Owner	Pose
Arthur Curry	The Mary Queen of Scotch was a working vessel. Day in day out it would head out to ply its trade in the ocean and days later it would wander back with its holds full and a passingly decent pay day for her captain and crew. She was a fine ship, well tended to though it would go a bit longer between barnacle scrapes than was usual for most ships. Her captain thought it lent her character. Usually she would slip in and out of the docks in the early early morning, and return at a similar time. What some of the dockworkers would call a 'stranger to the sun' since only time they saw her was when the dark was heavy.     But not today.     "Hey Frankie?" Gilbert stood up taller as he ascended the ladder that led to the second tier of one of New York's more preeminent fish markets. This time of the evening it was quiet, all of the business done in the mornings when the ships come in and various restaurateurs and business folks make their purchases. But barely past dinner time? Quiet.     "You see that?"     "Looks like the Mare." Frankie says as he hefts a heavy box of detritus over his shoulder.     "Bad timing. Somethin' must be wrong."     "Busted engine mebbe."     But for now the ship continued to float slowly toward its berth on the docks near that fish market.
Crystal Frost	A night like this was...well, dull. That was the only way to put it, but it also happened to be a good way to make some easy money. The docks were a perfect place for shipments of less-than-legal goods to make their exchanges and plenty of unscrupulous sorts wanted to make sure everything went down without a hitch, without the cops turning up before or after to sniff around, search and set up bugs. That meant a lookout job and since Crystal had an evening free the metahuman villainess was essentially 'slumming it'. Wrapped in a jacket to protect herself from the evening cold (and conceal whatever she wore beneath) the woman nursed a takeaway coffee as she sat nearby. Maybe she'd be taken for someone waiting for a returning boat? Hearing people start to talk, Crystal looks up lazily, turning her gaze to the first thing to happen of note in hours.
Susan Sullivan	Demona stalks the docks, ducking between shadows in her skull-themed gas mask. She doesn't hurry; those around her are ignoring her, as if she were a part of the background. Pulling her mask forward a bit, she takes in a breath of the sea air that wafts under it. She adjusts it, getting a good seal again before continuing to move. There isn't anything particularly wrong with this area's qi. Smells strongly of the death of fish, but that's pretty normal. Hard to smell anything else, but there's nothing particularly fetid, qi-wise, that she can smell from where she is.
Sif	Midgard was still something Sif was trying to get used to. In her down time, of which there was not as much as she might like between her duties to Asgard and trying to setup her own venture in this place, she would wander. Simply go out exploring the city. It allowed her the chance to learn about the people and the world at the same time, simply from observing. She was wearing a pair of black slack with matching low boots, no heels. For a shirt she was wearing a red button up with shorter sleeves. Over this was a light jacket. Not because she needed to be shielded from the cold. Simply because it was easier to hide any weapons she might be carrying that way. She had found herself at the docks, walking along slowly as she enjoyed the feel of the ocean breeze through her dark hair. Though, admittedly, the smell left something to be desired as the wind shifted and that fish market came to olfactory prominence. She wrinkled her nose but continued her path forward, unaware of the floating ship or the interest it was gaining.
Iara Dos Santos	It had been a while since Iara had any incidents being spotted by the locals - not that boats typically panic about seeing a shark or shark-person in the water, but people swimming sure do. Hesitant to swim directly up the Hudson with the amount of pollution and garbage in the water from the city, she's taken to just heading down from Westchester along the coast, to New Jersey and back, to get her swimming exercise in properly salinated water... and with her speed in the water, that's the distance she needs. Deep under the water in her yellow and black Xavier's school training uniform, complete with little X-Logo belt and unstable molecule cloth that ends at her biceps and thighs, the ocean was full of endless things to see and pass the time. Switching on a light attached to her shoulder, she shakes her head at the rather unsettling amount of garbage at the bottom of the harbor, accumulated over hundreds of years, and instead turns over, swimming belly-up like no natural shark ever would and fighting her instinct not to as she looks at the ships above. One seems to have stalled, others are puttering about high above. It's a unique sight she can enjoy as long as she wants, now that she's a mutant.
