8321/PoP: Care Bears Gone Wrong

PoP: Care Bears Gone Wrong
Date of Scene:	19 October 2021
Location:	Valley Stream Wal-Mart
Synopsis:	Wal-Mart is bad enough, but when a Thinning brings a blast from Nettie's past to bare, it gets all kinds of weird. Who knew that Cocomelon and Barbie could be so *brutal*? The good guys get the win at the end of another day ending in Y for the Night Brigade.
Cast of Characters:	John Constantine, Nettie Crowe, Paul Ramsey, Mairin Moran, Tara Tsabedze, Lydia Dietrich, Nico Minoru, Tynan Ireton

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John Constantine has posed:
    It was *supposed* to be a joyous moment, a happy reunion, with hugs and all it, wasn't it? But this is John Constantine's life and things just don't go that way in his story. Paulie wasn't five minutes in the door before John's cell phone pinged. Valley Stream Mall, that's close. Word was sent out via those connecting amulets - one of which was hastily given to Paul himself amid other preparations - 'Get to the Lauging Magician or straight to Valley Stream, whichever was quicker.

    Those that chose the pub were teleported to where they needed to be and those that were either *already* shopping as random people are wont to do *or* got there before John, well?

    ...they are met with an *insane* sight, and a level of chaos that's ... well, it is Wal-mart so maybe it's not too far above the normal level of chaos. Stuffies, all manner of them, action figures too, toy robots, one of those giant blow-up Halloween lawn decorations in the likeness of Pennywise, all if it has come to life with murderous intent.

    Customers are panicked and trying to get out the front doors that are locked, employees the same save a few brave souls that are trying really hard to keep folks calm.

    John steps through his portal, instinctively ducks a Baby Alive with a tiny blade in its hand as it comes flying toward his face and mutters, "Bollocks!" ...around the Silk Cut between his lips.

    ...where did they get tiny little knives?!

    Is that really the important question that needs ot be asked?

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Nettie was quick on the uptake when it comes to the action. Coming close to Halloween, of course things would be picking up. She had sent out the message via phone to Mairin and Tynan, her own two students, to be ready for a bit of a fight and to meet at the Laughing Magician, and if she's not there -- tell John she had sent them.

    Of course, she had arrived at the store itself, breaking in through the back door as a gray shadow astride her trusty broomstick, with Corvax on her shoulder.

    "HA! SHoulda seen the look on your face, mate!" the crow laughs at John, and Nettie steps out from the crowd.

    "Doors are spelled shut! I can't tell where it ends and begins, John!" she calls out, and she's got her wand in hand, bringing it up to bare like a sword before she freezes a bunch of balloons in ice, letting them strike the ground and smash into pieces.

    "Too many people yelling!"

Paul Ramsey has posed:
    Paul... blinks at the chaos, surprisingly calm for a man who only /just/ got into town and got unpacked. "This is your life now, is it? Flying..." He ducks out of the way of a robot. "...toys?"

    Something in his tone indicates he's beginning to regret coming in /this/ particular day already.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin slides out of the portal close on John's heels. She's actually dressed sensibly for this mission, she had a little bit of time to prep and learned from the last one. But she still carries that satchel, only it's not full of books tonight. It's sides bulge in werid ways from the conglomeration of parts she's carrying, three of which are special order for John.

    In her right hand she's holding her new multi-tool wand, and in her left, a large mechanical fly about the size of her fist that's shining with a dull glow

    She smiles as Nettie comes into sight, then jerks her hand forward and the bot zips off like a shot to strike a toy robot about to leap off a shelf at her mentor.

    Both explode.

Tara Tsabedze has posed:
Upon first arriving to the Wal-Mart through a personal portal of white light, a store that Tara had never actually shopped at herself, the sight of the stuffies and Halloween decorations running amok in an attempt to kill people was not a sight the felinoid had ever seen. It took her a moment of standing there before she realized this was in fact reality and some random dream... it had to be real, the Wal-Mart part confirmed that.

The screaming snaps her out of her reverie, and instantly her body stars to glow with a silvery white light. Low at first, but growing brighter until her entire form is like a beacon of light. In that light her body changes, grows, becoming larger and more beastial.

Standing around eight feet in height with a slender yet very well muscled body to match, she now appears to be something that could come from a nightmare. The fur that covers her body is deep and dark shiny black that conceals everything as her clothing simply disappears. Her head is without a doubt a panther with large, sharp canines extending from the mouth and long pointed ears standing at the sides of her head. Both ears have been pierced all the way around, the holes adorned with teeny-tiny silver hoops. Her head is covered in the same tribal style of hundreds of tiny black braids that hang wild and free down her body and over her shoulders. Massive thick, sharp claws extends from her strong fingered hands and the toes on her feet, built in weapons ready to kill. As if that was not already enough, a long thick tail extends from the small of her back, nearly five feet in length itself.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
It's early in the evening and Lydia had just gotten up from her sleep and was going through her daily morning routine. Which is now her daily dusk routing. That's going to get confusing fast. She fed, got herself showered and brushed her fangs (just because she's dead, that's no excuse for poor dental hygiene), and got dressed for the day... night when the ruby in her bracelet starts to pulse.

Trouble at a Walmart? That's new. She gives Mystique a kiss and tells her where she's going, and promises to bring back some chocolate on her way home, and gets a portal down in front of the building.

When she pushes through the front doors she's confronted with pure chaos. Walmarts. They're distasteful to the Jewish American Princess that she is at the best of times. This is not the best of times.

She rushes down the aisles looking for people that she knows. "John? John! What the hell is happening?" She ducks as a Lego batwing which somehow assembled itself swoops at her firing actual tiny missiles. They miss and explode a nearby shelf of shampoo products.

Nico Minoru has posed:
    Nico was shopping, of a sorts. Really, she was shopping with a 'five finger discount', because it turns out being a runaway witch with a magic arm and an arguably even more magical staff doesn't actually pay the bills.

And so while Ms. Minoru is mid-way through Chip Heist 2021, the sudden outbreak of commotion perks the hairs on the back of her neck.

    It's only for a moment, because the screams are _way_ too panicked and numerous for 'Look, that goth girl's stealing those Jalapeno Kettle Chips!' level of alarm.

    And so as she runs towards the noises (Because that's what heroes do, even if they're stealing chips), it's only to come upon a scene of insanity, action figures and stuffed animals and Halloween decorations run amok. "Oh, thank god! It's just some sort of magic gone wrong! Okay people this way! Hurry up now! C'mon, we've all seen horror movies! YOU! You've definitely seen them, I saw you in the electronics department! Move your ass!"

    And so Nico starts ushering panicked people towards the grocery section, and the fire exit past it. The frozen foods probably aren't trying to kill people any more than they usually do with their saturated fats and such.

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Ty got the call when she was at her safe house. She looks up, and then spins around to facetime call. "Oy, catch up with ya in a bit, Mom. Tell Dad to stop being a pain in the arse, and I'll catch up later. I got work.", she tells. The woman turns off the call, and starts grabbing her gear. The woman lifts up the cowl, and places the facemask on before driving to the Magician.

    The young mercenary lands besides Mairin as she glares a bit. Ty takes a moment to slash a small portal open, and sticks her hand inside. The guantlet comes out attached to her hand. "Avalon!", she says, activating the energy shield. THe woman takes a few moments to breath in and out as she moves in front of Mairin, covering her with the shield. "Alright Rabbit, the thick of things at the moment.", she says.

    Ty takes a moment, and presses her foot down, and breathes out. "Brath.", she says quietly, sending out a small pulse of magic out, creating something of a magical radar for her. For now, she has gotten it to be about 25 feet around her. The woman then summons another portal, and pulls out a celtic long sword. The smell of cooking flesh might whiff up to Mairin. "Lets get people to a more defensable area before we unleash spells, Rabbit."

John Constantine has posed:
    John opens his sight, the half there and half here of it. "Another day endin' in Y, love," he replies to Paul first. "Stay close, aye?" It's clear though, in his tone, that he's not asking Paul to do so for *Paul's* safety, but for his own in a way. Looking both directions is always a distraction.

