2013.06.24 - Cleaning Out The Basement

The Majestic Theatre. Outside, Amanda's magical chain-link and concrete dome still encompasses the property, though the upper levels are quiescent, for the moment... Probably because all the monsters on those levels have been handily dealt with in the past hour or so: A pair of remnants of the gigerspawn nest from the movie night, a warren of Rodents of Unusual Size, a couple of man-sized spiders, and a handful of what looked like stunted paradaemons... but probably weren't. (Then again, you never know, with this place.)

Now, it's time to breech the basement -- something Amanda has quite definitely been putting off, without some serious firepower at her back. The last time she looked down through the giant hole that was the stage and its related mechanisms, she saw something big and reptilian moving (well, slithering, actually) about. Its markings were hard to discern in the magelight, but the last time she'd seen anything remotely similar to that, it was in a hell-realm. And she nearly got herself eaten.

So. Not tempting that fate again. No siree.

As it is, she currently hovers over that pit once more, peering down into light of a mageball she sent down to illuminate the landing area -- what was once the old carp shop for the theatre. Nothing moves. No scaly whatsits slither in the darkness. All that can be seen is twisted debris from the stage and the erstwhile (vintage!) power and hand tools that once helped fashion the vaudevillian sets that supported the live shows in the 30's. All is quiet, for the moment.

She glances to her companions for this little venture. "Shall we?"

When Amanda put the call into Illyana, the *other* blonde sorceress didn't hesitate to say she'd be there. She also grabbed her big brother because who better to guard your back against big nasties? Now Illyana stands in her white cloak and tunic, Soulsword already drawn and point-down against the floor as she rests her hands on the pommel. "You always take me to the nicest places." She says sarcastically as she glances over to Amanda. A small nod is given though, indicating she's ready.

Kurt is so very, very jazzed for this. He's been fretting about this for days. Yes, days. Pacing. Considering. Bamfing about the various rooms when indoor, bamfing about the trees and buildings when out. The magelight that Amanda had tossed downwards had given him something of an interesting view, even if the mage herself couldn't see it.. and her hunch was pretty much on target. Sort of reptilian.. thingies.

But they're going into the bowels of the theatre! So much very cool  things can be found down there..

The blue elf is careful where he puts hands and feet now, however, having experienced the goo and grime and the general, overall.. yuckiness on the walls, on the broken ceilings.. (the absence of which still hasn't completely aired out the stench- no complaining about his bamf any more!)

His tail sways gently from side to side as he looks into the hole once again, those featureless yellow eyes glowing with .. excitement of yet another.. adventure. It's right up his alley! (So to speak.)

"I think, liebchen, that you will get your whites dirty. So, you don't get upset when it happens," and Kurt reaches out to put a smudge on Illyana's sleeve like an artist puts a last touch on a masterpiece. "There."

Piotr has already transformed when Illyana portals them in and he's looking around the theatre. "These are demons who chose to come here and do evil on our world, da?" Because that means killing them is perfectly all right. "I would not wish to harm those who were brought here and just wish to go home." Kurt's antics do get a brief smile.

Amanda gives Illyana a dry chuckle. "Yeah. I know. Gorgeous views. Fresh air. Paradise. Really." Yes. Completely sarcastic. This place is anything but. The 90 year old building is mouldy and musty, its floors cracked and covered with old bones, the remains of corpses of various unknown creatures that were food for lots of other unknown creatures. There are blood streaks and worse, all over. And just because something looks dead, doesn't mean it is. Which, of course, is why the quartet had to actually fight their way to get thus far.

Thus, it's likely none of them look all that pristine, at the moment.

For her part, Amanda's sporting the new look she adopted a few weeks back -- combat leathers loosely based on the X-Men blacks and a sturdy hood to give her face at least partial concealment. More than that, the leathers shimmer with the faint glimmer of magic where she worked an armour spell into them. Girl may not have a sword, but she came prepared to fight.

She glances to Piotr. "We've yet to encounter anything remotely human or friendly in this place. I don't know if there's an open hell maw or just a general rip in the Veil Between Worlds. I'm hoping, though, we'll find out before this is over." And before any of them die. "Unless it sues for peace, though, I think we're pretty safe to go weapons free, however. Nothing I've seen here is something I want hunting the streets of New York."

Her nostrils flare a little as she takes a deep breath -- and instantly regrets it. She grimaces, primes a pair of magic bolts on her fists, and descends into the hole.

Illyana Rasputina looks down at where Kurt besmirches her oh-shoot-me-now outfit and smirks at the fuzzy elf. "Imp." She chides him. She lifts her sword into a comfortable grip and then opens a portal beneath herself and Piotr that only rises to ankle-high. Then, the disk itself rises, moving them upwards a bit and then in a slow, gentle descent so it looks like the portal is carrying them when actually their feet stand on Limbo's soil, stationary in that other realm and only moving in this one. Fun with portals.

Yarr. Of course upon the blue bamfer's hip sits a couple of swords. He'd taken them the last time he was at the theatre, and somehow, it just seems fitting once again. "I am expecting the chandelier to come crashing down upon us, by the way." Not that there is actually an intact chandelier sitting upon the ... non-existent ceiling!

There's a bottom to the hole, yes.. and it's something Kurt can see. Of course his way is clear.. "There are very few demons with pleasant conversational skills, mein freund." Illyana's reaction gains her a toothy.. er.. fangy, fond smile, but one filled with the promise of more teasing along the way. His tail swings forward in gesture, "I'm too much fun to be 'lesser', liebchen. You wound me!" Lesser demon! Sheesh!

BAMF!

Down to the next bit of floor that can be seen, and Kurt appears in his signature cloud of brimstone. Thus.. making the place smell better.

Piotr nods at the answer. "So it is a bug hunt." Pause. "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It is the only way to be sure, da?" The big Russian is a Sigourney Weaver fan it seems.

