2013.10.27 - Blight of the Body

Last time on The Defenders...

Everyone lands safely on the small island of black marble with the wall section and the imbedded door. Whatever is under the ice isn't going to get to them. No, everything seems to be going as-planned, jinxes or not.

Then the empty sockets in the skull-lock light up, and its mouth opens, and it screams the loudest, most high-pitched scream anyone here has likely heard from an animated skull in their lives. It keeps yelling and howling and SCREECHING. And the ice all around splinters, cracks, and then shatters. It's not from the sound though. As hideous black things like a hybrid of a shadowy wraith and a fish start to crawl and slither their way up out of the water and onto the ice, converging on the source of the sound, the island LURCHES. Something else is underneath the island they stand upon (except perhaps for those who can fly and take off quickly enough).

A dense pillar of hundreds of drowned faces stitched together, with long, black, smoke-and-hate tendrils like a cross between shadow and vapor. The Defenders are standing on its head.

It doesn't seem to be happy about this.

After an initial, unsteady moment, Booster Gold flies up a few feet and takes a look at this alleged island. This allows him to get a good view of the face--well, the faces of the being beneath them. "Um. Ew," opines Booster. Golden energy is swirling around his fists now, although he is not firing it yet, just in case this causes it to thrash more. There are some fragile people standing on it. What would Wonder Woman do? She'd probably try to reason with it. Since the thing is made of faces, he just addresses the horrible pillar in a general way, saying, "Hey. Hey there... sorry we landed on your head. We'll be moving on, so you can calm down, okay?"

To her credit, Raven does not flinch when the skull screams. In fact, her expression remains surprisingly placed. Even as the ground lurches, Raven floats upwards. Her pace isn't particularly great at first, but as the speed picks up, so does she. Spiraling around, the girl's cloak remains firmly clasped about her. She's never seen anything like this before, and she's not exactly sure what she should do - what can she do, against something that big?

"That, was unexpected."

Her voice is a quiet murmur, and then Booster flies up and... speaks to it? Ordinarily Raven is all for saying hello, but in this case, her hand comes directly into contact with her forehead. Nngh. Try to stay focused, Raven! She's supposed to be running support, right? So she does her best to concentrate on that, addressing Gilad. "You're standing on a screaming pillar of darkness and hate." She says, "... Ideas?"

"Trap. Trap! That's a trap! Necromancer trap!"

Amethyst puts her weight on her back foot, conjuring her mystical sword with a flash of fairy-light. She looks left and right, looking in vain for the source of the threat. Is this just another alarm, or will there be any number of spike pits, exploding runes, hidden zombies, or spell sequenced wands of cloudkill?

Spying the ghostly mermen, the princess moves swiftly to stand near Pete. He's not the type that needs to be tied up in melee, and Raven is taking care of herself. That's the only reason. The island quivers and she narrows her eyes. Maybe the exploding runes were still a possibility.

--or, "Hate pillar?!" she calls up, eyes still on the advancing wraiths. "Why is Booster saying head? Is this a hate pillar with a face?!"

That Booster was talking to -something- was apparent, as Gilad sought to find footing. Though for all Gilad knew, it could well have been the spirits like the Geomancer would have.

But the dark witch, that Raven girl... her description causes Gilad's eyes to narrow, as he looks down at the rock.

Eyes check the different patterns of stone, here and there, following the lines and layers until his eyes narrows on a likely weak point, and so there he walks.

Kneeling against the ground, his spike gloved fist begins hammering down, again and again, and again...


 * "It hasn't a mind to appeal to!"| Doctor Strange warns as he pushes off of the island, the Eye of Agamotto pulsating wildly as he goes. |"If we wish to calm it, we will need to resort to more direct methods!"|

To that end, ruby light is blossoming around his hands as he sharply brakes above the lake, and with a cry of, "I summon the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak!" and a final twist of his fingers, the conjured light forms itself into a mass of chains that soundlessly whip down to try and wrap themselves around the pillar.

Pete al-- no, all right, he wasn't expecting that; Wisdom can't recover quite quickly enough to keep his footing, and falls, skidding a few feet on goddammit that's not land. But he still has his cigarette. And then Booster's in the air and talking to the -- pillar of hate. Thanks, Raven. Thanks, Amy. He looks down at the traitorous floor as he scrambles to his feet, and vindictively ashes on it as Amethyst gets to where he is.

Eyes visible as opaque whiteness behind his sunglasses, Pete grimaces and sticks the cigarette in the corner of his mouth, hands flaring into white-hot light. His fingers extend into wicked blades of superheated plasma, which probably still isn't the best idea in all this icy darkness. |"Think we can get off this thing?"| Telepathy is so ungodly useful for smoking. It really is. |"If the bands won't hold it, reckon we can blow it up."|

When Booster appears, the many eyes in all those many faces do not focus on him specifically, but some do. The rest continues rolling around in a frenzy, or darting back and forth, or staring ahead in blind rage. It's not the ones looking at Booster that attack him, however. It's the ones slightly below. The mouths wailing in a shared voice of dozens if not hundreds, the sound from both them and the skull-alarm on the door in the wall segment that was the whole reason the Defenders landed on this island-in-a-lake-of-ice-and-ghosts to begin with -- these may blind Booster's senses to a degree, or at least allow him to be caught off-guard. If not, so much the better. Because long black tongues covered in serrated knifes streak out of the mouths of the faces just below, arcing up underneath the flying hero and attempting to wrap around him and pull him closer. How rude it is not to have even responded to Booster's attenpt at diplomacy seems not to matter to the monster or its many faces. Those tongues might not be able to penetrate Booster's body force field if that's what he attempts to rely on, though the strength in the prehensile, blood-dripping tongues is considerably greater than the ghouls who attempted to jump him in the hall before this cavern. They may be able to pull him out of the air if he's not careful.

