3393/Ice Palace: Let Her Go

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Ice Palace: Let Her Go
Date of Scene: 16 September 2020
Location: Farmstead in Crosswicks, NY
Synopsis: The team works to finally defeat the necromancer... he looks tasty, after all.
Cast of Characters: Loki, Sera, Clint Barton, Melinda May, Siobhan Smythe, Nessa Donovan, Levian, Lucifer




Loki has posed:
The chickens, wild ones with brown feathers, looked dubiously at the various groups that pulled up. Only when directly approached do they scatter: and not very far. This is their place, and they are used to humans. Maybe not this MANY humans and things, though.

The WAND team brought the young lady, Kaylee Motts, in a strong set of wards and careful transport, to this farmhouse in Crosswicks. The team consists of four WAND agents, that are cautious and dutiful as they arrange her in the master bedroom of the farmhouse. That leaves the other rooms for the others to discuss, plan, and set up, and to decide where the ritual best should be done, while the girl herself is carefully monitored and guarded. She is still in a slumber, but it has never been easy to maintain, and the WAND agents take turns with making sure she's kept out. For now.

Reference books and crates of supplies were set in the main room just outside of the kitchen; various metal and plastic tubs containing the items requested to be brought over.

Outside, wards exist, in a plentiful way, though whether they are suitable to contain what may happen? Unknown.

Sera has posed:
Sera is being sensible for a change. The story has revealed itself, the joy of the ice palace and Frozen songs has been sapped away like the energy from Tristan. Now all that remains is serious Sera, the Sera she tries to keep hidden away. The Sera that topples Queens and Kings alike in other timelines. The Sera she fears the most. What harm can she do here on Earth though?

She has with her a special chalk she made, crushed in to it leaves from a necromantic plant left in her care by Dr. Strange. He came over one night looking like death and puked up the thing. It quivers constantly and she likes the aesthetic so she keeps it in her basement where she does her magic. Its necromantic power though is something she needed for the ritual Nessa and she found in Lucifers books.

She looks around the living room and says, "This has the space, it'll do." She pushes furniture out of the way and begins drawing with the chalk on the floor boards. In the middle shall be Kaylee and the geometric structure for this one is a triangle. As she draws, at each vertex there is a circle for the heart, and a larger circle touching the circumference for the mage.

Clint Barton has posed:
Agents are agents, regardless of designation, when all is said and done. Particularly when guarding someone at a safe house. Boredom reigns supreme. Card games, stories that always start as 'no sh*t, there I was'; and the only real difference? One has to do with things that go 'bump' in the night, and others?

Clint's also more than familiar with 'bump in the night' sorts. Even if it's not what he'd been trained for, it's what he's been dealt. Again.

So for the moment? The archer has his equipment out and to the side, and he's sitting backwards on a wooden chair, watching the commotion. He's the 'hired help', as it were. What he can do against, well...

Okay, the potential is high that it's Loki. And there isn't a damned thing anyone can do to keep Clint away from evening up the score, as it were.

Melinda May has posed:
May has, for the moment, stepped out onto the porch. She watches the chickens for a moment and finds her fingers itching for something to do. She takes out her phone and thumbs through a couple of messages before shoving it back in her pocket. The WAND agents are better at guarding the girl than she can be. And the mages are doing their setup thing, so...

Ugh. She hates feeling superfluous. It makes her grumpy.

Grumpier than usual, that is.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
While Siobhan might be magic, she isn't a magic user. She's just here. Well, sorta. She's here to help but she's also not going to be any help till the fireworks start. She's still annoyed and upset with what Lucifer did. It's bothered her since it happened. She had even debated not showing up. However, she wanted to see this through. Now she stands in the hallway, leaning against the wall with one earbud in her left ear, listening to music as she waits for those with the skills to do what needs to be done. She's here to fight. To contain. To...end this. How it ends, she isn't sure but part of her worries.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
It's an unusually sobering situation. With the danger of a necromancer getting out and doing who knows what (certainly one without the respect for the lives of others), and the life of a young girl on the line, Nessa's certainly taken this seriously. Any snappy retorts are sort of on the backburner to instead keeping things from blowing up in their faces. Maybe literally.

Assisting Sera in the shoving of furniture, Nessa's certainly doing her best to make sure the whole area is prepped properly. "I've got a couple of backup plans if things go tits up, but we'll see how things go. If we need much more help with information on rituals I can text Lucifer."

Levian has posed:
Levian's been tracking Nessa for a while today, as he wanted to find her just to see if he could ask a random question. But then he started smelling strange things the closer he got, things that smell //dangerous//.

But he can't put his finger on it. Perhaps something instinctive deep within his infernal psyche.

Perhaps she's in danger. If he's going to be like those demons who have those odd pacts with other demons, perhaps he should see if she //is// in danger.

Either way, he's been running very quickly along the roads on all fours, about as fast as a four-legged animal as he contorts his limbs a little unnaturally, tracking her scent until he suddenly loses it.

What just happened?

All he sees is a farmhouse, so he goes running toward that instead.

And then suddenly slams directly into the wall of wards, instantly setting them off due to being a //literal demon//.

He rolls around on the ground, holding his face as his minor wounds slowly heal. But his nose hurts the worst, mostly because of the impact. "Wards..." he groans, then hisses a bit like a cat, staring off at a stray chicken wandering around.

Loki has posed:
The stray chicken looks dubiously at Levian. It fluffs its wings a little, and then tottles on through the ward area as if rubbing it in that it, in fact, can just pass right through.

Cluck cluck.

--

Upstairs, Kaylee seems to still be contained; there are no updates from the magi keeping tabs on her. Now and then, the necromancer HAS made trouble, but for now things are quiet...

... /inside/. Outside? The wards are screaming that there is a tresspasser, and that perhaps they'll want to deal with it. Is it a distraction, to let the necromancer loose?!

Sera has posed:
Sera spares a glance toward Clint and the other agents. Eh, they're not her problem and they're not getting in the way of her setting things up either. "I really hope things don't go tits up Nessa. We're already out on a limb here. Do we have a good plan to ward the people against further possession if we do get Vega out of Kaylee?." There's more of a smile toward May though, that was someone she respected now. She even turned up to Lucifer's weird sex palace for the LBC meeting.

