2013.08.02 - The Circle: Kierrok Arrives

It was a little bit after sunset, and Jocelyn had found herself out in Gotham tonight. She didn't normally visit Gotham. It was kind of the Bat's territory, and frankly she had enough on her plate lately that she didn't need to add Gotham problems to her list of things to worry about. Still, she needed a change of scenery, and the teen had decided she'd make the rare trip out to Gotham. She was strolling casually through Robinson Park, dressed in a pair of shorts and a New York Giants t-shirt. Mostly for the sake of irony, really. She was keeping an eye out for trouble, and by the way she was walking, her body language was giving off that 'I can take care of myself' vibe, mostly to keep any idiots from attacking her for no good reason or as a random target. She might be a tall and athletic girl, but she knew enough about staying safe in the city to keep from being an obvious target.

Axiom didn't usually come to Gotham either. Mostly because NYC was big enough to worry about. But there was something he wanted to check out. He wanted to take a look at the site of that church where things all went to hell to see if there was anything at all useful left. It was all he could think of to do without hearing back from Dr. Strange and without getting help from 'Loki' with thing. So he made sure the team knew where he was going and asked if anyone wanted to come along before setting out. In costume with armor and staff with him, he's heading along rooftops near the park on the way to his destination.

Hulkling had decided to come along with Axiom, his own inquiries hadn't had a lot of luck and Daytripper hadn't had a chance to get back to him. It was a waiting game, and he figured they might as well get back to where it all started. Following Axiom, he jumps from one building to another. "What do you think we might find?"

It has been a week since Billy Kaplan, AKA Wiccan of the Young Allies, has disappeared with no sign of him since. Well, almost no sign. Someone using his face has appeared in the dreams of a few people on the Young Allies team and a few others claiming to be him but those could just be normal nightmares because people are worried about the missing mystic teen. Right?

It is a cool and clear evening in the City that never sleeps, even in the less than great parts of it like Gotham. For a park in Gotham the evening has been fairly uneventful, no muggings or even any visible drug deals going down. It is almost like the criminals of the city are avoiding the whole Museum District tonight.

Not far from the site of the Church where Wiccan was last seen is Robinson Park, a beautiful attempt at gentrification in Gotham's Museum District. It is home to nooks and crannies of all types, and sculptures ranging from the classical Grecian styles to modern art dot the park. A new sculpture has appeared in the park, one that was not there before the sunset. It is a tall obelisk style sculpture all four sides covered in what almost looks like cuneiform.

Around the stone cairn things go odd for a second, energies rarely seen on Earth grow and inside of it a little rip forms in reality, a rip that grows larger till...


 * Crack*

The sound of stone cracking and shattering is loud enough to be heard for some distance, as is the noise that comes from the cairn toppling falling to pieces on the ground as the last barrier placed to protect this world form another in this area is shattered. A dark voice, one that almost slinks like silk rubbing against flesh on a dark night can be heard. "Go, find victims, widen the hole. And if you find /him/ kill him and drink his blood."

Seriously. Could Jocelyn really just not get a night off from something going crazy? Jocelyn scans the area at the crack, looking things over. "Dark chaos...interdimensional...And...damn it". Jocelyn sighs and pulls her phone out, tapping out a message on her YAL app to all the Young Allies.

Something is coming into this world. Interdimensional and dark chaos energy. Robinson Park. Wiccan Magic.

Then Jocelyn starts making her way quietly over towards the statue, keeping herself hidden and relying on her sight to give her an accurate read on what is going on.

This wouldn't be good.

"I d-don't know," Axiom answers after a little thought. "Something that survived the fire, some m-magic thing, anything..." Eddie trails off as he stops for a moment to catch his breath. "Or maybe we'll find a straggling cultist or two and we'll b-b-be able to get some info out of them," he says as he looks to Hulkling.