Arthur Curry	From her place Crystal and Susan can likely see the small kerfluffle as people move around the docks. No other ships are there as they have all moved to their normal berths with cargo off-loaded. Just the Mary as it floats along, seemingly drifting on the surface of the river with no hint of engine noise. Though if it were shifted particularly low they might not hear it against the backdrop of the city.     It's when the vessel floats toward the middle of the fishing dock that a crowd of shore-hands start to move in that direction. One lifts his voice and shouts an ahoy, trying to gain the attention of the captain or the navigator in the raised bridge that looks out over fore of the ship. There's no answer, though the workers on the docks start to get the berth ready to receive the vessel.     "Hey!" One man calls, "Ahoy, Queen Mare!"     No voice answers.     One of the longshoremen waits til the ship floats within a few feet of the docks and make the leap over onto the deck, landing with a thump. There's still a small crowd on the fisher's wharf, but nothing like when it's prime and busy. So eyes are turned in that direction.     "Ahoy, crewman?" The man who made the leap catches sight of a shuffling figure rising up out of the fore hold, its hands grasping the ladder as it pulls itself up.
Crystal Frost	How curious, people seemed to be panicing? With the talk over the radio and the gathering crowd Crystal takes another sip of her drink and starts to push away from where she'd been seated. As she walked however, the sight of Sif did make her pause. The Asgardian had been in full....well 'Asgard look' last time she'd seen the woman, but Crystal could still place her. After all, one didn't get to be a skilled criminal if they couldn't remember a dangerous person's face. Arriving by the crowd, her eyes came to squint at the sight of the figure in the distance coming out onto the deck.
Susan Sullivan	Demona moves toward the boat, local qi flowing around her to keep her something people don't notice. She walks to an area close to the drifting boat that she can see what's going on, but where dock workers aren't gathering in droves, possibly because it's an inconvenient place to access the vessel. She watches the figure come up from below decks. Lifting her mask, she sniffs at the qi around her hoping to find some evidence of what that thing is by its breath, even though she's far away for that. It's worth a shot, anyway.
Sif	The raised voices draw Sif's attention. She turns her head toward the source of the sounds and starts to walk that way. People seem to be rushing to a ship that is coming in very slowly. Perhaps drifting? Hard to tell from her angle but she does watch one of the mean leap aboard. They don't seem to be getting an answer. She hastens her pace, still walking but a bit more quickly to reach the small gathering on the dock. She looked to the deck but spoke to the longshoreman closest to her. "Is something amiss?"
Iara Dos Santos	Iara watches the boat drift in from beneath the waves with no engine movement, a bit unusual... So she does swim up for a closer look, trying to identify if they had a leak or if their engine stall is from entirely above-water mechanical failures... but trying not to get too close beneath the boat, in case the motor starts up again suddenly.
Arthur Curry	For most there is little to notice from afar. A figure rising out of the hold, a man walking onto the deck and calling out. Little to do save that there were eyes on considering the time of day. Though when Susan undoes the seal of her mask and extends her senses searching for that feeling of life force between others... she tastes on the wind something foul beyond the stench of ill-fated fish.     The longshoreman turns at Sif's words. A first brief look. Then, of course, a doubletake considering the woman is of some remark. He shakes his head and looks back, answering. "Prolly not, just weird time. Market's closed." He says off-handedly even as he steps away to start moving in the direction of one of the small offices that handle arrivals.     When Iara draws closer, however, she can tell easily enough the motor isn't running. There's no sound of it, the propellers aren't turning but as she gets closer she can perceive a change to the quality of the water around the rear of it. Almost... gelatinous in nature and growing thicker as she moves closer to the ship itself.     "Hey, Stibbens, is that you?" The man's voice on the deck rises as he turns to smile at the figure rising. "The hell is up?"     Which is the moment it happens. A brief single second of seeing what looks to be a man whose skin on one side of his face is curiously... transparent. Then the shape of a man is suddenly no longer. A shape that breaks apart abruptly into twenty some tendrils, like a person splitting apart at the seams at first all ichor and innards, then solidifying into those tendrils to lash forward like some giant mouse trap and /engulfs/ the longshoreman, pulling him into its body mass and absorbing him instantly. Not enough time to even scream.
