2013.09.04 - Stopping a Breaking Point

However the day was going, wherever they were, a small selection of heroes gets a surprise this evening. One in the form of a glowing ball of rainbow light coming from seemingly nowhere and circling them before expanding to engulf them. As the light becomes too much to see through, they'll hear many voices all saying variations of the same thing.

"We need your help"

The scent and sounds of the ocean will hit them before the light clears. Warm sunlight has replaced the evening and these heroes will find themselves in their uniforms regardless of what they were wearing before. As the light finally fades completely, a small group of people can be seen standing in front of the gathered heroes. They're all young men and women and six out of the seven are wearing matching outfits. What might be most shocking is that they're familiar faces to some of the summoned heroes. Friends, teammates...possibly even themselves in the case of two young heroes.

"It worked!"

The only member of the little group dressed differently from the other six steps forward and one may think this is one Eddie Thorson. In reality it's just someone with the same face.

"I'm sorry for the sudden transport but we really need your help. There's a small army that's going to break into your world unless we stop them today," the young man that looks like Eddie speaks to the heroes.

How in the world could Kurt Wagner, the Amazing Nightcrawler, ignore something that lights his dark corner of the theatre with the plaintive call of 'We need your help'? There isn't a way he could. Before the teleporter can grab his swords, however (he's been trying to remember them more often!), there is the transport. Landing upon the water's edge, dressed in a more than familiar, but not recently worn, red and black 'costume', he's on threes now, and his tail sways until it comes to rest near him. Canting his head, the young man looks familiar, which honestly lends a little credence to the words. "Small army?"

Michael Jon Carter, also known as Booster Gold, was flying home from work when the summons happens. The to-go cup of coffee he was carrying somehow makes the trip with him. His mouth is open in mild astonishment, but he snaps it shut. Then, he leans over so he can set his coffee cup down on the ground, straightens up, and says, "Of course, I'll help." He does not question whether he is capable of doing so; for one thing, they would not have summoned him if he were not useful for this situation, and for another, he's very self-assured with regards to his own abilities.

One moment, Kate Bishop is in 'The Warehouse' grabbing some extra gear before she heads to Gotham to yet again try and track down Green Arrow.

The next...?

The next there's that light. And those voices. And the outfit. And...

The female archer stops, and peers at the others here. Especially those who appear to have been teleported along with her. That is before she looks right at 'Eddie'. While a /LARGE/ part of her doesn't blindly trust him (after all, no explanations? Just 'help us'?) she is willing to help. Within reason.

"What's going on exactly that you need help with?"

Johnny had been flying casually above the spires of Manhattan, leaving the typical trail of fire behind him. The skies were clear and dark, a perfect night for skywriting! He had begun to carve a flaming "4" above the Empire State Building when a strange psychedelic orb had appeared in front of him, and started engulfing his form. Mysterious voices can heard as the Torch fights for control, wondering if someone is attempting to kidnap him--which has occurred on multiple occasions.

When the dazzling light finally fades, he finds himself...on a beach? Heh, okay...not bad...could be worse! He immediately starts looking around for bikini-clad girls, but instead finds a group of friends and acquaintances. One of which he vaguely recognizes from the fight against those Frost Giants. "--so you kidnap us." he chuckles, a teasing glint in his eyes. "I mean like you could have Facebooked me or something if you couldn't find my phone number? Anyone can post on my page, and I check it pretty much every day, multiple times a day." One of the benefits of having a flame-retardant phone, thanks to Reed.

Billy Kaplan's first reaction to the voices when he is suddenly caught in a ball of rainbow light while leaving from a meeting with one of his Mother's collegues is to say, "No, no you don't want me really I..." But it is too late for arguments when he is suddenly transported.

"...am not the one you want." Is said by Wiccan, the teenaged mage of the Young Allies as the light fades and he can see again. He is dressed in his costume, whihc has gone through a few changes since the last time he was seen in public. The silver circlet around his head no logner has wings on it, but the carved designs along the sides of it do put one in the mind of small wings. The sides of his black shirt and pants are covered with wild whirls and swirls of star that sometimes seem to move on thier own and his shoulders are adorned with a shawl like red cape that is frayed around all of the edges that apepars to be fastned in place by a silver pin that appears tob e a stylized representation of a hammer circled by a pair of serpents.

Looking aorund Wiccan just blinks and takes a moment to center himself before nodding. "Small army, right...do we know what of or...?"

Some of the people that haven't spoken up yet are murmuring to themselves about how weird this all is. 'Eddie' gives a little sigh, holding up both his hands. "Recently, the original Rider Captain's arch enemy escaped from the Underworld. He took control of the Hydra Empire and he's trying to use the Spear of Destiny to shatter the barriers between reality to invade your world. We managed to use a fragment of the spear's power to summon you here to help defeat him and destroy the spear," he explains. "So will you help?"

