| Shuma Gorath Visits Metropolis |
| Summary: | The City of Metropolis calls for help as a vile otherworldly figure prepares to manifest and wreck devastation upon her people. Three very special ladies answer that call. |
| Date: | 2014-06-11 |
| Related: | NA |
| NPCs: | Shuma-Gorath |
| Scene Runner: | Indigo |
| Social/Plot: | Plot |
| Players: |
 .. .. .. .. |
The modern city spirit, it seems, uses the latest in modern technology. Power Woman, Zatanna Zatara, and Wanda Maximoff each received a text.
Please come to 1972 Lorenz Way in Metropolis.
Power Woman would recognize the text as coming from an account reserved by Indigo. Zatanna and Wanda, on the other hand, would feel the mystic residue of the message and know it was sent by someone with a strong technomystical ability.
Indigo waits, still and immobile. Like a statue, neither breathing nor blinking, inside the abandoned warehouse at 1972 Lorenz Way.
A text message! Karen Starr gets those all of the time, though they're usually from numbers she recognizes as friends or family. Laurel texts her. Her dad texts her more often, though. Business stuff. Classmates.
Checking the originating account, Karen ohs. Glances up at her class … ponders for just a few seconds, and then sighs. It wouldn't be the first time. She gathers her few things, gets up, and walks out of the room right in the middle of a class session.
Great thing about being in college /and/ having a virtual 4.0 GPA? Professors may hate you for getting up to leave class. But as long asy ou get all of the work done and the tests, they can't really say anything.
Two minutes later, Power Woman floats down from the sky and hovers outside the building, scanning with all of her senses before heading in. Indigo, she trusts. But Indigo could, potentially, be manipulated. Better to be safe than to be sorry.
Wanda doesn't get /that/ many text messages, and with the nature of the message being magical instead of political, Wanda elects to arrive in costume. Her scarlet cape flares around her as she arrives, her outfit rather distinctive, though not often seen outside of the actual action in Genosha some weeks ago.
The beauty of being an internationally recognized stage magician known for performing - and living - the bizarre and ecletic (deviant, really) is that Zatanna Zatara can show up anywhere at really any time admist raised eyebrows that really aren't that surprised she just appeared. Some react to it with fandom, others with disdain, and most? A shrug, a huh.. and life goes on for most.
Now when a mystic entity she has not knowingly had contact with sends her a text message it is both curious and intriguing though for the sorceress to make her way to this unexpected invitational.
Murmuring softly a glowing portal opens in her Gotham residence and she steps through.
On the other end of the magical wormhole, the glowing portal opens across the street from the indicated address and out steps a high heeled, fishnet clad leg followed by the rest of the magician, the portal closing into a myriad of golden sparkles just behind her.
Zatanna looks around thoughtfully, blue eyes regarding the location with growing interest.
Is it by coincidence that Power Woman, Zatanna and the Scarlet Witch all arrive at the same time? Or by cosmic design? The robotic entity that is also the spirit of the City of Metropolis "powers up" when the three women arrive.
"Welcome. PowerWomanKara-L. Welcome. ZatannaZatara. Welcome. WandaMaximoffScarletWitch. I. am. Indigo. I. am. Metropolis."
The warehouse is old and abandoned. It is much as one would expect. Shattered windows. Graffiti. Old worn out mattresses and cigarette butts and cheap alcohol bottles strewn about. It is as if the alien technology that upgraded Metropolis into a science fiction city skipped this one, lonely building.
"Metropolis. is. in. need. of. your. assistance."
Likely, the two women of magic already feel it. There is something powerful here. But dormant. Slime and whispers slithering through the spaces between molecules begging to be born.
When the scarlet-clad Ms. Maximoff arrives, of course, Kara Zor-L is hovering in front of and a bit over the warehouse, peering intently. She doesn't look up at the other woman until she is done. When she does, she offers a measured nod of acknowledgement. "Ma'am." She recognizes Wanda from Genosha, and from news reports that identify her as the ambassador newly appointed to the UN for that troubled country. But they have not met or spoken previously.
When the portal opens to reveal Zatanna nearby, Kara turns and nods to the woman. "Good afternoon, Zatanna. You are looking well." Of course, if Indigo called out to all three of them, this is scary stuff.
Introductions done from her perspective, Kara floats down to ground level and opens the door, holding it for the other two women to enter, then closing it behind herself.
