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Summary: A Sigil calls for a summoning over the zoo. Heroes respond.
Date: January 29, 2010
Zoo Rumble
Rating: R
NYC - Central Park Zoo
The Central Park zoo offers a variety of animals, Monkeys, Birds, Penguins, Snakes, Polar Bears, Red Foxes, fish, and many other animals. There are three zones to the Zoo, the Polar Zone, featuring the Polar Bears, Seals, and Penguins. The Tropic Zone, featuring a variety of birds, monkeys, and snakes. The last zone, the Temperate Territory is where the Sea Lions, Red Pandas, Otters, Ducks, and Swans can be found. It's a fun place for both Children and Adults alike.
Night time comes with many horrors during the current season. Especially anywhere near Central Park. The Zoo, tonight, is especially frightful. Above the zoo itself, a sigil appears in the air, as a portal opens, spewing a large number of miniscule demons and a few of the larger, heftier variety. The portal is still open, after a few moments, when finally, a young girl steps out, surveying the zoo with a grin. "Rarities abound here. I'm sure some of them will make excellent meals for later. I've never tried Manatee." She says, with a soft pout, not that there's anyone right there to hear her.
M-13, the division of the British Goverment for 'weird shit' and right now what's going on across the pond classifies as 'weird shit'. Thus why Pete Wisdom was sent over, to see if he could help out. Not like the bloody Avengers don't have things under control, they're not Earth's Mightiest, not at all. In his crumpled black suit smelling of cheap whiskey and stale cigarettes, he's decided to track activity in Central Park, since that seems to be the heart of all the troubles. He stands a way off from the portal and lights a cigarette as he just watches them from a distance.
Liason with authorities, Keld Jonahl, aka Kazhurr. That worked out well … maybe … so many of the authorities are in disarray. The armed forces, that's going through SHIELD, the NYCPD on the other hand, Kazhurr has been keeping in touch with, and fighting off the incursions where he can. The only reliable weapon he's found, testing for them, has been a pair of cold-cast iron crowbars he found in the garage of the Avengers' mansion.
But they do seem to work well enough if he hits with them hard enough. And a tip somehow got to him from those police: the zoo hasn't been hit yet. So he flies over in time to see the portal form.
The sigil is what brought his attention here. Having spent the last few days fighting demons, Pietro wasn't about to pass that up. It's kind of like throwing up a 'Super heroes here' sign. He arrives on scene with the barest whisper of sound, scouting things out before he stops near Wisdom. One lone guy in black, standing there, smoking while all this demon stuff goes on. "So." Said with an amused smirk. Pietro purposely doesn't stop behind Wisdom. No, where he can be seen. He's a makeshift staff in hand, one end resting against a shoulder. "Help, or hinder?" Some of the Avengers are out trying, but haven't been lucky enough to find the source(s). Nor has he found his luggage. Damn demons.
Jean-Paul is, as he has been for the past couple of weeks taking nightly flights, doing what he can to help and get a tactical overview of the situation while the X-Men decide what to do. Like Pietro, he sees that sigil from a distance and speeds towards the scene, just under the speed of sound to keep things stealthy. And it's a beautiful evening for his equivalent of a leisurely stroll. Seeing the two figures side by side, he arcs down towards the ground and lands lightly, if with just a hint of a show. He nods. "Gentlemen." His tone and single arched brow suggest he's being a bit generous with that designation, but allies are allies. Such as they are.
Jam'z enters the zoo from the portal with the rest of the demons and quickly surveys the area. He flattens a pair large bat-like wings against his back in disappointment, "It's empty. I was hoping to make a scene." Looking more human than ever, with exception to the aforementioned membranes, the boy hops up on the fence and looks around. His long hair rolls off his shoulders, quite a change from the beast he once was. But what was once beastly on the outside, he now wears on the inside. he hisses, bearing needle-like fangs, "I don't care what we eat as long as it's alive and screaming for mercy before I feast."
Wisdom looks at Quicksilver and nods. He knows who he is, he's read the files. "I should ask you the same thing." He replies to Pietro in his thick British accent. "Looks like quite a mess you got on this side of the pond. So have a game plan or just go in swinging?" He asks as Jean-Pual runs up and joins them. "Ah brilliant, we have another on our side. I hope." It's a thin line between serious and sarcasim with Pete and it's so hard to tell if what he's saying is, or isn't. He looks at the two heroes in costumes after Jam'z speaks and motions forward with his hand. "After you."
Jord'yn is here as well. And none to pleased to be. In fact, he's much LESS than pleased. They've found a way to force him into doing these things, so he's going along with it. "Get over yourself." He says to the other Demon nearby. "Just do what we're here to do." He sounds a little grumpy about it all.