Crystal Frost	Well, she'd been sitting there for a few hours waiting and wishing for something to happen...now something was happening in a big way. A big, horrifying and tentacle-having way... Next time? Crystal was going to wish for a hot date and a winning lottery ticket. "Holy -crap- the woman exclaimed, stepping back from the horrifying sight as she expected the crowd to start doing the standard thing: running like hell!
Susan Sullivan	Demona jumps up onto the support beams. She runs along them, her stride long, then jumps sideways at the deck. With such unusual behavior, people begin to take notice, even with the horror revealed on deck. As she comes down on the drifting boat, she brings the staff in her hands home against the creature's center of mass. It's an object of great power against vampires, but despite how holy the components are, to this thing, it might just be a metal stick. At least she's got some strength and inertia to pour into it as she attacks the...thing!
Sif	That would be a yes. Something was certainly amiss. As she sees the person rushing onto the deck to attack the creature, she moves to step forward toward the edge of the dock. "Move away, quickly," she ordered those on the dock even as she reached to the small of her back. There she drew the hilt of her sword. A moment later, she spun it so it appeared to be two hilts, end to hend. And then she extended the blade from each. A lance of sorts, sharpe at both ends. She makes the jump as well, to get onto the ship to offer assistance she could. As Demona swung with a blunt weapon, she swung with a bladed. "Does anyone know who or what this is?"
Iara Dos Santos	The water turning thick closer to the boat is certainly alarming to Shark-Girl, recoiling and then swimming down to cleaner water before back up to the dock and finally breaking the surface of the water, just about to say something when she hears the screaming. With her immense strength she pulls her large, mutant figure out of the water to the dock to peer her glassy black shark-eyes at the source, only to see that whipping of tentacles and spray of the man absorbed. "Merda!" she exclaims in her portugese accent, and then dives under the water to get the distance for momentum before jumping out of the water right onto the docks in full shark form. "Uh, it's alright! I'm here to help!" she tries to call out while probably making things worse, and then mostly ignores the panicking populace as she runs for a barrel of gasoline to throw at this giant figure, as a mostly melee, muscley brute... throwing a thing to burn it with is her best option.
Arthur Curry	It's an abrupt surge of activity as Crystal well knows to expect. People suddenly looking on wide-eyed not entirely sure what they are seeing. Then some turning and breaking into a run as they realize that /this/ does not happen every day. A scream goes up.     Then there is a figure rushing toward the ship, across the beams near, then making the leap. For a moment her form is silhouetted against the lamp lights along the docks and then she comes crashing down slamming her staff hard into the creature's form. From afar it looks like a good palpable hit, from up close Susan can see the weapon _sink_ into the form partially being absorbed into that mass though it remains intact. Though there is a flicker of bluish energy at points where the weapon contacts. The remains of the creature's face having been on one side disappear... and reappear facing Susan even as its black eyes open, a parody of the man this once was, then its mouth opens to scream silently as its flesh starts to crawl up along the staff toward her as it takes one shuffling step forward.     Then from other parts of the ship more figures can be seen. Human in shape assuredly, but moving like monstrosities without joints or bones. Crawling forth from portholes, from the bridge windows, from the doors and ways. Sixteen... seventeen. Perhaps even twenty as one of the windows on the bridge shatters and a thing flows like liquid human out of the gap.     Sif lands with a heavy thud as she brings her weapon up and around, lending her strength to the felling of Susan's opponent even as it slithers toward her. Her blade slices through lopping that 'head' of the creature off and causing it to flop to the floor where the edges her blade touched flicker with a flash of blueish fire that seems to sear the creature.     Then Iara lands on the other side, causing the deck to crunch under her weight, the boat jostling slightly. She spins to head toward one of the barrels near only to see that horror of those creatures emerging from all across the ship.
Crystal Frost	Crystal was a few things, a criminal and a metahuman, but 'Killer Frost' wasn't exactly a hero. She was however, not someone who wanted to be grabbed by tentacles and absorbed into some knockoff version of 'The Thing'. That probably meant she had to help out given the pouring out of multiple creatures spilling onto the deck. She could run, but given how fast that first one had snatched the man? Fleeing with the crowd didn't seem extremely reliable. Of course, helping didn't mean she had to get close and fight the same way Sif and Demona was. Instead, the metahuman lifts her hand and sends a wave of icey bladed shards flying towards some of the closer creatures.
