Operation: Dasavatharam: Time to Throw Down

[x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com]

As the others prepare themselves, Amanda works to pinpoint the man behind all this.




"Everyone is in the general area and they are about to start kicking in the doors," Wanda said, turning to where Amanda was prepping. Despite the turmoil of the last few days, the older woman was maintaining her composure. But then again going into a fight was second nature to her - much better than sitting around and trying to figure out what Agatha was hiding or about what to do with the Exemplars when this mess was all over with.

Give her someone to smack over dealing with ugly emotional situations any day. "Stephen did nothing to reassure me on the nature of this ring," she continued. They had placed a quick call to Strange on their way to the building and, when questioned about what it might do to Amanda's power, he had simply had one piece of advice for her.

"Dodge."

Ironically, the spell Amanda was prepping was not unlike what she'd done with Haller and Meggan to find the Two Strike Killer. A combination of location spell and tapping into her link with the city - while New York mightn't care much about a piece of cursed jewellery, it did care about people harming its citizens, much in the way a body might care about an invading virus, and Amanda was hoping to communicate just how serious things were. She looked up at Wanda from where she was sketching a protective circle on the floor and gave her a reassuring smile.

"Strange doesn't do reassuring. He likes to scare the crap out of people so they don't meddle in forces beyond their ken, blah blah," she replied with her typical careless front. Someone who knew her well, however, would be able to see the tension thrumming through her. The spell itself wasn't dangerous, but the ring was, and Amanda still had a channelling spell carved into her back for others to latch onto.

"The man is impossible," Wanda agreed, staying a good distance away from Amanda. She was not keen to accidentally have her powers interact with the delicate work Amanda was doing; the last time that happened, she'd sent the other woman flying into a wall and hadn't come out of it all that much better, herself. With the Exemplars and their influence flitting in and out at unexpected times, there was an even wider margin for error now than there had been before.

"But if it so much as goes after you, I have no issues stuffing that blasted ring down the throat of whoever is wearing it. Possibly with his fist still attached."

"You say the sweetest things, Boss Lady." Amanda sat back, centering herself in the middle of the circle and crossing her legs . "All right, I'm as ready as we're gunna get. Show time." She closed her eyes, letting herself sink partially into the floor as she opened herself to New York's presence, pushing forward images of the ring and of what it was known to do to people. Trying to convey to the mindless sentience that was the city that there was a black spot, a cancer in its midst that went beyond the usual violence.

Just in case, Wanda took another step back. She could feel the subtle changes in the air around her when Amanda started the spell. Magic manipulated the chaos energies around her quite a bit and the more she was exposed to that kind of manipulation, the more she was able to - sense it.

Amanda could never explain just what went on when she was communicating with a city. It wasn't merely verbal, it was essentially a melding, becoming part of something bigger than she was and hoping she retained enough of herself to remain her during the process. Thus it was that when New York got a handle for what she wanted, it came to her as a feeling, deep in her gut, a feeling of wrongness that twisted her up inside. And more... there was a sense of purpose, of malevolence that was tied to the ring. A mind/a face/a magical signature reaching out/touching her/pulling...

With a gasp, Amanda cut the spell, bobbing back to the surface of the floor. "Got it," she managed, before leaning forward and throwing up.

"Amanda!" Managing to avoid stepping in the mess, Wanda laid a hand on her shoulders and there was no hiding her sudden concern. It wasn't just the physical reaction but ... during the height of the spell, Amanda's eyes hadn't glazed over. Not really. They'd turned black as if the pupils had bled out into the entire eye.

That was never a good sign.

Amanda heaved once or twice more and then gulped, trying to control her digestive system. "Ugh," she groaned, leaning back. "That was gross." As she spoke, the black drained slowly out of her eyes, leaving them their normal blue. "Sorry about that, Boss Lady. That ring is seriously fucked up mojo."

"Right, then we are doing two things tonight. We are destroying that ring and then I am finding out just why in the hell Agatha had it in her possession in the first place." She glared over her shoulder at the building. "Why don't we get started?"

"Whoever has it is holed up towards the back of the building," Amanda replied, pushing herself to her knees and then slowly climbing to her feet, careful to avoid the puddle of puke. "I'll show you."