Sera approachs Siobhan and offers her a piece of paper, on it is an angelic symbol. "It's a fairly straight forward ritual, we're going to use the ice hearts we gathered to draw Vega out of Kaylee."

She then hands Sio an ice heart, "You will step in to the big circle at one of the corners of the triangle, place the ice heart in the small circle, then stare at this symbol and concentrate on it. This will allow the three of us to coordinate our magical energy in to the ritual. This will consume the ice heart, so don't worry if you see it shrivel or evaporate or something."

Sera approaches Nessa and hands her a similar piece of paper just in case she needs it, as well as an ice heart from their collection of three. She takes a moment to breath and tilts her head looking to Nessa, "Whatever happens, this'll be interesting."

Her eyes suddenly glow with magical energy as she looks around, she can never tell how startled people will get when they see she isn't just a human after all; large glowing magic wings erupt from her back and she stretches them out before abruptly tucking them against her back.

To Nessa and Siobhan she asks, "Does that all make sense?" Then the wards alight and her eyes widen, "A demon. Did Lucifer send backup?" She holds out her hand and a glowing white sword of magic appears and she strides toward the front door.

Melinda May has posed:
May's phone lands on the cushion of the porch swing and her ICER comes into her hand in almost the same moment, her movement smooth and fluid. She trains the weapon on the man who is repelled by some sort of arcane power. "Intruder!" she snaps, loud enough to be heard in the house, though her voice is clearly heard by the agents upstairs guarding the girl because of the radio in her ear. "Barton, show time." Not that he needs to be told. He's already moving, which she fully expected. "Moritz, keep your squad with the girl."

She glances over her shoulder to Sera as she approaches the door with that glowing sword, but her attention is mainly on Levian. "Keep prepping that ritual. We'll shout if we need you," she tells the angel. "Cover me, Barton."

Then, brazenly, she's down the front stairs, ICER trained on Levian, calling out to him. "Stop right where you are or we will open fire."

She knows Hawkeye will have her back, even if he's not immediately obvious to anyone else in the yard.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
A blink as she is handed the symbol and the heart. She looks down at the heart and then up at Sera. She listens to her and nods her head, "Makes sense." She states simply enough and then looks over toward the room. As she does, a whisper comes into her mind from far away.

<~Ye heard him...you know what ye need to do, Siobhan.~>

She grits her teeth lightly and then looks to Sera, "I'll be ready." She then starts toward the door to prepare to get into position when everyone goes on alert. She looks in the direction everyone else is. She listens and watches and then she hears May calling out. She frowns a little. She isn't ready to get her game face on but she's worried she might need to already. Is this Loki? Someone else?

Nessa Donovan has posed:
The ice mage is nodding along with Sera's explanations as they set up the ritual's foundations. At the mention of protecting others from being possessed? "I mean, I have a backup plan to try and keep Vega distracted and occupied if we can't just destroy him as soon as he gets out, but it's not one I'd exactly like to go for because--" But Nessa doesn't get to finish her sentence as the wards go off. "I'm not expecting him to send backup..." She states, moving towards the front door to go investigate, her phone already in hand to send a text to Lucifer just in case. May's warning is heard, but she wants to at least take a quick peek before they go back to handling things.

Once she's gotten far enough outside of the farmhouse to see what's going on, she looks up from her phone to take a quick glance. "Is that..." She blinks a few time. "Oh, you've got to be shitting me."

Clint Barton has posed:
Of course the moment May moves, Clint more feels her movement than even hears or sees. He's grabbing his bow, setting a point where he's got a full-on shot, should it be called; and May's the one calling the shot. The senior agent may have an ICER, a less than lethal weapon, but Hawkeye?

He plays for keeps. This is not a mission where he's in any way, shape or form amused. Magic bugs him, and it sets him on edge. Clint's entire manner? Just give him a reason to shoot. Just one.

Levian has posed:
Levian slowly stands, shifting his nose back into place. He squints, his third eye opening, but he //still// can't seem to sense through the wards. "I can't see what you are, but I smelled that woman around here, and I smelled //dangerous things//. Are you eating her? If you're eating her I'll probably kill you."

He doesn't move, recognizing the danger of the gun. He remembers what he's supposed to do here.

He holds his hands up. "Are you some kind of demon? I can't smell you through the wards." he asks Melinda. "If you are, I'm //definitely// going to eat you if you've eaten that girl with the good soul."

Loki has posed:
"Inquiring minds are curious - and therefore /inquiring/ -- I don't see any receptacle in your ritual here. No container for this awful and corrupt human soul. Are you intending to just infuse him into the universe? Perhaps a chicken from outside?" Loki's amused tone is thoughtfully bored, mostly subtle. He chose a distinct time when all the agents all ran outside to make the inquiry of Siobhan. He chose one of the pieces of furniture Sera moved not long before to appear on: to drape on a couch. He's not dressed in a modern style, but neither is he in war garb. This is more 'elegant asgardian mage chic', leather and magical runes.

Loki's eyes move to Sera, then, and he lifts a dark brow, including her in his question, with just that.

Sera has posed:
Sera pauses on her way to the door when May takes the lead and Clint jumps in. "Huh," she says and the sword disappears. "May be it is a good idea to have SHIELD types around when doing magic then." She shrugs to Siobhan and her eyes suddenly refocus from Sio to the couch and she gets that sinking feeling in her stomach, that the magic games on this planet are far more devious than she keeps expecting.

"You look a lot less Fox than I remember," she says to Loki as she eyes that Asgardian adornment. Ah, the brotherly connection to Thor is a thing after all. "We're planning on destroying him utterly," she replies still having no real reason to distrust him besides everyone she knows saying she should and also he hurt Tristan.. okay may be there's a few reasons he shouldn't be trusted. "You're shorter than I expected."

Melinda May has posed:
May listens to Levian's... babble? "What am I?" She snirks. "I'm a fucking SHIELD agent, that's what I am. And if you come any closer without identifying yourself I am going to knock your ass clear the hell back to New York."

Apparently, despite the fact she's using a non-lethal weapon (for the moment), she's just as grumpy as Barton about this whole magic show.

Girl with the good soul? What the hell is this guy on about?

Oh, and Loki is *so* lucky Levian's distracted both Barton and May. Seriously.

