2012-07-10 When Demon Snakes Attack!

A new moon. A starless sky. Only the lights of the park illuminate the small walking paths. This time of morning, there's very few in the park sans the occasional beat cop, homeless, runaway or druggie. There's a gentle breeze that floats through, causing the leaves in the trees to rustle. The sounds of the city are naught but background music... a white noise. Among those in the park, and that fits into none of the above categories, is Satana. In the dim light, the glowing of her red eyes is quite evident. The light plays off the long mane of red hair but dressed in black as she is, the rest of her is difficult to see most of the time. From the way she moves, she is completely at ease this evening. If only she knew what was following her in the shadows. Suddenly, the lights of the park begin to pop, sending sparks flying and one by one they go out until the area is plunged into complete darkness. This brings Satana up short and as the temperature drops in the area around her, the woman's eyes glow a brighter red. "Show yourself," she growls into the darkness.

There are other things in the park in the middle of the night besides the occasional cop, runaway, homeless person and druggie. There are also the periodic superbeings like Wiccan. Still glowing a bit, in the figurative way, from his first not failure as a superhero the mystic teen has taken a break in his patrol of the city by perching in the air floating on top of Belvedere Castle with the wind blowing through his cape. When the lights start popping it gets Wiccan's attention, especially since it seems centered on a lone woman. "Well that is not good, not at all." The teen lifts up a little higher and starts to float closer to the dark area preparing to get involved if something happens.

"...which is why you should really give up a life of crime," the Phantom is saying to a pair of young punks, who he'd tied to a tree with woven branches. "Crime, no matter how petty, will only end up hurting you later in life." He looks between them, fists on his hips. "You have to think not only of the families you have now, but the families you'll /want/ to have later in--" He's interrupted by the popping lights, and automatically shields the youths with his own body. Devil gets his attention with a soft huff, then the wolf looks behind the human. With a soft growl, he draws the Phantom's attention to the fading light. "You're right, Devil," he says to the wolf. "Thanks for the head's up." He gives a sharp whistle, and Hero comes galloping up. The Phantom grabs the pommel of the saddle and swings up, straddling the mare without her having to slow down. With Devil leading the way, the Phantom races Hero as fast as she'll go to the source of the disturbance.

In the darkness, a good dozen pair of glowing blue eyes suddenly pop into existence. "You cannot escape us..." The voices belonging to those eyes seem to sound as if they are chanting everything they say, a slightly hypnotic lilt in their voices which are neither male nor female but both at once. "it is time to return..." Those red eyes narrow and before their eyes, Satana transforms. Wavy horns sprout and grow back her head, fangs elongate and become apparent, ears point slightly and her nails become talons and silvery-black fire erupts around her hands. "Not bloody likely!" She's been spending to much time around Constantine. It's starting to show in the way she talks. At least she isn't cussing yet. Wiccan and Phantom draw closer and the shadows begin to hiss. "Others approach!" Phantom is close enough that, even though unseen, the shadows encircle Satana. "They cannot save you, Dark Mistress."

Wiccan blinks as the woman suddenly transforms. "Ok, not what I was expecting..." He says to himself as he speeds up his flight to get close. "Who ever the bad guy turns out to be, I don't want to fight in the dark. Lettherebelight,Lettherebelight,lettherebelight!" Wiccan chants the last part as he approaches his hands starting to glow at first before balls of light fly out from his fingers to at least bring the area back to how bright it was before the street lights blew. "Stop evil doer! Which ever ones of you are...evil..." He at least started out strong, if corny, before losing steam.

"By crumb..." murmurs the Phantom, pulling on the reins so Hero skids to a stop. He stares at the scene, wishing Guran were available. He's on his own, for this one. Great. And then light suddenly returns. Well then. He presses his left index and middle fingers to the side of his mask, to get it to start recording. Hopefully they get this taken care of in a half-hour. Giving Hero's sides a light tap, he gets her to canter forward. "I really hope this isn't a surprise party for Mandrake," he calls out in a friendly tone--only then realizing that no one likely knows who Mandrake /is/. Oh, well. "I also hope this isn't a private party!"

