2346/Husks

Husks
Date of Scene:	30 May 2015
Location:	Paragon City <CoH>
Synopsis:	The Banished Pantheon steal the Scepter of Mot. Heroes have to hunt them down before they can escape back to Dark Astoria with it!
Cast of Characters:	Maya, 414, Alexis, Blurr, 560, Reiji Arisu, 769, 796

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Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    Atlas Park houses one the head quarters for the group known as MAGI. The 'Modern Arcane Guild of Investigation', has a vault there where they keep powerful or dangerous magical artifacts. One such artifact was relatively recently obtained from a villain group called the Circle of Thorns by enterprising heroes, and delivered to the vault. Now, however, something terrible has happened. The Scepter of Mot has been stolen from the vault by a cult of murderous magic-users who some of the more knowledgeable and experienced Magic Origin heroes and researchers have identified as servants of 'the Banished Pantheon'. An entire pantheon of gods, banished a long time ago, for wanting to kill all other gods. And nearly succeeding, by the sound of the stories.

    They have been quiet and dormant for millennia, but recently, the entire city zone of Astoria was sacrificed for some unknown purpose. Heroes were overpowered. Law enforcement and emergency services stood no chance. The zone had to be sealed off, and it is presumed that everyone inside is now dead. It's a pretty grim story, and a testament to the power of the enemy being faced, that even in a City of Heroes, a single group of villains could simply 'win'. But given the casualties suffered during the Rikti War, it is perhaps not quite so surprising that adequate forces wouldn't be available to take back Dark Astoria.

    But people aren't here to take back Dark Astoria. Just to stop a group of magic users from getting the Scepter of Mot back there.

    They attacked during the night, while Dr. Vasilikos was there, speaking to Azuria, a Magic Origin hero contact based in City Hall. The doctor was one of those injured. The heroes responding would have been given his story along with Azuria's when she requested help.

    "The Banished Pantheon was just THERE before we even knew what was happening. Undead of some kind, wielding very old firearms, and tomahawks, were led by powerful, magic-using enemies. Their magic seemed to be based in natural disasters. They attacked everyone nearby, hero or civilian, and made off with the Scepter of Mot before we even knew what was happening. Dr. Vasilikos was injured, but he said he overheard them mention they would have to take shelter somewhere until nightfall. I guess they can't operate as well during the day." Azuria had then thought for awhile and said, "There have been reported sightings of them around Talos Island. You might want to try defeating some of them and see if you can find any clues. They only come out when it starts to get dark, so you don't have a lot of time to find where the raiders are hiding and then move on them before they continue with their plans!"

    And that's what brings the group to the pleasant, and exciting Talos Island, under very unpleasant circumstances. The sun is sinking in the sky, and the Banished Pantheon appear on the smaller patches of land around the edges of the main island. Defeating them until information is obtained is the only way!

    Mission Objective: Defeat 15 Banished Pantheon enemies.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "Tomahawk-wielding undead. So it's not the typical zombies." Shirou's tense and anxious over this fact. Zombies, they're easy. But necromancers and god-killers...

    This has already claimed a a huge chunk of a city. How many lives were lost? It's enough to bring forth flashbacks of his earliest remaining memories.

    That hellish fire. Something very like it happened here. And what's more...

    "I wasn't here to stop it." He'd sworn that if such a calamity were to occur again, he wanted to do something about it. Prevent it, or save whoever he can. Yet here, far away, it happened. Far from his reach and awareness. How terribly disheartening.

    And so The Blacksmith stands with the group, hands in his white jacket's pockets. His hood's up so only tufts of red hair show to identify him at a glance. The boy's expression is haunted, severe, and determined all at once. His clothes and exposed locks of hair ruffle and flap gently in the faint evening winds.

    Solemnly, quietly, he mumbles, "Trace... on." Familiar shapes flow through his mind and Magic Circuits, the latter coming to life as a mere flicker of magic for those sensitive to such. What could he hope to do with so little power?

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    The Scepter of Mot is a... disconcerting artifact. When a god is worshipped, it is typically the case that its petitioners seek some sort of blessing or gift from their patron. But Mot was no benevolent entity- it was a spirit of dust, lifelessness and the utter obliteration of even the chance for life to exist.

