(2016-04-07) There's Always More Monkeys
There's Always More Monkeys
Summary: A group of students go out on detail with Lady Fascinate and The Enigma; Bev, Tabitha, Lynzee, Stefanie
Date: 2016.04.07
Related: Warnings
NPCs: The Azure Enigma and Lady Fascinate.
Scene Runner: Poseidon
Players:
bev..lynzee..stefanie..tabitha..

It was a curious gathering, various individuals rounded by either Spellbinder or Azure Enigma. It came after some incident involving a couch. The topic implied in ways that didn't directly imply said couch. More that due to circumstance, they where needed. They were given a time, in the evening after any team training, come suited up in team garb and be ready. When the time came, Spellbinder met the group at the training grounds. She simply exlains, "We need you to help." That Spanish accent leaves one to think she purposefully inflicts it the way she does, it shouldn't be so thick as long as she's been out of country. "Azure and myself have riddled away at the imp some of you may have heard about." Word gets around sometimes, they know the word has been spread a little. She doesn't explain further on the imp though. "We will go to one of the deserted islands, we need you to patrol the island while we examine the creature."

Sounds fabulous, patrols and such. "Now, gather round, join hands in a circle." When they do so, Engima joins in opposite Spellbinder and she speaks arcane words. With him, a cage holding a monkey like bat winged imp, it exudes black droplets as if rich in darkfire magics. Enigma rotates his hands even while holding when she speaks, they join powers. Her arts, his bending of probability. Its an effort to teleport the group to an island miles away, so that all arrive safely and not part of the landscape itself. Its not quite rollercoaster, but it feels like some big drops, but only seconds away. They are on the rocky shore of another island, "I don't care how you organize this, but keep an eye around our area." She points to an inland clearing about 50 meters away, "Give us 20 yards outside of that, try to make sure no one or thing enters to disturb what we have to do." They leave the teens to their devices, taking the imp with them to that mentioned clearing.

Stefanie looks to the group gathered. "Ok. So we should set up a perimeter." She looks to the other three girls. She's not taking charge, just stating common strategy. She taps her. "Comms check. Am I clear?" Once the comms are checked and cleared, she scans the landscape. "Basically, if one of us has an issue, the rest come a'runnin'." She looks to Bev. "You can teleport, right? That will help. I can only travel on my own two feet." She looks to Tabitha and Lynzee, not really knowing if they have transportation aspects to their powers.

Bev stands clad in white and red, a mask in place over her eyes. Training uniform. She turns to her friends and realizes… she's got the most school seniority among them. Okay. Let's not let this be a disaster. Disasters are bad. She's about to speak when Stefanie says pretty much exactly the same thing she was thinking. Good enough. Cooms checked. "I can only teleport in daylight," she reminds Stef. "So no, not right now. Still, we're not going to be that far from each other. We should probably try to keep each other in sight, set ourselves up at compass points?"

Lynzee nods solemnly to the larger figures looming much taller than she and she looks around the island once they have transported. She doesn't question how they got there, there's too much magic in the world to question things so much. Over her sickness at least, she looks between the others, hearing the voice on the comm but not really operating her own at the moment, nor does she test it. "I can be invisible, but I can't teleport. But I can fly." She is already distracted by some of the area surrounding the monkey dripping the black magic balls, but she doesn't head over towards those in authority. Instead, she spins around in a complete circle, "I don't think there's anyone here. Want me to be a cat and smell for other people?"

Tabitha hadn't put on the team activity uniform before tonight. She's can't say she's a fan of the body hugging outfit, given that she doesn't have much body to hug. She nods to Stephanie and makes sure her comms set is secure over her ear. "Comms clear. Expect mine to waver if I have to use my aura. And yes, I can fly." Her aura has come back to close to full strength after her burn-out incident just before the Spring Fling. She extends it out from her body a few feet and allows it to carry her aloft. She takes her lead from the others as they seem much more confident in what to do. "I'll take north."