The light appears and the creatures hiss but it reveals their forms. Six large, armored serpents with two heads each. Each is about ten feet long and a good six inches thick with a pointed tail that seems to glisten, as if damp. "Destroy them!" Even as their voices ring out, their mouths don't seem to move. Bright red eyes go to Wiccan as Satana starts to back herself up to keep as much in sight as possible. Bad. This is bad. Good thing she just fed! "Stay away from their tails!" She may not know these people but no point in allowing them to die. An then there's galloping and Satana's eyes turn yet again to see Phantom. It's in that moment that two of to 'serpents' strike, one aimed with it's maw open, towards the chest of Hero and the other coils and lunges itself into the air towards Wiccan. The rest? They're converging on the Demoness. "Return or the Constant One falls."

Wiccan dodges sideways as fast as he can glad that in the air he moves at little more than a thought. As he dodges electricity starts to arc all around Wiccan before he turns and unleashes a lightning bolt at the serpent demon thing that attacked him. "Yeah, knew it was not going to be anything nice. Hey lady! These things after you, any idea what they are or have any advise on where to hit them?" Lighting usually works for Wiccan, but he still thinks asking might help.

Two bullets are what the serpent going for Hero gets. Teach /it/ to go after the horse. The shots are fired as the Phantom leaps from Hero's saddle, somewhat toward the snake. Let it go after a real meal. He lands in a roll, keeping the handguns pointed down as he comes up. "Devil! Get the--girl!" There's the pause as he considers what the woman transformed /into/. On the other hand, she /was/ a girl, and she tried to warn him and the flying one, so he'll err on the side of her needing help. As Devil races toward the transformed Satana to try and tackle her, and Hero races away like any horse with a brain cell would from a giant snake-demon-thing, the Phantom races toward Satana as well--or, more accurately, the snakes going after her. Hopefully the one that went after Hero is going after him, now, and he starts firing at the serpents going after Satana to get them focused on him, too. A glutton for punishment, true heroism, or just plain stupidity. It might just be up in the air.

"Kill them both! She must be returned to the Dark Lord!" The voices chime all at once. The one that missed Wiccan lands on the ground and hisses but simply coils and launches itself again, the lightning apparently ineffective if it hits the back of the demon. Phantom has done a wonderful job of diverting the attention from Hero to himself as well as half the ones trying to corner Satana. Like the lightning, the bullets seem to do no good against the armored snakes. "The junction poi--oof!" And down she goes thanks to Devil tackling her. How ironic! The demoness hisses at the beast and tries to move it off of her to stand and fight back without hurting him and yet fast enough the converging serpents can't get a hold of them. "Where the heads meet there's a soft spot!"

Wiccan mutters to himself, "Not lightning, something else. Fire,fire,fire,Fuego!" This time instead of lightning a gout of flame leaps from the flying teen's finger aimed straight for the face of the serpent creature. The fire hopefully is enough to blind the creature as he ducks sideways again and then unleashes a bolt of lightning at its back where the head and body meet.

The wolf will try to grab onto clothing to drag the demoness away. He won't bite skin, but he's very determined. And should any more heads go for Satana, Devil will leap right the heck at it and latch his teeth onto it and, if nothing else, annoy the heck out of it. Meanwhile, the Phantom shows his hearing and acceptance of the advice given by the woman by concentrating fire on where the heads meet as he continues to race forward--then has to dive to the side to narrowly avoid a serpent's strike. The impact jars his shoulder, and he's sure he's going to have to reset it later. Just perfect. Teeth grit against the pain as he rolls to his feet, keeping his momentum. He has to do some actual damage to these blasted things. When he gets close enough, he leaps to dive between two of the heads, so he can at least get two good, close-up shots.

Not being able to move the wolf without hurting it is... frustrating to Satana to say the least. "Call him off and let me up!" It's not really a request. Both serpents go down but the heroes are given little reprieve for as the the group of them howl in pain, two more come away from Satana to attack Wiccan and Phantom. They learn though. This time, the have crossed the 'necks' in an attempt to protect that soft spot. "Damn demons!" Satana is growing less and less pleased. As one of the snakes come up behind the wolf, her red eyes widen and she wraps her arms around the animal to roll them both off to the side and out of the way of that tail coming towards them. Lets just hope the wolf doesn't decide to suddenly move.