What manner of boon would a worshipper of Mot seek? Not one that anyone with their head on straight is interested in permitting into the world.

    Reiji Arisu was part of the team that tracked down the Scepter the first time around. It's no surprise, then, that he's appeared to track it down a second time. This time, it seems that the ones responsible have a somewhat more... Direct connection to the withering god.

    Reiji arrives in the Talos archipelago armed to the teeth. His arsenal rests at his side as he makes his way towards the very edge of the zone. Underneath him is an unaware city bus, speeding busily towards the small cluster of skyscrapers set up next to the great, reinforced gate to Astoria.

Now, Dark Astoria.

    It reminds him of something far too close to home for comfort. A dead city, locked away for the safety of the public. One that is practically crawling with the supernatural. Not entirely unlike Shibuya, he muses.

...If only he knew how close the comparison was.

    As the bus passes the final bridge and turns a corner, Reiji leaps from its rooftop. The driver blinks and glances curiously toward the ceiling, missing the exorcist as he lands on the sidewalk. The cool, night's breeze blows through his hair. It reeks of dessicated flesh and dark, vile magic.

    "Emiya," Reiji says, approaching the blacksmith. He draws one of his blades- the sword Karin. Flame leaps from the weapon, illuminating the sidewalk around them. "You all set?"

Alexis has posed:
Creeps that only come out in small groups, meaning you need to hunt them down before they migrate into the city proper as the sun goes down? Awkward and weird, but not anything they can't handle. Alexis has had to track down stranger things in her time.

So just how do you track a ghost?

A hellhound certainly helps. Which would be why she's following her Houndoom while the devilish dog was on the prowl, nose close to the ground as canines tend to do when tracking. Dark types were exceptionally good at hunting Ghost types, so tracking down actual ghosts shouldn't be too far of a stretch, either.

Clearly Alexis was ready for a serious fight as well, as instead of her usual stick she has a rather ornamental shield slung across her back, with a sword sheathed beneath it ... did the gemstone in the sword's hilt just move as if it was an eye?...

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
Sarah's sitting in top of the Talos Statue, it's supposed to be good luck right? She's still new to all this and is fiddling with her radio. After a few minutes she's apparently hit on something interesting. She stands up, looks around for landmarks, and then makes a bee-line in mid air towards where the group is starting to form. "Hi there, I'm not entirely sure what a Scepter of Mot is, but I'd like to offer my services." She says as she floats a few inches off the ground, pulling her shield down off her back.

Revan (414) has posed:
     In spite of what many in the multiverse might believe, Lowri Revan-Shan's Force abilities were not magical in nature. In fact, the 'Origin' listed on her license -- something she found a little peculiar but perhaps not too terribly different from her Tatooine hunting license -- was 'Natural'. Hence, the Jedi lacked any special insight into the current batch of villains she found herself facing on this mission.

     The tall, platinum-haired woman clad in robes of the Jedi Order hadn't reacted to the description of 'zombies' the way someone from a version of Earth would, focusing instead on what they took and where to find them. Necromancers and god-killers were generally out of her realm of experience...or /were/ before her galaxy had Unified. Occasionally, she seemed about to ask a question but refrained; her insatiable curiosity would have to wait. It took considerable willpower for Lowri not to ply Azuria with question upon question.

     Similarly, artefacts which had acquired certain power where the Guardian was from did so in very different ways. Through the Force, she could catch glimpses which had affected the owner so strongly that it left impressions through the omnipresent metaphysical power, but this was something entirely new. The chances were that if she set foot in a place like Dark Astoria, she would be overwhelmed with the impressions of all the people who had died there unless she carefully shielded herself. It left a bad taste in her mouth, such cataclysms, and she nearly echoed Shirou's sentiments. "For now, at least, let's see about saving the ones we can."

     and that meant putting down a few zombies.

     Mismatched eyes scanned the now-empty streets as dusk approached, lightsabers already in hand albeit not yet activated.

     "This will be a first for me," she commented with a wry note. "I've never fought 'zombies' before."