Clint Barton has posed:
"Call the shot, May..." is murmured. "Got it... don't need another one of those things walkin' around.." Clint is NOT in a good mood, thank you. Nothing better than running perimeter with a bunch of magical types.

And Loki? Oh... it really is a good thing Hawkeye isn't paying attention to what is going on IN the house at the moment. Those WAND agents better damned well be doing their job and watching their six.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
A look over to Nessa and she wonders what exactly is going on outside. She can't see what they are doing or what is happening and she debates going to look. Then she's distracted as someone appears on the couch and her eyes go wide. Almost immediately her entire being changes. Her eyes glowing, her face a skull with her hair still intact. Her jaw a shadowy black. The designs whipping over her body and sealing her in darkness and bone. She glares at Loki.

"~What are ye doin' here?!~" She grits her teeth against the shadow of her jaw. Her right hand holding the heart as her left hand clenches, nearly stepping toward the Asgardian, "~Do ye seek trouble?~" As for how they plan to deal with the soul? She has an idea but doesn't want to and doesn't want to answer either. She's not looking forward to it even as the being that lives within this form dances at the edges of her senses. A step closer to the 'right' path, as far as the Banshee is concerned.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
Nessa is thankfully unaware of the presence of Loki inside, mostly because Levian's a distraction. "The hell are /you/ doing here?" Her gaze snaps over to May, certainly not looking pleased, but she's got sort of a resigned look to her expression. There's a quick message to inform Lucifer tapped out on her phone before she glances back between Levian and May. "He might be helpful but I do not trust him at all. He's got some kind of soul contract magic stuff, though. He was going to be a backup if shit hit the fan."

She looks at May with a very serious expression. "If he does anything wrong at all, feel free to shoot him." She looks back towards Levian and calls in his direction. "If you're here to help, you can help but I swear if you do anything wrong that's it. I don't have the patience."

Levian has posed:
"My name is Levian, 999th Son of some demon lord I never met. I'm not here to hurt anyone, if that woman is alright. I tracked her scent here, I know there are non-humans around here. So, I'll ask you again... are you eating her?" Levian asks, as if //that's// the most likely thing that could be happening.

Earth still doesn't make a lot of sense to him.

He stares at Clint wordlessly for a long moment, like an expressionless dog who has no idea what's going on.

But then Nessa makes her presence known, and his eyes widen a bit in recognition. "You're here, they aren't eating you. I came to rescue you, I smelled you mixed up with dangerous scents. But I guess you're alive." He pauses for a moment, then says, "Okay. I'll help. Is this the thing with the girl?"

Then, looking to Melinda, and back to Nessa. "And is she a demon?"

Loki has posed:
Loki smiles serenely back at Sera, even into the insult the attempts to toss. "Most are short while reclining. But I see you intend to /wound/ with your words. I'm in a merciful mood, though, but I suggest not pushing your luck," Loki says, overly saccharine. His tone could cause cavities.

Loki looks steadily at Siobhan's new face, his smile growing. How fun. "No, only here to jumpstart your process. I sense you think you can do it on your own, though. That this is a piece of cake?" Loki draws his hand out and forward, a shudder of magic starting to grow in the center of their diagram. A moment later, Kaylee's body falls into the middle of the circle, toppling to the floor, and moaning a little, starting to wake. "Get on with eating your slice, then," Loki offers, fading into invisibility.

Maybe gone, maybe not.

WAND agents immediately communicate about their missing girl in the bedroom, amidst the snickers of Loki.

Sera has posed:
The little smirk on Sera's lips suggests she is used to being so cavalier with her insults around Thor, but apparently his brother Loki doesn't share the same level of candor. She glances over her shoulder with her glowing eyes, having heard he was a master of illusion magic. You should always check your six around those types.

"Jumpstart it?," she asks and her question is answered as Loki starts to power up the ritual. The angelic symbols she drew begin to glow brightly. "Oh nonono," she says hastily as Kaylee floats in to the center of it and starts to awaken, "NESSA! GET HERE NOW WE HAVE TO START!."

Sera motions to Sio and says, "Never mind Loki for now this has to be happen right away." She points to one of the circles, "You there, follow the instructions." She yells out again, "NESSA IT'S STARTING!!" She half stumbles over herself to get the third heart in hand and grab the scroll she made with the ritual instructions on it for herself. She steps in to the first vertex and places her heart down in the smaller circle.

Melinda May has posed:
The *only* thing that keeps May from telling Hawkeye to take the shot is that Nessa has vaguely -- *very vaguely! -- vouched for this countless son of a demon whomever-he-is. And she has absolutely no problem with the idea of shooting him if he gets out of hand. "You hear that, Barton?" she asks. "If this guy steps a foot out of line, pin that foot to the floorboards." Translation: He can take that shot at will, if it comes to it.

She lowers her ICER slowly. She doesn't, however, order anyone to drop the wards long enough for DemonBoy to pass. If the mages choose to do that, that's their business. If her WAND agents do, she's busting them down to probie. Instantly.

But, of course, Moritz and the WAND agents are entirely distracted by a suddenly missing semi-comatos teenager.

May's hand comes up to the radio on her ear. "What do you *mean* she disappeared?"

She doesn't spare another breath. Let Nessa handle DemonBoy, now. She seems only marginally friendlier to him than May is anyway. And Barton *will* take that shot, if he thinks he needs to. So... it's covered.

Thus, she's pelting back into the house to try to ascertain just what the hell's going on. Just in time to see the body sink to the floor.

"She's here," she growls to (not *at*) Moritz. "She's on the main floor. Get down here."

And then there are footsteps on the stairs charging down.

Loki should be having a blast. Chaos reigns.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
A blink at Loki's reaction and then she suddenly scrunches up her nose in anger, her eyes focusing on him. A part of her wants desperately to unleash a full throated hello to Loki only for him to call in the girl and then vanish. She glares where he was as he vanishes and then blinks at Sera. She quickly rushes over to her spot but doesn't change back. It's too late to calm down or try to focus. Besides, she might be more powerful in magic this way? She's really not clear on the whole thing to be honest. She puts the ice heart as she was told and then she holds up her symbol and looks to Sera.

Her eyes go to the girl and even as she does a voice softly calls out.

<~He wants it, Siobhan. It's ours...soon, Siobhan. Soon.~>

A part of her shudderes at that and she shakes her haed and looks at the symbol. She has to concentrate on it. Concentrate like she was told. This has to work and then we figure it out from there. Right?