And that's they're really trying to do. Get him in range of those tendrils of shadow and smoke. Because those are the primary weapons, as evidenced by three or four reaching out for Raven as well. In this darkness, with only the light provided by the heroes themselves to see by, detecting things barely-different from said darkness -- long, flexible, silent things that can split and bend back on themselves and spread out like a smoke cloud or do anything else to their forms they desire is difficult. And if they touch anyone, even for a moment, a horrific deathly chill spreads through the body from the point(s) of contact. It's the cold of one's life slipping away. Of knowing you're about to die and that it's probably too late to be saved. It's that pervasive, 'chill of the grave' that these things use. Even if the contact is minor and brief, a slight weakness remains, and it's easy to understand how a prolonged fight with this thing would be against everyone's best interests.

The smoking tendrils reach up around the edge of the island, seen or not, to attack those land-bound standing on the platform's surface. Gilad's punches seem to damage the ground that everyone is tenuously managing to stand upon, and as that is making footing even more unstable, to say nothing of the magical door that is likely the way out of here, that may be something that should be stopped -- either by Gilad himself realizing such or someone else poking him.

The glittering red bands of energy that snap closed around the pillar keep it rigid and upright for now, instead of the wobbling, back-and-forth thrashing attempts it was making before to toss everyone aside, but the tongues and the smoke tendrils keep on moving independent of the 'main body'. And those fish-people-wraith things down there raise their indistinct heads and mouths like lampreys, rimmed with triple-rows of dozens of teeth, are directed at the Defenders. At the center of the lamprey mouths is something that, if Amaya sees it, might give her flashbacks. There's an eye in each tooth-rimmed mouth. Thankfully not that same Eye as from her trip to the Uncanny Valley, but the similarities are enough to possibly be jarring. And even more so when those watery wraiths hiss loudly and lunge at the pillar itself.

Their mouths peel the flesh away from the undead faces, exposing cold-cracked skulls. The undead thing seems not to care about the injuries, focusing solely on the Defenders who triggered the alarm, but those monsters are rapidly beginning to swarm around the Pillar of Faces and to eat it, further deteriorating the purchase the group has. Something is off about the wraiths. The writhing blackness that engulfs and emanates from them is not like the tendrils the pillar uses. It's... Something different. Something 'Wrong'. It can be felt even when it can't be seen. And the more these things eat, the greater the sensation becomes.

Are these monsters... From the Uncanny Valley?

"It's got a lot of faces. It's made of faces," Booster answers Amethyst's question. "It's--" And then the horrible tongues whip up and around his ankles and wrists, and he is suddenly rapidly dragged down and out of sight of those who are still on top of the pillar. There is a surprised shout from the golden hero and then he gives the terrible faces before him a reproachful glare as he says, "I thought we were starting to understand each other and really making a connection!"

It seems that the pillar does want to make a connection, as smoky dark tendrils whip at Booster. It stills his struggle for a moment as a groan dies in his throat. Golden light then starts to spark and crawl over his body as he shifts the energy from his blasters through his forcefield, exploding outwards from him in a supernova. Well, maybe not a supernova, more like a nova, but it's bright and sizzling with power.

If there is one thing Raven is good at, it is staying focused in the face of adversity and distractions. When Gilad starts laying into the ground, the grey-skinned girl swallows. |"That may not be wise..."| But it is the semi-solidified darkness that she's far more worried about - especially when she realizes some are coming straight at her!

Her eyes widen, and she jerks backwards, both arms raising. For a moment, she is silhouetted like some great bird, her cape all aflutter. The first tendril comes close - too close - and at the last moment before one stabs straight between the eyes, a shimmering barrier of her own darkness springs into being. She chokes, perhaps mostly out of shock, and the cocoon of shimmering ebon force - yet more shadow in a land full of far too much - expands outwards. Hoping to shelter some of her friends, and keep the tendrils at bay.

Her eyes close, her senses extended through the barrier itself. She's far too inexperienced in such matters to really *know* how long she could hold out, but she can at least buy time. Her lips move in a soft and gentle chant, a murmuring "Azarath... Metrion... Zinthos." Home. Peace. Power.


 * "If you need me to drop the barrier, just say. I'll hold the darkness at bay as long as I can."|

Telepathy is also really handy for chanting AND talking. This is a trick she is going to have to learn all on her own. Although... the strain is already starting to tell in the young mystic's inner voice.

Step one: Stop hate pillar from headbutting something and squishing them all. Already accomplished, thanks to the Sorcerer Supreme.

Step two: Maybe get the door open and escape? Would that be a bad plan? Would they be trapped? Maybe they should just kill the fish mutants.