Maya has posed:
Maya has experiance with undead she's very good at dealing with them she's got a lot of experiance t delaing with them. She's come not clad in the outfit of the Blue Witch but her normal junking leathers. She's got a rifle of strange deisgn slung over her back and the blue haired woman seme far more on edge. She looks over to Revan for a moment.

"Generally they are animated corpses something has renaimated the body be it magic, science or some other enity taking up residence in the corpse."

She notes to Reven and then passes her a flash.

"Holy water tends to work against the supernatural sort generally."

Maya seems fairly calm for this whole thing.

"At least with my world necromancy is something created by one greedy mortal not even the demons of Jinac meddled in it. Angering Thanaos is generally not a good idea."

Blurr has posed:
    A particularly slick looking bright blue sports car is making its way down a street near the island's shores. In fact, it's so hi-tech in appearance that it really looks quite out of place. Well, maybe it's just very heavily customized, and belongs to someone who capitalizes on gadgetry.

    Actually, if one looks closely, there is no one in the driver's seat. The vehicle suddenly swerves off the road and onto the grass, headed toward the outer islets around the perimeter of the isolated landmass. Some people might recognize Blurr, as he starts to scan these 'Banished Pantheon' enemies, to determine what exactly they are.

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    Hunting down the spirits of the Banished Pantheon shouldn't take too long for those able to get around the island quickly. Even running or jogging is adequate. It's an island, not a continent. But even so, there are stairs, and ramp-like roads, and different tiers to the miniature city, and so on. But when everyone has done what they can to locate the things, they are perhaps not what was expected. As darkness now fills the sky... Light from a source other than the sun in turn illuminates things. Not only do homes and businesses and street lights and so on provide light, but also the omnipresent blue glow of the War Walls that surround the entire zone. Residents probably don't even notice them anymore.

    They are not what are likely to draw attention, though. In a plaza before a tall building, there are carved wooden masks floating in the air, each with a face. A 'dark glow' (however THAT works) radiates from each, in a different spectrum of color. And around each of these spirits, are withered frames of those long dead. Hulking figures bearing rotted army pants, bandoliers, and World War I-era helmets, as well as rifles from the same time period, or even muskets. Smaller ones, even more dessicated, are also mixed into these mobs of the undead.

    All of the dead things appear to have at least one rune-like symbol carved into their flesh, that produces a pale, mystical glow.

    It's not likely that there's some OTHER group of zombies wandering around Paragon City, right? Hahaha. What are the chances of THAT?

    The islets around the perimeter of the island are similarly populated with smaller groups of these fiends, as Blurr and anyone else in that area can see clearly. As far as scans would indicate, they are what they appear to be. Dead bodies, walking around. However, they are animated by a magical force, not a scientific one. And whatever ties them to this world is not something easily disrupted. Physical destruction and force is probably necessary to defeat them, rather than some kind of exorcism. Not that Blurr is likely to have exorcism capabilities. But maybe others in the area do!

    But you know what's even more unexpected than the wooden mask spirits? A voice calling out for the heroes at the plaza to wait right as they find said spirits. A voice coming from above! A hero in a black and purple costume with blonde hair, flying down towards them! This zone is probably outside of his security level, but it's the protector of Vasilikos Laboratories, Cortex! "Wait up! Sorry, but I wanted to be part of this! I had to go through a lot of red tape to get authorization, but... They injured Dr. Vasilikos when he's already having such a hard time. I can't let that pass or just do nothing while others handle the problem for me."

    The psychic super hero drops to the ground nearby the group, looks towards the undead, and balks a bit. They are pretty gross.

Alexis has posed:
Ramps and stairways are hardly a problem. If anything they allow Alexis to get around faster by using her rollerblades and rail-griding down the handholds, occasionally holding her Houndoom's horns to help pull her along one the smoother pavements. Aren't Travel powers fun?

What matters is it gets them there quickly enough, Alexis skidding to a stop as the hellhound stops and snarls at the clusters of undead and weird floating masks loitering around. "Aegislash. (The floating spirits feel the most foul, they are prehaps the ones in control.)" The metallic sound comes from the sword and shield, and this time it's quite clear that hilt 'jewel' is an eye as it rotates for it to gaze around.

