8789/The Expy Meets The Original

The Expy Meets The Original
Date of Scene:	23 November 2021
Location:	Atlantic Ocean
Synopsis:	Wonder Woman fights a monster, and Angela wonders if she's the original or the clone.
Cast of Characters:	Aldrif Odinsdottir, Diana Prince

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Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    Once upone a time there was a pretty nymph named Scylla. A fish-god fell in love with her; she rejected him for being a fish; he went to a witch to ask for a love potion but the witch fell in love with him; he was still in love with the nymph and rejected the witch; the witch poisoned the nymph until she became a giant tentacle monster that could eat a boatful of soldiers for a single meal. Normally, Scylla lives in dark, secluded places where the sunlight gives her no opportunity to see the monster she's become, but sometimes that means going hungry, and even an immortal nymph-turned-squid/cannibal can only withstand hunger pangs for so long. This is how it came to pass that an Italian naval ship sent out a brief SOS before its communication equipment was destroyed along with most of the people responsible for operating it. Still ravenous, not to mention insane with the horror of what she's become, Scylla's sharp-beaked tentacles are still shredding through the ship's steel hull looking for the last, tasty victims who might be cowering inside. The ship itself is all but done for, punctured and torn in so many places that even if she keeps holding it above water, it will buckle and tear in half just under its own weight.

Diana Prince has posed:
These kind of situations are the bread and butter of the Justice League... and have disturbingly become more and more common as the powerful of the world seem to be waking up more and more.

The alerts from the ship go out across many channels, and are naturally picked up by JLA monitoring. The Invisible Jet, as it were, so happened to be enroute from Europe to New York when the call came to Wonder Woman within it. She stood behind the two control chairs and looked to her sisters flying it. "Bring us in quickly." Diana told them as she turned to the back of the passenger area of the jet and walked through it. Her blue and gold robe tossed aside as she gathered up her weapons...

The beaks of the beast continued to search for tasty morsils out of the ship in peril.... and from the sky a figure emerges from out of no where! With sword and shield up, Wonder Woman shoots down from the sky like a missile as she rushes right at the monster intending to slam right in to it to knock it off of the vessel! Shield up, dark hair flowing behind her bare shoulders, the Princess charges!

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    Scylla keens a mournful, hateful sound at Wonder Woman's appearance, one that issues from five different mouths that were meant to only sing their songs underwater, so the end result is nails on chalkboard levels of upsetting, like five tea kettles going off at once but at rock concert decibels. Scylla can no longer form words, can no longer express how much it hurts to have just enough of her mind left to know what's happened to her to turn her into this mountainous mass of purple flesh, cannot communicate to Wonder Woman how much the Amazonian's still perfect appearance reminds Scylla of everything she's lost.
    She can only lash out with two tentacles, the others still burrowing deep into the ship for food. Her attacks are slow, as a swing from any limb that large must be, but they also cover a LOT of ground and have enough force to, well, you can see what she did to an Italian battleship. The huge pseudopods sound like airplanes taking off as they lash at Wonder Woman.

Diana Prince has posed:
The screeching sound from the beast is enough to harm mortal years, but Diana's are able to absorb the sound waves and dispel them like any Demi-Goddess' OP abilities can! The Princess, instead, focuses on the tentacles coming her way... She is oblivious to the plight of this poor soul inside the beast, but its actions have sealed its fate in her eyes. When the tentacles come slashing down upon Wonder Woman, she deflects one with her shield and sweeps to the side of the second, only to be clipped by the sheer girth of it! It causes her to tumble down in to the water where she splashes beneath the waves!

But it doesn't deter her! She sweeps her sword up and rushes toward the creature's submerged body... the gleaming blade glittering in the light rays under the sea!

A lunging sweep is slashed upward toward the creature, the blade of Athena striking at the beast to leave a long tear through its flesh should it not avoid her wrath!

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    Beneath the water, Scylla's face is visible, a grotesque parody of a human(oid) face twenty feet in diameter, composed mostly of tumorous bulges cruelly designed to evoke the image of eyes, brows, cheekbones, mouth gaping open in an eternal wail. At its center is a beak just like a squid's, just like the ones currently hunting human flesh, except it's big enough to swallow Wonder Woman in a single gulp if the Amazon was silly enough to allow such a thing instead of her swimming uppercut that strikes true and releases a cloud of inky black blood into the ocean but also is little more than a papercut for a creature of this magnitude. It will take hundreds, perhaps thousands of such blows to truly harm a creature this size, while it needs only one solid strike against Wonder Woman to break bones.
    Not that odds like those are daunting to an Amazon warrior born and bred.

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana finishes her slicing cut beneath the water before she shoots up away from the beak and mouthy maw! She breaks through the surface of the water again at high speed as she flies up in to the air to look down upon the beast from above. Her dark hair soaked through now and wetly clinging down the back of her spine, the Princess stares down at the creature and waits for it to look right up at her....

