Players:
Summary: The Inferno breaks out in central park.
Date: January 15, 2010
Log Title Inferno Ignited
Rating: R
NYC - Central Park
Central Park is a large public park in upper Manhattan, largest areas of green with people reading, having a picnic, or playing Frisbee. Walking paths can be found all around the park. In-between the large area's of grass, the park is shadier with many trees. A large road circles the park where joggers, bicyclists, and inline skaters are commonly found.
Early daytime, just before noon. Central Park is quiet, but VERY VERY WARM. Most of the mystics in the area have been having feelings of one way or another about the area. One such is Stephen. He's decked out, fully, in his gear for when he knows something's wrong. Leather vest with fetish animals attached to it. Leather pants. Ya know, all in all focusing on that native aspect of his history. He's prowling. He's sniffing the air. There's something strange and he can't put his finger on it. And it has his hackles rising.
Coming into the park is Pudge, he's in his make shift costume, domino mask, gloves, shirt with a cloud and lighting bolt on his chest, something that wouldn't look bad on an overweight guy. He's following the weather, so to speak, or where the source of the old weather is coming from. The equipment at his job, combined with what he knows and feels, has all been not right. He sees Stephen and walks over. "You sense it here too, huh?"
Maxwell isn't in a costume of any sort, he got the message, the few tremors in his senses, his friends told him of course, the young man is dressed in his suit, still, cold weather, warm weather, he happens to enjoy dressing in clean suits, and he adjusts his tie as he walks into the park, looking around, "Hm, zis ist very odd…" he comments, his medallion glimmering as it is outside over his jacket.
Ethan is heralded by a rush of wind. His shadow crosses the ground like that of a giant bird of prey before he lands neatly, crouched for a moment, black feathered wings folding behind him. Thanks to those wings he's wearing just the black leggings and boots of his more formal superhero uniform. Thankfully the unseasonable weather makes it possible to fly around with no shirt on. His skin flickers to concrete gray for a moment as he alights on the path and his finger tips touch the ground but as he straightens, his skin returns to a deeply tanned state. His gaze as he looks around is both distracted and worried and his eyebrows go up as he notices other costumed types here.
A rumbling begins from the very center of the park. The heat magnifies by quite a bit. A voice is incanting, deeply but poignantly. There are some subtle laughing voices coming from all around it. As people near it, those that DARE to… there is a flaming pentagram on the ground, surrounded at five points by angelic looking figures. Each one, arms raised to the sky, canting their heads and twisting their hands as they weave a spell. The ground begins to shake even harder. It splits and swells in places, grass beginning to die as it lifts and falls.
Stephen hears the voices canting and points. "That way." He says, looking from person to person. Of course, he only knows a few people here. Others, like him, who have ties into the mystic field. "The Hell?" This is way out of his knowledgeable fields. He's… for all intents and purposes… scared shitless. "Pudge? What do your aunts say?" He's rubbing one of the fetish animals on his costume. Eagle. His hair changes, shifting to feathers. Smaller feathers burst from his skin as he cracks his neck. "This doesn't feel good."
Pudge looks at Stephen and sighs. "Someone cast a spell here recently, some angelic being. My aunts were able to see it but apparently she was able to see them back, with all the protection they put in place." At least he believe their apartment is well defended, magically. So what if it seems weird that there is the occasional salt on the window sill. "Hey, there's that kid Maxwell we met. Maxwell!" He yells out to catch his attention, after all, if something bad is gonna happen, they should stick together.
Maxwell blinks a little bit at all of this, "What in the hell…is that…" he says as his medallion glimmers again and he looks at the beings and back to the others, he walks with them, not wanting to be on his own. "Hello there…yes I agree, considering I have no idea vot is going on, I mean…" he looks down at it and back up at the two mages he met the other day, "Zis is quite weird.”
Ethan looks towards the pentagram and the figures thereof and winces slightly. "Not good? I'm guessing from the apparently Judeo-Christian iconography and the amount of power that we're looking at something that might be described as 'apocalyptic'." He sighs. "Or at least a really bad day." He pauses for a moment and says, "Primal, by the way. Elementalist." That display from Stephen gets an interested look as though he's dying to compare notes but he makes an obvious effort to get his head back into the game. "I'm guessing we all sensed the mystical disturbances? We should take a closer look." And with that, he starts walking towards the angelic figures.