"Yer probably right, but we're gonna have to get through the trash mobs first," Alexis replies, as she pulls the shield off her back and slings it to her left arm, though she doesn't draw the sword scabbarded behind it yet. Right now the Aegislash is more useful in Shield Forme. Then smirks. "We've got tikis, but they forgot the torchs. Watdya say, Blazemore?"

The Houndoom responds by throwing his head up and back in a howl. A burst of fiery energy erupts from his form, the Heat Wave rolling forward towards the nearest cluster of zombies and floating masks.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    "The more the merrier. Just keep safe!" Shirou answers Sarah... only to double-take at her outfit a bit later. Oh well. It's superheroland here.

    He looks positively mundane by comparison.

    Reiji's given a nod. "Yeah."

    Power flows from his palms, smoothly and gently. He's getting MUCH better at projection these days. Kanshou and Bakuya appear from a waft of prana, fully formed and in his grasp. The twin swords, at a glance, don't seem like much besides beautiful swords...

    In come the undead, and then.. Cortex.

    Shirou blinks a few times. "Just be careful. This whole place gives me the chills." And for GOOD REASON.

    As the group finally comes across their prey, Shirou decides to NOT engage in melee against all the corpses.

    Instead he goes for a nearby building, aiming to take up residence on a higher floor at a window - perfect for sniping!

Blurr has posed:
    Blurr comes upon a very odd sight. Weird glowing wooden things that look like...he's not sure what they look like. They look kind of like faces but faces of what is another question. And yes, they are organics like most of everything else here, but they are rotted as if they've been dead for a while. Something else is controlling them. What did the humans call this condition? Zombie, right. Well they certainly match the description given in the briefing, so...

    He transforms and out come the lasers without further hesitation, high-energy photon streams blasting toward the groups of enemies. Exorcism? The Autobot has probably never even heard the term before. Physical force is really the only kind of force he's familiar with, whether it's blunt impact, lasers, electricity, explosives, or some other form of ammunition. They're dead bodies already rotted and decayed, so they can't be very durable, right?

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    It's not too difficult to explain a 'dark' glow. Something like that is just... A wreath of dark magic. Raw negativity, manifest in a baleful nimbus that seems to snuff out all light and warmth. Reiji sees it as a bleak, angry halo- a hole in space that stings at his eyes if he stares for too long.

All the more reason to break them into tiny little splinters.

    The exorcist grunts as he observes the undead horde and their spiritual support. "Seems about right," he mutters, before nodding to the transformer- and then to Cortex, "Good to have you onboard."

    Then, Shirou. "Good. Stay safe, alright? I don't want to find out if these things are infectious or not." There's a brief rush of air. Reiji lunges forward, Karin flashing through the air, a trail of flame swirling in the weapon's wake as he surges into the zombified horde.

His real target is within the swarm, though.

Masks.

    Karin is joined by a different blade, this one crackling with arcs of lightning. His weapon rack twists through the air as Reiji unleashes a flurry of elemental blows on the hateful spirit and the mask in which it dwells. The others might not have experience with exorcisms, but...

This sort of thing is Reiji's job.

    Chirai and Karin were chosen for a reason. Flame is the purest form of Yang essence, swirling with heat, light and energy. It transmutes naturally into Earth, which acts to absorb and moderate the world's churning energies. And these creatures are nothing if not aberrations against the natural order.

And if earth and flame fail, then there's always plan B.

Revan (414) has posed:
     "That's...definitely a thing," Lowri commented with a slight grimace. She had dealt with worse, she supposed, but that didn't make the task any more appealing. Accepting the flask, she didn't ask what 'holy water' even was. "You're the expert," she replied, clipping it to her belt. That would come in handy, she imagined, if meleeing them didn't work or they were somehow immune to lightsaber attacks.

     The Jedi regarded the floating girl for a moment -- and without a rocketpack...the idea of 'flying' without mechanical assistance was still something she was getting used to -- with her usual friendly smile. "Welcome to the party! Today, we're apparently hunting corpses reanimated by magic for clues."