Rising from his crouch, Kurt straightens and looks around as the others arrive, working out if he knows them, or perhaps if they are simply simulcrums of who they are. For that matter, he feels -real-, so...

Taking a couple of steps forward, his tail dipped behind him, Kurt nods his head, "I am willing to help." Does anything else need be said?

"Dudes, you had me at 'small army'." Booster has one fist on his hip and points to himself with his other thumb in a gesture that is rather cocky, although his smile is personable. "Last time I was actually kidnapped, I wasn't given a choice about fighting. But the bottom line is, I'm -all about- saving the world, regardless of the temporal branch or alternate reality. That is totally in my wheelhouse." He snaps his fingers and points at the other heroes assembled by him, as he adds, "Especially since you have chosen some awesome people for the task."

Rider Captain...?

Underworld...?

Spear of Destiny...?

Hydra Empire...?

It's not quite Bizzaro World, but still...

Still, as Hawkeye reaches for an arrow, she continues to frown. And yet, as Billy speaks up... One who she assumes is /her realities/ Billy, she glances at him and manages to ask, "You feel up for this?"

What isn't flat out said is she'd love to hear what he feels about this.

That is before finally Kate does nod at 'Eddie', her expression still deadly serious.

After all, stranger in a strange land, with no real way to independently verify which side is the 'right' side of things...

Johnny tries not to yawn. 'Underworld'....'Spear of Destiny'...shattering barriers...blah blah, yadda yadda. He rolls his eyes. "Okay so what you really mean is, an army of evil minions is gonna attack us, and we need to blast 'em." he smirks and puts a fist into a palm, nodding at Booster. "What he said." Though he wonders how they decided on who to summon, or if it had just been left to pure chance.

Wiccan eyes the person that looks just like his best friend a second and then nods. "Right, evil invasion form another universe. At least I am not leading it this time...I'm not, right?" Wiccan's response to the interesting inter-dimensional high jinks may run form fan boy excitement to annoyance depending on details, but he is glad that he is one of those people that can understand concepts behind alternate timelines enough that the logic involved never gives him a headache.

Wiccan reaches up to fiddle with the pin holding his cape on for a second while nodding to what Booster says. "There is no choice, you need me to save the world then even if I think you might have made a bad choice I am in."

When Hawkeye speaks to him Wiccan gives a small nod, and tries for a light grin. "Yeah Hawkeye, I-I think so." Who knows, given what he has been through fighting villains and proving to himself his magic has good applications might be something he needs just about now.

All the assembled young people seem relieved at the answers. The potential for these assembled heroes to refuse to help had been there but since they're in, they're all smiles. "Right! Follow us!" 'Eddie' offers, heading for a path that leads up and through a small, nearby rock formation.

Past the rocks, there's more beach. Farther down the beach, a strange glowing spear is sticking into the sand and the very air around it is distorting it. Between the heroes and the spear is a small army of unusual looking men in green snake-themed costumes. At the head of their group is three more individuals. A woman in green and gold armor wearing a snake themed headdress, a cycloptic green monster with one large red claw, and what appears to be a man in black armor and a red skull-themed helmet. They're headed for the spear until one of the young people that summoned the heroes opens fire on them with a strange-looking gun. This causes them all to look around and the skull-helmeted man makes a frustrated noise.

"I thought we killed you!"

'Eddie' steps forward, holding up a strange-looking device. "Sorry, heroes always get back up." He sets it at his waist and a belt loops around to hold it there. Attaching another device to his wrist, he presses a button on it and strikes a little pose. "Henshin!"

And with a small flash of light, blue and white armor forms around him. Once the suit finishes forming, Gold light washes over him and adds some gold accents to it and a shield forms on his right arm. When it's all done, he strikes another little pose. "Kamen Rider Axiom, Defender Form. Showtime."

All six of the others step forward next, holding up cell-phone like devices. They each press a button and take on poses of their own. "Power Change!" comes from all six of them as the phones give out a little jingle before there's a multicolored flash of light. When it clears, those six young people are clad in different colored suits and helmets.

"Red Guardian!" "Yellow Guardian!" "Blue Guardian!" "Violet Guardian!" "Green Guardian!!" " Shining Guardian!!"

All six strike another pose as they declare themselves. This is followed by another pose and all six speaking together.

"Youthful Sentai Guardranger!"

There's then a pause, like those seven are waiting for the heroes to do their own little roll call. Even the bad guys seem to be waiting for it.

Kurt blinks glowing, golden eyes as he follows 'Eddie' down this path. He's lithe, agile, and it's easy enough for him to keep pace in rough terrain. As more beach emerges, the elf cants his head at the showcase before him. One of the things, however, causes him to narrow those featureless eyes. "This looks a little familiar." He'd fought.. what color before?