Susan Sullivan	Qi flow is an odd thing. The creature silently screaming at Demona stops looking heavy, at least normally. Qi lifts and pulls as the flow around it changes. Demona pulls at her staff as the creature dangles sideways from it, hopefully falling from the smooth polished surface of silver and iron. If it does fall, it will be suspended in the air, looking as though it can fly! What fun! "I need a better weapon," she realizes aloud, her voice amplified by a cosplay speaker in one of the cans that should hold a filter on her mask. She shouts out, "Does anyone have a gun?"
Iara Dos Santos	Iara hurls that gasoline barrel at one of the creatures with all her might. She's seen old horror movies, she knows that when fishermen start erupting into flesh-absorbing tentacles, you use fire. She grabs one of the fleeing fishermen, demanding "Cigarette lighter! Now!" "I-I vape!" the terrified man responds, to which Iara shakes her head in exasperation and grabs another one, saying "You! Cigarette lighter!" "I don't smoke!" comes the next response, and Iara gets the feeling she's wasting her time with these. She looks for another barrel instead, this time aiming for the far side of the boat's deck to make sure it breaks and leaks gas all over boat. "Set it ablaze!" she calls out, before she sees someone across the dock shoot ice at it. "No, no, fire! Not ice!" she calls out uselessly, and then looks around for a source of flame... or barring that, an electrical looking cord and a big, hefty knife or something to cut it with...
Sif	Sif doesn't take the time to see if the thing stays down. Right now, she is turning her attention to the sheer number of them coming out of every opening on the ship. "Perhaps the entire crew have been overtaken by these creatures." Or they were just lots of creatures. "I have no firearm. But my weapon seems to be able to cut through their substance. I will fight down below, see if any crew is left alive." She glanced in the direction of the shark-girl. "Perhaps fire will be effective?" She said hopefully. Even as she went for the steps leading down, retracting one blade and shifting back to a single hilt/blade since she will be in tighter quarters. "Do what must be done." And with that, she was gone from sight.
Arthur Curry	Several of the creatures that are crawling across the hull only briefly realize that they are under attack as the ice crystals slice across the distance and begin to impale them, pinning them to the side of the ship and freezing where they impact making the gelatinous creatures unable to move. Though one /straaaains/ until its pinned limb crackles and shatters, leaving a horrible twisted limb behind.     The one that had absorbed the longshoreman and been struck by the two heroes finds itself floating into the air, twisting slowly as it extends and reaches out with slithery pseudopods as if trying to find some anchor but unable to tether itself to the ground. At times one face surges to the surface, then at times the face of the longshoreman, screaming, can be seen.     Then the gasoline barrel cracks open and shatters on the aft of the ship as Iara hurls it at the mass moving forward from there, slithering and shuffling as they reach out with extending tendrils. She tries to gain access to man's greatest invention only to be confounded at every turn until her vicious doll's eyes fall upon a hanging work lantern connected to an outlet by orange cabling.     It's in that moment that Sif breaks away from the crew and darts down below decks and from beneath them the sword of the uru-metal sword ringing is heard as she sets upon those beneath.
Crystal Frost	Fire? She wasn't exactly known as 'Killer Flame' over here! When the...shark thing starts yelling at her for using ice? Frost gives a little grunt of frustration. "I'm using what I've got!" she calls back, this time bringing her hands together and blasting a wave of that supercooling energy. Who knows, maybe the slithery nightmare things didn't like thermal shock any more than most living things?
Susan Sullivan	Susan sees the face of the screaming man. "Damn it!" Demona shouts. She tosses the staff out. It stops just above the deck like Marty McFly's hoverboard. Unlike that, however, as she jumps onto it, it rises up to where the creature is hovering. The skull-masked hero reaches out with as much of her concentration as she can and reaches out as if grabbing an invisible rubik's cube in front of her. She makes a movement with her hands as if turning it. Her hands finally pull the invisible cube apart. She's doing her best to separate the two types of qi apart. If she can save the worker, she has to try.
