. It is a horror: three hearts mashed into one, somehow.

Sera has posed:
Sera is grateful for the help from Nessa as the yank the sorcerer out from the ice. There's something off about him though. She can't quite put her finger on it.. may be it's like she said, he's dying? ...maaay be. She squints her glowing eyes a moment and then feels his cold cheeks. "Well he doesn't seem entirely great now does he. He's going to owe me big time for this."

Her invisibility entirely shed, her wings once again leap from her back and she curls them around as she easily picks up the man. These angels are a string species, like the Asgardians but even more so. She tries to warm him up as she carries him out of the ice palace.

"Cover me, if those ice guards try and get in the way," she says to Nessa. Her eyes fall upon Siobhan and she double takes for a moment. That.. she did not see coming. She partly opens her mouth, then shuts it again guessing may be she shouldn't crack a skeleton joke right now. Or ever. She'll just have to let it go.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
"Ladies Book Club protects their own," Nessa states simply at the sight of Siobhan's transformation. She trusts her to take care of that situation, so she instead focuses on Sera and Jianyu. She doesn't bother trying to talk to him, she's well-aware he's out cold. So instead she speaks up over the comms. "Okay, we're coming out, we have the Sorceror but he needs some kind of medical attention." She's honestly not sure what to ask for there: he's an ice mage. He likely had immunity to cold as much as she did. "Uh, maybe prepare for someone who was drowning? Anyway we're going to retreat..."

So she does. With Siobhan focused on the heart and Sera taking care of Jianyu, Nessa's left to hurry through the doors and make certain that there is, indeed a path out, though she doubts it's necessary with SHIELD handling the skelebros outside. Still, she's ready in case Sera needs the help.

Melinda May has posed:
May signals to her backup as the skeletons redouble their efforts. She said she'd keep that door open for the inside team, and -- by cracky! -- she will. There's a lot of ducking, dodging, and sliding past blasts of cold air before the air crystalizes too badly around them, but the SHIELD agents on site respond.

"You might want to doubletime it, ladies. These skeletons are getting a little testy and our fuel is only going to last so long."

She exaggerates slightly... but the encouragement is real enough. Things are getting rough. Still managageable, but it's time to wrap this shoot and fall back.

"Marcus," she snaps into the coms, "make sure the kid stays put until his teacher is extracted. Get medical on site, stat." A beat. "Tristan, stay put!"

Not that she's convinced he'll listen. Someone better be smart enough to try to use a bit of IR visual to track the kid if he slips past Marcus... who better be prepared for a lot of remedial training in that case.

"Let's go, people!"

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
Leaping down with the heart in hand, she glares at Nessa with a baelful look before stepping closer and saying in that eerie, otherworldly, voice, "Ya better or I'll...." She stops and grits those teeth, "I'll..." She grinds them and then she seems to close those glowing eyes. A moment later and there's another flash and she gasps as she is able to push away the banshee and she shakes her head, "Lets just leave..." she states softly, "Before she gets an idea I don't like...again." She nods her head and walks toward the exit with the other two and gets out. Hopefully May has given them a proper exit.

Loki has posed:
SHIELD is able to hold the skeletons - well, except for the one that was inside the palace, which has now started to come up from behind, bringing the other missing one with it. They pursue the group, before getting turned away by Daisy's flame thrower closing behind them.

The party that had been in the palace clear the ice, rushing out into the clear, warm concrete of the New York July.

Sorceror Jianyu Vega reacts. He doesn't freak out, he just... just ... starts to topple. With the connection lost the palace life source, he collapses fully, into just so many loose, inanimate bones, tumbling as the magic unknits itself before their eyes.

From the side, by the SHIELD van, where the invisible boy made it out of the van but was grabbed up not long after by Agent Marcus, comes a scream of deep loss and pain, lacking in words, but manifesting in the sobbing boy, wriggling and trying to get loose to go to the pile of bone, while the squirrels run in all directions.

Sera has posed:
Sera strides out with bold confident steps, her magical glowing wings curled around her and her cargo protectively. Jianyu Vega in her arms.. until.. he's not. He's just bones. She blinks down at the ensemble of pieces and then frowns dourly and peers around at the onlookers, expecting someone to be in on this joke. Another construct, another little piece of an elaborate fairy tale for this fairy tale ice palace. She rests the bones down gently on the ground for the boy to .. I dunno.. hug? is that what one does when they have been duped.