The portal finally closes. The woman chuckles, coated in skintight, fluid armor, and wielding a very short sword… or perhaps a large dagger. "Come now, children. This is part of what will seal our fate. Last time they tried infants. This time, we'll try something different. Rare creatures." She chuckles. Her skin is ashen white, and her eyes black.
The flying Avenger spots a familiar blue-white-and-grime uniform below, and moves down to join the others. Wisdom he recognizes, but Keld doesn't see hairy palms or a hunchback, so perhaps his informant was reporting him after some unpleasant mutation. Northstar he recognizes from the files. He moves in, at just under the speed of sound. Quicksilver's acerbic comment from the other day did seem to have an effect.
Indeed, beggers can't be choosy. Pietro merely arches eyebrows at Jean-Paul's arrival, but beyond a nod of acknowledgement he doesn't reply immediately. Waiting for Wisdom. Really, he knows Wisdom (Albeit only by reputation), so the question was more teasing than serious. "I like the the some from column A and some from column B option." There he goes, joking again. It might seem strange to those who know of him that he's calmly waiting. "It seems the woman is some kind of leader. We should focus on her and those two others." Others being Jam'z and Jord'yn. "I'll see what I can do to distract the lackeys to give you all a clear path."
With that Pietro is gone. Off to get a running start, and mere seconds later he's back. Odds are only Jean-Paul and Keld see him as he races right through the entire pack of smaller demons… bringing with him a tremendous wind. Kind of going for the bowling-for-demons idea. Inside that wind are all kinds of debris. Garbage cans, hub caps, a hot dog stand.. anything and everything that he could pick up in the vacuum he created.
Jean-Paul looks towards the demons and sighs. "Apparently some of those are ours. X-Infants gone horribly wrong. At some point, we really /are/ going to have to look into fitting the little urchins with shock collars or something to discourage this kind of behavior." His droll tone suggests he may be joking. Possibly. He gives Quicksilver an amused look and gestures magnanimously, like someone offering up a better seat at the opera to an associate. "Age before beauty." He grins as the other speedster zips away and then glances back towards Kheld and Widsom. "Do /try/ to keep up, gentlemen." And with that, he's in the air, building up a good head of steam as he flashes towards the apparent leader, attempting a superspeed hit and run from surprise.
Jam'z smiles at Jord'yn, "What's wrong dear brother? This is our night. Savor the victory. Soon, everything will belong to us." He takes a stance like a gargoyle, keeping a lookout for intruders, playthings, and everything in between. With an ear bent towards the group's obvious leader, he complies, about to respond. His attention is suddenly transfixed elsewhere as a group of small demon clamor about in the middle of a sudden hurricane. He lets out a large his, draws out his wings, and with a single sudden beat takes flight. "We're besieged! Orders, Mother?"
One of the nice things about the leader… she's rather nimble and has a few tricks up her sleeve. Right as Jean-Paul is about to hit her, she vanishes, reappearing a few feet later. Nice little previously applied spell. "Ah, visitors." She says, softly from within one of the cages of the zoo itself. "I should have known. Were it not for the necessary sigil to absorb the energy from tonight, I'd kill you myself. As it stands… Jor'dyn… J'amz… anyone else, handle them while I go see about the sacrifice." She sighs gently.
Jor'dyn rolls his eyes as he shakes his head. "I'm only doing this because I'm forced." He's not happy about it but stalks forward towards the oncoming heroes. He's not just standing there, with his arms crossed. "No, please. Go away." He says, in a deadpan voice. "Let us complete our nefarious plans." Still deadpan. There's something… not as right about this demon.
"Bloody hell." Pete Wisdom mutters as he hears that there are kids trapped in those demon bodies. Yeah Pete's a killer but he doesn't kill innocents, not unless it needs doing, it's one of his things. He watches the two speedsters go their own way and takes a few steps away from the tree, flicking away his cigarettes. He focuses on the leader. "Scrafices, this night keeps getting more lovely." He says as from his right hand five hot knives manifest and he flings them at the woman, his left hand is prepaired with five more for if she teleports, hoping to fling them as soon as she does reappear, that is, if she does disappear.
Kazhurr is not one to allow the supercilious attitude of those who hold themselves to be superiors to rankle. In fact, it feels a bit like being back home, really. How strangely … uncomfortable.
From his vantage point, though, he sees the one they defer to like a leader, moving away to do something herself. Tactics says, do not let the leader act. So even in mid nod to Pete Wisdom, he vanishes with a CHOOM! of displaced air, flying an arc up and down to appear on the other side of where she was heading, and with a pair of iron crowbars, which he taps together for their lovely chiming.
