(2018-03-02) The Creatures from the Shady Cove
The Creatures from the Shady Cove
Summary: The draug are back. And thanks to Gabrielle's suspicion that they might be, a crew of students is at hand to prevent them from invading the town through the storm drain system, however bettered the defense may have ended up.
Date: IC Date (2018-03-02)
Related: They Came from the Sea
NPCs: Various draug, Draug Behemoth #1 and #2, Draug Lord
Scene Runner: Gabrielle and Kaylee
Players:
gabrielle..fionnuala..loukanos..ariel..ashton..koga..kaylee..daxton..

Shady Cove Beach
The beach forms a semi-circle around the outer edge of the mainland edged with sand that turns lighter as it reaches the water. A swimming area is cordoned off with buoys and orange rope, clearly designating it for visiting tourists and the sea craft further out. Off down near the rocky area further along the beach is a lighthouse that remains lit up despite it serving as a restaurant.

Since the events of last Saturday night Gabrielle has taken it upon herself to do nightly patrols along the beaches of Shady Cove, since no one in authority believed a single word from any of the teenagers that were at the party and actually got up the courage to report what they saw.. And a wise decision it was. As she pops from tree to tree as about 30 meter intervals she notices movement down the beach, near a large storm drain pipe. Teleporting a little closer (and cursing the flash that accompanies her powers under her breath) she gets close enough to see the marine zombies or whatever they are officially called have returned and they are trying to force open the heavy metal grate blocking the entrance to the storm drain system. Only one thing to do now, go back for help!

A second later she's at the school, running from room to room and grabbing anyone she can see. The beach zombies are back! And they're trying to break into the towns storm drain! We have to stop them, hurry, hurry! Meet at the back yard in two minutes if you need transport!

Koga was working on something whenever he was interrupted by Gabrielle. Whatever she interrupted… well, the results are speaking for themselves at the moment. Koga's hair is currently looking like he stuck his finger in a light socket. He's very carefully touching it and getting small 'bzzt' sounds at the moment. Still, he was there, and last time the beach zombies came around? He was there. And he was honestly one of the ones to tell about it. Touching his hair again, Koga mutters a bit as he seemed to be thinking of how to solve that one while he waited for the ride to where the zombies were.

Poor Fionnuala.. one thing about attending a school for Supers, honing their powers, is to respond to 'the call' for help when it is sounded. She made promises to a select few Special People in her life to not… well, die… but she just can't sit back and twiddle her thumbs when stuff is happening! Bad Stuff! She needn't aide to get the the area in question, as she wishes not to place strain upon the one who is tasked with such. As the crow flies, if you will! The sleek black bird cuts across the sky, over the town of Shady Cove. She's making her way toward the indicated location; there's no time for anxiety. She will not try anything until others arrive.

Ashton had been hoping that somehow he and Loukanos might have a date night; a night without any drama or stress. He's had enough drama and stress the last several days to last him for a while. Well… the best plans of mice and men, as they say.. He happened to be out on the back lawn when those coming out to assist Gabrielle come out. The dark haired boy looks around, "What's going on?"

Ariel sits in the Billiards Room playing a game of checkers with what appears to be a very small version of her male form. They're evenly matched, but he keeps disrupting the game to make fart noises, tell very bad puns and complain that he wants to eat, eat, eat. When Gabrielle comes running in he looks up and shouts, "Food?!" and Ariel sighs, reaching out to touch the homunculus, reducing it to a mass of grey, gooey ropes which she absorbs into her hand. "Uh, I'm sorry? Did you say 'beach zombies'?" But only minimal explanation is required and Ariel is on board, letting the teleporter take her to the scene of the crime.

Beach zombies? What even. The danger is evident in Gabrielle's tone though, so Loukanos is there. With his hands shoved inside the pockets of his school khakis, he wanders into the backyard with every appearance of calm. "Are they a direct threat to any innocent lives?" Because that's always the most important question. To him, at least.

Gabrielle is running past Loukanos on her way out towards the backyard. The question catches her by surprise so badly that it brings her to a screeching halt. After looking at Lou in confusion for a moment she asks, "They're looking for a way to get into town without being detected. What do you think will happen if they manage to pull it off? I'd say yes, yes there are innocent people in danger!" And off she runs, leaving it to Lou to follow or not.

Loukanos nods and closes his eyes, lips moving without any words falling out. With a flash of golden light, the godling appears above the beach of Shady Cove, far enough and high enough that he (hopefully) does not attract the attention of the beach zombies. Spotting a crow on the move, he waggles his fingers in a wave, sensing an energy from the creature that is distinctly supernatural.

Gabrielle meets anyone that needs transport in the backyard. Instructing everyone to hold hands she then grabs the first two hands she finds, focuses for a moment and, *POP* the whole group is at the beach, about 200 meters away from the group of draug. For those that have never experienced Gabrielles unique mode of transportation, its not fun! And Gabby herself is pale, sweaty and breathing hard since transporting 4 people is not something she does often or easily. She may actually be out of action for a few minutes, by the looks of her.

As the students arrive they are greeted with the same lurid orange glow coming from out in the depth that was in evidence the first night the draug appeared. Already on the beach are at least 10 of the drowned, reanimated corpses and they have already managed to yank lose one of the grates anchors, leaving a gaping hole in the concrete pipes edge. Gabrielle's teleportation does not create any noticeable effects on arrival but her departure had definitely been noticed and as soon as the group shows up the majority of the draug start to head their way.

