[Twi] Twilight the lynching: The Gathering Storm

[Colesign]

Solomon Kane

"Uh...I'm guessing you're...a Pride Demon, given your...persistent yammering ."

Solomon tries to regain his feet.

{I'm not sure if Solomon has to consciously use his staff either: I'm going to leave it up to Cracklord}

[darkblade]

Asuka

Asuka approaches the so called boss. She's afraid Eledric beings of both light and dark not of military officers with bad attitudes. Those she's been dealing with since she was five years old.

"Captain Asuka Langley Sorhyu reporting, Sir!" She says with a salute.

***

Dresden

I held up the shield against the spectral whip. I couldn't afford to drop it but man's best friend had my back. Mouse began circling around the battle to catch the dark wizard by surprise.

***

Master Chief

The room explodes behind you. For a brief second you'd swear you saw some static, across the room after the explosion.

***

Spider-Man and Oracle

"As soon you can Light." Oracle says as Peter begins pushing her back towards her office at Arkham.

Once there Peter heads for a window, "I'm going out to see if I can't get to the bottom of this. I'll stay in touch."

With that the Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man swings into the demon infested night of Gotham City.

***

Batgirl

"Six hundred humans. Can't afford loss." Cass says raising her hands and dropping her shoulders slightly.

Among the three of you, the only one she isn't successfully tested against is Frank. She's beat Rorasach to unconsciousness a couple times and sent Jason to traction once.

***

Morbius

"This whole place is unnatural." Morbius agrees stepping through the over the top door.

[industrious]

Synergy

Christine pinches her nose and curses her pride. She hadn't wanted to use the gift Hawksmoor gave her. It seemed...wrong, on a profound level to use them. The man was deeply in grief when it happened; she couldn't have refused them without possibly sending him into a further spiral.

And now she was on the front lines, and hadn't even thought to initially use them. Now she was face to face with a madman, and had to. And...she didn't. Because she wanted to rely on her own gifts instead.

Shen

The Tibetan looks more than a little irritated. She can appreciate a good laugh, but still. Christine's pride was not funny. Especially now that she had two patients, and Jackson's wife was perfectly capable of healing herself and the others far better than Swift could. Except she had just passed out.

Sighing in irritation, Shen lifts Christine, and gets her onto one of the beds. She also disables the painkillers on said bed. Really, it was for her own good.

Nicodemus

In his time, Nicodemus had met many such men. Roland Deschain was but one of many. He had slaughtered saints and holy men, the best of humanity and those touched by the Archangels themselves. The Knights of the Cross, each one capable of destroying an army should it be the will of God, had a record: four. There had been exactly four Knights of the Cross to face Nicodemus in combat and survive afterwords. If one restricted combat to single combat, that number became three. One was crippled for life, two Nicodemus dispatched at their second encounter, and one had yet to face him once more.

He lifts an eyebrow at Roland's guns.

"Holy revolvers? How...trendy."

The small amount of Hellfire that he still swirls around his fingers vanishes. And Nicodemus smiles.

"But ultimately, useless."

Roland smells something burning around his waist. Feels the flame and fire. And then sees that his gunbelt, that held his heavy rounds of ammunition was by now little more than a thin strip of leather. None of his bullets save those currently loaded were left.

John Taylor

Time Tower Square is a quiet little cul-de-sac in the Nightside. And Time's Tower itself didn't look like much, just a squat stone structure of maybe three storeys, brooding ominously over a backwater square. The few people passing by gave it plenty of room, though. The Tower had serious layers of protection to ensure that only Old Father Time had control over Time travel. It was said by some, and believed by many, that you could blow up the whole world and the Time Tower would still be standing there, unaffected. Most people couldn't even find the place if they approached it thinking bad thoughts. Just an old stone building, with no windows and only the one, anonymous, door.

I reach in towards the brass handle, careful that I betray no sign of weakness or hesitation, and open the door.

Jenny Quantum

The moment that Sylar's mind touches upon her father's, she relaxes the barriers that she put around Sylar's mind. And the atom of anti-matter nestled in his brainstem, where the Company's research had shown was exactly where his Event-activated power lay, comes into contact with the others. Sylar is no more.