Wanda snapped open her phone and dialed Remy. "We have the exact location, now." She glanced over at Amanda and smiled grimly. "I would so ever much like to end this as quickly as possible."




Remy and Ororo prepare themselves to give the cultists a rude awakening.



From the outside, the building had looked quiet enough but confirmations from several of their team members had suggested otherwise. Internally was a completely different number if one went off of their intel - they had had Covington's hastily written notes and their own intel but the number of cultists inside the building could have been in the low teens or anything above the thirty's. The only way to really know, unfortunately, was to get inside.

Doug, Jubilee and Cammie had gone around to the other side and Wanda and Amanda were making their own way in. That left Remy and Ororo to create enough of a distraction from their side to allow the two most suited to dealing with magic to do their job.

The ultimate goal was to take out the artifact that the leader was currently sporting but taking out members of the cult wasn't a bad second goal.

"You know, it's funny dat we de ones dat people expect to be de loud ones." Remy smiled at Ororo as they looked at the building, weighing the structure against the potential plans. Make it loud and let the cultists think that the very hand of God had come down to punish them.

"Any ideas?"

"Blow it all up," Ororo said consideringly, eyeing the ragged, empty windows of the yawning old building. "Or barring that, just parts of it. Explosions are always good for drawing attention, mm?"

"I like explosions. Was considered to have a talent wit' dem." Remy replied, scanning the outside of the building. Still, collapsing de thing might be too risky. Maybe a little windstorm wit' a couple of decks of charged cards whirling through it? Make a lot of noise wit' out setting dis whole block on fire."

"No fire? You never let me have any fun, mpenzi." Ororo smirked, the breeze already ruffling her silvery hair.

"You know dat Remy would burn de world for if you asked." He said, a card appearing as if my magic in his fingers, starting to glow. "Remy wouldn't say no to a little lightning - maybe some thunder too; see if we can make de herd stampede?"

Perhaps she shouldn't be enjoying this as much as she was; quite likely there was something wrong with gleefully looking forward to the destruction of property, even rundown, decrepit property such as this. She would meditate on it later.

There was a crack of lightning overhead and thunder rumbled, rolling out over the vacant lot as if some sort of judgmental diety overhead clearing its throat. Ororo wiggled her fingers, glancing over at the man next to her with blank, shining eyes.

"Guess it my turn. Suppose Remy should be worried how much dis seem like foreplay." He reached into his jacket for two decks of cards, holding them lightly as they started to charge. Ororo's storm was already causing the building to shake, and the few windows not shattered exploded from the impact. Remy kept the charge going, waiting for the wind funnel to reach the right level before feeding both decks into it.

A moment later the wind eddied around him, ruffling the cards and then plucking a few from his fingers; they danced upwards into a grey-tinged sky.

Remy raised the decks up, and the glowing purple cards were pulled up by the suction of the wind, dancing in the air like tiny stars. Remy stepped back, giving Ororo more room to work as over a hundred motes of kinetic charge spun around.

It wasn't easy; though she was used to directing the winds where she chose there was not usually this level of precision needed. Still, it was a challenge, and she did not shirk from it: carefully she coaxed the cards upwards, watching them spin, feeling the churning of the air and the crackle of ozone dance over her skin as she waited for just the right moment and then --

the first card exploded against the crumbling concrete of the upper wall. The next filled the empty space of the open window with light. Then next half a dozen hit the seams of the outer building in quick succession, followed by a rapid pounding against the metallic frame of the door.

Remy stood back as Ororo spent her fury against the building, windows lighting up with lurid explosions as the cards smashed into the various weak points of the structure and caused the whole building to shake.

Any normal person hearing that commotion would remove themselves from the premises as quickly as possible so as not to incur it on themselves. The people they were dealing with were not normal. As the flurry of cards began to die down there came the first hint of movement from within, first one shadowy figure and then another peering out to assess their attackers.

"Think dat got dere attention." Remy noted, flicking the odd card into the walls next to those who got a little too close to the windows. "Time for de big send off, chere?"