As the girls establish what the will be doing. Its not too far away, that clearing, giving the area suggested by their teacher. But there are some trees in the vicinity of this New England island. That and its getting later as Bev noted regarding her power the darkness and shadows growing make it hard to make out exact details. What the faculty do in there involves Lady Fascinate casting some sort of perimeter in there drawing from ley lines to form new wards. They are augmented by manipulation of Enigma, folding of some space to conceal the lines or strengthen them even with more contact to foci of the earth itself. That's all well and good. Its quick, they mean business, but then she draws, an implement maybe, something glowing, and the cage is opened by Enigma. The imp seems to sense whats going on, and it makes something like a wailing noise. Not loud, but more felt in ripples, the edges of Spellbinders wards crackle with that noise. It seems difussed a little, but the wave of whatever it was goes out. She strengthens the wards and continues in there while they decide on points, and figure out what sort of travel they can do to quickly get around that perimeter.

Stefanie nods to Bev and smiles, as if the pair share more than just a room. "Agreed." She says about the compass points. She looks to Lynzee. "I don't think the threat is here just yet. We need to be more concerned with what.. or who… may show up to interupt." She smiles to Tabitha and agrees. "I'll take south." She walks up to Bev, taking her hand briefly, sending some power along the way to give Bev a boost as the sun's gone down. "Time to Glow, Sister." She smiles and winks before running to take up her position.

"Wait, Stef, I think you and I should take east and west," she says as she squeezes Stefanie's hand in return, her own glow brightening as she takes in her roommate's light. "If we glow on either side, it'll give Lynzee and Tabitha more light to see by — and Lynzee, if you can sense things better as a cat, then that might be the best way to go. But will you need to switch back to human form to tell us if you see something?"

Lynzee just gives Stefanie a confused look as she repeats what Lynzee had just said about not thinking there was anyone else there. When Stefanie just leaves it at that, she gives a bit of a shrug and watches as the girl goes running to her position. Left to her own devices, she looks towards wherever she was supposed to go, which she's not exactly sure. Bev, being much more helpful, gets a look of relief. "I can change back and forth easy, but I can run faster when I am a cat. The black one."

Tabitha stays well clear of the energies that are raised. She has no idea what they are and doesn't want to cause problems by absorbing them by accident. "Bev's right. Flyers and blasters opposite each other makes the most sense." When Stef and Bev fire up their powers, she takes the opportunity to soak in some of their castoff to juice herself up a bit more. She shrugs when Stef runs off to the southern arc then nods to Bev and Lynzee, "I'll be in my zone." Then into her comms as she directs her flight to the north. "Sound off when you spot anything, ladies. I doubt we'll be alone for long." She allows her aura to bellow out to its maximum radius so that the sensory expansion it provides can cover as much area as possible.

The wailing continues towards something like a gibbering howl. Then it is silenced as the girls get to positions, or work at it at least. As they get perimeter covered, it seems to simply go silent. A nice night, in the 50s, a wind blowing up from the south with hints of warmth as the night cools over the Atlantic. After that mystic cry went out, it seems a regular night. All the girls feel a shift in the wind. To each one the direction changes from blowing in from south west, to blowing directly at them and towards the circle. Not a big breeze, enough to turn some hair, hints of coolness unlike the first breezes of the evening that hinted at that warmth.

Stefanie nods, listening to both Tabitha and Bev. "Alright. That does make more sense." She says, taking up the position opposite Bev. She notices the change in the noise, glad for the silence as she tries to focus on anything external trying to make their way in. When the wind changes, Steafanie comes over the com. "Popstar, do you feel that? Is it coming along your back? It's hitting me in the front." The logic is that if the wind is coming from the front of her, it should be coming from the back of Bev. "Do you other girls feel that?"

"Okay," Bev tells Lynzee. "Cat form, then — but check in regularly. Even if it's just a meow." She moves to take up her own position, lighting up the area around her — not too bright, because daylight level would drain her power rapidly, but bright enough to see, and, in some cases, to create deeper shadows, but she moves back and forth to light up the areas that the shadows hide every few moments.