    "Someone needs to try and corral these idiots into the loo or something!" he calls out, maybe to Nettie, someone else, it doesn't matter. Someone just get the muggles gone!

    Okay good, that's covered, "Thanks, Luv!" he calls out to whoever that person is, not one of his... mental note, maybe make her one of his? Good head, quick response time, knew what was priority beyond stopping this.

    First John's attention turns toward the doors. Then he turns in a slow circle to try and take it *all* in. "Working on it, Lyds," he calls back. Him? He doesn't notice the SpongeBob plushie lunging at him from a nearby display with evil it its eyes and a tiny pickax in its hand, it's going straight for the jugular. Instead, those faded denim blues narrow at something he's seeing 'there'.

    "Nettie! It's a Thinning, but there's also a witch's magic here or a wizard!"

    He raises his voice, booming levels, amplified by magic, "EVERYONE LOOK FOR A FUCKED UP HOLE IN REALITY! IT'LL BE ALL SWIRLY AND SHITE!" Not overly specific, but not something someone would *miss* if they run across it, right?

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Whatever it is it's not mine!" the Graywitch calls out, and then she brings her wand up again, curling her free hand as Corvax the Crow begins to ruffle his feathers, and then takes off, flying.

    Her breath gives a rattle, unnatural eyes narrowed in concentration. She draws on water from a taped-off, leaking water fountain. She breathes out, and with her wand in movement, the witch pulls on the water, drawing it out and creating a wriggling, watery wall.

    "ALL RIGHT EVERYONE!" she calls out, "If you aren't about to start slinging Magic Missiles or Fireballs, INTO THE LOO!" she calls out, using the water wall to start herding the normal people and poor Wal-Mart Employees into the front bathrooms "It's 2021, don't worry about if you match the image on the door just Get Yourselves In!"

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin's face is impassive as she lets Ty step in front of her with the shield, her left hand reaching into her bag to grab a handful of smaller bots from her bag, while her right reaches out with the wand to catch a flying, red-eyed, My Little Pony in the face with a crackle of electricity that pops it open in a puff of stuffing that pours out of a body that's still trying to crawl toward Ty.

    She kicks that, then whispers something to the tiny bots and tosses them into the air. They zip up, fan out and then explode into light. Like ten individual hundred watt bulbs blaring their light down on the chaos.

Tara Tsabedze has posed:
Without further pause, Tara charges for the largest thing she can see, a Halloween blow up lawn decoration skeleton that some how manages to have a massive machete in it's hands. Do American really decorate with this sort of thing? How tacky, just... ew.

The skeleton swings the machete at her as she approaches, but she merely drops below it and slides in close to come back up on her feet. Both clawed hands dig into the giant rib cages and rip it apart, sending bits and pieces of 'bone' to the floor and causing the whole thing to collapse. One would think that would be all that's required, but even on the ground the arm is attempting to swing the weapon around, so she uses a clawed foot to stop on it and disarm the arm... a line she will never speak allowed.

"If it is large," she calls out, a hint of an East African accent. "Call to me and I will take care of it!" She stops the spine a few times as well, just to make sure that although the thing is still wiggling around, it can't put itself back together and starts looking for a new target. Which happens to be a massive lawn pumpkin rolling it's way toward someone.

Dropping to all fours to dart over she just jumps on the thing and starts shredding it, claws tearing into whatever the hell they are made of and spraying parts everywhere. Sometimes it paid to have a little (big) animal on your side.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
"A thinning, great," Lydia grumbles. These things are always some sort of trouble, which is why she's not surprised that a homicidal Spongebob is leaping at John. With a flick of a finger she sends a spike of ectoplasm, now obsidian black instead of emerald green, through the toy pinning it to the wall.

"I'll keep your ass safe as you do what you do," Lydia yells. She ducks as she's buzzed by the Lego batwing again, but this time she sends an obsidian fist to smash it into pieces. Then she holds out a hand and raises a protective shadowy bubble around them.

This is good because a small horde of Barbies wielding katanas gather at the base of the shield and start hacking at it. "This is insane," she mutters.

Nico Minoru has posed:
    Nico's ushering, guiding, corraling, maybe kicking a few butts to keep the civvies moving towards the exit, keeping an eye towards the onrushing distant forms of toys and decorations... Jesus, this place really _is_ big.

    And then there's that booming voice and she's wildly darting her eyes around, "HEY! HEY! I DIDN'T DO THIS! THIS SHIT'S ON SOMEONE ELSE! I WAS JUST GETTING A SNACK!!"

    It's about then that Nico hears an ungodly whining from up ahead. It's not quite a tide of RC cars, but it's enough of the damned things to be trouble, especially since they seem oddly spikey to pass any sort of safety examination.

    And there's still a scrambling family between her and them. Goddamnit. Nico doesn't really think, she's got a switchblade in her artificial hand from somewhere, a quick little slash to her other inner arm, drawing blood, a glow that extends into her Staff, gripped, held high, and then her voice shouts out. It's not as loud as John's magically enhanced voice, but it absolutely rings with magic force, "HOT NEW TOY OF THE YEAR!"

    She feels that familiar rush that she's tried to avoid for months now, magic bursting free, unrestrained wild power, suddenly focused and regulated by the staff itself, erupting into a gout of flame that sweeps above the family, only to dive down and wash over the cars.

    This is fine. This'll be fine. No one's going to notice she did that.

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Oh wouldn't Nettie be proud. Her students are getting along instead of argueing with each other. On the field, the two seem to get things together. Ty stays low, keeping the shield high so that knives don't end up in Mairin. She crouch walks foward, sweeping her blade low in short chopping slashes so that she can keep Mairin covered. "Rabbit, lets help get the people to the bathroom. Once in there, we can fight more freely.", she tells.

    Ty starts to slash at a Tickle me Elmo, but her blade disappears before hitting a kid whose crying a bit. In the chaos, he must of gotten seperated. "Rabbit, pulling back a bit. Innocent on the field.", she tells. Mairin knows it would be much easier for Ty to open up with her firearms, but there's just too many people in the way. Ty grabs the kid, places him behind her, and starts to crouchwalk back, keeping the kid safe, and over to the bathroom.

John Constantine has posed:
    It's Wal-Mart, in *October*, of course they've already started pushing Christmas. Pennywise killer lawn balloons? Skeletons? All of that, well, it's bad but it doesn't seem *wrong* on the grand scale. But the random Santa Claus dolls running about still singing Jingle Bells or calling out 'Hohoho, Merry Christmas!' with little blades in their hands rather than bells? That is all sorts of *wrong*, fundamentally wrong. Makes one glad they're not selling nativities dunnit?

    At the last second, John ducks, but it's more a reaction to Lydia's pinning of the thing than it is the thing itself. "Bloody hell, thanks, luv." Tucked between Paul and Lydia, John goes back to 'looking'.

    Oh, big clown. "TARA! Pennywise!"

    "Thanks for shedding a little light, Kitten!" It's another reason he's so distracted, he's trying to keep an eye on his people too, maybe one day he'll learn that's not a necessity, but that day isn't today.

    Most of the crowd is starting to fall into line, kids screaming, parents panicked, a few bleeding ... but none fatally so yet.

    "I don't *see*, it has to be somewhere else, back, basement? Do HellMarts have basements?" John's more muttering to himself than anyone in particular.

    "Nettie! The doors! It's like they're chained shut, with literal magical *chains*! See if you can break them!" So much chaos... where the fuck *is it*?

    A little Baby Shark plushie, singing it's little DoDoDodo do... launches itself at John, mouth opened to bare insanely sharp teeth, rows and rows of them.

Paul Ramsey has posed:
    Paul just... stays near John, doing his best to bat away flying toys and ignore the chaos.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Nettie would be proud of her two students getting along and haphazardly destroying corperate property in the field while saving innocents. That's what it's all about, isn't it?

    "OI! Language, miss!" she calls out to the cursing Nico, and as people are guided gently by a wall of water into the bathrooms (Gardez l'eau indeed!), Nettie lets the water drop and turn to a wall of ice, curled, to keep the GI Joes with amazingly real gun action from getting in to follow them, and she turns her attention to the doors.

    Corvax caws overhead, swinging on one of the lights overhead as Nettie focuses.

