RepoDemon - Part 1: Halloween Night
Oct. 31st, 2004 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsHalloween. The kids of Xavier's are partying on at the 'Neon' nightclub in Salem Center, when the party is crashed.
Featuring: Amanda, Manuel, Jubilee, Illyana, Sarah, Paige, Angelo, Terry, Alex, Wanda, Marie-Ange and Doug. With guest appearances by Madelyn and Bethany.
OOC: Many, many thanks to everyone involved in this monster series of logs. Great work, team.
Warning: This is rather long, folks. I've broken it up a bit, but any more and I'd lose the flow. Hold onto your hats. :)
Halloween was a party night. Too old for trick-or-treat, but young enough (or perhaps geeky enough) to enjoy dressing up, the regulars of Salem Center’s underage club had flocked to it to do their best to make tonight just that. The club owners had been pitching its Halloween party for weeks as a safe, enjoyable venue for the area’s young people, and there was a good turn out. Including the Xavier’s crowd. Looking for a break from the daily dramas that Mutant High seemed to entail, they were out in full force, the regular club contingent dragging along a few extras, dancing, chatting, laughing, having fun.
In retrospect, they should have expected what came next. No good time goes unrewarded.
***
Clarice and Marie-Ange had worked hard on painting her costume so it looked like she was only wearing body paint and glitter instead of a body suit and she was enjoying it, and the boys, out on the dance floor. She just danced how she felt and if a guy came up to her, she danced with him, never promising more than a dance and loving all the attention.
She'd painted her face too, working her tattoos into the design, so no one knew she was only wearing black facepaint. She was certain nothing would happen because she was a mutant and was thoroughly enjoying letting her guard down completely.
Oh it was fun! Especially after the past few...well, months. Being at Xavier's made things like this, she reflected as the song ended, where nothing more important than dancing was happening, all the more special.
***
Angelo, dressed in the Deadman costume Clarice had made for him, was relaxing thoroughly for the first time in quite a while, in the middle of the crush on the dance floor.
We should do this more often...
***
Illyana -- dressed "as a human" in tight jeans and a low-cut, sparkly tank-top undoubtedly borrowed from one of the mansion's better-dressed crowd -- leaned back against the wall, drinking water from a plastic cup and shrugging off more advances than she accepted. For one thing, although she'd never admit it, she was tired, and the night had already been long enough. No disasters, thank the gods.
There had been that uncomfortable moment where she was sure the quarterback's girlfriend was going to attack her bodily, but luckily she'd managed to avoid that, and the girl had left in a huff. After that -- sensing that perhaps she wouldn't be so lucky next time, pitiful heavy cast on one arm or not -- she'd been a bit more choosy about her dance partners.
Boring, she decided as the song ended, taking another sip of her water but careful not to ruin the makeup Kitty had helpfully advised. But not overly.
***
Terry had worked her way as close to the stage as she could, wishing she was performing right now, not just dancing. But beggars can't be choosers and half-trained mutants with killer--literally--voices couldn't play to packed clubs. At least not yet. A sharp elbow and a sweet smile sent a slightly over-eager dancer on his way. Terry tugged the sheer white blouse of her last minute costume (An slightly fallen angel, her golden halo supported on a pair of red devil horns) back into place. The song ended and she sighed in disappointment. She would have killed for a pint. Stupid American laws.
***
Frankly, Alex couldn't believe he was here, but he'd promised Clarice he'd come with. Dressed like a mutated Superboy (Lorna had name for it, Kon El, maybe? Alex couldn't remember, he'd just nodded like a good boyfriend) complete with black dyed hair, blue spandex and leather jacket, he was trying very hard to have fun...and to remember he had a beautiful girlfriend back home in a very sexy Posion Ivy costume. Though, Alex did admit to himself, he could get used to this dancing thing. Maybe he'd let Clarice drag him out of the mansion more often...
***
Amanda was in the thick of it on the dance floor, having coaxed Bethany up for a ‘dance lesson’. Said lesson involved virtually welding herself to the other girl and encouraging her to follow her movement, but hey, it was working. Or not-working in a rather fun manner. Just as well Bethany knew how to dance any way.
“Thanks for comin’, babe,” Amanda said in Bethany’s ear, struggling to be heard over the music – the DJ had cranked up the volume tonight. “Means a lot, considerin’ who else is here an’ all.”
“Let’s see… you in the vampire Willow outfit asking me to come out with you and the rest of the Xaverites? Think I can handle Manuel for a while. As long as I don’t have to talk to him. Or look at him. Or, you know, acknowledge his existence,” Bethany replied, smiling ruefully. That outfit did many, many things for Amanda, and all of them were bad for the blood pressure. As well as the brain. “But otherwise I’m good. And seeing you in that makes everything worth it. Never thought of you as a redhead, but it actually looks…” Bethany’s opinion of Amanda’s costume was cut off by the silver bracelet she wore, the protection charm Amanda had given her, suddenly giving her such a strong buzz it felt like a mild electric shock. “What the fuck?” she said, stopping still in the middle of the thrashing bodies around them. She cautiously poked a finger at the bracelet, and a small spark shot up.
“B?” asked Amanda, pausing as well, heedless of the crush around them. “What’s wro…
Another interruption, this time rather more spectacular as a fissure opened up in the floor, practically under Amanda’s feet. Reddish light and gouts of flame poured out of it, casting a hellish glow on the scene. Bethany yanked the witch backwards by the waistband of her pants, so forcefully they almost knocked several mesmerised clubbers over – most were standing, staring at the widening hole, with an air of expectation, clearly thinking it was some kind of Halloween stunt. A few even applauded as long, red-clawed hands appeared at the edge of the hole, pulling themselves up.
“What the hell is that?” Bethany asked, as nonplussed as the rest, but afraid as well – the fact the bracelet was practically vibrating on her wrist didn’t imply a simple PR gimmick. “A?”
“’S a demon,” Amanda said faintly, looking up – and then up some more – as a red-scaled mass of muscle and butt-ugliness hauled itself out of the crevice, towering over the assembled clubbers. She looked around for Illyana, caught her eye.
“Is this one of yours?” The question came out simultaneously from them both, quickly followed by an outraged duplicated “No!”
The demon settled the matter, turning towards Amanda and growling out something that only Doug could understand. “~Witch,~” it grated, taking a step towards her and flames erupting from the floor as its cloven hoof touched down. “~I have come for what is mine.~” One red-taloned finger pointed directly at her. “~You.~”
“Hah!” Illyana said triumphantly – you didn’t need to know what was being said to understand what was going on. At least, a little. “I said it wasn’t me.”
The demon gestured, and flames burst out of the floor to surround it entirely. The heat, the roar… it was definitely real, and the crowd’s unease turned to panic as those closest tried to flee, pushing against those further back who still thought it was a special effect.
Amanda swallowed, looking up at that pointing talon and past it into the eyes of a childhood nightmare.
“I hate my life,” she said with feeling.
***
Monet was dressed to kill. Sure, if you didn't have the body to carry it off skin-tight leather could be horrendous. But really, she could and did carry it off. She was glad that she had sto- uh - borrowed Moira's Avenger's tapes, because she made a particularly spectacular Emma Peel if she did say so herself.
She had found someone worth chatting up, an old-family law student, and was getting very comfortable when the screams started. Her young man's eyes widened and he yelped a not particularly manly yelp as the flames roared up. He scuttled backwards, obviously terrified, and pushed away into the crowd.
Monet clenched her jaw and swung around to face the culprit.
"What is your problem? I had a cute guy here, you freak!" she yelled at Amanda, getting ready to fling her Coke bottle at someone - anyone really - in rage. She stopped, looking closely at the demon. "Whoa. Ugly."
***
Marie-Ange was obliviously pressed as tightly as possible to Doug when the fire-and-noise-and-people-screaming happened. His ribs were still taped, making dancing a far more frustrating experience than it should have been, but it was better than nothing.
When the demon growled, she raised an eyebrow, looking at Doug, and slipped her hands away from his waist, dropping one into the pocket of her dress and wrapping her fingers tightly around her deck of cards.
Doug grimaced. This was not good. This was fantastically Not Good. This was probably about as far away from good as you got. From the way the demon was talking, and the way it had focused immediately on Amanda, Doug could pretty easily guess what its connection to the young witch was. Moving a little closer to Amanda, he called out, "Uh, Amanda, he says he's come for what's his, and I think he means you."
***
Angelo echoed Amanda’s sentiment, fighting down the urge to turn and run far away from the fire. If this thing wanted Amanda, then she was going to need help, and he forced himself to stay firmly by her side.
***
At this rate, Sarah was ready to strike Halloween from the calendar entirely. Last year it was Sentinels, and now this? "If we keep it busy, can you get rid of it?" She practically yelled it to be heard over the panic.
***
Jubilee's eyes widened as she peered over Manuel's shoulder, pausing in mid dance step as the demon appeared. She quickly pushed up the goggles that were a part of her Wonder Girl outfit to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Nope, there was definitely a giant, red demon leering down at Amanda and Beth, not five feet from where she had recently been gettin' down with her wild self.
'Well, there goes my bet on the aliens,' she thought.
"Um, Manny? I think we've got company. Big, red, drooling company and I seriously don't think it paid to get in here."
***
Manuel, in mid-step with Jubilee, was annoyed. Here he'd bothered to get dressed in this really rather nifty red satiny suit, consented to being glamored by Amanda so that he looked like a demon, and now some jerk with another demon-costume decided to crash things. Unacceptable! The special effects were a nice touch. Manuel concentrated on his power, to get a feel for where Big, Red, and Ugly was the most vulnerable. Someone needed to be punished for wrecking his Good Time, and there was no time like the present.