     The next great test of Revan's willpower came when Blurr appeared. Droids -- no, /robots/, she corrected herself -- which changed forms? It had been difficult enough to focus on the previous mission against the Devouring Earth, and was likely fortunate for the Cybertronian's peace of mind that they were on a specific mission, otherwise he would have been peppered with the Jedi assaulting him with questions. If it wasn't for her self-disciple and training, she would have been easily distracted by anything having to do with robotics.

     The arrival of Cortex, by contrast, earned a friendly two-fingered salute. "Hey, glad you could make it. I'll try to keep the messy part down to a minimum." That's right, she'll be a splatter shield. She's had worse jobs.

     The terrain was generally level made it easy to Force Leap to the nearest group of dessicated corpses, igniting her lightsabers and closing the gap before they could fire off a few rounds form their muskets. Energy blades cut through dead flesh as well as living, it appeared.

     "They smell about as good as you'd expect!" she quipped back at those behind her.

Maya has posed:
Maya has been working with a number of people here there's a few new folks like Sarah whom should be able to handle her self right? Maya' already got her rifle at the ready she does see the hulking corpses in the old combat gear, or even older than that. She notice there's some sort of rune this ic clearly dark magic. She does take a moment to move in as Cortex catches up.

"Good to have you, Cortex."

MAya meanwhile is pulling out a fate card and blue fire leeches from her body as she moves to start casting wards of protection from the undead on the party. She seems content to play support for the moment.

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
     Sarah lands near the front of the party, Instinctively taking up a Tanking position.
    "What the heck is a trash mob?" She asks with a perplexed look on her face.
    OKay.. the zombie things seem to fall apart fairly easy, the Tiki Masks seem to take a lot more damage. She flings her shield frisbee-style at a group of three of them, bouncing neatly off each one to get their attention then returning to her hand just like she planned it that way. She still debating putting the Hammer into play before she knows just what she's dealing with

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    The Dry Chambers seem vulnerable to attacks of pure energy, from blade-like weapons, and also to fire. The laserings from Blurr are effective at scattering them from the bridge and driving them back. Same for the Houndoom's firey breath, and the elemental flame and blades that Reiji wields. Lightsabers are likewise both energized and cutting instruments, so they also do extra damage by stacking weaknesses. The thrown shield seems to do damage but not quite so much as the others.

    While the various undead take damage, and some fall to the onslaught of multiple heroes (or bombardment by a Transformer, in the case of Blurr, over on the islets), they seem to be enduring slightly. Part of this may be that not all of the heroes have begun attacking, but others parts are... Those masks are freaking hard to hit! They keep moving aside, or deflecting attacks somehow. When fire, energy, or blade attacks DO hit, they do damage! But the problem is that both their magic and their being airborne makes them hard to pin down. So while the Dry and Dessicated Husks and Chambers fall under the bombardment, even if they get to attack with magically-enhanced primitive weaponry a few times, the Bosses that the corpses were organized around are still around medium durability.

    A Spirit of Pain launches a potent blast of pure PAIN energy at Alexis's Houndoom, and the other Spirit, a Spirit of Sorrow, launches a blob of green energy that explodes wherever it lands, and saps the will and life force from those caught in it (if anyone).

    A Spirit of Death is over where Blurr is, and is launching erroding blasts of dark energy at him, while trying to fly towards him. Why is the spirit so intent on getting close? Because if it gets close enough before Blurr can defeat it... It BLOWS ITSELF UP in an eruption of dark magic!

    As Cortex hangs back and tries to force the enemies to sleep he finds they... Don't really cooperate. It takes multiple tries to attack mummified sleep centers that would have rotted to nothing long ago if not for the dark magics that brought them back. And then they just seem to stop for a moment before 'waking up' and continuing to lumber towards him. When he tries to use telekinetic blasts to hurl them away, they go flying... But then get right back up. He has never faced enemies resistant to his psychic powers before.

    Putting aside they are dead and thus already scary, the fact he is both nowhere near as experienced or powerful as the others here AND uniquely unsuited to this type of enemy makes him feel both powerless and... Scared. But he is a hero. And he has to do SOMETHING.