Booster gives Wiccan a companionable pat on the back, saying to him, "Dude, don't be down on yourself like that. Just look inside yourself and you'll find the awesome within you." He really does not know Billy except in passing, but Booster seems to believe everyone has -some- innate greatness. He follows the group down the beach, then, and with a little bemusement watches as they do their role-call. That's familiar, if only it's akin to the kind of thing -he- tends to do. Not that he'll let that stop him from doing it anyway.

Booster flies several feet into the air and is momentarily obscured by golden light. When the glow dims down, he still has an outline of translucent gold outlining his form, along with a sort of thumping musical fanfare. He points towards what he has to assume are the bad guys in a dynamic posture and says, "I'm BOOSTER GOLD, and you have ten seconds to surrender or get punched until you are sorry!"

Yes, Hawkeye continues along after 'Eddie' and his allies. She gets her bow, and a single plain ordinary sharp arrow ready.

And yet as the group encounters these 'snake people'...

And then there's that transformation...

Yeah, Kate just points right at Booster and says, "With this group, Gold Guardian would fit you better, Booster!"

Then is there a pose from the archer clad in purple. Nope. Instead she just up and aims her arrow right at the woman with the green and gold armor.

"I guess just asking you guys to give up is out of the question?"

Johnny follows the group of strange youths through the rock formation, and upon seeing the men in snake costumes as well as the glowing spear behind them, he wastes no time in taking to the air in an attempt to simply rocket over their heads and attempt to destroy the spear in a single superheated plasma blast. That's the spear they were talking about, right? Right! Of course, he doesn't really give that a second thought.

"FLAME ON!"

The Torch's body is immediately engulfed in flame as he shoots up, and a long, fiery burst is directed straight at the glowing spear.

Wiccan eeps a little at the pat on the back. He sighs a little, "Did that recently, did not exactly like what I found inside of me." He mutters mostly to himself. The fact that what he found really deep down inside of himself was an Evil being that is described as God like in the way that Gods are human like did not help his self confidence at all.

Wiccan follows along the path behind the others till he spots the Spear, and the army of guys in green. Now things are starting to be familiar. Its like Super Sentai version of Hydra...complete with a Red Skull. The fact that the others they were with go into a full transformation sequence as soon as they spot the obvious villains has him slapping a hand across his face.

Wiccan takes a second to take a deep breath and says, "Come on why not get in on the theme of the day Purple Gurdian Hawkey?" He asks his friend fighting off a case of the giggles. Despite his mental state thigns are just goofy enough to be amusing. That said he quickly lifts into the sky to end up to the side of Booster Gold. "Crimson Mage Wiccan! You won't lay a hand on that Spear!" He can't help it, he has watched enough of these types of shows that Wiccan just has to get involved in the theatrics a little. "ProtecttheSpear, ProtecttheSpear, ProtecttheSpear, Mystic Force Barrier Go!" He yells the last while trying to create a magic barrier around the spear to keep the bad guys away from it.

There's a moment's pause when only two of the summoned heroes join in the theatrics, almost like the universe isn't quite sure how to react to the difference. When attacks start flying though, people spring into action. The snake-themed men all let out a 'skreee!' and charge forward. The costumed native-heroes start running to meet them save for 'Kamen Rider Axiom' who looks to the others. "We'll handle the Bobbers," that must be the snake-guys ", you guys go for the spear and their leaders," he suggests before heading into the fight.

The woman who's not really all that covered...there's your girl in a sort of bikini, Johnny...sneers when that arrow flies her way. She gestures and her eyes flash before the snakes on her headdress animate lash out to catch the arrow mid-flight. They both his before biting the arrow in half. "You'll need to try harder than that to beat Madame Viper, litter girl," the woman calls in Hawkeye's direction, drawing a snake-themed sword and starting to run her way.

As Wiccan's spell works, a shimmering blue wall appears between that spear and the villains. The red-skulled leader yells in frustration and slaps the clawed cyclops next to him. "Kill them while I collect my spear!" he demands, stalking towards the wall. The cycloptic being stumbles before launching itself into the air with a jetpack that seems to be part of it's back. THe big red claw is held up and used to shield against that fiery attack from the Human Torch. When it ends, smoke rises from the claw. "Face the wrath of Baron Strucker!" the monster yells, firing off a few glowing energy blasts from it's eye at Johnny, Booster, and Wiccan since they're flying.

Okay, this isn't Kurt's first rodeo, as it were, in fighting these guys. Or something like them. If it's theatrics they want, sure Nightcrawler can give it to them. Theatrics and battle. BAMF! The fuzzy elf disappears in a cloud of sulfurous smoke, only to reappear about four feet above... oh, hello, lovely bikini-clad lady! and makes to land on her shoulders, ready to grab the sword from her hand and disappear once again with another BAMF! All yours, Hawkeye!