Nessa Donovan has posed:
Nessa's alerted to the sound of her name, so she's got little time to really react to Levian. He doesn't get an answer--she's goint to trust SHIELD to handle him if he's a problem. Instead, she hurries back inside. There's a lot more on her mind than a meddlesome demon. She re-enters the house, moving over towards her corner of the chalk drawing for the ritual.

Moving to put the ice heart in the designated location and glancing at her paper, she does her best to push everything else out for the moment to perform the ritual. Hopefully Levian will have some sense not to interrupt.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint nods and grunts an answer, and if he wasn't happy before.. demons? Like, seriously. Demons? Aliens, fine. Magic, sure. Mutants, absolutely. Having grown up in the heartlands of America, the archer isn't religious, but Iowa is a 'God fearin' spot.. and demons aren't categorized as 'nice'.

Lowering his bow, Clint grunts and turns around to make his way back into the house, just in time to see...

*THWACK*

In the span of a heartbeat, Clint's nocked and loosed an arrow at the locaton where Loki had been and started his fadeout. The arrow lands exactly where the Asgardian's throat would have been, and the couch is a pincushion.

"Loki!!" Clint yells at the air.. and he look back at May, his features turning from grumpy to pissed off. "I gotta check on Kaylee.."

Levian has posed:
Levian sees Nessa head back inside, then the others head inside too, and he looks around. "Okay." he says, and then starts running before he slams into the ward again, and hits the ground.

Loki has posed:
"Excluded, hm?" Loki asks, loosely from nearby where Levian is stuck. Was that a chicken? Did the chicken just asks Levian that? Maybe that's how earth chickens work. There /are/ some in Hell that speak. They also have teeth and have eggs that explode, but.

"Tell you what. I'll let you in, if you give that archer a big kiss," offers the chicken. "Optionally a lick is all right. Deeeeeeal?~~"

--

Inside, Kaylee has landed in the middle of the circle of magic, and has started to sit up, and snarl; necromantic energy, a thick purple and musky green, has grown around her fingers and seeps out of her jaw with her exhale. "You will not trap me again, fools. WHERE IS HE?" Kaylee-posssessed thing might ALSO not be okay with Loki.

Sera has posed:
Sera's wings spread out and her entire body glows white with magical energy. She holds up the piece of paper that she carefully translated from Lucifer's book, to Heven Enochian, then to Hevenly Music. She begins to sing a song never before heard on this planet, this solar system, this entire realm. Three translations away from its source, but it will still do its job.

The triangular lines begin to wiggle like an audial visualiser as she sings. The focii of the symbol allows their magics to amplify the ritual, all the lines shimmer and wiggle about wildly at the vast and unexpected amounts of energy the Banshee brings to the table, combined with the journeywoman ice mage and the alien angelic sorceress.

The circles containing the hearts erupt in a bright white light, acting as the anchors to latch on to Vega. The harmonics of the triangle all focus upon Kaylee's body and the twin souls housed within. Sera can only hope now that Nessa and Siobhan don't get distracted and their spell faulters.

Levian has posed:
"I don't want to give the impression that I want to eat him. I mean, humans, I think that's a human, humans look appetizing I //guess//, but I'm not really into it." Levian answers as he stares at the chicken, sniffing at it. "So I'll do the kiss."

"Are you a parrot? I heard that parrots can talk. I won't eat you, since you're doing me a favor." Then, looking over in the direction where the ward presumably is, he says, "I will feast on your species, but I will spare anyone who seems to be in your immediate bloodline. Do we have a deal, Parrot?"

Loki has posed:
The 'parrot' moves to rub out some of the defensive ward designs out of the earth, seeming to accept the terms. It clarifies with a, "Deal." Before doing a little hop and vanishing again in a thread of illusory magic.

Melinda May has posed:
May lays her hand on Clint's shoulder after that arrow is fired. "She's here," the field leader tells him, gesturing with her chin to where the girl now lays in the center of the ritual circle. "And we're not going to find Loki, if he doesn't want to be found." Her expression darkens. "Trust me. I've *tried*."

Then, of course, the girl starts doing the possessed-by-a-pissed-off-necromancer thing and May's ICER comes back up. The whole reason she's got the ICER in the first palce, instead of the M-1911 tucked into another holster on her torso, is so she can possibly put the girl down without killing her if things go badly. So, now that barrel is pointed at the girl, instead. She'll fire the moment she thinks the kid is beyond the mages' control. Whether that's true or not.

"Secure the perimeter," she tells Moritz and crew. "And keep your eye on that damned intruder out there." The guy that couldn't get through the wards.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
For the moment, at least, Siobhan is focused. The Banshee wants it that way. She wants this to work. Wants the soul to get ripped up, pulled out, beaten and made weak. She wants this so badly. Siobhan just wants this to be over. She focuses on her part of the spell, not at all sure what to do. She stares down at her symbol, looking only briefly past it toward what is happening as she concentrates, hoping that what she is doing is right.

She's no wizard. No powerful spell caster. She's just a girl who was given magic. Now, she hopes her strange abilities are enough to make her useful here.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
"Really, is the insulting really necessary?" Nessa snaps in the direction of the possessed Kaylee. She might be a little short on temper, mostly because the presence of Loki being somewhere seems to be setting everyone off. She's focusing, though, so Vega doesn't get a real answer. She doesn't know where Vega is anyway, so that covers it. Instead, she's busy with her own magic. She's worked too hard to get to this point for any meddling to get in her way.

There is a part in the back of her head, however, that sort of wants to see Loki get ambushed by Vega.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint looks back at May, that //look// on his face, the anger, disappointment and the 'something else' that lingers. There's no forgiving and the fact that his chance is missed? There's a sharp exhale as he nods, the bow set down, but it's ready to come up at a second's notice, literally.

Kaylee, the main reason why they're here, looks to appear in the circle. Clint stares at the now seemingly possessed girl for a long few heartbeats, and shakes his head. A step is taken backwards to pull the arrow from the couch, but blue eyes don't leave the girl now.

"Okay, plans now?" He's so.. not magical. By any stretch of the imagination. "In English."

Levian has posed:
Levian smiles, then veeery carefully walks past the ward this time.

He knows better.

