2013.03.29 - Can't Go Shopping Without an Attack

How they came to be here and why they are here in the first place is a wonder, but the whole of Midtown suddenly looks like a ren faire gone bad. Or rather, gone hostile. Dark elves, dwarves whose minds are twisted by magic into hateful goblinish fiends of themselves, and aesir of less honor than those who normally deal with Midgard seem to all but appear upon the street and... well, run amok, as the phrase goes. And just for added interest, there's a cave troll.

Midtown Metropolis is a great place to gather with friends. Between the shops and the attractions, there's plenty to do. Sometimes making new friends in involved, too, even in the heart of the largest city on Earth.

Take today, for instance. Jubilee had invited her friend Fern to meet her for ice cream, and dragged Jocelyn along to meet the likeable waitress/actress. The first contact was so exciting, it grew from there into an unplanned expedition into the Midtown shops, home also of sidewalk vendors. Which means coffee. Which means the whole gathering only gets more noisy and energetic.

Right now, the trio are gathered in a clothing boutique, where coffee is allowed so long as travel lids are involved. Jubilee, of course, has had to set hers down while she tries on a new pair of jeans. "Wish I'd done this a week ago. I never thought you guys would hit it off so well!"

Then she blinks, pausing in her trying-on to listen. "Hey... I think I hear screaming! And I know this shop doesn't play metal on their Muzak. What's going on?"

Now, Jocelyn had come down this way with Jubilee to meet up with Fern. She was hoping for a nice, quiet bit of chat, maybe something warm to drink or eat, and maybe some browsing of some stores. No, instead they get to have a hord of rampaging fantasy creatures running about. She didn't even have her x-suit on underneath her clothing, but then again, it wasn't like a green v-neck t-shirt would have hidden it anyway. Looking out the window, Jocelyn lets her energy sight focus. And those were weird signatures, whatever they were. "Jubes. We got problems out there. Put your pants on and meet me outside," the teenager says.

The teen quickly charges herself up fully, because Jocelyn wasn't really intent on firing her larger blasts into a crowd. She didn't want to hurt anybody if she could avoid it, and her blasts were going to run too much risk of bystander injury right now. She instead makes her way towards the door of the clothing boutique.

Fern thought it would just be a little 'ice cream therapy', but it's turned into a day that's taken her mind off her own petty little problems, and it couldn't be more welcome. She grins at Jubilee's words, shrugging her shoulders lightly, "Hey, any friend of Jubilee is a friend of mine." She takes a sip from her coffee, tapping absently to the Muzak as she paws through a rack of shirts. She finds one with a some little sparkly doodads and holds it up against herself on the hanger. "What about this one?" She's not as quick to pick up that it's actual danger, as she replaces the shirt on the rack and moves toward the windows. "It looks like another parade.... there's a parade here every week, honestly." But Jocelyn's words give her pause, and she looks again. Yeah.. there might be shouting at a parade, but not screaming. Without thinking, she steps toward the door after Jocelyn, curious as to what's actually going on outside.

It was another day of keeping Thor distracted from every little cry and prayer. The man really needs to learn how to prioritize. He's getting there. Thankfully! However, when a 'call' came in the he -insisted- they answer, well, the Goddess really wasn't going to answer so... One way trip on Thor Express it was.

When they land on the sidewalk, Sif takes a moment to look around and assess the situation. When she speaks, it's in a hiss and in Ancient Norse, "Thor! How did they get here?" Her eyes narrow and her sword is immediately drawn. These beings should -not- have been able to get to Midgard.

The weird energy signature is strongest at the entryway of a parking garage two blocks away.

Meanwhile, near the boutique, the goblinesque creatures, with their blacken armor and oilly beards, are walking with those slow deliberate steps of an army marching forward. Only that this army is an army of twelve. Twelve black dwarves and one orc commander in leather armor wielding a wicked and cruel looking halberd. THe blade is black with centuries of uncleaned blood and icor and filth upon it, and is the very definition of a Diseased Blade.

Above the scene, leaping and acrobating in from that parking garage are the lithe elves with their black skin and white hair. Recurved bows made of the springy rib bones of some poor forest creature from Alfheim or Vanaheim. Their arrows, which they noc and aim for the pedestrians that are fleeing, are black fletched.

The cave troll, a dull nearly witless creature, shambles closer, it's knuckled hands scrape the ground as it walks, dragging what might have at some time in existence, have been a very large and very majestic tree. All that is left is the truck, scraped bare from use as a makeshift club.