Koga is definitely not in his right mind for a few moments as they reappear. Blinking rapidly as he looks around with a curious glance facing away from the marine zombies at first at that. The only good thing? Whatever Gabrielle did appears to have had the reverse effect on his hair mostly. Then he turns around and notices the zombies. "Oh, those things again… right." He moves around, carefully, from them and stops for a second. The confused look on his face returns.

He looks to Gabrielle, "What were they after… oh. Never mind. Evil things that should be dead, right?" He moves a bit further away from the group as the confusion clears, moving to stand between them and the zombies as he brings his hand up. Of those present, only Gabrielle has seen what Koga is about to do. And the scary part? He's actually nearly made the same motions before in the presence of two.

His hand raises upwards in what almost looks like he was at a rock concert before it swings around in a circle over his head. The motion leaves a ring of light that drops over him as Koga's height rises a couple of inches and the form left behind is probably not exactly the Koga that was left. Blue armor materializes in the wake of the circle until it reaches his feet.

Then Koga starts to walk forward again, hands out to the side as his hands assume the same gesture that he transformed with.

You bet your ethereal bippy, Lou, that this crow is something other than your standard-issue dumpster diver. Fionnuala circles overhead, button eyes alight with an inner mystical glow. She spies the boy's wave and can easily be seen veering sharply to flap her way toward her peers as they begin to arrive. Just in time, too: the draug have begun to mobilize in their general direction! Fee sticks to her bird form for a reason, at least for now: in this form her absorbed solar energy is less noticible, save for the small dapple of light which constitutes her eyes. She circles steadily overhead, particularly over Loukanos, casing out the situation.

More teammates come to the fore (oh snap, Koga!) and Fee deems it time to shift. In mid air the light catches her, and in the stead of a crow there is now a slender girl descending from the air, wings spread wide, alight with pure, potent solar energy. She lands alongside Lou, and frowns in the general direction of the draugs. "So much for English homework." She utters mournfully, beginning to concentrate.

Still not completely sure what is going on, Ashton pieces together that there is something going on and that people need help. Well, isn't that what this school is about, learning to help people? And if he is one of the good guys, then maybe that means he isn't the monster that a few of his fellow students think that he might be. Listening to Gabrielle's directions, he grabs ahold of someone's hands, then poof!

The first thing that he notices is how it feels like his insides have been scrambled in a blender. Oh, that's just not right. He takes a few stumbled steps and looks a touch green. He then sees the shambling creatures. "Oh sweet Romero… Those are real freakin' zombies… " He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a somewhat sizable pocket knife, which clicks open, with a practiced flick of his wrist. He closes his eyes for a second, mumbling to himself. The words not quite recognizable to any close enough to hear.

As far as the effects the teleportation has had on Ariel, she's really not too bad off. It's easy to have an iron stomach when you don't have a stomach. Her clothes are on backwards and inside out, though, and her facial features are all kind of off. "That was… so weird." She reaches up and fixes her face. "Is this even? Shit." She shakes her head, working out the cobwebs she suddenly feels like are filling her head. Which is not usual for her, since what fills her head is generally the same stuff that fills the rest of her. And maybe a couple of cans of tuna. She pulls on her clothes and they sort themselves out into a t-shirt advertising a tarantula parade Sunday at 3 PM and a pair of loose basketball shorts. "Okay, so where's the- oh, hey, Fionnuala! Hi! -zombies that we're looking for?" She looks to where everyone else is looking. "Oh. Right there. Gotcha. Huh. I feel like this should be weirder, like I should be all 'oh my god, zombies are real', but it's been a weird couple of weeks." When Ariel notices the others she adds, "Oh, hey, I know everyone here. Okay. It's the titanic team-up the fans demanded. Great. When Koga does his transformation she gives a slow nod. "Cool. Cool cool. Okay. So… off to kill some zombies, then? I've never done this."

Watching Koga's transformation with open curiosity, Loukanos gracefully touches the beach floor, barefoot. "Will you be alright?" He asks of Gabrielle with a concerned frown. He can't quite heal pure fatigue, but if it's anything else, there's a chance his magic might help. His sapphire gaze soon travels to the so-called 'beach zombies'. "Creatures of the depths, huh?"

Around him, tendrils of blue and golden mystical energy merge and consolidate into his own creatures. Ones of light, divine and pure. If the draugs couldn't see them before, they sure can now! They vaguely take the shape of shimmering doves, regal and haughty. Orbs of a very bright blue fulfill the role of these creature's eyes. In total, there's about two dozen of them, on Louk's shoulders or surrounding his feet. "I think this should be enough. Go," He commands. "Get 'em."

As the draug start making their way to the group Gabrielle stumbles over to one of the trees lining the beachfront and climbs up it, squirrel like. She knows shes not going to be much use until she recovers so at least not being in the way would be good.

Out in the deeper water the orange glow intensifies and starts to pulse as whatever it is that's emitting it floats closer to the surface. The pulsing light could very well be a signal since as soon as it starts two hulking figures stalk their way out of the water. While the draug that were working on the storm drain are about human sized, if heavily disfigured by the marine life growing on them, the two coming out of the water are at least twice the height of a normal man and about as wide as a Mack truck. Their backs and arms are covered in the hard shell of a lobster and their arms end in lobster-like claws that look big enough to split a man in half at the waist. The behemoths start jogging up the beach as soon as they are out of the water, quickly closing ground with the students.