With a nod Ororo took a step forward, knowing that time was of the essence and yet not wanting to rush the delicate work before her. She stood there, motionless, and it seemed almost as if nothing was happening - at least until the first shout of pain split the air. One by one they could hear the sound of bodies dropping to the floor, curled and mewling, as the air pressure inside the building dropped suddenly, quickly enough to burst eardrums and trigger waves of debilitating sinus pain. Ororo maintained the cell until she was sure every last person on their side of the building was at least temporarily incapacited and then released her hold, turning back to Remy with a grim expression on her face.

"Foreplay, you said?"



It's never as easy as it should be.



The sounds of fighting, of explosions and gun fire and sharp cries, were muted now as Wanda and Amanda made their way deeper into the building proper. From the sounds of it, everyone was doing a bang up job of keeping the cultists busy and away from the two of them as they sought out the artifact and its most recent bearer.

Of course, she thought, dropping the cultist in front of her with a solid punch, that didn't mean everyone was downstairs playing nicely with the others.

"Seriously, how do they keep their membership retention up this high?"

"A good health insurance plan?" Amanda suggested, stomping on the fallen man's knee with a rather sickening 'crack' of breaking bone. All the better for not following them. "I hear evil cults have the best dental."

She snorted in amusement as they continued on. The current room was empty of anyone looking to attack them for the moment. Either the ones upstairs with them were all dead, they'd decided to go downstairs and try their luck or they were hiding. The third would have been the wisest option, all things considered.

They were half way across the empty space when Wanda froze in mid-step. She'd been about to place her foot down when she'd realized there was a large streak of blood that led into the next room. "Amanda," she said softly, "I think we found him."

The witch wrinkled her nose at the blood, her stomach turning over, still protesting the earlier spell. "Only one way in or out," she murmured, indicating the door ahead. "Me first with a shield?"

"Reading my mind - I'll be right behind you."

Amanda clapped as softly as she could to summon her shield and crept forward. Better to retain the element of surprise as long as possible, especially given what she'd felt of the ring and its user. But what she saw inside the room stopped her in her tracks.

The body on the ground twitched and shook, in a grotesque mockery of life. Blood bubbled up through the pores of the skin, puddling only momentarily before dissipating into a glowing mist and funneling up to the man standing over it. The pale figure stood there with his hands in the pockets of his jacket, inhaling deeply, like a tourist at the seaside, catching his first deep scent of salty sea air.

"Sweet God," Wanda murmured, stepping to the left as Amanda went to the right. That was the ring at work all right and that man in front of them was the one behind numerous of their cases. The bracelet on Wanda's wrist, a left over magical 'gift' of some variety that they hadn't figured out yet, felt tight on her wrist as she got a good look at the man. "You certainly have a lot to answer for," she said in a louder voice.

"Do I?" His face took on a distracted expression. "No, I don't really think so. That implies that my actions require answers. Don't they speak for themselves?" He gave them both a half smile, and used his hand to waft more of the mist towards his face, like inhaling the scent from a rare meal.

"Stop it." Amanda's voice was strangled, her face twisted with revulsion. She knew the hapless magic user this monster was feeding on, a harmless New Ager type she'd see around sometimes. They'd tease each other about their respective styles, "dirty hippy" and "modern meddler", but always in fun. And now...

Anger reaching boiling point, Amanda shoved forward a blast of pure New York, screaming: "LEAVE IT OUT YOU SICK FUCK!"

His eyes flicked up, and as the blast washed over him, the energy crackling with the smell of garbage, the cacophony of cab horns and the sound of mobbed streets. As it reached the figure, the flare changed and dissipated. It broke like smoke before a stiff wind, the blast torn apart into a million tiny curls of red mist. He gave Amanda an almost gentle smile.

"I'm not what you think I am, young lady. Or what I'm sure your beautiful friend believes either. It's all so much more complicated than you think."

There was so much that could go wrong in the next few minutes that it made Wanda feel slightly ill. The only consolation, if it even could be called that, was that the victim wouldn't suffer anymore if something did go wrong. Amanda and she could deal with it. The room filled with the red light as it washed off of her hands and she lifted them like a conductor about to start the performance. "I think explanations can wait," she said, as two hex blasts burst out of her hands and were sent hurtling towards him.