    She brings up her wand, takes a deep breath, and begins to work magic against the doors, little fingerlings of power trailing along as she reaches for a deck of cards in her pocket.

    She begins to murmur in Old English, her head tilting downward as if her chin started to weigh a hundred pounds, words tumbling out of her lips as she tries to break the warding on the doors.

    A trio of MySize Barbies are beginning to make their approach behind her, each baring maniacal Chuckie grins and kitchen knivess.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    "John!" Mairin yells, reaching into her bag and tossing a sphere of metal at him. Her aim isn't that great, but the sphere seems to self-correct a bit, placing itself in easy catching distance. "It's Rabbit! And it still needs the spell and the trigger!" she calls out to his back. And if he's dissapointed that she couldn't cast a spell consisting of two pages of latin into it by herself... well he can just teach her how later.

    She then keeps pace with Ty, even turning to keep the boy between them just in time to spot the group of little army men complete with tank. Thwarted in their persuit of the other civvies, they've turned around to fina another promising target.

    Mairin drops to a crouch, pulling the boy down with her, as her free hand pulls the only spell she knows from mind to heart and out. "Ignus!" And now there's a melted hunk of plastic where a tank used to be, and little toy men trying to slide across the floor despite missing an arm or a leg.

    "Ugh.. Gross.." Mairin pulls the child through, breaking with Ty. The Merc will understand. She hustles the lad to the bathrooms, practically pushing him into them, then spins around, already reaching back into her bag of tricks for another.

Tara Tsabedze has posed:
With the pumpkin now in pieces, Tara's attention shifts immediately to searching out the Pennywise, what the hell is a Pennywise... oh hell that's one ugly clown! That has to be it!

When she drops to all fours this time, it's to build up the charge as she heads for the clown. She has no idea what the fuck that thing is, where it comes from, who would decorate with it, but John said kill it and so she will kill it.

Just a few feet from the thing, she spring up and throws her entire weight into it so that she can take it down and start shredding it. This thing has hands, and balloons and a knife?! Yes, the stab between her ribs hurts, but it also pisses her off and that anger fuels her claws tearing into Pennywise.

"Do not... know what you are... you must... die you ugly thing!" She screams as she shreds, ignoring the second stab. For anyone paying attention, they would note that first stab has a soft silvery glow and is already healing. "Why... will you... not DIE?!" Whatever this Pennywise is, large and foreboding, ugly and armed, it also seems to not want to die.

Where normal claws fail, she chooses then to charge the claws with the magic of the moon. Both hands start glowing with that same silvery light and then she returns to shredding. The effect is instant, the Pennywise actually starts trying to escape and when that fails, starts stabbing again and then it is pieces all over the tiled floor.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Still holding out her hand to form the shield, Lydia spears the Baby Shark plushie before it can get to them. "There should be a back room where they keep the overstock," she tells John. "Maybe it's in there?"

That's when the Jedi attack. A platoon of Star Wars action figures with real working blasters and lightsabers join in the attack with the barbie dolls. She's caught by surprise when the lightsaber manages to cut /through/ her shield to let the myriad of toys in. "Holy hell!"

"Ouch! Dammit!" She drops the shield in pain when blasters hit her in the shin, burning through her jeans and scorching the flesh underneath. That's when the barbies attack. They leap impossibly high at Lydia's face and she's able to get her hands up before they can spear her eyes. She tries to take a step back in reflex, but somehow a couple of them grabbed a skiprope and strung it behind her sending her toppling over on her back.

And then they swarm all over her.

John Constantine has posed:
    Nettie's on the doors, Tara's on the big stuff, Mairin and Ty and... New Girl seem to be handling muggles and smaller threats.

    ...and John's flanked by Paul and Lydia when he snatches that little sphere out of the air. He takes a second to look at it, curiously, study it. It might be just as easy for him to find the rift and close it himself. But... he needs to know if these things will work. He drops into a crouch and cradles the thing in his hands, all of his focus... wait, Lydia. She's in trouble. He focuses his sight and his mental awareness back in the *here* before he starts slinging about small little blows of concussive force, it's precision work he's not used to when it comes to slinging power, but he might manage to mostly not hit Lydia with any of it as he's picking off the Storm Troppers.

    He wings that damned little ball right back at Mairin, his aim's better than hers, he's used to throwing stuff. "You CAN DO IT! Stop being a soddin' baby kitten and be a *cat*!"

    He straightens again and continues plucking Storm Troopers off the newly vamped vampire until she's free of them and he offers her a hand up.

    "Paulie!" it's snapped out, but only to get attention. "I've got this, love... go look for the swirly hole thing."

Nico Minoru has posed:
    Nico might rankle a little at being chastised for her language... if she wasn't suddenly beset by eight plastic, magically-enhanced feet of Paul Bunyan swinging an axe from one of the aisles beside her.

    And just as she was going to be so smug about melting those cars. She was going to think up a quip and everything! Instead she lets out a yowl like a cat under a rocking chair, her left arm swinging up to put her forearm between the descending axehead and her head. That _does_ earn another curse, as there's a large tear rent in her sleeve by the axe.

    Fortunately for the hearing of those opposed to coarse language, whatever words her lips form in the following moments are lost to a brief roar of flame, a mixture of purple and black energy erupting from her arm, forming a barrier... and incincerating the rest of that sleeve.

    "Oh come on! I needed that sleeve for work! Now I'm going to have to spend all night altering the other! Can... someone like... deal with this?!"

    This is what happens when you decide risking the evil cult your parents belonged to finding you is too much and you live on busking and sleeping in public libraries. Living toy displays start wrecking stuff up and you don't know how to deal with it.

    This is such bunk. And she's pretty sure her chips are crushed.

And then the little glowy ball and the talk of a swirly hole sinks in, "Wait... Is this all some magical skeeball thing?! WHAT EVEN IS MY LIFE?!"

Paul Ramsey has posed:
    Paul has been trying to pretend the toys are... bullets, maybe. He's been ignoring the clown dolls. He's been /deliberately/ ignoring the clown dolls. When Lydia gets swarmed he turns as if to help her, but John's taking care of it.

    And then a firm, clear order. He nods to John, trusting that the man knows he's heard, and runs toward the back, to find the... swirly hole thing. The portal to the astral realm that's allowing all these toys to come to life.

    ...Why are people /obsessed/ with clowns at Halloween, anyway?

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Nettie can feel the pull against her spirit, the familiar feeling of power welling up, feeding her. She gives a grin, her hand tight around her wand so that her already pale knuckles turn white. Her aquamarine eyes seem to gow with a darkness about them as the WItch utters her spellwork, her heart beating faster, harder in the cage of her ribs, feeling that familiar rush of blood.

    "Yfel cwedan se dugud onbutan and se hyrd forgiefan for deade freo dtaege pro inne!" <I call for the chains on these doors to unbind and release those trapped within!> she demands.

    One by one, the front doors of the Wal-Mart begin to crack and break, the magic binding them closed struggling against the Graywitch!

    "Yfel bringan eowonpennian!" <I bid you to open!>

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Ty takes a moment to blink a little bit, as John is yelling at her to do something. She shakes her head, and sighs. He probably has names mixed up. She focuses once more. "Brath.", she says, sending another pulse of magic out. The woman heads out, starting to channel her mutant powers. She also grabs that magical live wire that she learned to tap into to fuel her magical radar spell, Brath.

    "Heading out now that the Innocents are off the field. Corvax! Bird's eye view for me, Oh great Master of the sea and sky?", she hollars out. The woman drops her shield, and starts channelling her mutant portal power. She makes a couple of slashes, pulling out the sword and a kabar knife. She makes a couple of slashes through random toys. She opens a few more portals, pulling out Karambits, and starts to dance wtih those things, slashing crazily.

    Ty reaches the edge of her Brath spell, and starts to recast it, before she feels a slash on the back of her leg. "Ha Ha Ha! Tickle me Elmo wants to play! Play with Elmo?!", the doll says with nails sticking through its hands. It slashes at Ty's legs again.

