2013.07.02 - The Guede, Finale

Superman: The Guede, Finale

"There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it." -- Buddha

CENTRAL KANSAS MEDICAL CENTER-- SMALLVILLE, KANSAS

Jonathan Kent exhales as he holds the cell phone up to his ear. The volume is loud enough to pick up the noise from the other end, but it's not a real life human.

"Hello, you've reached Clark Kent. I can't come to the phone right now, but if you'd like to leave a message, please do so after the beep. Have a nice day."

Jonathan closes his eyes and sighs softly while he hits the end button upon the phone.

"Damnit, Clark. Where are you?"

THE BREACH IN THE NETHERWORLD

After Madame La Masque was apprehended, it didn't take her long to start singing. In fact, she wanted the authorities and heroes to know what she'd done, what she'd unleashed. She took satisfaction in knowing that they'd be defeated, and once they were, Baron Samedi would be unleashed into the realm of the living.

After a brief conversation with the heroes, especially Daytripper, it was clear that the black opening in the sky was a fissure between Samedi's realm and our own. La Masque seemed to back up the hypothesis that if Samedi or any of his agents were able to get through, they'd be unleashed on the world where their powers would be increased ten fold.

Vorpal was already there.

But it didn't take the heroes long to find him. After a short discussion, some of the heroes, along with others who came later, decided to enter the void to stop whatever was inside from coming out. Once inside, the orangish sky and cracked, dusty ground comes across as foreboding. There, just before the heroes (who are just in front of the black maw) is Vorpal, looking slightly worse for wear.

When he was pulled in, Vorpal experienced a vision of a giant bloodshot eye looking him up and looking him down. A moment later he was airborne. Jettisoned. Discarded.

Superman kneels down to check on Vorpal, reaching down to feel for a pulse and finds a strong one. "He'll be okay," Superman says as he looks at him with his X-ray vision. "No broken bones. He'll probably have a pretty bad bruise on his shoul. . .Where's Daytripper?"

Their crew was one short, indeed. Daytripper, who came through the portal with them, was nowhere to be found. Before a proper quiz can be conducted, the concern is interrupted by wild screeching from the sky.

Above, a group of black winged warriors descend from the sky amid horrifying screeches and wails. Their long black hair matches their wings and the tattered rags they wear about their bodies. Their bodies, however, are a pristine white aside from the bloody, stained tears that leak from their eyes. Each carries a long sword, taller than their height.

"Incoming," Superman says as he floats up into the air. As he does, the Fallen Seraphim at the front unleashes a fountain of flames from it mouth, which Superman avoids with his super speed. The flames dissipate eventually, but the Angels keep coming.

INSIDE THE DEAD TREE

A few hundred yards ahead of the desolate land sits a gigantic, dead tree stump which sticks out against the gravel sky.

Inside is where Daytripper ended up. She too saw the bloodshot eye, but instead of being dropped on her head, she was brought here. The room is poorly lit by four candles, equally spaced around the inside of the stump. Two chairs sit across from a smoldering fire.

But Amanda isn't alone. Though she doesn't see him at first, a black outline against the black wall shifts. Dead, yellow eyes open as the skull-face widens in a smile.

"Daytripper, oui?" he asks, stepping more out of the shadows. Rather than his normal suit, he wears merely a vest and trousers; his arms covered in track marks while one of his hands holds a bottle of rum. The other holds a spliff.

"Please, take you a seat woman."

Booster Gold managed to find the mother of the little girl he'd rescued; the last thing he would do is bring a kid into some kind of spooky death realm. Once he has a good look around, he gives his assessment of the place. "Man. It is totally creepy here." When Superman gives that warning, he looks up at the incoming horrors. With Vorpal down for the moment, Booster stays where he is and lifts his hand. A translucent golden bubble pops out around him, shielding the fallen cat, as well as anyone else who is standing nearby; although those who need to emerge from the force field can easily do so.

Being the local medic (sort of), Channel is immediately over at Vorpal's side, putting a hand on his shoulder and giving him a jolt of healing energy. "Alright Vorpal. Take it as easy as you can when we're in...whatever this place is". It should be enough to heal anything that didn't involve completely shattered bones or shredded muscles.

There really isn't time to do much more than give his body a boost of healing 'oomph' however. Channel then raises her hands and starts absorbing the incoming fire, intending on assisting Booster in their defense. She was already charged up from the previous fight, so the Young X-Man didn't need the energy for boosting herself. However, she wanted to keep the rest of of the team from getting hit with a surprise blast of fire, and she's hoping that between Booster's shield and her own absorption they'll be able to at least provide some solid defense.

Take a seat? Seriously? She's standing in front of one of the great Magical Bastards out there. Sitting is not a strong position.

"I'd sooner stand, if it's all the same to you," the blonde sorceress replies evenly. Her blue eyes are hard. Her dark leathers sparkle just a little in the candlelight -- evidence of the magical armour spell and battle wards she's applied to them. (Mainly because she got tired of always having to cast the spell.)

She glances about the room in which she finds herself. She knows damned well she ain't in Kansas -- that is, Louisiana -- any more. And she's far to well experienced with Hell to take anything at face value.

"Le Baron Samedi, I presume?"

Lantern had been held up off world, but as soon as he was able to deal with the insurgence that kept him away, he flew back to Earth with great haste. He heard the call for assistance, he wanted to very much to respond and help his friends deal with this new dark threat, so it was that when the portal opened and the decisions had been made, an emerald streak followed in behind them.

Hal hovered just above Superman with both hands balled into tight fists. A faint green glow eminiating from him like a neon sign in a dark alleyway. His gaze shifts across the orange sky and cracked earth, but ultimately falls on the source of that horrible sound... the winged creatures on high, approaching the group of heroes with flames from their open mouths and black wings from white bodies.

There's no pause, no hesitation to consider the implications of what this might mean and how they might best deal with it... The Lantern simply 'acts'. Again emerald trails off behind him as he takes to the sky, rolling from side to side as Seraphim spray the air with their firey breath. From his outstretched right fist, threads of green energy lance out and come together in the form of a large shield ahead of him that absorbs several blasts from the fallen angels.

