Contact frowns at Ivory and Morningstar. Something just wasn't sitting well with him about this entire situation, and their solution seemed... barbaric, even cruel. It needed to be stopped before it went any further.
"I won't insult and berate some creature to death, even if it is a contemptible trickster," his frown lingered. "It's not right. This is hardly our battle here," he swept his arm around, indicating their predicament.
"Our problem is getting out without allowing this being to escape it's prison. While some maybe willing to go to whatever means necessary to accomplish that," he glanced briefly at Ivory and Kyle, "I am not," Contact stood straight and looked over the assembled heroes, waiting for someone to challenge him.
"This is not our gilded cage, and therefore there is a way out for us."
"The trick is just to find it."
"Killing is bad!" Lobe exclaims, in response to the general desires of some of the group. He then smiles at Contact for his like view in the matter. "Besides, she's just a nice little girl." Lobe turns his smile back to the floating green female. Then, as more of the conversation sinks in, he turns back to Contact, who isn't sporting a look of violence, and suggests, "If you want to get out of a prison, dig a tunnel. They always dig tunnels in the movies. I like movies." his innocent grin wide with remembered enjoyment.
The little green creature watched the heroes talking, a frustrated look on its small face.
"You 'heroes' don't listen," it finally shouted, "escaping is for you, not me. I don't WANT to go. Gideon doesn't talk for me anymore, I talk for myself. Gideon wants out, I do NOT." The green creature stamped its foot on the top of the door.
"All you talk of is killing. Killing me, killing Gideon. Don't you know yet? No death in this place, no dying here. There IS fading, fade away like Gideon, but still around some. Always there, never here." The little thing seemed to be growing more and more agitated and its speech was becoming harder to understand.
"All Ivory do is kill, all in his mind is death. Kill is always Ivory solution. Helsing always deathing other people. Never play, never patient. Always biting, always scratching. Had enough of biting, enough of deathing. Want you gone, gone back to killing world. No place for you here."
Nevur was getting more nervous by the second. Ivory and Helsing seemed to be ready to try and kill the creature, Contact and Lobe seemed determined to prevent this, and the little girl itself was becoming incomprehensible in its agitation.
"If this thing goes south we're ALL likely to end up toast," he thought to himself.
Deth watches all this with a bit of interest. Seeing as how all other tacts have failed, Deth decides that another approach may be in order. She kneels and crosses the floor, an X appears in the dark smokiness that is her essence. Then she sits, assuming the lotus position and concentrating, she suddenly appears hovering right next to the little green entity. The little one or Gideon appears startled and 'poofs' away. Again Deth repeats, and this time before the little one can disapparate away, she says in a quiet almost motherly voice, ' wait.'
'I can see that you do not want us here. We are all adults and no fun for you. We being adults do not wish to play as our duties have us occupied in other matter. We would certainly love to leave and be out of your hair. However, we are not able to this at this time. I know that you can help us. I heard that you mentioned the Morningstar over there brought us here. I see the door as a way out. However, I sense that it is not the way out that we truly need to take. I do not want to kill or hurt you. I do not believe that any here truly wish to harm you. However, our natures are such that it become the only option. I would like to avoid violence at all costs, but I am the most willing to travel this path to the end. I would like to propose a deal. If you would provide us the true way out, well, we will leave you to your little world. However, there is another option, you can keep us here and we will find our way out. Personally, I like Lobe's idea of a tunnel, but I know Lobe decently now, and I believe that any tunnel I ask him to dig would be rather messy and shall I say, destructive. He would not mean it. It is just Lobe and I adore him for it. I, also, know that with the connections that I have, the tunnel would work, but your little world might not survive. That little X on the ground over there is connected to our world. It needs to be widened to at least Lobes size to allow us through. ' Cocking her head over to Lobe. ' He is quite big is he not?'
She watches the little one glance over at Lobe and cringe at the thought.
' I have decided that I shall give you til the count of ten. After that, I will ask Lobe to dig me a hole to China or the equivalent here. I suspect that I can be assured we will reach China in a reasonable amount of time.
