8093/Pop: Hush

Pop: Hush
Date of Scene:	11 October 2021
Location:	Gotham University
Synopsis:	Silence isn't always golden, especially when it's unnatural and there are ALIENS. John, with a LOT of help, seals another thinning. They're growing more strange with each one. ...and he's still no closer to figuring out what's causing them.
Cast of Characters:	John Constantine, Phoebe Beacon, Stephanie Brown, Jonathan Sims, Jessica Cruz, Thaal Sinestro

---

John Constantine has posed:
    This time John knew *exactly* where he was going to enter. In the office of Barrett Arlinghaus, professor of Occult Studies at Gotham University. It's a small office, it's not a very big and popular course. So it might be a little packed when he steps through the portal along with Jon, Jessica and Phoebe.

    Barrett stood as soon as the shimmer of the thing opening began. ...and he just holds his hands up helplessly before snagging a pen and paper from his desk.

    Outside, for those arriving by other means, shit's weird. The CDC is just arriving, the entire campus is in the process of being blocked off to traffic and the *silence* is deafening. It's not the lack of city noise or birds calling, that's all there. It's the lack of *voices*. ...and anyone in the area has just lost their own.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe steps through behind John. Gotham was Home, Gotham University was familiar (and she did feel bad about not being able to join pre-med next year), so the teen steps out and steps to the side a bit, backpack slung over her shoulder, eyes wide behind a pair of blue acetate glasses.

    And she opens her mouth, and then closes her mouth as she considers a moment, looking around the office, brows knitting a moment.

    Which building was this in?

Stephanie Brown has posed:
"Yeah, she keeps claiming it, but yet we haven't met this supposed boyfriend yet. I'm not sure if she's making him up or getting catfished, but either way it's sad."

Stephanie Brown's teeth grind against each other at the accusation from Jordanna Spence. Not the first time she's made it. But that her friends haven't actually met Dick yet doesn't help her cause.

"Geez, Jordanna, go easy on her," Francisco Gracia tells her as he hefts his bookbag onto his shoulder and the trio start walking from the grass where they'd been sitting, and over towards Caplan Hall. Home of several departments including History, Archeology, and Occult studies. Nina, the mother of Steph's old boyfriend, Roberto da Costa, is in there, though Stephanie is not taking any of Nina's classes this year.

"I'm sure he's as great as you-" Francisco says, but his words cut off suddenly though his lips are still moving. A few odd moments ensue where each of the three move their mouths but no sounds come out. Confused looks are flashed back and forth. Looks shared with others around them as it becomes obvious that it is not just the three of them who seem to have somehow been muted.

Things progress from there. Clapping hands, confirming that they can still make noise. Just not with their vocal chords. Stephanie moved aside, tapping out a message on her phone to Oracle. Before long, campus security are moving around, calming people and keeping them there as word came back from the CDC to contain the situation until they arrive, in case it is contagious.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jonathan Sims has had a terrible week (though that's definitely relative; everyone's been having a bad week) and got swept up in Yet Another Adventure while coming to offer apologies to Phoebe. So he, too, follows along behind Constantine. He'd been here before, years and years ago, during his residency--though not anywhere near the Occult Studies building.

    Jon opens his mouth to question what Barrett is doing, closes it, and then signs to the confused academic, "Do you know sign language?" It's more than likely he doesn't, but one can try, right? Why isn't ASL just taught in all high schools, it's /useful/.

Jessica Cruz has posed:
    "Wait, what?!" Jessica asks of John even as she looks at the burning map only to blink several times at it before she'd see John go through...a portal? Along with two other people? She is very hesitant to walk through even as she looks back at teh door to the way out and then at Chas as if he'd somehow be of help and then she looks to it and once more she is shoved.

    "..." Jessica's mouth opens and closes several times and she grabs at her throat and then at her mouth before she starts to breath in and out much more quickly as she looks around the room they are in. At least there's only one other person here but honestly, two people is too many for her. She moves toward the nearest exit, getting herself into a position to flee as quickly as she can.

    <Jessica, calm down. You can't speak, something is preventing everyone from speaking. Calm down.>

    She closes her eyes and begins to breath in and out deliberately, trying to slow her breathing even as she grips the hand with the ring on it, covering the ring and seeming to do her best to focus.

    <That's it, Jessica. We practiced this. You have great potential. Grater than you know. Control your fear. Do not let it control you. It's yours.> Strangely, those with the senses for it, can actually feel a magical energy almost pulsing from Jessica, like a heartbeat.

John Constantine has posed:

    <<This is new...>> That would echo in the heads of Jon and Phoebe, so long as they're both in possession of their new bauble, those ugly blue stone amulets. Is anyone shocked that John isn't? When a man's seen just about all there is to see, even new shit isn't shocking. He reaches out to take the paper Arlinghaus is holding out to him and reads it.

    He nods and passes it off to the others in the room.

    Started nearly a half an hour ago on the other side of campus, it just kept spreading. CDC jumped fast, think it's some sort of virus, which makes no sense. I was just about to call you when I lost mine'

    The Professor shakes his head at Jon. Maybe if everyone started randomly speaking some ancient, dead language he could help, but... not ASL.

    John squints in Jessica's direction. He's already sensed the magic, the squint is more a consideration and then, <<Uh, guess I should have snagged an extra rock, aye?>> Hindsight, it's 20/20 and John's too exhausted to have much foresight these days.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe was not worried about an apology. She's used to John. She hears John's voice in her head, and she snaps her attention over to her mentor, takes a breath, and draws her hand down to her pack and pulls out her own notebook, and reaches over to Jessica. She taps her on the shoulder, and offers the notebook and a pen.

    <<Is it also out-going, or do I have Archive-guy translate outwards for everyone one-at-a-time?>> she questions, 'thinking' back to John and Jon. She pulls out a different notebook, and clicks a bright pink pen, ready for conversation.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon shrugs at the Professor and then reads the paper with a frown. He had figured on Weirdness when he followed John-with-an-h through the portal. That's par for the course, everyday occurrence. He's starting to think that a whole week of /normality/ might make Constantine go start a fight with a god just to have something do to.