"It's coming from my front too, Stef," she replies over the comms. "But it's magic. It could just be whatever Spellbinder and the Enigma are doing. Still, keep your eyes and ears open." Pause. "And your nose, Lynzee, I imagine."

"I feel it." Lynzee says matter of factly. She does walk a short distance away and instead of a black cat, her form twists and bends, the sound mildly horrifying, as she slowly grows larger and.. oranger. With black spots. A Cheetah, because they are much faster than Lynzee's are. There's a stretch of her mouth then her tongue lolls out making her look a bit more friendly. She does feel the cooler breeze and she looks back to acknowledge it before darting off a short distance.

"I've got the wind coming directly at me from the north. It's all heading inward." Tabitha focuses on the communications from her fellow students, using it to distract her from the fear gnawing at her insides on this first actual outing as a hero-in-training. But as they're wondering about the wind, there is something about the sky that draws her attention. She looks up at the moon, and her eyes widen at the darkness that starts to creep across it. And then the figures that seem to be coming down out of that darkness. "Look to the sky ladies! Got maybe four, maybe six incoming from above. They're coming in on our arc, Bev." She lifts herself a bit higher into the sky, not leaving her northern zone but putting herself more directly into the path of the incoming… whatevers.

The stretch of a dark finger tries to cover the moon, and out of that shadow, the shapes do descend. Between Tabitha and Bev indeed a small group seems to be coming down and towards the islad. Currently over the sea, but it will be soon they are over the land. It is clear, once noted, that the island is their destination. That the are black with the darkfire makes them hard to notice but once pointed out, the girls are all alert enough to make out the shape. There is a push of that wind upon the ward of Spellbinder, it crackles, but inside she continues to work that glowing implement at the imp in there. What the girls do notice in seeing the shape, as the twitter and twist in the sky, is that two seem to collide and join into a bigger shape Where one was a monkey in size, this one closer to a cat, or a gargoyle as compared to an imp.

Stefanie nods. "Ok, well…" She stops, interupted once she sees the forms. "Here we go, Ladies. We need to keep them away from the group." She turns and heads for the group. Once she gets there, she sends a blast of energy at the first dark figure she sees.

Bev turns her eyes to the sky at Tabitha's warning. A moment later her glow shifts from a general brightness, illuminating everything, to a spotlight turned on the incoming targets. "Man, I wish I could fly," she mumbles to herself. Still, once she has them in her sights she plants her feet and calls out, "This is Popstar. This area is off limits! Turn around, or announce yourself and your intentions!" She doesn't state the threat, but she does murmur into the comms, "Lynzee, hold back — stay in the shadows. And circle around. They'll have seen me and Stef already — but you might surprise them if we need the surprise."

She strongly dislikes the shadow trying to cover the moon. It's only a waning crescent, but it's the only decent source of light she's got tonight — aside from the light that Stef is casting off across the circle. She's loathe to attack first, though. These people need not necessarily be enemies.

"Well, they probably are now," she sighs as Stefanie releases a blast of energy. Still she holds off, just a few moments longer. Waiting until the time is right.

One of these days, Tabitha will likely end up with a codename of some sort. But that's a worry for later. Right now there's a bunch of flying monkies from Oz inbound. And then Bev shouts her warning, and Stef fires her solar energy at them. And then two of the incoming merge somehow and become a bigger… whatever they are. "I've got the big one." Her aura is brought in tighter to her body, its outer surface hardening into an armored skin. She flies out to meet the incoming creatures, aiming straight at the larger one.

Lynzee hears the command, to stay in the shadows, and she does, but she quickly changes forms again, back to a person. "I have other magic," she confesses, but she does watch the inbound monkeys. "But.. it's not little. It does big things." Certainly mass effect, definitely not a single target thing. "I don't want to hurt anyone." And that's a very real possibility.