When he doesn't get repelled, he continues walking, his third eye open, then he steps back and hisses. "An angel."

But Nessa is in there, and needs help, and if he is going to form this demon pact where no one has anything to gain from it, he has to go in there.

When he steps into the farmhouse, he eventually spots Kaylee, staring at her.

He waits a long moment while all the chaos is going on, and then says, "Definitely possessed."

Loki has posed:
The ritual may have been forced into high gear, but that may be a benefit here. Vega, the spirit inside Kaylee, may not have had much of any time to prepare himself, or to begin to weave enough magic to actually spit any pea soup.

Outside, those with their eyes facing out will identify that there are some eerie skeleton-animals digging themselves out of the back yard. But they mill around near the wards, like an eerie clump.

Vega-Kaylee twists and rages, trying to leap out of the circle, but threads collapse hard around Kaylee, driving the girl's body to the floor, as the thick mass of the other soul is physically starting to yank out, bursting out of her chest and abdomen like a ghostly, a snarling thorny chestburster. Still, it has claws into Kaylee, though, so severing that will be necessary, to avoid damage to the scared but brave, fluttery little yellowy butterfly that is Kaylee's soul.

Kaylee does have her own magic, though, under it all: she might be able to rally, to brought to help as well, perhaps. Her light isn't out, she's a young fighter, just suppressed.

There is also a sound of a car outside, on top of everything else -- that veers around a SHIELD van and runs over the skeleton creatures. Then pauses there, while Nessa's phone chimes. She did call in somebody, after all, before everything went pear-shaped.

Sera has posed:
Sera starts to get concerned as the hearts begin to burn up but Vega hasn't come out yet. She sings louder, 'cause that always helps.. not. She has faith in the spell Lucifer helped them find.. faith because he is the oddest ruler of a domain she has ever encountered, even though he doesn't rule at all and just hangs out in a night club partying with demons. Apparently.

Her fears are unjustified though as the last ounces of the hearts burn away and Vega is effectively out. Still clinging on to that body. But out. The lines of the triangle sizzle intensely at Vega's attempts to cross them. Sera's eyes smouldering with angelic power eye him holding on tight. Now she holds up her hand and sings and her sword reappears.

She wants him to see it coming knowing he cannot dodge unless he lets go.. she knows he won't, it's his best hope of surviving this. The sword erupts in to flame as she continues to sing. Those who fought in the last battle of the ice palace have seen that before.. but her song changes again, it has rather sinister darkened tones as the flames turn pitch black, a fire so intense they can burn a soul.

Sera has never used this song before because testing it would require burning a soul and that's just not okay most of the time. She steps forward and makes a swinging cut through those claws to release him from Kaylee, then stabs the sword directly in to Vega's ghostly heart.

The sword whoomphfs against his necromantic power. He has the condensed mass of so much soul magic that the sword hits in to it like piercing armour, digging in just a little, just the tip of the sword burning at his soul, wounding him greatly, but Sera's inexperience with this particular song has failed to end the necromancer.

With a necrotic fuelled ghostly back hand, Sera is tossed back against the wall of the farm house, cracking the wood and plaster where she hits. Sera stumbles a moment, shaking her head as her contribution to the magic holding Vega there is lost, leaving it on Nessa and Siobhan, unless Kaylee helps.

Melinda May has posed:
"May, we have incoming!" That's Moritz's voice over the radio. "A vehicle has reached the perimeter. It's just outside the wards."

"On my way," May says shortly. There is nothing she can do here, in this house. So, she steps back to the door, swapping her ICER for that M-1911.

She is at the door when the car comes to a stop. Her gun is raised as she begins to approach. Then, she recognizes the driver. "Lucifer."

A beat.

Her nostrils flare. She sets her jaw. "Let him through. He can help."

The gun lowers.

Clint Barton has posed:
So wrong, and Clint simply can't watch it. No one gives the archer an explanation, so he's back and away, keeping an eye out for things he can actually do something about.

Like that car careening around the SHIELD vans, running over--

Clint has his bow up and arrows are picking off the skeletons that aren't rammed by the car. As the car comes to its halt, however, Clint is out and on the farmhouse porch, bow up and calling a challenge.

"Close enough."

It's the basic 'stand down' order that May gives over the archer's shoulder, then, that gives Clint some breathing room, as it were. "Great," is murmured to the other agent. "Lucifer?" He actually twists around to look at May's eyes. "Just.." there's that moment where he's about to ask something and looks to think better of it.

"No. Nevermind." A pause is given before, "Why the hell not, right?"

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
Concentrating, Siobhan watches as things start to happen. Then they start to get more serious. She watches the soul go out of the body and that's, well, distracting. It's distracting for a number of reasons really and then the pacing predator strikes. It's a brief moment where time stands still. Everything goes still. Siobhan finds herself standing in the room as everyone else, everything else is still.

Sera is still in the air, having been thrown back by the ghostly hand. Her body arcing toward the wall, the spirit of Vega out of the body of Kaylee and unattached. Freshly cut free.

Nessa is still working to help to push this spell to happen. Outside, Melinda is on the radio to talk about the vehicle. Clint with his bow up. Levian coming in to watch the madness. And Siobhan? She's just standing there in her Banshee form.

<~Look at it, Siobhan.~>

Siobhan looks over to her right and standing there is a form of herself. The hair is all the way down to this being's lower back. It's body more ethereal. Floating there above the ground with fingers like claws, teeth like daggers, and eyes like burning embers of bright light. It stares at Siobhan and leans in to her. Hugging to her, wrapping around her and Siobhan finds she can't stop it. A shudder runs through her as the thing floats behind her, arms around her like a loving mother. A comforting horror that wishes nothing more than to push her 'child' into becoming something she's not. It whispers.