Her sword and shield are back upon the strap of her leather harness and her glare is down upon the creature's 'face'...

The Princess sweeps her bracers up together, the kinetic power of Hestia exploding from within to sweep down upon the gargantuan tentacle monster! The golden hued power sweeps out away from the ship at sea and is aimed right at the maw facing her most!

Killing is one thing, but making a beast like this retreat in to the ocean is a whole other option Diana is okay with! Back where it belongs, down in the deep deep blue!

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    It's possible that Diana could not kill Scylla even with a serious effort. Circe's spite is a deep venom, and she would not want one of her victims to have the release of death: Scylla may be immortal.
    But she is not insensible to pain. Circe would never grant Scylla that blessing. The beast's rubbery flesh ripples as the shockwave batters its boneless body, setting it dancing like a Jello mold on a kitchen table. It would be funny if it wasn't horrific. The thing's many mouths shriek, two of them actually cracking and splintering like a cow's hoof with a pebble worked deep inside, and with a noise that passes for a sob from the creature, it retreats into the ocean. Its blood will attract many predators that will attack it and prolong its healing--prolong its misery--but never kill it.
    Scylla is defeated. Now there's only the task of saving the ship.
    From high above, Angela observes all of this with some interest. Her blades no longer seem necessary, so she has returned the shapeshifting weapons to being bracelets on her arms for now. She considers whether or not to interfere, and decides to observe for a moment longer: if the Amazon makes an effort to save the humans, then Angela shall assist, and Wonder Woman will owe her a favor.

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana hovers in the water and watches the beast undulate after her kinetic blast sent it wildly wobbling. She lowers her fists to her sides and just watches as it sinks back in to the water. It makes the Princess part her lips and release a sigh...

But the screams from the ship in peril draw Wonder Woman's attention. Her head shoots to the left and she sees the hole left in the side of the vessel. Her right hand comes up to pull the wet strands of hair out of her face that are swept across it in the winds...

With a heavy inhale of ocean air, Diana rushes toward the ship now, leaning forward and flying toward it until her armored boots press down against the side of its hull.

"Get back inside!" She shouts to the crew looking out the hole as it is filling with water. "Get on the upper decks!" She says as she starts to push the bent and broken hull back together to prolong the ship's lifespan until rescue can arrive.... or so she hopes!

Angela will witness this, the powerful Amazon warrior bending metal to try and seal the hole in the ship back up!

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    Silently, Angela descends from the heavens like a golden comet, head-first. The Atlantic cold means no more to her than it does to Diana, the salty spray unable to sting her Heven-tough skin. She pauses long enough to lock eyes with Wonder Woman, then silently turns from the Amazon toward the remaining sailors, who seem too terrified to make insulting comments about her fashion sense. All the better for them.
    "What will you do to help Wonder Woman save your lives?" she asks them calmly, flatly. They hear her words in Italian; Diana hears it in the dialect of Themyscira. The sailors gibber and clamor about how the lifeboats are destroyed and they'll freeze to death in the water if they rely on their life jackets, so it's all hopeless...
    Angela turns her back on them and lifts off the deck to fly over toward Wonder Woman. "These men need a new boat, and I do not know the water well enough to make or find one for them. Do you know how to give them one?"

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana is doing as much as she can with what she has to work with, but the hole is only so much covered. When Angela arrives, the Princess is half submerged in the water and half out. She has her left hand pressed against the hull of the ship as her eyes go up to the woman. She hears her comments, her question and then nods her head softly before looking out to the sea where the monster had been minutes before....

"If needs be. I have that...." She says as the air above the water shimmers and the Invisible Jet suddenly becomes very visible... a cloud-hued, shaped almost like a bullet. It is large and just hovers above the water, silently.

"Help is on the way though. Another ship, an American vessel is coming." The Princess says then before she flies up out of the water and is now more level with Angela. "Can you help?" Diana asks then.

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    Angela shrugs. "I have an idea. Leave this task and move to support the floor beneath where they stand now. I shall cut a large piece of it off for them to stand on, then join you beneath it to help hold it steady so none of them fall off."
    Angela doesn't wait for an acknowledgment or agreement. She just flies away as if she expects to be obeyed. Over the crash of the waves and the metallic groan of collapsing hull, Wonder Woman can hear the ring of a sword clearing its sheath: Angela has freed Xiphos, the Sword of the Stars, a blade no mortal metal can resist. She's already stabbed the deck and is sawing through it with brutal efficiency; the blade is a blur as it works. It looks almost like a woodpecker's beak as it slices the steel.

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana observes this, her damp hair blowing in the wind coming off the water. She looks up to the deck railing now to see the sailors all looking down at them. Diana looks back to Angela then before she floats quickly up to the Captain. A brief conversation is had with him in his native tongue before Wonder Woman floats back down to where Angela has carved out a landing ledge for the men.

"You came at an opportune time." The Princess says as she helps steady the hull plating that the woman is carving out. "Did you get their distress call?" She asks then next.