Lobe, my young one, do you feel up to digging a hole for me? See that X over there, when I say Go! start digging. The faster the better'
'10'
'9'
'8'
...
occ edit(after seeing Deth's response I didn't see as I was typing mine):
IC:
Fox liked Deth's idea... and knew she was on the right track, but an ultimatum to a child never went well... he knew that from experience. Plus, Deth's intelligence was shining through, and while Sly admired that in her... it still felt too "adult" to him...
Sly felt the tension in the group, and once again found himself deferring to Contact's wisdom. He had been prepared to insult the little green monster... almost as if, because he had calmed himself before, his frustration at their predicament was still finding a way to manifest.
Even if he had helped discover the way out, and even if the creature was honoring it's promise, Contact was right... it did NOT say where the door led... and if they continued to "act like adults" in here they might escape, but he had a feeling that route led to the Gideon-side escaping as well... The former demon hunter was NOT a child after all... perhaps the child he kept seeing was part of the imprisonment... they had to play by THAT side's rules to escape without letting Gideon escape as well, perhaps...
Sly looked at Lobe... he looked harder at the look of innocent understanding and friendship directed at the demon-girl from his massive face.
Lobe had seemed to be the only one who had been able to deal with that first mental onslaught and then completely forgive and forget what had happened... there was something to that, if he could just figure out what.
If this Gideon, or whatever Ivory called the girl was really some demon hunter imprisoned so long he had grown mad... or if it was merely a manifestation of this "place..." Sly was at a loss how to deal with this...
Dig a hole... he mused to himself... I think I was on the right track with thinking up simple answers would save us... This, "being..." goes from violence to games in a heartbeat... yet it even TOLD us NONE of that means anything... much like a child's fantasy world. No... "death", "fighting..." is not the answer. It even said it wanted us gone, why? Is it truly just mad? Or does it want us gone before we let the Gideon side out? WAIT... the child side was the one to blurt out not to trust it's promise... almost to delay us going through the door. It was the ADULT side... this Gideon perhaps, that had formed the rules of the game... and let me win, perhaps?
Sly had honestly had enough of this... Dig a hole... he thought again. He suddenly remembered something. The "doors" had come from the ground. Even Contact had shown that, and he obviously wasn't beholden to any rule this former "Gideon" had set down... there WERE no rules here, yet why had Contact brought the doors up from the ground just as the creature had? Dig a hole... Lobe's innocent suggestion struck him again.
Placing all his bets on Lobe's simple yet direct intuition, Sly began to jump up and down. The mirrored floor vibrated the tiniest bit, but he knew his mind didn't believe his physical strength to be strong enough...
"Hey little girl," he directed at the being, "How about you join me and Lobe in a game of jumping jacks! First one to 100 WINS!"
The impish face lit up... here was someone who wanted to finally just PLAY!! And it grinned at Lobe as well, seeing the one person who it generally felt no animosity from!
It dropped to the ground and mimicked Fox's jumping.
"Come on Lobe! Let's play! First one to reach 100 gets some fresh OJ!!" Sly smiled to the giant as he jumped slapping his hands above his head.
When Lobe began to jump... the entire room hummed... and Fox began to see a tiny crack form under the giant's feet.
The other heroes stood by, contented for the moment to let Sly's plan run its course. The floor continued to crack under the giant's weight. Nevur suddenly felt something in the air, and by the faces of the others, they felt it too. A building up of some kind, like someone taking a deep breath.
The cracks were suddenly seized, rejoining and mending themselves. It seemed their brief glimpse at freedom had vanished. The green girl stopped jumping looking at the floor where the cracks had been. "Look in the mirror," she laughed, pointing at the floor.
Nevur looked down, but suddenly got the feeling that he was actually standing on a vertical surface, a giant mirror with all of them standing like spiders on its front. The green creature looked over at Sly, smiling.
"Down the rabbit hole, kit," it giggled cheerfully. It lept into the air, spinning around at great speed. It hovered over them for a minute before shooting down into the mirror. The surface cracked, spider-webbing out beneath their feet. The sound of breaking glass was deafening as the mirrored floor fell away in shards beneath them.
Nevur looked at what he thought was down and saw a faint circle of light growing bigger below them. He only hoped that this would be the real world, he had had enough of the psycho dimension. Above them he almost imagined he heard something roaring after them, bellowing with rage. He looked down once more at the ever-brightening circle.
"Down the rabbit hole," he said to himself as he fell.
