3613/Follow the White Rabbit

Follow the White Rabbit
Date of Scene:	28 September 2020
Location:	Ice Palace
Synopsis:	With a Loki sighting at the reconstruction of the ice palace, SHIELD agents and magic users alike converge to get dragged by dogs and chase rabbits.
Cast of Characters:	Nessa Donovan, Loki, Sera, Melinda May, Clint Barton, John Constantine

---

Nessa Donovan has posed:
In the past, Nessa's used a group text to contact some of her allies who have helped in the past for the whole ordeal with the ice palace. It's usually been reserved for coordination and information sharing. Today, it's something different.

<liii ill parade>

It looks like a combination of gibberish and autocorrect. A textual equivalent of a butt dial?

Loki has posed:
An hour ago, one of the friendly ice mages, the kid, Tristan - showed up and began to do a little fixing on the collapsed, melted Ice Palace. Immediately word was passed along through a SHIELD agent that was monitoring the site, that this was going on. It did seem entirely harmless, but the update was there.

A little bit later, Nessa Donovan showed up to the site, and one of the agents observed her chatting with the boy, before suddenly an explosive burst of ice and sleet churned into the area, spikes of ice and magic going off in a strange flux. When the snow cleared, a massive fox-beast, nearly a wolf, was there guarding the spot. It's very big, with white and gray coloring, and icicles along the back spine and tail in strong blue tone. A long, high howl is strange, eerie, howling icy wind.

Sera has posed:
"Liii ill parade.. para-de? I don't know how that is pronounced." Sera does a quick internet search, "Ah, /par-aid/. Liii ill /par-aid/. Nope, that doesn't help. Hey I wonder if Nessa wants to go to Asgard too." She puts her phone away and heads down in to her basement to continue working on the harmonic detectors. One is jiggling. One is jiggling a lot.

"Well hello there, is this just a mistake or are you finally doing the thing I designed you to do." She sings softly to it and it shakes wildly and evaporates. "Whoa."

Texting back to the group, <"Hey my experimental magic detector just destroyed itself, any one seen any wild magic going on anywhere lately? probably close-ish to New York?."> It's a long shot but you never know. She puts her jacket on and heads up to the top floor of her brownstone, opens the window, then takes flight. She bets if Nessa was anywhere, she'd probably be working on that new Ice Palace. After her chat with Thor about Loki and Nessa, she has much to discuss with her icy cold friend.

Melinda May has posed:
It's no secret among the agents that have been assigned to monitor the Ice Palace that Agent May has left specific instructions where the kid Tristan is concerned. If he starts turning up at locales linked to Vega, she needs to be notified. What most of them haven't figured out is that it's not so much that she considers him a threat... it's because she has a soft spot for the kid.

When the word comes through to her that the kid's been sighted at the Ice Palace, she doesn't hesitate. She drops pretty much everything and heads for the armoury and requisitions. Because she knows there's no way that kid is near that Ice Palace right now. As she leaves ops, she happens upon Hawkeye. "Barton," she calls to him. Then, three words. "Ice Palace. Loki."

That ought to be enough to clue him in.

Thus, it's not very long before the pair of SHIELD agents are arriving on site to see the giant wolf and the recreated Ice Palace -- such as it is. And, yes. Both of them have brought special toys to deal with whatever they expect it is they may find.

As she exits her SUV and gears up from the equipment tossed into the back, she calls over to Bob. "Lock down the perimeter. Additional reinforcements are inbound. Nothing in, nothing out without my say-so."

A beat. She glances to Clint. "Ready?"

Like she has to ask.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye.

One of two top SHIELD agents that are going after a god, and they are completely and totally human. Unaugmented. Relying solely on training, wit, and their loadout on hand. For May, that may be many, many things. For Clint?

The man brings a bow to a tank fight, so why wouldn't he do that now?

Passing May in the corridors, Clint spins around, heads to his stash and quickly and methodically pulls his gear for the mission, mumbling under his breath for the entire time. He honestly has a sensoe of humor, really... and the last time he smiled when he saw Loki?