The voices begin to rise, as does the laughter. The feathers that came onto Stephen's neck are rising at the back. "Fetish." He says simply. "Stick together. Gods only know what this is that's happening." He says, shifting from foot to foot, unable to hold himself steady as he begins to lift off and head in the direction of the voices.
"Monsoon." Pudge offers as he starts to walk with the group. He's on edge too, and lets out a swear under his breath. "Either we break the incantation, if we can, and all hell breaks loose because we fucked with the binding process of whatever they're doing, or we break the incantation, if we can again, and stop whatever their doing. Honestly, I have a bad feeling about this."
Maxwell nods a moment, "I cannot really read magical signs, I can offer assistance and protection, but not help in any sort of this magical…binding you say it was?" he looks at Pudge, "Do need to meet your aunts, but I am here to assist, if only to be careful about whatever is locked by this"
Ethan nods at Pudge. "It really is a problem. Given their appearance and the use of the pentagram in both binding and summoning, we don't know what they are doing well enough to do more than make an educated guess. I will say the last time I trusted a figure who looked like that, I ended up with a 'blessing' I could have probably done without. His wings mantle a little at that, stretching out and settling as though responding to his thoughts. And he adds, "Well … mostly." Because flying on your own power is kind of cool, really. He looks towards the others and says, "Anyone think they can make contact with the beings?"
The beings voices are chanting as one. The flames in the center of the pentagram rise higher and higher. As they do, the earth literally rises and falls, bouncing heavily. One voice calls out. "Too late, mages. Much… much too late." It laughs. Feminine.
Stephen simply rises and attempts to swoop in at them to try to stop it. Obviously, there's something wrong. But he's hit with a blast of fire, sending him reeling back towards Maxwell.
"I don't even know if they are summoning anything, I'm just making a guess." Pudge says but with the chanting and the shaking, that's what his best guess is. "Okay, wait blessing? You'll have to tell me more about that later." He says as he raises his hands hopes for the best. "I'm gonna make it rain, cause screw that 'it's too late' crap." Monsoon's eyes go white and he attunes himself with the weather, muttering faintly as he wills it to rain. Not just any rain, but sheets of rain so that people in the area are instantly soaked. He just hopes they aren't messing with his magics and it works.
Maxwell gives a sharp intake of breaths, "Too late?" he asks a moment and he gives a grunt a clench of his hand and in a breath he's covered in full plate, black full plate with a white tunic, the black cross adoring it again, with a leap forward he holds a tower shield and tries to catch Stephen as he's shot backwards, "jawhol! Guess that answers that…fight it is." he says through the visored helm.
Ethan winces as he recognizes the voice. "Right. 'Bad' it is." He spreads his wings and calls the spirits of the air to bolster his flight, lifting off and into the air. Pudge's sudden downpour makes him grin and he lifts both hands over his head, gathering in some of the sudden confluence of water spirits, focusing them and forming a sphere of water around those hands. A jet of water not unlike a high-powered firehouse blasts forth, trying to scour the flames of the the pentagram out of existence.
One of the angelic looking beings rises from the center of the pentacle. It bursts up through the ground, welts of lava flowing around the break. The water hits, but does not seem to affect just at this time. "The time has come." Her voice is loud, but it doesn't hurt. It can be heard miles away, and specifically in a few people's minds that aren't in residence. "After all these years of waiting after the last failure, the time has come. Come children waiting in Limbo, come children converted from earth. Take this land and make it a living hell! Those who gave themselves to me, willingly, Come! Lu'kys, Jam'z, N'thynyll, Kryst'fyr, and To'fyr. Those who have been blessed… I awaken the voices within you. Ennamorath Emmoreth Ba'al Set Elianath! Yth'n, D'nte, Yd'ee, Tyr'ee, K'lyndy, Jyrd'n! Come! And those who have been here before, assist and your place shall be regained. S'ym! N'astirh! REIGNITE THE INFERNO!"
The ground shakes as it begins to lift, forming a mountain in the center of Central Park. At the top of the quickly growing terrain is a castle. Leaking from all over the mountain are rivulets of lava and burning soot. Aside from all of this? Demons. Hundreds… no… thousands of various Demons in all shapes and sizes begin flowing out of the castle at the top. Elsewhere, across the area, changes happen to a few choice people.
Stephen emits a birdlike squawk as he rises from the ground, wing-like arms flapping to keep him aloft as he looks at the others. "I think we're in deep shit, now."
Pudge stops chanting and the rain stops, he doesn't care if he's soaked. Monsoon just stares at the mountain and says two words: "Oh, fuck." He looks around at the others knowing he won't stand a chance fighting them. "I suggest run?"