Helsing watched the ground crack and shatter, enveloping the heroes into the darkness below. Helsing had watched all of this, but he didn't fall. "I have other plans for you," the imp said. "Perfect," he responded, "what might those plans be?" "I'm gonna have fun with you. We're gonna play a game," the horrid thing said. "I don't like your games. I prefer the one's where I don't get hurt," Helsing said. "But those are the best ones! Mmpppfff! You should go bye-bye now!" Helsing fell into the abyss, smiling....
'7'
'6'
'What the hell?'
She was sitting in mid-air and Sly Fox was doing jumping jacks.
The little girl and Lobe seemed to completely ignore her.
'Sly Fox is going to get it...even if it works'
She saw the crack widening in the floor, although the X was not moving. She decided that hovering was a good thing and continued to watch the spectacle.
'Leave it to Sly Fox.' Shaking her head, she continued to watch.
As the last person went through the hole, she sat there hovering in the air, comtemplating. As the last person fell through, she saw that the crack began to close again. Out of the corner of her eye, a darkness was slinking towards the hole.
'Hmm, you must be Gideon'
She received a feeling of hatred and acknowledgement.
'You don't think you are going down the hole do you?'
Again, even more hatred and a positive response.
'Not over my half dead body'
She felt the presence move closer and she could tell the hole was just about the right size.
'Sayonara, Gideon'
She dropped through the hole at the last second. As she fell through, her hat caught on the edge and capped the hole, like a stopper for the bath tub.
'Argh, another hat down the drain,' she said, grinning a Sly Fox grin.
She leaned back watching the hole close. At last, it closed with a pop and she turned looking 'downward' and formed her body in to a swan dive in attempts to catch the others. As she fell, she began to mutter and a new hat began to form on her head.
(Back in the Mirror Room)
As Deth dropped through the hole, her hat caught and covered the hole.
The entity Gideon screamed' NOOOOO!!!!'
It reached down and threw the hat away. The hole was closing at a rapid rate and was about the size of a quarter. It moved to ward it determined to get through. However, the hole closed around a finger portion of the entity, dividing it in two. The entity started laughing, an evil maniacal laugh. The little piece began fluttering down, 'swimming' after them.
The humans fell through the hole, disappearing into the darkness. The entity seeped into the hole, trying to follow the others. As it entered the hole completely, the small, green girl appeared at the edge of the hole, releasing the hold she had used to keep it from closing too quickly.
The hole popped closed and the little creature looked around, savoring the silence. Sitting down on the floor she held out her hand. The small rubber ball rolled out of the darkness to her hand. Small jacks emerged from the floor in front of her.
She began bouncing the ball, grabbing as many jacks as she could between each bounce. She finally had the place to herself. Gideon may cause problems, but there was no guarantee he would make it through the portal, and she was sure 'kit' and the others could handle him.
On the next bounce she managed to grab four jacks. A new record. She smiled contentedly.
The heroes fell through the dark and into the blinding light. The sun above them cracked and a long thread of black and red soared after them until it connected with the playing female figure with the pointed ears, black eyes and green glow. The instant it made contact, the heroes hit something, a series of splashes confirmed that they were wading through an endless sea of crystal clear waters, the impact from the fall should have killed the less invulnerable characters, but everyone seemed to be ok, save one.
The child like persona of Gideon, connected by the black teather, floated helplessly above the heroes. It's face was that of panic and fear. The bright white sun above them slowly began to melt into black. From everyone's appearence, and the circumstances, it was clear that they had not yet escaped.
Ivory caught the worried look on Lobe's innocent face as they watched the girl struggle to escape the grasp of the steadily expanding red and black thread around her. For the sake of the hulking man, Ivory was the first to speak to avoid violence.
"Let her go, you don't need or even want her. Let her come with us." he yelled into the sky.
The deep demonic voice howled back, "One step nearer to escape, but no progress have you truely made." The voice came from every direction. "I am Gideon, and I am no child. You will consider my proposal and whe you agree, I shal set her free."
The voice, the personality, the dominant air. "This is the Gideon I think I remember." he said. "We'll listen, but no deal you make can we trust."
"I will give you safe passage back into your physical world and promise your safety upon leaving my prison. The condition that you bring me home and set me free to my own world. There I will stay for eternity in my paradise." it hissed and growled like a great beast.