Jack Hawksmoor

He tells them, then of the Authority. Of their mission and purpose, to make a better world. A world worth living in. Of their accomplishments and failures. He leaves nothing aside. One cannot join the Authority on a foundation of falsehoods. He is honest, sometimes brutally so about their methods, about their triumphs and tragedies. He tells them that they are not perfect. But that they have to try. And he offers them a place at the table.

The Justice League talked of freedom and justice, liberty and pride. Soaring ideals that would inspire the world. Hawksmoor talked of fixing it. They nodded in agreement. Hands were shaken. And Hawksmoor gave them their first assignment: to help the refugees on the ship. And for Namor, to see which governments could take them in a show of humanitarian aid.

When they departed and Habib arrived, the Doctor sees a naked man, suspended and contained within in a purple sphere. He recognizes his predecessors' work. Nikolas Kamarov, former Soviet Olympic gymnastic competitor, former Spetsnaz operative, defector to the United States during the Afghan invasion, former member of StormWATCH and leader of StormWATCH Prime. One of the best men Hawksmoor had ever known, who had sacrificed his life so that Earth would survive, who had crashed the Skywatch satellite into the sun so that the Alien invasion would be foiled. Who had gone mad inside that great fusion reaction and attempted to burn the world. The Doctor had placed him within the sun to drain his excess power and to heal his mind.

At a gesture, the shield is broken. And Winter stares at Hawksmoor's face.

"Hello, Nick. It's been a while."

[doliest]

Light
Light sent out a communication as he moved back to Door controls, “Jenny? We’ve got an issue in Kansas. I’ve sent someone in, but they haven’t come back yet-” It was strange Pinhead hadn’t made any move. Still, it was for Light’s bests right now, “And based on what I know you or the Doctor are the only people powerful enough to handle it. Would you mind going in? I’m trying to keep the various symptoms of the problem the Doctor mentioned from overwhelming us and that castle is definitely becoming a problem-we’ve actually had reports in the area of demonic attacks. Raising towns and such.”

Sylar
Sylar became…well, nothing with the part that made him capable of existing in the ship gone. He fizzles into nothingness. He likely wouldn’t re-appear for at least a few hours; but he would be back, as always. At least that’s what his previous survivals indicates.

Rorasach
“Criminals. Best to let them die with old world. Start again in new one. Better to cull the herd first.” He, Todd, and Castle together might be able to beat the assassin turned vigilante, but it would be difficult. Not to mention intervention might come from the people running the ship.

Dracula and Pinhead
Pinhead continues to watch Dracula, not trying to attack the man-he would certainly lose that fight. More importantly, he was a Fey, and Dracula had never shown a tendency to attack any Fey, whether or not they were of the Courts. So Pinhead watched, wondering if this was what Flagg had wanted, to ensure that reality crumbled around the Lord of Darkness. If so, even he wasn’t sure what would happen, but it would doubtlessly be bad for the forces of Heaven. Maybe Flagg was a direct agent of Hell? That he was allied with them was obvious, but Pinhead still wasn’t sure if the man reported to Hell directly, or was part of an organization or alliance.

[nanobot_swarm]

Akuma
Akuma tries to escape from the carrier, he cannot stand being in this place anymore, the stench of desperation is getting to him.

Godzilla
Gojira is able to block the sword swung by Goldor, grabbing his wrist, but Rito's blade connects and the beast bellows out a howl of pain.

[doliest]

Goldar and Rito
Hahahaha! That's right, you're going down, Big Green! Rito attacks again, trying to dig deeper into the wound.

Rah! It's not over yet; this thing took down two other monsters before now, it's probably got some tricks up it's sleeves.

[Cracklord]

Team Nightside.
Tick-tock. Tick. Tock. Tock-Tick. Tick-Tick-Tick. Tock-Tock-Tick-Tock-Tock.
And on it went, that, or many thousands of variations of that. Not two clocks kept the same time, some subtly different, others massively so, some running backwards, others seeming to skip beats, others don't have any rhythm whatsoever, as chaotic as a new drummer. They say there was a clock aligned to every different time and period, all keeping perfect time somewhere. You don't know if that's true, but it seems to be.
Father Time himself is carefully repairing a grandfather clock made of glass, while Fate Spiders spin destinies into webs everywhere that wasn't immediately in use.
"You have sixteen minutes. That's all I gave him, and that's all I'm giving you. Make your case." He's in a mood. Sometimes he seems no more then a crotchety old man.