His expression barely changed, just softening slightly as he stepped forward into the hex blast. The energy washed over him, outlining him luridly in red light. He held up his hand, watching as the lines of chaos energy danced over his fingers and traced the lines of his flesh, before slowly fading away. "Now do you believe me when I say it is hardly as simple as you think it is? That all of this, both good and evil, makes up such a greater picture that you can't even imagine being able to see? Action." He looked to the body at his feet and then back to them. "Reaction. But part of what whole? Have you asked yourself that yet? It is not too late."

"Powers're no good," came Amanda's gasping voice. She'd hit him hard and the loss of energy on top of the location spell had cost her. "He'll absorb whatever we hit him with. Gotta be the old fashioned way."

Wanda's hand was suddenly filled with a knife and she nodded in understanding. "I think the time for talking has ended," she said firmly, looking at the man that had been just out of her reach for years now. Her grip tightened on the handle of the knife and she was filled with a sudden desire to bury it as deep in his body as she could. But the combination of the coolness and tightness of the bracelet on her hand grounded her, took her away from her instincts to just charge in, because if she did that, she'd be dead. Instead, she started to circle him again, watching the chaos energies tighten up to almost the breaking point. He was absorbing all of their thrown energy but Wanda's powers lent themselves in other ways. She just had to get things to a critical point.

Amanda have the older woman a brief nod and sucked in a breath before letting herself drop into the city. A chance to recharge and possibly come around behind their foe, just a few seconds...

"That's a shame. I think to think that the time for talking never ends. After all, action-" As Wanda lunged, he moved impossibly fast, grabbing Wanda's wrist with the knife, and pivoting, pulling her hand hand behind right. Right were Amanda was emerging. The knife sunk all the way to the hilt into her left shoulder. "- reaction."

Despite the instant horror that flood Wanda, she couldn't afford to let it cripple her. Her hand was already wet with Amanda's blood as she let go of the knife and twisted her wrist, breaking free of the hold. She didn't, however, fight to get completely free as that would have been a waste of time and energy. Instead she leaned slightly and grabbed his wrist and yanked it forward.

He was flush against her back now and with that much energy pulsing through his body, stolen magics, it was far too close for comfort. But when Wanda looked up at Amanda the red pulses from her wrists cast a strange glow in the older woman's eyes.

"His hand," she gasped, feeling the chaos tighten with every passing second.

For a second, Amanda had stared stupidly at the knife hilt, unable to believe what had happened. There's a knife in my shoulder, she thought dimly. Then the pain blossomed, worse than anything she'd experienced, and it was all she could do not to faint on the spot. Only Wanda's words penetrated. His hand.

She scrabbled at the knife with her right hand, clumsy with shock, and yanked it free. Blood pumped freely from the wound, but that wasn't important. The important part was the ring on his hand, onyx and gold, pulsating with its own life and she plunged the knife, wet with her own blood, into it. The blade shattered against the stone, but the hilt held and pounded into the ring with Amanda's desperate strength, shattering the gem.

The man's expression didn't seem to change; for only a flicker of a second, a lethal rage crossed his face, but disappeared as fast. He dug his hands into Wanda's thick hair at the back of her head, and with a strong grip, slammed her head forward into Amanda's face, knocking the young witch out cold and stunning Wanda. As she crumpled to the ground, he held his hand up to his eyes, taking in the ruined ring and the deep lacerations torn into his knuckles and fingers from the broken blade. As blood dripped freely, he yanked Wanda back to her knees by her hair, and bent down, showing her the ring.

"This," he said, as his blood spattered against her face. "is all very far from over. Action." He held up his hand, and with a vicious backhand, sliced open her face from her ear to her nose with the shattered gem. "Reaction. Remember."

His grip loosed, dropping her to the ground.

Stunned and left reeling, Wanda managed to roll over on her back with a hex bolt at the ready. But there was no target and she was left staring at empty air. Unnerved but grateful she wasn't dead, she let the chaos energies vanish back into the ether as she turned back towards Amanda.

She touched her face briefly and winced at the growing pain. But it was nothing compared to Amanda's shoulder; Wanda stuffed the pain next to the depressing thought that this already long war was simply getting started.