Ivory could feel the sincerity in the words, but it was all too good. Too easy perhaps.
"You would let us leave? Give us the girl first and we may consider it." Ivory shouted.
Black and red, Gideon's presence began to creep into the water.
"No. I will keep her here and you Isaac. Your companions may leave to perform this duty, for your sake I hope they care this much for you."
Ivory felt suddenly like he was doomed to this place for an eternity but the child in Gideon's grasp spoke out.
"No! I want him too! If everyone leaves is ok but he has to stay with me!" it yelled as it waved a finger at Lobe, who lifted his incredible hand and pointed questioningly at himself.
The voice of Gideon rang again, "Then my terms are defined. You will leave Isaac and Lobe to my prison and the rest shall leave. When I am set free I will return them to you unharmed."
Ivory looked to Lobe and then everyone around him. He was going to live forever, if they failed or betrayed him it meant only a change in scenery in the grand scheme of his life.
"Lobe, I'm willing to accept these terms if everyone else does, but most importantly if you accept them. If we promise to stay here and they don't return him, we may be here for a very long time, just the... four of us."
Cywhite finally broke his silence. "Ivory, even if we do accept to set him free to his own world, how do we know we're not violating whatever law placed him here?"
"Because the realm of spectres is beyond the triads and councils. You can do no harm there, no foul. Most importantly, you cannot be bound by the laws of mortals. Once he entered he would be bound by his own words to fulfill his end." Ivory took a deep breath. "I think his offer is sincere, it may well be the only way he can leave without being imprisoned again.
Ivory suddenly realized the flaw, he doubted anyone knew how to bring this vessal to a spectral realm, let alone Gideon's own.
As soon as his thoughts formed, the form of the child pointed to Deth and in the voice of the powerful more adult Gideon she spoke.
"She knows the way. Inside she knows the way. She will be the guide."
Ivory waited for the reactions of the others. His willingness to fulfill his end made clear, his old suit and tie began to appear in the place of his uniform. An old guilt was beginning to wash away and he knew not why.
Lobe looked at Ivory, "A long time? You mean, like a week? Umm...." Lobe scratches his head. "I guess I could stay for a week. But I have to come back because my sister needs me. Yup she does." Lobe beams brightly at the green girl, thinking that he has grasped the situation correctly.
Deth heard the news that she knew the way. She realized that it was true. She also realized that it was a trick. Ivory and Lobe would not be able to escape. Once Gideon was out, he would nor could not release them.
'He lies.'
She paused and further dawning crossed her face. A bit of trepidation as well. It looked like fear but those that knew her, understood that it was not fear, but worry.
'If Ivory and Lobe stay, they will not escape. The little girl is not here. It is an apparition of his. I sense the darkness in this entity and the girl here. I sensed none of that before in the girl. It is not the same girl. He wants to trap Ivory and for some reason Lobe. '
She paused to catch her breath and sensed a bit of anger from the entity Gideon.
'Ivory, you are the only one that can get us to the realm. It must be all of us. Gideon knows that. Without Ivory, it will not succeed. It is a trap. However, Gideon knows this. I feel that Lobe is a key somehow as well, but I cannot decipher how. I will figure it out.'
Looking to Gideon, she moves toward him.
' I will help you return to your realm. However, the condition is that no one stays behind. They will all travel with us and when we reach our destination, we will all be free. Do you agree?'
The entity drifted there...pondering.
'Yes or No. There is no other way. If you say no, I will do all in my power to destroy you. I know that with the essence in me, that although I may not destroy you, you will be hurt. If Neko assists with her powers, you will be so weakened that it will be forever for you to recover. Decide now.'
The entity pondered again. ' I agree to your term'
Deth turned to the others. 'You will not like what you are about to see. There is only one way for us to transport this entity. I have the knowledge. I will make the preparations and it will be up to Ivory and the rest of you to get us there. I will be of no use for thie journey. Those of you, who would object, know in your hearts that it is the only way.'
She looks pointedly to Sly Fox.
'Gideon, come.' She removes her shades and looks up at the entity.
As Sly Fox realizes what is about to happen, he begins to run towards them. A beam shoots out from the Entity and Sly Fox is stunned, unable to move. Fear on his face.
