|
     |
*
TWO WEEKS AGO/TWO YEARS AGO:
It was the fall; it almost seemed endless and would have seemed endless if Raven wasn't alone. An arm wrapped around her waist, her own reaching out to grab the Devil of Hell's Kitchen to keep linked up in a protective bundle, the bike soon after kicked from Jessica's seating to sail it away with just that motion alone so that they do not fall broken.
And then darkness.
The darkness that was filled with the sounds of scratching and heckling. Far off screams and roars. For which they landed was off to the side, just barely past being in the thick of it. Raven wanted to get away from them two and save Domino in the process. Why in the world she did that, only she knows. Raven always has a plan. But right now?
Her plan was to wake first.
AN HOUR LATER/A DAY LATER:
Which she did. She had no quarrel with Jessica, but Daredevil had answers to the questions that long plagued her mind and set her entire deal in motion. He was grabbed underneath the shoulders, and dragged to the safer spot. Leaving Marcus and Jessica on their lonesome. To her, she thought, was a blessing. Better they die with the demons in the Hellmouth than at her hand. While she had the heart and the stomach to, she considered them a waste of time.
THREE HOURS LATER/ONE MONTH LATER:
Their feet beat against the ground as they run up a hill of bones. The bones were unlike any other humans that they have seen, well Raven has seen. "Get up here!" She shouts out, "You need to get a look at this.."
As they reach the top, the torrid landscape dissolves into something that could be greenery. It must be a hallucination. But there was fresh grass, water. It almost looked like paradise, and with the eagerness and the stupidity of being the mortals that they were..
..they fell into a trap that nearly costed them their lives..
ONE WEEK LATER/ONE YEAR LATER:
Identities were exchanged during their time there; allegances formed, but the plan was slowly building in her mind to make this -work-. This, getting out. Old tales were told and clues were followed. Revolutions were started within but no one would ever know the outcome, because someone down there made them forget. It was a hard way of living and they came back haunted from it, but stronger than ever. But they were back at square one. Square one being at each others necks. No rhyme, no reason.. vowing to tear the world apart once familiar ground was reached. Their alliance was shaky..
EIGHT DAYS LATER/A YEAR AND A HALF LATER:
They used bones. Bones of whatever monster that was dead eons ago to beat back the horde that had come for their heads. Back to back they stood, older, wiser, cleverer.. the two of them against the world after all stories told yet again and endless days that ran into nights of familiarity (NOT THAT KIND) that left them laughing at little side jokes and finding the bright side to all of this. After a year and a half, they were still alive. And with a hellhound who.. Matt had took pity on and nursed back to health much to the chagrin of Raven fought at their side.
Ruthless warlords they would be. And soon the world began to collapse upon them once more. But this time, they did not forget.
TWO WEEKS LATER/TWO YEARS LATER:
"We found it." She utters out, tired. Beaten. The hound was killed not an hour ago by the vicious horde that follows them. She nearly collapses to her knees as she points towards the area in which they were to make their escape. At long last.. at long.. long last they were going to escape!
"Matt.." Raven says, the warmth slowly filling her voice as she presses her hands into the red dirt. "..I'm not going to make it. I'm tired. Just go. I'll keep them busy until you get free. You know who to find, and you tell my brother that I didn't give up."
It was loud. The sounds of a million feet beating against the ground so terribly that it begins to shake. A mini-earthquake one would call it. The warcries of the demons a
*
It was loud. The sounds of a million feet beating against the ground so terribly that it begins to shake. A mini-earthquake one would call it. The warcries of the demons and the clanging of swords a threat to the ears as Raven slowly pushes herself up. She was torn. Blood matted what could be called her garb, her armor of bones broken, a cut upon her neck was slow to heal and still bled little by little. Her hair, a little shorter before, now hung low enough to tickle the base of her spine. Red like the blood upon her body. Blue blood like the color upon her skin ruined her clothing. And she was barefoot.
"Get out of here." She turns, then looks over her shoulder. "And thank you."
THE OTHER SIDE - PRESENT TIME:
No one knows when the cracks of reality started to fade, they just know that it was there. A small slip sideways would take someone into the hellmouth but there was always the risk of coming out the other end wrong. That is where Raven would be. The mystic that they had met did her a solid. Allowing the message to pour through the ethers and the eons to reach Fred and Domino's ears. Though, they weren't sure that it would work.
But this very spot, a few lone SHIELD agents stare into the crack, alarmed, and unwilling to press forth.
"Jackson.." One man murmured. "..we have a problem here.."
The problem would be that the crack was slowly growing wider. Wide enough for Daredevil to bust through… or.. the horde of demons, should she fail. Should -they- fail..
*
"No."
Matt Murdock would not be recognizable by anyone who knows him; neither as the blind lawyer or as the red-clad Devil of Hell's Kitchen. His hair has grown, a beard masking his face. He's dressed in the torn hides of creatures long since vanquished, his fingernails long, cracked, and stained with blood and filth.