Thor frowns darkly at the sight of the other-realm forces. The sky darkening with his mood.

"Keep the mortals safe from the arrows. I'll deal with the troll first," replies the deity in Ancient Norse, voice none the less carrying a fair distance. The tone indicates that he'll deal with the 'how' and the 'why' later.

"Trouble? What kind of trouble? Joce?" Jubilee pulls open the dressing room curtain to look outside... in her powder blue panties. Oops. She quickly pulls it shut again. "Oh, right. Pants would be good, yes. I'll catch up!"

Arrows. Arrows against random citizens was just plain cheating. This was going to require some multitasking. Jocelyn raises her hands up, pulling in some gravimetric energy, and then initiates some purple energy bursts about twenty feet above people's heads, striking absolutely nobody. That would seem like a terrible tactic, but a certain Thunderer might recognize the tactic from Port Jarvis. She's using the bursts to mess with the arrows that are being launched by those stupid elves. She's being careful to keep her blast radius from blowing out any windows as well, and she's not using the full strength of her bursts, because frankly arrows were way easier to deflect than meteors. However, she didn't need to cause any glass to rain down on people either, so that made sense. Her intention, effectively, is to prevent people from being sniped by those arrows.

Jocelyn spots Sif and Thor in the midst of things. Oh good. They had some backup. That was helpful. Because there were a lot of bad things, and protecting the people had to come first.

Getting a good eyeful of the badness going down in the street as soon as she steps out of the boutique, Fern is no longer worried about her coffee, tossing it toward a garbage can. It misses, but she tried to keep Metropolis clean! She barely pauses as Jocelyn goes into action, and Fern does the only thing she can... tries to get people off the streets, into the buildings. That'll be protection, right? "Hey, this way!" she calls to a woman and her son, fleeing in terror. She's holding the door open, waving to catch anyone's attention and herd them inside. "Get inside! Duck into a building!" Only a few people hear her, fewer still heed her words in their panic.

A sharp nod is given to Thor before she casts one more look around. Spotting Jocelyn, she nods to the girl and then is gone. Less than a second later, she reappears on the rooftops where the elves are. She moves swiftly and without hesitation as the blade swings with ease and grace. Jocelyn is doing a wonderful job of keep the arrows that are fired off of people, now it's time to take out the source of said arrows.

The elves, used to magicians casting shield spells, begin to stagger their arrows, loosing them at different areas to find the spots that aren't covered by shield... and to keep the caster's attention on the shield to allow the ground forces to to their thing.

Those that hear Fern and heed her warning stream into the protection offered by the coffee shop... and then proceed to flock to the windows to watch.

This is why broadcast networks started real life TV to begin with.

As Sif appears amid the archers, half of their number, six of them, turn and begin to fight her. They are graceful and sleek, these elves, and duck and twist away from her blade, trying to bring their arrows to bear on her.

Thor, true to his word, lets out a war cry and leaps for the troll, Mjolnir raised over his head. Lightning crackles from the relic's striking surface, leaping down his arms, and glittering from his eyes. The orc commander looks up at the sound and smirks. The dwarves take out their fear of the THunderer on the mailboxes and buildings and cars and what not they encounter, their pace picking up to get further from the Asgardian Prince as they can.

The troll looks up dully at Thor's charge, rocking back a half step as Mjolnir lands true. The troll reaches up to bat the Thunderer away, sending Thor into a nearby building. CRUNCH.

Jubilee doesn't waste time, ditziness or no ditziness. She's outside within a minute, hopping on one foot as she straps down the velcro on one of her shoes. The first thing she sees, naturally, is Jocelyn's purple energy bursts deflecting arrows. The tall redhead is impressively effective. "Oh, wow! You're really getting good, Joce!"

But she can see a small way to improve on that. "But I've got an idea. Get ready to start hitting those creeps!" She concentrates, holding her hands down with her arms crossed in front of her. Plasmoids flare into being and swirl around her hands, more and more forming as she concentrates... just a moment longer...

And, /now/! "Guys, pull up your socks!!" she shouts, throwing her arms skyward and unleashing the plasmoids. The result is a huge, brilliant cloudburst of blinding stroboscopic flashes!

