8313/JUSTICE LEAGUE: The World Eaters

JUSTICE LEAGUE: The World Eaters
Date of Scene:	19 October 2021
Location:	Atlantic Ocean
Synopsis:	The Justice League is called to action at the behest of a Cruise Liner in danger of being devoured by a very strange ocean creature! Watch out for tentacles!
Cast of Characters:	Diana Prince, Thaal Sinestro, Clark Kent, Zatanna Zatara, J'onn J'onzz, Hal Jordan, T'Challa, Karen Starr, Cassie Sandsmark

---

Diana Prince has posed:
A distress call had been received by the US Coast Guard. From there the Coast Guard reached out to the Justice League.
"We have a problem. We have a very big problem..." The call had gone.

And now here, deep in the Atlantic Ocean's tumultuous waters a strange sight appears in a most unusual way. It's a cave... a giant tube-like cave just reaching up out of the water and curving toward the south with a wide open maw of a entrance at its end. Gaping and massive, it could fit an entire ship...

And apparently it had.

A cruise ship has gone missing... allegedly inside the strange tunnel-like cave that is jutting up out of the flowing deep blue sea. The sound of helicopter blades thrumming in the air can be heard, as a huge cloud bank sits over head casting a grey tone across the ocean, threatening to open up with storms any moment now.

Wonder Woman had sent out the report to the Justice League members, about this odd situation. She had taken the Invisible Jet and was now arriving... at the mouth of the cave itself.

There she stands, with sword and shield, her dark hair flowing against her otherwise bare shoulders as she stands in the mouth of the massive tunnel that leads down IN to the ocean below... Waves from the sea crash upwards and splash down around Diana's armored boots, as she just stands there and takes in the sight of this strange place.

A cruise ship, supposedly lost in the dark tunnel far ahead...

Thaal Sinestro has posed:
"I take it that there's a local protocol for these situations," says Thaal Sinestro once the screaming green flare that throbbed around him in transit has settled into a gently thrumming aura. A contact of Superman's since last year, the alien Lantern's tone is dour, flat, and made only minimally distant by the concentration necessary to enact his standard protocol for these situations: probing the mysterious tunnel into the abyss for energy readings and vital signs.

"How many were aboard the ship?" he then asks as an array of emerald rays scan along the cave's inner walls, tracing down, down, down,

        down,

                    down........

"... and how many of you are liable to have issues operating underwater?" he then thinks to wonder.

Clark Kent has posed:
Superman was about to eat a really big sandwich when he got the JLA alert call! "Huh." Clark says to himself, "Diana doesn't do the all alarm for nothing. Better put a little pepper into it."

He then puts some pepper on his sandwich. "Hee hee hee." Sometimes you need to take some moments, for you. "Alright, up, up, and away!"

Superman ALSO puts pepper into his amazing flying abilities, and quickly skids to a halt next to the Invisible Jet. Normally he can't see the Invisible Jet, but he can see its visible tire marks from its invisible landing gear. This is useful when you don't want to total your friend's ride.

"Hey, Di." Superman says, crossing his arms. "So this hole, is it new? It seems kind of new." Superman licks his lips, using some Super Vision to try and examine the massive cave face. "It doesn't go to hell, does it? I realize it's a little presumptuous to ask, but last time I was there I really wrecked the place and we might have more problems than we're expecting. Hey, Thaal." Superman says to Sinestro, "It's alright, we've got snorkles on this planet."

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
When the magical portal opens, wind whips The magician's black hair across her face, Zatanna steps out onto the lip of the tunnel next to Diana, and it closes behind her. There is no top hat today, a simple tux jacket, white tie, and trousers - she has even taken to wearing lace-up boots, tired of teetering on heels. She steps into the green light illuminating them from above.

The magician squints upward before speaking over the sound of the copter and waves crashing against the 'tunnel, "Hello Diana. Didn't think we'd be seeing each other in the middle of the ocean. Swallowed a ship, did it? Any idea how large," she makes a sweeping gesture, "this thing is yet?"

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
    Flying low over the ocean, J'onn is headed to the location Diana sent out as soon as it was received. Arriving on the scene, he come to a stop and hovers beside Diana. Looking around, he says quietly "I have heard of islands rising from the sea before, but never just a cave mouth like this." He greets the League members that have already arrived with a polite nod, but is already focused on the 'cave'.

    He looks it over a bit more closely and offers, "I seem to recall one of the movies everyone has made me watch, I think it was Star Wars where they landed in a cave that was actually a large creature's mouth, could this be something similar?" He probes gently with his mind, trying to determine if there is any sort of presence to this phenomenon.

Hal Jordan has posed:
All in all, this is not really how he planned to spend his day.

Space Sector 2814 is not a small place by any means and being a Green Lantern assigned to it comes with certain responsibilities. Responsibilities that keeps one Captain Harold (Hal) Jordan off-world at times when he otherwise might choose otherwise. It comes with the job though, and it is something that he has come to accept. Great responsibility, yadda yadda. The perks do help to make up for the inconvenience. He gets to fly. Through space. Practically every day. What self-respecting pilot wouldn't take on a few little inconveniences for that priviledge?

Still, when he gets back to Earth he does like to make the most of it. Of course, Earth is also part of Space Sector 2814, it is part of his Green Lantern mandate. It is part of his charge as a member of the Justice League. But most importantly, it's home and one should always be willing to defend one's home.

The fact that Hal is on the other side of the continent might be one of those small inconveniences to some. Not so much to him though. When the call came Jordan was just in the process of changing out of his flight suit, enjoying a flight of a very different sort. But just as important to him in it's own way. The jumpsuit comes off and the green ring tucked away in his locker goes on. And an instant later a streak of brilliant emerald light shoots up from behind the offices of Ferris Air, streaking into the sky and then beyond, into planetary orbit itself. If that glow was fast before, it is nothing compared to how quick it flits through orbit, dropping down into the mid-Atlantic region, slowing rapidly as he descends through the atmosphere to finally touch down lightly by the entrance of the clearly unnatural cavern.