    Ty growls. "I wanted one of you when I was younger. You know what my dad got me instead since you couldn't be found?", she asks the doll. Ty slashes the arms off the doll, and goes over to hair spray aisle. "....A cook book.", she says. The woman slashes another portal out, and pulls out a lighter. She burns the hell out of the Elmo.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin looks up just in time to see the ball returning to her and gives her own soft curse as she catches it. "Rab!-- Oh to hell with it..." she mutters as she kneels down there on the floor of the Wal-Mart. "Ty, cover me a while. I have to do something," she shouts at the merc without even checking to see that she has already run off. Then she fishes through her bag real quick for the folded up sheets that are the spell John copied out for her days ago.

    She spreads them out on the floor, takes a deep steadying breath, and starts.

    It's a good thing that she'd already tried this. About twenty times. Because at least she has the spell mostly memorized. But that was in her apartment. Not on the floor of a Wal-Mart with insane toys trying to kill her. And the magic of her mentor cracking the air not twenty feet away.

    Another deep breath... and she reads through the entire thing... visualizing it in her mind... She's looked up the latin, she knows what it says or well enough anyway. Well enough to form her Will around it. A spell to thicken the fabric of space. Of reality. She knows it will work. And she can feel that knowledge passing through her, and into the matrix within the sphere she implanted specificly for this purpose.

    Then.

    

    Nothing.

    "I can't do it..." she mutters as she clenches her hands into fists... all of the self-doubt and uncertainty wanting to surge back up.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia flails while she's on the ground, flinging the veritable horde of action figures off of her with more just climbing back on. John manages to blast a bunch of them off of her and manages to only hit her once. "Ouch! Watch it!"

Both John and Lydia try to sweep the action figures off her and finally the frustration of it has finally hit its peak. "AARRGHH! *ENOUGH*!" Suddenly thousands of obsidian quills explode from her ectoplasm spearing the toys, the couch, the aisle and, if he's not careful, John as well.

She kips up to her feet with supernatural speed and grace, her eyes burning red, her fangs out and she's hissing like a cobra. "I am so *done* with this," she spits. Turning her eyes to John she says, "I'm going to go find that thinning and /end this/."

With that she takes off towards the back room, punting a Galactic Snackin' Baby Yoda along the way.

John Constantine has posed:
    Because people like you are afraid of them, Paul Ramsey.

    Just once, he thought maybe he'd get out of something not bloody. John doesn't have time, at this close a range, to get out of the way. He gets nailed, literally, by Lydia's fury. "Bloody HELL, LYDIA!" he bellows as he picks a quill from his cheek and another from his chin and another from his neck, a little too close to the main vein throbbing there.

    Out of all the things in all this chaos so far, the thing that John chooses to pick out to ask, "What the *fuck* is *that*?" about is a three foot tall Cocomelon pushie stalking its way toward him with a rattle in one hand compete with tiny spikes and a giant diaper pin, open to stab mode' in the other.

    Seriously, he seems terrified by the thing. Who wouldn't be? That baby's creepy as fuck without the murder implements. Kill it with FIRE, and that's what he does. Kneejerk reaction even, born out of OMFG, the hell, that's so wrong.

    It bursts into flames and John breathes an audible sigh of relief.

    He misses the Big Bird that's coming at him from behind with a beak sharper than a stake and just as ready to drive itself through a heart.

    Distracted, just as Mairin over there. Distracted, open and vulnerable to the Patrick the Starfish that's waddling as fast as its little waddling legs will carry it, hatchet raised.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Annette Victoria Crowe used to be the force to reckon with.

    Denied by Death, abandoned by life, entirely at the mercy of the winds of fate that have surrounded her -- but she's not as strong as she used to be.

    Now? Now she's having a hard time just cracking some door glass... but she makes it happen.

    The glass shatters. The alarms blare, and she takes a deep rbeath as she turns around. Her eyes are turning blackish around the corners, and she drags the glass through the air. It perforates through the barbies and their knives. It rips and shatters the glass above in the florescent lights, beginning to pull the glass as it plinkoplates into a thousand ash-sized pieces of coated, razor-sharp glass begin slinging through the air.

    ANd they surround Mairin. She breathes out, the tempest of glass and powder and mercury gas shimmering in the remaining light of the Wal-Mart.

    "I Will Not Train Quitters, Rabbit. Nettie's voice rings like the peal of an iron bell through the Hellmart.

    "You Have The Power."

Nico Minoru has posed:
    Nico struggles with this stupid animated lumberjack, her left arm holding his axe back until he hauls back for another swing.

    And then, Nico does what she wanted to do when she was stuck learning American Folklore in school. She hauls off and punches a hole through his chest with a flare of purple magical energy from her left arm.

    Okay, she didn't picture the magic stuff in school. It was more an aspiration than a distinct plan. But it's important to have goals, and Nico's crossing this one off.

    Still, as she whirls around, swinging her staff in a bo-like arc to send an encroaching squad of GI-Joes clattering into a battery display, she spies Big Bird about to get up to some real street justice stuff. "Hey! Sherlock!! BIG BIRD'S PISSED!!" Her eyes dart around, settle for a moment on the battery display, and... well... She grips that staff tighter, and it's a rare benefit her staff functions on negative emotions, and random animated seasonal decorations. "Batteries not included!".

    Sure, Nico was expecting maybe a lightning bolt or something, but instead her arcane powers reach out, her eyes widen, her breath halts for a moment in an explosion of energy, and batteries begin flying off the shelf, ripping through the air like bullets to smash into toys, wandering skeletons, and one of those goddamned Elfs on a Shelf. Now it's on the shelf, and the floor, and one leg's up in a light fixture.

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Ty taps her foot as she slides down after taking down Elmo. "Brath.", she says. The woman makes another portal. Her arms are starting to burn up a bit. If one looks at the size of her portal, she pulling something a bit bigger then a sword or knife. The woman pulls out a rifle, and looks back at Mairin. "Down the hole, Rabbit!", she calls out. Toys are coming towards Ty from all sides, as her radar tells her. The woman stay calm, and decides that Patrick needs to go away. As well as the Barbies. She breathes out. The burns hurt like hell.

    Ty focuses her mind, and clears her mind. She gently squeezes the trigger. She figures that Corvax couldn't hear her in the chaos. The woman shakes her head a bit as she sights again, and pulls the trigger. There's a loud bang, and a very sharp pain in the leg thats bleeding. The merc ignores it, and squeezes off the shots again, going after the Barbies now. Hopefully her sniper training does her good, taking out the Patrick and the barbies.

    The merc looks behind her, and sees...6 transformers with hammers starting to hammer her leg! The first one pretty much did her leg in. She summons a portal, and pulls out a colt 1911, and quickly fires as she makes the rifle disappears. THe Transformers transform and drive off. "YOU S.O.SODDEN Bs!", she yells out.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin looks up just in time to see the glass rip through the barbies and form a shield around her. She looks over to Nettie, knowing, instictively who it is, and her whole demeanor changes.

    She turns back to the spell. A deep breath... eyes closed.. slowly out. Mairin re-focusses. Don't think about people being in danger. Don't think about what might happen if she fails. She is NOT a quitter. John believes in her. *Nettie* believes in her. She can *do* this.

    She opens her eyes and shoves the sheets of the spell away, focussing fully on the metal baseball. HER metal baseball.

    And with a voice barely more than a whisper but echoing with force, she recites the spell again. From memory. Creating each word and sylable with conviction as she wraps the incantation in un-erring certainty.

    Line by line.

    No hesitation. No doubt.

    Until the entire two pages lie there in their entirity, coiling like a thick golden chain within the bars of her invention's magic cage.

    She stares down at it, a self-satisfied smile spreading across her face, and only then realizes she doesn't know what trigger John wanted. He never told her. So she adds her own, whispering it like a tiny lock on the bars holding in the spell. There's another, wider smile.

    And she collapses as the strength leaves her arms.

Tara Tsabedze has posed:
Pausing to take two breaths in, and spit out a little bit of Pennywise, Tara turns her head quickly to look for where she might be needed next. Spotting the Big Bird, creeping up on John, she lifts her hands and throws two glowing white balls of energy into the thing.

"John, look out!" She calls out, already dropping into another charge toward the big yellow bird then screams, "Over here muppet! We got a date for violence!"