The darkness moves toward Deth and enters through her eyes. She moans and before she puts on her shades again, one can see now her eyes contain 3 colors of smoke, blue, violet and red. All three seem to be warring within each other.
She stumbles. ' Hurry, it is worse than I imagined' She drops down to one knee, visibly struggling physically and mentally.
'Hurry....' Deth collapses and smoke begins to envelope her. Three colors. Violet, Blue and Red...seemingly fighting for dominance.
Ivory could only watch as Deth took in the essence of Gideon. He was now the guide for a journey he was forbidden to take.
Ivory had now resumed the form of the strong, well cut man he resembled in life, white suit, white hat, grey shirt and suade shoes, a pair of rectangular glasses covered his eyes. He looked to the see they all stood in and watched it slowly still and then sink untill the heroes stood on to of the water, their footsteps sent soft ripples in every direction. A door's reflection shimmered in the water between the heroes and opened, they saw the city they knew before them.
Ivory, in his calm and earily experienced voice, asked Lobe to help Deth however he could. He stepped onto the reflection where he disappeared, reappearing before a small shop in the north end of Steel Canyon, its sign read "Morningstar Antiques and Oddities".
When he looked behind him, he saw the others file through the doorway, some with confidence, others more apprehensive. Ivory emerged holding his rifle, Morningstar holding the statue, its previously red jeweled eyes were black stones.
"Our journey could be a long one, but I fear the lady has not the time for it. Without the magic of the prison to hold him, Gideon will quickly regain much of his former power and if we cannot set him to his own realm in time I know I am no where near what I used to be. Here, in real space, we cannot defeat him."
Unsure of what to do next, the heroes stood waiting for Ivory. Some weren't even sure what exactly their task was.
Ivory spoke again, more softly, "Rebecca, I need you to fetch my prison. Everyone else, you don't have to come if you don't want to."
When Rebecca emerged from her store, she was holding a statue, perhaps 8 inches in height. It was the form of a young female bearing wings like an angel, her delicate face stared upwards where her hand was reaching twords the sky. It was fashioned from fine ivory, silver had been inlain into the feathers of the wings and the eyes were crafted of intricitely cut diamonds.
"This is the vessal I was imprissoned in untill only 70 years ago when I escaped to this timeline. It is anchored in the other timelines and in the spectral realm. It is the only way I know of to travel this great distance fast enough but..." Ivory trailed off.
"It takes tremendous energy to enter." Morningstar said.
Ivory knew, now, that she had attempted to use the artifact before. It may have bothered him but he knew she would never have the skill or raw spirit to enter, let alone exit onto the other end.
"It will work for our favor, though, in a way. While inside, our essence will be heavily repressed. Gideon will still continue to gain streangth but his ability to assert it on the lady will be greatly weaker then were we to stay here." Ivory said has he took the artifact from Morningstar. "I do not wish to show you this, but follow if you must. Deth, you have little choice."
Ivory held the statue in hi hands before him and seemed to be concentrating until white trails of smoke seemed to seep from his eyes into the space around him. Magnificent wings of silver feathers faded into view behind him and assumed an arch, touching end tip to end tip, above his head.
The display was incredible and the Ivory that stood before them looked angelic, holy, but an aura of dread, hate and dispair twords others permeated around him betraying the sight that could only be described as biblical. Ivory vanished from sight, consumed by a black empty hole surrounded by white light, a gateway into the vessal.
Those that would step through emerged on the other side looking much as they did in life, the prison would not reflect their dark, hidden, or feared sides. It would simply show them for who they were, not in their minds, but in their souls.
The heroes that chose to follow found themselves entering into a brilliant palace of marble and precious metal, gems accenting every detail. Fine mirrors looked like waterfalls cascading over the pilars, carved masterfully. The floor they stood upon was tiled marble, the corners of each large tile came together with a flat diamond. The hall they stood in seemed to go on forever, and it very well could for time had no meaning here.
They would also see a woman of unearthly beauty. Her long platinum hair fell below her waist and her figure could only have been formed by the caring hands of a god, her face was angelic and young, pale skin but full red lips. Elegant wings several times her size in span graced her back and she wore a silken cloak with hood, a color white to match her eyes: Ivory's glowing white eyes.