If Amanda had been less distracted, she would have noticed Manuel's empathic probe, or at least the intention behind it. As it was, her attention was firmly on the demon, and Doug's translation. "Oh for fuck's sake, what is it with the bloody claimin' me? I ain't a bleedin' lottery ticket!" she complained, pushing Bethany and Angelo slightly back as the demon took over flaming step forward. She glanced at Sarah, shoving her way through the crowd. “I dunno how the bloody thing got here, but I can try an’ send it back,” she yelled back. “Just be careful! I dunno how strong it is!” The demon made a grab at her and she flung up her shielding spell. "That's just enough, sunshine,"
The demon pondered it - and her - for a moment, then a look of malicious amusement crossed its face. One of those long-taloned hands arced down and across, claws extended, and raked across the wall of blue energy. Sparks flew up, and when they cleared, three long slashes were evident in the barrier. It slashed again at it with its other hand, and Amanda set her teeth as she felt the spell unravelling.
***
Wanda had been dancing in a secluded little corner with a young man dressed up as Batman. Considering that she had picked out the costume of the Huntress, it was something that was hard to miss.
What was also hard to miss were the sudden screams of panic coming from the center of the dance floor. Puzzled, she pushed aside her dance partner and tried to make her way through the throng of confused, panicked people.
She stopped suddenly, staring up in horror as the demon, for it could only be a demon or at least a mutant that looked like one, moved. Wanda didn't hesitate and in a second her powers and flickered on, the glow around her hands going unnoticed by the crowd.
A stream of steady curses erupted when the strings showed themselves--violent, pulsing red. Danger, death, pain, none of it good. With a snarl, she shut her powers off and tried to catch someone's, anyone's, attention.
People had to leave. _Now_.
***
Manuel stumbled, almost dragging himself and Jubilee down to the ground. "Not special effects!" he said as his probe went into the Nether Hells. "Real!" He felt the familiar grip of icy despair, the same one that had very nearly driven him mad soon after he arrived in the Mansion all those months ago. But there was something he could do. Leaning heavily against the protesting Jubilee, he pushed out with his power - not at the demon, but at the crowds. Had to get them clear. He imparted onto them a desire to leave the building quickly but calmly - any signs of panic were ruthlessly quashed. Splitting his focus, he also sent a wave of confidence and reassurance to Amanda. It couldn't hurt, and she couldn't afford to fall prey to panic right now.
"Oh this ain't good at all..." Amanda muttered to herself as the demon made another swipe at her shielding spell. Behind her she heard Bethany squeak at impact and nearly lost her focus entirely when she felt the familiar touch of Manuel's power. "For fuck's sake, get a bloody idea! I ain't goin' anywhere, an' I definitely don't belong t' anyone!" she shouted at the demon, fuelled by the confidence Manuel was giving her - concentrating, she managed to build up the tattered barrier just as Manuel and Jubilee made it through the now-calm crowd.
Manuel stood up fully, and left Jubilee to her own devices. "If anything, she belongs to me." he said cockily to the demon, striding over so that it was between him and Amanda. "So if you want her, you have to go through me." His eyes were still blazing red as he simultaneously projected the confidence and assurance Amanda needed as well as the please-depart-in-an-orderly-fashion Compulsion at the other kids. However, he was honor-bound to leave Bethany out of that weave.
"Manny, are you bloody well insane? Yer power can't hurt it!" Amanda protested as Manuel interposed himself. The demon too, looked singularly unimpressed - with a snort, it gestured, and a fireball slammed against Amanda's spell. The witch gasped and visibly swayed, blocking the bulk of the fireball but not the heat.
"Amanda, we've got to get the hell out of here," Bethany said, tugging at her arm. "If this thing wants you, it's not going to take "fuck off" as an answer. He looks more the taking type." As if punctuating her words, the demon rattled off another stream of harsh-sounding words and pointed at Amanda again, ignoring Manuel.
"Can't... It won't stop if I run, an' I can't let people get hurt," Amanda replied, sweat standing out on her forehead at the strain maintaining the spell was putting on her.
Manuel grabbed a chair, and swung it at the demon with every ounce of muscle he had. Unfortunately for him, a casual backhanded swipe turned the chair into so much Modern Art. "Come on, you big demonic sonofabitch!" he screamed at the demon. "Fight ME! If you need to drag someone back to hell, take me! LEAVE HER BE!" He rushed it now, fists swinging, howling obscenities in Castillian at the top of his lungs. Through all of this, the other revellers still calmly emptied the building and his eyes still burned red.
"Manny!" The scream was ripped from Amanda as she watched Manuel run forward, only for the demon to make another of those swipes, this time at him directly. She was dimly aware that Bethany was grabbing her arm and stopping her from joining him, and that Angelo was very close to doing the same as Manuel and rushing at it. Had everyone gone insane?
Manuel ducked the swipe of the demon's claws and counterpunched, but judging by the look on his face, the demon's hide was superstrong. Still - if it was attacking him, it wasn't attacking Amanda. All he had to do was keep moving, deny it a target. "BANISH IT!" he hollered at Amanda as he continued to dance around the demon's claw-swipes.
"What the fuck d'you think I've been tryin' t' do?" Amanda shouted back. She was aware that some of the other Xavier's people were moving to help with the evacuation, and a couple of others were advancing, preparing to get involved in the fight. Manuel ducked another swipe aimed at his head, and the blow instead struck one of the supports for the mezzazine level - there was a rending groan of metal and the platform dipped alarmingly, some remaining club goers staggering and clutching at the rail to avoid falling. The Latin words for the banishing spell faltered – it wasn’t one she knew that well. "Oh t' hell with it... Creature of darkness, get thee t' whence you came, I banish thee in the name of the Goddess..."
The demon chuckled raspily, brushing aside another of Manuel's punches, and glanced over at Amanda. "~I think not, witch,~" it said. "~By the power of your name, I command you, Gemile. Cease your spells.~"
Manuel ignored the demon's grunting and ranting in favor of trying to get its attentions back. Unfortunately for him, a demonic backfist to the ribs pretty much ended his aspirations of distracting the creature long enough for Amanda to banish it. He saw stars, and he involuntarily transmitted the pain of his broken ribs to everyone he was in empathic contact with. Fully half the crowd, including the people on the catwalk, doubled over in imaginary pain.
Amanda couldn't understand what the demon had said either, save one word - her name. The banishing spell, the shielding spell... even the glamours she'd put on people for costume purposes all failed. Then she saw Manuel go down, felt his pain through the link, and she staggered forward, aware Bethany was still by her side.
There was a crash as Monet, still outraged by the loss of a perfectly good pickup, and now incensed by the fact the demon's pyrotechnics had scorched a rather expensive pair of boots, launched herself at it. Her momentum carried them both forward into another of the supporting struts, and there were screams as the mezzazine level dropped another couple of feet.
Manuel managed to stagger himself to a sitting position, and cut the empathic links once he realized that all the screaming and reverberated pain was because of him. Amanda - wasn't fighting any more? She was running to him? Unacceptable! ~Forget about me. Get rid of it!~ he said in Castilian, but followed it with a empathic I'm-not-interesting-the-demon-is-interesting *push*. He tried to push himself to his feet, made it almost halfway before sinking back to the ground, hacking up blood.
Amanda felt the empathic push, and stopped, looking towards where Monet was happily lecturing the demon on the value of good grooming and not-so-happily pummelling it fairly ineffectually. She _knew_ what Manuel was doing, but she wasn't going to just leave him there. And there was someone who he had promised not to use his powers on.
"Beth, get you an' him the fuck out of here," she told the other girl. "I don't think it can't hurt you with that protection charm on, but I don't want t' risk it. Manny can't do shite with his powers 'gainst a demon, an' he's hurt. Just get clear, don't worry 'bout me."
"You're jokin', right?" Bethany retorted, but the look on Amanda's face was deadly serious. "You come too, we'll all get out, let someone else handle it, all right? You can't stop it, you've already tried."
"I've still got a couple of tricks left," Amanda replied with a faint grin. "Just get him out, all right?" And then, before Bethany could argue any more, she ran at the demon, shouting at it. "Oi! Fuckwad! You want me, come an' get me!"
Manuel cursed bitterly in three languages, none of them English, as Amanda ran to the demon. Good idea, bad implementation. "Estupido." he said as he tried once again to rise. Bethany he ignored utterly, even as he stumbled back to one knee and hacked up more blood. He was doing damage to something inside, but it really didn't matter if New York turned into some sort of inferno.
"You're all damn stupid if you ask me," Bethany muttered, slipping her shoulder under Manuel's arm and helping him stand. "Can you help her?" she asked. "Use those powers of yours to tell Butt Ugly there to fuck off?"
***
Sarah's first defense was to throw sharp objects at it, in an attempt to take it down without giving herself a concussion. But the first two bones she threw only bounced off the demon's thick skin.
Well then, off to plan two. She'd have to put the force of her weight behind the bone as well, which required getting close. Close enough to jump on it. Oh boy.
***
Jubilee grimaced as she felt Manuel's power wash over her, an extreme act of will and all the memories of meditation training she could muster, keeping her on her feet. It helped that she'd recently broken several bones herself and still remembered the pain enough to be able to push it aside.
Looking up, she realised that it had taken her time to get her composure back and things had moved on some from what she last remembered. Manuel was being helped to his feet by Bethany and Amanda appeared to have taken leave of what little sense Jubilee credited her with and was actually advancing on the demon.
It was a measure of how far Jubilee had advanced in the past month or so, that she actually felt bad at the thought of Amanda being made into squishy human flavoured meatpaste. Besides, it'd make Manny sad. Having made up her mind she ran forward, making a line toward her best bet of intersecting Amanda before she made it to the demon.
She noted detachedly Monet screaming obscenities in what she assumed was English but the accent was rather broad and the words somewhat unfamiliar. What the hell was a brick shithouse? Illyana porting out of the way of a heavy demon paw. They could probably use her help but she wasn't sure she had enough control to ramp up her power to the level it would have to be to hurt a demon. Still, maybe she could blind the thing, all that took was a little light display directed at its eyes.
She'd get to that...after she made sure Amanda didn't get herself killed.
"Yo! Mr Bad fashion statements are my middle name! Just what the hell do you think you're doing, crashin' MY party?" she shouted at the demon in her way.