The energy from Stefanie flies true to the first dark shape, striking at the darkness of the shape. It gives a yelp into the night air, seems to disperse from the hit, like a cloud of shadow, but the darkfire pulls together. Smaller, less of its former size, the energy damaged it. This new form adjusted for what seems to have burned away, perhaps the volume of its prior arm, scorched away. Then it stretches it jowls, showing fangs and takes off like a dart towards the source that is Stephanie. It trails like a mist wraith, the darkfire a contrail behind it. If Bev is holding, this may be a good time to release. Her spot light illuminates, it was five, turned four with the two joined to become larger. One injured leading the charge, the others join its display of fangs to wisp and turn to give towards the ground nearest Bev. Tabitha rises to meet hers, quick and strong, her auro protects her to impact and it disperses in a cloud. Pulling together, that one doesn't go to land. Instead it reforms, two smaller imps. One tosses its arm, overhead with fingers curled down, as one might hold a log on its shoulder. It sends a spread of darkness witih a spear tip towards her. It comes more as a mystical wave of confusion to disorient the strong attacker.

Stefanie cheers as she seems to be successful, only to watch the creature re-form and chase after her. "Uh oh… It doesn't look like we can't physically damage them!" She shouts as she backs away, shooting light and heat at the shadow form as it chases after her.

"I know," Bev murmurs. "None of us do. I don't think these are alive, though." Which means, she tells herself, that somebody is controlling these figures of dark fire. Maybe here. Maybe elsewhere. "Can you see, is there somebody behind these figures, Lynzee? Somebody controlling them?"

But she's being charged by the darkfire figures. Stefanie's energy seemed to hurt them. Hopefully her light will do the same. "Stefanie, with me! You hurt them — your light cancelled their darkness! Aura, flank them!" The spotlight beam she's been using to illuminate what is more or less living shadow condenses into a red beam no more than a few inches in diameter — a powerful beam of laser light that will, she hopes, burn away large parts of the incoming horde.

Never mind that her brain is screaming 'DARKDARKDARKDARKDARKGONNAKILLMEDARKDARKDARK!'

Inside her aura, Tabitha had braced herself to feel… something when she impacted the larger gargoyle. When there isn't any kind of impact, a combination of how the gargoyle disperses and her aura's protection, she gets a relieved smile on her face. "Alright, then," she mutters to herself while listening to the others on comms. While the now two imps she's facing reform and one gathers for its attack against her, she responds to Lynzee. "If you can aim your magic, Lynz, try to center it on me. I can try to absorb anything before it can backlash."

And then one of the imps sends its lance of darkness towards her. Guess she's about to find out if magic energy is something her aura can absorb. Before the attack hits her she extends her aura towards her two opponents in what are basically whips of solid force, trying to take away any of their energy that she can. Maybe take them out entirely if they're made of energy, and at least leech away their kinetic energy if they're physical.

And then the imp's attack hits her and at least some of it makes it through directly into her mind. Her senses start to send her conflicting input and she tries to clear it out by grinding her palms against her eyes. "Dammit…!"

Lynzee doesn't fight things. Or people. It's as the thing nears the others, or was it things, several of them, that she realizes that she could maybe help? "I can throw some magic at it, but you could maybe get away from it!" The words are called out. "I can't tell if someone else is controlling them." Tabitha's words help her focus, help center her, and she nods. She doesn't exactly focus on Tabitha, not wanting to hurt her, she's seen what it can do, but she focuses on the things nearest her friend.

Their force a mix of physical need, the need to exist, and some raw, primal mystical energy. The energy shields that can absorb do block the physical thrust of attacks, its the tendrils of magic that simply slip right through. Stefanie moves and fires, moves and fires as it chases, each blast knocking away physical shadow, taking the anchor of the magic away. It is falling away, darkfire landing on the earth. Tabitha turns her ability on those heading to the ground and Bev meets halfway. The combined attack on those two, scatter them agian. The mystical darkfire having a hard time climing to its corporal shadow in the confusion. Much the same, the chaos manifestation that Lynzee summons near the flying imps close to Tabitha has a similar effect. A moment of chaos seems turned as their abilities work to keep focus on the imps. It would take Stefanie a last shot or two to burn hers away.