Amanda's mageball floats up into a corner, out of the way of the mutants' descent. The carp shop is actually fairly cavernous. There's an old freight elevator over in one corner, and the bulk of the ruined stage lifting mechanisms slouch just in behind the small team. That leaves a lot of open space. The ceiling -- what's left of it -- is a good twenty five feet overhead, cut with support beams. Old lumber has fallen out of bins and off broken shelves along one wall. The old power tools are rusted and broken. There is grume on the floor and tracks through the muddy sawdust, leading to what looks like an inordinately tall heap of garbage and biowaste in the farthest corner, well away from the light. Bones, half-eaten corpses, and dripping slime complete the decor, making the place stink unhealthily.

The sorceress looks around carefully. "What do you see, Kurt?" Because he's got the best eyes for seeing into those dark shadows and corners of any of them.

"Pride, fuzzy." Illyana chides Nightcrawler as they descend. Her nose wrinkles at the smell and the general 'ick' of the place. "I hate the slime. At least Limbo's low on slime." She notes. The disk fades away, leaving the siblings standing on solid(ish) ground and she waits, letting Colossus go ahead of her.

Well, the good news is is that there's no giant cockroaches like he'd encountered under the city streets of New York, but the badnews? Kurt finally takes one of the swords at his hip, and bamfs up into the rafters where he does his best gargoyle (IMP!) impersonation. From this particular vantage point, he first.. wrinkles his nose, shakes his head to try and keep the smell from sticking to the inside of his nose.

"Honesty, liebchen. I cannot lie," comes as a grinned response. "But you are right. At least Limbo doesn't smell as bad. Did you know Hell does, indeed, smell like my bamfs?" Kurt shakes his head. "But one gets used to it, remarkably. It's just harder to get out of the clothes." And fur.

"Colossus," and Kurt sounds almost.. sad. Theatrically such. "How could you even consider nuking this wonderful theatre? It's.. a masterpiece in architecture.. what with the occasional bone tossed around, und.. und.. the garbage heap with.."

ROUS.

"Liebling, there are some rather large rodents.."

"Limbo is a very neat place." Piotr agrees. "You keep it very tidy." Being mostly a wasteland helps with that. As he looks around at it all, he decides he was wrong about joking about nuking the place. It shouldn't be a joke; they should totally nuke it. "Stay behind me and I will toss you demons to stab." Once on the bottom, he moves ahead so Illyana is behind him. "Nightcrawler, I have always wondered... Can you teleport someone so that they end up in a wall and you do not? Or teleport so that something you are holding, such as your sword, ends up in a demon?" Actually, he's pretty sure Nightcrawler can. What he's wondering is what happens.

"Personally," Amanda says remarkably sanguinely in response, "I don't think that's a bad idea, Colossus. Can we hold it in reserve?" She flashes a grin at Kurt. "Or, how about fire? We could just torch the place." Though, in either case, the bio-hazard containment and clean-up afterwards would be no less than it is now. "I'm thinking Eldritch fire. What do you think, Illy?"

As Kurt announces them, however, several dark shapes begin descending the rubbish pile. There are about half a dozen of them, at first, with inky fur in shades of black, rust, and mottled grey. Truthfully, they look diseased, mangy. Their eyes are red, and glow faintly. (That's not natural, no.) Their teeth are demoniacally sharp, and their claws are probably crawling with really unhealthy germs and bacteria.

The rubbish heap itself shudders as if something is stirring beneath it.

"I can't conjure the kind of fire we need here." Magik admits. On Earth, her magic is pretty weak. "My biggest worry is that it'll make anything in here bolt, moving into the city proper instead of piling on us." At least the four of them stand some decent odds against the nasties.

As the ROUSes start to swarm out, Illyana takes a stance, wrapping both hands around the hilt of her sword. "Ready when you are, big brother."

"I..." Kurt pauses at Piotr's question, and he looks thoughtful.. pensive as he perches in his spot for those few seconds, his gaze flickering over towards Amanda as she considers the same. "I hadn't thought about it, mein freund. I can bamf things out of peoples' hands, ja. I can bamf people und.. small vehicles." That was some sort of fun! "Which came as some surprise to both me und the other person. But.. I hadn't really thought about teleporting them into a wall und me not. Because I do have that failsafe- not bamfing into things, that is." Failsafe, after a fashion, that is.

"I'll have to give it some thought, und perhaps give it a try." Kurt is always up for learning new things to do with his bamf!

"Liebling! How could you!" What a horrible suggestion. "I can't believe you'd--"

Oh hey! Beady red eyes! Goes with Kurt's glowing yellow eyes, and those narrow as he begins a leap down from his spot, flipping, tucked and rolling in the air, before he lands on the ground with almost no sound (but for the planks going *creak* under his weight, that is!). Kurt takes one of the first down with what starts as a simple thrust, only to twist around, taking the rodent on the 'spit' that is his sword, and slams it against a wall.. with rather a great deal of force.

"What if we were not here?" Piotr asks, striding forward to grab a rat. Rat bodies might be very flexible; their skulls less so. Once it pops, he throws it at a second rat to knock it over. "Can you take the theatre to Limbo?" This is the day for exploring boundaries!

Amanda hovers a little higher, once more, and lets loose with a pair of magic bolts, flipping one of the large rodents -- large meaning about the size of wolf -- off the rubbish pile and into the exposed circular blade of an old table saw. It lays there stunned for a moment before trying to rise again. The scent of its brackish blood, however, attracts at least one of its fellows, which pounces on it. A scuffle ensues, but the witch's attention is already moving onto other targets.

"I know the thought of destroying an old place like this pains you, Liebende," she says to Kurt, throwing up a shield to redirect the swarm into a more contained approach, to make it easier to pick them off, "but seriously. Look at this place. It's completely corrupted. Killing it would be a kindness."

Taking the theatre to Limbo, mind, is a very interesting idea. However, there's something decidedly wrong about the way this place sits in the reality that is New York. So, chances are transporting it would be problematic -- not to mention costly from a mystical energy standpoint.

The rubbish pile swells a little bigger still, disgorging all its rats -- though that does nothing to deflate its size.

"Too large for me," Kurt spins around again as the overgrown, overfed and under-welcomed rat hits the wall with something of a rather satisfying *thump*. "Und I think I would cry if Illy took it. It's lovely... again, without the rats. Und the bones. Und the grime. I think even her demons would be a little put out about having to clean such a thing."