"God damnit, Raven. After all we've been through, you won't be staying here."
He plunges a wiry hand into the folds of his garb, retrieving a handful of writhing slugs. They are thick, juicy, and lined with spines spitting backward like those of a porcupine.
Turning, Matt walks toward her with purpose. He reaches out to clutch Raven by the chin, and forces one slug into her mouth. Head first, so the spines don't rip her throat up as it goes down. "Just a few more steps," he tells her, before closing her mouth in a manner that almost seems abusive; it's the only way to take them down. "And we'll never have to swallow these filthy worms again."
He plunges one of the slugs into his mouth, then forces his own chin shut, eyes clinched shut to squeeze out the tears. The tickle of spine against tongue was bad enough; the putrid odor forces its way into the nasal cavity, a scent somewhere between shit and stale semen, with a touch of sulfur. For a man with heightened senses, it's… bad. To Raven, the squeal of protest would be a tickle to the inner ear, but to Murdock, it's like the screaming of a tortured child.
Once the deed is done and the creature is being forced into his belly one gagging swallow after another, he releases his own mouth with a croaking gag, the painful sound of a man forcing himself not to vomit.
Only then does he look toward the ripple in reality. No, he cannot see it; this dimension of hell has not healed his blindness, but his skin crawls with the subtle vibrations he hasn't felt in years. Broadway sounds, the sounds of complaint. The smell of acid on a gun of paint. Carving out anger in a blood red band, destroyed tomorrow by an unknown hand.
His home.
"Now come on!" he cries, before grasping Raven by the hand and dragging her toward the portal. "Come on, before some unfortunate bastard gets drug in here with us!"
*
It's always a good night to be on patrol and tonight is no different for Spider-Girl. Her mostly black suit blends in excellently in the park at night, and she's perched up in an oak tree, staying very still, letting the shadows soak her up. The Devil of Hell's Kitchen had said this was the place, but she wasn't sure she had it right yet. She peered down at the SHIELD agents, confident they hadn't seen her, but curious about their presence.
Anya watches the rent in space with narrowed eyes behind her mask, studying it closely for any sign of movement. Her hands itch to thwip at the first sign of someone needing a lifeline, and then she sees it! Or at least thinks she does. A webline shoots out and passes through the rip. She was prepared to help haul someone out, but instead her line hit the ground next to Matt and Raven. She pull up hard, but ends up pulling only herself. Through the portal. Into hell.
Nice job Anya.
Staring around at the environs, Anya stammers out a, "What the hell is /this/?"
*
Yeah, so this whole damn situation has been one complete cluster. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over. The good news is that Domino's had a chance to prepare. The arsenal's been beefed up to Hell or High Water status, the duds have been upgraded with some reinforced biker gear, and..! Now she's got some grenades. Thanks to many hard years of training she's also very quick to prepare for an outing with very short notice, so when the word does get through…
"I feel like such an idiot," she flatly states while standing there decked out in guns and black leather.
Fred is tagged with a "Let's go," and they're off.
At the Park proper there's the matter of those wigged out SHIELD agents. Being on a timeframe her first thought is to gun them all down and press onward, but they kinda don't look like they're going to put up a fight. Which is the smart play. She'll threaten them if she has to but they don't have the time to hash that one out over bribes or bullets.
One step into the portal..and Domino immediately spins about on her heel and tries to step back out. "This was a mistake..! We shouldn't be here!"
*
It was a goddamned mess. First some broad was going to help them then they were going to help this other broad then.. Fred kind of didn't give a damn if the friend of these weird ladies got ate up by Draculas and then, at last, a message got through. Raven was alive, alive and she had gotten buddy buddy with that weirdo from Hells Kitchen.
Enough to make sure that Fred didn't twist his head around at first sight, at least.
But there it all was and here it all is… drop the needle, time to dance.
"Brother, you don't know the half of it." it cam from the tall, round figure behind the man that isn't Jackson. Flannel… fore warmth and overalls for general decency. Pay no mind to the shotgun resting against his shoulder nor the full belt of shells and the bulging pockets that promised more.
Before the customary wrote and rite of engaging a unknown, armed person could be engaged in, Fred reached out and took hold of the man by his shirt collar and… well he just tossed the man aside, lifting him up like a scruffed kitten and tossing him away a good three or four yards with nary even a grunt of effort.
Ignoring the man's associate(s?), Fred strolled forward to regard the dimensional rift…
"'The hell is this?" he wondered as he hefted the shotgun from his shoulders to cradle in his hands…
THWIP
"The hell was that?!" something had.. what…?!. His face scrunched in labored thought… and nope, nothing! "Agh!" he snarled, relenting before he.. kind just, well, headed in.