Too long ago, even if it wasn't.

Clint, too, hops out the passenger side door of the SUV, and pulls his own stuff.. quiver, bow, holdouts on the leg holsters. He's dressed in his black fatigues, and while it's not 'snow gear', he really doesn't care. Really. He's not up for hiding in a nest. Not this time.

Blue eyes look at May, meeting her own almond brown, "Yeah.."

Like she has to ask.

John Constantine has posed:
John stares at the wolf from a relatively safe distance. Most humans would refrain from making such pointed eye contact with the beast. John doesn't seem to care. He's just... standing off about fifteen yards away. Smoking and staring at the strange guardian that has posted itself outside the ice palace.

How the magus with the mouth knew to be there, or even that 'something' was happening 'there', is anyone's guess. But there he is, inevitable as a bad penny and ignoring the cold wind tugging at his tousled blonde hair and worn old tan overcoat.

John turns halfway to look over his shoulder when May and Clint roll up. Even without official markings he seems to twig to their identity fairly quickly. "Bout bloody time you showed up," he chivvies the duo. "Constabulary's always a day late and a few pence short."

Nessa Donovan has posed:
Whatever's going on, there's still messages coming through on Nessa's phone. Group text pings, then pings again. The third text takes a while to come, but eventually it does.

<have im s@3#@>

<hodngg>

<ice>

Loki has posed:
The wolf stares at John, with beautiful crystal blue eyes. It is not, however, truly 'alive': the gaze is dead, as if the creature lacked a soul for those eyes to truly project. It lowers its head, and begins to slowly sniff around in a circle, ears perking, trying to track the sounds nearby. It is more focused on something within the palace than without, but it certainly is not /ignoring/ the threats nearby.

Still, it perks a little, growls softly, and steers around down some melted stairs, quiet in the snow, hunting.

"Clear to use lethal force on ... magic wolves?" Agent Bob asks May. He assumes yes, but this place is nuts. "Or squirrels?" They could be dangerous too.

Sera has posed:
Sera feels the puzzing of the phone as she glides over the beautiful city of New York. Her home. She pulls the phone out and peers at the garbled messages. She quickly types a reply <R U drnk?> ..Ice though, well, her hunch was right at least. She flies across to Queens and with a twirl she lands stylishly before the Ice Palace and her eyes affix on the beast. "Huh."

And there's SHIELD again. "Huh." She types on to her phone <WHRE R U??> she's so good at this texting thing now.. not. She glances side long toward John as her eyes begin to glow white with her angelic magics. She's still a little drained from the large ritual she just performed and still quite achy from the strike the empowered necromancer gave her, or more specifically the wall she hit because of it.

Sometimes she wishes Angela were around. She's great at punching wolves. She crouches down slowly and with her free hand picks up a bunch of gravel and dirt and ice chips, she's been thinking about the way Loki moved around in that farmhouse. Illusions are a powerful weapon. "Nessa.. are you here?, it is I, Sera of Heven." She can feel the tenseness in the air, her wings glow brighter with magical energy.

Melinda May has posed:
May glances briefly to Constantine. She remembers him from the planning meeting in Sera's basement. Remembers his mouth. Her expression is flat and her attention lingers on Constantine for pretty much zero seconds thereafter. Until he has something helpful to say, he's background noise.

"If they attack us, yes," May tells Bob. "There are friendlies in there. Let's not hit them."

As Sera lands, she glances to the angel. "Donovan is in there," she tells her, answering that question. "My agents saw her. What am I looking at?" Because, no, she's not going to just charge in. "I think I'm looking at a construct created by Loki. Is that what I'm looking at?"

Clint Barton has posed:
Hawkeye is all business as he pulls his quiver on, and he sideeyes at John, as of yet unintroduced, "Yeah, sorry. Haven't mastered teleportation yet," is groused before he gives the man a 'whoever the hell you are' look after. Though, given the events of the last couple of days? 'Hell' should probably be used sparingly.