In a conversational tone, Booster explains to Kate, "Well, it's a branding issue," but he gets no further than this, because the battle has begun. Why do bad guys never take the opportunity to surrender? He does not try to dodge the Baron's energy blast, but instead he flies forward and flexes his arms to take it right to his chest. The surge of red seems to splash and flow around him as if he were soaking it up, which is in fact what he is doing (even if it does cause him to grimace), and then he extends his arms so that both fists point back at Baron Strucker. "Why do you guys always want to do this the hard way?" He fires his wrist blasters, and golden energy blasts back at the Baron.

A 'snake hat' that can knock arrows out of the air by biting them? That's a new one.

"Sorry Wiccan, but I'm not in the mood right now. Besides, with my luck everything will end up static for a moment or two and I'll do it anyways if we're fighting these creeps!"

Then again, they're not in Akibahara...

Oh well, as the woman charges, and Kurt does what he can to get that sword away from her, Hawkeye draws yet another arrow. This time a bit or a trick arrow. An 'Epoxy Arrow' (i.e. an arrow full of ultra quick drying adhesive) which is fired a step or two in front of the bikini-clad woman. But once it is fired, something else, that is /not/ an arrow is reached for in that quiver...

"Maybe Booster, but we're in another reality. Who'd notice?"

The hats, it's always those stupid hats. Snake hats, skull hats, and cyclops--wait, that isn't a hat. Never mind...Like Booster, Johnny doesn't try to dodge the energy blast; he instead elevates his body temperature, taking on his plasma form and allowing the blast to pass harmlessly through him.

The Torch watches as a shield forms around the spear, then at the clawed creatured that blocked his own blast. Spear, monster. Hmm...hopefully that shield is gonna hold out against the skull hat guy, because the Torch is in a monster-blasting mood. But he'll keep an eye on the situation. Speaking of eyes, that cyclops eye looks awfully plasma-blast-able. He levels a burst of hot plasma at it, hoping to hit the thing in its weak spot. Wiccan does a barrel roll to get out of the way of the incoming fire from Baron Strucker. Why does that name sound familiar to him? It will come to him later. As it is, he is going to let most of the others deal with the threats going on and focus on the Red Skull and keeping him away from the Spear.

"Because it is never as dramatically fulfilling to have bad guys do the smart thing instead of take part in highly choreographed fight scenes with trained martial artists in color coordinated full body spandex costumes?" Wiccan calls out in answer to Boosters question before zipping around the edges of the magic barrier he created to land in front of the Red Skull.

Once he is almost on the ground in front of the Skull, but not quite because Wiccan tends to like floating a few inches above the ground in fights, he holds out his right hand and with a crackle of electricity a staff covered in glowing runes appears in it. "You're not getting that Spear, and /No One/ is going to die today."

Madame Viper almost falls over when Nightcrawler lands on her shoulders. "Get off of me!" she demands. "Give that back!" follows as soon as her sword is taken, one of her snakes taking a bite out of Kurt's costume as he bamfs away. Thankfully it's not a big bite, just a quarter-sized hole...and thankfully it's just costume and not flesh! But hey, free sword. Then the arrow strikes Madame Viper and she lets out a little annoyed yell. "You'll pay for that! This stuff is disgusting!" she declares, her snakes starting to bite away at the binding material.

Baron Struker lifts his claw to shield against Booster's blasts. Half the attack hits his claw and splashes aside harmlessly but the part that hits the green body explodes into sparks. Strucker gets knocked back which makes just enough of an opening for that plasma to strike the eye. There's more sparks as the eye ends up shattered. "Damn you bastards!" he yells, slashing blindly with that claw and sending a few glowing blades spinning towards Booster and Johnny.

Red Skull stops when he sees Wiccan appear in front of him. Drawing a sinister looking sword, he advances on the spellcaster. "Stand aside, human and you might live long enough to see me destroy your world as well as this one!"

Oomph!

BAMF!

Kurt lands, checking his tail quickly for any hint of a bite. When one has a tail, one learns to move it, and quickly! Doors are perfect training for that. But, he has a sword. Testing its heft and balance, the elf does a couple of quick twists and thrusts before those yellow eyes look up to see what sort of battle rages.

Woman is down... ish with arrow webbing. Kurt looks towards the archer in question that managed that and calls, "Do you have rope? We can perhaps tie her up?"

"Yikes, -language-," Booster tells the Baron, reproachfully. He is moving in for a punch, letting the blade strike him--he is tough, thanks to his faintly glowing forcefield--but does not manage to evade the claw. That knocks him aside and down, hitting the ground hard enough to send up a considerable spray of sand. Getting to his feet, he vaguely dusts himself off, frowns as he crouches, and leaps back into flight. His trajectory is aimed at Baron Strucker, attempting to tackle him in the air.