"Comin' through!" it wasn't so much a bellow of a bull charging as it was.. a truck trying to trundle through a too-narrow alley. Ther trip to hell was a awkward thing for Fred, more so when it seemd like Domino was having second thoughts. He scowled at her, pudgey face twisting in ire, beady eyes darkening, "Nuh'uh, sweet heart. We're on a jhob, move on!" he bullied her, a hand reaching forward to plant against her chest and just drive her back, back back into hell!
"We leave when we get ther boss!"
*
"We don't have time for this sh—hurgguguth.." Raven's words were cut off by the slug that was forcefully shoved into her mouth. Taste aside, she would never get used to such a thing. Not like she had gotten used to sleeping cold upon the ground, huddled with a man who would eventually become her foe yet again. Not used to it as she had fighting with her bear hands and actually enjoying and indulging it a time or two. She could barely even chew that thing but she knew that she had to. And kept a hand pressed over her lips so that it didn't come -right- back out.
"You don't get it, do you Matt.." She states, grabbing his hand at a snatch to put upon her firm stomach. There was movement there, movement as her organs at a constant shifting re-arrange as her body tries to compensate with the damage. She did not tell him that she was shot with a barbed bow. And it was possibly poisoned, and that her body was working it's way through the venom to burn itself out, and burning her down with it.
"I'm a dead woman so jus—.." Nope. Did not matter. They were close. Close enough that she could feel the stink of their breath..
IN THE HORDE:
"Klatazwororrzzz!" One of the demons hollar at the other.
"Czzzarkthrn!" He raises his bone sword then immediately teleports away. He had his orders. And he was going to see it through.
THERE/HERE AND NOW:
Raven allows herself that hope that she'd get out of Hellmouth. In fact, there was a time one night where they both mused at working together. Their shared comraderie at making sure their own people safe was met with a plan once they had gotten home. It went as such. To get some sleep first. To eat a goddamned burger. To take a walk in the park and meet up with old friends. To bring them together and formulate plans..
…plans of a dead man and woman who would never see the sun or feel it upon their skin again.
They were close, but the demons were closer.. what stops Raven was a thwip that plants itself into the ground that has her tugging Matt back protectively. Even though he did not need it, she was already done.. but wait.. this came from the portal?
"What the fuck Matt, we're surrounded.."
And here comes the figure of a black woman spider barreling through the pass between worlds, one that has both daggers snatched from her back in a makeshift harness, the loops gripped firm and twirled in an endless circle until she catches the handle to drop into stance.
*
To be fair, Murdock had intended the message to be sent to Jessica Drew. One of the few he could call a friend in the outside world. Spider-Woman, Spider-Girl… guess the lines somehow got crossed. Mysticism was never his bright spot, after all. He's Catholic.
"No, I don't get it." He's changed as well. Fewer jokes, a dryness to his words that doesn't always match the words themselves. It's as if he speaks what he says only to try and remember the man he once was, but in truth, he barely believes in it anymore. It's like a thread he clings to.
A thread like the one that lands nearby.
Matt rips his hand away from Raven's stomach, feeling that awkward tension ripping away. "Ain't the first time," he snarls, "is it? Don't quit on me now, or I'll-"
Movement. From the portal, but such trickery has been leveled upon them before. Trust nothing, believe nothing that you see. Advice the two unlikely compatriots have come to consider their rally cry.
Out from the hides come a pair of polished bones. Not his signature billy clubs, but they've served him well enough. The black has him immediately thinking of another demon. In the outside world, he wasn't a killer; in here, he became one. Damned good one. Brutal, vicious, unrelenting. One thing he's lost in this place, however, is hesitation. Raven was his only ally; everyone else? It was kill or be killed.
In the blink of an eye, he's throwing himself at Spider-Girl, the bones whizzing through the air with every intent of smashing the creature's head into gooey mush.
*
"El valle de sombra de muerte…" Sipder-Girl mutters through clenched teeth. She's crouched near Matt and Raven, and only barely in a defensive posture towards Raven. She has registered Raven's knives, but her focus is mostly taken by the demons nearby. "Double-D, seriously… what the /fuck/ is this…"
Then heavy femurs are whizzing at her head. Her reflexes are fast enough to dodge the first, but it's so surprising coming from Matt, that the second one manages a glancing blow across her shoulder. Hardly an injury, but Anya is still off balance. "Whoa, Daredevil! It's me, Spider-Girl!"
She's a blur now, putting every effort into avoiding his onslaught while also keeping an eye on the demons. "You contacted /me/. The portal in Central Park. I'm here to get you out!"
*
"Get off of me, Fred! What the hell?! You can't just—"
Then Domino sees the challenges that they face. More than environmental! More than an all-out assault on all five senses. "Aw..ssssssh-it-, no…"
Hell probably isn't known for its warm welcomings. There's a whole lotta baddies surrounded by a whole lotta crazy which all turns out to be a whole lot too much for a mind which never fully recovered from some very intense military experiments.