Those who actually know anything about Tara would realize this was not her usual demeanor. Normally she was calm, a little soft spoken but blunt, playful when it seemed right. A violent rage machine, not at all, but the Warrior form of Bast had been summoned, the Protector was alive and breathing with a need to defend those who needed it. That Big Bird, much like the Pennywise, has no chance at all, none.

The minute she gets to it, her magical blazing claws are tearing into it, her teeth ripping out parts of whatever it is made of, and all the while there is a gleam in her eyes that matches the ferocity of her attacks.

Paul Ramsey has posed:
    Paul is running, running through the Wal-Mart to the back. There are not Wal-Marts in England, or if there are he's never seen one. He does not like this place. It is soul-sucking and terrible, and he /hates/ it on every level.

    He runs, and runs, through the aisles and into the back, bursting through the doors, through the winding corridors of returned merchandise and items waiting to be shipped and break rooms and bathrooms and... there it is.

    He stops, skidding to a halt in front of the swirling portal. "FOUND IT!" he bellows, hoping his empathic connection to John will let the magus pinpoint his location.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Meanwhile, Lydia heads off to the heart of the madness: The toy aisles. All that anybody sees are toys flying here and there, being thrown or impaled. At one point a shelf gets knocked over and a loud, "TAKE THAT YOU STUPID DOLLS! I NEVER WANTED YOU AS A CHILD ANYWAY!" Then there's a yelp of pain and, "THIS IS WHY I HATE CHRISTMAS!"

John Constantine has posed:
    Maybe she'll see it when she turns, the figure walking toward her in a disjointed, painful way, like a marionette with its strings cut the wrong lengths. "Greywitch," it rattles. There's something familiar in that voice. "You've thrown your lot in with John Constantine, really?" Menacing. ... so familiar though.

    The camp, the day her wife died, there was magic there that day. Magic that animated corpses just like these toys are being animated today. But... wasn't... didn't... They called her the puppet master and she was banished to Hell. But here she stands, live and in color. Bent, broken and still just as evil as back then.

    "He's been closing the Master's doors. I'm supposed to be here to kill him, but I suppose a two for one isn't a bad thing."

    John spins when Tara calls his name. His eyes widen when he spies the Big Bird that nearly ran him through. He misses Nettie's plight entirely. "I need that ball, Kitten!" He really doesn't, but he's hoping closing from the inside will be better than closing from the outside, faster, more efficient.

    "I need to get to the back in one piece," John tells Tara, it's followed by a glance at Big Bird and back again. "Thanks, luv."

    And he's running for the back, still feeling the burn of a few of Lydia's quills embedded here and there. He's going to be *pissed* if the only injuries he gets tonight are *friendly fire*.

    What did Paul find? A tear in reality, this time the swirling colors are shades of red, blood to bright, all swirling and whirling together to create a near mesmerizing thing. A smattering of orange here and there and the occasional flicker of white. It's almost as if this one might lead straight to Hell?

    "Someone bring that sodden BALL!" John barks again along the way.

Paul Ramsey has posed:
    "/This/ is what you told me about?!" Paul is staring at the portal; he can't See the Astral the way the mages can, but he doesn't need Sight to know what this is.

    Here in the back, away from prying mortal eyes, he unfolds his wings. Tattered and broken, they nonetheless stretch out to shield him and John and anyone else near the portal. He'll stand there, shielding them, holding out until whatever's going to close this comes along.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Nettie's voice rings through everyone wearing one of the Night Brigade's pendants. And maybe even reverberating through Nico's arm.

     Everyone 'way from the stringless puppet. The doors are open now, and I've got some Unfinished Business.

     "Mary Jessop Hyde. Looking as rotten as your insides are at last." Nettie states, and she brings her wand up. The black still circling in her eyes.

    "You touch one blonde hair on his head and I'll deliver you to the Devil Himself. Piece by bloody, broken piece." The Greywitch snarls, magic crackling now. Oh. She recalls.

    Someone gave away to the Nazi troops that the group of Allied Nurses were sneaking into the village to spirit the children and adults away. To save them from being herded into boxcars and sent off to certain death.

    And then this bitch.

    The broken body lurches towards Nettie, and then something strikes at her, some little bauble and toy, and the creature turns to lay its paralysing gaze upon Mairin.

    "And you leave my students *alone*, Hyde!"

    Nettie brings her wand out, and a gout of dark fire sprouts from it -- not Hellfire, no, but dark and oily, reeking of death and over-sweet decay as the gray-haired witch advances.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    A chuckle escapes Mairin as she watches her baby strike the.... whatever it is... But then she hears John and remembers.

    "Go to John," she whispers to the ball from her prone position, re-implanting the scent of John's qi into the little bot before shoving it off. It rolls... then rolls... and keeps rolling, propelling itself across the floor in a direct line for the exorcist. Dodging, weaving, and ducking around toys, it picks up more and more speed until it is zipping along. If it hits a wall, doesn't matter, it'll just zip down it until it finds an opening. Then back on course, it's little magical mind set on the unique signiture of John's life force.

    Meanwhile, Mairin is trying to push herself up, grabbing for her bag, but her arms feel like jello. Like the time she spent all day holding up a neutron convection panel and could barely get out of bed the next day. But worse. But it doesn't matter. Nettie doesn't train quitters, and Nettie needs her right now.

    Nettie *needs* her.

Tara Tsabedze has posed:
John needs to get to the back of the building, so John is betting to the back of the room!

The last of the Big Bird is drug along with Tara as she finishes it off, then she drops to all fours to clear the path in front of John. She's no Juggernaut, but she's got the moves. Reaching out to swipe anything that might try to avoid her, and keeping John right behind her to ensure nothing can even remotely look twice at him. If she thought she could get away with it, she'd pick the man up and take him to the back herself, but for now she will just make certain nothing can even look at him, and if it does... claws, teeth, stuffing everywhere.

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Ty realizes now that the leg that isn't moving right. Dammit. And...its the leg she has the Brath shoe. Ty shakes her head a bit as she drops back down to a sniper position, and pulls the rifle out of subspace. Her arms are fairly cooked now. Ty feels heavy as she starts to line up her shot. "The hells is that thing?", she calls out. THe woman lines up a shot on whatever Nettie is sending fire at. Ty sucks in a breath, and gets into a sniper's trance...Only to hear the transformers starting to drive back in. F those damn things. She fingers the trigger. "Corvax! Call my shot! I can't see right, right now.", she calls out.

John Constantine has posed:
    John just has to trust Nettie to deal with her own business. There are pressing things to do right now, like close that portal to Hell. He's only mildly surprised when that little baseball thing is suddenly right there, zipping along side him, right about at his ear. He even manages a little half smile. Knew she had it, he did.

    His trip is quick, unhindered thanks to Tara. He's able to just run blind, focusing on Paul's position, the tug of it, the familiarity of it, the comfort of it.

    Once in the back, he snatches the ball from the air and calls out, "Duck, love!" Just long enough that he can score a hundred at Skeeball in one throw.

    The second Paul complies, John wings that ball into the rift and yells, "DOWN!" before turning his back to the swirling red, orange, yellow and that hint of white. He drops to one knee in just the right position that the Fallen Angel can cover him easily, and from behind that cover he whispers, "When you leave this world." He read it on the thing, dontcha know, little Kitten.


    Almost seems they've done this a time or two, maybe four or five even, before John decided - all on his own - that it was too dangerous for the other man.

    Nettie will feel it even as her magic flows forward, the little tugs on her arms, her legs, even her head as the witch she's locked in battle with weaves her own special kind of spell. One meant to turn the Greywitch into one of her little puppets. She feels it, something enter the hole she crawled out of and snarls, "He'll die and you'll be the one to kill him!" The efforts put into the spell are doubled, tripled.

Paul Ramsey has posed:
    Paul ducks, wings spread to shield John and whatever other mortals he can protect from the blast. And he's /fine/ and will be fine, because as broken as those wings are they can take the rocking of a magical backblast.

Nico Minoru has posed:
    Nico's a little out of her league now, these strangers are clearly more in the know, apparently there's some bad blood between them and... whatever's doing this spooky bull.