Wiccan grins as the demon serpent he is on goes down, before he remembers that there are four more. Eyes glowing with electric energy he watches the new creature coming for him. "So you guys learn, fine, I do too. Holdwhereyouare,holdwhereyouare,holdwhereyouare," He chants the same over and over again to himself watching for the inevitable, and as soon as it finally decides to leap for him ends with, "Holdwhereyouare,ARCTIS!" At the very last a blast of ice and snow fly from his fingers to try and encase the serpent in ice. Of course if the 'spell' does not work right he does not have time to dodge to the side and keep from getting hit by the beast encased in ice, or even free.

The wolf is a little harder to kill than that. A lot more determined than these snakes seem to want to give him credit for, too. When he's grabbed, he goes limp, recognizing the danger and her help. When she stops and hopefully lets him go, he'll get up and apparently decide he's had enough of this. Or maybe he's tired of staying out of the fight. Either way, he gives up trying to get Satana out of the way, and starts going for the snakes himself, growling lowly. Not being stupid, he learned from everyone else going for the junction point. Similarly, the Phantom is still going for the junction, as well. While Devil is smal and limber enough to hopefully be able to slip through the twisting necks, he, on the other hand, isn't. On the other hand, he has learned just how useful the flying one is. So he tries to pry two necks open just enough for Wiccan. "Excuse me, flier!" he calls out through gritted teeth. "Aim--aim something here!" It's really not easy to pry the things apart enough, so hopefully the flier can get something off before he has to let go.

Wiccan is lucky in that his spell struck the demon, encasing it in ice before the poison tail was able to strike home. His luck stops there though as it hit just a second to late which means he may very well be hit by the demon-cube. Fortunately, the block shatters when it hits the ground. Three down. Now loose, Satana growls low in her throat and runs towards the snake that Phantom is dealing with. With a hiss, she jumps on the serpent and forces her talons into the junction point and pulls with all her strength, eventually able to rend it enough to kill the demon. Never mind the spray of demon blood. It'll wash out. Honest! The last two snakes howl in pain and begin trying to retreat back to the shadows. "The Dark One will be angry... We have failed..." Their voices echo in the darkness. "Do _not_ let them reach the shadows!" Satana calls out her warning even as she's leaping off the one she and Phantom just took out and running after them.

Wiccan takes a frozen Serpent to the gut and has the air nocked out of him. He manages to roll away from what is left of the demon popsicle breathing hard. "That could have gone better." He yells out to Phantom, "Call me Wiccan!" Both hands extend outwards as he all but yells, "LightsandLightning,LightsandLightning,LightsandLIGHTNING!" As he tries for a two for one spell, balls of light thrown from his fingers to make make the serpent's night just a little brighter and make sure there are no shadows for them to reach. The second part of the twofer comes as the smell of ozone increases and ever hair on his head, as well as probably that on anyone close to him, stands straight up and a pair of lightning bolts drop out of the sky aimed at the weak spots on the creatures. As soon as the lightning drops though, so does Wiccan as he uses up just about every bit of energy he had.

That works, too. "Much obliged, ma'am," says the Phantom breathlessly when he lands on the ground, purposefully ignoring the fact that he's covered in demon-snake goo. He can never be too tired or too busy to be polite, and that stuff had better wash out. After a short exhalation, he's off and running, next to and just behind Satana--and the night explodes in brightness once more. "Handy trick, chum!" he calls out over his shoulder at Wiccan. "But can you keep it up?!" He'd try and say more, but--running. Fast. Devil shoots past the bipeds, barking at the snakes and nipping at them. The intent might just be clear--he's trying to buy the bipeds some time by pestering the serpents, give them a chance to do some more damage to the thing, or at least harry it enough to keep it from realizing what the bipeds are up to.

Satana tosses a look at Wiccan over her shoulder just in time to see him go down. Well that's not good. "He down and needs guarded," is called to Phantom. Maybe the wolf can do it. He seems to like sitting on people! For a moment, she considers calling off the assault but the wolf does his job well, irritating the last two until they spring at Satana and Phantom. No shadows means no way to go back so attacking was the only option. "We will kill you!" Their voices are angry and terrified as they attempt to land on and wrap themselves around the two still standing, poison tipped tails aimed for the chest.

The lights are still on, that means the serpents are still up, so his lightning missed. This does not make the tired Wiccan happy. Hands on the ground he puses himself up again and is chanting, "Don'thurtthem,Don'thurtthem,Don'thurtthem." He is pushing himself as bad as the first time he used his powers and actually gave himself extra powers, and will probably sleep till Wednesday once he gets home. Just to keep himself focused he does not stop chanting even when the tails of the demons end up encased in small force fields effectively neutering their poison attacks.