Alright, with Jubilee sending some blinding shots, Jocelyn lets her energy sight do it's thing, focusing on the specks that are the nasty bad elves up top. The ground forces will need to be dealt with soon, but they had to take out the supporting fire first. Jocelyn adjusts her bursts and instead starts dropping them on top of the elves, attempting to knock them out with sheer kinetic force bursts to the head. These blasts were invisible and not the awesome purple that the gravimetric bursts were, but that just makes them harder to dodge, which was something Jocelyn was all for. It wasn't fancy, but it was effective. She's not shooting at the ones Sif is dealing with though. Sif could more than handle herself.

For a moment, Fern is distracted by Thor's war cry, frowning and turning toward the source. She's not all up on the superhero thing, and only just recently learned that Thor is actually -real-, but even knowing that in the back of her head, it's the last thing that would come to the front. What she sees is a model-tastic looking guy with a big hammer getting slammed into a building, and she winces at the imagined pain. You would think the hammer would clue her in. But no. A noise from closer by registers, and she turns again, seeing a young girl hiding behind the trash can Fern missed with her coffee. While she's not a hero, she's not a coward either. Some would call her stupid. Without thinking she ducks down, scuttling over to the girl. "Hey, hi, I'm Fern, so, look, lets get out of here, huh? C'mon." Taking the girl's hand, she attempts to urge her toward the shop. There's some resistance at first, before the girl moves, too frightened to speak. Halfway across the sidewalk, an arrow wings past a little too close for comfort, and Fern impulsively pushes the girl ahead, toward the open door, and sprawls on the sidewalk for her effort. And she's totally missing Jubilee's light show.

A volley of arrows is let loose on her and while the Goddess manages to dodge most of them, there is no way to escape them all unharmed. Only one hits though and it catches her square in the right shoulder.

That bunch of elves is quickly dispatched just in time for Sif to catch Thor go flying, rather unintentionally this time, towards the building. Oops! The rest of the elves are left to Jocelyn to hand as the Goddess rips the arrow from her shoulder and teleports once more. This time, she aims to reappear on the troll's shoulder and drive the arrow straight into his neck before hoping off left the thing bring a hand up to swat her away too.

The other half of the archers, perched opposite their fellows, turn to lay some cover fire for them as Sif appears in their midst. Their arrows are quick to be sent Sif's way, and just as quickly stop as they are both blinded AND rendered unconscious. Three of them fall from their perches. One drops with a slight crunch to the sidewalk at Jubilee's feet, the other at Fern's... well.. face. And then Thor's winged helmet, which has just been wearing before being backhanded into the building by the troll, drops onto the elf's chest - eliciting a groan and proving the creature is still alive - then rolls from the body to the sidewalk and comes to a lopsided rest in front of Fern.

With the archers dispatched, the ground forces, now near the heroes, attack. Two for Jocelyn, two for Jubliee, the other eight continuing to rampage and oh look! they found someone in a car. Two of them drag out the freaked out civilian onto the street. A child screams from the interior of the vehicle, "MOMMY!!"

Thor pulls himself from the rumble of the building, one hand on the wall of the building, the other summoning Mjolnir back to him. The hammer shifts rumble as it leaps to Thor's hand. He watches Sif attack and teleport to avoid the troll's swipe. Thor brings a hand up to wipe at the thin line of blood at his nose. A smirk drifts to his lips.

"Foul beast! Thou hath made a grave mistake in coming to this, Midgard, realm under the protection of Thor," bellows the God, seeking to recapture the beast's attention... that or he sorta of forgot to be worried about the 'how' and the 'why'.

"Woo! It worked!" Jubilee exults, pumping her fist into the air. But she doesn't have long to rejoice, because the ground forces are still coming! "Joce, look out!" she calls, snapping her hands down and summoning forth some more fireworks. Twin streams of screaming, burning plasmoids shoot out, one from each hand, straight at her two new playmates!

And then she sees some nasty twisted Dwarves dragging a woman out of a car, away from her child! "Oh, fudgesicles... Fern, Joce, we've gotta help her! I'll blast us a way there!" She takes a deep breath, cracks her knuckles, and begins literally blazing a trail through the monsters.

Ground forces? Ground forces were what Jocelyn was actually trained to fight. The girl nods to Jubilee briefly, but she's got a couple of baddies coming right at her. The tall redhead steps forward into a swing, only to sidestep it and attempt to catch the arm of the dwarf. If she manages to catch it's arm, she attempts to use her enhanced strength to spin the dwarf around a couple of times before she flings it at the two who are going after that civilian. The throw will be perpendicular, so that she shouldn't hit the civilian but instead strike the sides of the other dwarves.

