Who Will Defend Us?

[ngm_villains]

Manhattan
Central Park
April
1:26 pm

The portal from Limbo opened easily and without triggering the wards that warned those mystically sensitive of what was happening in the city.  S'ym's erstwhile ally had seen to that.  Not that S'ym trusted him further than he could throw him, but he had been truthful enough in what he could provide. 

Other demons, made temporarily invisible, followed him out of the portal.

"You all know S'ym's plan," he said.  "Raise hell out there.  Make the humans panic.  The more chaos we sow, the weaker our ally makes the barrier between dimensions.  And when that happens, he says this world will belong to S'ym!  And what's good for S'ym is good for all of you!"

The demons began to cheer.

S'ym puffed on his cigar.  "But it's gonna take all of you doin' what we do best.  Killin' folks, corruptin' this world, just like we done before.  Only there ain't no X-Men here to stop us this time!  No little Darkchylde to ruin things!  This time... this world... will... be... OURS!"

The demons flew off, ready to raise hell. 

Comments

[hellkitten]

There was a clattering of bronze hooves, some demonic bovine grunts, and a little brimstone and fire from the possessed bull's nostrils as Liza rode into the scene. She yanked back hard on the line around the bull's neck, making it rear back and stop its gallop.

"You know, you totally suck as a demon." She addressed the bull. "Dad would have fired you. Or served you up to the other demons on a bun with ketchup, whatever."

She looked over the group assembling, and was very pleased to see no male Atlanteans.

"Hi Sofia. Next time, just use the phone, ok?"

[didnotwant]

Marion will offer Frankie a ride in her car. Thankfully Marion can drive like a bat out of hell when she has to get somewhere fast.

"I keep gear for fighting monsters in the trunk of my car. Salt rock shot gun rounds, holy water, different kinds of blades.... The usual stuff. I hunt monsters in my spare time," Marion explains. "Anything ya think we'll need?"

[catlikereflexes]

"Um...all of it?" Frankie said. "I've never actually fought demons before. So I'll trust your judgement."

[sorceress_supreme]

Sofia grinned at Liza. "The telepathy was easier to bring the rest of the Defenders together." Yep. That was that. She called it. "But I'll take that under advisement." She looked at the group assembled. Only two men? Good. It was about time that the girls got to get their game on.

"So, as I'm sure you guys are aware, there're wacky hijinks going on, of the demonic, less-than-fun variety. We, ah, need to put a stop to it."

[im_a_librarian]

Dawn sucked in a sharp breath. "So... actual, hell on Earth demons? Demon demons? End of the world stuff? Oh God..."

[vesper_verde]

Vesper blinked and then rubbed his eyes. Of all the times to go active during the daytime. Also, having worked the streets for a couple years, he had no clue who most of these people were in terms of superheroics.

"Você desgraçou minha vida," which sounded weird with his voice modulator making it come out in a bad French accent.

[hellkitten]

"A Hell on Earth kind of demons. There's more than one. And these guys smell like Limbo."

Liza hopped off the back of the bronze bull, keeping a grip on the line around its neck.

"Down Bossy. Stay. Good demon."

The bull snorted and jerked on the line.

"I mean Bad Demon, bad! Who's a bad little demon? Yes, you are!"

She glared at it, letting it get a tiny glimpse of the far bigger, badder demon that she was bonded to, and that she would never have acknowledged if things weren't going to Hell around them. Maybe the invasion was affecting her own demonic heritage a little bit. The possessed bull immediately quieted, and made a sound that almost sounded like a moo.

She turned to Sofia. "So, what do we do to send them back?"

[fear_the_rider]

Tommy checked his gun, then cocked it.

"Better question. Who brought them here? We should find the one who brought them here, get them to send the demons back and then make sure they can't do it again." Tommy said.

The Rider was in the mood to destroy demons and Tommy was tired of being chased by animated landscape. It was time to get something done.

[sorceress_supreme]

Sofia blinked, first at Vesper, and then at Liza. She'd known that the Granddaughter of the Devil was bonded to something, but that was...well. Wow.

"To answer the last question, well," Sofia hedged a bit. "My great-uncle, Dormammu." Realizing that not everyone there knew who Dormammu may have been, she quickly gave them the SparkNotes version and paused to let the information sink in. "He's connected to all of this, somehow. And yes, these demons do seem to be from Limbo." Which made Sofia question exactly how much power she had over the place that was supposed to be her dominion."

"We need to get past the barrier and basically send him the hell back to, well, his hell." Doing more would be better, but Sofia didn't have that sort of power. Not here. Not outside of Limbo. This was why she'd needed the help. She wasn't much with the supreme here.

[im_a_librarian]

"...Oh," Dawn said. "Is that all? Because I thought this was going to be something hard, like, I don't know, preventing hell on Earth?!"

She took several quick breaths, trying not to hyperventilate again. "This can't possibly be real... this can't be real..."

[vesper_verde]

Vesper glanced at the panic-prone blonde. He looked through his gear pouches. A small paper bag came to hand. He dumped the stuff inside the bag back into his pouch.

