Something Slender (and Awful) - You Mad, Bro?

[x-invisiblegirl.livejournal.com]

Marie-Ange goes to arm herself with her images and arms...quite a few more people than that.



Marie-Ange wiped goo - it even smelled like runny egg whites - off her arm and spun, cracking the staff she'd made from the tattoo on her arm across the face of one of the creatures that had taken the students. It distended, the off-white skin bending around the staff and then the image broke, the wood cracking into hundreds of splinter-sized pieces before dissolving into even more goo. She darted back, yelled something in French that most certainly was not something she should have been saying in front of impressionable teenagers, and had a pair of long knives in her hands before the creature's face had reformed.

And -then- she realized that what she'd thought was Wanda in the corner of her eye was not her tall co-worker. "Go to the exit. Quickly. Run."

Matt was torn between leaving Marie-Ange and running the hell away with Molly. Getting out was a priority, but he wanted everyone out, not just some and leaving Marie-Ange was potentially leaving her behind. "Molly!" he shouted, trying to get closet to the younger girl. The Slenderworld place made him doubt his senses, but the longer he was here the more he was able to interpret the off-kilter correctly. Marie-Ange was a professional, he finally decided. They weren't and this was a battle, like the one in Genosha. Time to go.

Boom. Ba-boom. Thud. Squish. Boom. It all felt familiar to Molly too. And strangely she remembered something about Matt touching her hair. She didn't know why.

It distracted her for the moment, until she heard her name and it made her quickly spun around.

"Running!" Molly said, reaching out for Matt's free hand as she made the dash toward safety. Of course, getting there was gonna be tricky. Cause there were dudes blocking her way.

Well, there was one less dude blocking her way cause she tackled him and threw him into another clump of dudes like bowling back. But there were still more dudes. They probably got a discount on suits from the creepy guy tailor store. She slowed down a little, though.

"Wait...Which way is the exit?"

The exit had been behind her, just over her shoulder where she could glance back and see it. But when Marie-Ange did glance back, it was gone, shifted off to the far side of her, beyond Matthew and Molly, and she swore again. The landscape itself seemed to not want them to leave. She sliced at the creature's legs, leaving a gaping bloodless slice that oozed runny white and pulled her knife out of it.

It was still solid. The speed and force with which she had struck, it should have dissolved, and it should not have felt like cold metal in her hand - it should've been warm, the same temperature as her skin, and it should have not made a metallic clank when she hit it against the other knife.

"Stay with me, do not go more than an arm length away from each other." she snapped to the teens, and then glanced at them. Both wide-eyed, fear and determination evident, even accounting for Matt's scars.

"I don't think that did much!" Matt pointed out, sort of obviously, grabbing one of the men and introducing him to his knee before using some of the self defense he'd learned to take him down. These things were Not Right. He knew that, but it was still disconcerting to not know how to handle it. He was ready to end these things.

"How bout this?" Molly said, as the purple glow spread to her eyes and she reared back, punching two of them with a one-two punch as hard as she could muster.

After Genosha and his need to keep distracted afterwards, Matt had turned towards his self defense classes with gusto. Putting what he learned to good use against the Slenders, he couldn't punch as hard as Molly, but he could move and wasn't afraid to get hit back.

They were supposed to be rescuing the students, not letting them get hurt by trying to punch monsters made of fear and hunger and the magic that created nightmares. Marie-Ange shouted a warning, but the slendermen had already moved forward to grab at Molly and Matt.

She'd meant to arm herself, to switch her pair of knives for an army. The card in her hand was full of armed skeletons, some sort of trading card she'd picked up in a store somewhere. What came out was nothing like her card. There were no skeletons wielding shields and scimitars, no monsters to fight the monsters. She had a sword in her hand, but it was jagged-bladed and heavy and dull grey, and she'd held it last many autumns ago, fighting a troll with Paige Guthrie.

The slenderman got in one good blow, it's tentacle-like limb nearly taking Marie-Ange to her knees - but in the stumble, she lunged, driving the asgardian longsword into it's chest. It pulled back - or tried - impaled on the cold iron and its limbs went limp and heavy as it tried and failed to get away.

She barely registered the headache that was far worse than what a single image should have given her. Had she taken a chance - or had a chance to look around, it might've made sense. The glint of metal from sapphire blue bracers that wrapped around Molly Hayes's arms, and the golden starred helm that had covered her hair and knit hat. The red-on-black clubs that had appeared strapped to Matt Murdock's back. The bow - nearly as tall as the young man himself - that appeared in Clinton Barton's hands. The hand-and-a-half sword that had appeared mid-strike as Doug Ramsey was nearly overtaken by monsters - again.