Iara Dos Santos	"That's fair!" Shark-Girl yells to Frost as she says that ice is all she has, and then she exclaims "AHA!" as she lifts the lantern above her head, only to see Sif go down below decks, saying "No! Don't go down there, I'm about to light this thing on fire!" She frowns with her massive shark mouth and then hurls the lantern at the spot with the most gasoline anyway, lighting it up before running for another tool, a pole or something long she can use to push the boat and/or clobber one of these things with, fancy armored sword-lady can probably cut her way out of it if half the people she's seen on the news are any indication... but cutting her way out could sink the boat and prevent these things from being burned... Why are they on the boat anyway? Do they not like salt water? Or was it just convenient? Iara sincerely hopes these things aren't just going to be lurking in the new york harbor for the next hundred years like the rest of the garbage...
Arthur Curry	The surge of chill power from Killer Frost is appreciable as he reaches out and unleashes that cooling wave of energy, slashing out and covering the ship with a sheen of frost and ice but having a great impact on the monstrosities themselves as it's clear with the more power she exerts... the slower they become.     Until those slithering nightmares became jagged and clumsy caricatures of their former selves. The ones closest to her break small pieces of themselves off as they move, but the ones further are still coming, albeit slower. Luckily it buys Susan some of the time she needs.     For as Demona reaches out, she can definitely feel the 'soul' of each thing. The darkness of the monstrosity that absorbed him, and the fleeting light of the man whose life hangs by a thread. She can feel the connection between the two, the hunger, the pure animal-like abandon with which the foulness tries to eat and take and devour the entirety of the poor man's life and memories and form. Can feel the thrum of some distant power that seems to embolden the monster.     Yet within it is that light as the man screams, feeling no hope, no light, no chance.     She twists her hands, making that sharp movement and can feel the entwining threads of qi resist. She draws taut and turns, pulling apart at that invisible cube and feels that resistance. There is a rush felt there within her. And without. As all of this happens in the space of three heartbeats.     And at the end the creature floating in the air /explodes/ bursting forth and outward as pieces slap to the ground.     Though one of those pieces is man shaped, curled up and in agony, bare of skin and burnt. Yet alive, shivering in pain as Susan was able to save him. Save much of him. Though he lies there in shock, he is mostly intact... save for where his feet should be for there are but burnt stumps of skin remaining.     But then...     That is the moment the entire rear deck of the ship catches fire. A sudden /bawhoompf!/ of explosion is heard as Iara takes the most reasonable course of action by burning the whole damn thing down as the only way to truly be certain. The fires catch quickly, devouring the fuel at first and then starting on the wooden works of the ship as the night suddenly brightens.     Bright enough to catch the splashing rise and surge of a man leaping out of the river, soaring to a height above the ship and landing /heavily/ on the roof of the bridge next to the radar dish. Tall and bearded and wild looking, Arthur Curry rises up and calls out, "Don't let them touch you!"     Even as he takes a running leap forward and lands down just as heavily upon the main deck near the others.
Crystal Frost	A rush of flames and a spaltter of creatures that absorbed people? Well, Frost was glad she was attacking from beside the boat rather than on it. Of course, the flames wouldn'tt hurt her, but siphoning away the heat didn't seem the best of outcomes right now. Instead she moves back, crossing her arms across her chest as a spiked wall of ice forms in front of her, forming aggressive cover from the raining debris as the firelight ills the space... And illuminate's Arthur's arrival. Damn. "So much for an easy night watching some boxes," Crystal mutters under her breath, sending a large shard hurtling to one of the creatures she'd frozen solid. As close to freezing something and hitting it with a hammer as one could replicate from a distance...and a pretty brutal option the villainess had almost certainly used before.
Susan Sullivan	Demona reaches out with her hand like Magneto. Instead of metal moving to her whims, the saved man's hair and beard seems to stop being pulled by gravity. He rises into the air. He floats as if in microgravity as the woman in the gas mask pulls her hoodie off over her head. It doesn't matter if people can see her form, now. Let them ogle her femininity through her tee shirt. She saved this guy; she's gonna be chivalrous about it. The two float away from the burning boat as she ties the hoodie sleeves around him, letting him keep his dignity in tact. "I know it hurts," she says. "I'm going to get you to a hospital."