***
Manuel tried his damnedest to push off of Bethany, to not accept any help from her. Unfortunately, he was in bad enough shape that he could not stand unaided. "Get me a chair." he said in bloody, thickly-accented English. "Then get yourself out of here. Leave this to us, you're just going to get killed." he said. As he spoke to Bethany he empathically scanned the building to see who was still inside. "Group of four trapped in the west corner. Get them out!" he ordered Bethany.
Bethany rolled her eyes, not missing the blood he was hacking up. “Uh-huh. A chair. And what’re you gonna do, sit there and bleed to death while you’re watching the show?” Hurray for the healing power of sarcasm. What were they teaching at the school, Superhero Stupidity 101? “How about this? We both get them out, and you _not_ get your arrogant macho ass killed. ‘Cause I have a feeling Amanda really wouldn’t like that.”
As she spoke, there was another crash and Monet was sent flying. That distraction dealt with, the demon advanced on Amanda again, only to have Illyana attempt to hamstring it with her Soulsword, albeit one handed, the other still in plaster. There was a clang and a stream of curses from the Russian girl, and Sarah leapt into the fray. At the same time, Wanda’s voice could be heard, directing the fleeing crowd, whilst Paige was shouting at Monet to stop fooling around and do something about the collapsing mezzazine already.
***
Angelo wasn't especially happy about being pushed back, because that meant Amanda having less back-up in dealing with Big, Red and Ugly - but he wasn't entirely unhappy about being further away from those flames, either.
Anyway, there were other things that needed doing. He heard Manuel's words about the people trapped in the west corner, and seeing that Bethany was too busy holding Manuel up to help them, he headed over that way himself.
The group - two guys and two girls, none of them over sixteen - had been trapped by a combination of fallen debris and rising flames. One of the boys, dressed as a knight of the Round Table, looked up as Angelo approached, eyes wide with fear beneath Manuel's calming weave. "Can you help us, man?"
Angelo glanced around - for Clarice, mostly - but couldn't spot anyone in the crowd. The debris was too heavy to shift, but as he looked up, he caught sight of the other half of the mezzazine, tilting slightly but still relatively sturdy. There were some support struts still intact - if he could get them up onto the platform, they'd be able to slide down… "Just a minute," he told the boy, and headed for the stairs. The platform groaned a little under his weight as he climbed up, but held. Trying hard to ignore the heat of the flames below him, Angelo made his way to a point above the group. It'd be a stretch, but luckily he was perfectly suited to that.
Lying on his stomach and hooking his feet as best he could around a table which was fortunately bolted down, he leaned over the edge of the platform and called down to the boy in the knight costume. "Hey! Up here!" The boy looked up, relief disappearing as he looked at the distance between them and Angelo's out-stretched hands.
"Can't do it, man," he said. "It's too far!"
"Trust me, okay? It's too far not for me. Girls first," Angelo instructed calmly, despite the butterflies in his stomach, one part fear of the fire not that far below, one part nervousness - he'd been training with Moira, but he'd never tried anything like this.
Knight Boy nodded and pulled up one of the girls, a small dark-haired thing dressed as Princess Leia who was sobbing uncontrollably. "Come on, Sarah, help's here," he said, looking up at Angelo, unsure if that's what it was.
Angelo nodded, and concentrated, stretching out the skin of both arms and hands downwards. Not past his full range, not even close, but the kids would be heavier than most of the weights he'd lifted with the skin before. Sarah squeaked a little at the sight of Angelo's arms apparently lengthening, and the boy supporting her blanched, but stood firm. Manuel's calming weave was still holding to a degree. "Grab my hands," Angelo called down, and with some urging, Sarah did. With the boy in the knight's armour supporting her weight from below, Angelo pulled her upwards, grimacing at the strain, but managing to get her up and onto the platform. "Go that way, there's a pole you can slide down," he told her, and she nodded mutely, scrambling carefully away. The other girl and boy followed - luckily the boy was a skinny sort, outweighed by the chunky boots of his Neo outfit. Knight Boy taking some of the weight helped too.
Finally it was the boy's turn, and Angelo, braced himself a little more securely. The skin of his arms was aching, but the last boy was taller and heavier than his friend and there would be no help this time. Or so he thought - just as he was gripping the boy's arms and readying himself to begin the haul, there was the gleam of flames on silver, and Paige was there, walking through the fire in her metal husk.
"Hey, puppy," she said with a smile. "Need help?"
***
The wave of calm that had settled over Marie-Ange flashed briefly into agonizing pain, and she staggered back, nearly dropping her cards. It took far too long to recover her footing, and when she did, she could not see Doug through the crowd. For every three people running away, towards an exit, another was running blindly, half scrambling around, and the occasional few running directly towards the fight.
She was nearly trampled twice pushing back through the crowd towards the dance floor, but managed to make her way to a far table, and dump her cards down on it. After frantically digging, flinging unwanted cards to the floor, Marie-Ange concentrated on one specific image, and gritted her teeth.
Around the fight - surrounding Jubilee and Amanda and the others, and unknown to Marie-Ange, Doug as well, a crumbling stone tower appeared, larger than life and just as solid. Through gaps in the stonework they could still see the crowds fleeing, now only at risk of trampling, instead of death-by-demon.
***
Monet picked herself up off the floor. She was not impressed. She also had the distinct odour of coke from the pool of spilled drink she had landed in. This was not combining well with the shrieking, the flames, the damage to her nice boots and the mental chaos. She snarled and levitated up to the platform, lifting it up to something close to its normal level.
"Shut up, I've got them already," she snarled in Paige's general direction. "Fucking flimsy construction anyway."
She was distracted from the small figures of her school mates and the larger figure of the demon by a truly unpleasant discovery.
Holding the ceiling up now with one hand as she carefully inspected her other hand, she swore again. "Bloody hell! I've broken my nail," she bellowed. "Do you have any idea what it takes to shape invulnerable nails?"
***
Wanda had managed to fight her way through the screaming mob and had encountered a set of locked emergency doors. "Locked?" she snapped, slamming into them as the crowd pushed against her. "When you... oh never mind." A step back gave her the room she needed as she slid her mind into her power.
There. A string that sang and hummed perfectly for this situation. Yanking it, she gritted her teeth, not allowing herself to be distracted as she lashed out with her foot. The doors, rarely used and rarely oiled, suddenly slammed open as the lock inside crumbled into dust.
"OUT!" she bellowed over the crowd, stepping aside. There were other doors but the more exits open, the better chance for getting innocent people out of the way.
Two boys apparently didn't want to leave and were trying to work their way back through the crowd, towards the sounds of the fight.
"I do _not_ think so." Calmly, Wanda stepped forward and got a good hold on both of their collars. "You both, outside, now." They cursed at her but weren't able to do much as she easily pulled them backwards and then unceremoniously tossed them through the open doors.
Now...to get to the other side...something about a wall?
***
Clarice had stopped, mid twirly, her headdress falling off with the sudden change in momentum. "Oh fuck," she muttered, pushing her way through the crowd to join the other Trouble Magnets.
Somehow, she didn't think her painted opaque bodysuit was going to survive talldarkandugly.
As the fight got underway and panic was setting in, Clarice teleported up to the rafters to see what she could do to help and not get trampled. "Oh no you don't!" she muttered, spotting a group of guys trying to get closer.
"Stop!" she yelled teleporting down to them, but they either didn't hear her or didn't care.
"I said-" one of the guys pushed her out of the way, "Fine then!" She opened another portal underneath them like she had done with Miles and they walked themselves to the parking lot.
Giggling with suppressed hysteria and adrenaline, Clarice teleported back to the rafters and began opening portals in front of groups, letting them fall in and reappear back in the parking lot.
"Oh...I should-" she groaned the world spinning, she'd never tried to teleport this many people at one time or do so many portals right after another, she fell from the rafters.
***
It took longer than it might have otherwise, but even with the nail-related distraction Monet eventually noticed heard the screaming suggestion from both above her and below. She sighed heavily and lowered the floor-ceiling she was holding. She shifted, once it was low enough, so it was tilted and people could get off without trapping herself underneath. The screaming didn't really let up, though.
As her classmates seemed to be mostly using the ancient martial art of swearing at the enemy, and Monet knew that for sheer volume and irrational accusations no one could beat them, she grabbed up two particularly slow moving party-goers (probably because dressing up as a mermaid or a peanut M&M did not make one particularly mobile) and headed outside. Anything to escape the screaming. Her head was beginning to hurt. She tucked the screaming, but not siren-like mermaid under one arm in order to grab at the prone Clarice, figuring that everyone else was having too much fun to remember her.
Outside, dumping the screaming strangers, she sighed, looking at Clarice. ’If she'd just hurry and wake up,’ she thought, I could go see if there's anyone cute around here who hasn't pissed themselves.
***
Angelo returned, having left Paige to escort the group of four to the nearest exit, seeing Bethany with Manuel and obviously needing help. Not taking time for niceties, he said bluntly, "You two should get out. We can handle the evacuation, an' there's not much any of us can do against that."
"Oh, will you please just go and fuck yourself? Shoot it in the head or something." Manuel spit out to Angelo, then winced as his broken ribs protested. "I have to do something." he said, face set into a mask of determination. "You can go be useless or get the norms out. Get this one out before I break my oath."
Angelo rolled his eyes. "What exactly do you think you can do when you're coughin' up blood? Not to mention the stone wall Angie just put up? Better to go get medical attention, before the pain I'm sure you're in gets down the link an' distracts Amanda."
"I am blocking the link right now." Manuel snapped, then turned almost as grey as Angelo's skin normally was. "I am making sure that the normals get out. Get them out, Angelo. This is not your fight." he said, lips bloody from coughing up his heart's blood. "Let me defend my woman - you can go take care of yours."
"I'm not the one stoppin' you", Angelo pointed out, trying to be reasonable but not wanting to see Manuel die in front of him. Much. "Unless you can break through stone, you can't defend her. Even if you could fight right now."
"I'm an empath." Manuel explained around coughs. "I don't need to be able to see my targets to affect them." An exaggeration, but Angelo didn't need to know that. Another coughing spasm ripped through him, and more blood flecks splattered against the ground. He didn't say anything, preferring instead to slump against Bethany and the ground in equal measures.