Molly was startled at first when things appeared on her arm and her head, but then she realized it was Mary Angie, which made her relax. Staring down the bad guy, Molly motioned for some of them to come at her. Three did, and appeared to try to gang up on her, rushing at her on all sides. Due to her size she seemed to be enveloped. Until suddenly the three of them shot backward in all opposite directions, guided by Molly's fists.

The weight on his back surprised Matt and he reached behind him automatically to grab them, "Staff?" he asked, unsure. It wasn't a staff, it was two halves, but held together with a long cord. Different, but definitely something he could work with. He had been learning to use his cane as a staff as it was. Turning, he threw one end, hitting a thing in the middle and then tugging it back. Useful.

The question caught Marie-Ange's attention - she pulled her sword out of the monster with a twist, and kicked one of it's tentacle-limbs away from her feet. "Le bâton.." She answered, puzzled momentarily. "Miss Hayes, please grab Mister Murdock and run." His strike was unusually accurate, but a speedy retreat was becoming more and more important. More so than dealing with the monsters.

"Should I pick him up? He might not like that," Molly said. Mary Angie looked confused about something but she didn't pay much more attention since the bad guys kept showing up.

"Definitely not liking that," Matt panted, hearing the conversation as he flipped and twisted, making his way over to where Molly was. It was too bad that this wasn't a gymnastics meet. Taking her hand, he pushed sweat soaked hair from his face, "Let's get out of here," he agreed.

"Okay," Molly said with a little less chipperness than anticipated at this fact, yanking Matt along as she took off. "Thanks for the hat and stuff."

"Stay...behind me...kay?" she added to Matt as she made a beeline for the door, elbowing and showing bad guys out of the way.

About halfway through, however, she started to slow as the glow disappeared from her eyes. She tightened her grip on Matt's hand, hard enough to hurt but not hard enough to break or do any damage while she pulled. But she got slower and slower until she came to a stop.

"Uh oh...I'm...tired......Sorry...." she said before her grip suddenly slackened and she keeled backward, right onto Matt.

The Slendermen started to try to make a dogpile.

Adjusting his grip on Molly, Matt scooped her up. This was not the first time she had passed out from over exertion. The superstrong girl weighed nearly nothing in his arms, but she did slow him down just a little. Swinging her around, he both used her to knock the Slendermen away and to put her into a fireman's carry so he could carry her better. "The exit's in front of me, right?" he yelled at Marie-Ange, continuing to move in that direction regardless.

"Yes." Marie-Ange said, through tightly gritted teeth. She swung the sword she'd created, slicing through one of the monsters. "Five meters, do not stop running." He would know, she hoped, when they were through, and in the meantime, she could keep the slendermen dogging at the teens' heels busy.

Five meters. He could do that. Gripping Molly tightly, heart pounding, he ran for it, the change between whereever they were and where they were supposed to be nearly instantaneous. The world returned to live in front of him, crisp, clear, overwhelming in its sounds and smells. Moving away in case someone else followed him, Matt held Molly in his arms again, her head resting against his shoulder now as he tried to relax and calm down. That was easier said than done as he waited for the others to come through behind him.

Marie-Ange cut through a slenderman's flailing limb - all too much like one of those terrible cloth-and-air figures outside car dealerships - she was strongly considering going out and destroying several of those just for good measure - and broke into a run. She could hear shouts as her teammates - and the children - headed towards the portal home, and managed to get through it, and yelled out her own as she ran through.

The return to New York was no less miserable than the departure, and she came out of the portal onto her knees, and had to scramble to get back to her feet - from the voices, people were immediately behind her, and moving fast. She could recover leaning against a bus shelter.



Wanda wreaks havoc to rescue Sue. She's very good at havoc.



Sue stared around in amazement, the various adults who had shown up were just destroying the Slendermen. She didn't recognize any of the adults personally, she had seen them on the journals before, but all she could do was watch as a blonde man charged at the monsters with a big sword while another Asian woman blasting them and sent the Slendermen scurrying back. Right in front of her she could see one of her tormentors trying to wrap it's arms around a dark haired lady right in front of her. A determined look appeared in the girls eye as she set off towards the lady, after everything that had happened she was really looking forward to some payback.

Wanda was incensed. Someone had gone after the children again, had attacked people that she cared about, and she was growing tired of seeing those who should have been innocents embroiled in such messes. It didn't help her anger any when Marie-Ange suddenly disappeared from view as one of those creatures attacked Wanda from behind and attempted to wrap itself around her. Muffled footsteps told her someone was approaching but friend or foe, she couldn't be certain.