It's a quick recon with practiced and experienced eyes, checking for placement of SHIELDies and others that may or may not be part of the solution. The bow is still collapsed and set in its holster beside the arrows, and he's ready to move.

"Yes." Notice Clint doesn't defer to May on this one, regardless of what she says. "Anything that looks like Loki? Pretend you're gonna take him into custody, then shoot him in the eye." He pauses, glances at their Field Leader and offers, "By accident. Paperwork's not that bad. Really." He's done it. Many times. There's a quick, tightlipped smile given for May, coupled with a shrug.

Sera's presence, well... his first experience with her was with those demons. Jury's still out.

It's that movement, though.. movement always catches the archer's eye. Now, he pulls his bow from its spot, "Did I happen to mention that I really hate this guy?"

John Constantine has posed:
John looks up, squinting, at Sera's arrival. "Oh hey, it's the angel bird with the wings," he remarks, bemused. "Nice timing luv, seems it's all about to just pop right off."

The magus looks at May and Clint, then at Sera, then at May and Clint. "Oh! Okay, you're not going to ask the expert," he informs them. "Blimey, some stone bollocks you lot 've got." He looks to Sera, then gestures with an overblowm grandiosity. "Well, educate the lovely duo here, luv," he suggests to her. "I'm breathless with anticipation."

John stoops and picks up a stick, and throws it in a lazy arc near the wolf's location. Just to prompt any doggo instincts it might have. "Doesn't look like it'll play fetch. Probably one of Loki's ploys, then."

John turns, puts fingers on his lips suddenly. "Oh sorry, didn't mean to overstep."

Nessa Donovan has posed:
If Nessa's there, there's no verbal confirmation to her presence. Perhaps she heard, if she's there, or perhaps she didn't. Another text pops up, but it's the same nonsense. Perhaps her phone's broken.

<hrre hodong hylp>

Loki has posed:
No, wolf doesn't play fetch, but does growl at the stick. It then orients a little more, and moves across the front area - towards where Agent Bob reported the original activity, back towards a colored lump of black fabric on the ground. It looks like a pack or backpack of some type. It bites and shakes the pack: and things go everywhere! Some objects like notebooks, pens, a few other small objects that are hard to see from a distance. Still, those that know Nessa's pack may recognize it.

The wolf shoves and moves the bag and contents around with nose and paw, then begins to search again, back to the same stairs, as if it were unwilling to give up on that spot. It prowls more, then begins to dig, hard, at the side of the snow, sending up large sheets of icy ground with heavy paws.

Sera has posed:
Sera says, "Who's Donovan? oh.. OH. Nessa Donovan. I forgot she has two names," Sera remarks and then frowns, "Loki? Hm. Oh yes, listen to John, he drinks and he knows things, Agent May." She looks over to him with a bit of a shrug. SHIELD was helpful at the ritual, sort of, but she's still not sure about them. They like to horde knowledge. There's that Barton fellow again with the bow.

She speaks a little louder assuming he's watching, listening, "Loki, your brother would like a word with you." She looks at the new texts and squints her eyes and murmurs, "...Here ...Hiding ...Help." She puts her phone away and sings out gently and her clothing shimmers away revealing her Elysium armour in golds and silvers. Her free hand extends and a glowing white lasso made of magic appears. She begins to twirl it slowly.

"Just a friendly talk, wants to discuss things with you before he talks to your father Odin about what you've been up to," she calls out in to the air, "which is only going to become a more awkward conversation the longer you put it off." Her eyes glance around the area, up at the tops of the buildings, then back to the wolf sniffing at the ground.

"Come with me and I'll guarantee you passage to your brother and presumably Asgard. Offer stands regardless of how things play out," That'll likely annoy the SHIELDies a little, but she doesn't owe any allegiances to them - yet. She paid her debt to them in information. It's Thor she wants to settle her debts with right now. Those pained expressions Thor gets on his face every time he talks about Loki fuels her desire to be helpful right now.