Princess Amethyst--sparing a quick glance back to confirm that Pete is whining about falling and not being eaten--darts to the edge of the face tower and looks over. Her breath catches in her throat. That familiar boiling chill runs down her spine.

"These--"

Use your mind words, Amethyst.


 * "--those things. They're from that other world! The chimera's world! Why are they eating the pillar? Ohmygod, what if destroying the pillar seals the door?"|

The princess vanishes her magical blade with a gesture, instead gathering shimmering purple-white fairylight in her hands. Like a vengeful goddess, she flings magical ruin down upon the creatures from beyond, the kind that melts bone and evaporates blood.

"Meggan better get here soon, I fought so many dinosaurs to make those things," she hisses, face lit by sparkly death.

Something was needed in a great hurry, and Meggan Puceanu, despite her recent acquintanence, despite all the other pressing disasters, and despite having just gotten off her internship shift, went to go get it.

Songs may yet be sung of such a swift flight, but they are not sung today, because she went on a southerly route and mostly stirred up the Pacific a little.

A small sparkle appears in the direction of the way everyone came in. It seems purplish and decelerating rapidly. Those with sharp eyes may see strange translations and transfigurations of form, if they're not paying attention to, you know, the giant creature; however, by the time she is close enough to call out, Meggan resembles herself, more or less.

She looks kind of dog-eared, but maybe that's understandable. Taking a deep breath, she calls out, "Princess!!" Looking urgently for Amethyst, she hoists up a sack - a lime green sack of nylon fiber bearing a wind-eroded Daily Bugle logo - stuffed to bulging with items of potency.

"Oh my GOD," she says afterwards, as she actually takes in just /what/ is before her. Fortunately, she's still moving towards others, even if she is now no longer /focusing/ on them, her eyes and mouth wide with horror!

The tremor, the way things felt... after the first few blows revealed a much less stable foundation than he'd given it credit for, Gilad ceases his assault, frowning as he pulls back. Whatever enchantment the core had, it couldn't be easily reached without destabilizing the entire foundation.

Focusing his attention back towards the sound of the darkness, listening to the young demoness girl's warning, Gilad narrows his eyes. Flickering motion whipping around left the faintest of sounds, and yet...

The revelation of Booster's light made it easier to regard Amethyst, and the seas. Too many beasts, and too few soldiers to handle everything. |"Guide me to these things, then. I will cover the rear. Retreat everyone through the door, we have no other place to go, princess. Retreat. At once. It will be better off if we can defend them from one central point instead of all around us."|

"I cannot--" Doctor Strange calls through clenched teeth, "--keep this creature bound for long!" Cracks are forming throughout the chains and bands looped around the pillar, despite his best attempts to focus upon them while remaining out of the tentacles' reach. His part of the Defenders' mental conference call is all mnemonic symbols and dead languages thanks those efforts; hopefully, his warning was heard through the carnage.

The teeming, devouring dead change matters, however, and once Amethyst registers her concern, 'as long as possible' shortens tremendously: with a single, untranslatable word from the Doctor, the bindings wink out of existence, leaving little more than blood-coloured sparkles behind.


 * "Ms. Puceanu,"| he thinks, drawing the newcomer into the Defender's mental connection even as he grasps the fluttering edges of his cloak and swoops low beneath a thrashing tentacle. |"My apologies--things are rather tense just now. Feel free to join the battle as you wish!"|

Having bought himself a few moments of sanctuary through careful maneuvering, Stephen holds his twisted fingers near the still-pulsating Eye and whispers an incantation that soon brings bands of red light crackling between his fingers--and then throughout the air above the rest of the lake, spreading out from the Sorceror like a harmless, electric fog.

There are a lot of fish-ghosts to contend with, and only so many Defenders; if Amethyst's fears are at all on point, ridding the pillar of its devourers is of the utmost importance. Here, on their home ground, turning them away - or even destroying them outright - isn't an option, and there's only so much a Bolt of Bedevilment can do; thus, his spell is designed to find something - anything - with the power and fortitude to quickly turn the tides in their favor, before something unthinkable can happen.

Soon enough, the energy coursing above the lake begins to collapse together, forming a rip in the fabric of space, a connection, however fleeting, between this dread place and--somewhere.

Whatever is lurking on the other side, one thing is certain: it's strong.

Chimera. Like the thing that had Rain jumping at her own shadow in Pete's presence. The SHIELD agent doesn't know a hell of a lot more about it than what Amy and Rain said while he was drinking Tamdhu, but really, that's enough. |"Can the crimson band-things keep this lot off it, Doctor? Oh--"| It's telepathy so the meaning of the obscenity is unfortunately clear to all and sundry, but there's no word in English for Pete's bitching when he sees the tendrils going for the others. Instead, there's only Pete moving, since he doesn't have to draw a weapon.

Cranking up the heat to 'oh shit', Wisdom flings volley after volley of shards broken off the sun at the icy, inky blackness reaching out for-- his people, damn it. 'Friends' is so hard to even think sometimes. He's aiming for the ones pulling at Booster, at Raven; at the one crawling up the ledge to coil toward Amethyst's feet even as she's throwing magical purple sparkle grenades at those ones over there.