Angelo was oddly relieved - he really didn't have time or inclination to argue with Manuel much longer, and at least this way he could get him to the ambulance that was no doubt waiting outside by now, without a fight.
"Beth. Help me get him out. An' stay there when we have, you'll be safe out there." I hope.
"Yay, sense. Finally." Beth didn't need to be prompted to help Manuel to his feet again, Angelo taking his weight on the other side. "And don't worry about me, unlike some people I know when I'm out of my league." She couldn't help glancing back at the walls, 'though. "Is she... She'll be all right, won't she?"
Angelo glanced back at the tower as they made their clumsy way to the door, but found the reassuring lie choking in his throat. "I don't know. I hope so."
Manuel felt the last flickering shards of consciousness fade from himself, but even as his eyes fluttered closed and he slumped completely against Bethany, his eyes still glowed red under their lids. The pain-projection was wideband now, respecting no words of honor or tactical consideration. Only getting the pain out of him mattered.
Bethany gasped as pain ripped into her. It felt worse than the time she'd crashed her board trying to run it down a stair railing, and ended up catching the rail with her ribs, cracking a couple. She staggered briefly, then managed to right herself. "What the hell?" she croaked, looking across at Angelo, who was wincing as well. Then the glow from under Manuel's closed eyes drew her attention, and she almost stopped dead. "Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me. He's doing this?"
Angelo glanced at him, noticing the glow. "I think he must be. More reason to get him out of here, so the EMTs can help him. Or drug him."
"Best suggestion I've heard all night." Shoving the phantom pain away as best she could, Bethany pulled Manuel's arm a little tighter around her shoulder and nodded in the direction of the back door. "Let's hope this whacked-out power of his doesn't screw up the medics - that'd be bloody annoying." She didn't notice she had been picking up Amanda's vocabulary again.
Angelo nodded, helping her drag Manuel towards the back door. "We'll explain, if we have to. I'd rather not tell them he's doin' this, but the red eyes might be a giveaway. Dose of morphine should fix it right up, though."
"I would have thought the excruciating pain he's projecting at everyone in range might be noticed," Bethany said dryly. If her tone was a little cutting, she probably had reason. Her girlfriend was back there with some creature from Hell intent on taking her with it, and she was stuck lugging Asshole of the Year to safety because he'd decided to play the hero. Not to mention what Amanda was getting from that link of theirs - if he was out, he wasn't shielding it any more, was he? "Nice of him to share, I suppose."
Angelo grinned wryly. "You'd be surprised what people can put down to somethin' else. But not with those red eyes. C'mon, sooner we get him out there, sooner they can get the hypodermic out."
***
Doug gingerly wove his way through the crowd, holding his arms around his chest to protect his still bruised ribs. Through clenched teeth, he called harshly to Amanda. "It knows your name. It… " he paused, looking at Amanda intently. "You know all this.."
Shaking his head, he stepped back, only to press against a cold circle of stonework. 'Shit, Angie, your timing bites hard, love.' he thought.
Amanda winced and looked at Doug. "So do you," she said. "You translated it for me, remember?" She blinked as Marie-Ange's walls appeared. At least Manuel and Bethany were safe, for as long as Marie-Ange could hold the walls up, that was. Then she noticed the careful way Doug was standing. "Doug, get away from me - it's me that thing wants, an' it'll go through anyone t' do it..." As if to illustrate her words, the demon roared and swept Sarah aside, slamming her into the projected wall. "An' since it's got me name, it's got me power. I can't do shite right now." Then there was Jubilee, shouting insults at the demon, and Amanda's brow furrowed. "What the hell does she think she's doin'?"
Doug grabbed Amanda's arm as she tried to draw the demon's attention away from him and back to her. "Uh-uh, Amanda. I may not be much use in a fight, but I'll be damned if you think I'm letting Tall, Fiery, and Scaly have you. We'll figure something out. Get it talking, find a weakness, exploit it." It was rather weak as plans went, and it might lead to permanent harm, but Doug had no intention of just lying down while a friend was in danger. 'You'd think I'd learn,' he thought, the events of the previous week still fresh in his mind. Then he blinked as Amanda drew his attention to Jubilee. "Getting herself killed, most likely," he answered, wincing. "We've gotta do something."
It was big...very big. Jubilee inched her head back a little more, trying to take it all in as she stopped just short of its claw range. It was turned away from her currently, reaching for Sarah. "Yo, ugly Dude. I asked you a question. No speakee English? Cause, totally no speakee Demon."
She aimed a blast of paffs at the back of its head, trying to get its attention. If she could distract it, the others might have a better chance.
The demon snarled and turned around, smoke smouldering from the places Jubilee's paffs had hit. It raised its hand to strike her down, then paused, as if considering something. The moment was broken, however, by Amanda's sudden appearance by Jubilee's side, pushing her out of the way. The hesitation ended, the demon slashing at the young witch, its claws leaving bloody tracks along her side. Only the tight leather bodice of her costume stopped her from being more seriously hurt. Raising its claws to its mouth, the demon licked the blood off. "~Blood seals the pact, Gemile. There is no escape.~"
Doug grimaced. "He says that blood seals the pact, there is no escape, yadda yadda typical supervillain posturing..." he muttered under his breath so that only Amanda and Jubilee could hear him. "Any bright ideas?"
Jubilee blinked for a second, her brain catching up with current events as stared at the bright red blood on the demon's claws. She came back to herself, realising Doug had asked her something. "Well, keeping Mandy here away from that thing for a starter." she whispered back.
Having said that, she stepped out in front, sending another stream of paffs in a line at the demon's feet. "Doug, translate for me, will ya?"
She looked up at the beast, her look of utter contempt as obvious as she could make it. "Dude, blood is so 1980's. Like, totally last century. What kinda demon are ya anyhow? You'd think they'd at least send someone who didn't look like a reject from 'Legend'."
Moving further toward the demon, she noted Sarah sneaking up on it from behind.
"Now, how 'bout we talk about this whole pact thing, hey? Cause seriously, Dude. You got a raw deal if you bargained for this scrawny piece of ass. I mean, look at her, she's all skin and chicken legs and stuff. And just 'tween you and I, totally not a virgin. So, you know, might want to go find some virginal blonde chicky somewhere else for whatever freaky shit you're into and leave this one to us, hey?"
"Like yer'd know, Lee," Amanda half-growled, hand pressed against the gouges along her side. "I just wish the damn thing'd stop throwin' me name 'round for anyone t' hear," she added, low enough for only Doug to hear. "'S got me bang t' rights - I just hope one of these lot can get the drop on it before Lee here gets her bloody head ripped off."
Jubilee turned her head, scowling at Amanda. "Do you mind? Totally workin' here, dude. Case you hadn't noticed, huge, red and ugly is after you. Which means he gets his claws on you, and this is all over. So, just shut up and let me get the damn thing so angry it won't be thinkin', okay?"
She didn't have much of a plan, at least not much of a one beyond her usual modus operandi. Be as obnoxious as hell till whatever villain du jour was good and mad and then use that distraction against them. It had for the most part worked perfectly in the past. If there was one thing she'd learned. You don't fool with a good thing.
Doug was very aware of Jubilee's strategy, or lack thereof. It was one that he occasionally used, and he had the benefit of being able to read body language. And he suspected that Jubilee's taunting wasn't going to accomplish much of anything against the demon, even with translation. Even with the numerous imprecations the demon was growling out, it seemed more than able to handle everything the heavy hitters were handing to it - Sarah and her bones, Illyana was 'porting away every time it tried to hit her, reappearing behind it and hacking away with the Soulsword, occasionally leaving a dint or two in the creature's skin. Doug shook his head. "Not gonna translate that, not gonna translate that..." he murmured. A particularly vicious curse by the demon drew a raised eyebrow. "And there's no _way_ I'm translating _that_."
With a growl, Sarah threw herself at it from behind, bone in her hand about as sharp as they came naturally. She held it in two closed fists, and thrust with as much force as she could muster. The demon only flung her away, sending her down to the floor, her bone just out of reach.
"~Annoying fleshbags, why do you fight so hard for her? She is merely the container. The power you cannot use,~" growled the demon, stomping on the bone with one cloven foot, its fire rendering it instantly to ash. It advanced on Sarah, intent on doing the same thing to the rest of her.
Sarah had no idea what it had just said, but it didn't look or sound too happy. "Yeah, I'm fucking annoying, aren't I?" She scrambled to her feet, hoping that -somebody- was taking advantage of this and getting out. "Come on and play," she growled, taking another step backwards with a bone club from her spine gripped tightly in her hand.
"~I shall enjoy chewing on your eyeballs, fleshbag...~" the demon said, advancing on Sarah further. Then it seemed to realise the distraction being caused, and turned to make another grab at the powerless witch. "~I have no time for this foolishness. Let me take my property and go.~"
"Dude, no need to be rude. Didn't your mother ever teach you to mind your Ps & Qs?" Jubilee said to the demon, shouting over the sudden noise as the demon's language got louder and more violent. Sarah's attack hadn't seemed to have any affect besides annoying the crap out of it. She scrambled out of the way as the demon turned around and made a lunge for Amanda, firing off a series of sparks at its head and shoulders to bring its attention back to her.
"You know, if you guys would like to work out a plan while the rest of us are holdin' the thing at bay, that'd be nice. Like, yesterday would also be good timing and all for this plan in view of big nasty scary thing trying to eat us... No pressure though, really."
Amanda watched as Jubilee's sparks - fairly minor ones, compared to what she'd seen the firecracker do before - smoked and burned the demon's hide, making it roar in pain. "Do that again," she said, frowning a little. Demon-slaying swords didn't work, Sarah's slice-and-dice didn't work... even Monet slugging it as hard as she could hadn't worked. So why Jubilee's paffs?
***
Featuring: Amanda, Manuel, Jubilee, Illyana, Sarah, Paige, Angelo, Terry, Alex, Wanda, Marie-Ange and Doug. With guest appearances by Madelyn and Bethany.