<~Look at it.~> The ghostly, clawed and crooked hand points at the soul of Vega, <~Ye know what to do, girl.~> She puts that hideous maw right next to Siobhan's ear, <~Say his name...whisper it in a scream. You'll feel the pull. Feel it as ye do. It's so simple. So perfect. It's your purpose, girl...now clean up dis mess.~>

And then suddenly Siobhan is floating above Vega, her ghostly form's arms outstretched. Time is moving again, her eyes are glowing brightly and where she was standing is nothing but a dark billowing shadow even as she whispers out, "~Vega...~" And around that whisper, a horrifying scream. Both are perfectly audible and yet one is as silent as a whispering wind and the other is louder than a jet engine. Everyone in the room can hear it. Everyone within a mile can hear the scream.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
Is this the part where everything's hitting the fan? Cause it feels like it. While the necromancer is released from Kaylee and Sera's done a good blow to try and stop things, this was the vaguest part of the plan and a lot of it is left up to chance. Nessa's eyes go wide as Sera's sent flying, but it draws her attention in Levian's direction as she spots him again. "/That/," she gestures towards Vega. She's not entirely sure what sort of abilities he has other than vague mentions of 'fire' and 'soul contracts', but she's giving him the opportunity to try something if he thinks he can.

There's no real chance she has to touch her phone, so that gets ignored in the face of figuring out what she can do in particular. Her first instinct is go go for Kaylee, to physically wrench her away and try to send a blast of energy at the necromancer to aid in that endevour. She grabs for Kaylee in an attempt to pull her out of things and use her body to sort of shelter her from... whatever. She's not sure what's happening at this point. Because /screaming/ is going on.

Levian has posed:
Levian looks back at the sound of the car, and suddenly hisses as his hair stands up for a brief few seconds. "I hate it."

And then Sera is... //doing a lot//, and he backs up from her, shielding his eyes, hissing louder. "//I hate it//." Looking over at May, he warns, "The thing outside is dangerous, don't try to kill it."

Though she quickly learns what/who it is anyway.

He tries to keep his third eye open though, staring at the necromancer. He attempts to speak while continuing to shield his eyes with one hand, squinting. "You're going to Hell, are you sure you wanna go to Hell unprepared?"

He doesn't know that he's a backup, but might as well lay the groundwork, just in case.

"Do you know what they do to necromancers in Hell? It's kind of funny actually..."

He licks his lips, like someone practically salivating. "I can make Hell easier for you. That angel might just erase your soul. Do you want that?"

Standing up straighter once Sera gets thrown back, he's a little more comfortable.

A little.

"The thing is, there's a lot of weird things here. Outside. //That thing//." He points to Siobhan. "Me."

"Something here is going to eat you, but you could make a deal with me, to save yourself from oblivion."

He hlds his hand out, a fancy brown parchment contract suddenly forming from flames, with red glowing writing readabble in everyone's native tongue. "If you sign the contract, I will ascend you to a greater form of existence, thus saving you from Hell."

And then the //scream// starts, and he immediately covers his ears, wincing, especially given his far above human senses. "But you don't have to, I'm sure you can protect yourself from //that//."

He walks over to take a seat on a dusty chair after tossing the contract into the circle, then looks at the small table next to him, reaching over to lightly tap the reading lamp with one finger. "Lamp."

Loki has posed:
Outside...

From the sleek black 2021 Stingray, comes a new arrival, spotted by the SHIELD agents. Said new arrival has caused Loki to ALSO appear on the porch of the farmhouse, in a flux of magic; he isn't right next to Clint, there's a bit of space, but probably not as much as Clint wants. Loki entirely ignores Clint and May for the moment (because bah, humans). The grass of the farmhouse shudders with Loki's illusions, churning, dizzying. Loki's helmet materializes in a glossy flow of magic, as he postures on the porch, like a deity standing on the threshold of his palace, looking down upon... something he isn't sure about yet. But his body language is tight, hands twisting into tight fists. The scream inside does cause a flinch. Things are getting out of hand.
---

Inside....

Vega focused heavily on Sera, leaving himself more open, to make a defense out of just a really nasty offense, shifting to try to finish Sera off with a horrid, powerful blast. "I'm not going any---" but the scream is drowning him out entirely, and he can't ignore Siobhan's scream at this point, trying to fight. "Join /ME/," the necromancer barters with Levian, extending claws his way. Or tried to - it's really LOUD, and he's disoriented by the assault....

Kaylee's body is drawn back by Nessa to the side of the circle, and she weakly apologizes, "I'm sorry...."

Melinda May has posed:
May glances over to Clint as he reacts to the name. "Yeah," she grunts. "Tell me about it." Been there. Got that t-shirt. Uses it as a dish rag. "If we survive this? SWORDFISH."

It's in glancing to Clint, however, that May realizes Loki is there. She spins towards him, her gun coming up sharply. "Loki! You are under arrest!" Because, damn it, they don't need him now.

Clint Barton has posed:
"I'm putting in for a tra-" He doesn't get to finish the sentence, however, as a new figure just.. materializes beside him.

Clint looks suprised to see Loki just appear, and it's pure training that has the man moving at the same time that May is bringing up her gun. He's got a better idea:

He doesn't move, he doesn't have to, as he pulls an arrow from his quiver, and in a quick, fluid motion, moves to slam the tip of the arrow into Loki's midsection. (Not his eye!) It's a spider-silk arrow; microfilaments with a sticky-substance that is made to hold, well, most things. (It hadn't been tested on the Hulk, but rumors were such that it might be successful!).

"Sonuva .."

And the screams? It's going to be really, really hard to sleep tonight, or for the next month.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
It's basically death. The call of death that is issuing from Siobhan and after a moment, it stops only for Siobhan to land beside Vega's soul and she reaches out with her very being for him, "~Ye're weak, Vega.~" She grins that horrible toothy smile and opens her mouth wide, "~And ye're miiiiiinnnne~" She pulls at him as she screams out that last word into another scream that begins to issue forth, even now he fights her though. Pulling away, trying to reach out for the demon to join him. Even as she pulls, her eyes dance up to Levian, eying him briefly before she looks back at her prey.

<~Yes, girl...do it! Pull him in!~> And then laughter fills Siobhan's mind as she feels like she's riding some kind of glorious drug trip.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
Nessa shakes her head, doing her best to put herself bodily between Kaylee and the rest of the room, even if it does mean it's harder for her to keep an eye on the action. "You're fine, don't apologize. You'll be back to hang out with Tristan in no time," she encourages, a glance spared over her shoulder. "But don't watch. I don't know what's going to happen."

In fact, she can only hope that Levian's not going to just jump sides all of a sudden. As a preventative measure, she forms a small wall of ice to serve as cover from any physical backlash that may occur. Siobhan's got something going on, and she's not sure it's wise to interfere in... any of that.