And the Phantom is just pulling his handguns out again when he's wrapped up in a tail. "Oh, crumbs..." he gasps, the tightness of the grip forcing him to drop the weapons. The tail-tip coming toward him makes him realize he has other things to worry about. He doesn't exactly have much room to maneuver, but he exhales, using the tiny bit of extra room before the coils close the gap to move. He can't move /far/, but it's enough to let the tail-tip plunge into his left bicep--which it doesn't do. Eyebrows lift a touch over the eye-mask as the tail-tip seems to bounce /off/ his arm. Well then. "You're of invaluable assistance!" he squeaks out, hoping Wiccan understands he's talking to him. Well, hoping Wiccan can /hear/ him, too.

While Satana manges to dodge being wrapped up in the coils, it comes at a price. That tail pierces her left shoulder, causing her to scream. They /hurt/ and apparently the spell only took on one of the snakes! The demoness immediately drops to the ground and the serpent to pull back. Target gotten, it's attention is turned on Wiccan who stopped them from retreating. An angry hiss is given as is slithers, too quickly to be real, towards the sorcerer. Red eyes turn on Phantom from Where Satana dropped and she growls. Her right hand flexes her talons before she lifts them and strikes in a downward sweep with all her force. It's not enough to do much more than barely scratch the demon-snake but it does get it's attention and cause it to loosen it's hold on the man.

Wiccan takes a break in the middle of his chanting to yell back, "Speak Ghost I am bound to hear!" Yes, in the middle of trying to keep the Phantom alive with a demon snake creature attacking him while tired and drained he is quoting Hamlet. Thats probably why the spell only half worked, not paying enough attention. The Serpent coming for him, that gets more attention as it comes right at him. At this point Wiccan has two choices, shot the one coming for him with lightning and let the spell protecting the Phantom drop, or not. He chooses not, and really hopes that he can get a second forcefield on this demon's tail before it hits him....and hope it does not just skip the poison and strangle him.

Oh no, that's enough of /that/. The Phantom grunts weakly to get Devil's attention, and just nods toward Wiccan. The wolf turns and bolts in an instant, snarling lowly--then he leaps, to latch onto the tail and hang off it by his jaws. It /should/ get the thing to miss Wiccan entirely, which will itself hopefully buy Devil enough time to pester the ever-loving heck out of it. Go for the wolf, damn you. Go for the one who can dance around your attacks and offer a few snips and nips of his own. While Devil is dealing with the serpent going after Wiccan, the Phantom takes the temporary advantage the woman bought him. When the coils flex just that hair's breadth, he heaves with all his might, the roar of pain coming from him still trying to use a dislocated shoulder helping fuel his effort, so he can slip free and fall to the ground. Then he'll go for his guns, so he can use the last of his bullets on pestering the serpent, which will hopefully buy Wiccan enough time to deal with it.

Devil does his job very well it seems! Not only does the serpent miss Wiccan entirely but turns to deal with the wolf and the bullet from Phantom instead, the sorcerer left alone for now. Its jaw snaps at the animal as it coils and rolls, trying to avoid the wolf's teeth. "Help him." Satana's words are clipped as she manages to lunge at the one Phantom and gotten out of. She employs the same move as before, this making her scream in pain thanks to the hole in her shoulder. Eventually, she succeeds and with the death of that one, the last one simply vanishes into thin air as if unable to exist on its own.

Wiccan smiles at the Wolf as it manages to keep the demon serpent form killing him. Devil has just made himself a fan for life, and is going to end up with a a fresh cut of prime steak next time Wiccan sees him. As the last demon vanishes, so does the spell centered on it, and all the others Wiccan had going plunging Satana, the two heroes, and Devil the wolf into darkness. "Oh good, we won." Wiccan lets himself fall face first into the grass as he finally gets to relax.

Oh dear cripes. When the last one vanishes, the Phantom holsters his weapons--though that's done with a grimace, the right hand shaking a little. He really has to deal with that shoulder. Devil isn't immediately sure that the threat is gone, hackles still raised as he stands, sniffing the ground where the demon disappeared. The Phantom is convinced--enough, anyway--to head toward Wiccan and call out, "Devil, find Hero! We'll be making a trip to the clinic." The wolf gives a soft huff, then lopes off. The Phantom stops to look between Wiccan and Satana. "We do indeed seem to have won," he says, adding, "I'll get you both to a good clinic, if you'd like. And I'd like to thank you--Wiccan, you said?--for your help, and to you, ma'am, I can only say I apologize for not having arrived sooner." At least he doesn't seem the sort to care overmuch about her appearance. Who's a guy who runs around in purple tights to worry about a pair of horns and glowing eyes?