Solomon Kane
((He does. In the books, anyway))

Batgirl
"What loss? The loss we can't afford is the ones they cause. We can't afford to care for them, we can't afford to humor them, when we are dependent on strangers ourselves." Jason knows he can't win. But there is three of them, and one of her, and he's sure she cannot beat them all at once.
"Cass. Please. Don't make us fight you."

Jack Hawksmoor
Namor gives you a look which says, without the need for words, 'why are you giving the orders?' He's going to take some work to break in, you can already see. Then he's gone.

Nikolas Andreyvitch Kamarov looks at you, white haired grizzled and wild looking. He presses his hands against the sphere and pushes, to no effect. At first you wonder if he can even hear you. Then at last he speaks. "Is it? Can't say I noticed."

[darkblade]

Batgirl

"No crimes since, Nazis. Only criminals you." Cass says not wavering. Jason's probably right in that she can't take all three of them at once but the sounds of the fight would draw the attention of the Authority who are all more than strong enough to stop them without even batting an eye, except maybe Shen.

***

Spider-Man

The web slinger swings across the abandoned city looking for a group of demons. They might know something about Mephsito and what the Demon kind wanted with his memories.

***

Oracle

Oracle back in her office stops to examine Bob's skull to see if he got back from checking on Blackgate. Blackgate evacuated successfully so he damn well better be back.

[doliest]

Rorasach
"New World. 'Order' returning; see them put down for their crimes." Didn't try friendly approach. No good; besides, insulting to fellow warrior, even weak one.

[Cracklord]

Spider-Man
The demons had mostly gone. A few remained, most of them minor enough to slip through the cracks. They had mostly began their own... camps, for want of a better word, empires for survivors and what darkness they could control, where they devoured all there was to devour and lived on human misery, while they looked for more prisoners and warred with one another. There are four in Gotham.

Oracle
Bob looks at you. "Checked. No problems, evacuated successfully, nothing forgotten. No sign of what you wanted." He sounds tired. "Sorry." He adds.

Batgirl
Jason Todd shakes his head. "That's true, Cass. No real killing since the war. We've had bigger problems, afterall. So you think we've been banded together in a show of human solidarity, and now we'll all look towards a brave new tomorrow? You're smarter then that."
His eyes harden. "They're not people. They are scum. They live on the pain and suffering of others, and just by letting them live we take onto our consciences every one they hurt. Every bit of pain they cause, is you, Cass. Bruce can do that, but I'm not Bruce. I might be trained by him, but I don't want to be him. I intend to make a difference, by cleaning up. They aren't humans. They are like. Your. Father."
Castle speaks, his soft, deep voice blending to the immovable wall of the words. "No justice is possible, humans are flawed. No revenge, it's hollow, and empty. Punishment is all that is left."

[doliest]

Rorasach
Hm. Castle feels similar, but broken. So broken. Didn't handle Nazi's well. or maybe was always at the edge. Todd says it with many pretty words, but he means the same thing I do. This is all I could find. Disappointing; nothing like Dreidberg had been in the days before. Todd was close; but still seemed like he might abandon an injured ally. Castle was insane, but in his insanity had glimpsed truth. "Todd. Stop."

[Colesign]

Solomon Kane

Solomon Kane gets slammed into the tree by the Telekinetic shove, staff still tightly clenched in his hands.

He struggles silently, feet kicking against the bark.

"I give you one last chance." He manages to say. "Surrender, release your hold over the mortal you possess. Or else."

He meets Azrael's eyes without flinching. "Go on then. I know you want to say it..."

[nanobot_swarm]

Godzilla
The great beast swings its tail like a whip at Rito, hopefully breaking bones where it hits. At the same time he tries to rip the sword out of Goldor's hands.

[Cracklord]

Rorsarch
"Shut up, time and a place." He says without turning around. "If we need to interrogate someone, I leave it to you. If we need to make an example, then we leave it to Frank. But leave Cass to me. We don't fight our friends unless we have to."