"If that, perhaps we should have allowed the Englishman to go first." Age before beauty indeed. Said at such speeds that likely few can understand it. Pietro really doesn't care if anyone does. Especially since he finds himself rather busy. Being a distraction means that he has nearly the whole horde after him. Sure he's tossed many about, but that leaves a lot. Slowing down to speeds where the demons can see him, the man settles in for cracking some heads. This will keep him quite busy for a time.
Jean-Paul blinks as the woman teleports out of the way. "Magic. I /hate/ Magic." He spins on the long axis and arcs upwards to roll and survey the battle below. No obvious sign of his initial target is apparent to him and it looks like Quicksilver has the lesser demons in hand. There is a faintly begrudged sense of respect at that. And then he whips back down and around, trying to come at J'amz from behind, again with his signature move-through flying hit and run.
Jam'z smiles, eyes turning to red pinpoints as he receives his commands, "My pleasure, mother." He banks and begins to head towards the group, singling out the one throwing things at his 'mother.' "He yells at Pete, flying forward with his arms outstretched, hands ready to grab as he closes in, "You dare?! I'll make bread of your bones!" But in all of this he manages to leave himself wide-open to his ex-squad leader, Jean-Paul, who quickly overtakes the demon.
The 'Mother' figure fortunately DOES see the hot-knives coming. But raising her hand, she opens a portal. A very small one. The energy vanishes, only to appear from a portal coming behind Keld. However, with her focus drawn here, who knows what the others will do."To me! Do not let them stop me!"
Jor'dyn is quite happy to stand there. As he looks up to watch the ones above, there's a visible silver collar around his neck. "Well, gee. Let me fly over to protect her." He begins to grow, getting larger and larger. Once he's reached his maximum height of about 9 feet, he begins to float. Yes, just float. Moving very slowly towards her. Maybe 10 miles per hour.
"Bollocks!" Pete Wisdom yells out as his hot knives miss and he doesn't like magic but he's dealt with it enough. "I'm sorry kids." He says as he flings a volly of hot knives at J'amz with one hand and a volly at the woman again. The ones he flings at the woman are at different heights aiming for her head, chest and thighs hoping that she can't deflect all of them at once. "I think we gotta double team the bitch."
Unfortunately, that's a short distance between Keld's back and that portal, and while he's got combat reflexes honed by interstellar war, he can't QUITE dodge that. His skin is armor against a lot but those knives are thermal plasma the temperature of the surface of the sun, and Keld's starsong is devoted to flight. Still, he does have the reflexes that go with his superspeed, even though he might be a toddler learning to walk, compared to the two incarnations of speed. He turns, twists, and five knives score across, rather than thru, his back, cutting deep into the muscle.
He shouts, not a scream of pain so much as a … OK, scream of pain … and instinct causes him to switch his song to invulnerability; he plummets to the ground, like a 750 pound boulder, landing on hands and knees. He can't be hurt WORSE now, but that isn't going to heal before the battle ends.
Pietro is too busy to help the others, sorry! Taking on a horde isn't as easy as it sounds. Soon wounded, costume showing red lines here and there, the man continues on just the same. He stops holding back at that point. The littlest demons are the easiest to dispatch, and they begin falling. One by one they melt into good, or evaporate into foul smelling smoke. The staff he wields makes an excellent spear at the speeds he can move. When it wears out he simple finds a sign near at hand that will make due. The bigger ones give him some trouble, but at the same time hold his interest better. There's a light in his eyes as he climbs one at running speed and shoves a street sign through it's head. Demons are fair game for killing!
Jean-Paul moderates his speed down to barely as fast a charging rhino before he slams into Jam'z from behind, hitting with enough force to stun a human and bearing him forward as he kicks in the speed again to try to release the demonic mutant on a trajectory and speed that will have him slamming against the bars of one of the cages in a bruising secondary impact unless he catches himself. He's holding back, probing, seeing what the demon-taken teenagers can take in the way of hits before doing anything that might do permanent harm.
Thankfully, for Jam'z, he's redirected by Jean-Paul and narrowly misses the hit-knives thrown by Pete. Unfortunately, though, the cage might have hurt just as much. He slams up against the bars in a full body blow and slides down to the ground. It takes him a moment, but he stands arms crossed over his chest with a displeased look. He growls, looking towards Jean-Paul, "Hello teacher." He straightens his stance, although painfully, and coughs. He cracks his neck from side to side and gets all overly dramatic again, "You've taught me well…but it's my turn to teach you. Mark, 5:9. " He begins taking slow steps towards the man, "And he asked him, 'What is thy name?' And he answered, saying, 'My name is Legion: for we are many.'" Eyes begin appearing from inside the cage behind the demon. Jam'z point at Jean-Paul, wails demonically, and charges joined by another 10-or-so small demonic gremlins.