Koga looks to the side at the bigger ones. The much bigger ones. A growl comes from the helmet as he speaks. "I'll take the big ones." His voice, unlike before, has a slight echoing distortion to it. After saying that, he turns from the group and takes off at a run, crouched low with his hands still in that gesture. It's hard to say if it's instinctual, or if he meant to do it as he just takes off like that.

It's safe to say, though, he is going for the largest threats next to the well… zombie horde. Koga's movements are much smoother, and quite frankly someone running that low should probably trip or something, but he's making it look easy. Almost snake like as he charges the bigger zombie… behemoths.

Once he closes the distance rather quickly, Koga leaps forward to try to grab one literally and attempts to lift the thing. If he manages to lift it, he spins and tosses it at the other one hard.

Once he opens his eyes, Ashton moves a bit away from the group itself and towards the small mob of creatures heading their way. He kneels down and starts cutting a design into the sand around him. He quickly wipes the blade on his jeans, before he draws the blade along his left palm. A steady flow of dark crimson drops fall. He turns widdershins three times, letting a circle of blood form around him, as speaks in a language clearly not that of man. His blue eyes flicker green. He hold the bleeding hand out, "Come on you ugly bastards.. dinner time! Come and get it!"

"First ghouls, now mirelurks. This is just not getting better." When the bigger guys catch sight of them and start moving their direction, Ariel gives a sigh. There's a subtle change and a series of seams appear on her face, small wrinkles that follow a line that goes around and around her head, disappearing at her shoulder. Her eyes move to look over the others present, expression wincing slightly when she remembers that, yep, there's Fee. "Oh well," she mutters, "people were gonna see it eventually." Then she starts to come apart, skin pulling open at the seams, her insides filled with a dull gray claylike material that forms into grasping tentacles lined with thin black teeth, grossly misshapen masses that constantly shift from moment to moment, at turns hinting at the organic with mouths full of broken black teeth or dumbly staring eyes. Her arms and legs fold into the mass, twisting up and away from any recognizable humanity. There's a sudden surge in size as the organic rupture spills tumorous meat out onto the ground and then pulls it back into the mass. The writhing of the horror stops for just a moment, then the whole thing starts to pull itself into a solid shape, ten feet tall, with a long, slouching body, its trunk containing a large mouth filled with shattered rocks for teeth, four pseudopods functioning as both arms and legs ending with long, black barbs. The thing's body is thick and powerful, covered with slabs of concrete-like armor, or perhaps armor-like concrete, its back bristling with long spines. On what could be thought of as its head a dozen dull gray turn toward the approaching things. All in all, it looks kind of like a gross, over-designed mid-level boss from a Dark Souls game. It lopes forward on its 'legs', then rears back to drive one leg into the big guy Koga didn't attack.

Loukanos watches Gabrielle scurry up a tree. "Oh no, not our fearless leader…" He mumbles and frowns to himself, then there's a pointed glance at the creatures of light that still surround him. "Shoo. Do your thing, my darlings." As if coming to life, the divine doves spread their wings and lift off into the sky

For all their grace, their method of attack is rather…direct. They soar into the air straight towards the draugs. Determined in their mission to put the dead to rest and seemingly undaunted by their grossly inhuman appearances, the doves slam right into their foes. Each one that hits its target erupts in a bright burst of eldritch energy that does nothing to the natural environment. Seeing as Koga and Ariel (ew ew ew) declare that they're facing the big ones, the doves pepper onto the cluster of smaller ones. For now.

Ashton gets a bit of a side eye. The godling takes a step forward, the remaining birds moving to flutter overhead the demonic boy. Far enough to be out of the way but close enough that they can step in if that plan, whatever it is, goes south.

As Koga shifts his attack towards the behemoths they turtle up, pulling their pincer up to protect the front of their bodies and letting the shell on the backs handle the rest. But the kind of attack theyre facing isnt what they were expecting. Koga manages to get a good grip on one of the rough, horny claws belonging to the first behemoth and with a deft twist of his hips tosses him into the other one. When they hit each other it sounds like rocks clacking and grinding together and they fall into a heap, unhurt but in total confusion for the moment.

Ashton's magic definitely teaches the students one thing, the draug are not motivated by blood or the typical hunger of movie zombies. 3 or four out of the mass of drowned men head in his direction, because he is, after all, a target. But the rest of the group continues on towards the other students. The ones that reach Ashton mill around him, stopped by something invisible in the air, reaching out to him but ending up looking like a grotesque version of a mime show.

Ariel's target has shifted positions by the time she reaches it. Instead there are now two behemoths tangled together laying on the sand and Ariel's kick sends them rolling down the sand and into the water leaving a trench etched out in the sand they plow through. Once in the water the quickly untangle themselves and start stomping their way back up onto the beach.

Flashes of light show the spines and creases in the behemoth armor in stark relief as Lous doves explode against the more common draug further up the beach. Two of them tumble to the ground, too damaged to continue living, if their state of animation could be called living. A few others lose chunks, including an eye in one case and half a jaw in another, but they keep coming, seeming to suffer no pain from their injuries.

From the trees comes another flash of light, creating a counterpoint to Lou's doves. Gabrielle appears next to one of the few draug still yanking on the pipe grate and disappears in another flash only to reappear above the mass of draug to drop her victim into the middle of them, bowling a few over. Another flash and shes back in her tree, puking her guts out.

Koga brings his hands up as he head turns slightly towards Ariel, then back towards the two big things. His hands come up as they glow, leaving a trail of light. His metallic echoing voice says towards his companion for behemoth bashing, "Stand back!" His hands weave a quick set of horizontal script before meeting before him.