Then he held the possibly too fragile bag out to her. Maybe it could be her mystical totem to remember to breathe.

"If you need somezing mystical, I cannot help much," he told the brunette in charge. "But I can offer mobility to get ze people like ze swordswoman around."

He really needed to fix his modulator. He was tired of sounding like Pepe LePew.

[im_a_librarian]

Dawn gave the force dome a light poke with her sword. It began parting around the tip of the blade.

"Um...?"

[fear_the_rider]

"Anybody know what time it is?" Tommy asked, hoping it was near sundown. Otherwise, he was going to have ask one of these people to do something unpleasant on his behalf and that was really the last thing he wanted to do.

[sorceress_supreme]

"Adventure time," Sofia said in a droll tone. She looked at Tommy expectantly. "Need some help there, handsome?"

[fear_the_rider]

"Well, Miss, if you could make it sundown around these parts, I'd be a lot more help to you all than I would just bein' a handsome southern guy with a handgun." Tommy grinned.

[didnotwant]

"And if someone wants to hold onto my clothes for me I can give us an extra kick," Marion adds in. She might be a late comer to this but she is here to help out.

"Just don't shoot the big bad wolf, okay?"

[sorceress_supreme]

"Don't worry, we're all allies here," Sofia said to Marion. "I can place them into a pocket of Limbo to be retrieved later, if you like." Better than just leaving them laying about.

In the meantime, though, Sofia looked up at the sun. Okay. Total eclipse of the city.

She could do this, right?

She closed her eyes and concentrated, a stream of eldritch words coming to mind as she called up the proper darkness spell. Something to block out the sun's rays for an entire city.

It took Sofia a very long, silent moment in which she felt her great-uncle rumbling power nearby.

But there it was...a swirling darkness over the sun, and a gradual darkening of the sky.

Faux nighttime had been achieved, and Sofia was a little bit weaker for it.

Thank god she had backup.

[fear_the_rider]

Tommy wasn't sure if this was going to work but he was willing to give anything a try.

When the pentagram on his hand began to itch and then flare to life, he closed his eyes sadly and fell to his knees.

The others would see his hair start to fall out and his skin melting, exposing the bone beneath. Soon enough, the Ghost Rider stood with the group.

"Sorceress. Disable the shield and lead your team in. Leave the demons to me."

[atlanteanhellion]

"Huh. So that's what he does. Neat."

Kassi checked the tip of her trident, just in case.

[didnotwant]

"Thanks!"

She starts to toss her clothes aside. Her body is already starting the process of changing. There is loud snapping sounds coming from her arms.

Shifting isn't pretty.

"Hey. Kid?" That is directed at Frankie. "Use whatever you want?"

[vesper_verde]

Vesper's eyes widened. What had he gotten himself into? He so needed to implement the offensive changes to his suit soon. He couldn't compete with a guy with his head on fire to the bone, a madwoman who swung a sword through cars, another woman who made it go dark, a third woman who apparently changed into a wolf, and yet another woman who poked things with a trident.

If he hadn't been in a serious relationship, Vesper might have enjoyed the female to male ratio of the group.

[sorceress_supreme]

She'd seen pictures of the entity, she'd seen heard stories, but Sofia had never truly seen the Ghost Rider in person.

"That is pretty awesome," she agreed, throwing Marion's things into the pocket dimension.

Then she placed her hands upon the forcefield. "Valkyrie, Kassi, see what your weapons can do to this thing. Vesper, do you have anything hi-tech that can, I don't know, analyze the properties of this thing?"

[hellkitten]

Liza watched the Ghost Rider appear. Impressive, even given her family history.

"That looks painful. Just remember, not all demons are that bad, are they, Bossy?"

She slapped the possessed bull on the flank. It made a dull ringing sound. She heard bones popping and cracking, and looked over at Marion.

"And that just sounds painful." She winced.

She retrieved her line from around "Bossy's" neck and walked closer to the forcefield. There wasn't a whole lot she could see that she could help with there.

[fear_the_rider]

The Ghost Rider did not understand the mortals' expressions of pity for his host. Pain was merely an inconvenience to it. Tommy Templeton disliked pain but the Ghost Rider knew he was becoming tolerant to it. Soon enough, he wouldn't feel it anymore.

The sound of a motorcycle was heard above the din of the conversation and the Rider's hellish bike appeared, leaving a path of hellfire in its wake. Ghost Rider reached down into the side saddlebag of the bike and drew forth a spiked shotgun. He pumped it once and looked toward the shield but craned his head enough to speak to Liza.

"I have yet to meet a demon that didn't seek my destruction in short order. But you, granddaughter of Satan, are not my enemy. Your father is known to me and my host will need your help before the end." the Rider said.

[sorceress_supreme]

"Because that doesn't sound ominous at all," Sofia muttered under her breath. Power flared from between her fingertips, interweaving into the spell that held the forcefield together.

It was far more complex than something she was generally used to.

Joy.