Also, he gives up on the cigarette, spitting it in the eye of a creeping ghost thing; he can't fight and chew gum too well either.


 * "Agree with Conan over there. Highness, may I have the--"|

Before he's even finished thinking the word 'key', Pete is being really glad that Amethyst can throw purple fairy fireballs with one hand and keys with another. And then the man legs it for the screaming skull, hands no longer glowing (though the reason for his cuffs so frequently being singed is now in evidence), and jams his fist in the mouth. "SHUT UP!" he screams back at it, turning the key.

If anyone knew what a dinosaur walking around was like, they would certainly get that impression as THE HULK lumbers out of the powerful summoning portal of Doctor Strange. The green monster looks entranced by the portal, as if compelled to rumble his way through it, to this mysterious place. Frowning at once, The Hulk does not seem to know just what the fudge is going on or where the fudge he is, much less who brought him here or why. As he stands on the black platform ground looking out into the black, The Hulk grumbles annoyedly, "Hulk think it too dark," he says, "Where am Hulk??! Let Hulk out!!" he shouts angrily, no doubt with no great surprise in that feeling.

As the black encompasses him strangely, The Hulk takes a step forward on the platform, then whaps at something that lurches out of the dark at him. It topples end over end back into the blackness. "Grr, Hulk angry at stupid black," he says as he narrows his eyes, as if that might help him see in the dark. He spots those from the group not too far away because of their bright and alerting magical junk. Suddenly more attackers lurch from the black and The Hulk whaps all of them away in kind. He now looks much more annoyed and growls audibly, his neck whipping around to try to spot Doctor Strange or whoever it was flying nearby. "Hulk see you!! You no hide or Hulk smash!!" he lets out. He takes more steps forward to find those annoying magic users that have trapped him here. "You no hide from Hulk!" he lets out, determined to figure this out. He then ponders the large lake stretching off in the distance, but growls as it tries to distract him. He trudges forward even more, seeking out those nearby and everyone, monster or hero, might now be in danger!

The eruption of golden ligh tand force causes significant damage to the undead faces, tears free their bladed tongues in gouts of cold, congealed blood, and sets Booster free. Those smoke-and-shadow tendrils continue to reach for him no matter where he goes, but at least he is mobile for the moment. Likewise, Raven's shadowy bubble force field protects those atop the pillar from those same chilling vapor appendages. Amaya's fairy magic blasts apart the wretched monsters, destroying them, and leaving only their foul energy behind in the air before that too disipates. Pete's plasma knives strike them and seem to do similar damage, causing black blood to boil and evaporate around the shards of heat. When the Hulk suddenly appears, the vapor tendrils are pressing against Raven's force bubble, eager to drain the life-heat from all within, the corrupting creatures from the Uncanny Valley are EATING the darkness with their magic-devouring maws, allowing them to slip inside only to be punched aside and torn apart by the big green monster, and as they continue to consume the pillar itself and slither their way up in such numbers the pale, grayed faces of dead people are quickly becoming subsumed in a layer of black several feet thick, the situation is getting dicey.

The crushed creatures that weren't actually completely destroyed continue trying to eat things. The ones torn apart have writhing pale root-like things continuing to squiggle and reach for each other and other things even as the bodies they were once part of have been rendered into chunks of hulk-fist-sized poison-meat.

Then Pete opens the door. The skull shuts up, almost as though responding to the order. The lock is opened, the door swings open, and there's a hallway on the other side that could not possibly be there without magic or super-science being involved. And yet there it is. And it seems to be free of corruption-leaking fish-things or the faces of the angry dead or Hulks that are currently the almost sole target of the ravenous monsters that try to attack him en masse, lamprey-like mouths rotating in multiple directions at once, whirring like garbage disposals as they try to apply their maws to green flesh.

A voice whispers in the head of one of those present, however.

For Amaya personally, she may hear something she isn't sure is part of the psychic link or not.

Just an undercurrent of unclear voices... And without words, they express how very eager they are to take her back home with them.

When the tongue tendrils get blasted away, Booster Gold plummets straight down; the shadowy tentacles lashing at him are disrupting his ability to fly properly. The smashing sound when he hits the ice below is loud, because it shatters into a crater around him. With a groan, he gets to one knee and staggers into a standing position. Just as he jumps up to fly back to the top of the beleaguered pillar, dark tendrils and strips of flayed-looking flesh erupt upwards and wrap around his ankle, trying to pull him back down to the ice.

The sudden grab shows on Booster's face, because as he approaches the top of the pillar, his teeth-gritting expression of determination turn into one of horrified surprised, his blue eyes opening wide behind his goggles. The smoky hate tentacles lash at him as he flings an arm up and out, grabbing for the crown of the pillar, but ultimately grasping at the air.

It is all Raven can do to maintain her barrier. Whilst certainly preferable to simply allowing the tendrils to drain the life from her body, it is no mere simple magical wall that she is using. The half-demon's magic is drawn from within; the force of her soul made imprint on reality. And it is her soul which the hungry darkness consumes.

Sweat beads thick and heavy on the poor girl's brow, and then Hulk arrives. Smashing through her concentration like a brick hurled through a window. That much ANGER, she's... becoming used to the sensation of rage near her, but still. For a moment, the barrier flicker, fades, and dies, and again the tendrils lurch inwards, only this time, they focus on the source of all that anger... and she doesn't know if she even wants to stop them.