Before he can say more, Axiom's startled by the sound of cracking and shattering stone. Rushing to the edge of the rooftop, Eddie looks around. His phone going off gets a quick glance befroe Axiom is starting to boost and mimic Hulkling. "We've g-got trouble," he says, spreading shapeshifted wings and getting ready to follow Teddy.

Hulkling narrows his eyes at the cracking sound, spreading his wings almost immediately. "It sounds like it. This could be related... it's in the area." The teen crouches, and leaps into the air, wings flapping as he heads in that direction with his jaw in a determined set. Any clue was important right now, even if he had to beat it out of whatever was going on there.

By the time Jocelyn gets to the Cairn, or whats left of it things are already coming through. In fact, it looks like a number of things already came through and moved fast into the trees and bushes where they can make their way elsewhere without drawing too much attention. Whatever came through was big, and moved very fast and very quietly.

Unfortunately whatever came through and took to hiding is not the only thing. A small squadron of humanoid shaped beings came through as well, maybe four of them in dark armor that looks almost made of volcanic glass stand near the small rip in reality that seems to glow black in color waiting for something. Two of them, obviously heavy fighters, are armed with very large two handed swords and plate armor. The other two are in black leather armor and hold bows. It only takes a second to be sure that they are Svart lfar, Dark Elves.

While Jocelyn watches and waits for backup to arrive the small rip seems to pulse and grow as something starts to tear its way through. A hand, clawed and made of a glistening black exoskeleton is the first thing seen before another and a head like the Xenomorph Queen form the Alien movies. The creature is huge, and monstrous like all N'Garai demons but this one is different. It has wings sprouting form it's back and moves with a deliberate steps to stand in front of the Dark Elves. "Why do you wait? You heard the Master. Go, find the Thorson and kill him. We shall widen the gap for more of our brethren."

The dark Elves look nervous, downright scared in fact, of the creature but nod and are just starting to move out as Hulkling and Axiom get close enough to see.

Hiding as she is Jocelyn manages to get fairly close so that she can see, and hear what is going on. She is fairly well hidden, at least would be against normal enemies. Unfortunately for her she is not facing anything remotely normal. As she hears the big demon thing speak there is a slight tap on her shoulder, then another, and then a big glop of something wet sticky and yet very slimy and warm lands on her shoulder. If she looks up she will see a smaller and wingless version of the big scary thing that just came through the portal clinging to the tree head down looking at her...and drooling.

Oh, yuck. These things were ugly. Jocelyn takes a breath as she sees the creature and charges up her physical capabilities, just in case. Yeah, this was going to be an ugly fight. Why didn't she bring her blade? Oh, yeah. She didn't usually have to go in and kill enemies.

She might suspend that general rule given what they were fighting. Of course, then there is a glop of EWWW on her shoulder. The teen glances up and decides that stealth has clearly been compromised. So she jumps back and starts drawing energy out. Not from the area around them, but from the gate that the THING just came through. She'd rather like to shut that portal down, or at least weaken it. Then she's blasting the thing up in the tree with a blast of that gate energy. It would just be raw energy, but there was no way she wanted to leave that stuff in her system for more than a second or two!

"It's d-d-definitely related," Axiom replies as they get close enough to the scene to see what's there. "Those are the things from my dream and that were on the pages," he adds. His gaze focuses on the winged demon though. That one's different. Still mimicking Hulkling, Axiom puts a little more mass into his fists and shifts the skin on the unarmored one thicker and toughter before diving down to try to smack one of the unwinged demons right into the ground. "If you're looking for me, I'm r-right here."

"The idea is to keep you safe, you know?" Hulkling says, with only a little bit of humor. He drops down to the ground, morphing his claws and increasing his body mass, increasing his resilience. He lands by one very large boulder- the one parks usually have for someone to sit contenmplatively on while looking at the treetops in a dreamy sort of way. Hulkling picks it up with his enormous strength and throws it at the group of armored warriors, "Let's see if I can go for a spare!"