Deth stumbled forward into the light. The pain on her face was very apparent. At first, she seemed determined to make the journey on her own; however, she dropped to a knee and reached out, grabbing onto the person nearest her, struggling upright, as if she was an elderly lady.
The smoke seemed to be dominated red for just a second.
A maniacal laugh was heard coming from Deth, although it was not hers. Visibly struggling, Deth fought and the smoke evened out.
Looking to Sly Fox, saying in her normal voice, but strained voice, 'If it happens again, slap me.' There was no jest in her words.
Sly didn't like this... no... he didn't like this one bit. Ok, he could handle an undead retching toxic bile all over his nice new jacket... he could handle a robed maniac with glowing green eyes of fire sapping his strength as it's thorned minions prodded him with curved swords...
...but not this. These different dimensions and realms were giving him a headache. What's more the sacrifice Deth had to make to get them here, and what they had to do next did not bode well...
As Deth stumbled and clutched to him, and a spine shivering laugh from her lips went up his spine, he was ready to force that thing out of her himself by any means necessary into this prison of Ivory's and be done with it... but he was controlled from any rash (and, let's admit it, stupid) action when she looked at him and said in that oh so sober and direct way of hers: 'If it happens again, slap me.'
Sly felt his eyes well up, but he shrugged the emotion off and tried to smirk... "After all the slaps I deserve from you that hardly seems fair, Milady... but I will... try..."
Helping Deth stand, he looked to Ivory for their next instructions. Then, he glanced to the beautiful winged-woman and whispered in Deth's ear "I don't know about you, but my guess is she's had some 'work' done..." He tried to grin, hoping his lame attempts at levity would keep her spirits up...
Contact couldn't even begin to explain where they were or what exactly had happened.
Truth be told he didn't care at the moment, either. Cooler heads had prevailed earlier, and someone other then him stepped in and informed them that Lobe wouldn't be staying in that prison.
Ivory, he was less concerned about. Not that Contact didn't like Ivory... but he seemed to be able to take care of himself. Lobe on the other hand, was not. Although absolutly the most physicly powerful hero he'd ever met, he had a simple and direct mind.
Contact liked that and he wasn't about to stand by and let Lobe be taken advantage of. Fortunatly, he didnt have to.
He had remained quiet through much of their recent journey, abosrbing what information he could and allowing others to step forward. This was outside the scope of his understanding though. He was growing tired of this mess, however, and if some resolution wasn't found soon he was going to take a more direct approach at finding a way out.
Contact saw Sly's reaction to Deth and sped up his walk a bit to pass him, patting him on the shoulder and give him a reassuring nod as he did. Sly was a good one, he'd do what he had to. He could give Sly a little "push" emotionally if the need arose, but for now... best to let him deal with it himself, he thought.
Contact caught up to where Lobe was walking and kept stride beside him, giving him a bit of a smile, but remaining quiet for the moment.
Nevur stepped into what Ivory had refered to as his "prison". Nevur didn't know what he meant and he frankly didn't care anymore. He hadn't really wanted to go with the others, but Carly had insisted. She was determined to always to the "heroic" thing.
So, Nevur followed and for a few minutes after they entered the new realm, he seemed to fade away completely. "Great," he thought to himself, "what 'side' of me is being reflected now?" After they entered the palace, however, the atmosphere of the outside seemed to give slightly. Nevur returned to his robotic appearance.
His relief didn't last though, as he looked up to the woman in front of him. The angelic figure put him suddenly on his guard. Carly didn't like angel-like people. She had never believed that REAL angels would look like people with wings.
As she said, they were supposed to be perfect and people weren't perfect. This made her extra suspicious of anyone who looked angelic. She always felt they were trying to hard to get people to trust them. No, Carly and Nevur didn't like this 'angel' at all.
Deth heard Sly's remark about the Angelic being and mentally promised him another slap. If he thinks that just because a woman is well proportioned that 'she had some work done'...what If I was crude and said that about men...well she probably has....
'Argghhhh' (Outwardly, she trembled and her aura blinked a bit redder)
'You better concentrate on me, young lady,' said the creature Gideon. He, as she had assigned him that gender, had assumed the form of Death Incarnate. The red smoke trailed behind him as he walked. However, he was encased in a sphere of blue and purple, every now and then he would test it to ensure that it was secure.