Her wings snap away and the energy returns to her angelic sight, glowing white eyes. She looks back to Nessa with concern, not that the sorcerer apparently died, more that it wasn't him to begin with. She's only slightly amused at the game that was played today. Only slightly. Because the boy is crying, it ruins the fun of the mystery. "Some one is up to no good," she says to her fellow LBC.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
While Nessa had been double checking their path to safety, she hasn't anticipated the sudden collapse of magic. She legitimately gasps, her brow furrowed in conclusion. They couldn't possibly have been him then, could it? The second best ice mage on earth couldn't just crumble like that. But it didn't matter if it had been something fake, what mattered was that it looked real and Tristan saw it. She immediately turns her attention in his direction.

"It wasn't him," she offers quickly by way of assurance. "It was a trick, it was just some magic. The big monster in there's just trying to trick us. You know he's stronger than that, okay? You /know/ he's fine." She sounds confident, regardless of if she believes it or not herself. She doesn't need to convince herself right now.

Melinda May has posed:
When the inside team finally retreats, May calls for a general fallback of her agents as well. They retreat out of the range of the remaining monsters. She looks toward where Marcus has corralled Tristan and winces. But, as Nessa goes over to him, her shoulders relax slightly.

Shouldering her flamethrower, she heads towards Sera and Siobhan, instead, allowing Nessa the time to calm the boy while she looks for information.

"What happened in there?"

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
A look at the situation and Siobhan blinks as she watches the man fall to pieces. She stares for a long moment and then looks over at the others, "I told ye he didn't feel alive..." She states softly and then looks over at the boy and grinds her teeth a bit, "Well...dat was ill timed." She shakes her head and then listens to Nessa's talk and then she just doesn't say much further. She loks to Melinda, "Big scary monster, it dropped its heart...hearts maybe, and here that is." She holds it up, "And we foudn somethin' dat..." She looks at the bones and she shakes her haed, "WE found somthin'." She shrugs and then offers the hearts, "Who wants to take dis? I'm kinda done with my weird stuff for the day."

Loki has posed:
The boy Tristan is still crying but has stopped the wailing-in-anguish thing he was doing. He melted to sit on the ground, hugging his arms around raised knees, face buried in them. He's average in size for a kid of his age, but squeezed down like that he'll seem littler. He says something muffled into his knees that won't make sense -- but it probably doesn't need to specifically be understood (and was probably along the line of 'I dunno' anyway). He's afraid and dealing with the apparent loss.

If it was a joke, Tristan doesn't find it funny at all. Just torture. Who would do such a thing?!

Sera has posed:
Sans sorcerer, Sera feels the need to get some sort of payment. She takes the heart and says, "I know people, we'll figure this thing out." She frowns though, this is annoying and will be brought to the attention of the LBC at large. If it proves too dangerous, to the Infinity Watch.

A look to Agent May she says, "Someone is playing games with us. A fake sorcerer, a large monster, a claim of darkness yet the creatures seemed rational to me. Everything is not what it appears here and I suspect we will be back soon to take a closer look a things. Perhaps even check out below, where the joke seems to have its punchline."

Nessa Donovan has posed:
Nessa moves to stand near Tristan, though there's not much she can do in the way of comforting him. She just stands close, a physical pillar of person while he sits on the ground if he needs something to lean on. She glances towards Sera and nods at her. Someone who can safely tinker with the heart makes her feel a lot more comfortable. "You know how to contact me if you need to." Her gaze goes back to Agent May. "She's right, there's a lot more to this than I anticipated. I hope that you can try and keep the civilians out while we figure this out?" She chuckles, just slightly. "I can take a few days off from frying bacon to work on this." She steals a glance towards Tristan. "It's a project he can work on too."

Melinda May has posed:
May nods simply to Sera's succinct report. "Okay." She reaches into a pouch somewhere on her person. She passes Sera a business card. "Keep me posted. We'll help." A beat. Genuinely: "And thanks."

Who says she's not polite?

She even offers a card to Siobhan and, eventually, to Nessa as well, nodding in response to her words. "We'll keep them safe. Let me know when you're ready to go back in. I'll have backup on hand for you." Probably even some WAND operatives. She looks at the boy. "Take care of him. He doesn't need to see anything worse than today." Because even that was too much.

That done, she takes her leave of the mages and directs her team to re-establish the perimeter and to get her that survey information.

"Johnson!" she calls to Daisy, pulling her over. "Good job, today."

Ooh. Somebody just got a gold star.

"Take over this lot," she gestures to their backup, giving Daisy charge of them, "while I go deal with the brass." Palamas, Hill, and Fury will *all* want to know about this. Isn't she in for a fun time?

Welcome to SHIELD. You can sleep when you're dead.

If you're lucky.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
Siobhan, for her part, is kinda done. She's seen some things today and that's saying a lot for someone harboring a harbinger of death. She looks at the bones one more time, takes the card and then shakes her head, "Just...call me or somethin'." She looks to Nessa with a nod before just turning and walking way. Time for a shower and a nice long nap.