Her fingers sank into the black arms that curled tighter and tighter around her and she shuddered at the feeling of flesh soft enough to sink a knuckle into but hard enough to prevent easy escape. Wanda braced herself and started to glow red.

As a red light started emerging from around the sides of the Slenderman Sue slowed her headlong advance, letting the forcefield she had constructed around her fists drop away. The blonde had discovered that if you hit one of these monsters hard enough they'd get hurt like anything else and by now Sue was mad enough to want to vent her frustration on the Slenderman quite badly. She didn't really know the people here, but given her experience with the adults at the mansion a glowing light probably meant that things were going to get messy here.

The creature enveloping her was powerful, no question about it, but Wanda wielded the power of chaos and entropy. And no matter how powerful, no matter how strong, everything wore down in time. Strong flesh shuddered as anything touching Wanda started to flake away blowing off into the distance thanks to a strong breeze. It still held on but cracked lines that pulsed a dull, angry red began to show; it turned the Slender Man from an impossibly strong monster into something with weakness.

Sue could only watch in amazement as the Slenderman started to fall apart in front of her. She could see the red lines of energy pulsing through the body of the monster. She balled up a fist wrapping it in a forcefield before she slammed it into the side of the Slenderman. The girl could see the monster's flesh give under her punch and heard a roar of pain but aside from that the creature just shook off her attacks. After everything thing that had happened it was pretty satisfying to just lay into the monster, "Get off her!" she shouted as she punched the Slenderman in the side again.

It wasn't luck, exactly, that had Sue punch exactly at the weakest point in the Slender Man's body. Just pure chaotic chance with a little help from Wanda's manipulations. She struck clear and true and suddenly it was stumbling away from Wanda, screaming as it clutched at it's chest and arms. The older woman stumbled at being freed so suddenly though she turned and reached blindly for whoever had been on the other side.

"Down!"

Because whatever was churning inside the creature behind them, it wasn't going to be pretty when it finally got out.

Sue gasped as the older woman she had been trying to help turned and tackled her with an urgent command to get down. The girl instinctively wrapped her arms around the woman and threw up a forcefield around them, and just in time too as the Slenderman managed to turn and give a pained yelp before he literally exploded sending guts flying in all directions. It was over in the blink of an eye, apart from the drip of...something...off her forcefield.

"Wow," the blonde breathed as she took in the devastation surrounding her before realizing she still had arms locked around the strange woman. Quickly letting took a step back and let the forcefield drop, "Uh...hi! I'm Sue," she held out her hand in greeting while pointing her free hand at the remnants of the Slenderman, "Did you do that?"

Taking in the devastation, and enjoying the fact that none of it was on her, Wanda tore her glance away from the bits and slivers of the Slender Man and grinned a little at Sue. "Wanda," she said, quickly grasping the younger girl's hand. "And - mostly. It is a little complicated to explain but do not doubt that you helped make that happen in the end and, for that and the shielding, I thank you." Transferring her hand to Sue's shoulder, she started to steer them both towards a quieter looking piece of pavement. "Now, let us see about getting you and the others home, yes?"



Maddie finds Billy and Clint. It's easy to tell the real Maddie - nobody else could possibly be that bossy.



It seemed like the things - they had stopped looking like distorted people ages ago - had slowed their advance but they still crept out of shadows and from behind rocks-and-trees-and-walls-and-things and even though people - the adults, though such a very strange group - had done considerable harm to them, they were not stopping. They were swarming sometimes over the slippery remains of their fellow creatures and then gliding, or clambering or creeping forward towards the group.


The exit - a slash in the world that showed a New York City that honestly, didn't look that different, was no closer than it had been a few seconds ago, even though they were running for it.

"Hey bitches!" Theirs was the first, and strongest, presence Maddie had felt in this strange universe so it made perfect sense that she would personally go and collect Billy and Clint to escort them out. It had taken longer than she wanted, deterred first by the endless stream of Slender Men, then by the world itself fighting against her attempt at forward motion. This whole "I think it, therefore it is" thing was still a little too confusing for her to immediately remember.

Well the important thing was that she was there now. "What have you two losers been up to?"

"Trying to keep these things off us with moderate success," Clint said, eyebrows rising even as he smiled despite himself. "Where've you been?"

"Doing what I always do," she replied, her tone suggesting that his question was clearly unnecessary as he should already know the answer. "Saving the day."