    Wait, actually, that explains a lot.

    <<Archive-guy, that's... not inaccurate.>> Jon has to concede that, mentally. <<And how would I--oh. Oh, I can do that, can't I? Lord, I hate to just invade people's minds like that but I suppose we don't have much choice.>> He feels awful. He really does. And how /easily/ that mode of communication comes to him is a little worrying.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
After assuring herself that Francisco and Jordanna were alright - actually Jordanna not being able to talk was going down in the plus column - Stephanie motioned towards the building to indicate she was heading in and would catch up with her friends later.

After that, she navigated the hallways, back to the offices of the Archeology department. The nameplate still said Nina da Costa, but Stephanie wondered how long until she went back to her maiden name. Though given that her family were rather notorious for their seedy side in Gotham politics, maybe da Costa was her preference.

A tight hug was given by the dark-haired woman to Stephanie. A pad of paper served for quickly written messages back and forth. Both of them ok. Not sure what is going on. CDC is here, so maybe something virus?

Though Stephanie thought that unlikely, not that she was much in the field of medicine. Not with how it happened so quickly and at once. Assured that Nina was ok, now it was time to find out what was going on.

John Constantine has posed:
    It started in the garage where they keep the lawn equipment and such,' written on a piece of paper and held up by the good Professor.

    Okay, wait a minute. Telepathic Jon, amulets... there's got to be a way. He makes a little gesture toward Jon and then reaches up to touch his own amulet. <<Give me yours.>> Because he doesn't need it.

    It takes but a few minutes to get it all sorted, Jessica gets Jon's amulet. John casts a little magic, unsure if it'll work without the words actually being spoken out loud, but it does... this one at least, but who knows about the next that's needed?

    In the end all of the amulets end up with a magical connection to both Jon and their wearer. There... team communication a go.

    He gives a thumbs up for the professor, yeah, we got this...

    <<I guess we're heading to the other side of the campus, where it started.>> is thought to the others before he's gesturing toward the door. <<Phoebe, quickest route... find it.>>

Jessica Cruz has posed:
    Letting out one last slow breath, Jessica opens her eyes in time to see John doing, uh, something with an shiny object and she stares at him as he works. She watches him hold out some kind of strange object and she reaches out slowly for it. Not entirely sure she wants to touch anything someone else is giving her.

    <Take it. I am going to be silent for a while. They will not.>

    And Jessica takes it, looking at the odd amulet and putting it on before she blinks as she now hears John in her head. She stares at him in surprise and tehn looks over at the other two and then at the professor and then at the amulet.

    <<Ok.>> Is all she responds to John, still not sure if she's even being heard and she pulls her hoodie up tight and then looks to Phoebe as she apparently is the new star of the show.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    <<Relax, it's not the first time I've had a psychic teammate.>> Phoebe 'thinks' at Jon, and she takes a deep breath as she looks over to the Archivist, and she gives a little thumbs up at him, leaving her storya t that. She turns to concentrate on what's going on, pulling out her phone and bringing up the map of the university.

    <<Got it. We're going to pass by some archaeology offices. Someone tell me if Dr. Jones is in?>> she jokes, and goes to lead the way -- wriggling her way past everyone.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    <<It's the first time I've ever been psychic!!>> Jon responds, somehow managing all of his normal acerbic irritation through the psychic link. Hurrah for Jessica, getting to meet everyone like this.

    <<The, ahh, the professor back there was right though, viruses don't move this fast, they don't have an /instant/ incubation period. Some other sort of chemical attack would be more likely if it isn't... well... I am going to assume it's mystical since /we're/ here. Could a mystical attack spread like a... mist or something like that?>>

    Jon is following along, that's a given.

Thaal Sinestro has posed:
Amidst viral, wordless chaos, a green star is born in the dimming skies above Gotham, stealing the city a brief reprieve from inevitable night. With street lamps and neon signs still a little ways off from being needed, the star is among the brightest points in the city, and nowhere is this truer than the University.

It beats with the tell-tale rhythm of a steadying heart, each fresh pulse briefly washing over the world around it as it cascades into eventual nothingness.

John Constantine has posed:
    Once in the hallway, where he has more people to 'look at' and more space to see, John opens his sight wide. While doing so, he sticks close to Phoebe. She's used to it. It can be disorienting to try to look at both sides of the coin at the same time.

    <<Oh, that's bloody odd. They have no mouths... on the other side of it, they...>> He reflexively reaches up to make sure he still has one, a mouth that is, on this side. <<It's a thinning, but this is... I don't know what else it is, what could cause this.>>

    It's never a Good Thing, when John Constantine doesn't know what's causing something mystic in nature.

Jessica Cruz has posed:
    Still holding on to the ring, Jessica simply follows the others. Once they are outside and there are more poeple, Jessica is kind of oddly...fine with things. Not that she is exactly happy to be around people but the lack of voices is in some ways better. She always is hearing them speaking and some part of her is always listening for someone to call her name. Say they are going to kill her. SOmething. Now, it's just a bunch of people being quiet and without all those voices, there's none that are threatening her.

    <<Other side? No mouths?>> Jessica stares at the man she's chosen to follow into a strange portal and over to Gotham, of all places. Hopefully he'll be taking her back as she isn't sure if this ring can get her back. Either way, she starts to look around at the people here but isn't sure what to do with the information given to her though her left eye does strangely start to glow green.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    <<And I'm telling you to stay calm, because if a bunch of power-inclined people start making a mess, there's going to be Bats. We're in Gotham>> Phoebe replies in equal irritation to Jon as she gives a quiet huff. <<But you're right. This is too fast-moving for viruses or bacteria, unless the original contageon was weeks ago, but it's too-->> she thinks, her train of thought coming in easily over their link until she turns to John.

    <<The ones on the Other Side?>> she ventures, and she reaches up to touch her own mouth.

    Phoebe continues to walk through the building, following her GPS on her phone. Which, considering it's a Tim Drake GPS job, might even alert Stephanie that the Outsider is here.