Armalite, AR-10. It's about the biggest and baddest thirty caliber rifle that one person could comfortably carry and operate out in the field. She planned for the worst, and by god it seems that's what they've got. By the time she notices the black-costumed spider that had found her way in alongside those of the Brotherhood the albino's mind is already too damned shot to understand.
All that she can do now is point and shoot. And shoot. And shoot. The large rifle keeps snapping back, shockwaves snapping out across the Hellish landscape like tiny thunderclaps. Those who have heard the sound before will probably recognize it now. Her body is on autopilot, her aim shockingly true, but her mind…
It's somewhere else.
"Survival..one shot in nine hundred ninety-eight thousand..four hundred sixteen. Finding cover..one in eighty-seven thousand nine. Not getting a weapon malfunction, forty-one thousand six hundred twelve…"
Mindless ramblings of insanity, just..muttering so many numbers to herself.
*
Never tell me thbe odds!
Because Fred honestly has no idea what the hell she's talking about.
Besides, he's here and even when you're left with slim to none, toss Fred into the mic and he'll come up with a fat chance! He's the sort of man that might just be able to tip even these scales in his favor!
(okay, I think that's all of them)
"Boss!" bellowed the beast of a man as he ambled after Domino, paying her complaints little heed, her firing line even less!
Devil was taing on that one woman that just hopped in but Raven was down… and looking to be in bad shape!
It stirred… concern? Worry, maybe. He was fond of her… these were all emotions that he had to blow the dust off of from misuse. They felt strange, alien.
He hustled, bounding and bouncing over towards her with each stride before he came to her side and stooped down, "Boss, we got your message!" Which is evident.. because they are there.
*
As much as Raven wanted to call out for Matt to wait, she doesn't. It was a quick calculation, one that has those blades looping within her fingers to snatch back into her back, taking off at a run full tilt to crash into Matt's side to stop the attack upon Spider-Girl. They roll, but it was in her favor, for as soon as their body stops, she was on top, already smashing the clay-like mud onto his face (clear of the eyes) to hide his identity. And it was just in time.
The gun blasts, a familiar sound but near lost shocks her, her hands immediately lifting to cover her ears. Yellow eyed gaze wide as she looks up towards the figure of Fred with an owlish gaze, and with a drop of a hand to poke at his portruding belly to test to see if he was really real.
"Fred…" And there was Domino. Domino a guns blazing. Domino who didn't look in her direction because thank god, Raven would be scowling because she thinks this was a figment.
"Where the fu— HURK!"
A chain snatches out from the thickness of the horde, the snap and crack around Raven's already damaged neck. Before she could say anything else? The chain tenses.. and snaps her back with a force unlike any have ever seen into the crowd.
ELSEWHERE:
The demon teleports into a near deserted field, the light that shines within the distance wavers as the sound of chanting could be heard. An old crones fingers roll and smooth over the smoke that the cauldron produces, an old fashioned Baba Yaga who gathers her herbs, snaps off a foreign word as she breaks apart the dried leaflets to add to the spell that she creates.
She only hopes that soon, they reach the portal, that they leave in this way that she creates. For her time was running out soon. She was being stalked.
*
Spider-Girl. Double-D. Had it not been for that nickname, Murdock may never have come back from his onslaught. Missing the first blow had nearly pushed him into a dark place, but the nickname is a pull from his perceived past that gives him pause.
Pause long enough for Raven to mask him up.
Gunblasts. Two familiar voices. Daredevil lifts the bones into the air, a sign of his relenting upon Spider-Girl. Maybe it was her. The other two, Domino and Fred, he recognized them. The portal was real… perhaps this was not trickery. "Okay, okay," he cries. "We have to get-"
His muddy face darts toward Raven as she's hauled off. "No!!" he bellows. "Cover me!" That one was meant for Domino and her portly friend. Anya may choose to follow at her own risk… but as for Daredevil? He's charging right into the horde itself.
The sounds drop away until Raven's heartbeat fills his ears. The bones swing with brutal precision at every monstrosity that comes near. He knows their weak points, where to strike and how to smite them with chilling efficiency. Perhaps more unsettling than this, however, is the expression upon his face. Devoid of everything but cold determination.
She gets out alive, or no one does.
*
With Daredevil tackled, Anya is able to get a better look at what's going on. The albino woman and the yuge guy are definitely not demons, so in this context they are Best Friends. Flipping to stick on the side of rock pillar nearby, Anya makes a desperate attempt to tangle up big groups of demons with widespread bits of webbing.
"We have to-" she starts, and then yelps when Raven is yanked away. "No no no!" She desperately tries to stick a webline on the chain itself but she misses, yanking a horned demon of some kind. On instinct she puts her elbow to his temple, no idea if it would work like normal, but the demon goes down in a crumple. She webs him again just in case.
"We hafta get outta here!" Like no one knew that already. She leaps from the pillar, arcing through the air with a couple of backflips for style, and lays into the creatures Matt misses. While this is definitely the weirdest situation she's ever been in, it's not the /only/ weird thing. She's seen some stuff. Her main focus is to web up a corridor, parting the red sea, as it were, to leave them an exit once Matt has his friend back.