"You want cash or credit?" is said as that thing Hawkeye is reaching for is pulled out. What is it? A couple of things actually. A pair or epoxy grenades that when they explode, release an even larger amount of that 'glue'.

And if that weren't bad enough, Kate then grins at Kurt, before reaching for something else. An arrow with a sort of metal cable attached to it.

"If you want to, feel free. But by the time she gets free of this, she'll have other issues to deal with..."

"Yeah, BRING IT!" Johnny shouts triumphantly as the eye goes splat, then just hovers there in his plasma form. The blades simply melt completely as they come too close to the extreme heat, and the claw merely manages to temporarily disrupt the Torch's plasma form, though it knocks Booster to the ground. Dang, better do something about that claw! Focusing his will power, the Torch attempts to push an excessive amount of heat energy into it and cause it to burst into flame.

Wiccan's eyes glow briefly when he is told to step aside before grinning. "One, scarier things than you have tried recently and failed. Two, Bubbe would be very disappointed if I let someone destroy the world before she got a chance to meet my boyfriend. Three, I would so lose my place in the Captain America fan club if I let a Red Skull win without a fight. And four..." The mystic mutants staff lights up again as a bolt of lightning blasts from the end of his staff aimed for the bad guy. And four, never threaten someone that uses lightning as one of their primary attacks with a large piece of metal.

It's a nice sword, apparently crafted of some alien metal and sporting an ornate snake-pattern carved into the metal. While the heroes summoned fight the leaders, their colorful allies are battling through the hordes of snake-men. Explosions and flashes of energy abound. Madame Viper's snakes keep biting at the cement that has her trapped, slowly making progress. Of course when she overhears Kurt, she looks scandalized. "Pervert!" she accuses, tossing a blast of glowing purple energy his way.

If Booster pays attention to his energy levels, he might notice that contact with the claw actualy stole some of his energy. It even absorbed a little of the heat and plasma off Johnny. All that heat energy Johnny's pumping in doesn't seem to be bothering the claw at all. Baron's arm on the other hand? Now that's bursting into the flame. The baron flails, slashing at Johny again only to get tackled from behind by Booster.

Red Skull snorts, raising his sword defensively and slashing clear through Wiccan's lightning bolt as if it were made of paper. "Boy, you don't know who you're dealing with if you think it'll be that easy!" he declares, launching energy beams from his eyes at the spellcaster.

"Arrow los!" comes as a goodnatured request from the teleporting Nightcrawler. Shoot the arrow!

All Kurt needs is for that arrow to be loosed in his direction, and the elf is on his way to doing some quick 'combat bamfs' around Madame Viper to get her nice and tied up (as well as stink up the air!). Metal cable might give those snakes some broken fangs in the process! Ha!

"Believe me, fraulein, I will not enjoy this either. I just hope my girlfriend doesn't find out. Though she may be understanding."

Thanks to the HUD that Booster has via his goggles, he has readouts and data feeds for a variety of things. When he absorbed the Baron's blast earlier, his energy levels went into overload, and then diminished slightly when he fired those blasts. His forcefield absorbed the impact of that claw-clobber, but ate up way more energy than it should have for a punch of that strength. It is not enough data for him to jump to any firm conclusions, but he does shout at Johnny, "Careful, don't let him touch you!" just as he collides with the Baron. With one arm around the man's waist, he tries to grapple for his non-claw arm, angling their flight out over the water.

"If you want perverted, I have a pair of handcuffs and a chocolate sauce arrow in my quiver as well." is idly tossed out by Hawkeye before she pauses, blinks, and mutters, "Not that I'm even sure why I have that arrow."


 * Cough*

Anyways, the arrow is fired towards Kurt. Hopefully he does grab it.

But on to of that, after it's fired, Kate starts to reach into her quiver for a little device that she attach's to the line...

What is it? Well, lets just say that a 'metal line' like that is begging to have a taser touching it when Kurt is done with what he appears to be getting ready to do.

Even though the claw passes through Johnny's body without causing any apparent damage, the Torch can feel the energy draining from his body as it comes into contact with him. "Whoa!" he exclaims, faltering slightly before glaring at that claw as his attempts to make it burn don't appear to be effective. He can't afford to let that thing hit him again. When the claw man flails at him, this time he dodges. "Did you get that?" he asks, frowning at Booster, but the other blond seems to have already come to the same realization. "Huh." He flies after Booster and the blind cyclops as they sail out over the water, and aims a thin yet concentrated blast at their opponents' upper arm in an attempt to separate that claw from the rest of its owner's body.