"I brought back up"

"How do we know you're the real Maddie and this isn't some trap?" Billy paused, suspicious of the change in fortune. "What were you going to name your goat?"

"Shut your face and stop asking stupid questions." Out of the corner of her eye she could see a black thing closing in on them. Yeah. Now was not the time for questions; she hadn't realized how close the things were. Without warning, she shoved Billy to the ground and aimed a blast of pisonic energy at the approaching monster knocking it over and stunning it long enough for Maddie to rush over and kick it in the head. As it melted into a poo of black goo, the redhead strode back to where her boys stood, face beaming in excitement.

She was particularly fond of kicking them in the head.

"It's a One-Two Punch kinda deal," she explained. "I can stun them with a Psi-Blast, but they need some sort of physical attack too to make them turn to goo. Same with Amanda and magic. Magic and psi-attacks alone aren't enough to kill the buggers."

"Yup, definitely the real Maddie," Billy muttered under his breath, picking himself up off the ground. "Oh, is that how it works?" He pondered a moment, piecing together the sticks and streetlamps and lightning. "So...we zap them, and Legolas here," he nodded toward Clint, "shoots them."

Maddie had the same sharp definition as Billy, so Clint hadn't questioned whether she was real or not - he was just glad to see her. "Legolas tries to shoot them," he muttered, still puzzling out the bow and quiver that he thought the redheaded woman had made for him - it had just ... appeared. "Or I can hit them with this thing - it's gotta be better than the sticks Billy conjured up. It's bigger, at least."

"Legolas?" Maddie was seriously confused. Wasn't that some elf dude from Lord of the Rings? Why would Clint be... oh. Her eyes widened as the bow finally registered with her mind. "HOLY SHIT! THAT BOW IS AWESOME." It was so sleek and sexy and shiny; she just wanted to run her fingers over the curves and purr with delight. But the Slenderarmy was still advancing and they were doing that same "point on the horizon" thing they had tried with her. These guys were seriously lacking in imagination.

"Right. Backs together, all three of us, that way we have all sides covered. Just like fighting zombies." She was giddy with excitement and trying so very hard not to dance around. "You two take point, I'll focus mostly on trying to get the hell out of dodge." She motioned to the tear in the universe. "And just keep thinking that you're moving toward the hole, okay? I'm pretty sure I can get us there; it's a weird Astral psi-trick. I'll explain it later."

"But right now, it's time to kick some serious Slendermen ass. Ready?"

"Got it," Billy nodded, electricity suddenly dancing in his palms. The giddy feeling was mutual, almost...electric he thought to himself, but bit his tongue. Two of the Slendermen were drawing closer, and he shifted to face them, sending a bolt toward the nearest. It hit the first, then arced toward the second. "Legolas! Two already!" he called out, grinning at Clint a moment, before turning his attention back to the Slenders.

"Shut it, Gimli," Clint said, already having knocked an arrow. He pulled back the string like he'd seen people in movies do - it was a lot harder than it looked - and aimed. Letting the arrow fly, he reached for a second even as he kept his eye on the first, figuring if he had to actually brain the things with the bow itself, he should know that before attempting to hit anymore of them with arrows. Only the first arrow actually hit its mark, one of the first Slenderman's eyes, and Clint had to blink because what? "Dudes. That actually worked." He shook himself and shot the next arrow. It didn't go quite as well as the first, ending up more in the next Slenderman's shoulder than anything vital, but he still counted it as a win.

"Nice shot," Billy said, sounding surprised as he looked back and forth between Clint and the arrow. Dragging his attention back to the fight, he focused on the arrow quivering in the creature's eyesocket. I want it to blow up, I want it to blow up, I want it to blow up. The arrow flashed a bright blue light then exploded, sending bits of Slenderhead flying in every direction. The headless body flailed a moment before turning to goo and splashing to the ground.

Maddie might've been more shocked about Billy's powers actually working the way he wanted them to for once if she hadn't been so occupied with her own set of Slendermen. They were almost at the exit now, but fat lot of good that did them while several of the dark creatures were forming a barrier. The hole was large enough now though so that each of them could squeeze through it and back to reality. A plan was quickly forming in her mind.

"Clint. Billy. On my mark get ready to change positions with me," she called over her shoulder. The air became heavy with electricity as Maddie's focus shifted to pulling all the energy from this world that she could. What she had in mind might very well backfire; she had never tried to use so much energy at once before. But since she was drawing from a source outside of herself, she hoped she wouldn't pass out from the effort and leave the boys with the burden of trying to drag her body to safety in addition to fighting off the skinny bastards.