That doubt stops her from putting the barrier back in place, and instead, the cloaked girl falls to one knee. She looks back over her shoulder as she hears the skull stop screaming, and, the door... she should go!

But a sudden surge of despair draws her attention elsewhere. Her eyes widen beneath that dark hood, and with how murky it is, in an instant, Raven is gone. That dark witch, perhaps she has finally decided enough is enough, and it is time to leave the team to their fate!

Except... one gloved hand clasps tightly around Booster Gold's. The girl's hood has fallen back, and her expression is a mask of determination. She is not going to fail here. She is NOT going to allow these monsters to claim a good man. "Its alright." She murmurs, "I've got you." And now there is just the matter of winning a tug of war against an entire lake of pure evil. Her teeth grit as she tries to summon up even more, her eyes narrow. This place is finally starting to crack her detached demeanor...

"Meggan!" Amethyst joyfully yells out, above the screaming and disintegrating and hotkniving. "Meggan, throw them at the fish things!" She gestures emphatically downward, hands glowing like signal flares.

The princess looks down, eager to watch the ensuing explosions. But there's a large green thing in the way. It is yelling. It is yelling about being The Hulk. She frowns.


 * "Doc, um. Doc, you have a plan here, right? This is... this is secret backup you planned, right?"|

The screaming stops. Even though Amethyst knows this means the door is probably open, she can't look away. The most she manages is a few steps backward, but that's just adrenaline and panic. Her mind is still going. She forces it: |"Everyone in the door! Get out of here!"|

It frees her. The princess turns and begins her retreat, taking a headcount. A warrior princess must always be aware of the troops at her disposal! One, two, three--Booster is not making a winning face and there are no fingerguns to be seen. Raven darts down to grab him, but those tendrils--

Amethyst lunges forward, swinging her arms toward the ledge with such effort that it may as well be her under restraint. She screams, a primordial sound coming up from deep from within her. A sharp something slices through the air.

Two enormous crystalline swords whirl and slice just beneath Booster's feet, hacking at the inky tentacles and fleshy tongues with blurring, eager speed. The invisible hands that hold these blades do their grim work with a butcher's precision. Then, satisfied, they shudder and crack and fall into the darkness in countless shards.

The princess exhales, shaking. |"In the door. Now."| She turns again, and moves fast.

But battle. Yes. They're fighting, she thinks. It seems quite desperate, though before Meggan can do much beyond blurt out, "Right!" to the Master of the Mystic Arts, the Hulk arrives.

Attaching her to a mental link has two effects. One is that a certain pugnacious determination radiates outwards, possibly to the benefit of everyone's morale. The other is as follows:


 * "Is that really the Hulk my goodness this is as bad as some sort of interdimensional incursion, is that really a face? It's like the face of Boe, but that would mean it's Captain Jack and it looks absolutely nothing LIKE him, and besides which he's really very nice and wouldn't be threatening people like this. I wonder what we shall do after I give the Princess these crystals; I could really do with supper but I suppose between all of this and the disasters with oh, poor Kurt and poor EVERYONE, I shouldn't be begrudging a bit of delay. Oh no it's gotten the Captain, this is - oh -"|

The word flood trails off with a brief sensation of embarrasment.

Having been given a route for action, Meggan begins fishing the crystals out and hurling them with enthusiasm if not great accuracy towards the fish creatures, in their multitude. |"I feel like I'm Jesus in reverse - oh, oops,"| she thinks again, trailing sparkles as she flits to keep near Amethyst.

With the door opened, Gilad shouted in a stentorian voice, demanding everyone get in there at once.

But Booster's predicament causes the Eternal Warrior to start towards the shining one. As Raven and Amethyst join forces to save Booster, Gilad is there to fend off anything that may be trailing. |"Keep moving, I'll be the last one through!"|

And when the time comes, Gilad is there, done and through.

Once his conjuration is complete, Strange refocuses his attention on the world around him. His eyes quickly dart to the platform where his summoned ally appeared--only to widen in horror when he sees what his spell has brought.

The Sorceror Supreme generally doesn't have the time or energy to keep up with current affairs, but even he has heard of the Hulk and its--his rampages.


 * "I apologize for deceiving you,"| he thinks, trusting the Eye of Agamatto to transmit those thoughts to the jade giant, |"for endangering you--my spell reached for the most powerful thing that it could find to help us in our battle, and--"|

With so many soul-chilling tentacles thrashing and being knocked about, the Doctor's pocket of safety doesn't - can't - remain so for long; he has to interrupt his attempts at entreating the Hulk to sling himself down to the platform, and it ends up taking him a moment to actually stand up so that he can follow the Princess' directive after landing crouched.

Before running off, though, he takes a moment to turn towards the Hulk conclude, aloud, "If you wish to return home, I can send you there; if you wish to help us destroy something great and terrible for the sake of the world, however, you are more than welcome." With that, he jogs backwards for a few steps - to keep an eye on the giant - before turning and breaking into a full blown run; he starts murming a supplication to Watoomb along the way, just in case.