    <<John's looking into the Astral.>> she translates, <<There's a thinning in the veil between our world in the next and something's coming through.>> She turns back to Jessica, the teenager giving a bright smile to her, though her eyes show it's apologetic. <<It's OK. We're all going to come out of this.>>

    <<... probably.>>

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    <<Do we not want Bats?>> It's an entirely honest question. Jon is very, very, /very/ new to all of this and it shows. But he starts to modulate his breathing so he doesn't accidentally spill out fear and throw it at the people in the halls or anything. Attempts, instead, to radiate calm, since he can /do/ that evidently.

    <<Something coming through, the... Astral? Astral plane. Something that makes people stop speaking. Hmm. Hmm.>> His eyes go distant as he follows Phoebe and the others through the building. <<If my ancestors have run into anything like this they didn't bother recording it, though I'm not certain how they'd have managed that.>>

    And then, mostly pointed at Jessica though the whole team can hear: <<We /will/ come out of this.>> Ahh, yes, the naive certainty of the man who's only /seen/ the bad things happening and hasn't yet lived through many of them.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
After leaving Nina, it was a simple enough matter for someone trained by Barbara Gordon to slip the cordon around campus and over to her apartment just across the street at University Apartments. Not that she's staying there anymore, but it's the nearest stash of Batgirl costumes.

It isn't too much later that a dark shape blends into the night, cape spread to glide back over to the university. Returning to the scene of the crime, Batgirl starts where the silence first took her. She checks the area through a number of different visual spectra looking for anything out of the ordinary. Tests of the air are fed into an analyzer that connects back to the Batcomputer.

<< Will not be surprised if this is more magic. Is Felix Faustus out of commission for good? >> she types into her comms. Which since it is all visually based typing takes a bit longer than tapping it out with her thumbs.

John Constantine has posed:
    It's Phoebe that knows where she's going, so it's John following her this time. He keeps his sight wide open the entire time. <<Try to avoid any officials. I can illusion an ID for me, but hard to explain my seventeen year old partner.>>

    There's panic through the campus and it's strange, so strange, to see panicked people and no sound. It's eerie really. The CDC and Campus Security are busy trying round everyone up and send them toward one building at the center of grounds.

    Even John has a little bit of the willies. People are supposed to talk, they're a noisy and obnoxious lot. This is just Wrong.

Jessica Cruz has posed:
    <<So, you deal with this kind of thing often?>> Jessica asks mentally, which has kinda become less weird since a ring thing found her and did something to her and now is stuck on her finger. It was strange at first but once you have some kind of strange ancient being trying to communicate in your mind for a couple of weeks, talking with others through your mind seems far less awkward.

    <<You can fix this?>> Jessica asks as they move along toward whereever it is and whatever astral means and whatever next world (hopefully not dead things) is. She really is a novice that was handed the magical equivalent of an F-15.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    <<I used to live three blocks away. I'd cut through campus after school and while I was homeless I'd hang out at the library. Where do you think I got the books I had before? The Occult Research section's pretty accessable -- if you have access to a Gotham City Teacher's ID.>> Phoebe states. It might even be a little smug as they leave the building, and she begins to make a light jog.

    <<And honestly? ... depends on which Bat shows up.>> Phoebe adds to answer Jon's question, and she begins to jog a little bit faster. <<The groundskeeping shed's towards the older part of the campus. We can cut through The Green, but it leaves us out in the open, the round-about path has more cover.>>

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    The calm Jon feels is not the calm of someone unworried, per se. It is the calm of someone who has training and experience in such general emergency situations, who at the least doesn't feel out of his depth. Not entirely. This isn't /nearly/ so weird as the last couple of days have been, to him.

    Of course, it's not precisely "quiet" to a telepath with no experience blocking out the panicked babble of thoughts people in this kind of situation tend to have. And besides, he's still half-dazed, flicking through whatever information the former Archivists left in what he's starting to mentally think of as The Archive.

    <<Oh!>> Jon's tone, mentally, is as pedantic and lecturing as it ever is with his rambles. <<There's something... obscure, but reference to an ancient alien race... now nameless, but I get the feeling they haven't always been so. They steal the voices of entire planets in order to record what they have to say, rewind them like a cassette tape. Seeking knowledge--something like what I do, except that I don't have to /steal/ people's voices, I just... listen to them.>> A pause. <<They should not be here. That is likely the thinning John mentioned at work.>>

    And then Jon's brain catches up to the Archivist's knowledge and a pulse of fear spreads out into the fifteen feet or so around him. <<...Wait, /aliens/? Aliens who... steal voices of... entire... sun and moon and all the gods shut /up/, Sims, you're going to scare the children.>> That was probably supposed to be to himself.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
It isn't like there's really anyone to notice when they cut across The Green, after all.

Batgirl glances up from her analyzer. Her eyes narrow slightly. Over there, cutting across The Green? Isn't that...

A soft groan is given, though it doesn't result in any sound. And lips form words that aren't said, but a lip reader would easily read, "magic" from them right before a shaking of the head.

The analyzer is put aside and Batgirl uses her line launcher to shoot a line from her roof over to the stadium. The device pulls her along the line until she's overtop of the shed that seems to be their destination. She lets go and drifts down in a spiral, gliding cape spread wide to slow her descent, so she lands on the edge of the roof as the quartet arrive at it.

Batgirl gives a wave and opens her mouth to say something before letting out a silent sigh and remembering. Not being able to talk is truly cramping the quipping heroine's style. But it's probably Oracle's best day ever.

In any event, the blond Batgirl waves, eyes going to John Constantine, and making a "What gives?" gesture with her hands.

John Constantine has posed:
    The Green it is then, need to get there fast. <<Aliens? Ngggggggg... Bloody fucking *hell*.>> That's a sound and he can make it mentally as easily as he makes it aloud, that groaning sort of 'fuck me' sound. Fucking Aliens. So not his wheelhouse, but the thinnings are, so...

    John stops short when Batgirl arrives while they're all out in the open and exposed. He just points for the nearest place they might be able to play keepaway with the CDC and Campus Security so they can go into Explanation Mode.