He swipes his hands back outwards, lightning arcs forth in a destructive wave straight for the two larger zombies in an arc of sheer power, held together through some unseen force as it aims to fry the zombies harshly.

The wave of lightning is at least big enough to catch the two if they stay close as Koga shifts into a firmer martial arts stance to await their coming closer afterwards if that didn't do something to them.

As far as Fee is concerned, the best offense is to attack little ones! THe big bruisers will just be an energy sink and she doesn't want to disrupt Ariel and Koga. She feels some of her energy culminate, erupting along her fingertips. Even in the thick of it she's marking the positions of her peers.

The girl pivots to focus upon another portion of the human-sized draugs. In a motion that is almost regal, the shifter pulls back her starkly glowing arm, and lets fly with a crescent-shaped volley of pure, burning light. She is targeting roundabouts 2-3 of the 'standard' sized baddies… but her strike isn't as large as she hoped, with her concentration stymied. It may very well catch them with a glancing blow. Dammit, Fee! But something is better than nothing, even to slow some of the bastards down.

She jumps daintily, wings snapping outwards to pull her upwards into the air to hover.. she needs to get her head together!

Ashton growls softly as only a few of the creatures choose to attack him. "stupid anorexic zombies." He looks at the few surrounding him. "Okay, well.. I guess you will do." He closes his eyes and starts muttering. "Bullies.. racism… brussel sprouts … " He starts clinching his fists, aggressively pacing in the tight circle. Slowly a wicked green fire starts to slowly rise around Ashton and the zombies around him. The fires lick around the ground only rise about a foot here and there about them.

The thing that was Ariel just a minute before looks back toward Koga and bobs its vague area where a head might be on something that was doing a better job of replicating life in a euclidean universe. With a voice like someone dragging a brick across a driveway it says, "Sup?" then lopes up to greet one of the approaching crabbos, rearing back to spear forward with its front two 'legs', ready to lift it up and send it flying toward its smaller friends.

The ethereal doves continue to swarm the ocean zombies, imploding upon contact. Meanwhile, Loukanos, who out of all the teenagers is probably the furthest away from the conflict, extends a hand towards the group that is encroaching upon Ashton. His sapphire eyes alight with golden power as he forces his divine will upon the creatures. The draugs would feel his presence in their minds. As such, there are no words that accompany his simple but formidable mandate: stand down and return from whence they came from or suffer the wrath of the gods.

Around Louk, the ambient temperature drops a couple of degrees and a biting wind sweeps over the beach.

Kogas lightning arches out and envelops the behemoths in corruscating light. However, the electricity runs down along the armored back and arms of the creatures, sparking into the wet sand at their feet, leaving little trails of glass behind along with the smell of burning seaweed and barnacles. One of them takes a swing at Koga but the lightning seems to have caused targeting problems because he swishes the air inches from the armored boys face without actually touching him.

On the other side of the battle Fee lights the nights sky up yet again. Her sunlight flashes and make contact with the draug. Like Lous doves a few seconds before her sunlight causes some gnarly wounds that fail to stop the creatures. Except one, that it all but sliced in half and falls to the ground, motionless. The rest start to swarm her, just missing catching her legs as she flies up into the once more dark sky.

Ashtons wards keep the draug off him but as soon as his fire starts to show up the creatures show that they are not necessarily completely stupid and they redirect their efforts away from him and his green flames. Changing directions they head towards Ariel and Koga, trying to hit them from behind as they battle the behemoths!

And speaking of Ariel, as s/he/it engages the behemoth head on it becomes a learning moment. The massive creature lashes out with its pincers and traps Ariels pseudopods in them, yanking back as Ariel tries to throw it, making our malleable hero stumble forward closer to the shelled menace.

And Lou… His doves keep wreaking havoc among the smaller draug. They might not be stupid but they're not exactly smart either as a good number of them are trying to catch the ethereal birds, costing another one its life as a dove detonates and blows most of its chest to smithereens. However, Lous other strategy doesn't fare as well. When he tries to manipulate the creatures moving away from Ashton he finds there's nothing there to manipulate. Instead there are psychic conduits. And flaring along the conduits comes a response to his command, a sheer wave of malignant will that sends the godling down to a knee, the world narrowing down to a gray tunnel with nothing but sand at the end of it.

Koga moves backwards as he brings his hands up. The pincer wielding zombies are a bit bigger up close as his hands move again leaving a trail of the script as he tries to do something since the thing's targetting is messed up it seems. Hopping backwards as he does, however, seems to disrupt the mystic forces a bit before he stabilizes it and brings his hands around in a circular motion, the lightning coming around into a ball this time as he braces his feet and prepares to thrust his hands into the thing.

Said attack might as well be called a classic Street Fighter Fireball at this point, even if it is just one ball of lightning that's being shot out. Koga's not confident lightning is going to do much since these things are soaked, but he's hoping to conduct the electricity a bit on the one facing him as he unleashes the attack. Either that or he's way, way out of practice in using attack based spells.

Then again, he's not sure if he can just punch the hell out of these things, too, either! And that's a bit of a worry for him.