Glancing around, Green Lantern arches a brow ever so slightly, a faintly amused smirk sliding over his expression. "All hands on deck, huh?" he comments mildly. While his fellow Green Lantern begins to scan the cave, Hal contents himself to simply light up that entrance with that brilliant green glow, sending shadows skittering away. No Blackest Night here.

T'Challa has posed:
There is another ship that flies into the area, one of Wakandan make and design. A hatch slides open beneath it and none other than the Black Panther drops out to land in a silent crouch before rising slowly to stand near the others. "A cave that has formed in the ocean, a ship disappeared within, and there are few other signs? Troubling." He squints in the direction of the wide open mouth of the cave, adjusting his sight through his mask.

"I will be able to breathe if we must go underwater, but not indefinitely." His ship touches down after hovering for a time, so long as there is room for it. His gaze takes in each member of the League as they gather.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Power Girl had been on patrol, skimming through the skies of Metropolis and beyond to give the people some minor semblance of peace of mind. There wasn't anything happening today- yet, at least- so it helps to put in an appearance even if it is one of those rare days where you don't have to hit anyone with a car before three in the afternoon.

    When her league communicator went off, that was the sign: Instead of lingering anywhere and keeping to a reasonable pace, there's a small burgeoning thrum in the sky, heralding her absolute violation of the speed of sound and arriving at the street of the city around the same time that she arrives in the air above the cave.

    Her voice comes in over the League communicator as soon as she arrives. "Oh, great. Another lantern. I thought we had it bad enough." The short pause that comes after results from Karen giving the cave a hard look, before announcing- "I'll just get this over with."

    And then she's off like a bullet, shooting down into the cave on ahead. You know, recklessly. On the one hand, it's probably a bad idea. On the other hand, if it is a bad idea, it should probably fall on the shoulders of a Kryptonian to trigger the trap.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Is it take your annoying side-kick to work day? No! Well, sort of. It is not too strange to see Cassie at her side, playing the role of Wonder Girl. She's been dragged along for things here and there. But apparently according to anyone who looks at the Justice League's computers, accesses, or any of that... she's now here LEGIT. Is this wise? Time will tell.

(Probably it isn't)

Naturally enough, after taking their invisible transport up to a safe altitude and putting it on a holding pattern (she's allowed to pilot the thing these days, too!) she does the strange 'out of nowhere' thing as she pops out an access hatch, a brief hole in the expanse of cloudy sky that quickly reseals behind her as the alien camouflage re-initializes. Then she flies down to land next to Diana. As usual, her 'costume' is not very costume-y, taking on the cooler-weather version of a black skirt, dark tights, and a 'WW' branded shirt with a hoodie jacket worn over it. She stands, peering into the hole of the cave.

And then takes out her camera to take a picture. "Neat."

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana first looks to Sinestro when he arrives and she nods once to him. "It is quite the sight." She says of the cave before the others begin to arrive, Superman and Zatanna getting a nod on one side of her before she looks back to the other with Hal, Jonnz and T'Challa, and her sidekick arriving. "We know that the Cruise Ship was not carrying guests. It was carrying a skeleton crew, as it was being decommissioned. It was on it's final voyage in fact..." The Princess says. "But we do not have exact numbers on how many are aboard..." She states that last part a bit grimly.

Another look is given around to the assembled team. "The scans that we got initially showed that the cave was... growing. Downward and outward...." And sure enough if those gathered at the portal of the cave mouth looked they'd see that the cave itself is extending and growing further back behind them toward the open ocean waters... slowly but still quickly enough to be visible and more than a little unsettling.

Diana is about to say more before she's stopped by the arrival of Power Girl who just zips on down in to the dark... "Well then. I guess we're going in." Which was inevitable anyway.



"Come on." Diana says to those around her as she starts at a jog before it grows a bit quicker.

There are life signs in the cave too, down below in the dark. It's hard to get a full exact number though as something is interferring with scanning tech!

Power Girl, rushing ahead in to the dark will start to run in to something blocking her way... only not entirely. Its filmy-wet mucuss walls that she can choose to fly through or not! But they are random and stretching from top to bottom, side to side of the cave as the walls themselves grow more moist and hot the deeper the cave adventurers delve!

The first dipping slope of the cave is a roller-coaster like drop off that curves back outward again under the ocean by now, but no ocean water inside the cave except for a small shallow river from the splashing waves outside the main entrance!

And those with super hearing will hear deeper in to the cave.

Screams. Mixed with bending metal.

Thaal Sinestro has posed:
"It is not unlikely," Sinestro offers to the Manhunter. "... particularly if it is growing," he adds a beat later, wrinkling his nose distastefully as Diana shares that vital piece of information.

"Then again," he flatly appends, "perhaps we're merely dealing with a region of abnormal space, or a dimensional junction of some sort; the fabled 'bright side' that the locals are so fond of seeking." Hal - with his relatively passive display of ringsmanship - then gets a brief, disapproving look before the alien Lantern is a frowning comet darting down into the darkness.

It takes maybe ten seconds of flight and a couple reports of moisture/temperature changes for that frown to deepen.

<<At a minimum, this structure appears to be significantly organic in nature; whether it is alive or not...>>

... may well be revealed in short order, given the trail of ruptured membranes he's streaking through, courtesy of the less patient of the two Kryptonians. Nothing this large is likely to suffer an intrusion that violent in its system, relative sizes be damned.

<<Perhaps the question that we ought to begin considering is whether it's intelligent or not.>>

Clark Kent has posed:
Superman nods politely to his other friends, Zee, J'onn, Hal, TChalla. He doesn't really know Cassie but she gets a smile before Power Girl just charges in. Superman gives a little sigh like he was mentally playing out a conversation he's attempted to have several times.

"Don't mind her." Superman says to Sinestro, "I mean if I held a grudge against everybody who tried to put me in a zoo for no reason I wouldn't have any friends."

Clark's ears perk, then, and he looks forward, sculpted face pulling into a frown. "Trouble." Superman says, "A ways down, I hear screams. I'm going to go check it out. If this place digests me, someone promise me you'll tell Luthor he'll always be fat on the inside."