 * "Whose fucking brilliant idea was the Hulk?"| is the immediate thought that irritably rips through the psychic link in a very Petelike manner, as soon as the secret agent man gets a look at the lumbering green yelly guy punching through the shadows. |"You've got a leash, right, Doc?"| he's asking as he extracts his hand -- and presumably the key -- from the skull's mouth. Wisdom steps through the door, lingering by it and holding up a hand like a torch, giving the others as much light as he can; despite the bitching, his face is pretty grim, because one more person diving after Booster would probably be the worst idea ever.

And then Amethyst makes like Xena and Pete's jaw drops.


 * "I'll be in my bunk."|

Stomping across the top of the pillar, The Hulk peers at Amethyst as she swoops past and he swipes at her, but is no doubt too slow to do much of anything. He tromps after her like a lost dog, peering over the edge as she assists Booster Gold and the helpful Raven, "How you get Hulk here? What you doing?! Answer Hulk NOW!" he lets out loudly. Reaching down, he grabs for Raven and Booster Gold whom she has grabbed in turn, trying to haul them up off the edge of the pillar, "Stop hiding from Hulk!" he yells.

Tendrils of grey and shadow scrape seer through the air, wrapping around the Hulk's arm. He growls and tears them away like mere rope trying to pull at immovible stone, but the few tendrils are joined by ten more, then another ten around his other arm. Soon the ten tendrils are joined by dozens and dozens more, perhaps curiously drawn to his building and building anger.

"Shut up magic man!" The Hulk yells at Doctor Strange, "Magic try to hurt Hulk but FAIL! Hulk smash everything!" he yells. Hundreds of tendrils pull at The Hulk now and lurch him forward with their immense strength, but suddenly with a powerful ROAR, the HULK bursts free! Remnants of tendrils shed everywhere as the Hulk breaks them all apart in one massive, swift stroke. Now he eyes Doctor Strange, "Magic no match for Hulk!" he lets out with indignation, not too impressed with these magic tricks.

The tongues of blood-slicked dead flesh are severed, spraying more of their chill fluid from the severed stumps before falling away from Booster's body. The vaporous tendrils with their chilling influence are disrupted by the crystal blades. The crystals being thrown by Meggan call forth great balls of flame, eruptions of force, concentrations of raw magical and mundane forces that tear apart the lake even further, sending up huge columns of water that seem to have begun to be as corrupted as the wraith-like things that may have once been mere protectors of this place and have now become something Other. The water doesn't move like water. It rises in a twitchy, stilted fashion, like a lagging computer, and then falls in globs like squirming, molten maggots. The water itself emanates a hideous pale not-light more and more. The fish things are being devastated by the explosions, but somewhere deep in this lake (does it even have a bottom?), there are more, and they are eating the darkness itself.

It's not that it's getting brighter in here.

The monsters are simply eating the darkness.

They're eating the darkness, they're eating the ice, the pillar has been half-skeletonized, but the enchanted bones are already in the process of being consumed as well -- the magic sucked out of them. The pillar is starting to lean dangerously to the side, whatever made this thing composed of many once-living things take on a semblance of life becoming increasingly absent. The explosions are as damaging to the structure supporting the wall and door and everyone as it is to the monsters themselves.

Then, even greater horrors as people pass through the door and get going. The explosions start to twitch. Flames wave and writhe and become like animated paintings, their colors warping to become flat and oily. Then the flames that have been corrupted tear themselves free of their own detonations, strands of what was smoke and flame moments before transformed into some sort of psuedo-flesh, ripping, bleeding, snapping the bindings, and then this corrupt fire begins to bound across the lake towards the pillar as well. The fireball has a hungry grin forming from its own flames, a tongue of searing rot licking out.

Fish-ghost-things with spinning-blade mouths continue to swarm the Hulk as he tears them apart, vaporous tendrils that steal the life and heat from what they touch -- though becoming sparser -- continue to press against green flesh even as he disrupts them, forcing them to emerge from the failing Pillar of Faces anew, and the pillar itself will soon be collapsing no doubt. With the entire cavern becoming more and more corrupt the more the Things spread their poisonous essence, this is not a place to stay. Not even for a rage-fuelled beast who is trying to attack the people he was called to help. He has the strength to fight the monsters other than himself. To destroy them with his power. And they seem to be focusing on him specifically, to the exclusion of everyone else, even Meggan who is bombing them. Though that corrupted fire seems to have no qualms reaching for her with enormous hands of blood-soaked flame if she doesn't make for the exit as well...

But even if the Hulk does nothing but buy time for the Defenders to leave, there is one final threat that can not be ignored.

These Things corrupt and twist and warp.

As dangerous as the Hulk is now, does ANYONE really want to see what he'd become when the essence of terror and corrosion has taken hold and made HIM something 'Other'? Whether by coercion or force he must leave. If it is WITH the Defenders... Or sent home... Staying is not an option for anyone.

Beyond the door, large enough to accomodate even the Hulk's form there is a spacious hall. Well-lit by magical torches. Walls of stitched flesh. A floor of steel-plated bones. A high, vaulted ceiling with the ribs from some huge beast used as supports. It's not pretty, but it's better than the cavern. Almost anyone would find it safer by contrast.

The whispers become louder. No longer confined to Amaya, soundless voices, a rush of wordless babbling, may be heard by everyone.