The Kurgan
Morgan loses his sword. Swearing, he thrusts his staff forward, forcing all his anger, all his fear, everything he felt into a magical blow that sends the Kurgan staggering back.
Bending over, he picks his sword back up. He's recognized he's outclassed, but he's not going to let it slow him. He bore his weight with a ponderous sort of dignity, in contrast to the Kurgan who was no more then an animal, smiling and showing his tongue, his eyes wild and feral, in contrast to Morgans grey, dangerous ones, with crows feat. He'd aged while The Kurgan hadn't, and while he was old, the younger looking man was far older, and had killed wizards before.
Morgan began to advance, deliberately, moonlight glinting off the sword and the eyes. His sour, leathery face became even more sour. Then he slammed his staff on the ground again.
Immortals and Wizards are both very similar and very different. Immortals are a magical strain, like wizards, who's power comes in much the same way. But rather then master the forces of the world, or at least work with technical loopholes to create extreme effects, they master their bodies, bringing it far beyond mortal capabilities, and their strength comes from killing other immortals. Nobody has killed as many as the Kurgan.
The ground rumbles again, but less eagerly. Morgan has already taken advantage of what faults and weaknesses he can, and has almost nothing to work with. So he does the opposite, loosening the consistency beneath the Kurgans feet, making his footwork harder.

Quenthal
Malus looks at you. He tends to defer to you, unless he has a good reason why he thinks he shouldn't, at which point he becomes incredibly frustrating.
"Do you want me to kill him? We were just discussing we need a slave, and he looks strong enough to keep you out of the mud."

[Murkus]

Master Chief, Cortana

"Chief, did you see that?" Cortana asked.

He didn't think so. That static effect often occurred after plasma detonation. "No."

"We should leave. Now. I think it's dead, but..." Her voice was cautiously ridged. Chief often trusted her to see things he didn't. There weren't many.

The SPARTAN walked back up the stairs. Heading towards the outside.

Azazel

"Do you gentlemen actually think we're going to surrender because you said so?" Azazel says through a chuckle, raising his other hand. He tries to snap Solomon's arm with a flick of his own wrist, hoping to get him to drop the staff.

[doliest]

Rorasach
"Glad we agree." Hm. "Suggesting we move on. Filth in this world too. With no one defending it."

[Cracklord]

Rorsarch, Batgirl
Jason Todd looks at you levelly. Leaving them goes against much of what he believes in. Still, he looks like he's going to agree anyway, he just wants to see Cass's reaction first.

[Draxx]

Roland Deschain
"I am a reasonable man, unless I am pushed." Roland says levelly. "You have just pushed me."

His guns shoot to kill, belching smoke with twin cracks, so close to being simultaneous it makes no difference, stitching the darkness with red-white lances of light, sending bright needles of pain onto onlookers eyes.

Roland advances behind them, guns still pointed at the man in black, expecting him to be unscathed. He was no Gunslinger, but he had a different sort of deadliness that came not of power, and would not be stupid enough to taunt a man with loaded guns unless he was confident of some form of defense.

The Kurgan
He laughs, then leaps, his jump carrying himself at Morgan and out of the sand, like some massive, dark creature of the Night, adding his momentum to his monstrous strength, and bringing down his sword in a a single overwhelming two-handed blow brought to bear against the Wizard, one he could not hope to defend against.

Voldemort
The Wizard apparates with a sharp crack, appearing next to Azazel.

Secreting his wand somewhere in his robes, his eyes shine greedily at the staff. Unlike the swords of the cross or similar artifacts, it is not one that can only be wielded by the pure of heart. Quite the opposite, it's function is determined by it's wielder, it was used by N'Longa and a succession of other witch doctors, many of whom were far eviler then he.

With it, he could magnify his own strength many times.

[Colesign]

Solomon Kane

"It's polite." Solomon replies.

He consciously focuses on the staff, and the Telekinetic hold shatters, dropping him to the ground. Solomon drops and straightens, drawing a revolver.

He's decided that Azrael's too dangerous to go soft on. Solomon shoots Voldermort in the head, then pivots the gun barrel and shoots Azrael in the foot.

Then he charges at the demon and swings the staff at his head.