Wiccan quickly brings his staff up in front of him chanting, "Wall, Wall, Wall!" As he chants the ground in front of him raises up to create a wall of rock and dirt between him and the villain just in time to be blasted into dust protecting him. When the dust settles from the explosion of rock and dirt Wiccan is no longer in front of the Red Skull.

Instead of staying where he was, Wiccan decided to go at things form a slightly different angle. Specifically from above and behind. Using the dust cloud as a cover he went up, and over, his foe to get into position to try that lightning blast again...this time with a good chance that the villain will not see it coming.

Madame Hydra frees herself from the cement in time for that metal line to start wrapping her up. She struggles, tossing a few energy blasts as he tries to catch Kurt and likely scorches some fur. She eventually gets tied up nice and tight and hops in place though. "You disgusting little..." and then there's that taser. With a yell, an explosion goes off around the woman and she ends up collapsing into the sand.

The Baron doesn't go easy but he does get carried away, that jetback not able too match Booster's flight. When Johnny's attack strikes the Baron, there's a small explosion that severs the arm. It ends up sticking in the sand as the Baron is carried away. The arm still in the claw bursts into little purple flames that get absorbed into the claw itself. After a few seconds the claw seems to be turning to stone.

Red Skull readies his blade for when the wall explodes, slashing at the dust to clear it faster. When there's no Wiccan in sight, he snarls. "What?!" and then there's lightning striking him in the back. Sparks explode off where the bolts hit and the skull stumbles forward and stops himself from falling by leaning on his sword. Turning his head, he lets another pair of energy blasts fly Wiccan's way.

Kurt's attention is certainly drawn. "Was?" Handcuffs. And chocolate sauce? "Really?"

Now there's more work to be done, and the Indigo bamfer dodges the bites (keep that tail up!), though those scorch marks are going to be a little while in their fading as shedding season's passed and fall is coming in!

When he's got her properly trussed, Kurt whistles to Hawkeye and offers a thumbs up from a three-fingered hand before he's off to wade into the snakes. The 'heroes' are looking a little battle worn, and perhaps some aid is appreciated?

Trying to wrangle the Baron in mid-air and override his jetpack is requiring concentration from Booster Gold. There is also the matter of avoiding that claw-arm, but Johnny takes care of it with a surgical application of fire. In the course of all of this, Booster was hoping to remove the Baron's means of flight but it seems built-in; ripping that free might really maim some vital organs. Instead, he angles them sharply downward, aiming to crash them both into the ocean. Booster's flight works fine underwater, the hope is that it might snuff the Baron's jets.

Johnny watches with with satisfaction as he successfully gets rid of that dangerous energy-sapping claw. He makes a mental note to try to retrieve the severed limb later, for Reed's sake. Hopefully Booster can now deal with the now severely disabled Baron himself.

But now, there was a spear needing to be blown up. Since snake hat lady appears to be down for the count, and the dude with the lightning staff has skull hat occupied, Johnny heads for the glowing spear and attempts once again to blast it with superheated plasma and destroy it like Kamen Axiom or whatever his name was had said.

And watch, the one time that arrow and handcuffs will be useful they'll be handed off to Kurt for helping with Amanda...

Errrr...

JUST KIDDING!


 * COUGH*

Anyways...

Anyways, as Madame Hydra falls, much like Kurt, Hawkeye shifts her attention to others. In this case it isn't the thugs. Instead, she turns and /tries/ to get a bead on Red Skull through all of the stuff that Wiccan is throwing at him. If she does, well... Skull head may be dealing with Billy's magic, but with all of that, how well does he handle a plain ordinary hunters sharp arrow fired his way? Heck, if she gets a chance to shoot someone like him in the back with them, even better!

Wiccan drops completely out of the air and onto the ground to avoid the blasts from the Red Skull. Now the real fun starts. Once on the ground he moves forwards fast hoping to hit the Skull upside of his head before he can fully turn around or defend himself properly.

If the villain manages to block him, or duck the staff, Wiccan brings in some of the tricks he has been learning from Sif making lightning quick strikes with both ends of the staff working to hit, disorient, and if lucky try and disarm his enemy. All of this is going on of course while he is feeding pure energy, in the form of electricity, into the staff he has enchanted to conduct it.

The barrier of magic that Wiccan put up around the spear, unfortunately or perhaps fortunately depending on how things go, was made only to keep the ground combatants away. It is like a big cylinder with the top open where the Human Torch can pour his power right down on top of the thing.

Johnny definitely does it from the top!

There's more than enough bad guys out there for Kurt to help fight.

There's a splash as Baron and Booster hit the water. Ripping the jetpack off probably would cause damage but thankfully the water snuffs it out too. And the Baron starts sinking like a bag of bricks. Thankfully enough, it doesn't seem like he needs to breathe. He's trying to drag Booster down with him though.