Jocelyn is right not to want to keep the energy she is taking out of the portal into her. It is made of chaos and darkness and pure Evil, with the capital E. Even as she is moving back and blasting at the demon that found her it is leaping for her with claws aimed to disembowel.

The creature is hit by the energy taken from the portal and knocked backwards into the tree hissing at her in pain. Other than the pure force of the attack it does not seem to have done much damage to the creature, but the way it is baring teeth and hissing someone has just made its' list.

Coming out of the trees several of the smaller N'Garai start to circle in behind Jocelyn as she blasts one of them closing in a trap. It is just as one of them leaps that backup arrives and saves the day. The first to jump for the girl's back gets smacked out of the air by Axiom.

While Axiom knocks the one that was leaping out of the air two more start to move forwards on Jocelyn from the sides while the one that she blasted gets to its' feet.

"Excelent. He said you would come when called." The winged demon turns to face Axiom, making it obvious that unlike the others he has only one eye in the middle of his face instead of two. "And now you are here, to be plaything for the Shatterer of Souls. Oh, but Masters new friends wish to play as well. If you defeat them little child, little Thorson, then you shall be meat for Kierrok The Damned!"

The Winged Demon gestures just as the two Dark Elves armed with bows open fire on Axiom. Thanks to Hulkling though neither of their shots are more than close to the hero. One strikes the ground a t his feet, and another goes wide striking one of the N'Garai in the leg while the archers, and their two heavier armored friends have to dive out of the way of the boulder.

The one being that does not get out of the way is Kierrok. Instead the winged demon creature braces himself and...catches the boulder. "Oh little green one, if the Master did not have plans for you I would have fun breaking your soul this night." He says before hefting the rock and throwing it right back at Hulkling.

Surrounding the energy blaster. That may not be the brightest idea ever.

"Give me space guys," Jocelyn says. She draws in some electrical energy and releases a burst of energy around herself, effectively controling an electrical burst that launches strikes towards all those critters that are trying to surround her. Including the one that she already blasted. She also launches a pair of electrical blasts at the more heavily armored N'Gari. Because metal and electrical strikes went together oh-so-well.

Yeah, Jocelyn wasn't really planning on being nice to the demonic types here.

"Then watch my b-back," Axiom replies with a smile. "You know I trust you to do it," he says, still boosting Hulkling. Finally noticing Channel, Axiom smiles a bit. "Hey," he offers in greeting. Hopping back from the demon he hit, Axiom stands and looks towards the winged demon. "Kierrok The about to get his butt whooped is more like it," Axiom replies. Oh so witty, this one. He looks over as the elves open fire, nodding Teddy's way in thanks for the assist. He pauses to shield his eyes from Jocelyn's energy blast and sighs before stepping forward. "Okay you g-guys," he's speaking to the elves now. "You d-don't have to be part of this. These demons aren't on your side and they'll t-t-turn on you just as soon as they'd come after any of us. So please...I'll ask you to put away your weapons and sit this fight out. We'll make sure these demons d-d-don't get you either," he offers the elves a chance to end things without them fighting.

Large boulder being flung his way. It must be Monday. Hulkling ducks just in time for the boulder to pass over his head--- even with the magnified resiliance, that blow would still have knocked him off his feet (and it still would have hurt)- something he didn't want in the presence of hellspawn.

Plans for him? Really? The teen doesn't answwer but looks at the elves as Axiom speaks to them. If they're not going to agree for a cease-fire, he had an idea on how to use them. When he hears Joce's call for space, he makes sue he gives her enough space for her to do... well, he assumed she was going to fry the demons. He could always count on her ebullient personality in a time of crisis.

The N'garai brace for the blasts of electricity but other than a small moment of being stopped appear to have not taken any damage for it. Two of them rush forwards with spiked tails whipping out to try and stab at Jocelyn while the third one, the one that took the arrow to the knee, turns to hiss angrily at the Dark Elf that shot it before leaping at the elf.