And with that Superman kicks off recklessly into the dark, moving swiftly towards the screams while trying to stay in the sight of the rest of the league. They're probably better equipped to figure out the mystery of this place anyway.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
"It's Biblical even, J'onn," Zatanna nods a greeting in turn to each arrival. "Hope it doesn't go down to hell if it does," she shrugs elaborately, turning to look at Superman, "we can deal with it."

Superman mentioning hell prompts Zatanna to touch a finger to the middle of her forehead, opening her sight into the astral plane.

There is nothing remarkable close to the surface. A ghostly pod of whales swims by, their souls calling each other. But, much deeper, she feels more than sees an aura of Magic deep inside the tunnel. It roils and swirls under the depths of the waves.

Off they go, at a jog into the unknown. The Green Lantern gives the homo magi a more vivid picture of what she envisions as a well. The magician keeps up..

A bit breathlessly Zee calls, <<"Do any of you feel what I do?">>

She wipes her fingers across her forehead, closing the sight temporarily, quashing the temptation to hum, "Do you believe in Magic?

<< "I see Magic. And a lot of it. Down there." She points straight into the maw of the tunnel. "And, I have no idea who or what would do this.">>

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
    J'onn watches Karen shoot off into the darkness ahead of them and shakes his head with a small chuckle. "Well, that is one way to go, I suppose." As the others start heading down too he follows, zipping into the darkness ahead as he shifts his vision through all the different spectrums to see what gives him the best view in this darkness.

    <<It does not seem to be an intelligent entity, at least not that I could detect with telepathy. It may be organic in structure, but at this time I can not detect any thoughts from it.>>

    He also hears the noises from ahead and speeds up, shooting down into the darkness. When Zatanna reports on magical activity over the comms he replies <<I would say you need to keep us advised on what the magic is doing, I don't think any of the rest of us can detect such things.>>

Hal Jordan has posed:
While he certainly has demonstrated a rebellious streak from time that go hand in hand with his occasional anti-athority leanings, he generally favors instinct over impulsiveness. The distinction between the two might be difficult to discern, but it is one that Hal makes nonetheless.

He is unphased by Karen's comments though he does roll his eyes when she streaks on past into the cave without a moment's thought. "Nice to see you too," he calls out after Power Girl even as she vanishes beyond the green glow he projects into the passageway. "Once more unto the breach," he says with a little smirk and a shake of his head. If Sinestro's disapproval is noticed, it is pointedly ignored too. A gift perhaps? Or just obstinante. Maybe a little of column A, a little of column B.

Taking to the air, an emerald glow wraps around the test pilot as he soars down into the passage. With arm extended in front of him, that green glow seems to intensify around the power ring gracing one of his fingers. There is a quiet 'pop' and suddenly a floating eye is shooting ahead, proceeding the group (minus Power Girl who has already charged ahead of course) a beam of light emitted from it as it sweeps over the walls. That pop is quickly followed by dozens more and in short order several dozen floating green eyes zip about with their beams criss-crossing the 'cavern', flooding it with that green glow.

"It can't be that intelligent. It showed up here to make trouble," Hal chimes in oh so confidently. Pilots.

T'Challa has posed:
"Almost as impulsive as Shuri," Black Panther remarks when Power Girl flies into the cave straight away. He takes a more measured step to his approach, and while some of his sensors aren't working properly, there are still the usual things he can pick up. "I can hear the same thing," he reports of the noise up ahead.

Upon reaching the membrane, he squints at it from behind the mostly blank visage his helmet offers, then a flex of the fingers brings the claws out and he opens his own path through them. "This is not a kind of magic I am familiar with, if that is what we are dealing with. I trust someone more experienced with it will explain." He advances further, along for the ride so to speak, as they hit different features of the cave during their progression forward. He is on the lookout for the ship, for anyone that's missing. "I need not say it, but watch out for one another. There may be surprises ahead."

Karen Starr has posed:
    Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

    On and on through the cavern, Karen pierces each membrane with a combination of blinding speed and a touch of heat vision here and there, to ensure that they never present much of a threat of slowing her down. <<"No it isn't.">> She replies to Hal, making sure that he knows that she can hear him. It's important.

    What's also important is the noise that she hears from the cavern, the depths of it holding the cruise ship and the people onboard- many still alive, perhaps even all of them. No time to waste. Speeding up, Karen becomes a blur in the night until she comes into view of the cruise ship, slowing down until she isn't a threat to the people on the deck, and dropping herself down onto it with a heavy thud.

    <<"We have movement, there are creatures down here, and I'd wager they're probably pretty hostile.">> With that noted, she calls out, "Everyone get inside!" to the passengers, before she starts moving around to engage the skittering menaces, delivering a swift kick to one in hopes of punting it straight off of the deck. These things have clearly been able to get into the ship somehow- Karen predicts the hull probably has a few holes, from the metallic sounds she heard earlier- but it's still safer inside than out on the deck.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Cassie possesses no particularly amazing senses beyond those offered by her phone's bajillion megapixel camera (the new StarkPhone 13)! She points it around the entrance a bit, and even pauses over Superman as he smiles back (cuz some Big Blue in your feed is bound to get likes!), while ultimately waiting on Diana to launch ahead before tucking it in a hoodie pocket and flying to catch up. Call it standard sidekickery, or the Amazon training, but when she's in the field with her boss, everything is executed with careful teamwork.

As they continue, and things get a whole lot more mucous-y, she can't help but chime in with J'onn and Zatanna on the apparent media parallels: "I am totally getting some Dune vibes." What? Can't let that hack Lucas get all the credit! "Hopefully we're all digestion-proof." A pause, and then thoughtfully, "Though if Boba Fett can survive it in just that armor..." STICK TO A FRANCHISE, CASSIE!