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    The moment when the last cut is made is probably pretty terrifying for the sailors: they're being supported on a 50x50 slab of metal being held on the shoulders of a single woman like Atlas holding up the world, while the rest of their ship gives up the ghost and finally commits to finding the ocean floor for Aquaman and Namor to fight over the right to be most angry about. None of that is Angela's problem. The mercenary angel waits for Diana to lift the platform high enough for Angela to join her, then flies underneath and presses her shoulders into the job.
    "I did not know of these men or their distress. I had been tracking you, and observed you fighting the creature. You did well," she offers in that same almost robotic tone, or maybe one should say *lack* of tone.
    "I am Angela, Huntmistress of Heven. You are Wonder Woman. Forgive me for not shaking hands."
    Wait, was that a joke?

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana makes her way under the platform as they share the load. She hand-walks her way toward Angela but stops when the balance is just right between them. Her arms up above her, her dark hair flowing behind her now as she regards the other woman.

"Tracking me?" She calls out as the men rush aboard the platform they've created for them.

"For what purpose?" Diana asks next.

The Invisible jet, still very visible, floats under the women so they have a place to stand atop its gleaming white surface. Diana's armored boots touch down upon it and she keeps her eyes on Angela, quite curious now by the woman's actions and words.

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    Angela's own hair mirrors Diana's in the wind, a flow of campfire-orange rather than raven-black but otherwise oddly identical. Angela watches the Amazon's hair flow, thinking to herself, before speaking without answering the question: "It is so strange, to see myself reflected in you." Her voice is still flat but not quite emotionless; she seems to be musing, maybe even rapt. "You would never be mistaken for my sister, but your height, strength, speed, training..." She trails off, looking at Wonder Woman intensely but also slightly moonishly, either ignoring or having forgotten the question asked.

Diana Prince has posed:
In the distance another ship is visibly on approach, Diana spares a glance in its direction before she looks back to Angela. There are clear and obvious similarities between the women, similar upbringings are clearly at play here, but it's obvious this woman is not an Amazon.

The woman doesn't outright answer her question either, so it leaves Diana just staring back at her before she looks up at the sound of the sailors above their heads. Diana looks back down to Angela then. "WE should take them to that new ship." She says over the winds and sounds of the sea.

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    "Yes, of course." Angela shakes herself from her reverie with an inward-aimed frown: she noticed the wasted words, given hastily as if to reassure Wonder Woman Angela would not let her down, Angela would serve well, Angela would please. The words of a besotted child, yet...
    With an effort, Angela focuses on the task at hand, flying in tandem with Wonder Woman to keep the platform level until it can reach the edge of the approaching rescue ship for the survivors to disembark onto. Their weight is fairly miniscule compared to their transport, so Angela makes no effort to get rid of the thing while they scrabble to safety and, no doubt, reconsider their career paths. Meanwhile, Angela's brain catches up with her sizzling blood and she answers belatedly, "I wish to ask many things of you. I am told you are from another world. I desire to know more of it."

Diana Prince has posed:
The rescue ship is a medical ship, as luck would have it. A US Military medical ship with crew already visible on the deck waiting for the arrival of the platform...

Diana helps guide it as she hears this answer to her. It causes her to once more look over at Angela before she shakes her head a few moments later. "My home is this world. my birthplace is a remote island, concealed from the rest of the world by the Gods of my people." She clarifies for the other woman helping her here today.

"It has been cut off from the rest of the world for a very long time, but it is still very much of Earth." She adds as they grow closer to the rescue ship.

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    Angela frowns, equally confused and disappointed. "Unfortunate. I was told your world is the world of women, unlike this one. You know of no way to travel between worlds?" she asks, continuing to float in the air, ignoring the approaching ship. Say what you want about Angela, she has focus, her featureless white eyes boring intensely into Wonder Woman's.

Diana Prince has posed:
Diana pauses to look over at Angela again. "My people are a race of Warrior women. Our isolation has given us our chance for excellence and strength to protect this world. We are reaching out now more than ever to do just so." She says in response before she adjusts her hands on the platform over their heads and turns to face Angela more fully then.

"I do not travel between worlds." She relays the disappointing information. "But some on this planet do. it is not a simple process, and can create waves of rippling danger. Our world has recently suffered from such open pathways to other places. If you wish to know more, you will have to come with me. But in the now, we must take these people to that ship." She states.

Aldrif Odinsdottir has posed:
    Angela looks Wonder Woman over again, measuringly, then nods. "Very well. I do not know the customs of these people who stand on our shoulders, so I submit to your authority in how to proceed next," she says, matching Diana's speed and altitude for the sake of the survivors who are right now lying on their bellies with arms and legs spread in case another monster attack causes this new deck to pitch them off-balance again. Fortunately for them, Diana made sure Scylla isn't coming back; and it doesn't look like Charybdis is anywhere nearby, so everything's probably fine. Probably.