A *bamf* brings the blue fuzzy one back near that pile where more rats are descending from the pile of .. is that debris moving?

Moving?

"Liebling.. there is something under there.." comes as Kurt skewers yet another rat as it tries to take hold of his tail.. his TAIL of all things, and tosses with full force.

"Mercy killing? Really? I'm willing to spend time with it, und.. bring it back to life. A poor, tortured soul of a theatre. You know how I am about lost causes."

That pile now, however? Really disgusting, and the elf has to get a little faster with his skewering, which requires the use of his second sword, which is now brandished. "Now this is getting.. silly. Is there something under there und.. a little.. er.. big rat factory is beneath?"

"Too big!" Magik calls back to her brother, waiting for him to throw one back towards her and she deftly skewers the thing, causing it to shriek horribly. While her blade just passes through normal people like an illusion, it's absolutely deadly to creatures of magic, undoing the very nature of their existence. There's a flash as Illyana teleports in to skewer another of the creatures before she's back away. It's not as fast and effortless as Nightcrawler, but she's not bad at it at all.

It's like the fish throwers in Seattle's fish market. Colossus grabs a rat, tosses it behind him for Illyana to skewer, repeat. "Too big for your disks?" As the pile begins to give hints of something beneath it, he stops letting the rats come to him and advances toward the pile. "Be careful, Nightcrawler."

The rats aren't so much being produced by the rubbish pile as they are fleeing the rubbish pile. That's really because there's not so much something living beneath the thing as the thing itself seems to be alive. A living mound of... well, we really don't want to know what it's actually made of, do we? It's enough to know that, as rats and superficial debris tumble off of it, it's predatory and alive. It moves like a ooze, smells like blood and shit, death and decay, and has all sorts of disgusting things sticking out of its greasy red-black, gelatinous flesh. As it moves, it makes a schlukking, sucking noise, each movement across the ground ponderous, though the oozing tendril like limbs it starts to sprout move with remarkable agility and speed.

Who needs big reptile critters, anyway?

"Oh, crap..." Amanda says as the thing begins swelling toward the ceiling in a Tetsuo-in-Akira sort of way. "Watch out!" Tendrils lash out, seeking to grab anything living thing they can wrap their slimy, ropey girth around -- rats and mutants alike.

"Fire! Fire would be good here!" Illyana yells over to Daytripper as she just manages to teleport out of the way of a tendril. Clearly the rats will have to wait a bit here. The blonde sorceress flashes in, swinging her blade at a tendril to try to lop it off and then teleporting out just as quickly.

Kurt should have known, he should have! When rats leave a ship, it means.. something bad  is going to happen. So it isn't so much a rat factory under there, but...

"Beware of the Blob!"

Of course Kurt would make that connection as he skewers yet another rat.. one on each of his swords, thus 'dulling them', after a fashion, as the gelatenous.. yucky blob creature makes a leap.. er.. a *shluck* at him. There's a moment when it seems as if he's actually going to be grabbed by the leg, but there's a sweep of his sword, and the rat that was bleeding out on his rapier is fed to the .. creature. Thing. Entity.. and he leaps back, the other rat still run through.

"Colussus.. be careful." Does that sound familiar at all? Teammates to the end!

Whether they're demonic or not, whether they're made of garbage or not, one thing Piotr has learned about amorphous things: sheer brute force does not work well. "Da, I shall certainly try to." Hopefully it'll be as ineffective against him as he suspects he'll be against it. "I second the idea of fire."

Fire's a good idea. (Sorry, Kurt. Looks like this place may burn, after all.) Amanda looks around. "I need kindling," she says. Fortunately, there's lots of that old lumber and saw dust. "The wood! Colossus, can you toss a pile of it around the thing while Kurt, Illy, and I keep it busy?"

The rats that get tossed at the thing squeal as they're sucked into its body. The observant might also note that, while it's feasting on rat, it seems to slow down somewhat... Digestion, apparently, takes energy and, perhaps, concentration. (Assuming the thing has anything akin to a brain.)

Illyana Rasputina has teleported about as far away as she can get in the confines of the basement, but from there she turns her attention to the fleeing rats, opening portals right in front of them and then dropping them onto the blob. Kills the rats they don't want escaping and slows down the baddie. Doublescore!

Fire?!

Kurt looks.. seriously disappointed, and he looks to Amanda as she seconds it. "How could you.."

Still, Kurt's bamfed back into the rafters, and he slides the other rat off his sabre, dropping it down into the .. gelatinous thing and barks a laugh at the lemming-ness of Illy's portals. "Now that is an interesting way. Have you been playing Portal, liebchen?"

Sadly, the blue elf can't think of a better way to get rid of the creature; he's not about to touch the thing to bamf it to Hell. Well, he could, but it might be a little painful..

"Is there no other way?"

"Da." If there's one thing Piotr is good at, it's breaking things and throwing things. Two things. Breaking things, throwing things, and picking up hot guys in bars. Three things. Brea... Anyway, he goes over to the lumber that's fallen and starts tossing it at the pile of rubbish. Some of the larger pieces of timber, he actually uses as javelins, throwing them hard so they spear their way into the pile itself.

"I'm open to suggestions!" Amanda says to Kurt, but she really doesn't see another way, herself. The oozy thing slows as more and more of the fleeing rats are dumped in its way. Those already sucked within are slowly having the flesh leached off their bones. It's... well, let's just call it disgusting and leave it at that. Anything more graphic than that is simply gratuitous.

She uses her magic bolts to zat any tendrils that lash out at our intrepid heroes, particularly Colossus as he builds the tinder pile up higher and higher around the creature. When the pile is sufficient, she calls out, "Fire in the hole!" as a warning they should scramble back, and calls up an eldritch fireball to lob at the thing. Nothing says *sizzle* like the mystical equivalent to Greek fire, after all...

"People keep asking me that. I don't play video games." Illyana calls back to Kurt. "I'm busy with the real thing." When Amanda calls out fire in the hole, Magik crouches and brings up her hands, opening a portal like it's a shield to shelter behind.