Wings beat the air in smooth, graceful strokes. Her light stoked in the brief letting of energy, Fee tries desperately to collect her mind amidst the fray. No use willing the wind elemental, for it would only serve to kick up sand, dirt, water… etc. "Come on.." She whispers, thinking good thoughts. "I can do this.. stop being such a prat and have some faith." Fionnuala coaxes herself, in a sort of unofficial mantra. Her arms, pulled out at her sides, pull upwards in an arc, light following her wrists. It can be witnessed in the darkness, light and heat bearing down, setting the girl's eyes to blazing. Hands clasp above her head briefly, and she brings both down swiftly and abruptly in front of her body as if swinging a club. She casts light, just as distractedly, in the direction of the creatures trying to grab her… and luckily, time is at least on her side even if her head isn't in it. Wings carry her higher as her actions dissolve into the efforts to keep the monsters at bay.

Trying again to call the flames higher, so that he can send the flames to help the others. As Ashton calls the flames to rise higher, they do as he beckons. The flames rise to his midsection and higher. Then he sees Loukanos fall to his knees, and what concentration he had is forced into not losing his self-control, even though he feels it slipping away.

This is very frustrating. Ariel's expended an enormous amount of her biomass stores for this and now it can't seem hit the damn thing for love or money. When the mudcrab crabs ahold of its arm, Ariel rears back another leg, the pseudopod going boneless as it swings back behind her, then stops and drives down toward the pincer. Ariel roars seemingly unintelligibly, but Koga's close enough to understand a very slatey, "Give me back my fucking arm!"

Loukanos blinks when his command finds no consciousness to settle into. The golden light fades from his eyes, his mind utterly unprepared for the darkness radiating back at him. Nope. He's down on his knees, clutching the sides of his head in pain. His eyelids squeeze shut as he attempts to regain focus, "The light…" Notably, those mystically constructed doves begin to waver, their bright forms flickering in and out of existence. They gather together and implode upon themselves for one final swan song. If they're going down like their master, they'll take as many as they can with them.

Koga's electric attack grounds out into the sand again. And this time the behemoth steps right through it, lashing out with a massive claw and catching Koga along the ribs, denting his armor, lifting him up and tossing him into the mass of smaller draug facing Lou, Fee, and Ashton, sending the whole mass bowling over.

Fee's light catches on the small draug as they whole mess topples over thanks to Koga's unceremonious arrival, actually cutting both its legs off and barely missing Koga himself.

Meanwhile, at the tideline Ariel and the behemoth that has her arms trapped are stuck in a stalemate, neither able to overpower the other, swaying back and forth as the waves lap around their ankles.

Lou's kamikaze doves expire in a huge ball of light, once again barely missing Koga, mainly because they blow apart two of the draug that have landed on him and are struggling to get into a position where they can do some real damage to the armored boy.

The sudden denting and clubbing has Koga sprawling among the smaller zombie horde unceremoniously. Wincing as he finds his armor dented along the ribs, he had a feeling he might feel that in the morning. Maybe. That still hurt, the crash hurt a bit worse. He glances around. Then he waves at the others from being on top of the zombie horde. "I'm fine." He says in that echoed voice.

Bringing his legs up, he rolls backwards to his feet probably on some poor zombie's head before he leaps upwards and forwards. The 'flight' itself is almost amazing as his arms move to the sides briefly before he twists and flips before aiming to come down towards the one that just knocked him away. Soaring through the air almost as if in flight is definitely a bit of an art form, however, as he brings a hand back and instead of trying some spell or something, just goes for the old fashioned bit that seriously hurts just about anything.

Koga's fist rears back before it comes downwards, aiming at the thing's central torso rather than going for the head or pincers or whatever the hell the shell thing is on it's back. The armor gives off a roar as he punches, mouth opening to do so. Definitely more of a challenge for Koga than the smaller horde so far is these behemoths.

He is too distracted to let his anger fuel the flames as he has done in the past. So Ashton goes to what he knows best. The dark haired sorcerer closes his eyes, calling into mind something, anything to help. A spell forms in his head, and he performs the ritual without really thinking about it. Once again he turns the knife's blade to his own flesh, but this time he starts cutting a glyph into his arm. As he does, smoke wisps from the ground behind one of the draugs. The smoke forms into a grotesque creature roughly the size of a seven foot tall man with skin the color of jet with long six fingered hands ending in talons. A long tail ending in a scorpion-like barb lashes wildly as it lashes onto the draug.

Ariel is trying to keep it together. This is her first mission with the school, as unofficial as it is. Hell, it's her first time in a real fight with real villains or at least, aw, real monsters. But her inability to land anything solid is really messing with her. She takes a step to the left and both of her front 'legs' go boneless, then the the bulk of the creature rears back, doing a full rotation, its heavy appendages swinging around, both springing up about halfway around and using the inertia to drive their black spear tips directly toward the big ugly pink wad of tissue on its chest.

Lightning worked, right? Loukanos shakes off the confusion that came with the psychic backlash and summons winds that allow him to take flight. As the golden-haired boy approaches the creature Koga's engaged with, grey clouds gather in the sky directly above the larger, more grotesque undead and a mild streak of lightning barrels downwards at its back.

Kaylee had of course heard Gabby's cries for help when she first arrived back at the estate. However, LAST time they'd raised their ugly heads, Kaylee hadn't been prepared to fight them. This time? She was gonna make sure she was ready. And while she isn't able to just teleport from the school to the beach, she can do the next best thing: Uber for the win! Which also would give Kaylee time, while the Uber was on its way, to grab something from her room. Once the Uber has arrived and transported her close enough to the beach, Kaylee flips the switch on the halogen lantern and starts sprinting towards the battle. The halogen lantern lights up … but the light doesn't brighten ANYTHING. Instead, a soft glow surrounds Kaylee while she runs. When she gets close enough, she chucks the lantern forward, hoping to land it at least somewhat close to most of the fighting so that it'll be readily available to her. And, with the fact that everyone seems to be just flailing away, she turns on 'The Beacon,' flaring brightly to get everyone's attention.