This time, The 'mother' wasn't expecting the hot knives. With a scream of pain, one slices her bare arm. Her chest armor is strong enough to keep some of it from affecting her. But, she's enraged. looking towards Pete Wisdom, she begins chanting. Flinging a hand forward, a visible blast of energy streaks towards him. If it hits, it's painful and stunning. But beyond that, not much. She's trying to find another creature. At the moment, she seems to have grabbed a red panda.
Jord'yn sighs softly. "Maybe this'll end in the best way for all of us." He says, still slowly floating in her direction. Nothing speedy about this one.
Wisdom raises his hands up and uses his hot knives to form a shield around him which protects him from some of the impact but it still stings and knocks him back to the ground. "See you're using kids to do your bidding against their will and now you're threating a Red Panda, the kids I can deal with lady but the Panda, I think you've just crossed the line." He says as he runs forward, no, it doesn't look like he's attacking yet.
No time for dramatics, soldier. Kazhurr. Stand. Assess. Plan. Execute.
The motherbitch has grabbed an animal. Can you get there in time? Yeah, just.
The Dakkamite warrior lunges, perhaps not superspeed but faster than most humans could, leaping if he has to, attempting to strike with a blow to the neck, the knees or elbows, with his merely normal-for-him strength, even weakened to perhaps half normal by the injury to his back. His crowbars remain embedded in the ground behind him; this will be fist or claw-hand or perhaps even knee. At least his own flesh is now wrapped in Acanti starsong.
Well, there goes another improvised weapon. This is getting ridiculous. Pietro tosses the crumpled sign aside, and surveys the situation. All around him lesser demons are poised to attack. A gathering of grotesque statues around a central point. Namely him. "Hmmm…" He muses, foot tapping. Yep, time for a change in strategy. Sure it was fun, but this needs to be over sooner. He's hurting too much to keep the hand to hand stuff up. With that he begins running in circles around the group as a whole. It won't be immediately apparent, but gradually the whirlwind begins to form.
Jean-Paul narrows his eyes and then tosses back his head, settling his hair a bit more to his liking. "Obviously, you didn't do your required reading. 'Born Normal, Chapter 5, Third Paragraph: The more of them he made, the more fun we had hitting them.' I was writing of Flashback, but you'll substitute nicely. And I'll be wanting that autographed copy back. Ungrateful wretch." With that he /moves/ faster than the unaided human eye can follow. The minor demons are obviously not human and he has no ethical qualms there. At that speed, the knife-edge blows he's using can snap bones and shatter organs as his weight and vast momentum are focused into those narrow striking areas as he deals with the minor demons. There is a faint smile on his face. Writing and speaking tours and celebrity are all well and good, but really he /has/ missed this. And then an 'ugg!' expression as something splatters under one of those blows. That he /didn't/ miss. Hopefully Xavier pays for dry cleaning expenses incurred in the line of duty
Jam'z attention fades as the man "disappears." He can't fight what he can't track. Hoping that the minions buy him time he advancesin the opposite directionand turns to flee. He makes a bee-line towards the leader of the group, doing as he was commanded, "I'm coming!"
Another figure joins the fray. She's been most recently seen in the X-Mansion itself, doing her part. Tonight, Amanda Sefton has been lured to the zoo by the sigil above the place. "Demons." She says, simply, stalking across towards the leading figures. She quickly surveys the field, looking between the 'heroic' ones and the 'evil'. "Those three. The cloudy one. The furry one. The one with the dagger. Hold them." She says, bringing a sword into her hands as she nods. "If we can get her, then the demon attacks will decrease drastically."
"Back away or I snap it's neck now." The woman glares. Unfortunately, Keld keeps running in her direction, flinging a fist at her. It hits and sends her flying.She lands in a thump. Her eyes are now glowing bright red.
The wind picking up over near Pietro mildly annoys Jordan. It causes him a little trouble when there's a lot of wind, but he can deal with it. It can't truly hurt him… "Oops, she moved. Now, I need to go in that direction." He says with a grumble. "I may have to obey, but I get to choose HOW I obey."
Well it looks like the the slow kid who seems so enthusasic to be serving, isn't really much of a problem so he decides to be stupid, but Pete won't admit that, he knows exactly what he's doing. The woman that Keld just send flying down to the ground, he runs faster towards her sending volley after volley of hot knives at her as fast as he can. "Dodge these wench." He says as he plans on hitting her with everthing he can right now.
What is it with these demons and threatening the innocents? Do they think it actually WORKS? Kazhurr closes again, fully intending to disable, or if necessary kill, this creature. This is war. This isn't a game. He doesn't spare more than a combat-eye for the Red Panda, which he hopes escaped unharmed, but if not, it's a casualty. And he has an ally in Wisdom, whose knives Keld knows too well. Probably should have words with his friend about getting a better description of the man's combat skills, because they seem to be fairly good.