Maxwell looks around at the others, "Run? Ja? Run I will cover the back then." he says still holding his shield and wondering what it will do against lava.
Ethan falls back to earth as his form ripples and changes. The feathered wings become bat-like and his skin takes on the hue of dull, blood-soaked obsidian. When he opens his eyes from the sudden disorientation of the change, they glow with a golden fire that spreads to wreath his entire body momentary. That voice from the figure is echoed in his mind as as part of him uncoils and hisses approval. He looks across the newly changed and blasted landscape, seeing the enslaved spirits of the elements and feeling their terror and hopeless subjugation. Ethan rises, feeling power and darkness and a freedom from doubt and restraint settle upon him. And he finds it … "Good." His voice is low and laughing. And then he bows to the flaming figures. "Welcome home."
Chills run down Stephen's spine as he looks from Maxwell to Pudge to… Primal? Or whoever he is now. "Ohshit. Uhm… babe… might be a good time to use that gift I gave you before." He says, backpedaling slowly in the air. "I think we need to go and find some place safe to lay low and figure out what we can do with all of this. I don't think… I don't think we can handle it on our own."
"Huh?" Pudge says looking at Ethan…now..just not good for Ethan whatever he is. He is making sure everything is okay as he reaches in his pocket and pulls out a small carving of an armadillo and lets it do it's thing. "No shit!" He says to Stephen about not being able to hand it on their own, not rudely but he's just in a state of fear and surprise and OH GOD I HOPE I DON'T DIE. "My apartment is closer than yours." He says looking to Maxwell. "You coming with us?"
Maxwell grunts hard as he lifts up the tower shield, and it is blazing with the symbol of the Templar upon it, once again he clenches his hand and a flanged mace fits into the other one, "Fight or run, we may hit a few, but…what is it you wish to do?" he asks with a clench of his hand as he shifts, his armor not appearing to weigh anything. He looks back at you, "What! You were going to leave me!" he says, "Of course I will go with you do you think I know what i am doing!"
Ethan stretches as though from a deep sleep, wings spreading behind him and then tilts his head this way and that. He gestures and a pair of rough, golem-like figures rip themselves from the ground like rough-hewn and spiked stone apes. He turns towards the other magic-users and asks in a silky tone, "Leaving so soon? Oh, no. I /really/ think you should stay and join the party." The figures start to lumber forward, the earth shaking under their feet as they move.
"Bear" Stephen murmurs, reaching for another fetish animal on his clothing. The feathers melt away to be replaced by brown fur covering his body. He also has a mild psychokinetic shape around his body, reminiscent of a bear. "I think you should just let us go, before we have to really lose ourselves." He says, backing into one of the figures that he DIDN'T see. At least… he's got bear strength on.
Pudge is armoured, like an armadillo and he starts to mutter arcane words as a gust of wind picks him up and flys him a bit into the air. He's let himself go, to become one with the weather, directing it with familiarity. Dark clouds start to form above and there's some rumbling of thunder, along with a flash of lighting up there. He's trying to stay out of the way of the golems while working on building up a storm.
Maxwell flexes his hand around the flanged mace, and oh yes, he knows how to use it, "Bah! So we are being surrounded Ja. You should never surrounded a man in full plate, we always get out!" he says as he lifts his shield. the lumbering golems don't scare him too badly. When one gets too close for comfort he simply leaps and smashes the mystic mace right into it's forehead.
No magic user here. At least not in the way Al herself would think of magic. All she's got are her guns, and a whole lot of 'What the hell!?!' going on. Perhaps she's insane, or just naive in her desire to take her promise to protect and serve seriously. She's got both her empathy and telepathy open wide, trying to figure out what in the name of all that's holy is going on. Still in her police uniform, though her hair isn't back in it's neat little bun anymore.
Ethan makes a clenching motion and the golem that Stephen backed into tries to grab and hold him. The other reals back at that blow from Maxwell, head shattering. Hands to up to the rubble where it used to be and the shoulders give a shrug as it starts to blindly quest towards the man who hit it. Apparently constructs don't need heads anyway. Ethan gives an overly dramatic sigh, "Come now. This doesn't have to come to violence. You should just …hear them out. Listen. It all becomes so clear if you do." He smiles faintly, wolfishly. "But either way, the longer you stay, the more certain that the legions up there will see you down here. Either way…." He licks his lips. "Delicious, I'm sure." He apparently doesn't notice the newcomer just yet.