"Guys, we gotta work together! Everyone fall back and regroup if you can!" Kaylee shouts at the top of her lungs. Her eyes are glowing a brilliant blue, and now the halogen lantern actually does start to illuminate the area a little, as Kaylee's focus shifts. She grimaces and shakes her head, holding her fists out to the side at her hips, and the lantern's light ceases to reach anything again, though there is a faint trail of silver that heads directly for Kaylee. SOMEBODY is powering up!

As Kogas fist impacts the center of the behemoths chest a loud CRACK resounds over all the other noises of the battle. The behemoth staggers backward arms windmilling, its shell cracked wide open to show pulsing, sickly pink and gangrenous green flesh just moving and squirming under the harder growth. After a few steps it falls to one knee but doesnt go down for the count. Almost immediately it slowly starts to get back up, moving like a puppet being pulled up by its strings, and start ambling back into the battle. However, this time around it is clearly slower and clumsier in its movements.

Ashtons shadow creature seems to be much more effective that his flames. As it latches on to one of the draugs it stabs it over and over with its lashing tail, tearing holes out of the rotten, re-animated body, everytime it pulls out, sending gore flying all over its immediate surroundings. In a matter of second the druag stops moving and slumps in the shadow creatures arms.

A second CRACK overpowers the cacophony on the beach, this time a result of Ariels attack. The second behemoth struggles under Ariel, pinned to the ground by her pseudopods. Pinned it is but its also strong enough that it seems like it might be just a matter of seconds before it manages to break free as it thrashes about, green ichor leaking into the sand and mingling with the sea water.

Just as Kogas behemoth gets back to its feet its hammer by another lightning strike, this time one legitimately coming from an actual, natural cloud. The hit is enough to send it back down to its knees, smoke starting to curl out of the hole Koga created in its shell.

Koga watches as his punch actually does something… well, at least these things have a weakness. Looking at the hole in the thing, Koga almost recoils a bit before deciding that he needs to finish this. His stance shifts as he changes tactics after the punch and moves in to try to get under the thing's guard. His armor growls threateningly at the thing as he does, and even if the lightning cloud is overhead… well, Koga's going to have to risk it. That and he's hoping his lightning natured magic might help some here.

Bringing up both hands, Koga goes for grabbing at the thing's new opening as he strains and tries to rip the wound wider. It's not a subtle thing he's doing, but he's trying his best to keep it occupied as well as just flat out kill it from the looks. The question is if he can muster the strength to do so. He has never really pushed his strength before. It's not his style, but in this? He decides to push it. His lightning magic is useless with their apparent grounding.

As he opened his mind up to the dark whispers and summoned the shadow demon, another spell forms in Ashton's mind - one more powerful. The young sorcerer starts slicing into his arm again. By this time, blood is flowing fairly nicely down his arm and pooling slightly in the sand at his feet. Once again, Ashton begins speaking words of power; words that are unnatural and unsettling to mundane ears. His eyes flicker to the color of pure jade. As he does, he raises the hand holding the knife and slashes in the air in the direction of some of the draugs as they approach the others.

That was a good hit. That's what Ariel likes to see. This whole fight has been exhausting and has only lasted a couple of minutes. So when she manages to give the big guy the ol' ramjam and pins it to the ground she's feeling pretty cocky. And then there's so much light and she twists to look at the source. "Kaylee?" Ugh. And her looking like David Cronenberg and HR Giger had an ugly baby. Can't think about that now. Instead she bears down on the thing she has pinned, a free 'leg' coming up, splitting apart at the ends into a dozen grasping tendrils lined with black teeth which she brings down hard on the thing.

As Koga tears and rends the beast's wound apart, Loukanos summons a white shaft with a pointed edge, crafted from the same divine magic as his doves. Swiftly plummeting down to armored teen's aid, the godling grips the shimmering spear with both hands and plunges the pointy end deep into the exposed opening of the creature's chest. How's that for teamwork, Kaylee?

So, even with her ability to perceive her world in 3D around her, there are things that Kaylee misses. Like, oh, the fact that ASHTON IS CUTTING HIMSELF TO TRY AND FIGHT! However, when she's absorbed enough light that she's readily glowing (it's probably a pretty neat effect to see- it'll almost look kinda like smoke or an aura emanating around her in plain silver light), Kaylee's ready to do HER part in this battle. Letting the lantern glow for a few seconds to flood the area with more photons and let her pick out more of the details of her surroundings, Kaylee closes her eyes. Hunching down and gritting her teeth as she charges up, the aura sucks in to Kaylee for a few seconds. Then, with a shout, Kaylee thrusts her arms outward and small beams of light arc away from her body, bending around her friends and targeting the sea zombies in their midst. Boy it would help if she could actually shoot lasers! Unfortunately, it's strictly hard-light beams meant to shove the zombies away and allow her friends the chance to do as she called for and regroup.

The problem with an approach like Kogas is that very few living (or unliving) creates will let you pull something like that off without contesting it. The behemoth grabs Kogas wrists in its pincers and keeps the armored student from moving. The behemoth is unable to completely counter the attack but Koga is unable to actually cause any extra damage as they stalemate.

Ariel, on the other hand isnt faring quite as well. Just as she tries to follow up on her last hit the behemoth gives a mighty heave, sending himself and her flying off the sand. The violent movement sends him spinning and the jagged edges of his broken carapace cut into the pseudopods spearing him, tearing them off from Ariels main body as the two land separate enough that Ariels follow up completely misses and slams into nothing but sand.