'Why? Because you look like Death? I have no fear of Death. It is nothing to me. I know where I will be when my time comes. I even know when that will be. Try again'
Gideon tried another tact, searching through the memories. Strangely, he had no trouble sorting through them. The next form he chose was of her brother. He was a rather tall and muscular man of Asian descent.
'How is this?' He changed the form and showed in where it was in pain.
'Not bad, but you missed the scar just over his right eye, shaped like a lightning bolt...oh wait...that was a book I read. No, no effect. Try again'
She smiled, almost sinister, and assumed the lotus position and closed her eyes.
Gideon kept rifling through the memories, searching. He tried a multitude of forms, trying to find on that would affect her. He tried pets, teachers, friends and relatives. None seemed to affect her. Finally, he found a dark place in her mind, almost like a closet, he opened it. In it was a small book with a lock on it. It was pink and have a rose on the cover. Deth's eyes were still closed as she was meditating, smirking.
'Hey Dethie, what's this? A diary. With your deepest darkest secrets? Shall I open it and find out what they are?'
'Do you want the key? ' Pulling a small key from her sleeve, she held it up.
'I hate you....' Gideon said. The fury in his eyes matched the raging red around him. The sphere wavered a bit but reformed. Gideon did not notice but Deth did and knew she could not antagonize him any more. Secretly, she was glad, he did not come for the key, as she would have had to fight him to keep it away from him. She visibly relaxed a bit when he turned and paced away from her.
Unknown to Deth, Gideon was smiling, 'So she has her secrets and this sphere is not that tough.' He poked at it and it shocked him. '@#%$!, that hurt. I am going to make her pay for that.'
He secretly began to attempt to pick the lock on the diary.
Helsing watched as Deth struggled with the creature Gideon in her head. He had seen this situation many times in his work, but he delt with demons, not demon hunters. He knew that these ordeals in which a person tries to save others by being possesed and trying to destroy the demon from within. Problem is, the fools always died, or worse. Then again this wasn't his job, nor his dimension.
He realized he must help Deth, but he couldn't without his friends. If only Einhander was here he thought. When he aproached Deth, he put his hand up placed it on her head. He sensed the battle going on in her head, felt a familar presense. He pulled his hand away from her head. "Gideon is not the only one in her head. He is acompanied by a entity I have delt with before. It's name is Burkansis. Burkansis is a demon from my dimension, and I don't know how it got here. Deth must fight for more than her life now, but her and the souls of Paragon City. If you're a siritual person, you better pray to whatever you pray to for her to succeed....."
Lobe was too worried about Deth to really notice his new surroundings and all its splendor. He did stare in awe at the winged woman when he first saw her but the suffering of one of his new friends was too much to ignore. He'd seen the strange smoke that spoke enter her eyes, but what it meant he didn't know. He did know that she was in great duress and even had a difficult time walking, which only made him want to carry her but the redness in her frightened him like nothing else had in his life, not even his father. So he let Mr. Fox help her along and settled on keeping his eyes peeled in order to intecept any threat that presented itself in this strange world.
Lobe was very grateful to his new friends and wanted to protect them as much as he could. If it weren't for them he'd still be lost in Paragon City and lonely. Having gotten lost while jumping to an incident in Hope, British Columbia, he'd jumped through town after town, city after city, trying to find his way back home. All he recieved though, were frightened looks and angry words until he'd found Paragon City, where the streets were teeming with superheroes. He figured that this was a good place to wait, until his friends at Crown Council could find him and bring him back home. Now, he had made a whole bunch more friends and he was just as determined to keep them safe as those in his own superteam.
Contact caught up to him, as they walked along in the improbable realm, and gave him a small smile before focusing on the path ahead. Lobe didn't feel much like smiling for once and only nodded in return. It sure would be hard finding a trap in the brilliant whiteness of the realm they walked in but he had to try, for the sake of his friends.
Possession, spirits, demons, alternate dimensions. Nevur hated this kind of stuff. "Just give me something to hit," he thought to himself. Earthly villians were so much easier to deal with.
He paused a moment, listening to Carly. He almost laughed when she mentioned wishing that Lyle was here. The old man DID have a way of belittling any situation. Of course Lyle's solution to this problem would most likely be a small piece of metal applied to the back of Deth's head via his gun.