The two heavily armored Elves manage to pick themselves up and are starting to head for Axiom when they get hit by a whole lot of electricity and then go down. The armor not being made of metal might not have made the attack worse, but it sure did not help the taser like effect.

The one standing Elf left, looks at his comrades, and the demons, and the heroes once he hears Axiom's suggestion and then shakes his head. "Malekith says we work with them then we work with them. And the bounty for your head is worth the risk." He says while quickly pulling arrows and getting off at least two shots in rapped succession at Axiom. The other archer, well he just screams in pain. It is what he gets for a friendly fire incident.

The Big demon, he almost sighs watching the small number of forces he brought with him. This is why he wanted to just bring N'Garai, they are immune to most energy types and won't turn on each other till after all the humans on the planet are dead. But, when your God says to work with allies till he is ready to eat their leader then you do just that. "Enough." He says to the demon tearing into the throat of the one archer. "Kill the Thorson first, then play with him." He growls before picking up the smaller demon by its back and just throwing it at Axiom.

Well, that didn't work. Kinetic always helped though, and so Jocelyn just drops a burst of kinetic energy. Then she rapid-fires some bursts at the demons. Magnetic. Heat, in the form of thermal. Gravimetric. Those were the easiest ones she could test.

Unfortunately, Jocelyn will get a touch unlucky as one of the creatures will get missed by her attack and manage to strike her right in the head with it's tail. The fortunate part is that the spike doesn't hit her head. The unfortunate part is that it gets in a lucky blow and Jocelyn goes down cold.

"Malekith won't reward you. He'll just kill you and t-take credit himself," Axiom counters. As the arrows fly, Axiom dives to the side. One arrow pings off his armor and the other sails past him. Rolling to a stop and landing in a crouch, he takes out his staff and looks around for a target. "Channel!" he exclaims when his teammate goes down. Running forward, he slides under the demon thrown his way and launches himself at the demons nearest Jocelyn to knock them away from her.

"I don't thik he's up for discussing, Axiom!" Hulkling remarks, reaching up and intercepting the small demon as it is thrown once it passes over Axiom. Hey, basketball is his thing.

He gives it one good headbutt with his hard-as-rock head and, not caring to see whether that knocked it out or not, immediately readjusts his grip and swings it, olympic-hammer like, at the elf as hard as he can. And that's pretty damned hard. "I wish you stopped talking to him, it only encourages him to keep on monologuing!"

Jocelyn is lucky, very lucky, that the spike on the tail did not end up inside her head. First because getting brains scrambled is not fun, and second because those things are poisoned. As it is she is also lucky, as she goes down she hits on just the thing to actually make the demons back off. Heat, that pure thermal heat coming off of her at the end is enough to send all of them skittering away to regroup for a bit while Axiom goes to protect the downed Channel.

Teddy catches the demon easily enough, but once he has it the thing is instantly trying to claw at him, swiping its tail, and trying to bite the green teen right up until he manages the head butt. That at least keeps it from trying to bite him more before it gets thrown hammer style right into that last elf standing.

Kierrok Growls and looks like it is about to throw himself into the battle as well when he stops and his head cocks to the side. Thanks to Channel earlier draining energy from it the small portal ahs grown unstable and is rapidly shrinking now. "No, let the little ones play. You have other things to do." The words are tinged with a darkness, but is familiar enough for both Axiom and Hulkling to recognize before the portal seals its self shut entirely. "Count yourself lucky Human." The demon says before spreading its wings and launching its self into the sky.

The two armored Dark Elves have had enough time to shake off the blast of electricity and are on their feet now, both rushing for Axiom. And the demons scared off by the sudden blast of heat...at least one of them has taken time to circle around behind Hulkling intent on attacking him from behind.