"At least shield it so it won't catch the rest of the theatre?" Kurt remains on his rafter now, playing gargoyle, perched, his tail flipped up with the spade-tip dangling over his head. "Other than that, I've got nothing."

It's when the fireball comes that the fuzzy elf has to look away so as not to destroy his dim light vision. Any shielding, well.. he's trusting Amanda in that department!

"You must come to the boat later, und I'll show you the game. For you, it should be a cake walk. I know it was for me."

Piotr shields his eyes for the same reason Kurt does but once the flames are steady, goes back to throwing lumber at the pile. "When all the demons are gone, Nightcrawler will return with a mop and bucket. The theatre will be 'spick and span' in no time."

The old wood catches fire immediately, though it's smoky because of the damp. The blob also catches fire, and is also smoky -- this time because of the grease. It actually squeals as the eldritch flame starts to boil off its inky flesh, sending oily smoke ceiling ward to roll across the rafters and billow out the natural duct that is the hole that was the stage. Amanda erects enough of a shield to keep the adventuring mutants safe, but she can't possibly protect the whole building... despite the fact that there's something in close proximity that seems to give magical powers a bit of a boost. Enough so, that it's likely even Illyana will feel it and might be able to take advantage of it.

Too, for those used to the feeling of moving between one realm and another, there's a sense of an overlay of various realities that ripples out from some place outside of the immediate room, but still near to hand.

Kurt whistles softly a tune, for those who know television, it's best known as 'Carol's theme', the opening lines (that remain unsung) being I'm so glad we had this time together.... Carol Burnett? Cartoon mop and bucket?

Yeah.

Once the acrid, greasy smoke begins to rise, however, Kurt *bamfs* himself off the rafters and down near Piotr, keeping his eyes away from the flames.

It's that magic, however, that causes the fuzz on the back of his neck to rise. Kurt looks around, his back towards the pile of goo that is just.. staining the woodwork, bubbling and oozing for a completely different reason. The death throes, well.. he can only hope.

It's that magic boosting that he feels deep within, but moreso, that feeling of dimensional.. shift. Kurt's yellow eyes widen, and he has to shield his eyes as he forgets about that whole 'light' thing for a moment as he looks around the carpenter's shop once again. This.. that feeling. "Liebling.. there is something.." and even he can feel it.

Now, this is for both Illy and Amanda.. "Can you feel it?"

As the smoke starts to billow upwards, Illyana pulls her cloak up to cover her mouth. "What a wonderful smell you've discovered." She tosses over at Amanda. She can feel the strength of the magical energies here and as Amanda puts up the shield she drops the one portal, opening up another beneath the blob to drop it into Limbo. A building's too big, but the blob, that she can handle. "Yeah, we're definitely at the middle of some dimensional weirdness here."

Yay for not having to breath. Piotr can ignore the smell completely. "Illyana, are you certain that will be safe in Limbo? Or rather, are you certain it will not be safe? We should be sure it does not manage to escape the flames and survive."

Amanda chuckles dryly at Illyana's dry observation, pulling a scarf over her own face and coughing lightly. For a moment, she wonders if the other sorceress meant to quote Han Solo or not...

Ultimately, however, it doesn't matter. So, she nods to Illy and to Kurt, the blob falling away into Limbo to continue burning there. "Yeah. I feel it, too." A few pieces of wood still smoulder with green fire that, frankly, will keep burning for a while if the witch doesn't put them out, first. She actually debates doing so, because, really, the place would be better for the scorching. But, in the end, she whispers an incantation to rescind the fire, thus preventing it from spreading further while they search for the source of the magical mojo fuelling this place.

Illyana Rasputina has very few 'normal' hobbies. One of them is movies. "Nice thing about a hell-realm. There's always lava somewhere." She offers to the others as she straightens up and closes her eyes so she can concentrate on stretching her magical senses outward.

A soft, tuneless whistle sounds next from the elf as the blob is portaled away. Kurt is more than willing to visit Illy's Limbo, any time she asks. He .. sort of likes it there. After a fashion. It allows him to stretch out, and in a funny way, feel.. alive? Of course, his own dimension through which he teleports, well. It's just.. moreso. "Lava? I should look next time I'm in Hell. So far, I haven't come across any." And he sounds.. a little disappointed. Until, of course, the thought of unrepentant, tortured souls were proported to burn there.. lakes of fire. "Or.. perhaps it is better I don't."

Illyana's comment, or rather, her quote from Star Wars brings a barked laugh from the elf, his expression clearing from that moment of .. whatever. "At least it was one of the 'real' movies. Not one of the abominations made later."

Amanda's .. rescue of the theatre earns the mage a broad, bright, fangy-smile, and he bamfs from where he stands beside Piotr, to her side so he can give her a kiss on the cheek. "Danke, liebling." So pleased!!

Now, however, Kurt is ready to go find that bit of dimensional.. stuff. With another *bamf*, Kurt is on the wall, ready to head towards a door leading out of the carpentry shop. "I love old places like this."

Piotr nods, satisfied with Illyana's assurances. "Well, then. Lead the way to what it is we are looking for." Extra-dimensional magical portals are outside his pay grade.

Amanda chuckles dryly as Kurt kisses her. "Thank Illyana," she tells him. "Otherwise, that thing would still be burning merrily right here." And she's completely unrepentant about that.

The strongest 'pull' of magic seems to emanate from beyond a broken door along the far wall, somewhat opposite to the ooze's erstwhile bed. The hallway beyond the wood shop should be darker than the shop itself, having no de facto skylight to shed illumination into it. But, it's not.

As eyes readjust to the gloom in the absence of both Amanda's original magelight and the last of the eldritch flame, the cast of watery light along the hallway's far wall and floor is evident through the broken doorway -- a greenish blue light like neon filtered through lake water. It slants distinctly, indicating the source of the light stands at the far end of the corridor on the right hand side.