Lou's teamwork bears fruit. The behemoth, caught up in preventing Koga from tearing his chest fully open is unable to defend himself and the spear of light drives straight through its chest and out the back. Toppling over he manages to drag both Koga and Lou down to the ground, but the creature is dead (or dead again) and is only keeping the two boys on the ground through main weight.

Something unusual happens when Kaylee's and Ashton's powers coincidentally combine. Suddenly there's white, glowing scythe that arcs out and slams into the remaining draug, cutting them to pieces where they stand, decimating the whole lot of them and leaving the beach full of nothing but rotten pieces of drowned bodies! Suddenly, what had been a pitched battle is now nothing but clean up, as the one lone behemoth struggles to make its way back into the ocean, it's injuries slowing him down. His movements draw the eye to the lurid orange glow that had been a constant presence out in the deep waters. As the draug are suddenly defeated the light fades, flowing back into the true depth of the ocean.

Koga is in a bit of a predicament, but well… he's nothing if not strong in his other form. Shifting his grip from holding the thing's chest open to grabbing it and lifting in a bench press, he moves his legs underneath to get a better grip before letting go with his arms and flat out shoving the dead body off of him at the other behemoth. It misses with a splash in the water, unfortunately, but well…

Afterwards, Koga moves to his feet, looking around before checking the dent in his armor. Moving away from Loukanos towards the water itself shows he doesn't seem to be injured at least. Then that light circle returns as it rises from the sand of the beach up over him to leave him back in the clothes he was in before.

Checking under his shirt, Koga gives a bit of a wince. Then he looks around and assesses how injured everyone is at the moment.

Seeing the last "thing" moving back to the ocean, Ashton pulls the blade to his arm one last time. Unfortunately, he has already cut too deeply too many times. He calls the water to form into tentacles, which wrap onto the creature, but only to lose its form as Ashton falls to his knees, then over onto the sand.

There's a pathetic little blue-haired, human looking bundle up in a tree branch nearby. Gabrielle clearly over extended herself by both teleporting a big group and then almost immediately doing a set of combat teleports.

The Ariel thing collapses forward at the loss of its 'arm', collapsing into a mass of whipping tendrils and grasping arms out of which a petite blonde crawls, pulling the greybrown mass of clay and pulpy meat with and then into her. She's missing an arm, but a half-dozen threads of flesh push out of her stump and twine together into an arm, which then stretches out toward the retreating thing as she shouts, "BRING BACK MY ARM, YOU DICK!" She nicks it, but it doesn't stop. "God damn. This is not great." She's starting to get hungry and the can of tuna she's got stashed where most people keep their cerebellum isn't going to go too far.

Ew. Underneath an undead mass of disfigured sea flesh was not how Loukanos planned to spend his Friday evening. Granted, his ideal location would have been underneath a demon who is now bleeding profusely. Once Koga throws the zombie off of them, Loukanos just lays there for a few moments, only flinching when the water splashes over him.

Brushing damp locks away from his eyes, he sits up and takes a final glance at that orange pulse that beckoned the return of the beach zombies. Then he stands and trudges over to Ashton, collapsing to his knees as he presses his hands against the boy's chest. He transfers a rush of divine magic into the boy, healing him. It's effective at closing the wounds and alleviating pain, though it takes more than a few minutes.

Kaylee's panting after such an immediate and intense expenditure of power, still hunched over a little, hands hanging limply in front of her. But … they won. … they won!? Blinking several times, Kaylee straightens up a little and reaches up to tuck hair behind both of her ears, pushing her awareness out to its full extent. Not detecting any more threats in the vicinity, Kaylee lets out a huff.

"Well. At least that's that," she says to no one in particular. Then, she flails her arms up and down at her sides and exclaims, "WHAT WERE YOU GUYS DOING!? WHY WEREN'T YOU WORKING TOGETHER! PEOPLE COULD HAVE REALLY GOTTEN HURT!" She stops, suddenly, turning in a circle then glowering a little. "/IS/ everybody okay? Has anybody seen Gabby? She's not hurt or missing, is she?" And it should be fairly obvious from Kaylee's tone that her shouts come from a place of concern, not anger.

Koga sighs, and moves to an unoccupied area of sand that's not been well… zombified. Plopping down, the young man winces again before looking out towards the water again. He's otherwise silent. Despite the yelling, he is silent and breathing just a bit hard but otherwise just… staying silent. His eyes close as he seems to be concentrating a bit as he feels under his shirt again, wincing some more before sighing. "Does anyone know first aid for possible broken ribs? I do not think they are, but I wish to be sure."

Ashton opens his eyes, which are once again his normal azure blue. He blinks a few times as he regains a better awareness of what is going on around him. He looks up at Loukanos and smiles faintly. He reaches up and strokes the godling's cheek, leaving bloody streaks behind. "You fell down… are you okay? Is everyone else okay?" He figures that he is or will be okay, since the world is no longer black or, at least, not as black as it had been a few minutes ago.

This is the second time this week that Ariel's gotten lectured by Kaylee. She didn't like it the first time and this time isn't any better! Looking pretty beat up, Ariel mumbles, "Koga and I were tradin' hits. It's not like nobody was trying." She's looking wan and though she's not prone to most bodily functions, sweat is beading on her forehead. A hand disappears into the side of her head and she produces a can of tuna, which she tears open with teeth that look like a mouth full of rocks, then dumps into her mouth, her lower jaw extending to take the whole can at once. "Ugh. No. I need… hoo, I need toe eat." She stumbles past Kaylee and heads toward I95, your home of like fifty thousand Applebee's.