Putting himself between Channel and the demons, Axiom lets the blue glow from his boosting powers flare a little. It made the fake Billy flinch so he's hoping it'll do more to the little ones. When it looks like Kierrok is about to join in, Axiom shifts his skin thicker. The voice from the portal makes him jump. "Hey!" he exclaims even as the portal closes. Eyes turn to the winged demon and Axiom frowns. "C'mon b-back if you think you're so tough!" he calls. He's tempted to shift wings but he's not about to abandon Jocelyn or Teddy. "Hulkling! Behind you!" he exclaims when he sees the demons. Before he can rush to help, he sees the elves and frowns. "Oh by Odin's beard," he mutters, shifting to a more agile form. He rushes forward and makes it look like he's going to meet the elves head on. At the last second he feints to the side and comes around behind the armored elves. Staff extended to full length, he swings ad tries to knock the elves off their feet with Hulkling-mimicked strength. Hulkling 's eyes widen at the voice from the portal--- but just as the Demon takes up into the air and the portal closes, Axiom's cry distracts him. The demon attacks him just asa he is turning around, and the two of them go onto the ground clawing and tearing at each other. Hulkling's skin is thick, but it does take damage. He tries to gain the upper hand using his body weight and headbutt the demon repeatedly over and over again. All Axiom gets for taunting the N'Garai General is a laugh from out of the dark black sky. He is not as dumb as many of his kin, and he has a mission it seems. One that likely will bring him a chance to face the Thorson in battle again later.

The feint manages to catch the dark elves as they are not quite expecting the tactic but they recover fast enough that one of them manages to turn and swing his sword low in time to block the swing of the staff. The borrow strength might be enough to make the block useless if they were humans, but the Elves are used to fighting Gods and have strength enough of their own to keep from being overpowered by what Axiom has at the moment.

The N'garai that was thrown into the last living archer is vent its frustrations out on the archer effectively taking the two of them out of the fight for now. The other demons though, decide to split themselves with one moving to circle Axiom and the other to circle Hulkling and the demon he is grappling with.

The N'Garai are as strong as Hulkling is, as flexible and come with razor sharp claws teeth and the tail. The one thing that they do not have is his intelligence, and shape shifting. The first is fairly obvious from how it keeps trying to bite Hulkling only to get a face full of head, and the second from the way there is a crack when one lucky move managed to make its arm bend the wrong way. Crivens, that has got to hurt.

Axiom grits his teeth as the blow is blocked. Hopping back, he holds his staff defensively. "Seriously, guys. This isn't your fight. Take the other guy and g-go back where you came from. Leave b-before the demons come after you," he tries again, getting an idea for if the plan doesn't work. It's a crazy plan...but a plan.

Hulkling pulls hard at the arm, having heard the crack, he keeps pressing. He had only had just a brief stint in the wrestling team, but he had learned a couple of things--- levering his body, he tries to get to his feet while twisting the arm, and putting his foot down onto the creature's neck. Hulkling, as a true hero, has a strict no-kill rule. But nothing said about breaking every bone in a demon's supernatural body. "Axiom! How're you holding up?" Yank. Pull. Stomp.

The two armored Elves stand wary watching Axiom and ready to move and attack, or defend when he comes at them. "You do not understand child. It is our lives or yours. Malekith fears the one that leads the demons, even Sutr himself feared his return. Better to face death from the N'garai here, or even at the hands of the Odinson's Ergi human child than what the dark one would do if we left this battle."

Hulkling meanwhile starts getting more cracks, and once he gets a foot on the creatures neck gets a pained yell out of it. His time in the wrestling team and any time spent watching the ripped guys in shorts beat each other in MMA fights he might have spent has some fairly decent pay off. Of course hearing a member of their own kind in pain gets the attention of all three remaining N'Garai who leave off what they are doing to all leap for Hulkling just seconds after asking how Axiom is doing.

"I'm fine, Hulkling," Axiom calls. He sighs, holding his ground. He make no moves to attack. There's a slight look shot to the elf that sas the E-word but Axiom lets it go. "No, I understand just fine. And from everything I've heard about the one leading the demons, he's j-just going to do it to you no matter what happens. But you know what, I met him and I'm still here and standing. I'm going to stop him and send him right back where he came from along with his demons. Me, my friend back there and the others. So you don't have to worry. He's going down and that's it," Axiom says with that unending hope and faith of his.