Stop fighting it. It's easier to give in. The pain is exquisite. The nightmare is joyous. Even darkness and light can bleed. Twist and writhe on the blade of madness. Cry out for more and be saved with torture of the mind, body, and soul.

We're waiting for you.

When living nightmares start talking into your head without even bothering with telepathy, well, like Amaya said, it's time to go NOW.

In the moment before he is rescued, when he thinks he may actually die, Booster's horror is replaced with a sort of sad regret. He is being pulled back down to his doom, but then Raven grabs his hand and his hope is rekindled. When Amethyst cuts the bonds from his legs, he collapses for a moment against the edge of the listing pillar--and then the Hulk is grabbing for him. This is new; he was wrestling with tentacles when this development happened. When the green giant is pulled away by more tendrils, Booster manages to get to his feet although he is wavering as if he were going to fall over at any moment.

"Hulk," Booster says; they've never met, but he's fairly sure this must be him. "C'mon, you don't want to get stuck here." He holds his hand out towards the angry man, palm upwards. "You can be angry at us on the other side of the door. This place stinks." And now his eyes are rolling upwards, because it looks like he -is- going to collapse.

Raven does not want to be here. In fact, a very strong part of her wants to just... go, completely. Not by the door, but by tearing a hole back to a reality which makes sense. A space which is not falling in on itself, corrupted by forces she cannot even begin to understand. It is tempting. But, she made a promise, and whilst Booster tries to reason with the Hulk, she is more interested in marshaling her willpower.

Her slender grey form dangles from The Hulk's grip like, well, a ragdoll. Eyes closed, expression back to neutral. His raw physical prowess is undeniable. The anger, overwhelming. For the second time in just a few short weeks, she finds herself wondering if she will be smashed to pieces. This is a situation she really ought to put more effort into avoiding. She muses on this as Booster speaks, and it is only when he's done that she says anything at all.

"No."

Is Raven addressing the Hulk's request for an answer or commenting on his brag about magic? Is she referring to Booster's offer? Is she addressing the voices? Perhaps, all. For quite suddenly, The Hulk is not holding Raven at all, because Raven does not exist. In her place is a form of shimmering energy, the outline of a great bird, wings outstretched and wreathed in white. For the second time, she summons up her Soul Self, and Booster Gold is swallowed up in it.

For him, there is a strangely empty space of void and small floating rocks - some of them, bizarrely, seeming chewed- and a sense of ... fatigue. Exhaustion is starting to creep in at the edges of the usually-tranquil space. It doesn't last long, Raven does not need to go far.

In fact, in her haste, the warping silhouette seems almost to form a giant pointing arrow, directly to the exit, and through it. Where, finally, Raven will coalesce again, and collapse to her knees. Her soul has had a lot of weight put on it in a very short amount of time. Booster is put in *front* of her, in case of charging Hulks, and she just does her best not to pass out.

Amethyst darts underneath the grasping hands of the Hulk--she learns her lesson after the first time, and moves to give him a wide berth. It does not escape her notice, however, that he was moving much more quickly before. He could likely have splattered her into the pillartop if he wanted to. She looks up at the wall of twitching green muscle with a face, wide eyed and unable to articulate an answer to his question.

It's not something she wants to think about right now. He's saving Booster. That's good. Think good things.

The princess posts herself at the door, hands raised and ready to call up more Nilaian doom for those who would cross her allies. From where she stands, she can keep an eye on Gilad--though he is an inspiration to watch in combat, she's not sure if even the Sumerian could stand against the chimera-kin.

It also gives her an excellent view on the warping world below. The heat of battle is frozen within her in an instant. She knows this. She's seen this. She's survived this, but only just. That feeling that she had, she recognizes it now. It wasn't panic. It was something speaking to her.

"Get inside," Amethyst pleads, the stoic warrior princess unable to hide her worry. Her hands, sparkling with the light of ancient magic, wait to close the door.

The agonizing emotional valence of the space begins to erode through Meggan's personal defenses - bolstered, perhaps, by the strength of the Eye of Agamotto and seeing so many other friends, contacts, and Hulks in the area. The corrupting otherness makes her tighten up, and part of her wonders if she'll -

If once again, she'-- -

She blinks once, and then her eyes bug visibly. She zips with great haste towards that flesh-and-bone passageway, clutching herself with both arms and looking over her shoulder as if expecting an unseen pursuit.

The longer the wait, with everyone retreating to the door except the Hulk, with time growing short, the tactical retreat in danger, Gilad waits as long as he can before surrendering to the inevitable. |"No time left! Strange summoned the green familiar, Strange can send him back home!"| Any non-gignormous stragglers were summarily yanked in with him, as he dives through the door. Lurching to the side, The Hulk looks over the edge at all the evil things below and begins to realize the instability of this pillar. He peers at his hand where he had Raven in his clutches and seems mystified that she could escape his grasp so easily, "Where you go? Why you trick Hulk? Hulk smash magic tricks," he states confidently and realizes that most of the evil in the air seems to be coming for him.