Hal bursts through the sparks with a swing of his fist, a long green blade constructing around his forearm cuts through one of the winged creatures, then throws off in a green chain that severs the wing of another.

The Lantern is moving again towards another group before the first two have fallen.

Sue Storm wants to rush over and check on Vorpal, but then force fields not of her making appear and she's ... surprised to say the least. So she turns her attention to Superman overhead dealing with the really unpleasant looking flying creatures and starts doing what she can to help him, raising her hands and creating force fields two at a time that are a translucent sky blue compared to Booster's golden ones.

These flat force fields are placed mid-air to hopefully cause some of the sword-wielding opponents to slam into them before they can evade. Whether they succeed or not they disappear again within seconds so others can appear and create an obstacle course of complete unpredictability.

With the aerial battle well underway, people might be paying attention to things approaching on the ground. But for those that are.. might be suprised to hear the low rumble of a custom built chopper rolling around the rough terrain, riding into view around a copse of dead, wilted looking trees.

The man riding it it looks ordinary enough, stubble on his chin, a chain over one shoulder and a shotgun holstered on his bike within easy reach. A Hell's angel of the non-literal kind perhaps? "You folks look like you need some help.. You may wanna step back a bit. I expect they're not gonna like me much.." He says easily. His face is calm, but for those actually looking.. rather than at the onslaught of winged death from above... his jaw is set, he looks like his head is going to explode from some inner pressure.

He dismounts the bike, and stands straight looking up, waiting for one of them to get close.

"Gaj--damn---IT" the cat sits up as Jocelyn's healing does its trick. "I thought cats were supposed to land on their feet." He grunts, remembering the fall. And the tendril... and the eye....

"Samedi, you son of--" and here he says a word that would have made Miss O'Neil wash her son's mouth with soap for at least a week. The cat stands up, wincing a little and moving his shoulder, looking around.... "Thanks for the aid..." he says to Jocelyn as he looks up at the attackers. He clenches his fists and purple sparks fly off from them.

"Think you are so mighty, you miserable pile of metaphysical gumbo?" he snars, directing his insults at the absent Samedi ".... let's see if you taught your angels to break!"

With a snarl he raises his hand and picks a grup of the fallen Seraphim... he waits..he waits, following its flight trajectory... and BAM, he materializes a floating wall, as thick as he can make it, as close as he can get it to the Seraphim for them to smack against. Even if they manage to avoid it, he'll disrupt their flight patterns for Green Lantern to give them some of his glowing emerald love.

Iron Spider has been fairly calm, at least outwardly so, while they questioned the Mambo. Inwardly though he has been less than fully calm having seen his friend and partner get sucked into the black fracture in reality and it not go the way that Vorpal had so obviously planned it to go. That should have been a clue to the Spider that things would go bad, the words Vorpal and plan in one thought. In the discussion about what to do the Spider had one thought to add, they needed to go in there and get Vorpal out no matter what else was being done to stop it.

Once inside the dark realm the Iron Spider moved with speed and efficiency to check on Vorpal as well, not that he does not trust Superman but working with the furry guy he feels responsible for him. "Seen worse." He replies to Booster, who should see where the Iron Spider grew up if he wants creepy. As the winged people show up he goes to an instant ready stance and then...vanishes. The active camouflage in his suit activates making him become nothing more than a slightly shimmer in the air while he moves looking to get behind the winged beings before acting since the people that came with them are doing a fairly good job at keeping Vorpal safe and keeping the enemy distracted.

SMALLVILLE

"We're trying everything we can, Mr. Kent," replies Dr. King as Jonathan looks into the room from a window. "We still don't know what the problem is. Our tests have proven inconclusive and I've personally been on the phone with every respected doctor I can find in the Midwest." He grimaces, "Jonathan, I'm just not sure what more we can do for her."

Martha Kent lies in the hospital bed where it's clear she's been undergone trachea intubation. She seems calm enough, even serene, as she sleeps.

THE NETHERWORLD

Vorpal is well defended amid all of the shielding going on. Indeed, the only one who does not seem to be able to defend well against these beasts is Superman. He hasn't been hit, but he's been doing a lot of dodging.

Channel's prep, along with Booster and GL's shields provide good cover for the heroes as the plunge into battle.

Green Lantern slices neatly through two Seraphim as they fall to the ground wailing and shrieking worse than normal. When they hit, they burst into a dark red smattering of blood. Their bodies completely disappear.

Sue's forcefields assist Superman in the nick of time. Just as a blast of energy was set to overtake him, it's dissipated easily away when Sue's powers take over. Superman gets a smile upon his face as he grabs hold of the Seraphim before him and flings it out towards the horizon.

When Ghost Rider arrives, he'll notice two Seraphim heading straight for him. It's not clear if they know him or not, but it seems they want to take care of him as quick as possible, before that pressure lets loose.

Vorp's wall cracks the wings of two Seraphim who fall from the sky after colliding with his wall.

Enemies shriek and screech as Iron Spider hits them from unseen vantage points. One even grabs at its hair and pulls, yanking some out in apparent frustration.

INSIDE THE TREE

"You'll sit," Samedi says as he waves his hand. The seat screeches as it swings around to catch Amanda from behind and its metal bars leap and tangle around her arms and feet, securing her inside.

"Oui, Oui, ma petite chou. I am le Samedi, n'est ce pas? And you are a laung way from home, yes?"

Samedi smiles failntly and places the spliff back into his mouth. The room fills with the smell of booze and marijuana. "I could do many t-ings, Daytrippah. I'm sure you realize dis."

A pair of serpents slither out of the ground and up Amanda's legs. "Bien-sur, Madame La Masque will no longer be able to assist me when I make it to the overworld, Oui?" He folds his arms across the vest, the skin is dead in parts, revealing bone, blood, and pus. "I weel need a new woman by my side."