*
The big Brotherhood mutant known as Fred is easy to follow, even for someone as lost as Domino. Between the two (and thank goodness at least one of them still has a clear head!) they'll carve a path through whatever they have to in order to reach their mark. Who is currently not alone. She's only ever seen Daredevil in costume. This poor, ragged man is just 'some other survivor' to her. The Spider..isn't getting in the way, so she isn't an obstacle. So far.
The blue's easy to recognize, though. It's a good thing Raven didn't mimic one of the demons! The albino drops down to a knee, quick reloads, and keeps taking her shots when she says to absolutely no one of this reality "Control, primary target acquired, exfil pattern Alpha."
She's just reaching out to grab hold of Raven by the arm in a none-too-gentle fashion when a chain claims the blue lady by the throat in an even more unkind fashion. Once again it's so close, yet so far. Yet, when Daredevil bellows out an order she doesn't tell him to go screw himself like she normally might. Instead..she just -does what he says.-
"Cancel previous, target on move, in pursuit. Unknown combatants on scene." Then right back to herself the muttering commences, "Nine in eighty-four" *BLAM!* "Three in seven—" *BLAM!* "FRED, vector Gamma, scatter the fuckers! YOU, stick 'em down, double formation!"
Whatever the heck 'vector gamma' is, though Fred's naturally good at disrupting enemy lies. Blob Smash! As for the 'YOU,' that would be Anya, the Little Black Spider that Could. Even with a clear mind Dom doesn't have any idea who that lady is, but right now she's an asset!
*
No.
It hadn't been years, just weeks. Two of them, days ticking by, one after the other where he wasn't certain he was going to have a purpose come the next day. It wasn't fun… He didn't like it.
And then, with a length of chain and a jerk, someone was trying to take it away again, having a purpose. Someone that spoke a kind word.
Fred didn't like it. It wasn't going to happen.
He dropped the shotgun, left it there in his wake as he took off. He didn't run like a fat man, he ran like someone in a fat suit. Super powered muscle unencumbered by his bulk. He hurled himself at the mass even as Domino rattled off about echos and grandmas… Even if he were listening, it would not have made sense.
No, Frederick J. Dukes just runs himself up to the demon horde and reaches out. He reaches out to the first, snarling, hateful face he can find and he takes hold of it, fingers splayed wide… and then closing.
Closing with force enough to crush bone, pulp flesh. Bits of bone prod at his palms impotently, blood streams from his fingers and the gore clings to his hands.
That's how it starts. He reaches ot, grabbing, pulling, stepping on , moving through, pulling things apart, ripping, tearing. They stab, slice, hack, hammer, pound, and flail against his bulk. His copious hide bending, mswaying, jiggling, bouncing. Here he wrenches a arm from it's socket, from it's owner. There he takes one monsters weapon along with it's hand, twisting it from the wrist. He curses them, yells, vulgarities or wordless bellows of anger as spittle flies from his lips… He might tire before he finds a thin point to them but that could take a while.
*
Raven was lost to them now. But not permanently. Daredevil could literally smell her blood, her sweat, could hear the rapid beating of her heart. He could also hear the shifting of her organs, the crackling of bones.. the shearing of her blades as she begins to tear through her portion of demons that drew her into a fight..
..Did she want this? No. She wanted to be free. She knew that a sacrifice would have to be made so that -one- of them could get out. Such is her bond with him (for now). Sacrificing one to save the other, other to save the one, vice versa and versa vice.
All around them, goblins leap and claw. Some shot down from the air that they draw from, others landing atop of Fred and bowled over with just a few steps from the mutant monstrosity. Daredevil's bones proved true; he beats them back like a Master of his craft would, added with deadly proficiency that no one would ever speak of again.
If there was a chance to shake his faith, this would not be it. For he is a Catholic, and now a true servant of God who fights in Hell upon his side.
All of them spoke the truth with the way their bodies moved, how the bullets flew and pelted in between the eyes of one demon, two.. three.. that bitch over there and another big fucker here..
Spider-Girl's words ring out a homage of needing to leave that became most dire at that point in time.. because..
ELSEWHERE:
There was a sound of gurgling that cut off chanted words, her elderly fingers trembling towards the sky as her back arches, the blade protruding through her sternum as black blood draws from her lips in clumps, soon spittled out as she tries to speak.
'Chrraotka!' The demon hisses in her ear. 'Zzzhwuratha nacht!'
The old woman, Baba Yaga type woman, slowly curls her neck to hang from the side as she was lifted and paraded in her spot. 'Sheeetanatha datha! Daredevil leh Mystique datha nun kai!'
The demon laughs, his feet stamping against the ground as he brings the spear down, woman attached, into the cauldron which breaks apart as her old body hits.
OVER THERE:
The portal behind them trembles and fluxes against the webbing that holds it all together. A loud snap would draw the attention of one line being cut. It was time to go.. or they'd be trapped there forever!