Hell, though? "We kind of just did that, yeah?" she remarks, although less so back at the fabulous magician and more in a sidelong remark to her mentor. "Well, Tartarus, anyway, and we didn't quite get to go inside, but if Donna and the others made it back, how bad could it have been? Those zombie centaurs were total pushovers." It is perhaps TOO overly dismissive, at a point, but if she's playing in the big leagues, she's gotta walk the walk, talk the talk.

All attempts at boisterous heroic banter aside, she is definitely avoiding the weird gunk as much as she can, letting the super-dupers blaze that trail and maneuvering through the holes. In the meanwhile, she muses a little less jokingly: "So alive, no or very alien intelligence, growing out of the ocean and made of rock but with softer bits inside, magical energies... so what, like magic coral?" Is that insight helpful in any way? "They're kind of... they work with other species, filter out food, create whole new biomes. Maybe this is here to metabolize magical energy for something else, filter feeding on..."

Cruise ships? Kind of a grim image.

Finally, as Karen calls a warning of creatures ahead, she takes the few final preparations for a fight, pulling back her sleeves to reveal her bracers and loosing her lasso from its place on her belt, looping it around one hand and then spooling out the rest with the other.

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana takes to flight after the others, skipping and hopping and then launching up in to the green lit cave as the team descends. She sees the mucuss membranes getting struck apart by the others ahead of her, raising her shield to help push aside the strands that remain in their wakes....

"I can hear them too..." Diana's voice says over the team coms, with regard to the screams down below.

The group advances

The downward slope will be challenging for those who do not fly, possibly even a water slide if they are not helped or careful to mind their footing!

The quick flyers down the passage, along with Hal's green-eyes are able to see it first.

The Cruise Ship.

Its partially submerged in a bubbling, steaming, pool of water that churns at the base of the main slope. The front of the mighty ship is pushed up against the wall of the cave and is leaning toward it, with segments of the ship being bent and pulled apart by the sheer force of being shoved up against the unforgiving wall.

Power Girl is quick and lands upon the ship first! She is able to start attacking the slug-like creatures that are covering its deck but in-turn they start to take note of her, and start to swarm toward her! Skittering fat wet legs that squish rapidly across the deck all headed in her direction now!

And with Power Girl's team arriving to assist, the jig is up, whatever is alive in here has learned of their presence. There's a rumble, a loud gurgling rumble as the acidic water that the Cruise Ship is being pulled in to suddenly belches up a loud bout of indigestion! A huge green bubble explodes from the acidic pool and splashes outward toward the Heroes!

There-after a literal army of slug-like creatures begin to pour out of the acid pool, lining the cavern walls, floors and everywhere as they start to run toward the heroic types!

And deep within the acid pool, something glows, pulsing... a deep crimson behind a wash of bubbling green fluids!


And boy does it stink in here now, like the worst kind of death one has ever smelled!

The screams from the ship crew continue, those that Karen commanded do try to find shelter but they're being overwhelmed by the slug monsters, some of them being devoured whole, only legs or arms visibly wiggling around outside of the slug-mouths yet still!

Clark Kent has posed:
"Great Scott." Superman says, visibly horrified by the massacre in front of them.

The entire cave complex moves, coming alive as a horde of the digestive slugs-parasites maybe?-come streaming off of the walls. Triage, Clark thinks, looking at the half digested metal husks. Normally he'd go right after the slugs, but he's with the Justice League, which is a rare opportunity for Superman to specialize instead of having to solve the whole crisis himself. The Man of Steel kicks through the air, diving into the horrible, stinking, acidic river!

It bubbles fetidly.

A hideous, skeletal boat frame rises out of the digestive juices, supported by the broad shoulders of Superman! Parts of it are already melting under the attention of Clark's heat vision as he scans the cruise ship for its most damaged parts.

"I'm going to patch the thing up!" Clark says, and spits. "ugh rao I got some in my mouth. Augh it tastes like death." Superman heaves for a second while moving in to literally patch the biggest hole in the cruise ship. The sooner the civilians get OUT of the horrible magical maw, the better, right?

Thaal Sinestro has posed:
SEVERAL PANELS AGO

"I have never," Sinestro firmly states as slender black brows knit together, "entertained the idea of placing Kryptonians into zoos."

NOW

<<Immediate vivisection will be the surest way to identify this... ... ... thing,>> Sinestro determines within seconds of meeting the wall of stench head on. Sure, 'seconds' is enough time to manifest a glowing mask over his nose and mouth to filter the worst of it out, but it's a matter of principle at this point. And scientific imperative. And revenge; sweet, principled, scientifically-motivated revenge.

|(Jordan,)| emanates from one mind, one ring, to another. |(What we're seeing are the digestive processes of megafauna turned loose upon unsuspecting humans. Shutting it down quickly is their best chance of survival-- and given that we can reasonably surmise from our environs that it prefers a relatively high internal temperature...)|

By all appearances, Sinestro has hovered in still silence since he first encountered the horrifying scene unfolding beneath him-- until now, when he breaks it to frame the pulsing, radiant emblem on his chest between both hands.

Until his eyes lid in sync with a slow, steady draw of air.

Until lively, scintillating emerald begins to fade, slipping inexorably into impossibly deep darkness.

|(Assist me in reducing its body temperature,)| he transmits as rippling currents begin to spiral inwards-- towards the deep, dark, Lantern-shaped hole in the middle of his chest where it vanishes just as the light did, |(and perhaps we can turn this unmitigated disaster into a mere tragedy.)|

Slowly -- surely -- a brilliant green pearl begins to bloom from the center of his chest, growing steadily as he attempts to drive his efforts to absorb ambient heat from their environment into overdrive-- and marking him as an increasingly warm -- hot -- blistering meal.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Zatanna doesn't fly or run at super speeds, she portal hops, skipping closer to the source of the Magic and the horrible smell. After passing two membranes, she stops to cast a spell, more to confirm what is becoming rapidly evident: the source of the Magic is black and growing at an incredible pace as it ingests the ship. It is not apparent whether it needs the ship to grow, but it /is/ alive. She casts: "?cigam siht stsac ohW" (What casts this magic?)