"This is gross," opines Booster Gold. Normally he would be charging up there to punch some foes, but there are some less durable people on the ground; until he's sure everyone is safe, his golden force bubble stays up, essentially forming a faintly glowing dome. However, he -can- fire through his own force field, so he raises his fists which are roiling with golden kirby-crackle. Aiming at the incoming host of horrors he starts blasting at them with golden hardlight bolts, sniping them from a place of relative safety. "Okay, I don't know what everyone is capable of, but if you squish easily then stick close to me!"

With Vorpal up, Channel looks around at her options as she exits Booster's defensive area. Shooting an enemy's own fire back at them was usually a terrible idea. Superman was mostly dodging around, and yanking random kinetic energy didn't seem like the most useful thing she could grab. There was no useful magic for her to yank and blast with, and Channel wanted absolutely nothing to do with the stuff that Mr. Blaze was carrying around. She'd seen that show before. But there was one option she liked.

Reaching out to grab some excess energy from the Green Lantern's attack, Channel turns to face a group of the Seraphim and opens up with a series of solid green energy blasts, attempting to drop them with the Green energy of pure Willpower. That felt WAY better than the time she was absorbing and flinging back energy from one of the Yellow Lanterns. Way better. And since it was energy itself, it was easy to grab and turn into useful attack energy instead of just the excess energy that floated around whenever powers tended to get used.

Besides, Green Lantern's attack on the Seraphim looked effective. Channel is hoping that the use of the energy will have a similar effect in blast form as it did in weapon form.

Sue Storm smiles a bit to herself as one of her force fields helps Superman, then her eyebrows draw together at the floating purple brick wall that one of the winged things just slammed into. Okay, so whoever is doing that can handle that part. She looks over at Booster Gold and calls out to him, "I can protect everyone here if you're better off helping Superman." She's still making force fields appear and disappear, now keeping one near Superman at all times and setting the other to 'steer' the creatures into running smack into Vorpal's walls.

Gross? Oh, Booster, lad, you don't know from gross...

Amanda Sefton? She's got a worlds (yes, plural) class education in gross. And Samedi seems intent on helping her review her lessons, what with the rotting skin and all.

''Oh, yeah. That's attractive!''.

The seat attacks her and, before she can properly twist a way or summon a portal or cast a teleport spell, she's locked into its grip.

"And you think I'm going to be that woman?" she says, scorn and disbelief clear in her tone. She watches the snakes appear and start coiling up around her legs. A grimace of irritation flits over her brow at the imposition. "Snakes? Really?" No fear there, even now.

Hal streaks across the sky almost at random, stopping only long enough to use the shield that's appeared on his arm to swat a Seraphim out of his path or to stab one through the abdomen with the green long sword attached to an emerald chain extending out from his hand. With a twist, he throws the bladed end straight through one flying creature and the penetrating end becomes a hook that latches onto its back. Flinging it from its flight path into another of its companions, both of whom are crushed between two oversized walls snapping together with the clap of the Lantern's hands.

Hovering in the air, Hal watches the horizon for more of the creatures, then snaps around and flies directly for one that's bounced off Vorpal's 'wall'. His ring produces threads of green energy that wrap about the angels ankles and waist, then condence into a heavy weight at the bottom, pulling it to the earth a lot faster than would be strictly adviced by the surgeon general.

Swooping down low over the top of those energy shields, Lantern points his fist at Vorpal, wraps the feline in green energy and spins like a drill, throwing the young hero right up towards another group of Seraphim.

"I'm calling this the catball special..." Smirking.

Johnny Blaze watches as the pair of black winged beasts streak down, intent on tearing out his throat. But they would never get the chance. Johnny is doing all he can to restrain the Rider, here in the realm of death with evil literally underfoot.. it's a feat of near superhuman willpower. All he has to do is let go, embrace the demon within him.

In doing so, Johnny's flesh melts away in an instant by the fury of the fire within him. His skull is all that's left, which burns quite well on it's own. His clothes transform as well, spikes forming where only rivets in the leather were before. Spiked gauntlets, and anyone near him can feel the heat from the creature.

The skull opens in a wide mirthless grin, and a river of unholy flame streams out, engulfing both angels in a torrent of fire, burning them to bone in an moment, and even the bones, blacken and crumble to ash, to fall on the rocks at the Rider's feet. All he does is laugh.

Pulling the chain from his shoulder, which glows dull red with heat, and pulling the now evil looking shotgun from it's holster on the flaming motorcycle, The Ghost Rider goes to work, alternately shooting angels from the sky with blasts of hellfire and whipstrikes from a red hot chain.

YES! He was flying!

Well, thrown up at a very high speed. But that was almost the same, right? He was a purple blur, going ever upwards.

Vorpal materializes two large baseball bats, glowing and purple, in his hands as he spun upwards towards the Seraphim, with a huge cheshire grin on his face. As he approaches them, he sings out....

"Heeeere I come to save the daaaaaaaaaaaay!"

Not that he was *saving* the day, he was helping along... but the moment was too perfect to waste. Just like his spin was too perfect *not* to use it to bludgeon the angels- who looked like they belonged in a Heavy Metal album- with the two basteball bats so hard that they actually bounced off and fell towards the ground unconscious. "HOME RUN!"

Being on the ground, or close enough to it that someone that can do 20-30 foot standing leaps can reach, is going to prove a bad idea for the Seraphim. Why? Because the enemy that the Seraphim are facing includes a man with Captain America's combat skills, Spider-Man like agility, and Sue Storm like ability to be invisable. Dodging through the enemy that gets close to the ground, and avoiding attacks from allies at them who he knows can't see him, the Iron Spider grabs one of his foes that gets to close to the ground by a leg and with a spin throws it back into the sky at another one. That done *thwip* *thwip* a couple of lines of webbing come shooting out of nowhere aimed to hit the wings of two more Seraphim and try and pull them out of the sky to slam at the ground, or possibly just pull all the feathers off of thier wings leaving them looking like plucked chickens before they fall out of the air. Either one works for Iron Spider.