*
"Hey, big guy?" Yes, that is Daredevil addressing Fred in a dry manner that is more himself than he can realize in this moment. Maybe it's the taste of Broadway tugging at the part of his soul that hasn't become hardened by this awful place. "Eyes on me, we're close."
The interference from Domino and Spider-Girl is just what they need. Daredevil is leading Fred right to their prize, and there comes a moment where Mystique becomes visible to the battering ram in a fat suit. "Go get her, boss."
Suddenly, Matt is whipping around, and his voice screams out down the corridor toward Anya. "WEB US OUT!!!"
They're not going to make it on their feet alone. Let's hope Anya gets the idea, and that her webbing will hold.
Within moments, Mystique is in Fred's grasp. A beat later, Daredevil is upon them. "To me, quick!" he issues, then turns back toward the portal. It's a clear shot, with the bending of reality just beyond the distant vision of Spider-Girl and the flashing of Domino's muzzle; the Red Sea, as it were, has indeed parted, but Anya's webbing is only going to hold off that throng for so long.
"Blessed Father, watch over us," he prays, before reaching out with strong arms to grab Raven and throw her, along with himself, right into Fred's oversized gut.
At least he gave Spider-Girl a big target.
*
Anya wasn't even registering the rips and tears in her suit. This wasn't just a back alley koshing. This was life and death. Good and evil. And for once, Daredevil wasn't the only Catholic on the scene. It's not loud, and it's in Spanish, but as she fights, Anya is grunting out the verses about the Valley of the Shadow of Death. The cadence is so familiar, for most Catholics it wouldn't matter what language it's recited in. This is a mantra for many across the world; a code; a spell; an incantation, and she means it. Right now, in this moment, Anya really doesn't fear any evil. Her mind is focused and single of purpose.
So when one of her lifelines pwangs and snaps, she acts like any spider. It's an alert. Danger! Instinct tells her exactly what's happening, even though she has no earthly way to explain it. "We-" she starts to call out, but Matt gets it. They all get it. With a sigh, Anya lets that pure instinct take over, and she starts moving without thinking.
THWIP
THWIPTHWIPTHWIP
Weblines shoot out to stick each person where they're ready - the hand, the arm, the shoulder, whatever works best, with Anya in the center of the web, of course. With a complicated motion of her hands, the varied lifelines are woven together in her left hand, while her right reaches out one more time. A fresh line speeds through the air to their exit. The only exit, and then it pulls tight.
"Hang on everyone!" Anya calls. Then she whispers, "Dios, por favor…" She pulls /hard/. Harder than she's ever needed to before, and she launches into the air, stalling only briefly as all of the lines take up slack and she'd twanging between her anchor line, and the others down below. One more HEAVE, and they're all moving, /shooting/ thought the air, toward the gap in space and time.
*
The situation is extremely freaking dire. Domino's rifle is already out of rounds and, good as she may be, there's too many nasties coming in from too many directions to keep them off of her forever, even if she wasn't also trying to cover everyone else. The Armalite is chucked like a spear (there's even a bayonet on the end!) then Fred's dropped shotgun gets kicked out of the dust, caught out of the air, and fired until it's empty. Stock end meets face of another demon then it, too, gets thrown and plows over yet another critter.
Down to pistols, ducking and weaving through the chaotic mass of limbs, horns, hooves, and weapons all seeking to take a sizeable piece out of her person. Her guns get scratched up quite a bit from blocking various other implements of war, but so far… So far she's holding true.
Even when she finds one of those grenades. Primes it. Has it knocked straight up out of her hand…
Pale hands grab onto barbed shoulders, pull her into a quick hand-stand atop of another beast, striking the grenade just past its apex with the heel of her boot. Sending it out into the crowd…
'Go get her, boss.'
..Right over Raven's head.
Dom lands, jerks to the side, and takes a long curved horn, severed and turned into a melee device, through her side. It's grabbed, pried free, jammed point-first into the attacking creature's gut. Then she goes for two -more guns. "Bring it, you fuckers!"
Thwipped by Anya for a timely rescue, but she's not done fighting! And left in their wake, on the dark side of the portal:
A small pile of armed grenades.
-Everything Dies.-
*
Fred… Well, he doesn't like Dare Devil about as much as he doesn't like anyone else. There was that time in the police station and then he said something about twisting The Devil's head off of his shoulders but that was just the plain old 9 to 5. He'd make that threat to someone that cut in front of him at the grocery store.
Sufficed to say, he doesn't like being bossed around… but there's a nice, little blueberry at the end of that stick and he aims to take it home. So he progresses, ripping things apart, subtracting anatmomical features one after the other as he makes his way.
And there she was at last…
It is not advised to get very close to Fred. He is not friendly, he is not kind. But he is very, very, very soft. It's like being carried by a cashmere beanbag as he scoops her up and cradles her against him, stooping over and hunching his shoulders to almost try and envelope her in a Duke-sphere.