"Hi, Indigo." Kara offers, quite conversationally. Then, she listens. Only then does she speak again. "There's an … egg. Composed of over three hundred differentiated types of human cancer cells. It's about ten feet down, below Indigo's feet. Buried there. I assume that has something to do with this?" Hooray for those super peepers of Power Woman's.
Wanda Maximoff blinks at bit at the Ma'am from Kara, and nods towards her, "Power Woman… though you can refer to me as the Scarlet Witch, or Wanda if you prefer." Diplomatic immunity has some advantages, and Wanda glances over towards Zatanna, giving her a smile and a nod as well. "It's good to see you again, and there is…" She glances back to Power Woman, "Something /wrong/ with that, though from your description, I think I can see why, as it is most assuredly… wrong, by any definition."
Zatanna Zatara approaches the door, entering it as any normal woman dressed in top hat corsetted tux (and tails!) and fishnets would - through the door. Stepping inside and looking to see Power Woman, whom she has met and spoken with before.."Thanks, Power Woman. You're looking sufficiently powerful yourself" she quips. And… "Madame Ambassador" .. whom she has also conveniently spoken with before though for a much briefer period. Turning her focus to the speaking Indigo with interest she queries, "Assistance?" She turns and glances about the warehouse. "…could at least use a good Merry Maid service in here.. couple mops a few brooms and a bit of dusting.. this place will be as good as new. Y'know.. aside from the questionable ethereal qualities slithering around just beyond the tangible.. that might take more elbow grease." She almost smiles, showing she is taking this seriously just in her own way.
"What sort of trouble are we talking about?"
Then Power Woman spoils the reveal for Indigo and Zatanna muses, "..that's going to be outside the cleaning abilities of any feather duster I've ever seen.. and probably a violation of OSHA standards for most employees. Even with overtime figured in."
Indigo takes a step back so she no longer stands directly above the egg. She looks down as if she, too, can see through the floor and the dirt to the horrible thing that lays below.
"Yesterday. Three. hundred. people. in. Metropolis. had. their. cancer. cured. The. cancer. left. them. through. waste. and. blood. and. vomit."
Ew.
"It. came. here. and. became. a. vessel. for. an. ancient. evil. to. be. reborn. into. our. world. The. eldest. cities. whisper. of. it. with. fear. Faiyum. Luxor. Carthage. Themyscira. Atlantis." Indigo lifts her head and she whispers a single word.
"Shuma-Gorath."
The entire warehouse shakes for a moment, as if experiencing a quickly passing 5.4 magnitude earthquake.
Power Woman looks at Indigo, and then at the other two women. Frankly, mystical crap gives her a headache, and that's before it punches her in the face, let alone after. "OK. Hooray, cure for cancer. Boo hiss, evil nasty thing. I assume simply incinerating the cancer egg isn't going to be enough, here. So, how do I help?"
Zatanna Zatara staggers at the strong tremblor. ".. really should just learn to hover. Seems so much safer.." She looks around and murmurs to herself, "!tnerapsnart nrut gge revo dnuorG" And the floor does not disappear though it would seem it has. Really it has just turned as clear as purest glass to allow for direct viewing from those not currently sporting Xray peepers. "Well aren't you just a warm fuzzy thing?" the magician muses as she looks down at the 'egg'. "Well.. that is certainly a problem. And maybe saying its name would be a thing to avoid for now. Unless we want the building down on top of us too." She shrugs to Power Woman, a finger lightly gesturing a request to let Indigo finish explaining..
Wanda Maximoff hrms, looking down at the thing, then she nods in agreement with Zatanna, "Saying the name gives it power, yes." She frowns, and looks at Zatanna, "Either banishment or imprisonment, though keeping an entity like this around is a really /bad/ idea. And frankly, you'd have more experience with this kind of ritual than myself."
Indigo admits the truth.
"I. do. not. know."
Metropolis is, after all, a city of science. Not one of magic.
"That. is. why. I. asked. for. your. aid. Metropolis. needs. you. to. save. her. I. need. you. to. save. me."
"And we're here. As promised. As requested." Power Woman answers Indigo, looking to the other two. "Sorry, ladies. As Zee knows, magical whatsis is even further out of my purview than it is for Indigo. I'll do whatever you want me to do, but you'll have to tell me what I can do that would be at all helpful."