He swats at the fishman, zombies, and skulls that whip by and then grabs some of the tendrils that grab at him, ripping them from the dark with a massive pull. He is busy for a few minutes more as the group parades past to the door and then glances at Booster, looking astonished at his logic, "Stuck? Hulk don't want to be stuck," he says with an agreeable nod. But there is more skulls to smash and tendrils to whap away from grabbing at him, or others, even though they don't appreciate Hulk's unwavering defense. He doesn't even seem phased or tired at it, though peers at Amethyst curiously as she stands at the door, "What you doing?" he asks, stalking toward her, "What in there? Hulk go and not be stuck in dark! Hulk hate dark!" he says angrily. He swipes lightly at Amethyst and lumbers through the door, ducking his head under the doorway, "What you hiding from Hulk in here?" he demands.


 * "I have another teleportation spell,"| Doctor Strange shoots back to the irritated agent. |"That will have to suffice."|

He doesn't make it very far in retreating from the listing platform; the Hulk is being belligerent(shock), and he is pretty much the Doctor's responsibility at this point. "Hulk," he calls, lifting off from the platform as explosions rock it. "Whether you wish to help us or not - whether you hate us or not - staying here is not an option." He jerks sharply to one side to avoid letting Raven's soul self collide with - or, more likely(and troublingly), pass through him - and once he has righted himself, he begins to extend a hand towards Hulk, only for the giant to make the whole thing moot by letting Booster's advice sink in.

"Thank Hoggoth," he exhales before flying through the doorway to follow the rest of the Defenders.

Of course, he is significantly less thankful when, seconds later, voices from beyond begin to invade his thoughts, but Hoggoth can't be everywhere.


 * "Meggan! Booster! Christ..."| Pete's sort of uselessly trying to keep a lid on his thoughts, but after the bluescreen he had a second ago, there's just this haze of frustrated worry, the intrusive shadow voices only mixing further aggravation in. He can at least steady Raven for a moment, because those walls and that floor, even, probably aren't things anyone wants to lean on-- but his eyes are on the Princess. |"Yeah all right,"| he grants Strange, mildly chastened, and as soon as people get in reach of the door he shifts them both out of the way of traffic.

When Amy stalls in the door and he sees the look on her face, his focus snaps back and he reaches out to catch at her arm, to pull her inside-- and with his luck, that is, of course, when the Hulk takes a swipe at her. |"Again, with Conan there on this one."| At least? At least? Amy's inside. Instead of outside. Pete reaches out to shut the door on the end of the world. "Right. Where's this, then? The Magic Schoolbus inside the Great Hall of Human Leather?"

Once everyone is safely through the door, it slams shut of its own accord. There's no dramatic last moment of something reaching for them and trying to pull someone back. They aren't close enough for that. But with the Hulk no longer fending off the monsters, the legless fish-wraith-things that pause only to consume those previously torn apart crawl-writhe their way across the crumbling platform towards the door. The smoke tendrils have been warped now as welll, gaining a multitude of small legs that look like the fat limbs of babies, that allow them to run about freely, half-vapor half-flesh, independent from the undead pillar that originally birthed them. The glow of what was once fire and is now a monster of molten flesh looming up over the edge of the falling pillar, a single gigantic hand reaching up and grabbing hold of the crumbling stone, casting the other monsters into shadowy silhouettes, even as those monsters start eating their own shadows, stripping the darkness from their bodies with their teeth, and their claws, and even their eyes have fangs, and the Wrongness bleeds from them, and--

And the door is closed now. Slammed half by Gilad and half as though the door itself wished to be closed. That last beyond-hellish visage of terrible Things that Should Not Exist closed off from the eyes. But getting the image out of one's head is another matter. Sleep might not come well to those who came here on this adventure. But one thing is clear: Those Things were not part of the original defensive design. They're here for some reason, in huge numbers, and though they KNOW Amaya somehow -- intuitively recognizing her as former prey that might yet be made prey again -- they were already here before the Defenders showed up.

What is going on in this place? There was a little dead girl in the Uncanny Valley with Amaya. And another angry little dead girl who did her best to keep Amaya from having to murder the first one. But that first dead girl, Sasha, is the same one who holds possession of Eclipso's prison. And now here is the Uncanny Valley's influence again.

This can't be a coincidence. There's some connection here.

And when Pete asks where they are, a little girl's voice answers.

"This is just a hallway. The library is ahead."

Looking around will show that the owner of the voice is nowhere to be seen. Mystical checks reveal no hidden presences, no nothing.

But Amaya has heard the voice before.

It is fortunate for Booster that Raven can carry him through the portal, even if it is in an unusual way. In the hallway where it is ostensibly safer, Booster is half curled up on the floor. He actually looks kind of dead, due to his pallor. He seems to be breathing, however. He just does not look particularly shiny at the moment. Someone will probably have to drag him along until he can wake up.

Amethyst, stiff and unresponsive, is easy to pull for even someone with Pete's slight build. She stumbles backward into the hallway, away from Hulk's crushing love taps and away from the spreading corruption.

She slices her hands downward, using the magic she learned from Mephisto's key to lock the door and lock it tight. Only then does she move like a human again, and not mechanically.

The princess turns around, eyes closed. It's a moment between dangers. She appreciates it for what it is.

The next danger comes quick, in the form of a little girl's voice. Amethyst opens her eyes, her expression like everyone just died out there.

"Hi, Sasha," she says, devastated.