The light pulses behind viscous membranes in answer. <<"Taking a stab here. Demon spawn, digesting whatever is at hand. I can capsule any crew if that helps.>>

She watches with horror as Superman sputters to the surface and covers her mouth, stomach spasming in sympathy.

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
    After they reach the ship, J'onn's first action is to shift the biopolymers in his skin to be resistant to acid. Next, he swoops down to the ship while forming one hand into a swordlike blade and scythes it through one of the slugs to see how they react to being chopped.

    At the same time, several of the crew who were the most in danger from slug attack find themselves being lifted into the air by the Martian's telekinesis. A large piece of plating also floats up to them, giving them a solid surface to stand on rather than just dangling in midair. He's found humans tend to handle it better if they can't see all the nothing under them.

    If the slicing works, he will zip from slug to slug, removing as many as he can from his area on the ship.

    <<Get the crew up to the platform I've created, then we can deal with the rest of this thing.>>

Hal Jordan has posed:
There is little else like a host of innocent bystanders to get Hal to dial back the confidence -- some might say arrogance -- and focus on the task at hand. That faintly amused smirk is smoothed away as if it never had been, the line of his mouth set into a firm, uncompromising visage as the trailing group emerges into depths of the passage and spot the endangered remains of the cruise ship present. Those multitude of floating green eyes that proceeded them down the passage begin to wink out, almost like they are closing. And not incidentally preserving power. He just might need it.

It is almost like throwing a switch. With that irreverent attitude gone, Hal goes right into threat assessment mode, that masked gaze sweeping over the assorted hazards. The ship and the fate of it's passengers obviously tops the list. He doesn't need Kryptonian super hearing to hear the frightened calls and screams. He also has no doubt that they will be well attended to. The slug like creatures are likewise clearly a threatm though again with so many of the League's heavy hitters present he is confident that they will have more then met their match.

So that leaves the environment. The 'cavern' itself seems designed to be unfriendly to life what with the exploding acid pools. They might not be a threat to most of those present, but not everyone is invulnerable or sporting an emerald force field. More importantly, they need to bring any survivors back this way in all likelihood and it would probably be better if they were not being dissolved while they do it. Most people object to that.

So the green energy that springs forth from the power ring does not strike down the disgusting, slug-like creatures. Instead it looks very much as if he is conjuring up huge, green well caps, one pool, then another, and then another still blocked off by the glowing green constructs. They continue to appear, one after another in a long row leading all the way down to where the ship is being grinded away -- a passage of their own free from the spewing clouds of exploding acid. One avenue of retreat opened and held. For now. Though each time another of those pustules explodes against the elaborate energy matrices the Green Lantern of Sector 2814 grimaces a little.

As Sinestro utilizes the power ring's ability to speak to another Lantern telepathically, Jordan turns away from his own work, pausing for a moment in consideration of the alien man's instructions. It is perhaps to his credit that in the end Hal does not pause to confer with his ring's database to judge the merits of Sinestro's approach. To his credit because one might suspect that Hal finds the other man a little grating. Just a little. Instead he is beside his fellow Lantern in a mere instant, his own beam of searing green light piercing deep into the endless darkness. His free hand grips the wrist of his ring hand as if that is enough to direct even more of that boundless willpower into the blast. "Give this thing the ol' ice cream freezie headache, huh. I'm onboard with that," he bites out.

The other Lantern might have a pretty good reason to find him more than a little vexxing too. At least he does not complain about the fact that, as the glow of the force field around him brightens to almost painful intensity at channelling that much heat -- there is a pretty good chance that they are in the process of making themselves an awfully tempting snack.

T'Challa has posed:
With Black Panther the only one who doesn't have a way to fly or otherwise shorten the path to the ship, he slides his way down the slope, bringing him closer. He does so while upright, crouched and maintaining his balance. Angling himself toward a rise along the way, he uses that to launch himself into the air toward the ship, landing against the side and clinging to it, using claws to scale the rest of the way up.

He's already been given information on what they're facing, and with the pungent scents he tones down the ability of the suit to allow such smells to make it through. One of the benefits of special technologies like that. With the foul, fast slugs on the attack, he leaps into an immediate offensive with aggressive attacks, claws slicing through as he uses his strength, speed, and abilities to rip into them. However, as great as their numbers are, it doesn't take long before some begin to close in from all sides.

He rips out a metal pole that's already been sheared off at one end, sharp and pointed and he wields it like a spear, striking and stabbing, kicking away what he's run through with it. "If there is a source these are coming from, I would advise closing it up," he calls out. "We must save as many as we can before it is too late!" The infestation that explodes from below seems to be such a thing. "Like that."

He is struck on occasion, and each time he is, that section of his suit pulses with a purple glow. He can allow himself to present an inviting target and dish out a lot more in return as he builds up a well of energy.

Karen Starr has posed:
    Karen drops back for a moment, as more slugs start to swarm her. She doesn't consider them much of a threat, and to be honest, they aren't- but she can't just deal with them directly. That might discourage them; She wants them to swarm her: The more that do, the less that are preying upon the people of the liner. For a moment, she drifts into the safety of the sky, and then takes her attention to the ones that still feed upon the innocent crew and passengers.

    Her eyes alight with red, burning beams of concentrated heat bursting forth and raking across slugs that have taken to eating. Severing them mercilessly, Karen shoots forward, doing her best to pull these people from their doom before they can be hurt- though there are many she knows she can't save. More heat vision, more retrievals, and more blows sent forward to slugs that have chosen her as a target. They're fast, but she's faster- the only problem is, she's not fast /enough./

    "Dammit," she mutters, before pushing onto the League comms again. <<"Doesn't need to be said, but if this is a stomach, we need to get everyone out of here before it closes its mouth. Everyone who can, get the slugs and the people off of the ship. I'll buy you time to repair or evacuate.">>

    Abandoning the deck, Karen knows that as long as the slugs are allowed to swarm, their efforts are going to be in vain. She dives, then, letting out a wide burst of heat vision to paint a giant swath of burning hatred upon the slugs climbing the hull and thin their numbers, before she dips into the acid below, and disappears from sight.