SMALLVILLE

"Jonathan?" the voice of the doctor wakes the elder Kent man from a light sleep out on a bench just outside his wife's hospital room. He takes off his glasses long enough to rub at his eyes, but replaces them just after.

"Jonathan, I have some bad news." The doctor's face falters. "Martha has slipped into a coma."

THE NETHERWORLD

When the Ghost Rider shows up on the scene in his true colors, the annoying and ear splitting screams have a hint of something new. Fear.

Rider obliterates them with ease and tracks down more as they desperately try to flee his presence. Looks like they do, in fact, know who he is.

It gets grosser, Booster. The golden bolts explode as they hit each Seraphim. The demons explode similar to those who fell on the ground. The good news is that they're already dead, and just inhabiting flesh. You didn't kill anyone or anything like that. Besides, if ever was a time to break that rule, it'd be right now.

Channel does, indeed, get similar results to Hal. Seraphim all around explode amid the emerald attack and the horde of Seraphim are quickly beginning to thin.

Like a great conductor, or a 'regista' in soccer, Sue Storm is managing the battle from afar. Several more creatures smack into Vorpal's wall, while her teamwork with Superman is allowing him to mow through the enemies at increasingly quick speeds.

GL slings Vorpal into the sky with ease and the small cat-man bursts through seraphim as they're bludgeoned by his bat. Eventually, his ride has reached its apex, and he starts to fall downwards towards the ground.

The feathers from Iron Spider's attack float down to the ground slowly, swaying from side to side like a peaceful baby cradle, until they hit the ground. All that remains of each is a drop of blood.

With Sue's help, Superman picks up more and more speed. He needed to be cautious before, but now he's able to let go of the apprehension and get down to business. Granted, he can't go too quickly, lest Sue be unable to 'cover him' but he can move much quicker than he'd be able to without her by the protection she gives.

Within moments, the battle is over. Whatever Seraphims did not retreat are lying as pools of blood among the parched surface.

After a moment of using X-ray vision, the Man of Steel sees Amanda inside the tree with another person.

"The tree!" Superman yells, before flying towards the gigantic dead trunk.

INSIDE THE TREE

Samedi chuckles as his long fingernails caress her shoulders and then her neck. He moves around the chair from behind, continuing his gurgly laugh. "You assume you have a choice, Daytrippah."

Samedi pulls himself even closer, looking as if he's going to put his lips/bone-jaw to her mouth, but suddenly pulls back. Out a crack-like window, Samedi's view of the battle enrages him. "Quoi? Ce n'est pas possible!!!"

He flings the bottle or rum against the far wall, which explodes in a thousand pieces and kicks over Amanda's chair. She falls upon her back, first, and then her side, but she'll notice that now that Samedi's full attention is not on her, he does not seem quite as powerful.

Seem, no. Look, yes.

Samedi begins to grow, first two twice his height, then to three times. Before long he bursts out of the tree as a full-fledged giant, easily reaching 8 stories tall.

Pieces of broken tree rain down upon Amanda as she, no doubt, will be surprised at the sight.

So will the others.

"Yes, ma'am!" Booster Gold salutes Sue, although it is a casual cub scout style thing where he touches two fingers to his forehead. The golden bubble suddenly implodes, snapping to form-fit Booster with a barely visible outline of golden light. He is up in the air when he fires his last few shots, privately thankful that his force field also prevents him from getting directly spattered with gross Seraph-blood.

When the enormous tree explodes as Samedi expands, Booster quietly says, "Wowzer." Then he is flying like a golden bullet towards the giant, because it looks like a bad guy and therefore is something that should be punched. Even though it is eight stories tall. -Because- it is eight stories tall. Privately, Booster is having some regrets with leaving Skeets behind; even though it ensured that his robot pal would be safe, it means he lacks the proper soundtrack for a good beat down.

Spotting the tree and the beings inside at about the same time as Superman, Channel starts in that general direction before the tree exploded and there was a giant Samedi.

A bit not good, that.

Still utilzing some of that useful Green energy (environmentally friendly AND it messes up Seraphim!), Channel goes full speed in the direction of Samedi, banking around and opening up with some blasts of the Green energy. It may or may not actually hurt him; she's honestly not sure. But she's trying to distract him a bit while keeping out of his arm's range, just in case he has some crazy energy blasts. She was hoping that by moving quickly enough, he'd have a hard time hitting her with either blast-style attacks or actually reaching her with a physical attack. Plus she was probably the best equipped to soak some of those hits, so there was that.

Channel just really wasn't looking forward to the idea of soaking the hits.

Of course, it's possible, you disgusting, rag-and-bone batard! Those are some of Earth's greatest heroes out there.

Yep. Daytripper says all that with just one derisive snerk. (She's just that good.)

Because, seriously. The whole seduction routine? Works a whole lot better when the breath doesn't stink of rotting flesh and the touch doesn't feel like raw chicken waiting for the marinade. "There's always a choice," she tells him, lip curling to reflect her disdain.

But he's just not listening. Isn't that always the way. She's startled by the explosion of rum against the wall. Closing her eyes, she turns her face away, feeling her chair kick over. When she opens her eyes and sees him swell up to ten times his natural height -- if he has a natural height -- she arches a brow at how... diminished he seems to her nonetheless.

"Men..." she mutters. "Always thinking size is the most impressive feature..." Stupid.

The snakes about her legs have coiled, startled, and she looks down at them. "Alright," she says, making the best of the situation. "You're Brad, and your buddy's Roger." Because... it just suits them. She's named them. And names have power. Her eyes glow as she pulls in mystical energy.

"Okay, boys," she says, looking at those snakes, command in her voice. "Go distract Raggedy Andy over there, while I get myself outta this mess..."

And she starts calling up a spell to disintegrate the damned chair.