The lasso is not for Loki though, she moves suddenly and tosses it to the wolf trying to catch it by the neck. That thing needs to be on a leash before it finds and whatever it's looking for. Soulless ice construct wolves are concerning for everyone."

Melinda May has posed:
"If you have something helpful to add," May tells Constantine, more prompted by Sera's half-hearted vouchsafe of him than his own words, "I'm all ears. Otherwise, yeah. I'll listen to the people I actually know." Her respect for Sera was forged in battle. She may not understand the angel, nor even think the winged woman is all that sane, but at least she knows the woman mostly shoot straight with her.

May doubts any magic user shoots straight with anyone. Particularly not 'muggles', as some of her WAND colleagues are fond of saying.

"Donovan is in there. She needs help. We're moving in. So tell us what we need to know."

Or get out of her way.

Sera has posed:
Sera says to the gathered group, "I've been getting weird texts from Nessa. I've decoded the latest one. She says 'here, hiding, help'."

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint looks back at Constantine, the limey so identified by speech, and brows rise, ending with a shrug. "Loki's in there, someone else is in there that needs to be helped out. There's a magic ice castle here, and things are screwy. Pretty much it?" He nods; the guy is someone that he'd probably have a beer with. Later.

Now?

He's got a score to settle with the brother of a teammate of his.

Clint gestures to Sera and the announcement of the phone message. "See? Got it."

Aaand, there's a white wolf that is made of something, or could be Loki. Who knows?

For his part, however, Clint does defer to May, even as he's getting a bead on possible entrances to the thing, other than the front entrance, as it were. "Lemme know how you want to approach."

Loki has posed:
The wolf glanced back, because, well, Sera was approaching and there's a lot of magic flaring all around related to her. It isn't blind! It pauses in digging, flinching out of the way, but the lasso was flung too quickly for it to entirely dodge, and it slides down the wolf's body... but catches on the huge tail, due to it being raised aggressively whilst digging!

The wolf growls and leaps backward and aside up the stairs, in a huge lunge of motion. The wolf is /big/ and strong, and he may well drag Sera for a ride!

The palace itself has tons of entrances. It's basically like a set for a movie: just the front, the facade, is functional, and most of the rest of the 'palace' is a melted shell of nothing and rough terrain. All of the activity has been in the front stair area, though.

John Constantine has posed:
The word 'drink' jogs Constantine's scotch-reflex and he digs a flask out of his pocket. Clint's 'summary' prompts an eyeroll from Constantine as the SHIELD agent cuts to the simple elements of the situation at hand. "See, like the lass said. I drink, and I know things," John concurs. The flask's hoisted in gratitude for Sera's vouchsafe before he throws back a slug, recaps it, and stows it away.

Once Sera's started wrangling the wolf-construct John digs a beaten brass icon out of his pocket. It looks very old and well-worn. The magus presses it into the flesh of the back of his hand, hard enough to leave red welts and draw a little blood up from weather-scarred flesh.

"Dikhee nahin de rahahai," he intones. The ward is held up in front of him and he proceeds boldly towards the wolf as Sera starts doing her rodeo impression. Once she's drawn it away from where it was digging, John squats down near the hole and examines it. The magus utters another mumbled incantation and holds a hand over the pit. Earth and ice churn as whatever was buried starts unearthing itself in response to John's will.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
There's another text coming from Nessa, and though it's an actual word, it's questionable as to what it means and Sera may not even have the chance to peek at it.

<Smile>

As John investigates the place the wolf was digging, the magic working the ground away, there's a high-pitched squeal. A bundle of fur comes flying out of where the hole was, followed by more. Half a dozen rabbits scamper in different directions in a wild attempt to flee.

All that's left in the pit John dug out is a dirty cellphone, screen still on.

Loki has posed:
Agent Bob moves into action, and pulls his weapon to send a few shots off at a magical, horrifyingly scary rabbit that starts to come towards his area, and talks into his radio to be sure to keep all magic critters inside the Ice Palace zone!