    With Shirou raining arrow swords (or sword-arrows?) on the last few zombies in the plaza from his perch, the only ones left are the Spirits... And as Cortex, so far managing to avoid taking hits thanks to the excellent tanking of others, tries his hand at fighting THEM with his psychic powers... He discovers they appear to actually be the only enemies around vulnerable to mental damage. He is still missing like the others, but unlike the others, when he hits, he does a LOT more damage.

    With the combination of everyone's efforts, soon enough, all the Banish Pantheon enemies are defeated. Further, one of them dropped something.

    Clue Found!

    'One of the Banished Pantheon minions dropped this. It's a crystal fragment that was embedded in its body. Maybe an expert could figure out where it's from!'

    And unless anyone here is a geologist, the shaken-up Cortex can offer to call up Azuria and see if she has any idea where it's from.

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    Also, someone might want to contact Blurr and let him know this part of the mission chain is complete and he doesn't need to keep shooting zombies. Though the bridge is now clear for civilians.

Alexis has posed:
"It means the peons you gotta get through to get to a leader type, and tend to mostly drop junk at random when disposed of," Alexis explains the term with a snicker, but keeps her focus on the matter of fighting at hand.

Retaliate to area-attacks with area-attacks. That does make the most sense... but again, that is why Alexis kept her Ageislash in its defensive form. She flings it off her arm towards the glob, though unlike Sarah's tossing the ghostly armament just take to floating of its own accord. "Now Balisong! WIDE GUARD!" As it floats upright the ghost-weapon doesn't draw its sword half, it just holds out the banners that serve as it's arms to the sides of it, forming an almost 'beehive barrier' in appearance plane of energy in front of it, which stretchs out wide enough to intercept at least part of the globby explosions, as intercepting area attacks is what the technique is meant to do.

Blazemore hunches down partially and trembles at the attack as it sends a surge of pain through his body, then ripples in darkness and seems to fade away. The Spirit of Pain may very well think he's been defeated by the attack due to the disappearance.

Which is unfortunate for it as the Houndoom reappears right behind the spirit to slam into it with the devil like horns protruding from its head. Needless to say the shadowy disappearance and ambush tactic make Feint Attack an all but impossible attack to avoid.

Afterwards Alexis tilts her head a little at the radio. "We better get moving then." She recalls the injured Houndoom as the ghost returns to her back, and in turn lets loose her Charizard instead, wastes no time getting on his back and taking off for where Cortex's ally has indicated to search

Maya has posed:
The undead are certianly getting laied into by the others, Maya has no issues with playing support. It keeps everyone else from a trip to the hopital or the medical bay. She was getting her rifle ready but it seems that the undead have been just well? Banished. She does tkae note of the crystal and she moves to ty and sense it is it a magical battery? a replay for the necromancer to control the undead? She does not know she also looks at Cortex with good deal of concern.

"Is everyone all right?"

Maya seems happy to see Alexis again from the look on her face.

"It's been a long time, you heard from Ash lately? I haven't heard a peep in almost a year."

With that out of the way Maya's getting ready to head out and join the search.

Blurr has posed:
    As expected, the 'zombie' things just get mown down by the lasers, their bodies getting shredded to the light energy. Those that are not hit are forced to scatter, clearing the bridge. However, the glowing wooden face scultpure thing or mask or whatever it was, is still not down for the count. The blasts scorch his outer armor in places, but otherwise don't do much damage.

    It hurtles toward him, its energy signature swelling, which can only mean one thing--it's going to blow. But instead of trying to get away, he simply lets it come, and in fact he tries to grab it as Cortex calls out on the comms. Huh, a cave around the islets. It would seem the Autobot is already in the right place. Immediately he begins scanning in search of hollowed out rock or passageways that might be housing the Banished Pantheon. Aha! There, an entryway that is boarded up with wood. Well if this thing is a ticking bomb, maybe he can force it to help them.

    Thus, he hurls the strange face thing at the entrance, in hopes that it will explode on the cave and not on him!

Alexis has posed:
Alexis shrugs her shoulders a bit. "Oh, you know Ash," she replies the Maya. "Gets lost easily, claims it was intention, ends up being somewhere he needs to be anyways. Last I heard he was off looking for remote Team Rocket bases. The kind they hide evil science labs and such in." Just making idle conversation while waiting to reach the new area/waiting for the load screen for the mission to finish.