    Moments later, the ship groans slightly, and begins to rise. It's not expressly /fast/, she can't go quickly or the ship might break apart... But lift it does, over time: And once it's left the water, it'll be isolated from the slugs, unless they drop from the roof onto it.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Given the situation, the scope of the not-sandworm, Cassie doesn't worry too much about what they're going to do about the colossal critter itself. To her, it's all rescue-op, at this point.

Thus Wonder Girl launches forward, flying at full speed toward the exposed part of the ship where the crew seems in dire straights. Her very first target is someone currently half-engulfed by one of the slugs, clearly in very dire and immediate threat, although whether from suffocation or digestion first is hard to say. Without hesitation, she launches into a throw, laying the loop of her lasso around the thickest portion of the person available (it turns out to be a thigh, as their legs kick wildly in the air). A flick of her wrist tightens the loop, and then wtih a mighty YANK, she pulls them free in a burst of goo.

The poor shuffleboard director is left dangling head first over the digestive pit beneath, covered in slime... but alive!

Looking around for a place to PUT him is step 2, although J'onn conveniently provides this in the form of the floating platform. A quick swoop past, and the poor fellow is deposited there. Floating platform feels temporary, though, and since Zatanna is asking about protective bubbles, she suggests, "A permanent safe area for survivors might be good... or even a portal out of here. Some of these folks are gonna need immediate medical attention for the acid melty-burny stuff."

Whatever the long term solution, no sooner than she's managed to put down her first rescuee, she quickly turns and resumes the effort. Super speed and strength do a good job here, as people are grabbed several at a time, her efforts hindered more by physical space than weight, and flown back to J'onn's floating refuge. Some are easy rescues, people who are still fleeing the monsters, or who've clambered to precarious positions to escape the slugs. Some are NOT so easy: several slugs have surrounded what was once an observation deck. Guests have locked themselves within, but the creatures both swarm over the glass and simultaneously seem to be finally attempting to breach the bulkhead door behind them. There's too many of them to practically punch her way past: she tries, making a wet SPLORTCH out of one, but others just kind of ooze in, both filling the hole she was trying to make AND extruding toward her in some kind of counter-attack, getting all over one of her arms and causing her to swear at the acidic burn, yanking back.

"What I wouldn't give for a giant salt shaker." Any Green Lantern takers?

Like Karen, her solution is to turn to the energy weapons. In her case, that means flitting back and casting her lasso at one of them- pointless at first, as it's simply absorbed into the mass. But LESS pointless when a moment later, it sparks to light as the entire lasso elecrifies, lightning cascading down the golden cord. With so many of the creatures oozing close together, it fries not just the first, but several in close proximity. The smell is awful!

She smashes through the burnt-slug crusted window, breaking an opening to the people inside as reinforcements swarm. "Time to move!"

Diana Prince has posed:
AS the slugs begin their charge, Diana touches down on the flowing water covered surface of the cave. With sword and shield up she looks around to the others, toward the Cruise Ship and then back to the acidic pool as it belches its acid across the cave. The Amazon shield is raised up to block away the goop and fluids before the Princess lowers it down to peer over the edge. Her sword held high she exhales as the slugs converge around her.

Wonder Woman becomes a blur of sword strikes and shield bashes, with bits of slug creature flying this way and that. Just as she is being overwhelmed on the ground she leaps up out of the bio-mass and lunges toward the front of the Cruise Ship! She lands on the railing and swipes her sword across a row of slugs sliming across it!

Sinestro's efforts of chilling the cavern have a clear effect. It starts to rain slug-creatures down upon him. The fatty pink-skinned tubes just start throwing themselves at the Lantern as they try and connect with him to begin to devour him!

Zatanna's magic seems to have a counter effect too. The more she casts it to investigate the going-ons the more the magic she's sniffing out begins to grow. The walls of the cave are starting to move beyond just the slugs. Pustules begin to push out of the walls, as something within them are trying to push free.

Tentacles. Of course its tentacles.

Deep red, and pink, fat tentacles push away from the walls as they start to reach for anything they can get.

Especially that Cruise Ship. They're pawing all over it trying to push it further in to the acid, as more Heroes land upon it. The crew that J'Onnz has up on the new platform are standing up and looking around in disbelief as they call out to help their friends!

The sound of a shotgun, of all things, rings out aboard the ship as a man with a Captain's hat on appears inside the main corridor. Blast after blast as he advances through the once fancy yacht, shouting in a rich Scotish accent obscenities about bugs and his ex-wives... He stops as he reaches the main deck and sees the heroic types. "The Justice League! Now ya done it, ya filthy bastards!" He says as he fires one more blast from his pump action in to the face of a slug crawling toward him! "Lets get goin' shall we?!" The Captain adds with another pump of a new shell, as members of his crew hang behind him!

Hal's efforts do indeed make him a target, however, as more tentacles coming from the sides rush out at him to try and snare around the man's legs and arms!

The same can be said for Black Panther, the slugs near Diana are turning toward the King to lunge at him, one after another, a seemingly endless stream of fat heavy nasty creatures just throwing themselves at their target until they can maybe latch on to something to devour!

Diana ends up near to where Cassie is as she goes for the crew and the few passengers that remain aboard the decommissioned ship! Wonder Woman providing backup to the young Cassie in the form of stabbing sword strikes and crushing kicks that send slugs toppling end over end!

When the Cruise Ship is lifted in to the air, it begins to pour acid out of its aft ports and off its hull that is stripped of any paint or markings now where it was resting inside the steamy, smelly, fluids! Superman's efforts have the largest gash in the Cruise Ship's hull patched up for now, and overall the ship looks like it can at least stay afloat long enough to get the crew out once its back out at sea... or flown all the way back to the coast!

Only there's one problem... the mouth of the cave is encircled by new spikes that were not there when the Justice League arrived... and they're closing together, as more membranes are leaking from the cavern walls and more tentacles are pushing their way out in to the tunnel itself!

Inside the acid pool that glowing red source of magic pulses brighter as the efforts to stop it seem to only be making it stronger!