    So Nico goes for a little less 'flash and dazzle' and makes her way towards Mairin. She recognizes that shaking, quaking 'I've done too much' jello-arm thing, she's been in that position before, and hey, she can totally help someone stand up.

    She's _got_ this!

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
More toys go flying from the toy aisle and another shelf goes down. Finally the only thing left standing is Lydia, her red eyes glaring about her for more toys to smash, but she's gotten to them all. She gives one last Barbie a kick to send it sailing to Housewares before stomping back to where everybody else is.

"What else needs an ass kicking," she growls.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Corvax looks in a panic, his red eyes opening wide.

    He dives at Ty's gun's muzzle, and tries to use all of his small weight to push it down!

    "LEAVE IT KITTEN! That one's *Not Yours!*" Corvax calls out "Fall back, fall back pups! Let Nettie deal with that one! You'll get pulled in and forced to kill each other!" he calls, buffeting Ty with his wings. "Back!"

    Nettie feels that pull against her, and she gives a hiss, feeling her will being pulled, her muscles stiffen, stomach that will never bear, long past time, curls and presses in as she snarls.

    Nettie's eyes darken further. She holds that wand tightly, and she breathes out. Lungs that have taken in the air of this world and the next.

    Her fingers curl, and she feels her back burn. Smoke rises from her body, and she snarls her spellwork between gritted teeth, a test of wills between The Yet Living and The Damned.

    "Hwearfian stellan eower hlaford tima swedtrung swadteahhaedtre on aelan! <Return to your Master and BURN!> she commands, and she rips something from her vest, and smashes a clear ball of quartz to the floor, letting the broken crystal bite into her palm and shed her cursed blood to feed the spell!

    The ground ripples between the two witches as one tries to control the other, and NEttie tries to banish her enemy from whence she came!

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin's hand flails around inside her bag as she manages to prop herself up on an elbow. There has to be something... *something* she can do to help Nettie. But all she comes out with is a handful of parts. She could make something... These.. She knows how they work together. Knows every combination. But it's hard to focus.

    Then Nico is there, helping her up. Mairin grasps weakly onto her, still holding the handful of robot parts in one hand as she mutters something about 'Have to help her..'

    But all of the colors are wrong, there are little starbursts clouding everything and she can't think properly.

    She squints. And a sudden pain splits through her head, causing her mouth to open for a second in a wordless scream as the worst headache she's ever imagined comes tearing through her brain."

Tara Tsabedze has posed:
Tara skids to a stop once John reaches the back, then without hesitation or pause, puts herself between the portal and an open space. She had no idea how far this thing will reach into the room, so she intends to ensure that there isn't too much damage caused by it, just in case it can reach for someone else out there, but she keeps herself low as well, no needs to take the full brunt.

She keeps her eyes open for any signs of more toys that might want to try something, most likely there aren't many left in the area as toy decimation has been going on for a while now, but it's still her nature to protect and that she will do.

Paul Ramsey has posed:
    Paul glances over to Tara as she enters the room and merely nods to her, perhaps recognizing a fellow protector. He's still standing there, holding the line. He and Tara can probably take on anything they need to deal with until the portal is closed.

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Ty looks at Corvax. "Alright.", she tells. THe woman makes the rifle disappear. She slowly makes her way to her feet, looking at the damn transformers with evil intentions. They stop, look at her...and then DRIVE AWAY. She calls out. "RABBIT! You alive?! Pull back! Follow my voice, and pull back.", she calls out. The woman limphops a bit. The mercenary sighs a bit. She can only really see a black shape in front of her, flapping, so she's assuming thats Corvax. "Lead the way, Corvax. I'm seeing shadows."

John Constantine has posed:
    Skin, what's left of it, begins to drip as if melting off of Nettie's old nemesis. She lets out a cry of defiance, but there is no defying it. She's losing the battle and quickly. One disjointed arm falls off where the skin holding it in place melts away.

    In the storeroom in back, John stays there, on his knees, covered by an Angel's wings and counting...Mississippi-ly in a whisper of a voice. He gets to thirty before...

    The concussive force that blows out of that rift might just be enough to even knock Paul forward a bit, stagger him a bit. But being staggered into by an Angel is the worst that'll happen to John tucked away safe by those wings. He's not even going to complain.

    Mental note: Find a way to shave ten seconds. But thirty? It's way quicker than John could have done it on the fly, because the will's already there, no need for him to channel his, fight with it, beat it into submission.

    After the initial BOOM - that wasn't really, it made no sound - and a rush of intense heat, the rift is sucked *inward*, imploding on itself and vanishing into nothing, leaving behind stillness and quiet save for the animated toys clattering to the ground, lifeless and harmless once more.

    "You'll pay for this Greywitch! And so will *he*!" is the last cry of an evil heart being yanked back to hell. The puppet master falls into a heap as if someone cut the strings; nothing left but the raggedy old clothing she was wearing.

Paul Ramsey has posed:
    Paul wraps his arms around John on relex, closing his eyes as he's rocked forward by the blast. And then it's quiet, and he unwraps himself from around his lover, blinking slowly as he looks around.

    "I will ask what that was later. I think there are those who will need my help." He could /feel/ their pain as he left them to run back here; he knows some of them need healing.

    So he stands to his full height and looks around those in the back room, first, to see if any of them need help.

Nico Minoru has posed:
    Nico looks over to the battle of the witches going on as Mairin says they need to help. She frowns deeply, her brow furrows, "Whoa whoa! I'm not like... that kind of witch! I don't know what I'm _doing_ or anything!"

    Still, she's running through what she can try, what she can do... when she feels thatrush of magic fading, and suddenly the bad witch is all toppling into a heap of rags. "...Hey! Look! We did it! ...So uhhh... magic works like Peter Pan? We thought really hard about good things and beat her, right?"

    It's totally that. Nico's totally taking this win.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia /feels/ more than hears the explosion and resulting implosion and she takes off at supernatural speed towards the back room. She doges and weaves her way through the aisles and explodes through the doors.

"Is everybody okay in here?" she asks looking around and taking a quick assessment of people. Nobody's dead. This is good. Her nose picks up the scent of John's blood, thick and acrid and not appetizing at all.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Nettie watches as Mary Jessop Hyde falls to pieces. Her vision slowly clears, and slowly, the graywitch -- clad not in her WAC's or her usual gray garb. Just jeans, her vest, a longsleeved shirt and her hair haphazardly tucked into her watchcap. She slowly sinks down to her knees, trembling and retching a moment as her stomach rebels against what she knows the puppet master tried to do.

    And she breathes out unsteadily.

    "Ty! Mairin! -- you!" she snap-points at Nico.

    "You got a name?" she asks, leaning her head back. NEttie doesn't look too much older than her mid twenties or early thirties, but she is pale as *fuck* at the moment.

    "You all all right?"

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Skull splitting open or no, Mairin fights to open her eyes, to find Nettie. She has to *help*. But as she feels the effect of the gate closing, even through all of the interveening walls, she finally catches sight of Nettie. Tired, but alone and victorious.

    She smiles... then falls to sit on her butt, head cradled in her hands as the pain bounces back and forth, carving out canyons of especially acute agony.

Tara Tsabedze has posed:
Tara rolls with the punches, that is to say the explosion moves her forward slightly, and the implosion is blocked by digging her claws into the tile. She glances over to John and the fallen angel and offers a single nod.

"Well done," she offers, then in a matter of seconds the blinding glow passes over her body and it changes back to her normal felnoid form wearing a simple tunic style shirt, a pair of leggings and some knee boots in red leather.

"John, may I heal you?" she asks, not about to force anything on anyone. Her own wounds are gone, no indication of them anywhere. "I assure you I can handle healing multiple people, but if my job was to get you to this room on one piece, I would very much like to make you one piece again."

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Ty takes off her half mask, and winces a bit. "Can't see much, and my leg is broken. My arms are pretty much useless, and look like Freddy's face.", she calls out. "I'm assuming Corvax is flying in front of me.", she says. THe woman hops a bit. "Hate to see what my face looks like at the moment.", she tells. THe woman sighs a bit.

    "Could use half a bottle of whiskey."