The aftermath of the moment, the once five imps are reduced in scope. What the girls can see with the turn, is that shadow still moves where the imps where, darkfire seeks to find form again. The chaos lasts about Tabitha, but subsides slowly with the originating imp confused itself. What is left forms into a gargoyle, now only one figure. Which send eldritch shadow towards Bev, not to counter her beam but to try and hit her with a bolt of mystical energy. Stefanie focused on the solo one that disperses to join the group in the gargoyle, may see darkfire rising around the ground, where they fell apart. Raw mystical energy there left uncontrolled.

Stefanie takes the moment to catch her breath, wishing this was during the day as she feels her 'battery' running low. She notices the energy flowing from the ground. Instead of backing off, she charges, this time sending energy to the ground. "I might be wrong, but i think the energy feeding that thing is coming from the ground!" She continues sending light and heat to the ground in pulses instead of long beams, trying to conserve as much of the energy as she can.

Bev is momentarily distracted. She's got the most experience here, and she's trying to guide her friends with the skills she's picked up in her year and a half at Coral Springs. She's trying to track where Lynzee is now, to give suggestions as to what should be done next, when the gargoyle fires off its bolt of mystic shadow. For most, this would be bad. For Bev, this is devastating.

Without a sound, the girl falls to the ground, her body producing no light whatsoever.

As the magic tears away at her senses, Tabitha manages to find her balance by focusing on the one thing that always keeps her mind even; music. In this case, the refrain of a song she's written but not put to music yet. The tune finds itself as her mind clears and she can see the battle clearly again. Just in time to see the remaining imps form into a single big gargoyle that blasts Bev with its darkfire. Her aura has been drinking in whatever it could drain from the imps, their magics, and any dangerous overspill from Lynzee's magic. She can feel herself start to get that heady, half-drunk feeling that comes when her tank is nearly full and she puts all of that power to work. "Stef, get over to Bev! I've got this asshole."

Flying in close to the big one that's just blasted Bev, she lets out a wordless shout to get its attention and then sends her aura rotating around herself like a pair of stacked helicopter blades. All of her strength is focused into this manifestation of her aura, and when or if the gargoyle is broken apart by the impact she tries to absorb as much of the darkfire energy as she can before it can reform into any more imps. And she keeps this manifestation going, sending attacks at any imps or gargoyles that manage to reform somehow.

Lynzee doesn't want to hurt anyone but her friends are getting hurt! She closes her eyes for the briefest of moments as a momentum gathers around her and she rises from the ground so she can be more at point blank range to the monkey monster. Holding out her hand, she chants something in an ancient Egyptian language, and a ball of white shoots towards the gargoyle as she tries to disassemble it..

As Bev falls, its Tabitha that makes an impact through a less direct attack. The magical parts of the darkfire are elusive, but the physicality of the shadow that binds them to physicla form she can absorb. And she does, the gargoyle starts to turn vapor, tendrils drawn to Tabitha, leaving the magical darkfire in its wake. What Stefanie sees is the magic left in the wake of the ones they killed, looking to find form and be whole again. That mystical veins of energy that are left of the gargoyle absorbed by Tabitha seems a good host, its when the mystical chaos ball shoots for the gargoyle that the last pull of its will is scattered instead. Stefanie was burning away at it as she attacked that mist on the ground, but it begins to disperse, leaving her the hole she needs to go to Bev if she wants.

With impeccable timing, Enigma is upon the group, as if stepping down from a hidden passage floating somewhere. To assess the situation. "Perfect … perfect." They seem to have done everything to allow Spellbinder to do her work. He may have been ready to fold space itself if needed but now there is now need. Unaware of the shadow that came over the moon as the imps attacked, he doesn't see it withdraw into the darkness of the night either. "We've isolated the anchor that binds these things." Which is quite a bit of information in and of itself, but he divulges no more.