    <<Phoebe, do you have one of those Batty talking things, tell her what's happening if you do.>>

    Then... <<Jon, if I tell you to bloody run, you... bloody *run*, got it? No questions, you have no idea what you're doing out here.>>

Jessica Cruz has posed:
    <<I have no idea what's going on. Should I run, too?>> And just like that, there's a strange almost feeling in Jessica like something is glaring at her. She looks to the right and then at her hand before looking up at, well, Batgirl. She stares for a moment and then just blinks. She's really not been in a situation like this before and she's trying her bset to remain calm. The last time she was in any type of stressful situation, well, people died.

    <<OK, what exactly are we doing? What do we expect to find? Does anyone know anything at all?>> She grips her right hand tight and over her left eye a strange, X like formation of green forms. It's got a slight rounding at each tip of the X. She isn't aware of it herself but now it's clear that there's some kind of power coming from her more constantly and consistently at this point as she seems eager to help but also eager to protect herself. TO figure things out. To not feel so helpless.

Thaal Sinestro has posed:
Batgirl launches herself from one roof to another;

John, Jon, Jessica, and Phoebe work their way across campus;

and the psicomm line linking the latter group shimmers green. Like effervescent foam, green thoughts roil and burble into the mystics' midst, casting fragments of mild, wordless annoyance and unshakeable determination amongst them.

<<-- tro-- the Green L-- rps-- -- -- -->>

That annoyance intensifies for a lingering beat. All the while, the green star grows, and grows, and brightens--

-- and descends, ever more rapid until it alights upon the stadium just a couple feet behind Batgirl. Emerald light then begins to dim, giving way to sleek black and green clinging to lean, tightly toned musculature, a magenta frown, and thin lips curling distastefully around--

"..."

Again, annoyance intensifies. The star -- man -- creature? cups his right hand over his left, ringbearing fist. Black and green eyes lid; those lips press together tightly--

<<-- ridiculous system-- oh.>>

<<There. Your... jury-rigging notwithstanding...>>

The psychic link shudders as emerald thoughtfoam presses against it; it isn't the force of the effort so much as the sheer, dogged persistence that stresses the system until it cracks-- until thoughts both foreign and friendly begin spilling beyond the confines of John and Jon's working and crash against Batgirl's psyche, initiating her into the dialogue.

<<I am Thaal Sinestro. I represent the Green Lantern Corps...>> reverberates through this newly, forcibly forged connection as he sweeps his eyes across the group, only to settle on Jessica and her X-ed out eye for more than a moment, even two. <<... and there appears to be a disturbance in this locality. You have my assistance; apprise me of your situation hastily, lest you waste it.>>

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    <<PRecisely which kids do you think you're going to scare out here, Jon? I'll process that aaaall later and worry about it then.>> Phoebe states, turning and taking the group at a quick clip accross the Green, a nice, wide, grassy area. Perfect for being spotted. Seeing Batgirl, though -- that's surprising. She blinks a moment, and gives a little wave to her, and then turns and levels A Look at her mentor.

    <<--/John/.>> Phoebe thinks, and then takes a breath, and she reaches into her backpack and -- pulls out her notebook again.

    She wasn't about to pull out her domino in front of a whole bunch of people she didn't know. She scribbles down the following:

    Gotham Thinnings. Magical entity has stolen mouths and voices from astral/living. RR has basic info on events. Investigating source @ Groundskeeping shed--

    And her scribbling, she hopes, makes sense as she turns it over to Batgirl.

    And then GREEN thoughts start leaking into her head. She grits her teeth, and she turns her head slightly, trying to find the source of the interruptive thoughts.

    ... and she blinks at the introduction. She narrows her eyes a moment, and she tries to clear her thoughts to not give any of the 'what the crap?' thoughts away.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    <<Got it.>> Jon responds to Constantine. If this were a normal disaster situation Jon would follow the directions of the CDC people without hesitation; in this situation, Constantine is the CDC. Terrifying, but true.

    Jon /does/ take a step back, eyes widening, at /Batgirl/ appearing in front of him. Batgirl! The actual costumed... well, it's not like he doesn't know other costumed superheroes, it's just startling. And he was about to step forward, he was /about/ to offer his assistance in mental communication but then /something/ just forces its way on into his head and he puts both of his hands to his ears and mouths out loud as well as through the link: <<Ow!! That's... /ow!!/ That's not fucking... stay /out/ of my fucking... what in the /bloody/-->>

    Oh. That's an alien. An actual, honest-to-Thoth alien. He blinks rapidly and finds himself snapping right into Archivist mode. Pupils go wide and something about his mental communication becomes... precise and formal, a sense that something /else/ is shoving Jon aside and yet is also Jon at the same time.

    <<There is a thinning in the astral plane--the realm of thought and dreams--that is letting some sort of alien race that steals voices into our plane of existence. The theft is starting here but given that the alien race regularly takes the voices of entire planets in order to rewind them and record them, this is unlikely to remain a localized phenomenon. The Archivist has heard of this race, but it no longer has a name, and the reference was so obscure that I am unable to track it down within the mental files. It is possible dreaming would bring up the full memory and story, but there is no time for that at the moment.>>

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown notes the descending green light early, a hand going to her utility belt, ready to pull out a batarang. But his appearance makes it evident enough he's a Green Lantern, even before she hears the thoughts of Thaal Sinestro in her head.

<< Oh thank god. If I wasn't able to say, 'Cat got your tongue?' to someone during this I was going to go crazy, >> she thinks back to him, and to everyone else who can hear.

After getting the explanation from the others, Batgirl's teeth bite down on her lower lip. << So is there a way to thicken it again? Some sort of... astral... magicky equivalent of corn starch? >> she asks.

<< Or is there likely something in the shed that can just shut it down?>> With that said, she flips down to the ground, landing lightly after a half somersault, and a hand goes to the garter utility belt she wears, withdrawing a metal tube only about as tall as her hand. << Let's see what's inside, >> she says as she heads to the shed entrance.

John Constantine has posed:
    <<Bloody *hell*, could you at least dial the number, let it ring until someone answers or some shite? So we have a bit of a warning?>> John's grousing comes along with a feedback headache Hades. His head was already pounding like no one's business and the intrusion nearly brings him to his knees. He staggers a step or two even.