OOC: Many, many thanks to everyone involved in this monster series of logs. Great work, team.
Warning: This is rather long, folks. I've broken it up a bit, but any more and I'd lose the flow. Hold onto your hats. :)
Halloween was a party night. Too old for trick-or-treat, but young enough (or perhaps geeky enough) to enjoy dressing up, the regulars of Salem Center’s underage club had flocked to it to do their best to make tonight just that. The club owners had been pitching its Halloween party for weeks as a safe, enjoyable venue for the area’s young people, and there was a good turn out. Including the Xavier’s crowd. Looking for a break from the daily dramas that Mutant High seemed to entail, they were out in full force, the regular club contingent dragging along a few extras, dancing, chatting, laughing, having fun.
In retrospect, they should have expected what came next. No good time goes unrewarded.
***
Clarice and Marie-Ange had worked hard on painting her costume so it looked like she was only wearing body paint and glitter instead of a body suit and she was enjoying it, and the boys, out on the dance floor. She just danced how she felt and if a guy came up to her, she danced with him, never promising more than a dance and loving all the attention.
She'd painted her face too, working her tattoos into the design, so no one knew she was only wearing black facepaint. She was certain nothing would happen because she was a mutant and was thoroughly enjoying letting her guard down completely.
Oh it was fun! Especially after the past few...well, months. Being at Xavier's made things like this, she reflected as the song ended, where nothing more important than dancing was happening, all the more special.
***
Angelo, dressed in the Deadman costume Clarice had made for him, was relaxing thoroughly for the first time in quite a while, in the middle of the crush on the dance floor.
We should do this more often...
***
Illyana -- dressed "as a human" in tight jeans and a low-cut, sparkly tank-top undoubtedly borrowed from one of the mansion's better-dressed crowd -- leaned back against the wall, drinking water from a plastic cup and shrugging off more advances than she accepted. For one thing, although she'd never admit it, she was tired, and the night had already been long enough. No disasters, thank the gods.
There had been that uncomfortable moment where she was sure the quarterback's girlfriend was going to attack her bodily, but luckily she'd managed to avoid that, and the girl had left in a huff. After that -- sensing that perhaps she wouldn't be so lucky next time, pitiful heavy cast on one arm or not -- she'd been a bit more choosy about her dance partners.
Boring, she decided as the song ended, taking another sip of her water but careful not to ruin the makeup Kitty had helpfully advised. But not overly.
***
Terry had worked her way as close to the stage as she could, wishing she was performing right now, not just dancing. But beggars can't be choosers and half-trained mutants with killer--literally--voices couldn't play to packed clubs. At least not yet. A sharp elbow and a sweet smile sent a slightly over-eager dancer on his way. Terry tugged the sheer white blouse of her last minute costume (An slightly fallen angel, her golden halo supported on a pair of red devil horns) back into place. The song ended and she sighed in disappointment. She would have killed for a pint. Stupid American laws.
***
Frankly, Alex couldn't believe he was here, but he'd promised Clarice he'd come with. Dressed like a mutated Superboy (Lorna had name for it, Kon El, maybe? Alex couldn't remember, he'd just nodded like a good boyfriend) complete with black dyed hair, blue spandex and leather jacket, he was trying very hard to have fun...and to remember he had a beautiful girlfriend back home in a very sexy Posion Ivy costume. Though, Alex did admit to himself, he could get used to this dancing thing. Maybe he'd let Clarice drag him out of the mansion more often...
***
Amanda was in the thick of it on the dance floor, having coaxed Bethany up for a ‘dance lesson’. Said lesson involved virtually welding herself to the other girl and encouraging her to follow her movement, but hey, it was working. Or not-working in a rather fun manner. Just as well Bethany knew how to dance any way.
“Thanks for comin’, babe,” Amanda said in Bethany’s ear, struggling to be heard over the music – the DJ had cranked up the volume tonight. “Means a lot, considerin’ who else is here an’ all.”
“Let’s see… you in the vampire Willow outfit asking me to come out with you and the rest of the Xaverites? Think I can handle Manuel for a while. As long as I don’t have to talk to him. Or look at him. Or, you know, acknowledge his existence,” Bethany replied, smiling ruefully. That outfit did many, many things for Amanda, and all of them were bad for the blood pressure. As well as the brain. “But otherwise I’m good. And seeing you in that makes everything worth it. Never thought of you as a redhead, but it actually looks…” Bethany’s opinion of Amanda’s costume was cut off by the silver bracelet she wore, the protection charm Amanda had given her, suddenly giving her such a strong buzz it felt like a mild electric shock. “What the fuck?” she said, stopping still in the middle of the thrashing bodies around them. She cautiously poked a finger at the bracelet, and a small spark shot up.
“B?” asked Amanda, pausing as well, heedless of the crush around them. “What’s wro…
Another interruption, this time rather more spectacular as a fissure opened up in the floor, practically under Amanda’s feet. Reddish light and gouts of flame poured out of it, casting a hellish glow on the scene. Bethany yanked the witch backwards by the waistband of her pants, so forcefully they almost knocked several mesmerised clubbers over – most were standing, staring at the widening hole, with an air of expectation, clearly thinking it was some kind of Halloween stunt. A few even applauded as long, red-clawed hands appeared at the edge of the hole, pulling themselves up.
“What the hell is that?” Bethany asked, as nonplussed as the rest, but afraid as well – the fact the bracelet was practically vibrating on her wrist didn’t imply a simple PR gimmick. “A?”
“’S a demon,” Amanda said faintly, looking up – and then up some more – as a red-scaled mass of muscle and butt-ugliness hauled itself out of the crevice, towering over the assembled clubbers. She looked around for Illyana, caught her eye.
“Is this one of yours?” The question came out simultaneously from them both, quickly followed by an outraged duplicated “No!”
The demon settled the matter, turning towards Amanda and growling out something that only Doug could understand. “~Witch,~” it grated, taking a step towards her and flames erupting from the floor as its cloven hoof touched down. “~I have come for what is mine.~” One red-taloned finger pointed directly at her. “~You.~”
“Hah!” Illyana said triumphantly – you didn’t need to know what was being said to understand what was going on. At least, a little. “I said it wasn’t me.”
The demon gestured, and flames burst out of the floor to surround it entirely. The heat, the roar… it was definitely real, and the crowd’s unease turned to panic as those closest tried to flee, pushing against those further back who still thought it was a special effect.
Amanda swallowed, looking up at that pointing talon and past it into the eyes of a childhood nightmare.
“I hate my life,” she said with feeling.
***
Monet was dressed to kill. Sure, if you didn't have the body to carry it off skin-tight leather could be horrendous. But really, she could and did carry it off. She was glad that she had sto- uh - borrowed Moira's Avenger's tapes, because she made a particularly spectacular Emma Peel if she did say so herself.
She had found someone worth chatting up, an old-family law student, and was getting very comfortable when the screams started. Her young man's eyes widened and he yelped a not particularly manly yelp as the flames roared up. He scuttled backwards, obviously terrified, and pushed away into the crowd.
Monet clenched her jaw and swung around to face the culprit.
"What is your problem? I had a cute guy here, you freak!" she yelled at Amanda, getting ready to fling her Coke bottle at someone - anyone really - in rage. She stopped, looking closely at the demon. "Whoa. Ugly."
***
Marie-Ange was obliviously pressed as tightly as possible to Doug when the fire-and-noise-and-people-screaming happened. His ribs were still taped, making dancing a far more frustrating experience than it should have been, but it was better than nothing.
When the demon growled, she raised an eyebrow, looking at Doug, and slipped her hands away from his waist, dropping one into the pocket of her dress and wrapping her fingers tightly around her deck of cards.
Doug grimaced. This was not good. This was fantastically Not Good. This was probably about as far away from good as you got. From the way the demon was talking, and the way it had focused immediately on Amanda, Doug could pretty easily guess what its connection to the young witch was. Moving a little closer to Amanda, he called out, "Uh, Amanda, he says he's come for what's his, and I think he means you."
***
Angelo echoed Amanda’s sentiment, fighting down the urge to turn and run far away from the fire. If this thing wanted Amanda, then she was going to need help, and he forced himself to stay firmly by her side.
***
At this rate, Sarah was ready to strike Halloween from the calendar entirely. Last year it was Sentinels, and now this? "If we keep it busy, can you get rid of it?" She practically yelled it to be heard over the panic.
***
Jubilee's eyes widened as she peered over Manuel's shoulder, pausing in mid dance step as the demon appeared. She quickly pushed up the goggles that were a part of her Wonder Girl outfit to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Nope, there was definitely a giant, red demon leering down at Amanda and Beth, not five feet from where she had recently been gettin' down with her wild self.
'Well, there goes my bet on the aliens,' she thought.
"Um, Manny? I think we've got company. Big, red, drooling company and I seriously don't think it paid to get in here."
***
Manuel, in mid-step with Jubilee, was annoyed. Here he'd bothered to get dressed in this really rather nifty red satiny suit, consented to being glamored by Amanda so that he looked like a demon, and now some jerk with another demon-costume decided to crash things. Unacceptable! The special effects were a nice touch. Manuel concentrated on his power, to get a feel for where Big, Red, and Ugly was the most vulnerable. Someone needed to be punished for wrecking his Good Time, and there was no time like the present.
If Amanda had been less distracted, she would have noticed Manuel's empathic probe, or at least the intention behind it. As it was, her attention was firmly on the demon, and Doug's translation. "Oh for fuck's sake, what is it with the bloody claimin' me? I ain't a bleedin' lottery ticket!" she complained, pushing Bethany and Angelo slightly back as the demon took over flaming step forward. She glanced at Sarah, shoving her way through the crowd. “I dunno how the bloody thing got here, but I can try an’ send it back,” she yelled back. “Just be careful! I dunno how strong it is!” The demon made a grab at her and she flung up her shielding spell. "That's just enough, sunshine,"
The demon pondered it - and her - for a moment, then a look of malicious amusement crossed its face. One of those long-taloned hands arced down and across, claws extended, and raked across the wall of blue energy. Sparks flew up, and when they cleared, three long slashes were evident in the barrier. It slashed again at it with its other hand, and Amanda set her teeth as she felt the spell unravelling.