The Lantern pulls up in his flight and holds his hand out to stop the forward momentum with a reverse push from the ring on his finger. He scans across the broken remains of fallen angels with white washed eyes set into his green mask, then breaks off in flight after Superman as soon as the Kryptonian points the husk of a tree out.

Yet he has not forgotten his kitty friend. Green threads weaves a series of Trampolines in the sky behind him, all leading in one direction. Towards the Samedi.

While Lantern himself, while surprised by the sudden appearance of the eight story tall Lou, is far from afraid of the dark spawned demigod.

Want to see him prove it? Okay.

His hand turns upright and a green 'spear' appears in his palm, bouncing a few times as if he's testing its weight... then he hurls it down at the ground infront of the growing Lou. "MAKE MY BARON... GROOOOOOW!"

Smarm, suckah. Eat it.

Then he attacks, firing green energy blasts at the huge target, creating shields to protect himself and others from potential counter attacks.

Trampolines! Now Green Lantern was just spoiling him, wasn't he? Vorpal landed on one and flipped onto another, showcasing the natural grace and athleticism of a cat, paired up with the training regiment Daytripper had given him. He picks up speed as he goes, grinning as another idea gestates in his brain.

"This is the kind of problem that requires an -inside- job, I think!" the cat says. And he is glad Patrick doesn't read minds, because he would most likely try to stop him. As he runs and jumps, he begins to pick up more and more momentum while being transferred from one trampoline to the other, before he grins. This trampoline would at the perfect height, level with Samedi's face. So instead of jumping to the other trampoline, he pushes off it with his feet, carrying his momentum and activating his levitation. The cat zooms across the empty space, becoming invisible as he glides and curls himself up into a ball--surrounded by his construct force field as he flies.

What does he intend to do? Why...he's going to go for the Good Baron's eye. If he manages to hit... well.. he *did* say it should be an inside job, right? Superman and Booster and the others were powerful enough to cause external damage. He, on the other hand, was small. So small that he hoped to be unnoticed by the Baron as he goes for the eye-a mere insect. And if he got to the eye and broke through? Well... he could lend a little hand from the inside to the great heroes on the outside.

Then again, this could go oh so horribly wrong. But that was always the challenge- if a plan fails, try to find something else that works. Right? Right?

Iron Spider is...not surprised at the 80 foot tall deadish man suddenly growing out of a tree. After all that today has included it is going to take a lot more than that to actually surprise him. Like Erzulie doing a burlesque show type strip act with a black feathered boa. As the Loa grows he takes off in his direction fading into view. Being invisible is not going to help much after all when fighting a being that big. He speeds towards the giant, aiming to slip behind him and do a full speed running leap aimed to hit him as high as he can get and then start treating him like a low rise in Gotham and skittering up him till he can reach the top. If he can grab onto the man who is about as big as the building that the Iron Spider lives in.

Sue Storm sees Booster's golden force fields disappear, and realizes that that's likely because they're not really needed anymore. Everyone else is either up up and away or running at ... oh my. That right there would be the stuff of nightmares if Sue were at all superstitious. Thank goodness she's not. So, using her own force field to follow everyone else into the air, she sets herself the task of protecting Superman. Why? She suspects that this giant is going to be hurling magic. And she does NOT plan on letting any of it get anywhere near the Kryptonian.

Ghost Rider takes down bloody angel after angel, some felled by chain severing a wing, only to be stomped on when they hit the ground, others blasted from the sky by hellish shotgun blasts, but unfortunately.. all of the supernatural realm know who and what the Ghost Rider is. And nearly all of them fear him to some extent or another.

Dropping to one knee after one angel gets low and tears open his back, losing a hand to the inferno in the process. But his back seals itself, looking like tar oozing over the cut. Turning, in time to see the Baron burst from the tree, the Rider simply smiles that bony grin and starts walking, weapons at the ready. Biggest fight Baron will have in a good while is on his hands.. and closing fast.

Getting sucked into a magical vortex isn't Orin's idea of a good time, and on retrospect, he might be a little miffed that he didn't show up to the crux of the fight. But showing up to a giant Vooudoun deity dropping trees...well, he's mollified by that. Noting that Daytripper seems to be busy doing...whatever magic stuff she's doing, he's totally happy to attack the giant.

Sadly, being on the ground means he doesn't get the best parts to aim at...or does he? Taking note, as best he can, of others that he's able to see, he lifts the Triton to aim a large bolt of energy right at the Baron's jubblies. It's a low blow, but Aquaman isn't always known to play by 'Gentleman's Rules'. If anything it should, at least, be something of a distraction. At best, it might help them get a better advantage in this battle.

The Giant Samedi laughs loudly as Booster flies towards him, using a giant backhand to knock both Booster and Superman out of the sky like gnats. Both heroes go flying, and though not injured, definitely need to right themselves. Luckily for them they had Sue's protection or it would have been a lot worse. Given Superman's flaws, there might not been much of Superman left.

Meanwhile, as Channel comes at him with the energy blasts, he quickly pulls a slab of rock up out of the ground with a wave of his hand and the blast is absorbed. With a gentle push, he topples the large slab over itself and flips it so it's coming towards Jocelyn, looking to flatten her!

The snakes slither away at Amanda's beckoning and the spell she casts bursts the bonds of her chair easily. And like a typical male, once his interest is elsewhere he loses all his power. On Amanda's bonds at least. She's a free woman, and placed strategically close to the Giant Samedi.

Lantern's attacks hit Samedi and stagger the giant. His large feet move back to brace himself, but he's still standing. The good news is he's a bit hurt. The bad news is that between the Green Lantern's normal power usage, and Jocelyn's siphoning, he's losing power at a much quicker rate than he might normally expect. Ruh-roh.

Vorpal careens right through the eye and back into the ocular cavity of the giant. Everything around him, however, is dead and rotting, giving off a worse smell than a trapped squirrel in a garage. In July.

Mucous and pus ooze all around him. Good luck getting that out of your fur.