Clark Kent has posed:
Everything's closing in on them. Swell.

"Okay." Superman says, nodding at Power Girl focusing on the ship. The Lanterns seem to have a plan and it might even be working, eventually. They just have to not die, right? Clark can handle that.

"Off." Superman says as a tentacle wraps around his leg; Superman's eyes gleam, and the tendril is cut off with a beam of hyperconcentrated x-rays. "Alright, I'm going to get the mouth. Guys, I've got the mouth okay! I had to swallow the acid so I'm just going to let one of you kill it."

This isn't really true but one of the many benefits of the Justice League is that Superman can joke around without people acting like the world is literally going to end. The Man of Steel flies through the air, wind whistling as more tendrils make the mistake of trying to grab him.

Superman takes a breath, and lets out a puff of concentrated cold air, creating a makeshift stick of ice that he shoves into the bottom of the cave monster's jaw, flying up to physically hold the top half open, balancing the gross teeth on his shoulders.

Zatanna Zatara has posed:
Zatanna Zatara says, ".dica morf em dleihS" (Shield me from acid)

To give herself room to work while other Justice League members go about destroying the slugs and their amazing efforts to rescue the crew members.

Green goo splashes against the magical shield .

Finger to her forehead, she opens her third eye again. Aghast at what she sees, she admits over coms through gritted teeth, <<I've made it worse!" I'm going to try something here. Get ready.>>

There is no single answer to killing something that feeds on magic. She has to break it somehow. Desperate, she mutters test spells under her breath, "Break its heart. Crack it in half. Stop its heart." NO! She needs to concentrate on the shield.

Taking a life will entirely kill the homo magi's magic. the wily Constantine has taught her to look for loopholes.

<<If this works, go for what's in the shield.>> In desperation, she yells, .dleihs eht nepo kcarC (Crack open the shield.)"

Thaal Sinestro has posed:
When he first entered the stomach, it seemed that the Lantern from Korugar was content to merely observe, exasperated with the sheer temerity of a creature brazen enough to assault his sensibilities so thoroughly as it carried out its murderous biological processes. Sinestro is not a man who tolerates waste, however, and every precious moment between arrival and hostile contact was accounted for. Some, of course, were channeled into telepathic communication; as for the rest--

"Hhh-- Nnngggh--!" hisses through Sinestro's teeth as digestive slugs crawl across the surface of his aura, trailing acid across its surface and setting his nervous system alight with feedback. His arms tremble, but don't budge, save to make way for the crackling green sphere growing between them. Thin wisps of smoke waft from writhing concentrations and sizzling softly trickles into the air; what was taut, radiant green warbles madly in intensity and the world ripples around him in syncopated time.

Sinestro spent those other moments thinking. Pondering.

Imagining a solution to the problem engulfing them all. When he was done, sewed it into the fabric of his uniform with brisk, green thoughts and steeled himself for the consequences. Consequences like being covered from head to toe in vermin from another plane of existence that wants to eat him, an alarmingly common theme emerging amongst his Earthbound interventions as of late--!

Smoke and sizzling swirl from the alien Lantern's being; seconds later, slugs begin sloughing from his body in clumps of charred and popping biomass, his aura having finally settled on 'obnoxiously, blisteringly bright' due in no small part to magnifying and shedding the ambient warmth seeping into Sinestro. As the last of the slugs fall from his form, he turns his body towards the wet, living expanse above that dumped them on his head and extends his left arm.

<<You may wish to shield your eyes, briefly,>> is closely followed by static when every erg of gathered energy races across the surface of Sinestro's body, coursing through his left arm until it erupts, producing a deceptively narrow beam every bit as bright -- and blistering -- as before, focused into a narrow point designed to cut through what is apparently demonic flesh.

J'onn J'onzz has posed:
    J'onn keeps the rescue platform steady as additional crewmembers are deposited upon it. To his thinking, while getting the ship out is a good thing, they can't be sure if any of the slugs are inside it, so it's best to get the vulnerable humans off it to somewhere he knows is safe. In the meantime, he's keeping busy slicing up any of the slugs he can.

    Upon the captain's entrance, he lifts the entire group to his platform, at the same time speaking telepathically to the Captain. (Please take a headcount and let me know how many you are missing.)

    <<Diana, can you and the Lanterns try and deal with whatever Zatanna has found? I'm a bit tied up at the moment.>>

    Splitting his attention yet again, he also scans for any active minds inside the hull of the ship to see if any crewmembers remain on board. Given his multitasking, one of the slugs does manage to engulf his arm. This doesn't really slow him down, he simply lengthens the blade he's formed until it punches out of the rear of the slug, then pulls his arm free of the dying monstrosity, shrinking the blade back down to a usable length as he continues to scan the ship for crewmembers.

Hal Jordan has posed:
It would appear that the creature does not much care for having it's heat stolen. Or at the very least is very interested in recapturing some of that pilfered energy. And while Hal is pretty far from local townie who hasn't been more than fifty miles from home, while has seen an almost infinite variety of creatures, having a bunch of tentacles burst from what amounts to pustules on a stomach lining, writhing their ways towards you, well, that's a little unsettling for anyone. Or at least disgusting. Lanterns don't know fear afterall, right?

"Ugh!" comes the instinctual response of the green-glowing space cop, jumping back in mid-air somewhat in response to the onrushing, fleshy mass. "No one said there was going to be tentacles," Hal offers up in protest, instinctively turning that ring hand their way and unleashing a blast of emerald energy towards that mass. Which... only makes tham split and scatter of course.

"Damn it," the Lantern complains, the green glow around him intensifying as that incandescent force field fends off the tentacles to grab hold of the glowing green man. Hal learns from his mistakes as well. The next energy construct that bursts from his ring is no simple blast of power. Instead a green, gauntleted fist wields a truly epic broadsword as it slashes into those flesh red appendages, slicing and dicing like some deranged chef whipping up a batch of calamari. Which is pretty gross and messy too. But that's what the emerald force field is for. He can be right in the spatter zone and walk away fresh and clean as a daisy.