With the breath momentarily knocked out of her, Fern lays there a second, and then *plop!*, there's a ... something on the sidewalk in front of her. She mutters a word she doesn't normally use under her breath, making to push to her feet as something else lands. The groan from the elf, well, it might freak her out just a little bit, because even as the helmet wobbles to a rest after it rolls toward her, she's grabbing it up and bringing it down onto the elf's head with a solid thunk. "Don't get up!" she screams. Immediately after, more quietly, "Oh God, I hope I didn't dent it!" comes with a quick inspection of the helmet. She doesn't have time to worry further, as she hears Jubilee call and her attention snaps up. Now she gets an eyeful of Jubilee's power. "Whoa." These two girls have got some major juju working in their favor, and it's colorful! Still acting without really thinking about it, Fern tucks the helmet against her, like a football, and launches herself toward the car as a path is cleared. She's running low, and is short anyway, so the flying dwarf skims above her.

Once more on the ground, Sif's eyes dart up to Thor before she looks over to see how the girls are doing. Seeing they have things under enough control, she turns her attention back to the troll.

There's a reason that Sif wears red leathers... It's so all that blood come from that shoulder wound can't be seen. Thankfully, she can use either hand to wield her sword. Said sword is easily twisted and twirled as she slices into the beast while never holding still.

Jubilee blasts one dwarf off his feet,but the other turns to catch her plasmoids on his shield. He straightens from the attack and growls an evil smile at the teen. His mace is brought up and swung at Jubilee!

The dwarf in Jocelyn's spin is flung and the two dwarves holding the human topple over and let her go. She scrambles to her feet, and gets to her car in hopes of undoing the five point safety harness on the child's seatbelt. The orc commander steps off the sidewalk just as Fern draws near. He levels the wicked diseased blade at the teen and utters one guttural word, "Valkyrie."

The three dwarves now near Fern and the car get to their feet unsteadily.

The remaining dwarf attacking Jocelyn, seeing his partner beign flung, steps forward to swing his mace at the energy blaster.

The other dwarves begin to move in to surround Fern and Jocelyn and Jubilee.

The troll snarls aloud as Sif's blade cuts deep, black blood falling like a like and petrid rain to the street below. She's far too quick a foe for the troll to catch and attack.

Thor, Mjolnir in hand, leaps again and shatters the tree in the troll's hand to keep the beast from using it to destroy the buildings (and thus injuring the very innocent mortals contained therein). The sky above broils with impending storm.

Oh, this is going to suck... Jubilee looks up just in time to see a dwarf with a shield bulling his way through her deluge of plasmoids. And he's got a very big hammer! And it's coming at her! The teen shrieks and ducks, letting the hammer whistle over her head, and gives him a shove as the hammer spins him halfway around.

The trouble is, there are more dwarves, and they're beginning to figure out where all the trouble's coming from. But it looks like Fern is in the worst predicament from where Jubilee's standing. "Fern! I'm coming!" Bestowing a swift kick in the backside to her staggering adversary, she dashes to her friend's aid. Hopefully a few plasmoids will help clear away Fern's problems!

Jocelyn brings her arm up to block that mace, her toughened body effectively blocking the strike. She lets loose a kinetic blast at point blank range, intending on sending that dwarf flying. The teen reaches down to grab a manhole cover. Not the most conventional choice of weapon, but she had an idea. The surrounding dwarves are a problem, and Jubilee appears to be helping Fern out of trouble. So, it was Joce's turn to play Crowd Control.

Watching the dwarves surround them, Jocelyn decides against an actual blast and instead hovers a few inches in the air. Then suddenly she's bursting around in a circle, flying at a solid one hundred miles per hour, manhole cover extended out in an attempt to just knock the dwarves out with sheer speed and repetition of strikes.

Thank you, Carol, for making Jocelyn undergo some obstacle course training with her flight power.

Fern stops short, confronted with a creature that freezes her in her place for a second. But the word it utters registers on her, and she knows what it means. Well, she is a waitress, so that much is accurate. Heck, if she's going to be cast in a part, she's going to play it! She brings the winged helmet up and drops it onto her head. And immediately can't see. Dude's got a much larger head than she does, that's for sure. The helmet is tilted enough so that Fern can see, and she draws herself up to her full height. Which is still short, but it's an attempt. She wants to buy a moment for the mother trying to free her child, so she points at the orc and screams, "You are not worthy!" Then she ducks and tries to skuttle sideways, away from the threat of the grossest blade she's ever seen in her life, and the dwarves who are regaining themselves.