Grabbed from behind, Stephan blinks. "P… Monsoon, get out of here. Get your aunts!" He calls as he takes a deep breath before a bear's bellow comes from his mouth, stretching his arms out and trying his best to break free. He doesn't know if he's strong enough, but he's damn well going to try. Stephen's not trained to give up. Strategic retreats, yes. Give up, no. Fortunately, he has his animal selves… and faith.
Pudge keeps muttering the words of the spell until he feels enough of an electric charge build up and aims the lighting to strike Ethan down. Maybe it will do something, who knows. Before does anything else though, Pudge nods to Stephen. "Right Fetish." He says as uses the wind to fly himself towards Midtown, to get help from those who have been using magic much longer.
Maxwell is stoic, course it's easy to be behind the knight helm, the mace clenched hard around his mace as he lands again, shield flicking forward as the creature continues to move towards him, "Not good…" he says again turning his head back to the others as he'll see Stephen getting taken, he flicks his shield and charges back over in the defense of a comrade and will just shield bash it! Defense tantamount as he'll go for the left arm with the shield. Turning back to see pudge f lying away he looks down at the bear, "We need to move to a better position!"
"What in tha hell.." Is all Alessia whispers to herself. Gun in hand, as she tries to keep a grip on what's going on. She's not even sure what to aim /at/.
Ethan lifts both hands up above his head and augments his own fire spirits with the hellfire that now flows through his body. The resultant column of sickly yellow flame blasts up like a beacon, illuminating his face and throwing the rest of his body in shadow and slicing into the air for at least a few hundred feet straight up. A couple of wheeling, circling demons are blasted by it but more start spinning around the pillar of flame. Around and down. Seeking the source and perhaps coincidentally making Pudge's escape a bit less troubled. Since his attention is on his new spirit work and his strength with the earth spirits was mostly in just holding those golems together, they aren't much stronger than a very fit man and Fetish is able to rip free with his augmented strength as Maxwell shatters one of the arms. Ethan's blazing eyes narrow and his voice is petulant and annoyed. "Fine. We'll see what happens when /my/ friends get here."
"Since when do demons have friends?" Fetish growls, bear voice grumbling as he suddenly scents the wind. "Max. There's a woman nearby, somewhere. She didn't run away!" After all, Maxwell doesn't have a codename, so what else can he call him? Once free, the bear begins to clamber on all fours, making a quick loping run at Ethan, raising a clawed paw when he gets close enough to swipe. He's not fully a bear of course… just like someone caught between.
Alessia, run away? Not from much. Her powers keep seeking out someone to grasp, a mind to read, emotions to sift through. Someone or something to tell her what the hell is really going on.
Maxwell grunts hard, "All right, I will protect her." says the German teen, currently in black full plate, "Don't get in too deep I'm still not sure what will happen if "Friends" arrive." he turns to look over towards the woman who is now there…in a police uniform? Awkward, how is he gonna tell a Police woman to go away, he doesn't have any authority after all, "Ah! Officer, I think this is very bad, perhaps backup is advised." he offers as mere suggestion.
A guy in knight's armor. "Are ya serious? Good luck with that, sweets. Maybe ya should think about gettin' while tha gettin' is still good. In otha words, you're still in one piece. …Is that bear…guy?" Weird. And yeah, the one mind that's really getting her riled is the one the bear is swiping at. So that's where her gun gets Aimed.
Ethan spreads his wings and fills them with a sudden harsh wind. He fairly shoots back and up so that Fetish's spirit-claws only leave shallow but long rips down his chest. Red blood wells against ebon skin like rubies on black silk and the few drops that splatter on the ground hiss and sizzle with hellfire. From a few yards in the air, Ethan looks down at the wound, lifting a hand to trace some of the flow and then looking at his fingers, now lightly coated with crimson. His tongue flashes out to lick the blood from them as daintily as a cat with a bowl of milk and his expression turns to a broad, wicked smile as he looks down at Fetish. "Hmmmm. You like inflicting pain. Oh, my beautiful savage. We can /work/ with that." His laugh is insinuating and entirely sinful, suggesting a myriad of perverse meanings. He shakes his head and says, "But not now, I think. Not … yet." He gestures at the ground again and it rips apart, exposing power and gas lines running under the soil to various buildings. And then a gout of hellfire blasts down, opening those metal pipes and causing a sudden flare of electrical discharge and gas-fueled flames to drive back the do-gooders. "Not yet. But /soon/." And with that he starts to wing upward to make an escape from temporarily unsettling odds. The demons are still circling down towards the disturbance below.