Sera has posed:
Sera grins triumphantly as she captures wolf butt. Though that momentary look of victory is lost when the wolf jumps and bounds for the stairs yanking her suddenly in that direction. "Gyah!." ~ding~ goes her phone. She hasn't the time or mental space to deal with that at the moment. "Chill fido chill!," she exclaims as she slamps in to the Ice Palace wall and half drags up the stairs.

"What the heck do they feed these things. Ooof's, massive," she says as she tumbles up the stairs. She tries to dig her feet in to the icy floor to slow it down but is dragged up down the corridor on her boots, dancing to stay balanced. "Now is not the time to force me to remember how to do ice magic Loki!," she said with agitation.

What she needs is an anchor. She can make one maybe with a bit of fire and a bit of ice, but she didn't practice any ice magic recently, that was Nessa's job! But... ahah.. a silly idea comes to her. They're up a floor. As the wolf drags her around a corner and she slams in to another wall with another OOof, she stuffs her dirt in to her pocket for layer safe keeping and her free hand, she sings and summons her flaming sword.

As the wolf runs down the corridor and she slides awkwardly after it, she points ahead of the wolf to melt away the floor with a blast directed from the sword tip, hoping to have the wolf fall through the floor and dangle in air while she braces her feet on the other side of the hole.

Melinda May has posed:
May looks to Barton, now. She doesn't need to say anything. Both agents know they're moving in and they're going to do whatever damage they can. The mages can sling their spells and ride their wild constructs. The agents? They're trained to move in tandem and to approach their search methodically, efficiently, and -- quite frankly -- quickly. Thus, she has a scanner in one hand and a pistol designed to handle icy monsters in the other.

The scanner, of course, is there to trace Nessa's cell. When she gets a fix on her, that's when she'll say something to Barton... in the form of a head gesture to indicate the way they're headed to rescue the missing Ice Queen.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint's done here, and when the look from May comes, there's a returned one, complete with the gesture of acknowledgment in the form of a shake of his bow-hand to extend his bow completely. It's strung, and the first steps are taken towards the palace itself. The wild dog ride is a distraction, and there's no room for that in his world. Not at work.

It's a slow jog towards the ice palace there, and he's got an earpiece in to listen to May's coordination to lock own coordinates within. Time to go in, and in he does, sweeping, and if need be? Clearing.

It's show time.

"Loki," is muttered, "I'm comin' for you, buddy."

John Constantine has posed:
John sits back quickly when the rabbit warren explodes upwards. A warding flicker of energy coruscates in front of him but it's dismissed just as readily when the mystical lagomorphs bound out of range. "Bloody hell," John mutters, and roots around in the dirt. A cell phone's retrieved and he scrambles to his feet in an aborted attempt to catch one rabbit in particular.

"Bollocks!" John curses explosively and takes a few abortive strides towards one of the rabbits. "Get back here you little shite!" One in particular has his attention and John digs through his jacket pockets, trying to find some geegaw or tool that'll allow him to capture the fast-moving animal as it makes a break for it.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
With the cellphone recovered by John, May's scanner would indicate that it is indeed the mage's phone that was in the rabbit den.

As the rabbits scatter in an attempt to get away from whatever might be menacing them, one of the rabbits isn't quick enough. Agent Bob's sharpshooting defensive skills nails it squarely in the side, prompting it to poof in a small smattering of snow and ice. At least it's not threatening to attack the poor agent now!

The rest of the rabbits are doing their best to find cover, they move away from the direction of Agent Bob and his gunshots, but they break out in different directions. They do seem to be aware that the wolf is still somewhere, so they all seem a bit panicked in their flight. The rabbit John's chasing darts towards May and Clint in a desperate hop.

Loki has posed:
The remains of the ice palace is ... meager. Saying there is an 'upper floor' and 'corridors' is a kind way to say a collapsed mess of ice. Still, holes can be made, and the wolf sees Sera making a big hole in front of him ...

    ...And jumps it.