***
Wanda had been dancing in a secluded little corner with a young man dressed up as Batman. Considering that she had picked out the costume of the Huntress, it was something that was hard to miss.
What was also hard to miss were the sudden screams of panic coming from the center of the dance floor. Puzzled, she pushed aside her dance partner and tried to make her way through the throng of confused, panicked people.
She stopped suddenly, staring up in horror as the demon, for it could only be a demon or at least a mutant that looked like one, moved. Wanda didn't hesitate and in a second her powers and flickered on, the glow around her hands going unnoticed by the crowd.
A stream of steady curses erupted when the strings showed themselves--violent, pulsing red. Danger, death, pain, none of it good. With a snarl, she shut her powers off and tried to catch someone's, anyone's, attention.
People had to leave. _Now_.
***
Manuel stumbled, almost dragging himself and Jubilee down to the ground. "Not special effects!" he said as his probe went into the Nether Hells. "Real!" He felt the familiar grip of icy despair, the same one that had very nearly driven him mad soon after he arrived in the Mansion all those months ago. But there was something he could do. Leaning heavily against the protesting Jubilee, he pushed out with his power - not at the demon, but at the crowds. Had to get them clear. He imparted onto them a desire to leave the building quickly but calmly - any signs of panic were ruthlessly quashed. Splitting his focus, he also sent a wave of confidence and reassurance to Amanda. It couldn't hurt, and she couldn't afford to fall prey to panic right now.
"Oh this ain't good at all..." Amanda muttered to herself as the demon made another swipe at her shielding spell. Behind her she heard Bethany squeak at impact and nearly lost her focus entirely when she felt the familiar touch of Manuel's power. "For fuck's sake, get a bloody idea! I ain't goin' anywhere, an' I definitely don't belong t' anyone!" she shouted at the demon, fuelled by the confidence Manuel was giving her - concentrating, she managed to build up the tattered barrier just as Manuel and Jubilee made it through the now-calm crowd.
Manuel stood up fully, and left Jubilee to her own devices. "If anything, she belongs to me." he said cockily to the demon, striding over so that it was between him and Amanda. "So if you want her, you have to go through me." His eyes were still blazing red as he simultaneously projected the confidence and assurance Amanda needed as well as the please-depart-in-an-orderly-fashion Compulsion at the other kids. However, he was honor-bound to leave Bethany out of that weave.
"Manny, are you bloody well insane? Yer power can't hurt it!" Amanda protested as Manuel interposed himself. The demon too, looked singularly unimpressed - with a snort, it gestured, and a fireball slammed against Amanda's spell. The witch gasped and visibly swayed, blocking the bulk of the fireball but not the heat.
"Amanda, we've got to get the hell out of here," Bethany said, tugging at her arm. "If this thing wants you, it's not going to take "fuck off" as an answer. He looks more the taking type." As if punctuating her words, the demon rattled off another stream of harsh-sounding words and pointed at Amanda again, ignoring Manuel.
"Can't... It won't stop if I run, an' I can't let people get hurt," Amanda replied, sweat standing out on her forehead at the strain maintaining the spell was putting on her.
Manuel grabbed a chair, and swung it at the demon with every ounce of muscle he had. Unfortunately for him, a casual backhanded swipe turned the chair into so much Modern Art. "Come on, you big demonic sonofabitch!" he screamed at the demon. "Fight ME! If you need to drag someone back to hell, take me! LEAVE HER BE!" He rushed it now, fists swinging, howling obscenities in Castillian at the top of his lungs. Through all of this, the other revellers still calmly emptied the building and his eyes still burned red.
"Manny!" The scream was ripped from Amanda as she watched Manuel run forward, only for the demon to make another of those swipes, this time at him directly. She was dimly aware that Bethany was grabbing her arm and stopping her from joining him, and that Angelo was very close to doing the same as Manuel and rushing at it. Had everyone gone insane?
Manuel ducked the swipe of the demon's claws and counterpunched, but judging by the look on his face, the demon's hide was superstrong. Still - if it was attacking him, it wasn't attacking Amanda. All he had to do was keep moving, deny it a target. "BANISH IT!" he hollered at Amanda as he continued to dance around the demon's claw-swipes.
"What the fuck d'you think I've been tryin' t' do?" Amanda shouted back. She was aware that some of the other Xavier's people were moving to help with the evacuation, and a couple of others were advancing, preparing to get involved in the fight. Manuel ducked another swipe aimed at his head, and the blow instead struck one of the supports for the mezzazine level - there was a rending groan of metal and the platform dipped alarmingly, some remaining club goers staggering and clutching at the rail to avoid falling. The Latin words for the banishing spell faltered – it wasn’t one she knew that well. "Oh t' hell with it... Creature of darkness, get thee t' whence you came, I banish thee in the name of the Goddess..."
The demon chuckled raspily, brushing aside another of Manuel's punches, and glanced over at Amanda. "~I think not, witch,~" it said. "~By the power of your name, I command you, Gemile. Cease your spells.~"
Manuel ignored the demon's grunting and ranting in favor of trying to get its attentions back. Unfortunately for him, a demonic backfist to the ribs pretty much ended his aspirations of distracting the creature long enough for Amanda to banish it. He saw stars, and he involuntarily transmitted the pain of his broken ribs to everyone he was in empathic contact with. Fully half the crowd, including the people on the catwalk, doubled over in imaginary pain.
Amanda couldn't understand what the demon had said either, save one word - her name. The banishing spell, the shielding spell... even the glamours she'd put on people for costume purposes all failed. Then she saw Manuel go down, felt his pain through the link, and she staggered forward, aware Bethany was still by her side.
There was a crash as Monet, still outraged by the loss of a perfectly good pickup, and now incensed by the fact the demon's pyrotechnics had scorched a rather expensive pair of boots, launched herself at it. Her momentum carried them both forward into another of the supporting struts, and there were screams as the mezzazine level dropped another couple of feet.
Manuel managed to stagger himself to a sitting position, and cut the empathic links once he realized that all the screaming and reverberated pain was because of him. Amanda - wasn't fighting any more? She was running to him? Unacceptable! ~Forget about me. Get rid of it!~ he said in Castilian, but followed it with a empathic I'm-not-interesting-the-demon-is-interesting *push*. He tried to push himself to his feet, made it almost halfway before sinking back to the ground, hacking up blood.
Amanda felt the empathic push, and stopped, looking towards where Monet was happily lecturing the demon on the value of good grooming and not-so-happily pummelling it fairly ineffectually. She _knew_ what Manuel was doing, but she wasn't going to just leave him there. And there was someone who he had promised not to use his powers on.
"Beth, get you an' him the fuck out of here," she told the other girl. "I don't think it can't hurt you with that protection charm on, but I don't want t' risk it. Manny can't do shite with his powers 'gainst a demon, an' he's hurt. Just get clear, don't worry 'bout me."
"You're jokin', right?" Bethany retorted, but the look on Amanda's face was deadly serious. "You come too, we'll all get out, let someone else handle it, all right? You can't stop it, you've already tried."
"I've still got a couple of tricks left," Amanda replied with a faint grin. "Just get him out, all right?" And then, before Bethany could argue any more, she ran at the demon, shouting at it. "Oi! Fuckwad! You want me, come an' get me!"
Manuel cursed bitterly in three languages, none of them English, as Amanda ran to the demon. Good idea, bad implementation. "Estupido." he said as he tried once again to rise. Bethany he ignored utterly, even as he stumbled back to one knee and hacked up more blood. He was doing damage to something inside, but it really didn't matter if New York turned into some sort of inferno.
"You're all damn stupid if you ask me," Bethany muttered, slipping her shoulder under Manuel's arm and helping him stand. "Can you help her?" she asked. "Use those powers of yours to tell Butt Ugly there to fuck off?"
***
Sarah's first defense was to throw sharp objects at it, in an attempt to take it down without giving herself a concussion. But the first two bones she threw only bounced off the demon's thick skin.
Well then, off to plan two. She'd have to put the force of her weight behind the bone as well, which required getting close. Close enough to jump on it. Oh boy.
***
Jubilee grimaced as she felt Manuel's power wash over her, an extreme act of will and all the memories of meditation training she could muster, keeping her on her feet. It helped that she'd recently broken several bones herself and still remembered the pain enough to be able to push it aside.
Looking up, she realised that it had taken her time to get her composure back and things had moved on some from what she last remembered. Manuel was being helped to his feet by Bethany and Amanda appeared to have taken leave of what little sense Jubilee credited her with and was actually advancing on the demon.
It was a measure of how far Jubilee had advanced in the past month or so, that she actually felt bad at the thought of Amanda being made into squishy human flavoured meatpaste. Besides, it'd make Manny sad. Having made up her mind she ran forward, making a line toward her best bet of intersecting Amanda before she made it to the demon.
She noted detachedly Monet screaming obscenities in what she assumed was English but the accent was rather broad and the words somewhat unfamiliar. What the hell was a brick shithouse? Illyana porting out of the way of a heavy demon paw. They could probably use her help but she wasn't sure she had enough control to ramp up her power to the level it would have to be to hurt a demon. Still, maybe she could blind the thing, all that took was a little light display directed at its eyes.
She'd get to that...after she made sure Amanda didn't get herself killed.
"Yo! Mr Bad fashion statements are my middle name! Just what the hell do you think you're doing, crashin' MY party?" she shouted at the demon in her way.
***
Manuel tried his damnedest to push off of Bethany, to not accept any help from her. Unfortunately, he was in bad enough shape that he could not stand unaided. "Get me a chair." he said in bloody, thickly-accented English. "Then get yourself out of here. Leave this to us, you're just going to get killed." he said. As he spoke to Bethany he empathically scanned the building to see who was still inside. "Group of four trapped in the west corner. Get them out!" he ordered Bethany.