    ... the very first cases of spontaneous muteness are being reported *outside* the campus grounds, should anyone have access to being alerted regarding such reports.

    Pounding head or not, he jogs forward quickly to keep up with Batgirl. <<Wait, luv! We don't know what might be coming out of there other than silence and I know you're... well, you, but that won't help you if something in there decides to shoot alien vaporizer beams at the first person to open the door, aye?>>

Jessica Cruz has posed:
    And then she winces at the new voice that is crashing into her head and she looks at the incoming Sinestro and she eyes him carefully. She isn't sure what to make of him but she seems unsure of him to say the least. She then looks at John who is now speaking about the shed and everyone is talking about the shed and she's still unclear as to any of this. To make matters worse? Her new 'mentor' has gone silent mode and she isn't sure why he wouldn't want to talk to all these people.

<<Why don't we let this, umm, Green Lantern guy open it? He can fly and such. Surely he's well qualified to deal with this. He's obviously not from around here. He can figure it out.>> Jessica nods and looks to John as if that makes perfect sense. She isn't sure what John knows or what Jon knows or what Phoebe knows and frankly she is just ready to farm this whole problem out to the pink guy. Especially if aliens are involved anyway.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    <<Not to mention Red Robin will be REALLY pissed off if anything happens to one of us.>> Phoebe thinks to herself, though it's shared with the group. Hooray! <<We can close it magically, but we need to determine it's nature first, I think, and make sure that anything outside of it can either be put back in or destroyed and what it's affected reversed... and --" she looks up at Sinestro, and then back to Jessica.

    and the face that she makes at Jessica is one of 'are you kidding me right now?', brows knitting, nose wrinkling slightly, and she shakes her head as she takes a deep breath and begins to make her way in a dead run to the shed after Batgirl.

Thaal Sinestro has posed:
<<They have no name,>> reverberates through the link, <<but in the Obsidian Deeps from whence they once came, there is a particular frequency at which those who remember the silent terror of their passage wail when remembering them, as stark as it is forbidden. Once the apex predators of a society that's never known light, they were banished from their home sector centuries ago, exposing the rest of the universe to the threat of eternal silence for the sake of knowledge.>>

Shortly after Sinestro finishes expositing, the half a dozen or so glowing Lantern symbols coursing over his body snap back to the center of his chest, melting into its white emblem. Jessica's suggestion draws his eyes right back to the 'X' over hers; with the barest of curves in his brow, he regards she and her plan without a word, in favor of floating an inch from the surface of the roof with his arms folded.

<<Of course,>> finally reverberates, cold and flat as the alien descends from roof to Green. A semicircular mesh of green hexagons erects itself a couple inches ahead of him, stretching wide enough to offer some coverage to anyone immediately to his sides as he wheels around to hover towards the entrance. <<No self-respecting Corpsman would dream of sending helpless humans ahead of him into danger.>>

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon files away 'Red Robin and Phoebe know each other' and 'maybe Phoebe has a Bat-communicator' somewhere among all the other secrets he keeps, right next to the mental recording of Batgirl's mental quips. And then... /listens/ to Thaal's explanation, /experiencing/ what he mentions. He can hear the wails of the victims, can feel their fear, the cold silence of their passing. It is terrifying. It is horrible. It is... par for the course, for the Archivist.

    Somewhere down inside the Archivist, Jon quails.

    But the power that has passed to him and taken him over merely turns to regard Thaal's movements, to regard Batgirl going toward the shed. He is far enough back to be safe, but close enough to see what's going on. The real trouble, of course, is that the Archivist doesn't run. Not until the last possible moment.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Stephanie Brown seems more than happy enough to let the Green Lantern provide cover for them. While she may not have interacted with one directly before, she's definitely studied on the members of the Justice League enough to have some idea what he's capable of.

<< Alright, going to just take down the whole wall then. That should be a bit of a surprise if they are aiming at the door, >> she warns them. Batgirl makes sure Sinestro is ready and then pulls out as mall handgun looking thing from her belt. Not a gun actually but a launcher. She slams in a clip with a particular payload, and shoots little sticky bits of putty all along the edge of the wall on this side of the shed. She holsters the launcher again and then pulls out a batarang in one hand, and extends that small tube into a gold colored metal bo staff. << Alright, here we go, >> she says with one last check. She activates the remote controlled explosive sticky payloads. They blow all along the edge of the wall, which slowly caves over and falls to the ground with a soft whoomp.

John Constantine has posed:
    <<Helpless...>> John sounds a bit offended there, even mentally.

    As soon as that shed is accessed, the buzzing starts. A black swarm of... something rises from it, like little gnats by the millions - how can something so tiny, even in such a swarm, be so LOUD?

    It's deafening, the loudness of them. What's worse is the way the swarm spills out and covers the entire area in a matter or seconds, making visibility difficult both due to the decreased light AND the fact that little gnat-like things are flittering into open eyes.

    ...but that's not the worst of it, no. Are they *metallic*? Metal? Whatever they're made of they are *sharp* and they *hurt* and they *cling* and... they feel like? Are they 'burrowing'?

    They are. They're trying to burrow into any skin they come into contact with.

    <<RUN!>>

    Of course, John isn't following his own advice. No, he's trying to work a spell. To what end? Immobilizing those things? Destroying them?

    Or maybe sending them back into the shimmering, shifting, swirling tear in reality that is revealed once the 'security system' that was in place around it is busy attacking 'intruders'.

    From its center, more reinforcements appear, flowing out of a space about the size of a basketball, little metal legs make little clicking sounds when they hit the ground. Scorpions? No, that's not quite right, they're more terrifying than that, the tails are three, the legs at least a dozen, each the size of a baseball and those tails? They're *shooting* their stingers that seem to have no end.

    <<Someone close that hole!>>

    Because without his voice? John's struggling with sending the swarm back let alone... closing the rift. Spells work on will, sure, but will is often channeled THROUGH a voice and without one? Things are so much more difficult.

Jessica Cruz has posed:
Some might hear it. It's faint. A whisper, urgent and curt. It's in Jessica's head but might flow out to others. Might not. Might not even be noiticed in amongst this havok but the words are very clear. Very poignant and have a purpose. A purpose that brings Jessica's attention.