Illyana Rasputina's head turns, eyes still closed and then she raises her arm, pointing with her sword. "That way." She says, opening them and looking towards the hallway that leads deeper. She waits for Piotr to take the lead. The siblings are used to working together. "You know Kurt, I think you're the only person that *wants* to visit me in Limbo." She says wryly.

Well, if Kurt should thank Illyana, that is exactly what it is he does. With a quick *bamf*, he shows up next to the Limbo queen (not THAT kind!) and leans over to give her a brushed, fuzzy kiss on the cheek. "You saved the theatre." So far, anyway.

Now, with the gelatinous, goo.. monster (think Blob!) gone.. first satiated by Rodents of Unusual Size, and then burned to death by magefire gone (adding insult to injury, btw!) to Limbo where it can burn out its days amongst little imps, our intrepid heroes can find the time to breathe (not to deeply, it is still rather noxious down in the carpenter's room below the stage!) and feel the magics that is a dimensional.. strangeness that is down the corridor.

Kurt grins in response to Illy's observation, "How many demon friends do you have?"

Of course, the gloom isn't quite when one has good eyesight in such lighting, and looking to Amanda, then back to Illyana, Kurt is ready to head down the hall.. on the wall, his tail trailing behind him, his bloodied swords back at his hip.

"You need more human contact in Limbo, Illyana." Piotr notes, immediately starting off in the directions she points. "Nightcrawler can visit you as often as he wishes." He pauses a moment to turn to look at Kurt before continuing again. "You do not mind Illyana dancing with people, do you? She dances very well and enjoys it."

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

TJ stumbles out from the bedroom, sleepily pawing at her eyes with a delicate touch. She hadn't told the others about the headache that completely wiped her out several hours ago, nor the troubling dreams which kept her from feeling properly rested during most of her time spent out of the picture. Lazily she wanders over to the fridge and pulls out a carton of orange juice, craftily glancing from one side to the next before drinking out of the carton, directly. What the others don't know...

Speaking of, "Where the heck is everyone?" she says aloud to an empty dwelling. At this hour it's not surprising that no one else is around, but still...

A moment later and she remembers. "Aw--crap."

The carton is left on the counter as she goes lunging for the closet, practically tripping over her own tail in her efforts to swap out evening attire for the closest thing she owns to an official uniform. Then she's running right back out, leaping from one wall to another while trying to straighten out the tangled mass of braidwork atop her head. "What was I supposed to do again, something with the pet rock, right..?" One rock in hand later and she just crouches there, staring blankly at the miniature boulder. "Um. Hello..? On-Stone? Man, I've heard of pet rocks but I feel like a tool trying to converse with one..."

"You should see his 'Hell'," Amanda says dryly to the Rasputin siblings. "It makes Limbo look pleasant." Of course, her opinion might be biased, since the master of that realm (not Kurt!) really didn't like her very much. Not, mind, that she ever met said master. She was flicked out of the place like a fly off a picnic basket.

As Kurt starts forward, the sorceress pauses, however. Her hand goes to the crystal pendant that hangs perpetually about her neck, these days... even in combat leathers. What the others in theatre basement see is nothing more than the woman closing her eyes, fingertips against the stone. Her lips move slightly, but her concentration is obviously on something only she can see.

"TJ?" Amanda appears to the blue girl as a head and shoulders floating in mid air... much as TJ appears to her. It's all an illusion, of course -- one shared only by they two. "Decided to wake up, did you? Care to join us? We're monster hunting." A beat. "You missed the ooze. Count yourself lucky."

In the basement, now, she raises a hand, opening her eyes to look at the others. "I think Nocturne may be joining us," she tells them. Then, she recites her own portal spell and a gateway between her apartment, where Kurt's daughter stands looking sleepily flummoxed and holding a silly chip of concrete can be seen.

"Well, that's the perks to it being a splinter hell-realm ruled by someone with a bit of soul left." Illyana says in her sarcastic sort of way. Piotr's questions have her narrowing cold blue eyes at her brother. "Please, please, *please* don't tell me you're trying to set me up with uncle Kurt."

"Of course I don't mind her dancing with people, mein freund. I may take her out dancing once or twice.." Kurt begins, but when Illyana comes out with.. that? "Uh.." and those glowing yellow eyes blink once, twice. "Oh, mein Gott.. nein.. Illyana.. liebchen.. Colossus? Nein. I knew her when--" she was SIX!

"My hell is getting a little better, once you get used to it." However, 'getting used to it' means that Kurt must visit it once or twice, here and there.

Ahem.

Kurt is still on the wall, and as the blue, wobbly light illuminates the corridor, Kurt can't help but stare, though Amanda's words catch him. "Was?" Twisting around, he quirks his head before his smile grows, showing those fangs again. White in a bit of darkness. He's being swallowed by the shadows cast on the wall such that he has to make himself obvious. "Did she finally wake up?"

It's the 'uncle' that gets Piotr to sigh softly. "No, of course not." Even though few people would understand Illyana better than Kurt could. "You can still go to clubs together and have fun, as Kurt says. You will enjoy it. Let us go close this portal." He stops as the portal opens and waits for Nocturne to join them.

TJ looks rather surprised when talking to that sliver of concrete 'works.' "Sorry, I was up all night partying," she says with a sheepish tone and a grin to match. The shrug that she ends it with sums up the 'what can you do?' part of her excuse.

She's debating running back for the OJ when she's suddenly inside of the theater, instead. Fighting before breakfast, she's never been a fan. On the other hand, now there's another pair of featureless yellow eyes glowing within the shadows. Reinforcements have arrived.

"Nocturne has joined your struggle, the forces of the Majestic grow strong--oh, gawd I forgot about the smell!"

Three-fingered hands promptly close down around her mouth and nose, those yellow eyes narrowing into blade-like slits. "Agh--it's attacking my olfactory!"

Then, standing around looking all goofy and weird, TJ spots Illyana. There, she stops. In her twisted and warped reality, things just got real.

Amanda actually has to laugh at Nocturne's reaction. There are still traces in the air of smoke from the burning ooze Illy dumped into Limbo. And, yes. It reeks. It's a dry laugh, to be sure, but still.