However, Sera expected a lot of stress on the lasso, and there still is, as the wolf lands and scrambles and throws it's weight forward, trying to pull HER forwards into the hole. It's a tug of war, of strength and mass, but Sera may win just in that the construct is trying to pull from tail.

A beat later, Sera does win: the tail shears off the icy wolf construct and comes flying like a big ice knife at her. The wolf goes tumbling in a howling froth of confusion, falling out a different hole on its face and foreleg, landing near where Clint is; the agents are going to be between it and the other rabbity activity - for now.

Sera has posed:
Sera probably should have thought of it taking a leap like that. As she falls in to the hole, she braces her feet against the hole wall, which is a bit melty still. She and the wolf get in to that tug of war and she grimaces, pulling at her magical lasso, "Get.. back..here..fido!"

~crack~ the tail breaks off and launches at her at high speed. She ducks and it embeds in to the icy wall behind her. Slowly, she turns her head to look at it, her eyes wide with concern and her heart racing. A few bats of her eyelashes later she lets out a breath she didn't realise she was holding and the lasso evaporates in to tiny dots of light like dust.

Sera pats down her cheek, her shoulder, her chest.. that was incredibly close. She pops back up out of the hole and peers at the mess of rabbits, agents and tailless wolf. "Okay, you know what, this is fine. Everything is fine," she says as she hoists up her flaming sword and it starts to burn hotter again like she had it when fighting the skeletons. "It's just a bit of magic and ice," she murmurs and pulls out her phone, "Smile? What?" Her eyes narrow and she puts her phone away, "Real funny Loki." With a running start she leaps at the wolf again, this time with sword on high.

Melinda May has posed:
So, the phone scanner's a bust. May doesn't waste breath on swearing. She and Clint have one goal, really. Find Loki and capture him. Secondarily? Rescue Nessa. It's not that May doesn't want to see Nessa safe. It's that she's already figured out that Sera is running point on that part of the plan. Well, that, and she reasons fairly understandably that stopping Loki means saving *everyone*.

Thus, she figures the rabbit the Brit is chasing is either Loki or it's Nessa. Because that wolf is likely whomever the rabbit is not. So, she crouches down and reaches out to snag that rabbit as it comes by, figuring Clint might shoot it if she misses.

If he came to the same conclusion.

Clint Barton has posed:
See, Clint doesn't think the wolf was Loki. Maybe at the immediate appearance, but that had been dispelled almost immediately afterwards.

The noise above them, the dog and angel thing there, gains a quick glance 'ceilingward' without breaking advance. He's done this way too many times- not 'this', this, but.. this.

It's when the white wolf thing //drops// right in front of them that the speed of the archer can truly be tracked. "Ahead," is announced at the same time an arrow is pulled, nocked and loosed at the head of the animal.

"If it's you? Good bye. I'll do the paperwork later," is murmured.

John Constantine has posed:
John comes up short before he runs right into Melinda, but quite close to her nonetheless. Arms pinwheel for balance. "Mm, not just a pretty face, are you?" he says rather rhetorically. Hands are extended to take the rabbit from May. "Give us the bunny, love," he bids May. "There's an enchantment on it and I'd bet the farm that this is our Ness under some kind of hex."

A beat later he holds up the cell phone with Nessa's last texts on it. Covered in dirt, to boot. "Found this in the warren. Probably not a coincidence, aye?"

Nessa Donovan has posed:
There's a bit of a scramble. The one rabbit, chased by John in the direction of May, almost skids to a halt when it sees the wolf on the far side. It almost panics and moves away, but then just abruptly jumps in May's direction, allowing her to scoop the creature up without difficulty. It's certainly a safer location than down where the wolf might be able to get it. The rabbit certainly feels like a real one, warm and fuzzy and with a racing heart from being chased.

The rest of the rabbits are certainly still rabbit-like. One finds another spot to try and hide, another's also hopping in the vague direction of the agents and John, another hopping towards Sera, and the last one seems to have realized the wolf's there and is high-tailing it to the exit.