Hulkling lets go of the demon's arm as he gets three demons coming at him. He leaps back and into the air quickly, wings unfurling and beating furiously for a few moments before closing down--- and he lets gravity do its job as he comes down towards the three demons. He will attempt to stomp on one and then use the momentum to leap and kick at the other ones... it was a risky move, and he'd never tried it out... but it seemed to work for Jefff Silver on mmA...

The Elf that has been doing the talking gives a single mirthless laugh as he sings for Axiom with his sword at head height and his friend swings from the other direction about stomach high. "No, you only dreamt you met him. I've only seen a tenth of what he plans and Hela herself would be horrified."

Hulkling's risky move works, at least in part. The leg coming down to stomp the middle of the three demons on him gets a bone jarring thud and a crack of bones breaking as he lands on its back not far behind the neck. The leap and kick for the others does not get as good a result though as they both dodge and swipe with tails at him. The spikes on the end of the tails glisten with poisons as they hope to hit and maybe paralyze Hulkling so that they can heat him, slowly.

Axiom leaps backwards as the swords swing his way. He lands in a three-point stance, kicking up some dirt as he goes. "You r-really think it's beyond his power to make dreams real enough to effect this world? And I don't care what plans he has. We're going to stop him. And if you don't believe me...Hulkling, take cover!" he calls, decicing to go with his crazy plan. While still boosting and mimicking Hulkling, Axiom stretches his powers like he did once before. He boosts and mimics the unconscious Channel, his uniform shifting to a strange fusion of his, Hulkling's, and Jocelyn's outfit. Flaring with energy, he turns and lets twin beams of heat and his own faith energy lance out at the N'garia demons.

Hulkling ducks out of the way-- but as he does so, he realizes that one of the spikes has managed to actually penetrate skin. The result is that while he ducks out of the way, he also becomes paralyzed while doing so, faceplanting into the grass and unable to move.. "Mfffp!"... fortunately, his organism will eliminate the poison soon enough, but until then, he's a sitting duck...

The Elf almost growls out, "No, fool I am saying you only faced him in your dreams, I have seen him in person and felt the heat of his magic as it melted the bones of my commanding officer inside of his flesh!" He and the other are both about to rush for Axiom as he suddenly takes the power up from boosting Channel as well.

The two N'Garai facing against Hulkling see him go down and are advancing on him when the twin beams of heat and faith strike the two demons that are not paralyzed from the neck down after fighting with Hulkling, and both burst into flames. The screams as the two burn and collapse into charred bodies echo in the night.

Seeing Axiom reach out with beams of light and cause two horrible demon creatures to burst into flames and die makes the Dark Elves rethink that whole its better to die at his hands than go home thing. Not that they go home. No, as they disappear into the night they plan on coming for Axiom again, just when he does not have so many powered friends around with gifts he can borrow.

Axiom's eyes go wide when he sees the results of his attack. He wasn't expecting to cause that much damage to them. He's about to say something to the elves when he sees they're gone. Cursing quietly, he can already feel his vision going blurry and his strength fading. His staff gets put away quickly and Axiom scoops up Jocelyn. He pushes himself over to Hulkling and lifts his teammate as well. Glowing wings are spread and the powerbooster carries them all into the air. He only gets as far as the nearest rooftop before he has to land. He tries to set his friends down gently but it's not easy as the world fades out on him. He's out cold before he even falls, boosts and mimicry dropping as he returns to his usual appearance passed out on top of Hulkling. He'll probably be out for the remainder of the night.

Hulkling looks around... with as limited a mobility as he can muster. Slowly the poison was going to wear off... but until then, he was on the rooftop, paralyzed, with everybody else out like a light. And he was going to have to carry them.

"......crap."