Hearing the commotion from the girl's causes Sif to whip her head around. Her eyes narrow. Son of a... "Do you have it," is called to Jocelyn and Jubilee as she continues to the attack on the troll, teleporting up to once more perch on it's shoulder. This time, her sword is driven in and pulled on. Is she attempting to slit the things throat? Maybe she's just irritated that it's going to take forever to get the beasts blood out of her leathers and armor...

Bowling for dwarves. Jocelyn's effective at knocking them all down. Only three remain: the three in the middle of that circle, near Jubilee and Fern. Oh, and the orc. And the dishonorable aesir, who have all backed away to spy and watch and.. whatever it is they were sent to do here. The troll and the dwarves and the orc was the diversion.

The mother scrambles to get her child unbuckled, then scoops the boy and and runs away. This while the orc commander advances upon the 'valkyrie', laughing at her declaration of worthiness while attacking her in an almost playful manner.

The troll screams and staggers as not only Sif slashes into him, forcing his regeneration to have to keep up, but Thor begins to attack in earnest. Lightning flashes about, leaving thr troll with broken bones (which heal quickly) and burns (which do not).

"We needs to attack the beast with flames," shouts the Thunderer in the All Tongue, which is understood by all in whatever their native language happens to be. And then the troll punts him across the street and into the trash bins in an alley. Mjolnir lands in the street where he had just been.

Fern seems to have found her own way to help. Jubilee would laugh if she weren't so afraid for her friend. Still, she doesn't care much about fair play, or so the orc commander finds out when she launches a stream of plasmoids at him! "You leave her alone, you scuzzmongering dweeboid!"

Still, the orc is a symptom. The huge thing that Thor and Sif are fighting with is the disease. And it's vulnerable to fire? To heat? Oh, she has /so/ got its number! But first, Fern and the mother. She blasts at another one of the dwarves who's trying to come at her red-haired friend from behind. "Fern, can you get clear? I think we've got this bunch!"

Orcs down, and Jubilee had things with Fern's attacker under control. Jocelyn wasn't that concerned with the few remaining orcs. Fire? Did Thor say fire? Jocelyn can so do fire.

She focuses, pulling in some electrical and thermal energy for this shot. Then she's opening up with a very white hot looking electrical bolt aimed straight for the troll. Maybe if they get rid of the troll, the rest will scatter. That was Jocelyn's hope, anyway!

While Fern would love to join a rousing game of Toast the Troll, she's woefully distracted by an orc with a mean streak. Or a sense of humor? It seems to purposefully aim ahead of her, and Fern falls over as she tries to backpedal, pulled off balance by the weight of the helmet. That works in her favor, though, as Jubilee turns her attention and the plasmoids streak over her to their target. She's really starting to appreciate being little. Fern rolls over without trying to regain her feet, scrambling away in the wake of the mother and her son. The helmet shifts forward, covering her eyes, but that doesn't stop her forward movement. "Thanks Jubes!" she shouts, although it's muffled by the hunk of metal on her head. She just misses ramming straight into a light pole, waiting until the sidewalk is under her before she pushes up onto her feet and turns, head tipping back so she can peer out and see where she is.

Looking up, Sif nods her head. Fire is something she isn't capable of. Instead, she makes her way down the troll, using various points as a spring board and slashing as she goes. She can keep it distracted and semi-weakened. When she's finally on the ground, the troll swings at Sif and the hit lands squarely.

Like Thor has, twice now, the Goddess go sailing through the air to make contact, harshly, with the far building. Unlike Thor, however, the Goddess drops to the ground where he had simply pushed out of the indentation. Oddly... She's not getting back up. It's only once her body hits the pavement that the blood coming from the shoulder wound can be seen... And there's a fair bit of it.

Two down, two to go... and Jubilee still has plenty of plasmoids to spare. Both hands come up and snap down, each spraying a gout of screaming hot light globules at one of the remaining dwarves. "Sorry, guys, but /you/ totally came into the kitchen," she quips, backpedaling to keep Fern covered.