Loki has posed:
While Sera is recovering and patting herself, and checking her phone for social media, the wolf-fox was starting to try to get up-- and immediately got an arrow right in the left eye! The eye breaks in a puff of icy magic and crystal, as the creature bucks and spasms.

It suddenly begins to shrink, changing in size, as ice and parts of it's magical pelt begin to fall away, like layers of a Russian Doll. Enough layers drop to where the arrow pulls out of the cheek, leaving a smaller fox-like predator. But all of that takes some time, which is more than enough for a flame sword to come out, Sera to lunge, and likely more arrows.

Sadly, it doesn't /seem/ like Loki. It would have monologued.

Agent Bob doesn't take a shot though, he's got bunnies to shoot, like that one by the EXIT. He's a good shot, actually, and another one explodes in icy fluff that was veering too far from the ice palace.

Sera has posed:
Sera slices her flaming sword cleanly through the.. fox? huh, well she didn't see that coming. She rolls up on to a knee and then peers at the bunny bounding toward her. Her sword goes out and she says, "We need a little bit of truth to illuminate the situation."

She holds up her hands and makes a box with index and thumbs, like a view finder. She begins to sing a soft and gentle song, the same serenade she sang to one of the ice skeletons to see how it worked. She peers through her hands to look at the bunny bounding toward her, then the one in May's arms, and the rest of them. One of these has to be relevant.. or may be none of them. May be it's a wild rabbit chase.

Melinda May has posed:
May looks at the rabbit that is trembling in her arms... And, yes. She actually believes this could be Nessa, rather than Loki. Because Loki would probably be changing into a snake or something and going for her jugular. Thus, she pins the Brit with a hard look. "Probably not," she concedes. So, she passes the bunny over and pulls out her weapon again. Now...

"Where's Loki?"

Clint Barton has posed:
The shot on the wolf is dead on, and as it starts to disintegrate down to its components, Clint is moving forward and past it, passing Sera that.. fell through the ceiling as well? Regardless, he's taking side steps, his back against whatever looks vaguely solid as he passes. It's a mess, and the short path just a little further down, he calls out, sounding more than disappointed.

"Clear."

Dammit.

The bow comes down, and the archer starts his way back, catching the bunny in May's hands.

"New pet?" He's so not in tune with magic.

John Constantine has posed:
"Teleported out," John tells May. His head jerks in the direction of Loki's exit path. "He's been gone a while, I imagine. Must have put our gel here on ice and then bugged out."

"Cch chh chh," John tells the NessaBunny. "There's a love, I'll have this sorted in just a mo'," he promises her. John looks at Clint, then grins at the man. "Mm, call her pet if you like mate, I'm not one to judge," he suggests.

John sets the bunny on the ground and keeps her there with one hand on its back. Fingers dig into the fur so it can't scamper off. With his free hand John scrapes a circle on the ice and puts siglis around the peripherry.

"Uh... blimey, how's that incantation go." John digs in his OTHER pocket for a notebook and flips through it with one hand. "Right." He clears his throat. "Lossa forbannaelsen, befria sjalen," the magus intones. Magic lends his words a peculiar echo as he speaks. It sounds vaguely Scandinavian, but the rolling words have a harsher quality to them. Like they were hewn in stone before he spoke them.

"Aus bryta magin!" he says, forcefully, and directs his willpower towards the transmogrified woman and the curse binding her.

Nessa Donovan has posed:
The viewfinder is a clever concept. The rabbit hopping towards Sera stops, though it just seems to trying to sort out of Sera's going to hurt it. She's able to see clearly there's no real intelligence to the creature--a construct of snow and magic, much like the ones Tristan had made before. When she shifts her hands over towards the bunny that May's got, it's certainly different than the one she was just looking at. Sort of a magical core, like a bunch of magic energy shoved into a box. The other rabbits that haven't been shot by Agent Bob seem to also be that snow and ice construct of a creature.