The last one disappears and Satana's on her knees once more. Even the corpses of the others vanish. "A clinic won't help me, but thank you." Hey! At least she's being polite. That's a new thing! Slowly, the demoness forces herself to her feet and as she does so, her appearance returns to normal. Talons, horns, fangs, pointed ears... All disappear. The glowing red eyes? Well, those are kind of permanent. "Thank you both. That was either brave or stupid. I don't plan on insulting the guys that kept me from getting dragged back to Hell so we'll go with brave."

Wiccan's eyes tend to glow, and he sparks often enough he has to keep his phone encased in an extra thick rubber protector so he is not going throw stones about looks either. "Yeah, what he said." The teen mutters face in the ground before he rolls himself over. "Not hurt, just drained. Gimme a half hour, a couple of granola bars and a bag of chocolate and I can fix that arm for you no need for a clinic...never tried healing demonic poison but might be able to help you too Ma'am." After a deep breath Wiccan manages to sit up and looks over at The Phantom and Satana. "It was both, and you're welcome." Wiccan looks over at Devil and holds out his right hand, palm up, just under the wolf's nose level. Its how your supposed to approach a dog you don't know so maybe it will work with Devil.

The woman's comment makes the Phantom grin, and he says, "I've been called worse in my day. But where /are/ my manners?  Please, allow me to at least help you to your feet." He goes over to her side, to crouch next to her and offer his hands, palms-up, to her. "At least we're all alive and relatively safe. I don't suppose you'd tell me just what those serpents were, exactly?" When Devil returns with Hero and approaches Wiccan, his ears lift at the young man extending his hand. He gives the young hero a curious look, like he's not sure he believes that the young man is trying that--then goes to sit right next to Wiccan. He certainly won't turn down attention, even if he's seen as a glorified dog.

The hand of his good arm is taken and Satana pulls herself to her feet with a small smile. "They were demons. Heaven, Hell.. Y'know... Demons. I'm afraid you boy got mixed up in a bit of a family dispute between my father and I." A deep breath is taken as she looks down at her shoulder, blood trickling down her arm. Her energy is draining fast and she can feel it. "Unless you can heal demons, I doubt it'll work on me. Thanks though." Finding the nearest tree, she leans back against it with a small groan. "I just need to feed."

Wiccan does not see any wolf that can hold off a demon as a glorified dog. When Devil sits down beside him he reaches over to pet, and give him a quick scratch behind the ears. "Just saying hello, and thank you. Also, I /So/ owe you a steak. Wagyu beef at the very least." Wiccan looks up at Satana. "If I did not have a picture of Thor and someone the forums all think is probably Sif sparing in central park as a desktop image I might not believe that. My power is reality warping, or magic, or something in between so I might be able too. Never had a chance to try.

Devil happily accepts the skritching--but it's the promise of the steak that really gets his attention. Ears flick right up, and he gets a canine smile on his face. So many times, he's lunging at someone, or watching someone run away--it's a nice change to have someone give him /steak/. Wiccan may just have made a friend for life. As for the Phantom, after helping Satana to her feet he says, "Ah, family disputes. Nasty things, they are.  I'd suggest you give our new friend here a chance.  It certainly couldn't hurt to let him have a go, I hope?" Another smile for Wiccan, there. He really is a helpful individual, and it's nice to see such a young man. Too many people--especially those who run around in costumes--tend to be the dire and dour sorts.

Pushing off the tree, Satana grins to each in turn. "I appreciate that. Truly. I think the sorcerer needs sleep though and believe me... at the moment... I am the wrong one to get to close to either of you... As I said.. I need to feed. Badly."

Wiccan is far too much the happy geek to be dour. Also, too much the fan-boy not to enjoy nearly getting killed in a fight against evil for reasons other than the adrenaline. "I...am not going to argue. Once I get into bed I am going to sleep for two days at least." Wiccan stands up and nods at the others before looking at Devil, "If I don't run into you in a few days, expect a steak to fall out of the sky or something."

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