John Constantine has posed:
    Big old smack, right on the lips, that's what Paul gets. But it's quick, not anywhere near 'get a room'. He shoots the man a smile, a real one, not even half a one but a full on smile. "That was fun, aye, love?" He winks. "Go do your thing."

    John's not even bleeding that bad, a few cuts to his face and neck, maybe one or two to his chest. Friendly fire that, but he can't even mad about it. Even if he snarks, "Hey, Porcupine, little warning next time, aye?" in Lydia's direction.

    His face screws up a little at Tara's question, he tilts his head ever so slightly to one side and seems frozen, indecision. John has *rules* about magic and paying the price and that price not being negated because it's *supposed to* cost something. Negating that cost just allows a debt in another column to form. But in the end, what could have been a little tilted shake of his head turns into a nod.

    After all, his wounds tonight aren't a result of *his* magic, right? "A'ight," he agrees, but the ones hurt worse than me first, because these really ... nothing but scratches. Make sure you have juice in the tank after the worst of it, luv."

    It's not a flat out *no*, he *smiled*. It *has* to be a pod person!

Paul Ramsey has posed:
    Paul rolls his eyes at 'fun' but it's a fond smile; he can't help it, after the kiss. He nods to John, and lets someone else heal him for once, as he goes out to find Nettie and her students.

    "Is anyone in need of healing?" he calls out in a deep voice, as he strides back out through the aisles. /He/ doesn't seem worried about John acting like this, at least.

Nico Minoru has posed:
    Nico guides Mairin to sit down when she gives out, frowning in concern, her staff disappearing in a shimmer to parts unknown as she takes a look at her left arm... it's bare metal up to the elbow, there's a bit of pink on her upper arm, apparently her sleeve burning away wasn't _totally_ harmless.

    She looks herself over a bit and then raises her right hand in a hesitant little wave to Nettie, "Heyyyyy... uh, yeah! I'm Nico. So like... man... that holiday shopping rush, huh?"

    The pale goth's clearly a little shook up, but she's handling it a lot better than one would expect someone who hasn't done this at _all_ before like. She heaves out a little sigh.

    "I'm good, really. A little tired... starving... used a bit of uhh... energy there. Never thought I'd have to fight GI Joe... who's the real American hero now?"

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "You are, dear. All three of you, good job." Nettie leans back against a handy cooler, and she takes out a cigarette, and lights it with a point of her wand, before stashing the wand away.

    "OI! PAULIE! You beautiful winged bastard! Three young ones here. I'll be right as rain after a bit." she states, giving a little wave as she motions.

    "Ty first. She's taken the brunt, I fear. What a fighter she is. An' then there's Mairin. They're my two students. And this young lady, Nico-- hell of a witch." she gives a little smile to Nico.

    "Nettie Crowe. Witch and apothecary in New York, poppet. All -- Paul. Welcome to the States." the very British witch gives a smile, and a deep drag of her ciagrette as she leans her head back.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin, meanwhile, says not a word. But rolls over into a fetal position in an effort to make the pain stop as small tears trickle down her cheeks.

Tara Tsabedze has posed:
The carnage that is this Wal-Mart is pretty impressive, bits and pieces of toys and decorations everywhere, but Tara is more focused on finding those who are injured. Her healing is a part of her, literally. Through the Goddess Bast, she is able to transfer her own regeneration to others. In this case, the down and dirty healing, she will use more energy to allow the regeneration to set bones, repair skin and muscle, and leave no scars behind.

"For those who do not know," she offers to those present, leaving Ty to Paul since Nettie called him out for that, she'll move to Mairin. "I am K'tara Tsabedze, servant of Bast. You are welcome to call me Tara."

Without actually touching the woman, her hands hovering over her with only half an inch between them and Mairin, Tara's hands start to glow and offer that sweet, sweet relief from pain, even as the regeneration begins.

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Ty looks forward. "Corvax, lead me over to Mairin.", she says. The woman winces a bit as the raw skin rubs against the burns. "Oi, Mairin, yell of ya hear me.", she says. THe woman hosp a bit. After a few hops, Ty decides its best just to fall over, and lean up against a checkout lane.

Paul Ramsey has posed:
    Paul smiles at Nettie. "Heck of a way to be introduced to America," he comments, as if he's never once seen the place.

    He nods to the collected women. "Paul Ramsey. I can offer you healing, if you wish, but I warn you it's a thing of, ahh... divine power. If you have... dealings with darker powers it might be detrimental." Does he glance at Nettie in /amusement/ for a moment?

    He'll focus on Tynan first, then, assume the woman doesn't move to stop him from kneeling down and reaching out to the broken leg.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Nettie very lovingly flips Paul off. She's in pain, but she's smiling, fiercely proud of her students.

    "Tend to the pups. This old lady'll stay a little longer. Ty! For shit's sake be still kitten. Paul'll set you right.

    Corvax gives a caw, and ruffles his feathers a bit.

    "Listen to mummy, Kitten. Paul.. eh. He's all right."

    The Hell-Crow hops off the muzzle of the gun, and flies back over to Mairin, landing in front of her.

    "BReathe through it, bunny-rabbit. If you gotta throw up, you do it. You'll feel better afterwards." the crow states, and then he turns his attention to Nico.

    The talking crow hops once closer to her, eyeballing her with a side eye. "... you're all right, doll."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin stills as Tara heals her, the slight writhing going quiet as the pain settles to something still miserable, but bearable. She opens her eyes and looks up at the woman with more than a hint of confusion before struggling herself upright.

    And it's a good thing Corvax just moved, too, because vomiting is exactly what follows. All over the tile that is even now darkening again as her little fire-flys run out of juice.

    When she finally finishes, she looks up to Nettie with a sad sort of smile, wiping her sleave across her mouth.

    "I did it."

Tara Tsabedze has posed:
Tara steps back from Mairin and offers a soft smile. That was a touch more than she intended, but she still had a little left in her. Looking around for John, like it or not, he was next.

Standing herself up, she starts to head toward John. "You are next," she says to him with a smile. "No escaping it this time."

John Constantine has posed:
In the Back

    Left to his own devices, John does what Johns are wont to do, he presses the issue. He lays his hand on the wall where the rift once was and closes his eyes. He begins to chant under his breath, it's quiet, but intense, the words all rushed and hurried, insistent.

    Who opened it, who, who, who, who... who *opened it*.

    He doesn't get an answer, but he gets an imagine, one that's accompanied by a blast of power that throws him backward into a shelf, boxes rain down spilling dozens upon dozens of those little items they use to fill the register lanes with last minute impulse buys.

    "GET OUT!" The voice that accompanies the image bellows, echoing through the entire building and rattling light fixtures and shelves.

    Dazed he just lays there after a muttered, "Bollocks."

    Oh, that hurt a little, but he has a *face*. ...and that's a start.

Paul Ramsey has posed:
    As Paul heals Tynan's leg, there's a warm sort of glow and a soft choral hum. The power of Heaven that he still has access to moves things around back into their proper place without pain, though it takes /time/. He eyes the woman and the way her burns are healing without his help.

    "You're not a normal human," he says softly. No judgement there. Simple statement of fact.

    He... waves at Nettie as she flips him off. He knows it's fond. He's part of the Old Guard, and he's long since stopped judging humans for the deals they make when they're as intrinsically good as Nettie Crowe. No woman who defied so much to save so many from the Nazis could possibly be Hell-bound if he has anything to say about it.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia springs a shield reflexively when John gets blown back, but not in time to save him from getting knocked into boxes of candy bars and magazines. The pale woman walks over to him and offers a hand back up.

Lydia Dietrich says, "You okay? Did you get anything?""

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    Ty nods her head a bit. "Mutant. And learning magic from Nettie.", she says. THe woman leans back against the lane. "Price of power. I microwave myself to get stuff out to fight.", she says. The woman stretches a little bit, wincing as some burnt skin comes off, revealing the new skin thats healed. "Helps with being a mercenary.", she says.

    Ty takes a deep breath as she rubs her leg a little bit. "You must be a real choir boy.", she says.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Retching done... Friends safe.. *Nettie* safe... Mairin just leans up against a wall and closes her eyes while everyone else is taken care of. Mmmm That nice cold wall...