Stefanie nods to Tabitha. "On it, Aura." She says as she runs over to Bev. "Popstar, get up." She says, sending pulses of energy into the girl. "C'mon, Sister. Don't fall asleep on me now." Seeing as the threat has dissipated for now, her primary focus is on getting Bev up and moving.

Bev is unconscious. Deeply unconscious.

Tabitha lets out a relieved breath as the last of the imps/gargoyles are destroyed from the group's combined attacks. Then Enigma is there among them again and she quickly draws her aura back closer to her own body. She has no real idea how Enigma does what he does, so she can't be sure she won't accidentally suck down or disrupt some vital energies. Because that would be a bad thing and almost certainly earn her some detention.

She shifts the focus of her sight up behind her through her aura, seeing the darkness retreat from over the moon. She points up to it and says to Enigma, "That sounds great, sir. But I'm thinking this is just the end of round one." Then she's back on the ground next to Bev and Stefanie. "Here. I'll carry her." And that's just what she does… the waif picking Bev up in her arms bridal style as if the older girl weighed less than a lunch tray.

Once Lynzee has cast her magic she looks towards the others, they were the main priority. Bev was down on the ground and she panics, her breath catching as she starts to land. "Ohno!" She manages, looking towards the others. "Can you help her? Can someone?" She is worried. Proud of Tabitha though, she looks at her still worried about Bev. "You killed them. You did good."

Moving amongst them, letting them carry their teammate, seems Enigma's last worry is the girl. Instead he looks up where Tabitha pointed. "Ah, curious." His hand comes down and twitching, his body shifts a little without moving. As if he might move closer through his curious ways of travel but then thinks the better of it. Even as he ponders that, he turns back, "We should move back. The round over, no need to start a second. Tey cannot follow us." He nods up near Spellbinder, "We can form the circle and return. We're safe to pass through the wards, it was put up against the magic that drives the imps." Then a look at Bev, "We'll get her to medbay." Not so much, is she allright, perhaps he sensed life in some way.

Stefanie nods and sighs as Tabitha carries Bev. "She'll be alright once she gets some sunlight. I can't give off enough to help her, my tank is oretty much empty." She begins to walk with the group back to the circle to head home. She rolls her eyes when Enigma mentions the Medbay. "We just got *out* of there…" She says, looking to Bev. "Don't worry.. We'll get you fixed up in no time." She says to her roommate.. who can't hear her right now.

Tabitha takes Enigma at his word that the imp things won't be following them. She gives Lynzee a quick grin, "No, /we/ got them. Together." She shifts her hold on Bev a bit to better cradle her neighbor's head and croons a soft wordless tune as if Bev were one of her sick younger 'sibs' from the orphanage. At the back of her mind is the tought that while she did enjoy feeling normal again when her powers were burned out, she can't deny that being able to do things like this is pretty damn nice, too. She doesn't say anything about med bay since she, too just managed to get out of the damn place. She just stays near the others, waiting for the teachers to do whatever it was they did to bring the group here, only in reverse. Or something.

Lynzee doesn't like it that Bev is out, it concerns her deeply and she studiously watches her, waiting for any sign or movement the girl was okay. "We did it," she echoes Tabitha, meaning the whole of the group. She waits with the others, with the teachers, realizing there were likely more monkeys. There were always more monkeys. "I hope no more come."

Coming from the circle, no imp, but something in a cedar box with some sort of knotwork on it, Spellbinder comes to join the group. "More will come, lets not be here when they arrive." She moves to one end, Enigma to the other, so hands can be joined. Bev included in being held. "A debref quickly when we get back too." Before full release of the students back to their dorms and the like. Its more twisting this time, less magic in the movement across space. A few flashes of locations that Enigma twists the group through in walking the folds of space. Then they are in the school once more. Enigma starts to lead the way to med bay, but Spellbinder offers over, "I'm proud of you all, well done." In their defense of the perimeter while she obtained whatever it is she has in that box. She doesn't join, but moves to her room and area post haste.

Fade …

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