The mother is clear, and Fern is almost so. Good. That means she can step away to call the authorities. "Joce, Fern, I'm gonna get our stuff from the boutique and call the police. Meet me at Aberford's in ten," she calls, referring to a coffee house she knows a safe distance from this mess. Bossy, isn't she? Still, there'll very shortly be too much light around here for such shadowy personalities as themselves to take, and she knows it. And into the boutique she ducks. At least it's still standing!

The orc staggers under Jubilee's assault even as Fern falls over.

There's a sharp shrill whistle from the parking garage.

The remaining dwarves break away from the fight to collect the fallen and start to retreat.

Thor steps out of the alley, pushing trash from his shoulder, and spots Sif. With a shout the Thunderer rushes over to her and slips a bit in her blood. A dark fury creeps across his features and leaving Sif on the ground, he charges the troll, summons Mjolnir and calls in lightning strikes against the troll to turn it into ash.

Jocelyn's bolt strikes the troll, though Thor gets a little bit of electricity too. Not that it likely even phases the god, since Jocelyn's homemade lightning bolt is way weaker than Thor's. Still, the troll lets out a cry of fury, and then a cry of pain as the combined bolts strike it down.

Jocelyn moves back towards Fern. "We should bolt, too". A concerned look is given over towards Sif and Thor. "Will she be alright?" Jocelyn calls to Thor, raising her voice. If she was needed to take care of Sif, she would, but she'd also like to get clear, fast.

Still standing with the helmet tipped back on her head, Fern finally pulls it off, frowning as the ground troops retreat. "What the...." It's a good thing, yes, but why? Snapped out of her pondering by Jocelyn, Fern nods, "Hey, I'm all for getting out of here." She seems totally oblivious about the hunk of metal that's been jammed back under her arm like a football, and is ready to take flight with Joce to catch up with Jubilee.

Staggering away from the defeated troll, cape burnt, Thor ignores the fleeing aesir and dwarves. He moves to Sif, collects her and her sword carefully, summons Mjolnir, and flies away.

AFTERWARDS...

So, it was a little bit after the battle. Jocelyn and Fern had gotten clear, and Jubilee had gotten somewhere. Something kept them from meeting up, however, so they had made their way over to one of the smaller parks to decompress. The girl glances around, not showing any powers now for obvious reasons.

"You alright there, Fern?" Jocelyn asks. "Things got pretty heated pretty fast. Nice work, by the way," she compliments. Most people freaked out and just ran!

Fern has the helmet on her lap, looking at it thoughtfully before she glances to Jocelyn. "Huh? Oh, yeah, right as rain." Despite her reassurance, she still looks a little wired, and once this adrenalin high wears off, she's gonna hit the wall. But... figuratively, not like Thor and Sif. There's a crooked smile, "Thanks, Jocelyn. I just didn't really think about it." Beat. "Man, you and Jubes were amazing! The stuff you can do... whoa." If she was thinking entirely straight, she'd suggest one of them try and call Jubilee, but one of them will think of it soon enough.

Jocelyn will ultimately send a text. But Jocelyn knew Jubilee knew these streets better than even herself, since she'd been here longer. "Well, there are those who are far more impressive than Jubilee and I, but we do alright for ourselves," Jocelyn offers with a slight blush. The girl recovers quickly enough though. "That's how it is though. You tend not to think about things in a fight like that, because if you stop to think too much, you're in trouble". The girl glances around. "We should grab something to eat. You want something from one of these vendors? My treat". Because Fern earned it. "In some ways I think when I lived out of state it was more dangerous, before I had my powers".

"Do alright," Fern repeats with a grin. "Yeah, you could put it like that." She would put it much more strongly. She takes a deep breath, letting it out with a huff. "I'm just glad that woman got her kid out of the car alright." There's a shaky chuckle, "I don't think I've ever been so scared." Yeah, she probably has, this is just the freshest. The offer gets an eager nod, "Thanks, Joce, that'd be great. Suddenly, I'm starving. You lived out of state? Where?" Fern doesn't often ask a lot of questions, but sometimes they just tumble out.

"I grew up in Detroit," Jocelyn responds. Which should speak plenty, really. The girl stands and goes to grab some water and an assortment of snack foods from a vendor. It doesn't take long before she's back with a spread of candy (with chocolate, of course) and water. Water because it would help calm them down a little, and chocolate because chocolate made everything better. "I'm glad they made it out too. That's the hardest thing though, trying to keep everyone safe. But the way I see it at least, that's why we have these abilities, even if most people are freaked out by them. Why have them if we weren't meant to make things better, you know?" She's a little bit of an idealist, really. She just doesn't always show it. "You were way braver though. You don't have any powers, but you stayed and helped how you could. I'm more impressed by that. I'd bet you Jubilee and Thor would be, too".