The bunny that May grabbed and that was handed over to John certainly seems terrified, squirming a little as it's passed, but it watches Clint's arrow slam into the wolf's eye and it seems to calm a little, no longer struggling. Scared, sure. The bunny's set on the ground, but it doesn't seem to be trying to get away, even with the hand keeping it in the circle.

As the willpower is forcefully directed towards the bunny, there's a crackle of magic-hitting-magic, and a burst of a rune firing back, a proverbial snap of magical teeth in John's direction. Whatever the curse is, it's got an equally nasty trap of sorts on it. Something that might take a little more time to sort through to disable.

Loki has posed:
The area is clear as Clint reported; there is now just a snow-sculpture fox where Clint can rescue his arrow. Even the bunnies have mostly cleared out and hidden (other than the one suspected to be Nessa or the ones Agent Bob Peters valiantly disposed of). There seems to be no other major threats beyond a //fun// continuation of a snow-day to be had at the Ice Palace.

Sera has posed:
Sera lets her hands drop and she scoops up the cute little ice bunny. She smiles, "You and me, we're going to be friends. I'm going to name you Cold Floof." She stands back up and peers in to the inner section of the palace that Clint check out. Out of her own curiosity, she takes out the dirt and tosses it around the room to see if it hits any unexpected illusions. She doubts it will.

Her attention is redirected to the protection and she frowns, "Oh my. John, unless you have a good place to work on that mess, we can use my basement in Brooklyn." She then whispers softly to John, "And just because you think he teleported away, doesn't mean he did. He likes to watch the chaos."

She looks to May and says, "You got here fast. Are you sure you're not secretly a mage?"

Melinda May has posed:
May isn't at all satisfied that Loki's not here. But she is satisfied she's not going to get a clear shot at him at the moment. So, she holsters her weapon. She doesn't put the safety snap on, though. "I'm sure," she says to Sera. "I just have other ways of keeping my eye on things here."

Hey. If Angel Girl hasn't figured out surveillance vans, yet, that's not May's fault.

She glances over to Barton. "I'll get Foster to do a sweep. Her sensors may have extra tricks," she tells him. It's Foster's fault May got involved in all this to begin with, as far as the Asian woman is concerned. It was her sensors that captured the first emergence of the ice skeletons that kicked off the crisis part of this little adventure.

Regardless, the manhunt isn't over.

Clint Barton has posed:
Clint hits a button on his bow and it telescopes down, making it small enough to set back into its holster next to his quiver. As he passes the body of the creature he'd shot, a quick tug is given to the shafting, and once he checks it for any minute fractures, sets it back into his quiver, away from the other arrows.

Once again, he's next to May, watching the final bits of .. everything before he nods in the information, though he's got something of a disappointed scowl on his face.

"I just want one shot..." is murmured. "Just one."

The manhunt isn't over. Not by a longshot.

As such, then, the archer lets the others do their magicky stuff, whatever that might be. For his part? Equipment goes back into the van as he peels it all off. He's done.

John Constantine has posed:
John flinches back when countermagic crackles up at him. He's at least deft enough to avoid taking it full in the teeth but it singes two fingertips, and the Brit swears rather sulferously and shakes his hand out. "

"Ahh, you cock," John tells the rabbit. "Er, Ness. Nothing personal love," he promises her, and bundles Nessbunny into his arms.

"Loki's Asgarian," John reminds May and Clint. "He also prefers illusions and disguises, and likes to be in luxury. I wouldn't bother with sewers or the like. Check penthouses and nightclubs, looking for someone foreign with a lot of cash and a perpetual cool spot in the area. If you find him, give me a ring," he bids the duo. "Your, uh, friend here with the pointy sticks looks like a mean tosser," John concedes, nodding at Clint, "But stickin' Loki full of arrows probably isn't going to do more than make him mad."

The magus looks at Sera and then uplifts his chin at her. "Your place's better than mine for this, I don't want to bring a bomb into my study. Also if she gets loose, it'll be a nightmare to keep her from shitting all over my floor."