With everything going on, the animal side of Fetish's mind is reacting with fear. He's fighting the animal's instincts with every ounce of willpower he has. He forces his change back into normal as he gets a caught by a lash of hellfire. Not full on, so it's not as strong, but even he yells as it hits. "Oh god… that's… don't let it touch you. It's NOT normal flame." He says to the others nearby.
Maxwell and the woman. Too bad he didn't know her in advance, or he'd have made some kind of a fetish for her, to protect her. But… it's too late for that. "I don't know how your bullets will work, lady, but I hope they do more than I can."
Maxwell is a lad in full plate armor, yes, but he looks as the woman continues to fire and shoot again, giving a deep breath, "Very well if you wish to stay." he says as he looks back at the others, he keeps his shield lifted up in a sort of defensive posture, "It's too much, ja! If the whole park ruptures it will be bad"
Alessia sees him get him by that flame, starting for him. "Officer, not lady. Alessia, if officer makes ya nervous." She's frowning. "Would one of ya mind tellin' me what tha hell is goin' on?" Eyes flicking skyward, before she's flicking the safety back on. A hand through her hair, undone and loose down her back. Someone /had/ been on her way home.
The demon-taken mage vanishes into the sky, heading for the top of the new castle as a veritable flock of demons swoop and circle towards the gas and electrical flames and sparks below. It looks like they will arrive soon and in great numbers. Already cries that are somewhere between the laugh of a hyena and the scream of a hunting eagle fill the air as they see prey on the ground below. Now is the time when decisions are made, between retreat and making a stand. And perhaps between living and dying. Or at least bleeding heavily. The demonic horde seems endless for the moment as they pour through the newly opened gate from Limbo.
"From what I can tell, Hell just broke loose on earth. Demons are everywhere. We just watched a man turn from human INTO a demon. I'd suggest a strategic retreat to some safe haven. My guess is going to be… with this being demonic in appearance… hallowed ground or mystically protected locations." Fetish says bluntly. He's going on movie knowledge. He doesn't know if it's true or not. "If you need, and know a place, I'll fly you there." He says to the unprotected woman.
Alessia just stares at him a moment. "You're serious." Not that she doesn't believe him, with what's going on around them, above them. A shake of her head, as if to clear it. "Sorry, sunshine, ya got a name? An' what do ya mean, fly me there?" Unprotected her ass!
Maxwell looks at Aessia, "Officer, I belive it is quiet literally Hell on earth, Retreat and reinforcement is my advice, since there are three of us of limited power and currently and open gateway of literally, god knows what…" he agrees with Fetish and he trns his head to Alessia and flicks his visor up to show his face, "Maxwell, close enough for now, but right now we will have issues if we stay!"
"Eagle." Stephen says simply as his body shivers and forms again into an odd cross between human and eagle with a large eagle outline around his body. "I can carry you in my talons." He says, voice coming out clipped and whistling. "Either way, I'm retreating until I have a clue. And the name is Fetish." He says, waiting for Alessia to decide. He trusts Armored Max is strong enough to hold himself and get away.
Excuse her staring. She's never seen anything quite like /that/ before. A sputtering, stuttering sound. "Ah don't know where ta go." Because it's true. Al doesn't spend a lot of time in churches and things.
Maxwell nods, "Well then, running in a direction that is not here will work just as well" he says with a nod as he closes his visor again and will chase after the pair, "Though now we should be going, very quickly"
"Holy Ghost Church it is, then. Over in Hell's Kitchen. I've met the priest there. He seems to truly believe. Maybe he can help. Or at least, offer shelter." Stephen says. He's sure his apartment will be ok, but that's not to say the rest of the building. He begins to rise. "You coming?"
Alessia hesitates, but nothing she's picked up tells her not to trust him. "All.. all right. Ya won't drop me or nothin'?"
The first few demons land nearby. Nightmarish creatures that combine the worst aspects of lizard, greyhound and monkey, sinuous, long limbs terminating in hooked claws, bat wings and quills in the place of hair, they are entirely otherworldly and evil. They scent the air, sniffing like dogs and then fall upon those drops of spilled blood, licking them up from the earth and snarling and snapping at one another as they do. All too soon, the vital essence is consumed and as one they raise their muzzles to the blood red sky and /howl/ their hunger. Calling for blood. And for reinforcements. And then they look towards the small group of retreating humans. Evil, like fire, must always consume to live.