She glances at the blue girl as those yellow eyes go all buggy for a moment. "TJ? Have you met Illyana and Piotr Rasputin? Magik and Colossus. They're giving your father and I a hand cleaning out this place." She gives a tight smile to the others. "Folks, this is Nocturne -- TJ. Kurt's daughter from an alternate future timeline." Not hers! That's another kid altogether.

She looks again at TJ, and to Kurt. "How about you and your father make sure the coast is clear for us?"

Illyana Rasputina arches a brow as TJ stops to stare at her, crossing her arms a bit defensively in front of her and cradling the soulsword so it rests against one shoulder. The details on who she is has her glancing to her brother. "Look out, next thing you know *you'll* have a kid from another future reality showing up. Eeesh." Between Kurt and Scott...

Kurt is hanging on the wall, upside down now.. though up and down are pretty much the same for the teleporter, and his spade-tipped tail twitches. "Once you get used to it," he begins, and shakes his head, "No.. that's not true. It's still disgusting. I can bamf a few times und make it smell better?"

He holds out a hand for TJ to join him. "Ja.. Illyana, Piotr, this is TJ.." But Amanda makes the rest of the introductions. Instead, Kurt offers, just to clarify, "They are.. were.. my teammates, und continue to be meine freunde."

Illyana's quip, however, gains the blonde Russian a wide grin. "Do you really think so? I think we should look. It might be amusing, ja?"

"That would not be amusing." Piotr decides without needing to think about Illyana's warning for more than a second. "I suddenly have more sympathy for Scott and Jean." Pause. "No offense to you, TJ. I am sure you are a very good daughter and it is nice to meet you."

TJ's wave in greeting to the other two is awkward, to say the least. "Yeah, I've..met..alternate versions of you both. Hiya."

Amanda's suggestion about the two Blue Crawlers doing a scouting run for the group is almost eagerly accepted from her. "Yeah, that sounds like a stellar idea. Ah, none taken, nice to meetcha, too," she quickly adds for Piotr's benefit.

With Kurt's lead, one jump and a ceiling-adhering later, she's forging ahead with Blue Bamfer Prime like a pair of fuzzy, cuddly xenomorphs. Once they've got some distance from the other two she quietly asks Kurt "How well do you know this Illy?" There's something in her tone which sounds as though she's pleading for a certain kind of response.

In retrospect, missing breakfast is quickly turning into a blessing in disguise. The smell isn't improving, at all.

It'll be a while before the stench improves. Out in the hallway, however, there's a scuttling noise at the darker end of the hallway, behind the intrepid heroes. At the lit end, there's a ball of mystical energy, green and blue in colour and spinning like a sphere of broken glass about a foot off the ground. It is large enough that Colossus could pass through it without ducking... which might explain the size of some of the critters they've met in this gods forsaken place.

Amanda gives the Rasputins a wry smile and a shrug before she heads for the hallway, herself. "What do you see?" she asks the bamfers.

Illyana chuckles a her brother's response. "'Not amusing' he says." She shakes her head and falls in with Amanda so that the scout-types and the tank can take the lead. Mages to the back, y'know.

"Of course it would," Kurt retorts over his shoulder, even as he spins around on the wall and begins to make his way along with TJ. Hadn't he said before that the Spideys had nothing on him?

Ha!

Using the wall very much like others use the floor, Kurt takes it easily, and when TJ's sotto tones reach him, he studies his daughter's fuzzy face, looking at her, and giving her question the gravity of a response that is .. appropriate. "I have known Illyana since she was a child, liebchen. Und in her particular hell where she was.. sadly raised? I still worry about her und pray for her. But, when it is said und done, she is my friend. She und I have an understanding; one that few people can understand." Here, however, he offers a broad smile, "We demons have to stick together, ja?"

Now, however, it's back to work (for the time being!), and those glowing yellow eyes look ahead, and he exhales. "I hate bug things.. I had enough of them before.." And now, Kurt raises his voice, "Large.. bugs.." even as he pulls a sword, now bloodied with ichor and.. rat gore leftover.

"It would not be." Piotr repeats, glancing over at Illyana. As the two blue furry ones take the lead, he follows. "Illyana, does your sword work on magical portals as well?"

Mages in the back, indeed! Amanda likes being at range, for sure.

The bug things Kurt refers to look like a cross between a beetle and a scorpion -- complete with the large, curving stinger on the back and sharp pincers on the front. The nexus light reflects on their chitinous hides; they actually glitter a little. It'd be pretty, if it were just on empty shells. There are three of them.

As she steps into the hallway, Amanda crouches and begins chanting a shielding spell, for when it will inevitably come in handy. Her attention, however, is somewhat divided. While the big bugs are scary, the nexus point is at once both beautiful and perplexing. To the eyes of a magic user, it's evident the thing isn't so much a tear in the Veil as it is a ley line junction... which means closing it probably isn't as much of an option as they'd hope.

Containing it, however... that they may be able to do.

All TJ can do is listen to what Kurt has to say and take him for his word. She trusts him, and if he trusts Illyana, well... Things are likely going to be murky on that front for a while, but it's a start. She doesn't look all that happy about it, either.

"Look on the bright side, there's no moral hangups with mashing giant insects, right?"

Both of her hands come forward as she perches from the ceiling, thick fingers wiggling in anticipation. The grin which follows is completely, utterly, Talia. Focus on the immediate problems first, like the infestation that they've still got left to worry about. "Betcha I can get one of 'em to explode." To the others, she adds "They look tough and probably have stingers, think it's gonna take more than a few cans of RAID to clear this place out. Mind the portal, people."

Illyana chews on her lower lip as she eyes the portal up ahead. "As a last resort. Using my sword to break a portal was what got us into trouble last time." When the different Limbos started to converge. "Besides, this isn't quite the same... I tear this up and it'll feedback through the rest of the Earth's magical network and *that'll* be a mess of epic proportions." She looks over to Amanda, "I can volunteer as a battery, but my juice is pretty low here."