At least he's not holding back. But the flying knives mean Keld has to pause for an instant in his approach. They might not hurt him now, but they would be dissipated against him and that would waste them. So he'll move when the moment is right, to grapple or pummel as chance permits.
The wind only worsens as well. It grows very centralized so won't extend far. Pietro races around and around and around until little demons begin being lifted off their cloven feet. Or misshapen feet. Mileage may very. They attempt to flee, but by the time they realize what's happening it's far too late. Demons are picked up and flung off in all directions, even the big ones. THe heavier take longer though.
Jean-Paul continues to deal with the demonlings. He slows down enough to be visible and heard, "Oui, Sorciere." It's a team instinct drilled in by years of working in them. Communication is the key. One of the demonlings takes advantage of that and swipes Northstar above the hip, ripping into his uniform and leaving a trio of ragged cuts. He mutters something absolutely vile in French as he takes to the air at just under supersonic speeds again, lifting a knee to impact the unfortunate demon in the chest and send it, broken and still tumbling, away in his wake. He's once again going for a tactical overview before he dives to the attack.
Jam'z runs full tilt to intercept the group. He spies Pete, his earlier target and moves to intercept. He leaps onto a zoo bench, gains some air and tries to tackle Pete in a rather lame, half-flailing-half-flying-mostly-falling sorta attack, "I'll swallow your soul!"
"DON'T KILL HER!" Amanda screams towards Keld and Pete as she breaks into a run. She can't teleport properly right now, because the stepping discs are locked to another signature. She holds her sword out, aiming first for the demon, J'amz, that's trying to take Pete out. He seems to be the biggest threat right now.
The mother looks up, trying to show an innocent face towards Keld, "Stop! Please! The sword made me do it!" She cries. Which may or may not be true, but it has the ring of truth to it.
Jord'yn himself is simply moving there and finally reaches her new location, solidifying and firming himself again. He cracks his neck. "She said stop." He says. "And if you don't stop, I'll have to do something. No choice. I don't really want to hurt you, butI know I can." He says, with a deep growl.
Wisdom is tackled by Jam'z and ends up on the ground with him. "Go ahead, swallow it, I doubt it will taste very good." Wait, Jam'z a demon and with all the things Pete's done, it might taste good for him. He remembers what Amanda said about holding them and tries to grab Jam'z tight so the two are locked together, even if it means getting badly injured. "Get 'im now!"
A cry for mercy and a call for same from an outsider. Something about Amanda's voice seems perhaps more to be trusted than that of the demon-mother.
"Are you surrendering? Then put aside your weapons and call off your slaves," Kazhurr growls, as the strike he had begun, flows into a ready-stance. If she begins the mystic portal-creating gesture, he can try to slap down on her hand before it completes. The now-solid teen-demon might be able to hurt him or Wisdom, as he says, but a space marine is not going to drop his guard completely in mid-fight.
It's raining demons o/~ Or, um, something like that. Wind visible now for the sheer force it's moving at, papers and dirty cycling upwards, the whirlwind has reached it's top strength. Demons are tossed about in all directions. Pietro abandons it, letting the winds rapidly die down without him to keep them in motion. With that he begins looking for the others. The demon horde will take a few moments to reform, and that's all he needs.
Jean-Paul arches his eyebrows as the floating demon finally solidifies and since Jam'z seems to be engaged, the floating demon has offered no hostility just yet and the demon queen has her share of attackers, he flips end over end and hovers for the barest instant in a position like a swan diver, arms outstretched to make his body cruciform and then flying down towards Jam'z and Wisdom at speed. At the last instant, he brings his hands down in front of himself and generates a brilliant flash of white light like a focused search light, aimed to hit the demonic mutant's eyes and perhaps blind him to the grapple and fly maneuver coming right behind it, should either hit. Wisdom might catch some of that blast of light, but hopefully not. "Detention time, mon ami!" Cheesy? Yes. But he's having fun, despite the circumstances. Superhero. Beats the hell out of grading papers. With that he tries to bear Jam'z up into the air.
Up until this moment Jam'z has seemed, even to him, a rather ineffectual opposing force. But, with a victim within his grasp, all that changes. Jam'z was never one for ranged attacks, and his conversion to a demonic force followed the same theme. Fingertips, black as night, grapple any part of Pete that can get purchase on. Chest, face….anywhere. As Jam'z man-handles the Brit, his decay field activates and begins to harm anything within a 5' radiussickening allincluding Pete. There's a flash and Jam'z screams in pain as Jean-Paul's attack lands, overly-sensitive eyes betraying a rather large flaw this time of night. "My eyesssss!" he hisses and goes into a prone position, releasing Pete and becoming easy pickings for the experienced teacher.