And then he gets to know how hooked fish feel. The webbing hits the broad-side of the barn that is his back and clings. It's almost instinct to anchor… but this is one of the few times that The Blob is quite movable!
He curls, legs tucking in, the line gone taut and he comes bouncing and rolling like a terribly large basket ball… Not quite a super ball, that belongs to Speedball. He's this doughy, bounding heap… with a battered, blue center!
*
Day 136: INSIDE THE HELLMOUTH:
It was a sickening sound, bodies were laid across the wooden apparatuses. They were no St. Andrew's crosses, but actual crosses themselves mimicking the crucifixion of Jesus Christ upon which Raven herself was impaled upon.
Through the ankles where the joints connected, through the wrists where the nerves were. She bled so much, and the pain was so great, but the loudness of that pain wasn't the thing that she hears the most. It was the dull thuds of the mallet striking against the large nail. Inching through her flesh.
You see, it sounds like chewing. Endless crawling of maggot upon roach upon maggot. For in that place as well, centipedes crawl across her thighs like chicken who attempts to get to the other side; yet these little bugs were crushed underneath the boot of the demon who holds her as such.
A mockery.
'I deserve this.' Raven thought. 'Of everything I have done.'
And when her eyes set to close for one final time, a time of many, she would find out, staring down towards the visage of hope, even though his face that she had grown accustomed to was grimy.
'Don't you dare give up on me, ever again Raven!' Rage. Sorrow. But the fight never left his eyes even though he could not see. And as much as she wished to in that moment to touch his face, to pull him into an embrace that would last for the few hours that they've had after her rescue, there was a silent promise that while they were here, she would never fail him.
'I promise Matt.'
Day 401:
The days ran together. The conversations never stopped. This time, they were alone in a vast desert, the sky was red as it was hot. What little they found to eat, they did, and continued upon their path of blooded feet.
'Does God know when we are crying and we're really not?' Raven asks of him. 'Yes.' Was the answer. 'Do you know? With your ears. You can hear everything, even a smallest animal that crawls away in the distance. Do you know that I cry, when I don't make a sound?' 'Yes, I do Raven.'
As they move along the beaten path, her head hangs low. She wasn't going to give up, she made that promise a long time ago. Even though it felt like yesterday. 'We can't last in here.' She murmured with a finality. Perhaps it was something that even he knows. 'But we have to try.' He says. But could she hear it?
'Tell me the story of our origin?' She asks. 'Yours or mine?' He asks in return. 'I'd like to believe that we share the same father, if this place has taught me anything. If -you- have taught me anything.'
*
NOW:
Hope is what calls to Raven now that she was in the thick of it. The blades fly true as the one who wields it; the chain that holds the brace upon her neck smashed down with a foot and shattered, that chain itself flung into the crowd of demons creating a vast circle as she lets herself go with the dance of the blade. If this is her end? Let it be glorious. Let her death be BEAUTIFUL. But that was not the case.
A shocking self-awareness was about her at all times; for when Daredevil makes the call, Fred thunders in and snatches her up. Her favorite blades where dropped, and for the first time in two long years, Mystique finally shifts into that of a child. Small. Warm. Sunk into the big arms of Fred and an even bigger belly that surprisingly smelled of something decent. Good on you Fred, you washed your clothes and bathed.
The demons did not stop even as Spider-Girl began to arrange the way for their escape. Some even attempted to cut the cords of life but were felled by bullets rained down upon them by Domino. Daredevil manages to beat them all back and with a TWHIP TWHIP TWHIP AND BOUNCE! They were flying through the air!
Raven could not hold that visage long, she was shifting. An endless panic from child, to woman, to Caucasian, to black, to a red demon, to herself again as she curled herself up to make herself safe again. And just as the motley crew vanishes through the ripple set upon them by Baba Yaga (not her really, trust), it succors and snaps closed. Easily.
The remaining horde was confused. So confused. The ripple in the air was gone and only a bag was left behind.
*
The crowd of them slowly approach where the cadre had disappeared, one little goblin shuffling forth, obviously injured, his stick reaching out to poke at the bag..
*KAPOW!*
Fuck you 1940's in Hawaii and the explosions there after. The Hellmouth just got it's world rocked.
The world was spinning. The fresh air was shocking. The darkness even moreso. Was that the moon? Do there be stars? Does she smell life? Did a car just honk his horn? Was there a hobo screaming obscenities and a man returning fire with words equally so? 'And Jesus said..' 'Oh shut up you crazy mutherfucker, before I tear you a new asshole!' 'REPENT! REPENT' 'Fuuuuuck youuuu!'
If there was a stop motion camera in play, it would focus on the deadpan look that Raven kept as she sailed through the air in slow motion. And she'd look directly into the lenses and say, "Yep. This is New York."
*
Domino has disconnected.
*
Fred has disconnected.