Red Skull meanwhile reacts fast enough to meet Wiccan blow for blow. Sword strikes staff, lightning and sinister crimson energy clashing around and causing explosions in the sand. And that's when Hawkeye's arrow finds a mark. Right in the center of the skull-logo on Red Skull's chest. It makes the Red Skull stumble backwards with the arrow still imbedded there and a fine red smoke escaping around the shaft.

The fire fills the cylinder, creating a fiery contained tornado. At first the spear shows no change but it starts to crack all over. One good hard hit will probably finish it off.

Fortunately for Booster, he doesn't need to breathe either--as long as he has his forcefield on, at any rate. At least the jetpack stops firing, which means he no longer has to counteract it with his own flight. Now, he can focus on attacking, and at such a close range, he just goes for a physical clobbering. Hauling his arm back, he smashes his fist at the Baron's chin in an uppercut movement, trying to judge his strength--this is a really durable opponent, but at the same time he does not want to knock the guy's head off.

Johnny continues his fiery assault on the spear. As he sees it cracking, he pours forth as much heat energy as he can without fully depleting his body's reserves, spurred forth by the realization that it seems to be working. Hopefully that will do it...

Just keep it up, guys...Torch almost has it, and it's looking as if the bad guys don't have much of a chance of stopping him! The only guy on their team who appears to have the ability to fly is not only grounded now (watered?), but is also just about down for the count.

And as that arrow strikes home, Hawkeye aims, and lets loose a second 'hunters sharp' aimed at exactly the same spot.

And yet, as she watches Wiccan do what he's doing...

"Don't let up!"

Wiccan jumps back quickly, carried a few extra feet than a normal jump can move thanks to the ability to fly, when the arrow comes out of nowhere to strike the Red Skull. Ok, it did not come out of nowhere it came out of Hawkeye's bow but it was still a surprise to Wiccan. The red smoke gets a blink, and then a lightning bolt because you never know if that kind of thing might be flammable and a little spark could help things along.

The plasma raining down on the inside of Wiccan's force field is too much for it, eventually it collapses under the strain of keeping all energy contained letting out a wave of hot air across the battle field.

As the force field collapses Wiccan shoots forwards again staff swinging trying his best to keep the Skull busy so that he does not notice the spear is no longer as protected, or at least that the barrier keeping people away from it is gone.

The uppercut connects and sends the Baron rocketing deeper into the water away from Booster. When he's no longer in sight...there's an explosion that might just knock Booster out of the water but no sign of the Baron.

From behind Hawkeye there's a flurry of activity.

"Rider Legacy Slash!"

"Six Star Guardian Blast!"

Both of these attacks are called out and followed by explosions. If anyone looks they'll find that horde of thugs gone and just Kurt and those other heroes still standing.

The second arrow meanwhile splits the first one right down the middle and plunges into the Red Skull's chest. This just widens the breach. The smoke doesn't burst into flames but as Red Skull uses his sword as a shield, it shatters. One of Wiccan's swings hits the spot where Hawkeye's arrow is and sends the Red Skull flying. With Johnny causing all those cracks...the moment the Skull collides with it...

KABOOM!

From the explosion, a large plume of red smoke rises into the air. It takes the shape of a skull and gives a rage-filled yell before fading away. When the dust all settles, there's glass where the sand was and shards of spear that are slowly melting away into motes of rainbow light.

Booster starts to swim-fly after the Baron, just in case the punch knocks him out; even if the Baron seems to do fine underwater, who knows if this would be the case if he is unconscious? Before he can find and drag the Baron out of the water, however, the explosion happens and the shockwave causes a big dome of water to rise and burst, and Booster gets ejected from the sea. He regains control of his flight as he is falling in a downward curve, eyes open wide in astonishment behind his goggles. Booster turns in time to see the last few explosions on land as well, and he says, "What the what--they aren't dead, are they?"

And as The Red Skull explodes...

Or at least as the spear explodes...

Hawkeye frown.

Yes she hears all the activity behind her. But she doesn't turn to look. Not with how she's afraid to find a magic wand making monsters suddenly grow. Or worse, a giant space ship with tho horse heads shooting bodies to make them grow.

Errr....

Anyways, there is a glance around as an extra arrow is drawn just in case. After all, it does look like the big baddies are gone, but still...

Finally, the spear shatters as the skull hat guy is sent flying into it. Johnny finally ceases his fiery assault and flies backward to avoid Red Skull as he is thrown backward. Plus, stuff like that often explodes when--ah, yeah. Just as he thought. The spear explodes as Skull Hat flies into it.

Once the smoke has faded and all seems to be quiet again, he looks about, surveying the situation. The Torch looks to the heroes who had summoned him here. "So is that it?" He grimaces a little. "He isn't...dead, is he?" he asks, referring to the skull hat guy who had just exploded.