Bethany rolled her eyes, not missing the blood he was hacking up. “Uh-huh. A chair. And what’re you gonna do, sit there and bleed to death while you’re watching the show?” Hurray for the healing power of sarcasm. What were they teaching at the school, Superhero Stupidity 101? “How about this? We both get them out, and you _not_ get your arrogant macho ass killed. ‘Cause I have a feeling Amanda really wouldn’t like that.”
As she spoke, there was another crash and Monet was sent flying. That distraction dealt with, the demon advanced on Amanda again, only to have Illyana attempt to hamstring it with her Soulsword, albeit one handed, the other still in plaster. There was a clang and a stream of curses from the Russian girl, and Sarah leapt into the fray. At the same time, Wanda’s voice could be heard, directing the fleeing crowd, whilst Paige was shouting at Monet to stop fooling around and do something about the collapsing mezzazine already.
***
Angelo wasn't especially happy about being pushed back, because that meant Amanda having less back-up in dealing with Big, Red and Ugly - but he wasn't entirely unhappy about being further away from those flames, either.
Anyway, there were other things that needed doing. He heard Manuel's words about the people trapped in the west corner, and seeing that Bethany was too busy holding Manuel up to help them, he headed over that way himself.
The group - two guys and two girls, none of them over sixteen - had been trapped by a combination of fallen debris and rising flames. One of the boys, dressed as a knight of the Round Table, looked up as Angelo approached, eyes wide with fear beneath Manuel's calming weave. "Can you help us, man?"
Angelo glanced around - for Clarice, mostly - but couldn't spot anyone in the crowd. The debris was too heavy to shift, but as he looked up, he caught sight of the other half of the mezzazine, tilting slightly but still relatively sturdy. There were some support struts still intact - if he could get them up onto the platform, they'd be able to slide down… "Just a minute," he told the boy, and headed for the stairs. The platform groaned a little under his weight as he climbed up, but held. Trying hard to ignore the heat of the flames below him, Angelo made his way to a point above the group. It'd be a stretch, but luckily he was perfectly suited to that.
Lying on his stomach and hooking his feet as best he could around a table which was fortunately bolted down, he leaned over the edge of the platform and called down to the boy in the knight costume. "Hey! Up here!" The boy looked up, relief disappearing as he looked at the distance between them and Angelo's out-stretched hands.
"Can't do it, man," he said. "It's too far!"
"Trust me, okay? It's too far not for me. Girls first," Angelo instructed calmly, despite the butterflies in his stomach, one part fear of the fire not that far below, one part nervousness - he'd been training with Moira, but he'd never tried anything like this.
Knight Boy nodded and pulled up one of the girls, a small dark-haired thing dressed as Princess Leia who was sobbing uncontrollably. "Come on, Sarah, help's here," he said, looking up at Angelo, unsure if that's what it was.
Angelo nodded, and concentrated, stretching out the skin of both arms and hands downwards. Not past his full range, not even close, but the kids would be heavier than most of the weights he'd lifted with the skin before. Sarah squeaked a little at the sight of Angelo's arms apparently lengthening, and the boy supporting her blanched, but stood firm. Manuel's calming weave was still holding to a degree. "Grab my hands," Angelo called down, and with some urging, Sarah did. With the boy in the knight's armour supporting her weight from below, Angelo pulled her upwards, grimacing at the strain, but managing to get her up and onto the platform. "Go that way, there's a pole you can slide down," he told her, and she nodded mutely, scrambling carefully away. The other girl and boy followed - luckily the boy was a skinny sort, outweighed by the chunky boots of his Neo outfit. Knight Boy taking some of the weight helped too.
Finally it was the boy's turn, and Angelo, braced himself a little more securely. The skin of his arms was aching, but the last boy was taller and heavier than his friend and there would be no help this time. Or so he thought - just as he was gripping the boy's arms and readying himself to begin the haul, there was the gleam of flames on silver, and Paige was there, walking through the fire in her metal husk.
"Hey, puppy," she said with a smile. "Need help?"
***
The wave of calm that had settled over Marie-Ange flashed briefly into agonizing pain, and she staggered back, nearly dropping her cards. It took far too long to recover her footing, and when she did, she could not see Doug through the crowd. For every three people running away, towards an exit, another was running blindly, half scrambling around, and the occasional few running directly towards the fight.
She was nearly trampled twice pushing back through the crowd towards the dance floor, but managed to make her way to a far table, and dump her cards down on it. After frantically digging, flinging unwanted cards to the floor, Marie-Ange concentrated on one specific image, and gritted her teeth.
Around the fight - surrounding Jubilee and Amanda and the others, and unknown to Marie-Ange, Doug as well, a crumbling stone tower appeared, larger than life and just as solid. Through gaps in the stonework they could still see the crowds fleeing, now only at risk of trampling, instead of death-by-demon.
***
Monet picked herself up off the floor. She was not impressed. She also had the distinct odour of coke from the pool of spilled drink she had landed in. This was not combining well with the shrieking, the flames, the damage to her nice boots and the mental chaos. She snarled and levitated up to the platform, lifting it up to something close to its normal level.
"Shut up, I've got them already," she snarled in Paige's general direction. "Fucking flimsy construction anyway."
She was distracted from the small figures of her school mates and the larger figure of the demon by a truly unpleasant discovery.
Holding the ceiling up now with one hand as she carefully inspected her other hand, she swore again. "Bloody hell! I've broken my nail," she bellowed. "Do you have any idea what it takes to shape invulnerable nails?"
***
Wanda had managed to fight her way through the screaming mob and had encountered a set of locked emergency doors. "Locked?" she snapped, slamming into them as the crowd pushed against her. "When you... oh never mind." A step back gave her the room she needed as she slid her mind into her power.
There. A string that sang and hummed perfectly for this situation. Yanking it, she gritted her teeth, not allowing herself to be distracted as she lashed out with her foot. The doors, rarely used and rarely oiled, suddenly slammed open as the lock inside crumbled into dust.
"OUT!" she bellowed over the crowd, stepping aside. There were other doors but the more exits open, the better chance for getting innocent people out of the way.
Two boys apparently didn't want to leave and were trying to work their way back through the crowd, towards the sounds of the fight.
"I do _not_ think so." Calmly, Wanda stepped forward and got a good hold on both of their collars. "You both, outside, now." They cursed at her but weren't able to do much as she easily pulled them backwards and then unceremoniously tossed them through the open doors.
Now...to get to the other side...something about a wall?
***
Clarice had stopped, mid twirly, her headdress falling off with the sudden change in momentum. "Oh fuck," she muttered, pushing her way through the crowd to join the other Trouble Magnets.
Somehow, she didn't think her painted opaque bodysuit was going to survive talldarkandugly.
As the fight got underway and panic was setting in, Clarice teleported up to the rafters to see what she could do to help and not get trampled. "Oh no you don't!" she muttered, spotting a group of guys trying to get closer.
"Stop!" she yelled teleporting down to them, but they either didn't hear her or didn't care.
"I said-" one of the guys pushed her out of the way, "Fine then!" She opened another portal underneath them like she had done with Miles and they walked themselves to the parking lot.
Giggling with suppressed hysteria and adrenaline, Clarice teleported back to the rafters and began opening portals in front of groups, letting them fall in and reappear back in the parking lot.
"Oh...I should-" she groaned the world spinning, she'd never tried to teleport this many people at one time or do so many portals right after another, she fell from the rafters.
***
It took longer than it might have otherwise, but even with the nail-related distraction Monet eventually noticed heard the screaming suggestion from both above her and below. She sighed heavily and lowered the floor-ceiling she was holding. She shifted, once it was low enough, so it was tilted and people could get off without trapping herself underneath. The screaming didn't really let up, though.
As her classmates seemed to be mostly using the ancient martial art of swearing at the enemy, and Monet knew that for sheer volume and irrational accusations no one could beat them, she grabbed up two particularly slow moving party-goers (probably because dressing up as a mermaid or a peanut M&M did not make one particularly mobile) and headed outside. Anything to escape the screaming. Her head was beginning to hurt. She tucked the screaming, but not siren-like mermaid under one arm in order to grab at the prone Clarice, figuring that everyone else was having too much fun to remember her.
Outside, dumping the screaming strangers, she sighed, looking at Clarice. ’If she'd just hurry and wake up,’ she thought, I could go see if there's anyone cute around here who hasn't pissed themselves.
***
Angelo returned, having left Paige to escort the group of four to the nearest exit, seeing Bethany with Manuel and obviously needing help. Not taking time for niceties, he said bluntly, "You two should get out. We can handle the evacuation, an' there's not much any of us can do against that."
"Oh, will you please just go and fuck yourself? Shoot it in the head or something." Manuel spit out to Angelo, then winced as his broken ribs protested. "I have to do something." he said, face set into a mask of determination. "You can go be useless or get the norms out. Get this one out before I break my oath."
Angelo rolled his eyes. "What exactly do you think you can do when you're coughin' up blood? Not to mention the stone wall Angie just put up? Better to go get medical attention, before the pain I'm sure you're in gets down the link an' distracts Amanda."
"I am blocking the link right now." Manuel snapped, then turned almost as grey as Angelo's skin normally was. "I am making sure that the normals get out. Get them out, Angelo. This is not your fight." he said, lips bloody from coughing up his heart's blood. "Let me defend my woman - you can go take care of yours."
"I'm not the one stoppin' you", Angelo pointed out, trying to be reasonable but not wanting to see Manuel die in front of him. Much. "Unless you can break through stone, you can't defend her. Even if you could fight right now."
"I'm an empath." Manuel explained around coughs. "I don't need to be able to see my targets to affect them." An exaggeration, but Angelo didn't need to know that. Another coughing spasm ripped through him, and more blood flecks splattered against the ground. He didn't say anything, preferring instead to slump against Bethany and the ground in equal measures.
Angelo was oddly relieved - he really didn't have time or inclination to argue with Manuel much longer, and at least this way he could get him to the ambulance that was no doubt waiting outside by now, without a fight.
"Beth. Help me get him out. An' stay there when we have, you'll be safe out there." I hope.