<<Do it!>> And then Jessica's form changes. Well, her clothes do anyway. A black and green outfit appears over her current one though this one is not exactly a Green Lantern uniform. No, not really. A green headband flows over her forehead, holding back her hair, a jacket over that with a hoodie hanging over her shoulders similar to what she is used to wearing. This one, however, is open in the front. Underneath? A flowing sort of tattered overshirt that has that same X on the chest. Under that a body suit with a green line down to her legs that splits down the inside of each leg into black, knee-high boots. The outside of her legs and her sides covered in black. Black from her shoulders ends mid-bicep to form green and then black gloves complete.

She floats up a little, the very change of costume protecting her with a skin-tight shield and she blinks as she looks at it. The swarm flowing around her, unable to harm her as she marvels as what she has done. She then realizes just what John was yelling in her mind and then looks to the hole that the swarm is going out of and she aims that ring and stares. Her glowing green eyes glownig brighter as the initial thing she imagines, she intones mentally causes a blast of green, wobbling energy to issue forth and slam into that hole, potentially creatin a brief respite due to the force and heat of that blast though she is not truly able to cap the hole given her inexperience with creating or frankly doing anything with this new found tool in the actual field.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    What an AWFUL time to not have armor!

    Phoebe's thoughts might be reduced to mentally screaming, which is good because she's keeping her mouth shut. She ducks her head down, bringing her left hand up and the circle in her palm lights up, and the girl manuevers herself to try and block Jon from the onslaught of metallic bugs. She feels them begint o striker her skin, to dig in, and it *hurts*. <<Run, Jon!>> she thinks to him <<Get the CDC and campus police back! Set up a peremeter!>>

    But she herself? Not running. Instead she keeps her head down behind her shield, her own healing ability trying to contend with metallic insects digging into her skin, horrified at the idea of what they might do. She keeps her mouth closed, one eye shutting, and she sets her own perimeter -- it's no circle, but she's trying to feel out her aura healing, trying to extend it out as the metallic creatures burrow and cling to her! Why is that?

    Because maybe in that aura, pushing out, she could try to speak. And she cries out with the effort as she walks backwards and tries to push the effect away from her and set up a place where recovery from insects burrowing into your skin can happen!

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    The Archivist doesn't run. Not until the last possible moment.

    It's not that Jon doesn't /want/ to run. He does. <</Shit!!/>> even reverberates down the mental link and he /wants/ to run but his legs won't work and he has to see how the hole gets closed he /has/ to, or maybe... maybe he just has to experience the pain and fear of the metal, clinging to him even as...

    Phoebe's voice cuts through, mentally. Jon's been cut up already, from a few of the things trying to burrow into him, clinging to face and hands. It's not enough to stop him from batting away the insects that have done so, and then he spins and sprints for the official government types, throwing out a mental shout ahead of him, a kind of siren warning along with <<CLEAR THE AREA, CLEAR THE AREA>> thrown at the 'normals' with all the mental force he can muster. He'll be lucky if he doesn't break a blood vessel, untrained as he is.

Thaal Sinestro has posed:
An Oan force field ought to be enough to hedge out metallic gnats, even in the millions; it's just a matter of believing it hard enough.

Ought to be, unless that field happens to be shaped for weapons fire or explosives rather than swarms.

Ought to be, if not for the screeching cacophony of their presence.

Sinestro's studded in security system from head to toe by the time the forward field's utterly blanketed. It collapses shortly after that, a few emerald shafts flashing through the clattering fog sweeping inwards. Constantine tells them to flee-- and through the thin cracks between the teeming hordes crawling across his personal field, the alien sees both desperate gestures and shifting, swirling unreality. He tells them to close that hole!-- and beneath an evershifting inch of hungry drones, he feels Oan light tense uncomfortably against his skin, as if the ring's AI has only just found cause for increased caution.

<<Momentarily-->> ekes into the link as if through clenched teeth as force and heat erupt violently from Jessica, and their resultant impacts give off little more than muted thuds--

As deafening, metallic chatter fades down to a dull roar--

As the high-energy whine of phaser-stingers shrinks into a series of hisses, brightening once or twice when their beams happen to strike Sinestro and push him back a few steps--

As the world around this incursion into reality falls utterly, suddenly silent.

<<Brace yourselves,>> is as much warning as Sinestro offers before he finishes transitioning oppressive sonics into a terrible BOOM, a shockwave of kinetic force shearing through alien security systems, through the building that housed them, and several yards beyond, all emanating from the glowing, emerald tip of an alien weapons harness with an enormous disc not entirely unlike a satellite dish mounted over his left shoulder.

The explosion is dead quiet, but sound - non-verbal sound, of course - returns in its wake.

Stephanie Brown has posed:
Not prepared for tiny metallic hazards, Batgirl has a few exposed spots on her costumes, though thankfully she has her lenses down over the eyeholes of her cowl.

Still, the pain of the metal cutting into her is intense. Worse, a few CDC people out getting samples choose just then to round a corner, having heard the WHOOMP of the sticky charges going off. The metallic swarm closes in on them as well. Their biohazard suits are hardy, but not for actual physical assault by sharp metallic shards.

Batgirl grabs at a pouch, pulling out an electric batarang and setting it off while it's in her hand. Electricity crackles around her, costume protecting her from the worst of it though it still makes her teeth clench and fillings feel like they are sparking in her mouth.

It doesn't seem to help though, even as Batgirl is turning, an arm going about Jonathan to help guide him away from the swarm, while Phoebe was on the other side of the Green Lantern. Maybe make that Lanterns?

She pushes him towards the CDC people as she tries to yell to them, only to remember, no sound. She grabs at another pouch on her belt. Out comes a different batarang. One she had once prepared for Felix Faust. She sets it off and a loud sonic pulse sounds. It's a real screamer, and enough to stagger and disorient a person. But it also seems to have an effect on the security system, the metallic swarm haphazardly buzzing about with a loss of control. A small black rain of them fall to the ground, but only the area closest to her. She clears Jonathan, and then is pushing the CDC people back around a corner as she turns the batarang off so they can move effectively without it screaming and disorienting them.