Sarah Rogers (796) has posed:
Sarah looks around to make sure there's no more undead headed towards the group, then takes to the air again, Homing in on the Autobot's signal.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    Flame and lightning swirl around the exorcist as the last of the undead fall. He presses a finger to the communicator in his ear and nods as he acknowledges the news. "Right. Into the darkness then, I guess," he murmurs, turning towards the Astoria gate.

He glances back towards Cortex then, briefly, "Don't worry. Just do whatever you can. Let's finish this before it gets bad."

Revan (414) has posed:
     A few of the husks attempted to backhand the Guardian with clumsy, lumbering movements. But as haphazard as they were, those attacks packed a punch...or /would/ have, had it not been for Maya's cards. "Thank you!" Lowri called back cheerfully as blades of blue energy cleanly cut through the mobs with little fuss. /Much/ easier than the last mobs she'd faced.

     Once that batch of zombies was down for what she hoped was a more permanent dirt nap, the pale-haired Jedi joined the others, already examining the crystal one of the Pantheon's minions dropped. "All right over here," she replied to Maya's question, glancing at their clue even as she wasn't going to be able to discern much from something that wasn't usable in a lightsaber hilt.

     But Cortex had sounded a bit shaky over the radio as he relayed the necessary information he'd gotten from the M.A.G.I. contact back in Atlas Park, so she clasped his shoulder. "You did well out there. Good job."

     It might not do much for his peace of mind against mindless things which couldn't be controlled by psionics save for the glowing floating masks, but it never hurt to at least encourage people.

     The cave was apparently not too far away from where they were, either. "Thanks! On the way!" she replied when Blurr found the cave entrance they were searching for. While she couldn't fly without the use of machines, she could at least boost her speed for short bursts at a time with some specific Force-channelling. But once there was when the real work began.

     Reaching out through the Force, Revan scanned the monstrous caves below for what they could expect. It didn't take much effort at all to feel this world's equivalent of the Dark Side; the caves were rife with it.

     Which was one reason why there were so few mobs she could sense...very little of what was down there was alive. "Well, that's not comforting," she commented. "There are a few things down there that are living, but most of what I'm feeling are vague Dark Side presences. Be careful when we go down there, all."

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    From his window perch, Shirou rains down swords on the zombies with impeccable accuracy until there simply aren't any left to target. Strangely enough the rain of swords is a smooth and precise affair, as if the zombies were doomed to fall and the arrows striking through brainmeats and hearts merely proving the point.

    For a true archer, the arrow's already struck before being released.

    With things taken care of here though the amber-eyed bow banishes his black bow and hurries back to regroup with the others.

    Apparently they're going spelunking now!

Demetrios Vasilikos (769) has posed:
    The Spirit of Death is fairly light weight. With the Transformer grabbing it and throwing it, despite its ability to fly, it can not correct itself in time to avoid wasting its self-destruct on the boarded up cave entrance, blowing the opening up wider as shrieking black death energy and green flames flow outwards in every direction.

    The others do an awesome job of taking out the other two Bosses and the last remnants of their minions, and then make their way to the newly-widened entrance, via water, air, road, or WHATEVER. Cortex seems to appreciate the reassurance, but he is beginning to realize he is not really ready for this level of mission. But he knows he has committed to this, and he can't give up now. He flies along with any other capable of such, and acts to call out directions to those without their own transportation methods to make sure they can get to the destination easily.

    Yet ANOTHER cave and series of tunnels and passages in the middle of a populated city (how weird is that?). Something different may be noticed from the previous times some other heroes here have gone underground in Paragon City.

    To say the darkness that lies before them seems alive is not quite right. It's more like the darkness is dead, but keeps inching its way up into the surface world regardless as the night waxes onwards. There are silent whispers and unheard screams that crawl along the cavern walls. The zombies and the Spirits were unpleasant to look at, and even more unpleasant on the magical senses of those inclined towards such.

    Whatever's down there is more intense. Down right awful. A malevolence unlike the uncaring abandonment of life that could be felt in the Scepter of Mot.