Iron Spider is able to get around and up Baron Samedi, but he'll notice that the shell of his body doesn't seem to take much pain from the damage. Indeed, Samedi even starts to laugh as he can feel the metallic bug on his back.

Samedi looks down at Ghost Rider and laughs maniacally. "Bon! Pas un fete without you, Rider!"

As Samedi is about to taunt Ghost Rider, he stops as his. . . uh. Jubblies. . .are burned to a crisp.

He stops. Seems to frown at Orin, at least, whatever parts of skin are still on his face frowns. "I needed those."

Samedi's large cane appears in his hand in a puff of purple smoke. He reaches the top, where a skull is affixed and turns. With a snap, the carcass of the cane becomes a large thin sword.

He pulls back as and looks to drag it through the entirety of the party with one swoop, but stops abruptly as a tiny blue and red figure, no bigger than an insect relative to him, holds his hands back. "Not this time, Samedi. Party's over." Try as he might, Samedi cannot seem to move his arm, as he now turns his full focus to Superman.

Getting clobbered out of the air is not a new experience for Booster; he sails a decent way before he rights himself, since he does need to focus in order to fly right-side up. His hair still looks great, so he's clearly fine. "Fine. Be that way." The golden hero mutters, flying back to where the actual fight is taking place. It is not difficult to find, due to Samedi's enormity. Noticing Samedi's attention turning aside, Booster redoubles his flight speed and aims himself at the giant's face for a suckerpunch. He is too small to do an uppercut to someone that large, but at the last moment his force field pops out into a sphere around him. It's like a dodgeball throw when things get nasty on the playground.

The fortunate thing about Channel's sight is she can tell when she's draining too much, and so she stops making use of the excess Green energy she'd seen flung around. Also, there's a giant rock flying at her. Channel grits her teeth and flies forward at top speed, using her augmented toughness and strength to slam through the stone near the top end, splitting the stone into a large piece and a smaller piece. She wasn't as strong as Superman, so she needed to break this stone in a couple pieces. Blood flows from some cuts that Channel receives from the force of the impact, but there appear to be no more serious injuries than that. The larger piece, Channel reaches out to grab with both hands. With a mighty heave and the power of momentum on her side, she spins forward in the air, bringing the stone slab up like an oversized baseball bat or tennis racket.

"Batter up!"

Then Channel takes a swing at the side of the Giant Baron Samedi with the flat end of the rock slab. Between the giant being held in one spot by Superman and being uppercut by Booster Gold, Channel is hoping that they end up with an effective knockout combination.

Now, see, in the rural areas of Germany where Amanda Sefton -- or, rather, her alter-ego Jemaine Szardos -- grew up, there it was common knowledge: Never turn your back on the gypsy woman, or bad things will happen.

Not strictly true, of course. But, all sorts of bad luck has been attributed to her people by the farmers and villagers who've reluctantly tolerated their presence over the years. Every time something goes wrong, it's blame the gypsies.

In this case, however, Amanda Sefton is perfectly willing to take the blame for Samedi's impending onslaught of Very Bad Luck. First, there was the loss of his mambo, Madame La Masque. Now? Well, hell. His flesh is already falling to pieces. Might as well help it along.

She chants a spell, and her own body swells until she's the same size as he, glowing with arcane fire. "Vorpal," she says, looking Samedi in the eyes and noting the glowing purple speck within, "you really wanna get your tail outta there, now."

Trust her on this.

Then, she gives the zombie-making prince of hell a sharp, venomous smile. "Un conseil, Baron le Batard! Ne jamais tourner le dos a un gitan. Il nous fait chier."

With that, she slams her hand against his chest, speaks a word of power, and sets his rotting flesh alight with Eldritch fire. It's kinda like Greek fire. Except magical. And it ain't going to be put out unless she puts it out.

Power level at One point two zero percent. The ring informs Hal in a monotone voice spoken right into the Lantern's mind. That really is not a good thing to hear at all... but it was to be expected. Still, he's not quite sure where the power of his ring is 'going'... And he doesn't have time to go about finding out now. There's still a Loa to take care of.

Hal brings both hands up like a boxer, they are now covered in two gigantic green fists about the size of a buick and rushes at the Loa as everyone begins to attack at once. He throws a looping right that passes cleanly over Booster's bubble, a sweeping left follows suit over Channel's 'stone bat'. Behind the Loa, a set of green 'ropes' not terribly unlike a boxing ring appear, bouncing the Loa back up into another sloppy jab... which the Lantern 'winds up' because why not.

Sue Storm readily shields both Superman and Booster Gold from that seemingly careless backhand, then, as is her mutitasking norm, she uses another force field to protect Channel from that slab of rock toppling over, though ends up only catching the smaller piece since the larger one is Channel's weapon of choice for the moment. Most of her attention is on Superman, though, ready to again shield him from anything Baron Samedi sees fit to throw. So, basically, other than the one force field that just winked out and let the smaller slab of rock settle to the ground gently, Sue looks like she's just idly standing there in mid-air watching everything... like that young woman that just did her own version of Calypso from Pirates of the Carribean. Holy cow, what's with all the giantness today?

Ghost Rider does not respond to the taunt. He is a base, passionless entity. His only driving force is decimating evil. stomping it out wherever it may lie. Or stand.. as the eight story Samedi is. His chain moves of it's own accord, slithering on the ground like one of the Baron's own serpents, down along the ground, lighting small fires here and there. The chain will ensnare the giant Baron's legs, growing immense in length, and never leaving the Riders hand. The chain.. infused by the same hellfire as the Rider, is as indestructible as he is. This should be interesting. The Devils Bounty hunter pulls hard, all his supernatural might trying to bring the Baron to his knees.

Meanwhile, the Rider's other hand, holsters the shotgun, instead extending his open gauntleted hand, flames hot enough to curl steel billowing forth at the Baron, burning dead flesh away in large chunks, the smell is horrendous. Good thing the Rider doesn't have a nose.

Oh, Ugh. Vorpal was glad for the forcefield construct around him, because this place smelled like... unmentionables. The cat crouches down to prepare his strike... when he hears Amanda's warning.