Zatanna Zatara nods to Indigo and then looks to the other women. "Our… friend here. Is not the kind of guest we want in this dimension. Ever. But just opening a portal and throwing him inside? We're just passing our problem off onto someone else who may not be any better off - or is worse off - to fight. We might make ourselves more enemies." She walks around the egg to view it from other angles. She looks to Wanda, "Mad…. Wanda.." Mad Wanda. That's fiting for a chaos mage now isn't it? "I can bind the egg and banish it. But to open and maintain a portal at the same time, given the power emanating from this thing.. it's going to be tricky. Can you create a nice new pocket dimension for me to send it into? The colder the better I think."
The Scarlet Witch smiles, "You don't ask much, but I'll see what I can manage." She closes her eyes, raising her hands as crimson energy gathers around her fingers, arcane symbols forming around her spontaneously as she gestures, the temperature in the room chilling rather noticeably as Wanda focuses her powers, looking to make a little pocket to stuff the extradimensional terror into.
No one told Kara what to do, so at first she's just watching and listening. And standing close to Indigo. Protectively so. But she's watching for a hint of what to do and when. There has to be a reason she's here, after all. Right? (Oh. And it's HER DAMNED CITY! RAR!)
It begins almost immediately. As soon as Wanda begins her spell a foul, warm wind spins through the room. Trash collects and forms together until it grows into a being - something floating in the air. A dozen tentacles made up of trash wrappers and old bottles, half filled cans and old condoms, pieces of drywall and slivers of glass. The tentacled trash golem heads straight for the magicians.
"You, must. stop. it." Indigo says to Power Woman.
Zatanna Zatara smiles brightly. "Considering the power pouring off of you, Madame Ambassador, I have no doubt you can give us a little dimension just about double the size of our guest here." She looks to Power Woman, "This may not be a welcome vacation… yeah..that." The golem creature's arrival seems to prove her point perfectly. "That'd be the kind of thing I'd have expected.. Think you can keep it busy for us, Power Woman?" Another bright smile as she turns and sets herself.
Wand in hand, tophat at an appropriate and rakish angle to show she means business, Zatanna closes her eyes to focus and prepare for her part of the ritual casting.
"OK." Power Woman responds, glancing over her shoulder and down at the small blue-hued figure. "Just promise you'll stay behind me." Because as much as she knows Indigo is the entire city? To her, Indigo is also a 'person' of sorts, incarnate in this avatar. And she doesn't want this avatar to get hurt. She's the hero. So she will save her city. And her little blue friend, too.
"Back off, ugly!" Power Woman shouts, not because the thing has ears to hear, but because it is an act of defiance and determination, something antithetical to whatever this thing is. It should resonate without sound. It should be enough.
Then Kara streaks forward, laying about herself with fists and laser vision, viciously slicing off pieces of the golem, incinerating them as she tries to keep it busy, and most importantly keep it off of Zatanna and Scarlet Witch.
Power Woman's costume is going to need cleaning, if not burning, when this is over. And it keeps regrowing every bit of damage she does. After all, matter can neither be created nor destroyed, only changed, and ash counts as dirt and refuse, apparently. But at least, so far, it's busy with her and not anyone else. She's in its magical tentacle grasp, ripping free and then getting grabbed again, slicing off pieces, incinerating them and then watching them reform.
Truth? It's a hentai-lover's dream.
The Scarlet Witch gestures again, strain evident as the portal starts to form around the growth far below, the cold dimension being something that is evident even through several hundred feet of rock and stone. She grits her teeth, figure glowing with red energy as she says, "Zatanna… now… would be good…" Making pocket dimensions is not exactly the easiest thing, anyway.
Zatanna is already working on the casting of her own ritual binding and banishing spells,lips moving in silent speech as her wand glows. Stage magic will never die if she has anything to say about it.
Her voice slowly rises in volume and her eyes open to focus on the egg of evil incarnate as she casts the first part,
"!gge ruoy nihtiw dnuob eb htaroG-amuhS"
The glow of bright electric blue engulfs the egg, sealing the 'unborn' evil within his vile casing.
Then she narrows her eyes with determination as she prepares to cast the next part of the banishment rite.
"I. am. not. helpless." Indigo speaks. The sides of the warehouse are broken as two street cleaning drones smash into the building. They immediately go to work, vacuuming up the pieces of the golem as Power Woman breaks them off. Refusing to allow the trash to refrom into the tentacle golem.