John Constantine has posed:
    A brief reprieve is better than non at all, Jessica's attempt to stop the onslaught from getting bigger - it works. Atta girl, John knew she was something special. Not that he'd EVER say that out loud.

    Eventually Phoebe is actually able to make sounds, muted at first and then the scream of effort is loud and clear.

    John's spellwork *is* working, his mouth's moving, he is chanting, it's just not audible. It's working, but it's doing so about half the rate it normally would. They're *all over* him. Crawling down his shirt, up his sleeves, covering his face, trying to get between the slight cracks off his lips as he murmurs, crawling up his pants legs - that last bit is more concerning to him than any of the rest of it... up there far enough is where...

    Never mind, but every so often, he shakes a leg as if he's trying to shake them loose and make them fall back down.

    His hands, also covered with them, make little circular motions in the air above his head. If he put some hip action into it he might just look like he was gettin' down with his bad self.

    ...and the little metallic bug things that aren't *on* him, but just around him, are swirling into a ball. ...and that ball is slowly being shoved in the direction of the tear. Little by little it grows, and grows... and grows... until most of them not on a person are in that ball.

    The Lantern's blast, while a bit off course, creates something of a vacuum in the tear. Immediately that giant ball-o-bugs is sucked back from where it came.

    When Batgirl's sonic blast disorients the clingers and most of the fall loose, those too are sucked back.

    It leaves John on his knees, he spends a lot of time like that, don't judge... and the rift open, but ... working in reverse? Better than the way it was, but still not good. At least now, Sinestro might be clear enough of metallic creepy crawlies to finish that job?

Jessica Cruz has posed:
    That, well, that was a hell of a rush. Jessica's momentary floating display is over after that huge blast. Well, huge by her standards. She's not felt that much of an act of pure will since she forced herself to run away that night. Then she can see John covered in those bugs and then she can see them swarming and see this alien Lantern guy having to fight and then and then and then.

    Within moments Jessica is on the ground, curled up in a ball as her new outfit fades out and she's back to her hoodie and she's doing her best to cover herself. She's squatting down low enough that she's nearly sitting, her arms over her head and face, her body as small as she can make it and she's trying her best not to simply turn and run.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe can hear her own voice, first a whisper, and then a yell of pain and fury as she lights up the area around herself, the expression of the aura unleashed, her eyes open with a low glow,, she draws her fingers down, folding them just so as she crosses her hands at her wrists -- until she sees Jessica go down. She takes a breath, and she pushes through the burning and burrowing into her skin, and she goes to cover the Laughing Magician's latest cook, her hands still crossed as she finishes her own invocation, pushing as hard as she can, the circle around her extended to its full fifteen feet, healing to try and remove the bigs from their bodies, golden fire crackling around the edges of hte aura where it's touching the grass.

    Looks like it hurts to put out so much at once, though.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon almost gets knocked over by the explosion but Batgirl is there, and he shouts a mental thanks at her as she leaves. Then he is shouting at the CDC people, mentally: <<The Green Lantern Corps is on this. Fall back, establish a perimeter, make sure the campus is evacuated and keep any civilians from the area.>> He... actually has experience on the 'emergency services' side of things, so he knows the right things to say and the right tone to take. A key part of it? Act confident, like you know what you're doing and would /totally/ have ID to pull out if someone called you on being seemingly just some guy in jeans and a green sweater.

    Another key part of it? Tamping down your own terror and deep desire to curl into a gibbering ball into a corner of your mind until the crisis is over.

Thaal Sinestro has posed:
The harness around Sinestro crumbles into glowing embers just as a fleet of emerald lanternflies is soundlessly birthed into existence. Unlike the ravening horde employed by the Obsidian Exiles, each of these fluttering points of light sinks into soft soil and traumatized turf, lingering for just a few seconds before taking flight once again, bloated with earth. It's only after the emerald swarm feeds that it coalesces together, swirling into the portal just like its dark and horrible twins only to vanish, forming and increasingly dense--

-- increasingly solid, as emerald shimmers pass over it--

-- mound of earth in, around, through, atop the rent in reality. John suggested closing it; erecting a green, crystalline monument in its space should, hopefully, suffice.

<<Its lattice structure... is still cooling,>> lowly ripples through the link. The radiant helmet and visor presently hiding Sinestro's face decoheres; the arc of glowing controls floating before him does too.

<<But once... it has fully settled... it will translate any future attempts at piercing this layer of reality into the precise tone... once used to banish these parasites from the Deeps. It is anathema to them; they will not invade again.>>

A slight pause.

<<Here, anyway.>>

Swallowing, he draws slumped shoulders up until he's standing at his full height. His attention snaps towards Jessica, holding for a second-- two-- and then he's off, floating towards Constantine.

<<What do you see?>> he asks of the sorcerer, brow arching.

John Constantine has posed:
    John, still on his knees, head bowed, looks up. His face is covered in tiny little burrow holes that look like someone went to town popping zits. Gross. Magic's messy, innit? In this case... Aliens are messy?

    He clears his throat as if testing to see if any sound happens. It does, now that the rift is closed. "Get these things out of me, I can feel'm scraping my bones," he croaks out with that new found voice, jaw clenched. Seems the burrowed bastards are still on *this side*. "It's the ring... her ring... there's power there. "...but it's dark, I think."

    His head drops again. "Fuckin' *aliens*," he mutters, barely audible. They're worse than fucking MALLS.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe stands up, and she gives a low groan, her head tilting back a moment as she breathes out and a soft sound of protest as she reaches up her sleeve, and pulls a couple of those little bigs out, and tosses them to the side. She smells like singed hair a bit as she comes over. "She'll be okay." she states, with confidence, and then drops down to her knees near John, and offers her hands, palm up. "You have the worst job interviews." she offers as a slight joke. "The. Worst."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon has the CDC people working, and they're talking again, and before anyone can ask "wait who are you anyway?" he gives them a tired smile and a thumbs-up and turns to jog back toward the others. He didn't get as many of the bugs as Phoebe and John did but he got enough to have blood on his face and hands.