Situational awareness. It is a key to any battle and while there are plenty of distractions, Hal does focus in on the important. The essential in this case. "Order received. One mystical egg to be cracked. You take care of the scrambling," the green space cop says, whirling away from the pulsating 'walls' around them -- and not incidentaly Sinestro and his beam. A new construct leaps from his ring, lashing down into that acid pool and the glowing red source that has been pointed out, a massive jackhammer hitting it with all the force the Power Ring can bring to bear. And then hitting it again. Over and over again, a dozen times each second. Scrambled indeed.

T'Challa has posed:
T'Challa continues to cut through the slugs as the tentacles begin to fan out from the sides of the interior walls. The fact this thing is proving more and more to be some giant stomach of some giant creature, magic or not, is unsettling to say the least, though he keeps from exhibiting anything other than quiet certainty. He fights back-to-back with Wonder Woman in a few spots, watching her six while she does the same, and there is movement as the ship itself is jostled and shifted.

"The ship is expendable if necessary!" he shouts, comms or not. "Our priority is the crew's safety!" Shotgun-toting captain included. He discards the sharpened pole after it's become too bent to use effectively, withdraws a pair of vibranium daggers from sheathes at his sides, and they immediately begin to glow with energy before he cuts through more of the attackers, leaping and vaulting over a few as he tears at them from the opposite side. A burst of energy is released from them, blasting through a line of the creatures like a laser.

Then, the lines in his suit start to pulse and glow more distinctly. There is enough of a charge built up and he warns, "Those nearby, brace yourselves." Slamming his fists onto the deck, a pulsing wave of more energy emanates from the suit in a burst that causes all of the slug creatures around him to fly away, striking the sides of the ship, the inner walls, and tumbling into the acids below.

From the outside, Black Panther's ship hovers and fires on the maw of whatever this all is, providing some cover for Superman as well. Whether it is being controlled by T'Challa himself or someone connected to it back in Wakanda, its shots are quite effective. "Time to go," he urges.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
The mighty teeth start dramatically closing, and Cassie can't help it: "Oh, this isn't like the sarlaac, it's more like that worm thing from Empire! And this thing is WAAAAAY bigger than the Millenium Falcon."

Your fault, J'onn. Your fault.

Cinematic parallels aside, it does seem quite a pickle. After offloading her last load of rescued civillians, she doesn't immediately return to the ship for another pick-up. Because... maybe they're taking the whole ship out? BIG MAYBE. Joking aside, the Star Wars reference is actually somewhat on point, save that one ship was small, maneuverable, and famous for its Kessel-running speed. For various reasons, the cruise ship is none of those things! Even Kryptonian power won't change that, in large parts because it's a (heavily damaged) boat, not a plane, and thus not really designed for the G forces of aerial acceleration.

But Superman has a plan (of course he does!) and once it's clear, she does what she can to support it. And in this case, with Supes handling the mouth, and the Green Lanterns doing... Green Lantern things, it seems most useful for her to help with the ship. She's strong, and it's big!

Swooping back toward the ship, she positions herself at a point beneath the hull opposite (lengthwise) to Karen, so that she can shoulder some of the weight but more than that, keep the ship stable. Keep it, maybe, from snapping apart!

And when she has a grip, she throws her strength into it. "Let's go!"

En route, the tentacles continue their assault, provoking an angry, "Hey, not without consent!" Without laser eyes, she just rips each one free the brute-strength way.

Diana Prince has posed:
Zatanna's shield is being slammed in to by the creatures in the acid that are trying to get through it to reach her. But the Magician works her magic and with her process of elimination she feels the magical sheild around the 'heart' that pulses red in front of her, suddenly falls. It can't absorb magic any more, beyond what exists inside the heart already. It continues to glow, but its pulsing has subsided, for now.

Slugs rain down from the cavern ceiling as the Kryptonians tag team the ship being removed from the cavern. Their fat bodies slap down on the ship deck as the Captain continues to blast away at them. Wonder Woman drops down near to the Captain and swipes her sword through the air to cut another line of them apart in to wiggling dying thrashing masses of blood and gunk.

"I am on it!" Diana replies to J'Onnz.

She charges to the end of the ship and leaps back off toward the acid pool where she lands on solid footing near it to watch Zatanna within the churning, bubbling, brew of foul fluid!

The Captain is looking up at Sinestro when he gets the message and looks then to where J'Onnz is. "Aye. These ones with me, and the others that Blondie over there has saved. If there's more alive onboard... they're hiding in the bowels of the Liner!" The Captain replies as he shoves more shells in to his pump action, then gives it another cocking motion. "Foul nasty bitches!" He growls. "We're ready to go, Leaguers!" The Captain adds just before blasting another slug that tries to get on the makeshift platform.

Diana watches Hal's power go straight to the Heart itself. The hit that he delivers causes the glowing object to shake and then suddenly crack! The power inside it begins to glow bright before it fizzles out and the heart itself comes loose and floats through the acid as it is knocked about by the creatures swimming after Zatanna!

Only it doesn't float lifelessly for long. A golden lasso wraps around the Heart and suddenly is yanked right up out of the acid! It lands in Wonder Woman's arms as she holds on to the giant oblong shaped object. She looks at it for one second before her eyes look around at the cavern walls. Where they were once wet and living, they are now turning again to stone, only this time, a much darker and far more craggily 'dry' stone. Rapidly spreading across the entire tunnel toward the front again.

Superman, will feel it. The strength of the creature's wakening jaw going lighter as its life force is drained away from it before it could ever fully 'wake up'. The massive sea creature is taken from this world, its life force drained until the whole entire thing becomes a giant statue in the water...

And begins to sink....

It's lower jaw dips beneath the ocean water, causing a torrent of ocean to pour inside the cavern! It rushes toward the remaining League members.

"We must go!" Diana shouts as the water rushes toward everyone left inside, while the Cruise Ship with Karen and Cassie helping guide it out of the open flooding maw passes between the spiked rows of teeth and out in to the rainy weather outside!