Though in Deth's case, Nevur felt that Lyle might be dissapointed with the results. He found it kind of amusing that Carly had taken such a liking to the crochety old man.
His attention snapped back to the present when he heard someone else speaking.
The woman in white bearing wings of silver turned to those that had followed Ivory through. She lifted a hand and motioned down the hall, her face, though beautiful, was stern and looked even a bit tested. Something was upsetting her greatly and it was obvious.
"Follow me. There are thousands of doors in this place but only five that go anywhere so don't bother opening any." The perfect figure stared at the heroes as though trying to [censored] the situation.
The figure began to take a few silent steps down the hallway before stopping and turning to the heroes once again. Her voice was eerily familiar, soft and purposeful.
"I've spent a lot of time here so don't worry. I escaped once before and I can do it again." She smiled and lifted her hands as though presenting something.
A loud, confident booming voice, much like the woman's but far more imposing rang through the room. It came from every direction in much the same fashion Gideon's had in their last location.
"Welcome to my prison, my guilded cage built for eternity." it rang.
Nevur listened to the booming voice as it echoed through the halls. But he barely suppressed a laugh when, after the voice spoke of its guilded cage for eternity, Carly made a comment about it sounding like her group therapy.
Nevur bit back the laugh, good-naturely reminding Carly that it wasn't heroic to make fun of serious situations.
Fox saw the way Lobe was looking at Deth, and his heart went out to the giant. He saw this wasn't the poor guy's cup of tea either, and he tried to nod and wink at him, hopefully to get the big guy to smile at least...
All we can do is trust Ivory knows what he's doing... but so help me, if Deth is hurt by all of this...
He looked down at her...
All Sly could gather from Deth as he helped her along was she was fighting some kind of test of wills inside her head. Her forehead creased now and then in what looked like either concentration, or much worse, pain.
When Helsing went to place his hand on her forehead, Sly's first reaction was almost a protective rejection of him touching her... but, he let him, anything anyone might be able to do for her was ok by him.
When Helsing informed Sly of something ELSE in her head, he had truly had enough. "What?? How the hell did this... 'Babushka' thing get in there? Ok that's it..."
Sly looked at Deth Aszicen, hoped she could hear him, and prepared himself to offer something he was not exactly keen on... but if he could help her in any way...
"Deth... if there is anything I can do... I dunno... share some of the load... I don't understand this as you do but... lend some of my energy? I'd even take that thing inside me if it would help!"
He didn't get an immediate response from her... he couldn't even tell if she heard him. Sly was beginning to get desperate...
"Not sure if you can help her Contact... but if this is some kind of... mental battle, maybe you could give her some strength?"
But his request was forgotten the moment he heard the booming voice cry out "Welcome to my prison, my gilded cage built for eternity."
This may have been the point where Sly snapped... or he could have slowly been losing it since he was whisked away by Morningstar into the first statue... regardless... people that new The Sly Fox would not at all have been surprised by his reaction...
"Oh for the love of... Look, can't anyone just appear face to face with me, as they are, right here, right now?? What is the deal with you higher entities, huh? Corporeal form too "good" for you? Don't like the chaffing of clothes? I have had it up to here with you "all-powerful" demi-gods... and I'm telling you that if you think you can mess with my head, or any of my friends here you have spent WAY too much time in the 'vacuum of space!' Your heads might as well BE a vacuum!! So?? Let's see how your omnipotent minds can handle that!"
Sly perhaps had gone a bit... too far... but the fact that he was basically carrying Deth's light form was enough to fuel this outburst... (altough under normal circumstances he would have welcomed this "boon")
So, there was the increasing concern for Deth... and, of course, the fact that he hadn't seen a decent skyline for more than two minutes since he met Morningstar...
Ooc: if I broke the rules, I'm sorry
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Helsing was stil standing in same position thoughout the whole ordeal after his little "experiment", but he instantly snapped out of it when "we have to kill it." Kyle turned around and spoke, "Well, killing things that need to be revoked of their life is my job. Problem is, I don't know how to kill it." The little creature responded, "So do humans that get in your way coun t as things that need to be killed?" "Yes they do, you little annoyance," Helsing said grimmly....."