    "Well," he says brightly. "That was... bracing, wasn't it?" He's running on adrenaline still, eyes very bright. He eyes Jessica. "She probably would not appreciate an offer of assistance, would she? Can I, ahh, help either of you then? Through the portal I assume we're going to pop back through so the authorities can sort all this out? Or are we staying to speak to them?"

John Constantine has posed:
    Whatever that Lantern did... well, the effects are immediate and ...

    "Oh, oh... that's gross..." John murmurs when he looks down at one of his hands and sees dozens of tiny little metallic bugs being pulled back *out* through the holes they dug. "That's uncomfortable," he adds through clenched teeth, but damned if he doesn't struggle himself to his feet even as those things are being pulled out and falling to the ground motionless.


".... oh... that feels weird..." He looks a little green around the gills under the mass of things being drawn back out of him.

    When around five of them slip past his lips and another half dozen come out of his nose, that's all the can handle.

    Scotch and what's probably pop-tarts from this morning are all that come up when he vomits.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe takes a deep breath. And her nose wrinkles a moment at the sudden stench, and a soft "Yeah... no joke that's kinda gross. Like Atenborough should be narriating this." she agrees with John -- and when John geos a little green she looks alarmed, and looks around for anything that could be a bucket -- and instead just... lets him puke in the grass. She's not going to mention the ones that have been pulled out of her scalp, the teenager looking at once Totally Done and Exhausted and just... reaches out and pats John lightly on the back. It's OK to puke. Very first lesson of Magic with John Constantine.

    She looks up to Jon and away from the absolutely vile mixture coming out of John, and she motions. "I can grab her in a minute or two. Once he's ready." she is trying her best to Exude Calm.

    "How are you handling things?"

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "Ohh, it's fine," Jon says brightly. "I'm fine!" Yeah, no, that is the reaction of the not-fine, who is going to fall over once the adrenaline wears off. "Just need to clear this headache and I'll be right as rain!"

    Yeah, no. He is not, in fact, going to be right as rain anytime soon.

    Nonetheless, he goes to offer his shoulder to Constantine, whenever he's done vomiting. "Just like old times, eh, mate?" he says with an almost manic grin. "Except we're older, and Martin's dead, and you have a daughter now, and there's aliens. But besides that! Let me help you /back/ to the bar this time, hmm?" There's fondness in his tone, threading through the shaky exuberance.

John Constantine has posed:
    By the time he's done puking, John's metal bug free, but he looks like a damned leper. All those holes oozing and bleeding. His face, that haggard, yet somehow, handsome face -Nettie would *die*, his arms, legs, hands... So. Fucking. Gross.

    John actually accepts the help and leans on Jon. "I told you to fuckin' run, mate..." Oh. Uh-oh. Since he's already so close, it's easy for him to reach up and smack Jon upside the head. Not hard mind, just enough to get his point across. "It's spelled R-U-N and it means you make your legs move really fast in the opposite direction of the Bad Stuff."

    Phoebe gets a *look*, that says... you too, missy.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    "... you are not fine, *and* you're bleeding." PHoebe points out, and she takes a breath as she stands up, stretching her jaw a moment, and then turns to spit out a bug. She waits to see if her dinner *which has not been poptarts or scotch* will make a return, but her cherrios and yogurt stay right where it's supposed to be. Her nose wrinkles though, and she convieniently doesn't see the look because while John is explaining what 'run' means, she goes to check on Jessica, and get her up to.

    She doesn't miss it entirely though. Her cheeks darken a bit. "I couldn't leave her behind." she motions to the presently very tired and probably-not-going-to-remember-much person she is bringing in.

    "I can set up the air mattress in the livingroom in the loft for her if Jon's staying with you." Phoebe states, her own adreniline slowly winding down.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "I ran! That's not fair! I ran!" Jon stares at Phoebe, a little wild-eyed. "Tell him I ran!! I can listen! Okay, it took me a moment, and I'm going to need to figure out how to /turn that off/ because the Archivist wanted to /stay,/ which was bloody foolish, but I ran!" He's babbling, more than a little. "I only came back when the threat was gone!"

    Despite his babbling, Jon gets an arm around Constantine and makes sure he's good and supported. "The CDC people would have started asking for identification if I'd stuck around and I could tell you were all mostly okay and I didn't want to miss the portal back or what-have-you. And I'm bleeding?"

    He reaches up to touch his own cheek, comes away with blood. "Oh. I'm bleeding. I thought my face just hurt because that damn alien decided to take my brain out for a spin without even buying me dinner first." Jon... /never/ makes those kinds of jokes unless he's three sheets to the wind. Or he didn't used to.

John Constantine has posed:
    "I wouldn't buy you dinner first either," John quips back. "Gotta work up an appetite before dinner and make sure it's worth the price of McDonald's drive-thru." How does he do it? Even stand after all that on no sleep the night before... and not much the night before that? Through it all, stand up, snark and go on to the next day?

    It's a question most around John Constantine ask themselves every day.

    John himself? He doesn't question it. He does it because he has no choice.

    A few words under his breath and the portal to the House opens rather than skipping the second step. The House, hop skip and then the bar... less energy expended on his part that way.

    "If she sleeps in the living room, you lock your door. We don't *know* her." He's not suggesting they leave Jessica behind, but she *is* an unknown. "...and next time, you fuckin' run, Phoebe."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe gets her up, and she looks up to John, giving a nod. Lock the door, makes sense. If she wakes up enough to get home safely, she knows there'll be a cab ride.. but she doesn't question John's ability to stand back up. She had her Light that made her stand when she shouldn't... and when John chastizes her, her cheeks darken, right to her ears, and she gives a nod. Yes, Dad.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon rolls his eyes. "How romantic. Remind me again why you're single?"

    Then he grins brightly at Phoebe. "Did you know that in a disaster, more people go /toward/ the danger than flee? The actual problem government agencies have had to deal with is an influx of volunteers, rather than looting or violence." A pause. A frown. "Well. Mostly. Most of the time." He glances around, then helps John through the portal to the House.