"You first." Amanda says, looking at the floating, reluctant demon. She can tell he's a human. "Come on. You want this as bad as I want to give it to you." She says, swiping the sword right across where his neck is, also running across the silver choker.
The choker chars and falls away, leaving Jordan standing there. He's not cut, but he is physically changing. His body seems to be sloughing off scales. The horns on his head begin to darken and fall away, as does the tail behind him. It's painful, but he's not letting himself scream. Nope. He's just holding himself together tightly.
She doesn't have to make any gestures. That's the nice thing about mutant powers that combine with magic. The 'mother' looks up at Keld. "Yes, yes, whatever you want…" At the same time she speaks, she creates another stepping circle, trying to swoop it over his body and take him to somewhere she remembers frm her childhood. Somewhere in Russia.
Wisdom screams as the decay field hits and his skin starts to rot a bit, it's painful. "Why you little…Toerag!" He yells as he doesn't care that J'amz is a kid. He's just glad that Northstar was able to blind the kid and get him off of him. "I owe you a whiskey." He mutters to Northstar before deciding gettting close again is a bad idea. "Now listen kid, I either stick one of these through your head." He says letting a Hot Knife come off one of his fingers and holding it there, ready to be flung. "Or you stay there like a good demon and let us get done what needs to get done."
The teleportation circle swoops down, and Keld is not there when it passes over where he was. Pietro pushes himself to near full speed as he sees the action, and leans down to scoop the other up. All but tucked under an arm, the speedster moves Keld well beyond that area and then deposits him in a safer location. Safer being relative here. He rounds back towards Wisdom. If it looks like Pete needs some space, he suddenly has it. Of course, this is after a stomach churning moment of blur.
Keld is a bit startled, well, ok, taken completely off his guard. He will berate himself later for the regulation 10 minutes over never assuming that just because an enemy uses a weapon in one fashion that they cannot use it in another. And he is unaccountably out of the path of the telportals and 15 feet away before the cold cold Russian steppes can welcome him for a long walk home.
However, still in battle, he spins and faces the enemy again. He'll say something, perhaps, once he figures out what it should be.
Jean-Paul hoists Jam'z under the shoulders and shoots straight up. He normally has rules against traveling quickly with passengers but in this case, he doesn't mind suspending them. "And now, etudiant, let us study the properties of the mesosphere together. Hold tight." He takes off the brakes and there is a sonic boom over the battlefield as he attempts to treat the demonic youth to a mach three elevator ride up to where the air is thin and cold. For somebody who can't nullify G-forces on their body, it should be a fairly unpleasant ride. If quick at those speeds.
Jam'z squeals like a stuck pig. It's a rather unpleasant human sound. As Pete threatens the boy, the demon reacts. He quickly pulls his hands away from his face, exposing his currently light-blind eyes. He opens his mouth, all too far for a human, and exposes two long snake-like fangs. And within the blink on an eye he's spraying copious amounts of sickly-yellow venom at the source of the sound. But even that only lasts a split second as demon becomes airborne, blind, and a rather much like a rag-doll to the force of gravity.
After a few moments, Jordan stands, looking like himself, only in a horribly torn and damaged pair of pants. He looks around. "Finally." He says, slumping to his knees for a moment.
Amanda, knowing her work is done with Jordan begins moving towards the girl on the ground. As she finally sees her face. "Illyana." She says softly, knowing the girl for who she is. However, it's not the one from this world.
Illyana, as she's revealed to be, slowly stands. "Sefton. Stay away from me." That's all she can say as she armors herself up.
Wisdom rolls on the ground to get away from the venom that J'amz spews. He holds his breath to not breath it in but it has an effect with skin contact and Pete suddenly feels like he does after a two day bender with nothing to eat or drink but cigarettes and whiskey. "Somebody kill the little wanker." He says as a lot of energy has just been sapped out of him. "I'm going to kill Alistaire."
Pietro stops a moment to shake his head as Jean-Paul disappears with the teen. His costume, not to mention his person, is looking worse for wear. "Isn't that always the way. Taking the boy away from help?" A smirk to Wisdom. "I'll buy you a drink if we survive." More amused than anything else. Nothing he can do about Jam'Z, so he flickers over to appear on the other side of Illyana. Across from Amanda. Fairly sure he can't do anything against magic directly, the man knows he might be able to distract for a second or two. Hopefully it will be enough. He lets himself be seen, and then darts forward to try for a blow to the backs of Illyana's knees. Dropping down to skid over and try to hit with his shin. Not to hurt, but trying to knock her over. Even if he gets teleported it means Amanda does not. That's more important.