Wait, what? What was going o---

And then, the Baron was on fire.

"Holy pyromania, it's a disco inferno!"

Thinking quickly, the cat puts power into his legs and leaps forward and zooms across-- knowing that the Baron's brain was at this point probably mostly decomposed, it should yield easily to the combination of momentum, levitation and the hardness of his barrier. He was going to try and ricochet off the back of the skull and make a hasty zoomy exit out of the other orbit as fast as he could, before he started frying too.

"Live, from Boo York, it's Saturday Fried Live!"

If he knew what the cat was planning Iron Spider would indeed have tried to stop him. Not only will that stuff take forever to get out of his fur if he does not keep up that shield around him, but then he will have to wait for his fur to dry. The Spider is not trying to hurt the Baron as he climbs, not yet. It is when he gets to shoulder height that the real fun starts.

Once he gets to the shoulder Iron Spider moves along them in an attempt to get close to an ear. Once there, the PA system built into the suit switches on. Suddenly at ear deafening levels he is playing discordant death metal. It may not be the soundtrack that Booster Gold wanted earlier, but it works for the Spider as he tries to keep the Baron distracted and unable to concentrate while the heavy hitters try and take the God down. Heavy hitters like the woman that is trying to set him on fire. Looks like this is a good time to leave, and fast.

The music comming out of the PA system in Iron Spider's suit cuts off as he takes a running leap off of the Baron's shoulders and dives downwards hands at his side. He lets himself drop two, maybe three stories before his hands snap outwards and flaps connecting his arms sides and legs fill up with air and he starts to glide turning the fall into a controled descent headed for where Sue is because that seeems the best palce to land.

Orin grimaces, "I can't see why," in response to Baron Samedi's comment regarding his fried 'bits. He takes a few steps back so he's not throwing the Trident just vertically and pauses as Daytripper also grows and attacks. "Leave some fun for the rest of us," he calls up towards her. Just his luck, coming late to the game and left with the dregs to deal with. As he is unable to grow, he's not going to get the right angle while still being able to pack the punch into the Trident, so he gets back just enough to be able to aim at the ribs. If he nicks a lung...or what's left of a lung, that won't be good for the undead entity either.

"Surrender, Zombie! We have you bested!" The Trident is thrown with all his strength behind it, the decomposing, flaming flesh should, he hopes, make it easier for it to hit his mark.

Booster's uppercut hits Samedi underneath the chin with a force so hard it knocks the head back. His black top hat, adorned with skulls, jewels, cigarette packs, and needles, falls to the dusty depths below.

Channel's rock explodes against the side of Samedi's leg and staggers him further, though the blast itself does not seem to do much pain, the force does cause him to reset his footing.

Baron Samedi's skin ignites in flames giving his haunting visage an even worse appearance. The hair on his head goes first, singed and dissipating almost immediately. Slowly the flesh tears away from his face now in full as the skeletal remains begin to laugh, "I feel no pain, Ma Coeur! No pain at .. . "

But his words are cut off as he begins to be battered about by Green Lantern. The large gloves connect with his face sending him to each side with the swings, staggering him and confusing him.

The combined force of Sue and Superman keep Samedi's hand upright and in place. The blade is humming with a purple magic, and its effects are unknown. As the fire creeps up towards the hand, though, Superman begins to hope that Sue is effective against that sort of thing. Hate to go down due to friendly fire.

The chains that Rider sends keep Samedi in place, making him even easier to attack. The fire attacks burn off the lower part of Samedi's skin, and slowly Samedi goes from looking like a voodoo practitioner to a straight up skeleton.

What's left inside the skeleton isn't much, but what's left is thoroughly destroyed by Vorpal's pinball act inside the skull. After a split second, there's an explosion just above and between the eye sockets as the Cheshire Cat is grinning as he leaps out into the air.

"Gah!" roars Samedi as his head has just exploded from the inside and is now filled with annoying music that he can't stop because he can't bring his hand to his ear (Superman and Sue are holding it).

It would be a humorous scene, if not for what takes place after Orin throws his spear.

With measured aim and strength, the Trident soars between two of Samedi's exposed ribs and pierces his magic infused, purple beating heart.

This finally gets a true reaction of pain and agony from Samedi as he screams in terror. In a fit of rage he bats away Superman and swings his sword down in a powerful swoop, barely missing everyone.

Almost everyone.

The wildly swung blade knifes downwards in a faint attack to get someone. Anyone. When it hits Orin's left arm, the pain is so immense the receptors in his powerful body shut down. Once he opens his eyes, Orin will see his left hand and part of his forearm, severed and lying upon the dusty cracked Earth.

Samedi is done for now. Since his legs are bound his stagger backwards leaves him nowhere to go but to topple to the ground in a large heap.

Once down, he begins to shrink to his normal size and to wriggle insanely and a purple light begins to erupt from inside his body. Eventually, much like the others, he dissipates into dust.

Cringing at the impact, Channel steps back and surveys the scene. She notes the unarmed Orin and winces sympathetically. "That's beyond my capacity to heal," the woman says softly. Her power didn't let her reattach parts of the body that had been completely removed from their owners. Hopefully Orin had some way of healing that or knew someone who could fix it!

Booster Gold's strike takes him several meters up and past Samedi, and he flips in mid air to fly back the way he'd come. By this time, the Baron is in flames and then chopping a dude's arm off. Harsh. Since the giant is crumbling, he flies past him to land by Orin, to check on his health, and at least help him pick up his arm.

Hal is breathing heavy by the time the Baron hits the dirt... hell, long before then, this is just the first time he's gotten a chance to notice how breathless he really is... The oversized fists disappear and the Lantern lowers down to the ground with sweat rolling down his face, matting his hair to the sides of his head. The emerald and black suit heaves with each deep intake of the foul smelling, terrible tasting, air.