For the short time Jocelyn is away, Fern's attention is back on the helmet. She turns it around, studying it. Traces her fingers over the wings. Holds it up near her ear and thumps it with a knuckle, hearing a softer version of the gong it made on the elf's head. Jocelyn's return is greeted with a bright smile, taking a water and a piece of chocolate. She nods agreeably, "Warren Worthington said almost exactly the same thing. About using what gifts you have to make things better." The high praise brings a bright blush, and Fern looks down at the helmet, back resting on her lap. "I couldn't leave you and Jubes there on your own," she jokes softly, "You'd have been in trouble without my help." Her eyes raise, even though her head stays ducked, and she grins.

Jocelyn glances at the helmet and smiles. "I hope Sif is alright," Jocelyn comments as she considers the Thunder God. "I should call Thor later and see how things are doing". And maybe to see about setting up a time to return his helmet, or have Fern return the helmet, or something. "That we would have," Jocelyn agrees, and there isn't any joking to her voice there.

The girl takes a drink of water. "Speaking of Thor, do you want to return the helmet, or should I get it to him?" she asks casually. She didn't know if Fern knew Thor at all. The woman seemed well-connected!

There's a light "Huh." as Jocelyn refers to Thor by name. "So that was really him. And Sif," Fern frowns in concentration, pulling up her limited knowledge, "She's a Goddess, right?" She doesn't say it, but she's got that 'whoa' look on her face again. Her brows go up as Jocelyn mentions returning the helmet, and she finally registers what Jocelyn said just a second ago. "You know how to reach him? He's got a phone?" And that's the thing Fern thinks is weird out of all of this. "I'd love to go with you. I'd like to apologize if that thing's head dented it. That wasn't very thoughtful of me."

"Not your fault. Thor will forgive you, trust me," Jocelyn says easily. "And yes on both counts". Jocelyn gestures to the water. "I had the same reaction when I first met him, actually," she says. "I have a couple ways of reaching him, though really, the phone is kind of hit and miss. I doubt he's responding to much right now though," the woman says. "I'll talk to him, see if he's good with that, though I don't think he'll mind. He is very welcoming of guests. I'll just make sure you're better prepared than I was for visiting". Because Thor's place was very odd.

The girl glances at her arm, which is nice and bruised where the mace struck her earlier. "I'm going to feel this a bit in the morning, but I think Sif got the worst of it. I hope she's alright. She's tough to crack".

There's a sigh of relief at the reassurance, "Good. Because I really don't want a God angry that I dented his hat." She nods, as the thought flitters into her head 'Really? Things can get weirder?' and she pushes that away. Fern frowns lightly, reminded of the pool of blood left behind when Thor took Sif, and she leans to look at Jocelyn's arm. "Maybe put some ice on it?" There's a pause, before she adds, "We should take a fruit basket for her. Or a casserole." Because that's what civilized people do.

"I've learned that the answer to 'Things can get weirder' is always yes," Jocelyn says with a laugh as she takes a drink of water. "Yeah. That wasn't the brightest move on my part, but the quickest," Jocelyn admits. Usually she went for the dodge over the block when it came to weapons.

"That wouldn't be a bad idea. I'd have to buy the fruit basket. I'm not that great of a cook myself," she admits. Jocelyn never had much opportunity to learn.

Fern hmmmms thoughtfully. "I wonder if they like cannoli. No one makes it as good as Anita. She's one of the owners of the restaurant where I work," she explains, before Jocelyn has to ask. Kurt has actually had Anita's cannoli at the school, but she's doubtful on how much he actually shared after she heard how full he was. "We can chip in on a fruit basket," she says with a nod. "And add some cannoli to it." They must be fairly near a church, because the sound of bells drifts through the air, signaling the top of the hour. "Hey, we should try and hook back up with Jubes."

"Yeah. I'll text Jubilee, see where she got to, and we can meet up". Jocelyn was probably going to have to file a report on this whole incident with the team, it occurs to her. Yay, paperwork. She stands and gathers up some of the chocolate, leaving most of it for Fern. Because Jocelyn didn't need all the chocolate. "We can walk and meet up with her wherever she's at," the woman suggests.