With Jean-Paul doing the flying, Jam'z is rather at the mercy of the much-better-equipped and experienced X'er. The force of gravity pushes the demon tight against the man's body and it's only seconds before he can feel himself succumbing to the natural outcome to such a trip. His eyes, still sightless roll into the back of his head. He feels the world begin to shut down as his head goes forward. In a single, last desperate attempt to free himself Jam'z tries to sink those fangs that were meant for Pete into the flesh of Jean-Paul.
Keld had the same idea, it seems. He stops though; Pietro's attack is similar enough to his own planned actions that he simply closes, and is ready to retaliate if something starts to happen.
Illyana crumbles, having had her mind totally taken by Amanda in front of her. She had started to cast something, but was interrupted.
Quickly and without mercy, Amanda slides the sword across her prone form, shearing the dark will of the souldagger and turning it back to what it should be. Illyana herself is dazed and unconscious for the moment. "One more." She says with a firm nod, turning to try to locate the others.
Jean-Paul yells as needle-like fangs pierce his bicep down to the bone but his instinct is pour on more speed and he does just that, only leveling off when the pair are deep in the mesosphere, letting low oxygen levels deepen whatever unconscious state his high G trip may have inflicted on Jam'z. His blood runs down the outside of his uniform, making him remember why he selected black as the primary color in the first place and tiny beads become crimson ice dropping towards the earth far below. He switches his grip so Jam'z is better supported and starts back down at that same breakneck pace. That's going to need some stitches. And a tetanus shot. And one /hell/ of a lot of detention later.
Looking up at Pietro, Pete just lies there on the ground, feeling horrible. Damn those X-brats, this is why he never got involved with them too much. This is exact reason. All children are demons, really. He takes out a cigarette and lights it, trying to calm the weak feeling that's corsing through him.
Keld looks up, and sees the contrail left by that abrupt journey into the edges of space. He steels himself, switching his power to flight, because that downward plummet does not look entirely controlled, and (with a fine spray of blood now coming off his back for just a moment) accelerates up towards the duo, hoping to assist them in slowing down if they're out of control. And yes, he is going to be in pain in the morning. Or right now.
Pietro catches the unconscious blonde, for he's in about the perfect spot for it. "The other was taken upwards by Northstar." The man points upwards as he gently lowers Illyana to the ground. Keld moves upwards and he looks that way. "Will taking out the three put a stop to the lesser demons?" Asked of Amanda. All business. Mainly because if he thinks about it he might show some emotion. Can't have that.
Jean-Paul swoops down out of the sky, bearing Jam'z and lands roughly, for him. The injury and the weight are both throwing him a bit off. He gives Jam'z a wary look to see if the youth his unconscious and then back at the other combatants. "Does someone want to do something with this infant before he can do more damage to my wardrobe?" His tone is mildly aggregated to cover some real pain.
Jam'z struggles as the pair level off. But it's little more than the instinctual flight-or-flight response of one already over taken by forces out of their control. His head rolls back and he gasps a couple of times. The dark part of his mind kicks and screams, rejecting the idea that he's lost, or that he wasted the venom on the other one. But even that translates into little more than a muscle twitch before the body relaxes completely. And, with that, he's out of the fight as his consciousness begins to fade. When they hit the ground Jam'z rises enough to give a low growl and a warning hiss, bearing his fangs weakly.
Seeing them return, Amanda comes to Jean-Paul and nods. "Of course." And with that, there's another slice of the sword at the young demon/mutant. It'll take a few moments, and with his unwillingness, will probably be rather painful. "They'll all be fine soon enough." She moves towards Illyana and tries to tap her cheek. "Illyana. Close your disc. There are demons coming through. We need to go plan for the last bearer." She whispers.
Illyana wakes up groggily and nods. The disc vanishes.
"You bloody Americans and you demons problems." Not like England doesn't have their issues since it's not like it's a magical cesspool for problems, not at all. He eventually stands up and straightens out the crumbled suit. "So." He says looking at Amanda Sefton. "Care to fill a chap in on why children are turning into demons?"
Landing escort, Keld stumbles a bit on touching ground and hisses himself, then says something to Pete Wisdom.
"Aktshav iktsaju kanz-habkshiv." Roughly translated, I really hate your knives. It takes a moment of concentration this time, and a wave of sick nausea, but he finally manages to restart the Song of Invulnerability, and the pain and sickness abates to manageable levels.
"God forbid you bleed on something." Said mockingly to Jean-Paul as he rises to his feet. Honestly, he does understand, but not going to admit that. Not that he's looking any better either. Slashes and puncture marks mar his costume. Pietro is mostly whole, but he'll be hurting for a while. He watches as the disc vanishes, not saying anything about unanswered questions. Then more seriously he moves to Jordan, standing over the teen, "These belong to Xaviers then?" Someone's about to get the rapid path home if that answer is yes. So not bothering with Wisdom and Keld right now.