"I'm going to make the biggest blast I can," there was an electric storm dancing between her hands and up her arms, "which will hopefully knock out the portal guards and keep more from flanking us. You do your thing, Clint. Billy, you shock any I may have missed. Clear a path. I will build a a fence at your back, which will hopefully slow them down enough to give us time to escape."

"As soon as you guys make a path, Clint you get your ass through that hole. Your arrows won't stop them on their own, but Billy and I can at least stun them. Billy, you next. I'll be right behind you. Be careful you guys, it's a hard fall, you'll probably feel like your insides are being ripped apart."

"And guys. I'm really sorry I didn't believe you before."

"Now. Mark!" The shout was accompanied by a silent psionic blast, spreading out from its focal point into an invisible semi-circle, paralyzing whatever black figures were caught in its path.

If he'd had time, Clint would've told Maddie not to apologize like she thought she wouldn't get out of this just fine because that was putting a kink in his admittedly shaky shooting, but then she gave the mark and he shifted almost seamlessly with Billy, still drawing arrows and letting them fly as best he could. None landed as well as that first one but he could still see that happening and that... he couldn't think about it right now.

Working in concert with Billy while Maddie held the semi-circle, Clint continued taking out Slendermen in a vaguely straight line toward the tear in reality. He ran out of arrows at the last minute and started just hitting the Slendermen with the bow before jumping through the hole and onto a street in the real New York City.

Maddie had been right. He felt like his insides were coming apart. It was definitely not an experience he'd ever want to repeat. And, in addition to the Slenderman goo he'd been covered in before, he found his front covered in a different kind of slime. The bow was gone and the same slime was sliding down the back of his shirt even as he checked to see if the quiver was still there. It wasn't, either. So he just propped himself up against a conveniently close wall and tried not to vomit. Everything was so much sharper here than it'd been in the fake New York - brighter, louder, more defined. It was bizarre and slightly disorienting. His eyes slid closed, but he pried them right back open and shaded them with one hand as he looked up to make sure Billy and Maddie were coming through after him.

Billy gaped at Maddie, the combination of her clear leads and the display of powers making him see her in a new light. Well, that and a small part of his brain that realized she had just apologized to him. Just for a brief moment, though, then he was caught back up in the fight. His throat was beginning to feel raspy from the constant chanting, and he began throwing mini electric bolts, trying to time them alongside Clint's arrows. Some swerved wide, some fizzled early, but some traveled close alongside their wooden counterparts. As their rhythm improved, the twin projectiles began to hit more frequently, and the mass of Slendermen started to thin. As soon as they got a clear path, Clint dove through and Billy turned back to the crowd of Slendermen, some of which were regrouping after Maddie's assault. He felt ready to collapse, but being so close to getting home gave him one last push. "Maddie," he shouted at her, then turned his attention to the Slenders, calling out a loud "PIKACHUUUUU" before jumping through after Clint. A giant bolt of lightning flashed down from the sky, hitting the pavement with a loud crack and sending asphalt spraying into the crowd, giving her an opportunity to escape.

Billy tumbled through the portal, Maddie's warning not even beginning to prepare him for the wrenching feeling. He landed and collapsed to his hands and knees, fighting the sick feeling only a moment before vomiting on the sidewalk. The world finally stopped spinning, and he finally looked up, relieved to see Clint, and he crawled over to rest beside him.

Maddie didn't need to fight the Slendermen anymore, just hold them back as best she could. The fence she had thought into existence was barely holding back a frontal assault, and she could see more of the black creatures on their flank. They're not getting closer, she ordered the World. The opposite had worked for her before, maybe she could use this control of movement against their foe now. They look close, but they are far away. They will never reach us.

Then "us" dwindled from three to two, and from two to just her. Clint had gotten out safely and so had Billy; it was time to go.

Still facing the oncoming mob (keep the enemy in your sight at all times), Maddie backed up toward until her hands felt something solid. She grasped the sides to the opening, and with a last push of energy sent a message to anyone who may have still been inside ~Clint. Billy. Maddie. Safe.~ before she let herself fall backwards, tumbling down to Earth.

Thank goodness Clint and Billy (she'd know those bony knees that were digging into her back anywhere) were sitting side by side and broke her fall, because otherwise she would have landed on the pavement and probably hit her head. She had already thrown up all of the contents of her stomach her first trip down, so now all that was left for her to do was crack open one eye and raise her fist in a victorious, if feeble, manner.

"We did it."