"There never has been any moral problem with killing bugs. I don't even like spiders." Kurt is in perfect agreement, and as TJ wiggles her fingers and grins, his own smile echoes. "We could have used your 'blow things up' ability back there with the giant blob. It either could have killed it, or exploded it into a thousand different, live pieces." Which gives the blue bamfer something of a chill. It was pretty gross!

With TJ on the ceiling and him on the wall, Kurt calls back to Colossus, though he's sure the man of iron isn't far behind. "I don't know if their stinger can get through.. probably not, mein freund. But.. be careful."

With that, of course.. what does Kurt do but.. be Kurt. Pushing off the wall, he leaps in the air, only to land on the back of one and shove a sword where the chiton and head.. section seems to be.

Butbut..they have stingers and claws and--

"Careful, Dad!"

TJ, thank goodness, gets to play the role of a blaster once again. One handspring across the top of the room later and she's closer, hanging by her feet, and targeting another one of the bugs with a -Blamf!- of energy, straight out of the very dimension that Kurt passes through when he teleports. With none of the smell. Her trick is more like teleporting a concussion grenade onto whatever she's aiming at, forged out of pure energy. It may not blast the bug into itty bitty pieces but it is likely to knock it around! It depends on how tough their exoskeletons happen to be.

"I really hope these aren't what pass for cockroaches in this timeline!"

"We need to lock it down," Amanda tells Illyana, nodding. Let the others deal with the bugs, the pair of them are more suited to this task. She wrinkles her nose, thinking. "I can probably shield it, if you can ground me." Now, a grimace. "But the trick is going to be doing that while accommodating the line flow." Kind of like plugging a leak while the water's still running through the pipe.

Maybe creating a shield that feeds on the ley lines themselves is the solution... something that will redirect any interlopers right back where they came from -- or at least not into this reality. If they can plug this leak, tending to the rest of the building, while nasty, won't be impossible.

The bug Kurt skewers squeals in a way that actually sounds like an amplified field of cicadas on a really, really hot night. Slipping between the chitin and tissue with a sharp blade is a sure way to hurt it. It's stinger flexes, seeking to skewer its killer the same way it's been skewered.

The bug TJ fires at is knocked clean up into the air, where it bounces against the ceiling and then against a wall, before it flips onto its back. It's stinger dances dangerously, but it's feet and pincers wave helplessly in the air, bits of bug ichor seeping from those places where non-chitinous pieces were blown completely off.

The last bug, however, charges for the metal-skinned mutant, oblivious to the fact its stinger couldn't hurt him if it tried. (And it will try...)

Illyana drives the Soulsword down into the ground, keeping one hand wrapped around its hilt and stretching out the other to Amanda. "Do it." She says with an almost grim sort of acceptance. Mages can be touchy about working together. Most people think it's pride or some selfish sort of loner mentality. In reality, doing magic with another is just a very intimate thing, and not lightly done. "Colossus! I need you to play Gandalf for us!" Because one of the worst things that can happen during tricky spellcasting is to get interrupted. Her gaze is fixed on Amanda, hand palm-up as she offers her life energies to the other mage.

"I should take you under the streets of New York one day, Herzchen. Though, I think you might actually enjoy it." Other than the giant cockroaches, of course. "These bugs are about the same size."

Of course, Kurt has to dodge the stinger that he knows is coming his way, aiming, undoubtedly, for that spot right between his shoulder blades. Either by death throes or reflex, or intent, here comes the stinger, and there goes the fuzzy elf in a cloud of *bamf*, leaving his sword in the sweet spot, deeply embedded. "You better die quickly so I can get my sword back," is given to the bug.. from the relative safety of the ceiling.

Glowing yellow eyes peer down at Amanda.. and Illyana as they begin to team up. Quickly, he crosses himself and offers them, "Good luck.." softly. One of the other funny things about magic? Not all of them fit in with another.. unless one is really good.

Kurt would describe both of the blondes, however, as really good. Even as they begin, Kurt can feel the familiar prickling.. as well as the decidedly strange feeling from that blue, wobbly .. thing.

"TJ.. how are you?"

"None shall pass." Piotr states firmly. Ok, maybe that's not Gandalf. Maybe it's the Black Knight. But the idea is the same and he doesn't lose limbs anywhere as easily. As the bug charges him he waits for the proper moment and then kicks it. Hard.

How is TJ?

She's reaching down from the ceiling, catching one of Kurt's swords with the micro-suction disks within her hand. "Yoink!" Up goes the blade, tossed around to her other hand where she can get a proper grip upon it.

An instant later and she's leaping from the ceiling toward the floor, the blade held over her head in a two-handed grasp. "Banzai!"

-SHUNK!-

The bug that she smacked around the room quickly finds itself pinned to the floor like a moth upon a pincushion, the displaced Wagnerette making a four-point leap off of the pommel and across the room to stick herself onto another wall.

"Nobody expects the Wagner Inquisition!"

She's fine, by the way!

When Illyana first reappeared in the current timeline -- albeit 10 years older -- it was Amanda that took her under her wing and helped her reacclimate, magically speaking, to this Earth. Consequently, the two sorceresses are actually reasonably familiar with one another's magicks, for all that they are, in fact, very different. So, in this case, the portal is of much greater threat to Amanda than anything Illyana is likely to dish out at her (for all that, in a normal one-on-one, they'd be fairly evenly matched, and equally 'creative' when it comes to dirty tricks... making it a toss up between them). Indeed, all that power swirling in front of them? It's a huge temptation for any magic user, let alone these two.

Fortunately, Amanda is very level-headed.

Relying on Illyana's sword and strength, she steps back enough so that the other blonde's hand is on her shoulder, leaving her both hands free to work. She begins to fashion a ward shield, using gestures and the raw energies and materials of the place. When errant bolts of magic gravitate to her, they are guided by Illyana back harmlessly into the Earth, rather than frying any of them. Slowly, a green-blue globe, wrapped in a shimmer of violet, begins to form around the sparkling nexus as the shield takes shape.

The bug Kurt skewered eventually succumbs to its wounds, flailing helplessly as it does. The same goes for TJ's dance partner. Two scuttlebugs down! The third flies through the air, kicked hard enough by the metal man that its chitin shatters against the concrete wall, exposing soft flesh within.