Jean-Paul gives Wisdom an arched eyebrow and says, "I am /not/ an American. I'm better. I'm Quebecois." His tone is perfectly level and serious sounding but a certain twinkle in his eyes suggests he's joking. Pietro gets a pleasant nod. "Ah, always good to see you, Quicksilver. Did your illustrious father have a yearning for pizza or is this your night off from toadying?" He hefts his student, not letting him fall despite the wounds still bleeding. The boy is /his/ responsibility. Still, he's also damned heavy. Jean-Paul lowers the student to the ground carefully.
"Yes." Jordan says mildly, nodding to Pietro. "We both do."
Amanda gives a soft sigh to Pete. "Basically, Three soul-weapons. One of which My soulsword that belongs here. Her souldagger from another dimension. And HIS… whoever he is… Soulsword from another dimension. It threw off the dynamic of limbo and let the demons break out. They corrupted two. If we can get them all together, we can regain control and then restore New York to what it should be. That's the long and short of it."
Jam'z never sees it coming, but he feels it. And the horrid scream as he reveals just how much he felt it. On his knees, he tries to crawl away, making the sounds of a wounded animal as his wings melt from his body. In a moment, the wings are gone in a puddle of goo. Jam'z…no…James looks up at Jean-Paul and weakly celebrates, "Hey…I'm no longer an animal. I'm human again…frekin' A!" But the pain returns and, without warning practically every single pore in his body erupts like a micro-squib, spraying a sudden torrent at the teacher?and everyone in the nearby radius. His body begne to contort, skin ripping, muscle tearing, bones snapping as a 7', 300lb beast tears its way out of a 5' 130lb boy. It's rather like a messy 'American werewolf in London' except the wolf is a hyena, and this time the effects are real. As the 'boy's remains liquefy much like the demon goo, all that remains is a rather wet, messy, gore-covered beast who cries, "…noooo…."
"Brillant." Pete says standing up as he looks at Keld. He has not clue what he said. "Sorry mate but I don't swing that way." He says clasping him on the shoulder before looking at Jean-Paul and Petrio. "I can help you get those kids back to the school, I know how to get there. "That was quite disqusting." He says not really one for too much sympathy. He'll go with those back to Xavier's, annoyingly. Also for quite selfish reasons.
All the alien Avenger got from his liplock with SHe-hulk on that matter was "a kind of dance, or where dead babies go" and neither of those seem to fit this situation. Not that it's likely to be answered when the kid suddenly explodes into a profoundly disgusting mess and a creature rather like a household pet from back home is left … And that looks like it hurt more than Wisdom's hot finger attack. Nothing in the manuals for this one, he just … watches.
Ah, a pleasant tone, filled with malice. Pietro laughs instead of growing angry. "Scathing wit to fill in for the actual lack of content. Always a pleasure indeed." Then he turns his attention to Jordan. "Then you are getting a ride home, young man." The painful scream of James has his expression shifting to something dark, but he merely leans down to try to heft up Jorden. Over a shoulder even. No, this isn't good for the pride. Back to Jean-Paul "We'll have to talk again." And he means that. It's fun. To Wisdom he snorts, "Race you there." And with that he's gone. Jorden will get himself a harrying ride home to Xaviers.
Jean-Paul gives his gore drenched uniform a look of absolute horror. "Ah. Argh. Putain de bordel de merde! That was a Gaultier!" Of all the sacrifices one makes for one's duty, this one ranks up there. His expression is disgusted but he leans over to put a hand on James's shoulder. "It will be alright, young one. At least you are free now." He looks back up at the group, too late to give Pietro the venom he needs to vent right now. "Ah. Wonderful. Let's get them back home and then worry about tomorrow … tomorrow." He gives James a dubious look. "I think he might be a bit much to carry."
"In that case, if you need, I can fly myself there." Jordan offers with a half a grin. "I'm myself now. It'll just be noisy." He says. "That way, two of you, maybe, can take James?" He asks.
James lays there prone for a moment, watching the last of his promised humanity dissolve away. He doesn't so much as move a muscle. But, after a long moment he turns his muzzle towards everyone else and pushes himself off the ground…only to almost end right back where he came from, "Ow."
Wisdom walks over and pats James shoulder. "It'll be alright mate." What else does he say, he's not the mushy, feely, sensitive type. "Let's get the kids.." The Jordan runs off. "Kid home then."
Keld looks at Pietro. "You will do some of the paperwork, right?" Not expecting an answer, really. But if the woman wants to explain Limbo to him he'll listen.