[Draxx]

Voldemort
As you lift your revolver, Voldemort strikes, gathering his will. He waves his hand, without bothering to use his wand. "Petrificus Totalus"

Pressure is applied to you from all sides, as you are forced to become as rigid as a board, unable to move. Due to his lack of wand, it's far more even then usual, making it even harder to deal with. Slowly, like a great three, you topple, remaining perfectly straight as you do so, unable to do the slightest thing to stop yourself as you do so.

[Colesign]

Solomon Kane

The uttering of the words "Petrificus Totalus", combined with the swish and flick of Voldermort's hand gives Solomon plenty of time to absorb the spell with the raised Staff of Solomon. Some very creative magic, or a way to break Solomon's concentration, is needed to neutralize the Staff's protective power.

(Or, of course, you could do something non-magical to him)

Solomon head-shots Voldermort, then swings his barrel over to shoot Azrael in the foot with a blessed incendiary hollow-point round.

The Puritan then charges and swings his staff at Azrael's head, using the pain of the blessed bullet as a distraction.

[Draxx]

Voldemort
He collapses. He'll be dead until he can reform around his horcrux's.

[Cracklord]

The Kurgan
Morgan steps aside, the blow arcing past, to powerful to be redirected, and biting into the ground instead. Brute-strength worked against him this time. Taking advantage of the opening, Morgan lashes out with his sword, aiming for his right eye.

King Ghidora
The Justice League stop you then, since nobody else seems willing to do it, and they have been established to, in fact, exist.

Voldemort
You will reform after the fight.

Dresden
The smoke dissipates, as Solomon Kane deals with Voldemort. He really is catching the worst of this fight.
Roland Deschain is fighting Nicodemus on the hill. They both scare you roughly equally, so they should be able to deal with it without requiring your intervention. It's not that Nicodemus is showing a real affinity for magic now that you don't want to get on the wrong end of. Not even slightly.
The Kurgan and Morgan are matching swords, and Morgan is hanging on, just, by use of magic.
And Solomon Kane is being attacked by the fallen.

[Draxx]

The Kurgan
The blow misses slightly, instead cutting a bloody trench beneath his eye. The Kugan only smiles and gets up, continuing his blows, smashing heavy blow after blow on Morgan's flagging defenses. The wizard is almost completely worn out, and can't keep this up. He's even lost grip on his staff, having to use his sword two handed.

Suddenly he kicks the wizard, jarring his leg horribly, then spins in the same movement. Morgan flinched, lowering his guard, then has a moment before the massive broadsword cleaves through his neck and out the otherside.
Not even time for a dying curse.

The Kurgan kicks aside his body, and goes looking for Solomon Kane.

Voldemort
A mist, with an impression of a screaming face, emerges from the body, twirls around, then snakes off, to reform elsewhere. He can even form a new body, now that he has all he needs.

Next time he'll learn to defend against bullets, or this will get a tad repetitive.

John Shannow
The Jeruselum man gallops down the highway closing the distance as fast as possible, heading towards the graveyard. He already knows he'll be too late.

[darkblade]

Cass

"Justice not dead. Punishment comes after crime." You can't see them under her cowl but you can feel her eyes narrowing into a glare.

***

Oracle

"Don't worry about it. Tell me have you ever worked with one of the Doctors? I'm going to need you to brief our new Authority friends about the Tower." Oracle asks cutting right to business.

She though does stop long enough to pull her sweater off leaving a similarly modest t-shirt underneath.

***

Dresden

With Voldermort taken care of I turned my attention to Nicodemus. The Denarian had feared Mouse on their last meeting. Hopefully his new found power didn't change that as the Temple Dog digs his Holy powered teeth into Nicodemus's left ankle.

***

Spider-Man

Demons feed on human suffering. Where would something that feeds on misery live in an abandoned Gotham City?

Well Crime Alley of course. The murder center of the world, also the birth place of Batman but Peter doesn't know that even as he lands where the Bat's parents died forty years past.

***

Master Chief

You go back up the stairs but the exit out is missing. The only direction you can go is up the other staircase.