Wiccan shields his eyes fromthe explosion and ends up just staring up at the skull shaped mushroom cloud. "I...yeah...that. Ok, everyone be on the look out for sudden giant monsters...I have no idea if I can replicate that with someone without Pym-particles but...I don't wnat to test it."

Kamen Rider Axiom and the sentai team walk up to the others, a few of them stretching a little. "Bobbers are just slime constructs. They were never alive to begin with," Violet speaks up. "And the Red Skull has been dead for over forty years. That was just a ghost that needed to be returned to the Underworld," KRA adds in. He walks over to the glassy crater and picks up one of the spear shards. It sits in his hand for a moment before fading away with the rest. "You did it. Both worlds are safe now."

If anyone checks for her, Madame Viper is gone too. The cables that had wrapped her up are there but it looks like something cut them to free her. Spooky.

"Man. Tough ghosts," opines Booster, as he drops down to land. He pulls some seaweed off of his shoulder, although he does not seem damp; even his hair still looks fine. The extra durability is a bonus, but this is clearly the best part of having a forcefield. He then gives a brilliant smile and a thumbs-up to the super sentai, saying, "Glad to help! Feel free to ask any time you need an extra hand to pitch in!"

"Cool." Johnny grins and descends to the ground, the flames fading from his body. He makes his way over to the severed claw, now looking as if it's made out of stone. He notices that Madame Viper has escaped and raises an eyebrow. "Where'd Snake Hat go?" he asks cautiously as he plucks the claw out of the sand.

Hopefully it won't be sapping any energy now that it's been cut off from its owner, but of course Johnny doesn't really think about that.

And as Kate slowly turns and notices Madame Hydra gone, she lets out a slight nice. Not a groan per se, but not an amused tone either.

"Great." she murmurs, before glancing over at The Sentai and The Rider.

"I hope they are. All though next time, you might want to see if you can tap one of those 'reality hopping' teams, Riders, or assorted heroes. Or heck, maybe some of the time traveling ones. After all, they have the experience when it comes to dealing with being tossed in... Odd situations like this."

Meanwhile, in another reality, The Exiles, complete with Card Captor Sakura who lost her wings, and Kamen Rider Decade finish doing their job.

Or maybe they don't and those two chars are unthemely here.

"We haven't seen the last of her," Green mutters when he notices the missing villainess too. KRA looks to Hawkeye when she speaks and shrugs a little. "We didn't get to pick who came. We just called for heroes," he explains.

The claw is indeed stone right now. Picking it up turns out to be a pretty bad idea though. When Johnny touches it, the areas his hand touch seem to unpetify and begin to pull the energy out of the Human Torch. "Put that down!" Blue calls, rushing over to Johnny.

Red and KRA meanwhile begin to prepare something, attaching two halves of an odd-looking medal. "We'll be able to send you home whenever you're ready."

"I -am- one of the time traveling ones," Booster says to Kate, giving her a wink and a tongue-click as he points a finger-gun her way. To the sentai, he says, "If you don't need anything else... I mean, I'm sure your world is awesome. But all my stuff and my friends are in the other one."

There's a glance at Booster as he says that, before Kate shakes her head. Then she glances at Billy and the others who're here.

"I can't speak for everyone. But I think we all have reasons to get back. Besides..."

She glances at The Sentai, "Odds are you have a Purple and Gold member who'll sort of join you eventually, not to mention other colors, and you don't need us around to clutter things up."

All though as that's said, she then winks at 'Eddie' for some reason.

"Heh, figures! One of 'em always manages to get away. But I guess that's just how it goes." Johnny remarks at the statement that they haven't seen the last of Snake Hat. "But I think we took care of them for now. All in a day's..." He ignores Blue's warnings, and realizes too late that the the stony claw is draining his energy again as he starts to pocket it.

Suddenly, he doesn't feel so good. In fact, spots are appearing in his vision and he starts to feel quite faint...

Within a few seconds, the Human Torch has collapsed onto the sand.

Blue moves quickly, grabbing the claw from Johnny after he hits the sand and pitching it into the ocean. He crouches down to check on Johnny and sighs a little. "He'll be alright," the blue warrior assures the others.

KRA gives an amused chuckle to Kate's comments and nods to Booster. "We're fine for now," he says. "And if you ever need help in your world, we'll be glad to help," Red offers. The medal glows and releases glowing balls of rainbow light the mimic the ones that brought the heroes to this world. They circle them and emit bright flashes of light. When the light clears, the heroes will find themselves back where they were. Equipment repaired and replaced, injuries healed and sadly none of the toys they may have collected. The only exception to this is the Human Torch. He appears laying on the coffee table in the the Baxter Building living room. All five heroes will have something new with them. In a pocket, on a finger, or just held in their hands. A simple ring made of an unusual rainbow metal. Just something to put in their trophy cases to remember the adventure by.