"Yay, sense. Finally." Beth didn't need to be prompted to help Manuel to his feet again, Angelo taking his weight on the other side. "And don't worry about me, unlike some people I know when I'm out of my league." She couldn't help glancing back at the walls, 'though. "Is she... She'll be all right, won't she?"
Angelo glanced back at the tower as they made their clumsy way to the door, but found the reassuring lie choking in his throat. "I don't know. I hope so."
Manuel felt the last flickering shards of consciousness fade from himself, but even as his eyes fluttered closed and he slumped completely against Bethany, his eyes still glowed red under their lids. The pain-projection was wideband now, respecting no words of honor or tactical consideration. Only getting the pain out of him mattered.
Bethany gasped as pain ripped into her. It felt worse than the time she'd crashed her board trying to run it down a stair railing, and ended up catching the rail with her ribs, cracking a couple. She staggered briefly, then managed to right herself. "What the hell?" she croaked, looking across at Angelo, who was wincing as well. Then the glow from under Manuel's closed eyes drew her attention, and she almost stopped dead. "Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me. He's doing this?"
Angelo glanced at him, noticing the glow. "I think he must be. More reason to get him out of here, so the EMTs can help him. Or drug him."
"Best suggestion I've heard all night." Shoving the phantom pain away as best she could, Bethany pulled Manuel's arm a little tighter around her shoulder and nodded in the direction of the back door. "Let's hope this whacked-out power of his doesn't screw up the medics - that'd be bloody annoying." She didn't notice she had been picking up Amanda's vocabulary again.
Angelo nodded, helping her drag Manuel towards the back door. "We'll explain, if we have to. I'd rather not tell them he's doin' this, but the red eyes might be a giveaway. Dose of morphine should fix it right up, though."
"I would have thought the excruciating pain he's projecting at everyone in range might be noticed," Bethany said dryly. If her tone was a little cutting, she probably had reason. Her girlfriend was back there with some creature from Hell intent on taking her with it, and she was stuck lugging Asshole of the Year to safety because he'd decided to play the hero. Not to mention what Amanda was getting from that link of theirs - if he was out, he wasn't shielding it any more, was he? "Nice of him to share, I suppose."
Angelo grinned wryly. "You'd be surprised what people can put down to somethin' else. But not with those red eyes. C'mon, sooner we get him out there, sooner they can get the hypodermic out."
***
Doug gingerly wove his way through the crowd, holding his arms around his chest to protect his still bruised ribs. Through clenched teeth, he called harshly to Amanda. "It knows your name. It… " he paused, looking at Amanda intently. "You know all this.."
Shaking his head, he stepped back, only to press against a cold circle of stonework. 'Shit, Angie, your timing bites hard, love.' he thought.
Amanda winced and looked at Doug. "So do you," she said. "You translated it for me, remember?" She blinked as Marie-Ange's walls appeared. At least Manuel and Bethany were safe, for as long as Marie-Ange could hold the walls up, that was. Then she noticed the careful way Doug was standing. "Doug, get away from me - it's me that thing wants, an' it'll go through anyone t' do it..." As if to illustrate her words, the demon roared and swept Sarah aside, slamming her into the projected wall. "An' since it's got me name, it's got me power. I can't do shite right now." Then there was Jubilee, shouting insults at the demon, and Amanda's brow furrowed. "What the hell does she think she's doin'?"
Doug grabbed Amanda's arm as she tried to draw the demon's attention away from him and back to her. "Uh-uh, Amanda. I may not be much use in a fight, but I'll be damned if you think I'm letting Tall, Fiery, and Scaly have you. We'll figure something out. Get it talking, find a weakness, exploit it." It was rather weak as plans went, and it might lead to permanent harm, but Doug had no intention of just lying down while a friend was in danger. 'You'd think I'd learn,' he thought, the events of the previous week still fresh in his mind. Then he blinked as Amanda drew his attention to Jubilee. "Getting herself killed, most likely," he answered, wincing. "We've gotta do something."
It was big...very big. Jubilee inched her head back a little more, trying to take it all in as she stopped just short of its claw range. It was turned away from her currently, reaching for Sarah. "Yo, ugly Dude. I asked you a question. No speakee English? Cause, totally no speakee Demon."
She aimed a blast of paffs at the back of its head, trying to get its attention. If she could distract it, the others might have a better chance.
The demon snarled and turned around, smoke smouldering from the places Jubilee's paffs had hit. It raised its hand to strike her down, then paused, as if considering something. The moment was broken, however, by Amanda's sudden appearance by Jubilee's side, pushing her out of the way. The hesitation ended, the demon slashing at the young witch, its claws leaving bloody tracks along her side. Only the tight leather bodice of her costume stopped her from being more seriously hurt. Raising its claws to its mouth, the demon licked the blood off. "~Blood seals the pact, Gemile. There is no escape.~"
Doug grimaced. "He says that blood seals the pact, there is no escape, yadda yadda typical supervillain posturing..." he muttered under his breath so that only Amanda and Jubilee could hear him. "Any bright ideas?"
Jubilee blinked for a second, her brain catching up with current events as stared at the bright red blood on the demon's claws. She came back to herself, realising Doug had asked her something. "Well, keeping Mandy here away from that thing for a starter." she whispered back.
Having said that, she stepped out in front, sending another stream of paffs in a line at the demon's feet. "Doug, translate for me, will ya?"
She looked up at the beast, her look of utter contempt as obvious as she could make it. "Dude, blood is so 1980's. Like, totally last century. What kinda demon are ya anyhow? You'd think they'd at least send someone who didn't look like a reject from 'Legend'."
Moving further toward the demon, she noted Sarah sneaking up on it from behind.
"Now, how 'bout we talk about this whole pact thing, hey? Cause seriously, Dude. You got a raw deal if you bargained for this scrawny piece of ass. I mean, look at her, she's all skin and chicken legs and stuff. And just 'tween you and I, totally not a virgin. So, you know, might want to go find some virginal blonde chicky somewhere else for whatever freaky shit you're into and leave this one to us, hey?"
"Like yer'd know, Lee," Amanda half-growled, hand pressed against the gouges along her side. "I just wish the damn thing'd stop throwin' me name 'round for anyone t' hear," she added, low enough for only Doug to hear. "'S got me bang t' rights - I just hope one of these lot can get the drop on it before Lee here gets her bloody head ripped off."
Jubilee turned her head, scowling at Amanda. "Do you mind? Totally workin' here, dude. Case you hadn't noticed, huge, red and ugly is after you. Which means he gets his claws on you, and this is all over. So, just shut up and let me get the damn thing so angry it won't be thinkin', okay?"
She didn't have much of a plan, at least not much of a one beyond her usual modus operandi. Be as obnoxious as hell till whatever villain du jour was good and mad and then use that distraction against them. It had for the most part worked perfectly in the past. If there was one thing she'd learned. You don't fool with a good thing.
Doug was very aware of Jubilee's strategy, or lack thereof. It was one that he occasionally used, and he had the benefit of being able to read body language. And he suspected that Jubilee's taunting wasn't going to accomplish much of anything against the demon, even with translation. Even with the numerous imprecations the demon was growling out, it seemed more than able to handle everything the heavy hitters were handing to it - Sarah and her bones, Illyana was 'porting away every time it tried to hit her, reappearing behind it and hacking away with the Soulsword, occasionally leaving a dint or two in the creature's skin. Doug shook his head. "Not gonna translate that, not gonna translate that..." he murmured. A particularly vicious curse by the demon drew a raised eyebrow. "And there's no _way_ I'm translating _that_."
With a growl, Sarah threw herself at it from behind, bone in her hand about as sharp as they came naturally. She held it in two closed fists, and thrust with as much force as she could muster. The demon only flung her away, sending her down to the floor, her bone just out of reach.
"~Annoying fleshbags, why do you fight so hard for her? She is merely the container. The power you cannot use,~" growled the demon, stomping on the bone with one cloven foot, its fire rendering it instantly to ash. It advanced on Sarah, intent on doing the same thing to the rest of her.
Sarah had no idea what it had just said, but it didn't look or sound too happy. "Yeah, I'm fucking annoying, aren't I?" She scrambled to her feet, hoping that -somebody- was taking advantage of this and getting out. "Come on and play," she growled, taking another step backwards with a bone club from her spine gripped tightly in her hand.
"~I shall enjoy chewing on your eyeballs, fleshbag...~" the demon said, advancing on Sarah further. Then it seemed to realise the distraction being caused, and turned to make another grab at the powerless witch. "~I have no time for this foolishness. Let me take my property and go.~"
"Dude, no need to be rude. Didn't your mother ever teach you to mind your Ps & Qs?" Jubilee said to the demon, shouting over the sudden noise as the demon's language got louder and more violent. Sarah's attack hadn't seemed to have any affect besides annoying the crap out of it. She scrambled out of the way as the demon turned around and made a lunge for Amanda, firing off a series of sparks at its head and shoulders to bring its attention back to her.
"You know, if you guys would like to work out a plan while the rest of us are holdin' the thing at bay, that'd be nice. Like, yesterday would also be good timing and all for this plan in view of big nasty scary thing trying to eat us... No pressure though, really."
Amanda watched as Jubilee's sparks - fairly minor ones, compared to what she'd seen the firecracker do before - smoked and burned the demon's hide, making it roar in pain. "Do that again," she said, frowning a little. Demon-slaying swords didn't work, Sarah's slice-and-dice didn't work... even Monet slugging it as hard as she could hadn't worked. So why Jubilee's paffs?
***
Tags:
- c: amanda sefton,
- c: angelo espinosa,
- c: clarice ferguson,
- c: doug ramsey,
- c: jubilation lee,
- c: marie-ange colbert,
- z p1: c: .retired: alex summers,
- z p1: c: .retired: illyana rasputin,
- z p1: c: .retired: madelyn bartlet,
- z p1: c: .retired: paige guthrie,
- z p1: c: .retired: sarah morlocke,
- z p1: c: .retired: terry cassidy,
- z p1: c: .retired: wanda maximoff,
- z p1: c: manuel de la rocha,
- z p1: p: repodemon