"Never." Power Woman lands a few more wet, slurpy, disgusting punches on the trash golem, disgustingly, and then rips her arms free when they are entrapped, tearing away one of limbs, which she burns away with her heatvision. "Said." Kara dives into the heart of the golem, ripping away pieces and then incinerating them. " You." Power Woman gets seizes by two tentacles at once and dragged, kicking and thrashing, into the heart of the golem all overa gain. Then she yanks and twists, starting to twirl about at increasing, blurring speeds, then erupts out through the surface of the trash golem, red beams of heatvision lancing out to flash-fry pieces as they separate and fall towards the cleaning drones. "Were."
Zatanna Zatara for her part concentrates on perfecting the power and effect of her banishing spell as the Scarlet Witch opens and maintains the pocket dimension for the future Shuma-Corath.
As the warding spell constricts around the egg, the magic barrier's blue glow flashes bright white at various points that show its occupant is hardly helpless and is attempting to fight back. ".. almost there Wanda. Five seconds!"
Closing her eyes to focus then stares at the bound egg as she casts the banishment rite:
".nrob eb ot reveN"
".esir ot reveN"
".niaga ecalp siht tisiv ot reveN"
"!reverof rebmuls ot noisnemid wen siht ot dehsinab eb htaroG-amuhS"
The egg's barrier begins to glow brightly as it rises up, shattering the old concrete warehouse floor and moves toward Wanda's prepared portal, passing through it into the space beyond.
And what's left of the tentacled trash golem falls apart as the egg passes into the other realm created by the Scarlet Witch. Once the portal has closed, the danger has passed.
Without destroying a large swath of Metropolis, too!
Dripping goop and muck, panting a bit, and looking a bit the worse for wear - Power Woman is vulnerable to magic, and that was a magical entity, so it was actually able to hold and restrict and even cut her to some extent - the Kryptonian heroine collapses to her knees as the golem collapses to the ground.
Kara looks up, and around at the other three women. "Can you reclaim the warehouse, now?" she questions Indigo. Becaue no warehouse in Metropolis should be like this. This is the City of Tomorrow. <re>
Wanda Maximoff slumps a bit, standing upright just barely as she looks over at Power Woman, "Sadly, if I conjured some animate brooms, I think I wouldn't have the energy to keep control of them at present." She straightens, "I definitely need a cappuchino."
Indigo's robotic eyes sweep across the warehouse. "There. will. always. be. places. such. as. this." The two cleaning drones begin sucking up the muck and litter, though. "I. will. clean. it. I. cannot. keep. it. clean. without. care. from. a. citizen. It. is. not. a. public. space. It. is. owned."
Zatanna Zatara is no less affected. Power comes at a price for everyone. Rubbing her temples she murmurs quietly. "A long hot bath and some quiet pink noise for a few hours would be good, yeah." She looks to Indigo. "Is that everything?" She looks around. Gaping hole in the floor. "Ah… one moment." This is a less difficult thin after the binding, at least as she casts:
"!saw ti sa derotser roolF"
The chunks of broken concrete all return, even that which was turned to crushed pebbles and dust, all sworl around and return to the floor soon restored to the same dingy space it was before.
".. now.. anything else?"
Kara ahs softly, nodding to Indigo. "Private space. That explains it." It wouldn't make sense, except to someone who knew Indigo and how she operates. Kara simply hadn't expected that this place was owned. "Can you tell me who owns this place?" Indigo might refuse; that's fine. But Power Woman will be following up, because it may be that whomever owns this place put all of this into motion, and that's just as bad as what was dealt with here today.
The tired Kryptonian heroine nods to the mystical ladies. "Thank you, both of you, for your help. I really appreciate it." And so does Metropolis. Obviously.
Wanda Maximoff smiles, "Not a problem, Power Woman. Anything to keep an Elder God from hatching around here." She glances over at Indigo and Zatanna, "So, I don't suppose there's a nice place to get coffee around here? I really could use one right now."
Ownership is a matter of public record. Indigo has no problem saying the name.
"AlexanderLexLuthor."
Indigo turns slowly towards Zatanna. "We. are. finished. Thank. you. You. saved. Metropolis. You. saved. me." She smiles, though the motion isn't right. Her cheeks lift and lips curl but it doesn't reflect in those robotic eyes.
"There. is. a. good. coffee. shop. nearby. It. has. five. stars. Thank. you. for. saving. me."
And with that, Indigo breaks down into a thousand small component parts and then those parts disolve into the floor as if being reabsorbed. The spirit of Metropolis is gone.