Levian has posed:
"You're only a human, you're afraid of death, that's why you're a necromancer. A necromancer doesn't have anything to offer me, I specialize in fire magic and cannot die of old age, but I guess you have too much hubris to accept my deal. That's a fair decision." Levian grabs the lamp, carefully deconstructing the top part.

He's seen //these// in Hell at least.

Then he reaches into his pocket for a pack of matches, striking them against his pants to light it.

"I'm going to help them burn your soul into oblivion then." He looks over at Nessa, and says, "Don't worry, the girl won't be harmed. Earth fire as I use it cannot harm humans whose souls are still pure."

"But //you// are a necromancer. I am going to set your soul on fire, it's going to hurt. Your soul is corrupt, it is food. I don't need help from hotdogs, whatever those are."

He drops the matches into the oil lamp, which causes it to suddenly ignite. But instead of fire getting everywhere, Levian starts to move his hands and fingers in complex motions, forming magical seals out of lines of flame in the air, saying some infernal magical words under his breath.

Crafting magic out of Earth's fire is something he's recently learned to do, but has taken to it quite quickly. It's a bit different from working with the fire he can actually summon within himself, but an oil lamp has more than enough for the purposes of this spell, hopefully.

He thrusts his hand out, causing chains of flames to reach out from the magic seals and start trying to wrap around the limbs of the necromancer's soul, fully intending to set his soul ablaze.

This isn't enough fire to truly send him to oblivion, an oil lamp isn't enough material for //that//. But he attempts to restrain, and more importantly, //make him suffer and burn//.

He has no idea what this necromancer has actually done, but people are saying he can make someone suffer and somehow it isn't a bad thing, so...

Yeah, having one's soul burned, it's probably worse than even having a fire under your own skin.

Levian looks over at Nessa and smiles a rather sincere and friendly smile as he attempts to burn someone's very soul.

He's //helping//!

See???

Loki has posed:
Loki rolls his eyes /so hard/ at May's statement, only to have Clint slamming a weird sticky-arrow into him and messing up his clothing AND his posturing. "/Really/?!" Loki hisses out in a snarl at Clint, flexing towards him with a lashing backhand, --but there's little force in it, because of all the sticky awful YUCK hat Barton just dared spray all over him. His eyes catch down to the car again.

Besides --- Loki's not stupid. The game inside the farmhouse isn't /worth/ it. Vega's soul isn't worth it.

Loki's expression shifts to one akin to a teenager told he's grounded unfairly. Pissed off, insolance, but giving way. Loki flits backwards, shifting his shape, into a smaller black bird - shedding the sticky crap ... sort of. Some of it is still stuck. But Loki is clinging to his dignified retreat, backed off to the rail at the far end of the porch, and then disappears.

--

Vega is now not only suffering the strike of Sera's sword, but now he is ALSO on fire, his body churning with the unexpected pain and shock of being BETRAYED by the demon he expected to be on HIS side against angels and so forth -- and suddenly he is a lot more exposed than he expected to be. He collapses partially, frothing, in agony. A tasty hot-dog treat for Siobhan, now, perhaps. And Sera is there to batter him from the other side with a return of her songs, no less....!

Kaylee hides her face with Nessa, trying to just endure it, with a dismayed sound, huddled there in protection, too weak to offer much assistance at all - she's just trying to stay conscious.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer has made the porch now, bright and sunny and smiling with curiosity and interest. Such screaming seems to hardly weather his exterior at all. "Hi," Lucifer says simply to May and Clint, and then stares more seriously at the end of the porch where Loki was. It's a long stare.

"Going to stay?" Lucifer asks, in a low tone, at 'no one'.

A few moments later, Lucifer seems satisfied. "I thought not." He smiles, and looks back to Clint and May. "My apologies, invisible mages, and all. Wonderful to see you again, Agent," he greets May. "Sounds like things are well underway."

Melinda May has posed:
Before Lucifer stares Loki down, May is firing her gun over that railing into his retreating feathered form. Yes, she misses. But it's not because of lack of skill on her part. It's just because mages are tricksy bastards -- especially Asgardian mages.

She lowers her gun only when Lucifer indicates the self-proclaimed god is truly gone.

She looks like she's just swallowed something disgusting, but says nothing. At least, not to Loki.

Her tone is flat when she addresses Lucifer. "You could have stopped him, couldn't you?" It's not really a question. But her surface calm, especially in the wake of all the screaming inside and the Asgardian's escape outside, is a clear testament to just how well the woman is able to control her anger. "If you're going to help them," she suggests, "you'd better get in there."

Because she doesn't like him very much, right now, either.

Clint Barton has posed:
Still, a Loki backhand, even with less oomph snaps the man's head back, bloodying his lip. He's not flung off his feet, though; luckily. It's Loki that gives way, however, and when the Asgardian shifts into bird form, Clint's got his bow up and to form, arrow nocked and loosed, again as he disappears from view. The arrow continues past and *thooks* into a tree beyond, and the archer is left feeling .. unfulfilled.

The approach of this Lucifer, however, gains Hawkeye's attention, and he first lowers his bow before looking to wipe the blood from his lip. Of course he looks at his hand once, twice, before he exhales in a sigh. He's had just about enough here...

"Go," Clint echoes, "So we can all go home."

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
Then it happens. The necromancer's soul is on fire, burning and weakened by all of the things attacking him. Everything happening has him beaten down and weak. And then he begins to contort, pull and yank toward Siobhan. His very form pulling back into Siobhan's body and wrenching into her. It's like what one might expect if one were able to see something being pulled into a blackhole. He stretches, elongates, and then he is simply pulled into her. Finally. The noise stops.

At least for a moment. As the fire, the necromancer, and the glow all vanish, Siobhan begins to laugh. Laugh slowly at first and then louder and faster as she hugs herself, "~He's gone.~" She looks up at Nessa with that wild grin, "~He struggled so...fought and then gone.~" She then starts laughing more and then turns her gaze over toward Levian and then Sera and then Nessa before she starts laughing louder and it sounds...well, insane.

Levian has posed:
"I was going to eat that." Levian states with a frown.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
Nessa meets the look from Levian with a very uncomfortable and skeptical look. He's helping, but it doesn't change the fact that she is so not comfortable being near anything burning. The ice wall that serves as a shield, at least, is there to prevent any of the heat from getting to her. Half her attention is on Kaylee to ensure she's okay, the other half is making sure nothing heads their direction.