Illyana has her eyes closed, head bowed as she concentrates on dealing with the raw magical energies that Amanda is shunting back to her. Normally she'd put a bit more attention into her surroundings, but she has Piotr there to keep the safe and if there's one person she trusts implicitly... Energy arcs and crackles as it works its way from Amanda to Illyana and then down the length of that glowing steel and into the ground at their feet.

-Yoink!-?

Kurt looks up, briefly puzzled in the loss of his sword, but the grin that reasserts itself tells all as he watches Nocturne take out the bug that is lying on its back, pincer feet kicking in the air uselessly. "Make sure I get that-- no. Never mind. I'll get new swords." Rat guts. Bug guts. He'll pass.

Settled happily on the ceiling now (looking so very natural in the fact that he's upside down!), Kurt holds out his hand for her to join him. "Score two for the fuzzy blue crew."

Piotr positions himself closer to Illyana but far enough away to avoid any wards or stray magical energy. He's used to working with his sister. Looking around for other threats, he says "Guard them front and back. If they are disturbed, the spell might not only fail but backfire."

One more leap brings TJ beside Kurt, the pair of them just dangling from above without a care in the world. "Sorry I'm late. You know I'd never leave you hanging."

It's quickly followed by a wince as the third bug gets pancaked against the wall by the iron fist of Colossus. (Or steel..? Definitely metal.) "So they can explode. I'll append my field notes."

With Piotr's instruction she lightly bumps the back of Kurt's shoulder with an open hand, bobbing her head toward the others. "Ever been part of the secret service? It's not as interesting as it sounds." Inspirational motivator, right here. "Gotcha covered, ladies."

Amanada's attention is on her work, not the others. As Illyana trusts Piotr, so she trusts Kurt -- and, by extension, TJ. So, really... Great team, here!

She continues chanting and gesturing for several more minutes until the ward shield is firmly in place, powered now by the nexus itself instead of her personal energy. The crackling and snapping of mystical power fades into a background hum that tickles the edges of magical awareness, the shielded sphere now casting a muted bluish-purple light that is far dimmer than the original watery cast.

Lowering her hands, Amanda glances around to her companions.

"We good?"

Kurt looks to Piotr and those pearly whites appear once again. "Remember, I grew up with Amanda," he reminds easily enough. He glances towards the spell casters before looking around them, peering into the dimness where others may have difficulty. "I've actually seen some of her spells backfire und.." here, the smile turns.. slightly lopsided, "I have been the victim of some." The smile shifts towards the rueful, and he continues, "Und the victim of spells that were deliberate."

The moment TJ joins him on the ceiling is when his tail wraps about hers, and Kurt nods again as he points out into the distance beyond the anomaly. "Alles ist ruhig, liebling." All is quiet.

Illyana's head comes up as the magic starts to fade, blinking a bit as she brings her senses back to the purely earthly. "I'm good." She says, since with magic it's not always easy to tell by looking at someone. She looks over to Piotr first.

"Da." Piotr agrees. "Is that it? We are done? The portal is contained? How will you close it."

"I think so..?" TJ replies in a 'please let this be true' tone. "I hope so. These rascals are tougher than I thought. Not interested in sharing our planet with them It all seems so anti-climactic, though. Just stuff a cork in the drain and call it a night?"

"I don't know," Amanda says to Piotr. "I don't even know if it can be closed, it's so tangled up with the natural ley lines, here. But, this will hold it for a while. I'll to come back and check on it periodically..." She eyes Kurt, "but, somehow I doubt that'll be a problem." A chore, maybe, except the Blue Bamfer will probably see this place as his own personal playground for weeks... months... possibly years to come. (She knows him!) And, it occurs to her, TJ may feel the same. (Demons!)

She looks to both Rasputins, now. "Happy to bring you all along, any time I do, if you want. Couldn't have done this, today, without you. Either of you. Thank you." To Illy: "Maybe if we put our heads together, we can come up with a more permanent solution."

Illyana tilts her head left and right before rolling it around. "Yeah. I'll see if I've got any books on it too. But I think right now? Shower. And then ice cream. But first the shower. Definitely." She steps over towards Piotr and sketches the three a wave. "Any time you need us, Amanda."

"There is an ice cream store in Copenhagen that has gotten very good reviews..." Piotr says, wrapping an arm around Illyana. "Which is where we shall shortly be if you need any further assistance. Call at need." The golden portal appears above them and drops down, the two siblings disappearing in its light.

The look that Kurt is given earns Amanda a grin, and he hangs from the ceiling now to look into that now more dim blue light. "Protect it.. und study it." Uh huh.. like he's going to hate that job! "With a little cleaning und painting? It'll look good as new."

Illyana's preparations for departure brings the blue bamfer down onto his feet, beside the young blond mage. Reaching out to give her a hug, Kurt murmurs, "Do not be a stranger, liebchen. I will take you for dinner und dancing, if you like. Und.. not like that."

To hear about an ice cream place, however? A new place where it's good? "I'll have to get the name from you, mein freund. I've promised TJ.. after missions.."

And there.. as they depart, Kurt takes a deep breath.. as deep as he cares to venture with the stench remaining. "I think the theatre has.. character. What do you think? Amanda? TJ?"

"If by 'character' you mean 'possessed,' then yes," TJ replies while crawling closer to where the others stand. "Though it does seem to have a peculiar habit of making many whom enter its doors crave a shower and ice cream, so it can't be that evil."

She unfolds herself and silently drops back down to the floor, adding "Though right now I'd like to get out of here before I lose my sense of smell forever."

As the Rasputins disappear, leaving the Wagners (including Sefton) behind, Amanda flashes TJ a grin. "I'm all for that," she says with a laugh. She pauses a moment at Kurt's question and looks around. "I think," she says, "that whether or not it has character is somewhat beside the point." Her smile turns wry. "We can't leave this place unattended for very long. I'm good. But, this thing? Ye-ah..." She pauses a moment to open a portal back to the condo. "C'mon. Let's go home. We can discuss it later.." After they've all had baths.

And ice cream.