    An undying hatred for all things living. And they need to go down there to get a tool belonging to a god of death and sterility from those who would use it to its fullest potential. Dark red crystals, smokey and almost fluid, are clustered along the walls and ceiling of the damaged entrance. They seem to be bleeding.

    Even those with no mystical senses at all may have other means of detecting the negative energy radiating from the place beneath their feet.

    The Banished Pantheon must be stopped before they turn another city zone into one like Dark Astoria.

Blurr has posed:
    The blockade to the cave entrance explodes violently, leaving it open for the rest of the group to head on down there. Unfortunately though, it is not quite large enough for Blurr to go inside. And even if it was, there are bound to be areas that won't fit him, not to mention the fact that fighting in there might cause the entire thing to collapse on top of everyone, like what happened with that pyramid some megacycles ago....

    He could use his holomatter, but that thing wasn't of much use in battle, really. "Right guys, here it is. Should be big enough for you all. I'll stand out here and make sure nothing else sinister follows you in."

Alexis has posed:
Alexis gives Blurr a thumbs up after landing and recalling her Charizard. "Appreciate it big guy. Last thing we need is more of these creeps walking in on our backs while we're busy." Then looks at the cave.

"At least for once I don't gotta worry about the goddamn zubats!"

Reiji Arisu has posed:
Man, what the hell is with people in this town and caves?

    Reiji moves into the cave- through Blurr's new door- with a determined, hastened gait. The atmosphere in this cave is... Worrying. Oppressive. Dead and stagnant. Red crystals drip the blood of the earth. The world here is corrupt, its order shattered and broken by something far outside of nature's grasp.

    Karin comes away from its sheath once more, its flame illuminating the gloamy, disturbingly sterile cavern. Reiji can feel /something/ deep, down below. His spiritual awareness screaming at him, telling him that it's not friendly- not only to him, but to all life.

    And he's going right down into the center of all this- to retrieve an artifact that is dear to the heart of whatever vile deity must dwell in this place. Not doing so is unacceptable. Leaving something like the Scepter of Mot here is asking for trouble.

Fighting back against stuff like this is his job. If he must seal away a god, then that's what he'll have to do.

    Fortunately, against something that seems to desire the end of all the world, Reiji Arisu is one of the best men for the job. But against something like this, will one exorcist be enough!?

STAY TUNED.

Revan (414) has posed:
     Come to think of it, Revan's first mission here was ain a cave, wasn't it? It seemed to defy logic that there were so many beneath a city of Paragon's size, but there you go.

     Before making her way in, the Guardian rendered a two-fingered salute to the Autobot. "Thanks! And stay safe out here." You never knew if there was going to be an ambush or something outside.

     Once down in the caverns, however, she didn't waste any time drawing and activating the deep blue blades, partly for illumination but mostly because the Dark Side was practically blinding her senses and she would probably have little warning when something unpleasant decided to say hello. "Such wonderful ambiance, wouldn't you say?" she quipped with a soft note of sarcasm, as of to deflect from the overwhelming /malice/ emanating from the very air.

     Honestly, at this point Revan wouldn't be surprised at all to find a Sith Lord down at the bottom of the pit. The last time she felt this kind of energy was on an orbital fortress and weapons factory created by an ancient cannibalistic race of galactic conquerors feeding Dark Side energies into it.

Emiya Shirou (560) has posed:
    Now standing before one of the dreariest, darkest, and most foreboding holes in the ground Shirou's ever seen... the young man aiming to be a hero of justice falters.

    Indeed, he stumbles upon simply laying eyes on it, his whole body shivering. Even he can sense the massive wrongness of this place, and that is a terrifying realization.

    "If the cave's mouth grew teeth and sntarted gnashing, I wouldn't be surprised at all."

Maya has posed:
Maya's got a lot of experiance in the multiverse she countered certain things. However this world was quote packe to the gills with trouble, any handful of the groups in this city could be a real meance she still wonders how this happened. However as they move into the caves Maya's on guard and she can feel the energy this place is powerful.

"We nee to be careful and Shirou? It might sprout tentacles as well, given my experiance."