Watching Sio, though, she's got some concern. Nessa slowly gets back to her feet, glancing over at Siobhan in a serious tone. "Good," she agrees. "That's enough." It's her way of trying to get her to pull herself together. A firm tone. She doesn't move from where Kaylee is, sort of still a protective stance there.

Lucifer has posed:
"I /did/," Lucifer answers, a sort of kind quality in Lucifer's tone, as he answers May. Could have stopped him, and did. Not from leaving, necessarily, but from something else?

Lucifer's eyes then directly move to the inside, sensing the shift, and he heads in swiftly (likely with the agents), taking in the mess of ritual and various people and insanity. He moves towards Sera and Nessa first, squatting next to Nessa in her defense of Kaylee, to check on them. Kaylee has passed out, but is breathing. It does, though, look like the fight is over.

Melinda May has posed:
Now that the screaming is done and Loki is gone? May needs to make sure this is over before they can go anywhere. She glances to Clint, then follows the Lucifer inside. Notably, her gun is still in her hands; it's just not raised to fire.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint lowers his bow and when May looks to him, he simply nods his head once before turning and following everyone in. This? This is going to be one hell of a debrief where he'll end up sitting sullenly on the couch, arms crossed in front of him and sit and stare. Later.

Now? Inside the house, well.. it looks like it's been through the ringer more than once. As does those within.

"Oh hey," is a falsely cheery voice that rises, "Good guys win it?"

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
A look up at Levian and Siobhan glares, "~Ye wish to join him?!~" And then she glares at Nessa as well. She stares at her, twitching and clenching her fists slowly and opening them the same as she starts toward Nessa and growls out, "~Ye dare...to tell me what is and isn't enough?~" She stands taller and that voice. It doesn't sound quite like Siobhan's. She then twitches and shakes her had.

"~No...~" She whispers and then slowly the skull begins to fade and the face begins to reform. After a few more moments, Siobhan is stumbling back, holding her head and falling to the floor. She lands firmly on her ass and stares into the floor for a moment even as her mouth, her jaw slowly opens and closes. One hand planted on the floor to support her and the other moving slowly to her head.

Levian has posed:
Levian suddenly drops down to one knee, head bowed down. "My Prince. King?"

He's heard conflicting lore.

"I am helping the woman with the good soul. I failed to consume the necromancer's soul, but I managed to make him suffer horribly before his ultimate consumption by that creature." He points to Siobhan.

"I was originally only looking for her to ask what shawarma is, and then I suspected that she'd been captured and eaten by demons, so I came here to save her." he thoroughly explains as if giving a report to a superior.

"But I have to go fulfill a contract that I made with the talking parrot outside. Please excuse me and don't burn my soul into oblivion, my Lord."

He looks to Siobhan, shaking his head. "I don't think I'm supposed to fight you."

Then, finally, he stands, and heads over to Clint. "Excuse me, but I made a deal with a parrot in order to get through the ward. I have to fulfill my end of the bargain, as I never break a contact." Then he suddenly leans in, attempting to kiss Clinton directly on the lips.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
While Nessa's not exectly sure what she's facing down, she stands firmly and doesn't back down. When Siobhan's face seems to return to normal and she collapses to the floor, she moves forward, tugging her gloves back on. She doesn't trust herself even in the midst of this. "You alright?" She puts a gloved hand on Siobhan in an attempt to assist. Given that Lucifer's next to Kaylee, she figures the girl's fine.

Lucifer has posed:
Lucifer does listen to the report with a natural acceptance of the whole situation while checking Kaylee: that demons reporting to him like that is, at least, not out of the ordinary. Maybe entirely /normal/, by the sort of glance he gives Levian and then sighs a little bit with a brief nod, accepting the narration. "Seems you succeeded at saving her." Amused.

The 'deal' with a parrot doesn't make sense, but the result is clearly DELIGHTFUL, and Lucifer has to turn to see how that particular item ends up. He is, at the moment, entertained by Levian; a good choice to keep him around, it seems...

Melinda May has posed:
Satisfied that this thing is as over as it's going to get, May touches the radio at her ear. "Moritz, clean it up. I think we're done here."

She turns back to the scene just as Levian approaches Clint. Her gun comes back up because Clint is her agent and damned if anyone who was just talking about eating a man's soul is getting a hand on him. "Step. Back."

Seems she doesn't share Lucifer's sense of humour.

Siobhan Smythe has posed:
Standing up and pushing away from Nessa, Siobhan eyes her and then looks over at Levian and Lucifer before shaking her head, "I'm going home." She states simply enough and then just walks. She doesn't really change, or ask for help, or ask for a ride or frankly anything. She instead just starts walking, right for the exit of this place and for the path home. Her eyes looking down as she walks and her hands at her side.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint, too, is singularly unamused regarding 'pranks' done by demons that had, yes, just been discussing the eating of souls. Pushing away from Levian's immediate area, he's got his bow up and ready, his expression deadly serious. "Don't come near me again."

Blue eyes flicker towards May, and he's serving as double duty; keeping his field leader safe. Demon!

Maybe later, at the bar, over a few drinks... but not right now.

Instead? Clint circles around, coming back to where May is and nods at her. "Let's get out of here." Sounds like a good plan!

Levian has posed:
"I have to fulfill my deal eventually." Levian states, but backs down for now, heading over to Nessa and crouching down next to her leg, hands nearly flat in between his feet. It'd be almost Spider-Man-like if he didn't give off the vague air of a loyal hound. "It's been a stressful day. We should eat Slim Jims. A teenager gave me one the other day. I thought humans eating humans was wrong, but perhaps Slim Jims are a religious exception? Anyway, it didn't taste bad, though humans probably have better food than that."

Nessa Donovan has posed:
Nessa gives a nod of appreciation towards May and Clint as she watches Siobhan leave. "I'm sure she'll be fine," she says, uncertain. Levian creeping closer gets him a bit of a look. "Right. Uh, thanks." Her gaze goes back to Lucifer with sort of a 'oh god why is he talking to me' look before she moves back to Kaylee to help her.

While SHIELD can take care of the necessary cleanup, she's going to make sure Kaylee gets returned somewhere safe. She's got some kids to reunite.