Iara Dos Santos	Iara can only stare up in amazement and then shout "Whoa!" as the thing explodes to reveal... the victim inside, barely alive. She winces in empathy before seeing Aquaman rise up in the water, her instincts... telling her SOMETHING about him, just from the sight of him, though she isn't sure what. Must be important for some reason. She calls out "I think we gathered that!" back up at the blond-bearded man, using the literal ten foot pole to push the boat a bit further from the dock, trying to send it back out to sea and give it a viking burial.
Arthur Curry	To some it's Aquaman, they've seen the man before. Seen the wild hair and beard, the tattoos that outline his chest like chainmail armor, the wild golden eyes as he gestures both toward the fore and aft. To others... he's some guy who looks like he's homeless. Built though, to be fair.     Reaching one hand out toward the fore and the aft of the ship his eyes glow brighter as he calls out. "You got this!?" Perhaps aimed at any one of them since Crystal, Iara, and Susan are all handling their corner of the madness rather well.     One of those creatures is shattered right as he says that, Crystal's ice shard making one explode into pieces which has Arthur commenting, "Looks like."     The boat is pushed away from the dock by Iara's efforts even as the tall half-Atlantean looks around then hears the sound of ringing steel and the sound of conflict below. "Shit, is someone below decks?" He turns even as the creatures on the ship itself, those that have not been shattered or frozen or burned... seem to be growing very slow and weak, eventually no longer moving.     Gesturing sharply he tells Iara, "Get clear and push the ship from the docks. I got this." And with that he turns and heads toward the cargo doors leaping through them and dropping down into the depths.
Iara Dos Santos	To Aquaman's question she calls out "Sword-lady, shiny armor, dark hair." and then... that order from aquaman definitely sounding different from a normal order somehow. Was it the confidence in his voice, the voice of an experienced hero, or something else? "Got it." she says perhaps not as loudly as she should, pushing further closer to the bow to try to turn the ship and then pushing from the rear, giving it a hefty shove as she braces herself, trying to push it as hard as she can back out towards the sea... and when she's done that she finally sighs in relief, turning to get a good look at the other folks that happened to be nearby to save the day. Gas-mask lady taking off her hoodie to reveal a pretty normal looking T-Shirt. Iara doesn't recognize her. The blue-eyed girl with the jacket... she also doesn't recognize, but she decides to approach and say "Hey." in as friendly a manner a 6'7" razor-toothed shark woman can muster, "You a mutant?"
Crystal Frost	Get clear and push the thing away from the docks? Crystal could do that. Of course, it was going to be a little clumsy if she didn't want to just sink the thing or freeze it in place...so she was more on the 'Get clear' side. Moving further as the Jutice League member she -definately- recognized even if she hadn't tangled with him personally before, Frost turns her head as things are wrapped up and she looks to the giant shark woman, tilting her head. "I mean...probably?" she offers lightly, a frosted breath escaping her lips. "I never bothered to check."
Susan Sullivan	Demona rushes off with the saved gentleman at a sprinting speed. When she finally does get to the closest hospital, getting in will be easy, getting him attention will be easy, and getting out will be a matter of just bending qi around herself like a blanket, making herself incredibly ignorable. Not much she can do against so many of the eldritch horrors that fire couldn't do better, anyway. Besides, she's in the middle of saving an innocent human. Surely they'll forgive her for rushing off for that.
Arthur Curry	Iara and Crystal remain on the docks for now as the ship is pushed back out onto the river, floating slowly as the blaze catches more and more of the ship. The light coming from it is ominous as it flickers and for a time there's no sign of movement. What the heroes have done must have been terribly effective for the slithering and shuffling has stopped entirely.     Then there is a crackle and a sudden /KAABOOM!/ as one of the internal gas tans alight, causing the rear cargo hold doors to burst up into the sky as flames like toward the heavens. It's enough that it leaves the ship floating there in true viking funeral fashion.     Though distantly one might well see two figures swimming across the glowing surface of the river. And far off at St. Theresa's Hospital a man lives because of the efforts of these heroes.