[Cracklord]

Spider-Man
Leaping over a building, Spider-Man went in the direction of Crime Alley, which was still too far away for his tastes. In the distance he saw the figure of the Wayne Enterprises Building, as well as the Lexcorp headquarters, the only place undamaged, still positively gleaming. Apparently, until recently, Lex still had people undertaking business as usual, as though the zombies were an annoyance to leave to the Police.
Then he vanished, and the lights stopped working. You wonder if that's because he made a deal, or that he's simply so prepared that he had expected this.
An explosion to his right and the sound of demonic cackling—combined with his spider-sense—let him know to avoid a small device that almost blew up in his face. To Spider-Man's displeasure, it looked like a silver bullet. Sensing another threat, Spider-Man dodged the same bullet yet again, spotting his assailant on a roof.
Rip Van Winkle. The single remaining officer of the Letzes battioion, whose powers had let her reap a blody toll among the superhero's during the battle.
The Sharpshooter.

Cass
Frank's expression doesn't change. "That remains to be seen." He replies. staring down at you. He has serious psychological problems, he wouldn't be able to make himself fight a little girl, it would remind him too much of his daughter. But neither could he back down. He is literally caught within two absolutes, unable to act.
Todd shrugs expansively. "The law isn't interested. We are. And we're just as qualified as them."

Oracle
Bob has never encountered the Doctors, as they do not exist on his world, the closest equivalent being the Archive. So he nods, figuring it's best to feign competence and hope he doesn't get called up on it.

Voldemort
You look out from inside the locket, dangling on the end of a pale arm, poking out of a rippling sleeve like an obscene thing. The man in black pulls back his hood, to reveal a handsome and regular face, with none of the signs of a man who had been through awesome times and the secrets of the universe.
He is the man who brought you here, who has you in his power. The man you fear above all else, even death, because with death, at least you probably wouldn't have to face this man.
"How the hell did you ever make anyone afraid of you? I mean, come on. How hard can it be? Yes, they have guns. So what. Evolve or die. Darwin. Paley. E. Ching." His lips crinkle in amusement. He sounds positively jovial. But then, he likes to have people in his power, and you couldn't be otherwise, with him holding your soul.
"I suppose you don't have any idea who any of those people are. You're a one-trick pony afterall. Can't even do basic mathematics, 'cause that ain't taught in Hogwarts."

[doliest]

Rorasach
"Castle. Todd. Back. Down." Never the voice of 'reason' before. New feeling. No fight, not on base of unknowns over minor criminals. "Now."

[Cracklord]

Rorsarch
Jason Todd is so shocked he does. Frank is still suffering a psychological breakdown as an unstoppable force meets an immovable object.

[doliest]

Rorasach
"Better things to do. They're still locked up. They still will be. Leave them to Oracle. Whole new world below. One without us." Hm. Maybe meet 'Question' in this universe.

[industrious]

Nicodemus

The gunshots prove useless, as Roland's bullets disintegrate long before they reach the newborn Dark Apostle. Hellfire was such a useful tool, after all. And no matter how holy the guns were, it was still the normal lead bullets that the gun depended on for the kill. And mere bullets were hardly an impediment to a man who had faced the Swords of the Cross.

Mouse doesn't charge to attack Nicodemus; in fact, the normally fierce Tibetan Foo Dog whines and slinks away. A faint odor of brimstone may be the problem. Or merely the symptom.

"Bad dog."

He still hasn't made any overt offensive moves. He seems to be toying with everybody, honestly.

John Taylor

"If we don't succeed, then Randall Flagg will gain control of the Dark Tower. And he will reshape the worlds into his own twisted image. Time will be rewritten, bent and broken at his commands. You are Old Father Time; you ensure that time flows smoothly. You helped us in the Lilith War to protect the stability of the Nightside and the world. Help us now."

Jack Hawksmoor

Smiling abashedly, the Doctor removes his predecessor's handiwork, and frees Winter.

He smiles ruefully as the King of Cities phrases his next sentences.

"You've been gone for more than ten years; it is now 2010. Your investments have been taken care of, but due to the global economy, you have yielded only an average of 3% gained every year. Fuji and Hellstrike are dead; so is Jenny Sparks. You, me, Shen, Christine, and Jackson are all that's left of Stormwatch. But we've managed to create a replacement. Interested?"