    But even her eyes flash open at the wave of magic that flows through the store at John's spell. She wants to get up... to check. But there are so many other people, and the wall feels SO nice and cool on her cheek.

Nico Minoru has posed:
    Nico frowns and looks up at the sudden jolt from John's work in the back, watching hanging lights swing... she might reach out and pocket a snack cake that topples off a nearby shelf and tuck it into a pocket. "Oh cool. Earthquakes now too? I mean, that didn't feel very earthquake-y... but maybe East coast ones are different than California."

    It's about then that she realizes she hasn't seen John in awhile, "Hey, where'd uhhh... the 'bloke' go? The guy with the accent? Y'know, Big Bird was going to give him the ol' neck and peck?"

Tara Tsabedze has posed:
Watching John get flung back into the shelf then covered in boxes was not what Tara was expecting. One brow goes up at the sensation of evil that washes over her and the voice that echoes through the store. She knew nothing about John's usual way of doing things, the whole 'John being John' but she was starting to learn the hard way.

Stepping into the room she offers her hand to John to help him up. "That was disgusting," she comments softly. "Whatever it was, shall we not have it visit it again? Also, time for you to get some healing, and perhaps a little cleansing."

Paul Ramsey has posed:
    Paul blinks at Tynan for just a moment. "I dance more than sing," he says finally. Trying to be conversational, trying for that... 'good bedside manner.' He lets the wings go away, just in case any 'normals' show up. He /frowns/ at John pushing and getting hurt, but there are people back there helping, and he can provide food and comfort now, so he'll focus on making sure the mercenary doesn't have a broken leg.

    He does huff in annoyance, though.

John Constantine has posed:
    "Just a minute, luvs," John murmurs while holds up one finger a little drunkenly. He just needs to sit a spell. He bats away some of the crap that landed on top of him and reaches into his pocket for a lighter and a pack of Silks.

    "Cuts only..." he tells Tara, his voice firm. The rest of it? It'll fade by morning, but it's his *price* to pay for it. The down and dirty, on the fly, shortcuts. He knows the risks. A two hour long ritual with protection circles and the like could have netted the same results with no backlash. No time for that.

    "This is bad, Lyds, worse than I thought," he mutters before he lights up.

    "I'm all right, love!" he calls out. His voice is still loud and strong at least.

    "Just the cuts," he repeats to Tara. "Then I need a bloody drink."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
"How bad are we talking about?" Lydia asks John and retracts her hand until the man is ready to get up. "Are we talking Evil Necromancer level of bad? Because having another one of those around would be bad." Indeed.

Tynan Ireton has posed:
    "Leg's good. Work on some of the others. I got a Rabbit to carry. Thanks Paul.", she says. The woman looks over at Mairin. "Lets go, Rabbit. This kitten wants to nap in a tub of ice.", she says. The woman takes a deep breath a moment, and gets up, trying to pick up Mairin, and puts the woman's arm over her shoulder. "You need a bed then a stiff drink. Or a stiff drink or a bed. Either way I can't call you Civvie anymore.", she tells.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin grabs her bag and snatches up her 'wand' as Ty lifts her up. Then leans heavily on her, eyes closed and trusting the merc to lead her where she needs to go.

    She doesn't really open them until she can hear John's voice well enough that he must be in the same room. And when she does, it's just to look around and verify what she already know. That her spell worked.

Tara Tsabedze has posed:
Giving him the moment or two to sit, Tara kneels down beside him to heal just the cuts. "You only need say it once my friend," she offers with a smile, the blows the smoke away from her face without a single comment about it. "I do not force what is not wanted."

With just the cuts being healed, it takes only a moment, her hands glowing but she never actually touches him. "Is there some way I can further help with whatever evil thing that was that just made itself known?" She than asks, checking him over to ensure the cuts are all healed before standing back up. "I can offer up energy for further research if needed, or help with research. My skills are at your service, John, whatever may be needed."

Paul Ramsey has posed:
    Paul nods respectfully to Tynan and stands. /Is/ there anyone else that needs healing, or was that everyone? A sweep of the place, and then he's walking back on over to John, nodding his agreement to Tara as he approaches.

    "More heads will help, John," he says. "I can tell people what to look for if you tell me what you saw." Tara seems to have his respect, at least.

Nico Minoru has posed:
    Nico seems to settle down a bit after the burst of magical energy fades off, and once she's sure it is in fact _just_ more magical malarky and not an earthquake, she wanders in the wake of the others, to find John and the rest, looking around pointedly at the mess, "Sooo... did anyone bring a car? Because I don't think I want to wait for a bus. Someone's going to get up the huevos to peek in here and start asking questions like 'Who melted those action figures' and 'Can I see some ID?'" She pauses for a long moment, looking amongst the group, "So... yeahhhhhh... uhhh... seriously, can I get a ride?"

John Constantine has posed:
    "You felt that right?" John asks of both women. "Something big is trying to get through. I have a face now, but getting the name's the problem. It's some sort of twisted version of a Tulpa. Low level something being made into a big level something by the power of prayer. ...and I can't banish it until I know what the little level something *was*. I need fuckin' name. It's just going to keep getting bigger until we figure the name."

    He tucks that cigarette between his lips and offers a hand to Paul to help pull him out of the mess of retail crap when he's close.

    "Aye, Tara, I need to think. There has to be a way. I'm just not seeing it it." Of course he's also in the middle of hunting his daughter's bitch cousin.

    "I'll have to show it, Paulie. Later, at home or something. I'm too..." He lets out a little shudder. Tired isn't the right word, it's not that. ... it's just a *wrong* feeling.

    "Describing a demon... it doesn't work that way. Too many little nuances that... Let's just go get a drink, aye?"

    "Where's new girl? She has spunk, reminds me of me at that age." Ahhhh, speak of the devil and all. "How 'bout a ride, dinner, a place to sleep maybe?" he offers. Because he's an asshole like that.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    "Could I get a portal *home* before you go off drinking?" Mairin asks through squinted eyes. She's really in way too much pain to try to be nice.

Tara Tsabedze has posed:
Tara looks to Mairin, offering a slight bow. "I can take you home through a portal if you would like. I merely need a description of the place."

Glancing back to John she then offers a nod. "You have my number, when the time is right, contact me."

Nico Minoru has posed:
    Nico eyes John with the wary eye of an experienced street urchin. The skepticism of someone just out of her teenage years.

    The awareness that he has a lit cigarette and therefore must have a lighter, which sets her hands to patting her own pockets absentmindedly.

    She adds in a deadpan look and a shrug, with maybe a little idle fiddling of those metal digits on her left hand. It looks heavy enough to hurt without magic backing up the wallop, "I mean, hey, it beats the cops. Let's roll!"

    Nico's got a good feeling about this.

John Constantine has posed:
    John? He was that wary street urchin that hid the wariness and the weariness and all that comes with it behind attitude and snark. He *was *Nico*, hell he'd even already attracted the attention of a demon at age twelve; offered his first Silk Cut by said demon too boot. The man speaks Street Urchin. "Food's not much to write home about but it's better than whatever you were planning on stealing for dinner in here."

    He climbs out of the rubble with Paul's help, dusts himself off... is that glitter? Was there ... is it... Oh God it *is*, something glittery exploded all over his pants.

    "Bollocks, fucking Wal-Mart," he mutters before a whisper opens the portal to the House of Mystery's parlor to get everyone that's going safely through it and to the Laughing Magician.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Marin gives Ty a grateful little squeeze before shuffling over to take Tara's hand and the two of them dissapear.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
The pale woman nods, "I have my own transportation home. John, you know you can count on me whenever you need. Well," Lydia concedes, "as long as it's at night." She nods to the others that are still around. "Take care of yourselves."

Nico Minoru has posed:
    Nico's eyes narrow slightly, "Hey, those Jalapeno chips are _great_. I mean, okay, if you mean nutritionally, sure, no argument."

    Nico eyes the portal for a moment, but it's more of a 'Neat, portal!' eying than a 'What if this is a portal to the chainsaw dimension?' look.

    She even heads through without waiting for a few people to go through, because hey, if you can't trust a Brit with glitter on his pants, the world's truly lost.