Kaylee pouts at Ariel, concern washing across her face. "Are you okay, Ariel? You said it took your arm? I saw you trying to wrestle with it," she'll say, attempting to reach over and give Ariel's shoulder a comforting squeeze. She then purses her lips a little and shakes her head. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have yelled or anything. But … you guys were all fighting by yourselves and it looked like you could have been in trouble if it kept going …. I'm sorry, I was just worried. Back when we actually had the school, we could actually practice using our powers and fighting together and stuff. It's … harder, here," she says. Looking over at the trees, she sighs and clicks her tongue, smiling a little ruefully. "It looks like Gabby wore herself out, getting everyone here. I'm going to go get her. We'll need to get back to the Estate as soon as possible."

Daxton was out delivering a pizza to the furthest end of town, so when he starts zipping up towards his place of employment, he's surprised to see the aftermath of a battle. Much less a battle with Coral Springs students. The former Ares races up and stops relatively in the middle of where everyone is, "What the hell happened?" He scans the group, looking for any serious injuries that need to be taken care of right away. An annoyed sigh (It's what he does), "Who's injured and have the cops been called yet?" He's already pulling out his own phone. His nose wrinkles as he speed texts someone, "I can run people back to the estate." One at a time, but it'll still be faster than walking.

Loukanos looks up at Kaylee with an exhausted expression, which is strange for him as he doesn't feel fatigue most days. He did expend a lot of magic, though. And psychic zombie overload! What the heck even was that? "I saw her climb up that tree," He offers and points. "I'll find and try to heal her next, but I do not think she was hurt at all." His gaze returns to Ashton. "We're all a little battered. You suffered the worst of it and didn't even get hit. Not sure if I should be impressed or not." To Koga, he says, "If it's broken bone, my healing power will only mend the bone together for a time. Bruising I can handle, but…yeah. Does the school have a med bay?" He doesn't think so. Daxton gets a blank look. "Ocean zombies."

Ashton looks at his arm, which has stopped bleeding at least, even if he is not healed completely. He blinks a few more times, "I'm not in danger anymore.. Go help the others.. I'll be fine… " He smiles at the golden haired godling, "We can make each other feel better later…" He tries sitting up and looks in the direction of Daxton. "Rave gone horribly wrong.. Who are you anyway?"

Koga mentions to Daxton, "If you can not jostle me, I could use a lift back. I need to get this looked at. This is the second time these have appeared. They are organized. The first was a week ago." He supplies as far as information. "The small ones are… not hard. Big ones…" He points at the behemoth body that Loukanos helped him kill. "… much tougher." He looks considerate. "They managed to harm my other form. Great strength in them."

Ariel smiles as Ariel shows concern and watches the other girl go off with Gabrielle like she hung the moon. When Daxton comes choo-chooing from the school Ariel starts, then shakes her head, "Help the bleeding. I just… need some food." Maybe the school would have the raw meet she needs sitting around, but she doesn't need another lecture from Rain about how they're all missing sloppy joes because Ariel needed a snack. So instead she starts walking toward town, where some outdoor cats are going to have a very bad night.

Daxton walks over and kicks the closets zombie body. Well, hell. He looks over in the direction that Kaylee went, having heard her apology to Ariel, "Kaylee! Call the cops, I just texted the school. I'm gonna run people home, but someone needs to be here when the cops show." Turning back , bright blue eyes look over Ashton and his blood. Gross. "I'm Tempo, part of Unit 23." He's also wearing a blue and black racing bike jacket, along with the red tee shirt for Lighthouse Pizza. Those close can smell the scent of food he had delivered still clinging to him. The speedster walks over to Koga, offering a hand to help the teen up, "I'll do the best I can."

Nodding, Koga takes the hand to stand up. "Right side, ribs possibly bruised at the least." He sighs, then winces again. "I could assume my other form? Might be heavier?" Koga's foreign accent is just slightly showing through at the moment. "Had worse before, but first time… speed travelling?"

"Kaylee has Gabrielle. 'Tempo' has Koga," Who still needs healing. Louk will work on that once they get to the manor. "And Ariel is…looking for a snack?" The blonde stands with a grunt, holding out a hand to help the other boy up. "That means I've got you." Should he accept the hand, the pair is teleported back to the Winbarry Estate. Of course, his teleportation abilities aren't nearly as instantaneous as Gabby's and require a brief incantation, but there's no nausea involved.

"Lighter is better if you wanna get there faster." Dax is a big boy, he can carry Koga pretty easy. Ariel is given a slight frown as she/he wanders off, but there's too many students here for Dax to corral them all. And when the other two disappear he just sighs. "Let's get you home, dude." As he has no idea who Koga actually is. Unless he fights it, Dax will scoop him up and race him home. Very quickly.

Ashton groans softly as he sits up. He rolls his head backwards in a semi-circle motion to crack his neck a little. He looks down at his shirt. "I so don't think I'm going to be able to get this out in the wash… Shit, this was one of my favorite shirts." He starts to stand up, but quickly decides to stay on the ground a little longer. At least until Loukanos offers the hand. He takes it then looks to the godling, "So, how close does this count to "saving the world" cause I'm still trying to figure out how to check that one off the list." He smiles before placing his head on Louk's shoulder to be teleported back home.

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