Surveying the 'battlefield', the Lantern's gaze falls inevitably on Orin and his displaced arm. Hal rushes over and raises his ring, "I can f-..." Power level zero percent "..-ind you a great surgeon..." Grimacing.

As Samedi's heart is pierced, Daytripper takes a small step back (it will seem a much greater distance when she's back to normal size). She watches him fall dispassionately and then whispers the spell that allows her to resume her normal stature.

Several feet away from where the Baron's body fell, she strides forward. Green flames mark the outline of where he fell, still burning until she reaches out her hand and speaks the spell to quench them. They fizzle out with a soft sigh and she turns away to regard the rest of the heroes.

It's only then that she discovers Brad and Roger slithering across the cracked and dusty earth back towards her. She kneels down as they rear up to regard her with intelligent eyes, hissing sibilantly.

Anyone here speak Parseltongue?

Sue Storm squints but refuses to look away as Baron Samedi gets battered from all sides and bursts into flames from multiple sources. It's the fire that Amanda started that she watches the most closely, and because she's so focused on making sure none of it so much as singes Superman, she completely doesn't notice that the giant skeleton's final attempted strike hitting Orin. It's only once the giant is completely consumed by the fire and Daytripper is back to normal size that she moves to approach the others. And THEN sees the damage done. "Oh my god no..." She doesn't crowd in with the others, but by the tears filling her eyes, it's clear she thinks she's failed the man.

The cat eventually falls to the ground, after having created a few trampolines of his own to break his fall. "Did we win? Did w---"

Oh Jimminy Crackers.

The cat runs towards Orin, and this is the funny thing--- he's been inside the gooey, pussy brain of an undead god without so much as a barf. But seeing Orin's arm like that makes him sick to the stomach.

Hey, who told you cats could be explained?

He walks up to him, blinking back tears o fsheer fury and then looks for Patrick--- and finds him by sue. "Spider... fluid, quickly..."

The cobwebs of spiders have been found to be useful as clotting agents. Surely the concentrated secretion of Patrick's suit should allow for, at least, a way to keep Orin from bleeding to death before they can get out of this hellish place.

He hoped they had Madam LaMasque in a safe, very secure place away from him. Because if he ever saw the atrocious hag again, he was going to punch her so goddamned hard that she would have to pull her socks down to eat.

Landing lightly by Sue Storm the Iron Spider watches the outcome of the fight rather dispassionately. As the God dies, or discorporate, or is sent further into the land of the dead, or whatever it is that happens to him the crimson clad hero is on the move to reach Orin. There is not much he can do about the eye or the arm but he has at least enough programming as a solider to include some first aide. "Surgeons later, first aid now so we don't lose him." Is his instant response when he hears Green Lantern because really, someone should be trying to stop the blood loss. Since no one else is doing it, looks like Iron Spider shall. *Thwip* *Thwip* He makes a nice little emergency bandage for the injury, and thanks to the adhesive nature of the webbing should help stop the bleeding.

It's not often that Aquaman gets injured...actually injured. It's been a rare experience and this one is probably the most intense pain that he's ever felt in his life. He can't help but howl from that pain as he falls to his knees, the hand and partial forearm falling nearby. His eyes barely squint open, his chest heaving as he tries to breathe through the pain. It's not getting any better. That's not good.

His eyes snap open as Hal mentions a surgeon and he actually looks at the injury. This. This is bad. There actually isn't all that much blood as the heated sword partially cauterized the amputation. That doesn't necessarily help much as he can barely put a thought together through the pain.

A glance is given to Iron Spider for the makeshift bandage...it's all he can manage right now in terms of thanks before he manages, through gritted teeth, "Get me to the water." Not that it'll heal, but being on dry, dusty land isn't going to help matters in the least.

Just after the body of Samedi disintegrates, the earth begins to crumble beneath their feet as large chunks begin to fall away.

Also, the black opening between our world and theirs seems to get smaller.

As Superman arrives back at the scene he grimaces for Orin, his old friend. "Booster, Grab Aquaman." Superman props Green Lantern. "All the flyers grab someone. We need to go. Now!"

The heroes all begin to make their way towards the black portal, arriving just in time as the vacuum pops the portal closed as they get to the other side.

Meanwhile, in Louisiana where the heroes end up, all of the zombies carcasses turn to dust and after a large wind, you wouldn't even notice they were there besides the people they killed and the damage they did.

Despite all of the damage and the horrors, the heroes are given a standing ovation and applause by the SWAT teams, uniformed police men, and a large gaggle of civilians who were waiting nervously at the gate.

Ginny applauds with a matchstick sticking out of her mouth, her makeup running everywhere, and tears dropping from her eyes.

The little toddler, despite her mother's efforts, rips from her parents grip and runs up to Booster, leaping up towards his arms. "You're the best hero ever!"

SMALLVILLE

"Mom?" Clark arrives wearing a KC Royals baseball hat pulled low over his cokebottle glasses, so thick they make him look like an owl. The heavy, nerdish glasses only exaggerate the pain in his eyes as the hospital bed in the room he's entered lies empty.

The flowers in his hand drop down to his side and his chin follows suit, nearly touching his chest. His bottom teeth come up to grip his upper lip as he tries not to break down right there.

All of his power; he's able to lift-hell, he's not even able to accurately gauge how much he can lift. He can run faster than some people can think. And every day he saves the lives of those he cares about, but cares about only on a tertiary level.

With all his power he couldn't save the woman he loves more than anyone on the planet.

"Clark. What are you doing in here? You're mom's awake," Jonathan gives a soft Gibbs-smack to the back of Clark's head, knocking his hat over the front of his face before enveloping him in a hug.

The pair turn the corner and move into Martha's new room. "It was the strangest thing," Jonathan says, shaking his head. "She just woke up."

Martha looks to Clark with raised eyebrows and a tilted head. "I thought you were supposed to be fast."

"Shut up, Mom." Though difficult to see behind his glasses, Clark's eyes are a bit red.

The flowers get dropped on her lap and his arms are enveloped around her fast enough.

Superman: The Guede