*
Murdock lands with a thud and a skid. No grace here. He's simply run out of the energy for it. Mud falls off his face, and some of the demon hide that covers his frame flops open to reveal a torso of nothing more than skin, bone, and hardened muscle. When his skidding finally stops, it becomes apparent that blind eyes are dancing about in an erratic way, looking at everything and nothing at all.
The sounds, the smells, the heartbeat of the city. It's like a flood that deafens and overwhelms him. Gasoline. Overcooked burgers. The aroma of marijuana. The sweat of a boxer. The smell of a room after sex. Cheap whiskey. Expensive vodka. A stopped up toilet. The perfume of a prostitute next to the cologne of a Senator. Grass. Flowers. The heartbeat of a stray cat. The rumble of a subway train. The buzzing of a fruit fly. The shit of a police horse. Leather. Pierogi. Taco meat. Blood. Steam hissing from a radiator.
Matt finds himself grasping the sides of his head, overwhelmed by all of it to the point of madness. He wants it all to be silent, for his nose to smell nothing, to not know that the A-train is rumbling through the station at W. 106th by the way the ground vibrates. And yet, it's all so sweet. Even the smell of piss in an alley is something he might bask in, because by God, it's human piss that didn't come from himself of Raven.
Finally, his eyes stop spinning. He pries the hands away from his ears, and comes to pull himself up into a seated position. Fingers touch the damp grass, softly at first, then begin digging into the dirt to feel its wet cool.
"We made it," he breathes.
*
Anya hadn't realized she was panting like a racehorse but when they all come to a landing on the right side of the portal, the horror and panic of the situation they left behind finally starts to catch up with her, and she's out of breath. "Holy shit… Holy shit," she mutters. She's pacing, but staying near her passengers for now, but she's shaking her hands like they're tingly or numb. Maybe because she was just the linchpin in a half-ton double yo-yo and she's feeling a little shaky.
Everyone is dazed and recovering in their own way, so she doesn't accost anyone with questions /yet/. But that moment is surely coming. A couple civilians come closer, trying to get a better look at these curious figures in the park, but Anya shoos them away. "Go on!" she barks. "It's not safe yet."
*
With Fred and Domino picking up the pieces on their end, and trundling off to give Raven a little bit of space with a wave of her hand and a few swear words.. (did she say something in demonic?), they were off. Preparing a car or a ride or something, something stealable, and something large.
Raven did not shield herself from the onslaught of smells and noises. She welcomes it. It almost seems like a distant memory as she lays there upon the grass. The cold air brushing across her skin, her own armor gone to reveal that she herself has seen better days, yet her wiry build was more pronounced just as Murdock's had been.
In other words. She was dressed as Jane, loincloth up and just a sports bra. Granted, she could wear what she wished but for close to two years? She did not use her gift. But they made it. Cut, bruised, nearly broken. They made it. She could not deny the tiny stockholm that she felt. The need to go back. Because there was something freeing about all of it.. until finally..
"Get this off of me." She was quiet. That thing around her neck. "GET IT OFF OF ME!"
*
Raven's quiet word stirs Matt to some degree. His fingers loosen. The shout, however. That…
The distance is closed quickly. A hand reaches out to snatch up a set of handcuffs from a shell shocked SHIELD agent, but when he reaches Raven, he's gentle.
"Be still, Raven," he says quietly. One of the handcuffs finds itself pried between the collar and the back of her neck, to add some stability. A fulcrum, against which he pries the damn thing open and slips it free from her neck.
The handcuffs fall to the grass. Matt has already turned away, and walks back toward Anya with steady, almost chillingly steady purpose. "Hey," he says quietly, in an effort to settle her nerves. "Listen, I… we were in there a long time, and… there were tricks. At first, I thought…" He stammers a bit, then just gives it a rest.
"I must ask one more favor of you, though."
The bent collar is placed softly into one of her gloved hands. His eyes look her way, but they drift just slightly up and past the mask. Unfocused, slightly crossed, but when he speaks, the words are cold, filled with a smoldering anger that isn't directed at her, or anyone else.
"Send this damn thing into the Hudson."
*
Turning back from crowd control, Anya watches Matt and Raven in silent empathy when he breaks the collar off of the woman. "We're gonna have a long conversation about this sometime, I hope, Double-D. But you know I got your back," she says, taking the collar. She twists it again, breaking it in two pieces just for the feel of it, and then she nods.
"One Hudson delivery, no problem." Anya reaches up to double check that her mask is still pretty much on, rips not withstanding, and starts to leave. After a couple steps she turns back though. "You're gonna come find me when you're feeling better, right?" It's not a command, or a question really, but more of a 'laying out of facts about which everyone is clear'.
She stands there another second, and turns again to leave. THWIP, to the bumper of a cab, the alley beyond that, and then she's gone, headed for the Hudson.
*
When you are done, don't forget to tag your log with the names of the participants as they appear on the game![[/size]]