Journey to the Netherworld ((Open RP))

"You guys have great imaginations." Sage laughed before sliding backwards into the driver's seat like some giant octopus. He looked back to the Illusionist, smiling widely, "'Specially you. I like you."

Whether or not this was a good thing he didn't say, the Vrakht turning his attention to the departure. He didn't want to run over the people walking into the doorway...well, not enough to actually do it, at least. So he waited for them to file through, as well as for any others who wanted a ride from him to enter the Lamborghini. Once that was done, he gunned it.

"Later!" he shouted and waved to Azuria out the open window in tandem with the unnatural roar of the abnormal vehicle's engine, "I'll be back for the deal with the thing!"

And with that they went through...

Illusionist rolled back the window and stuck his head out."Don't worry Azuria, I'll be extra careful.", he said with the grin on his face hidden by his mask. The sound of her voice had snapped him out of the haze he was in. Something about the idea of Rotten Luck being torn between two realities made the whole affair seem less serious then it actually was. A part of his brain told that things were getting sillier, and that meant bad things couldn't happen. Besides his brain told him, Azuria would never send him anywhere he could get hurt. And then there was the card.

Illusionist put one hand in his pocket and played with the card. It was a Pocket D VIP pass, he had won it at a special promotion event. On its own the card probably couldn't get him out of the Netherworld. Unconsiously he began tearing at its magic. If he boost its power, and he knew that he could, the card would take him back to Pocket D. It would take him back to civilization, to a room full of amazing people who could probably kill anything that followed him, and who could bring him back from the dead 10 different ways.

"You guys have great imaginations.Specially you. I like you." said Sage. Illusionist hadn't even noticed that Sage slid into the care."I like you too Sage." replied Illusionist. As the car speed of into the portal, Illusionist really hoped he wouldn't have to use the card.

Need? Probably not. Want? Probably so. The Illusionist not only found himself in Hell a moment later, but also discovered a rather disturbing fact.

Sage had disappeared - the car had no driver!

Though this didn't really seem to bother it, the Lamborghini coming to a stop on the gateway's other side just as normally as if someone had stepped on the brakes, the vanishing act was likely highly disconcerting...

"Ooh! Me next, me next!" Snaerr bobbed excitedly in place, eliciting another unimpressed stare from Azuria as he floated into the portal.

As Snaerr slowly entered the portal, he felt the familiar jerking sensation, as if the portal were snagging at his skin, and grimaced. To this day, he wasn't sure if that was because his magic was incompatible with that of the portal or if everybody felt that, but it was obnoxious as-

Hell.

Well, it was pretty much what he'd expected. He'd read extensive catalogs of various astral explorers as they charted various Hells and the various denizens therein, but obviously, there were a lot more Hells than there were explorers, a lot more denizens than there were hells, and frankly, a lot more of his books that were full of crap than of the ones that weren't. So while most people wouldn't have found the desolate wasteland of barren rock and acidic viscous bodies of... well, acidic viscous stuff terribly comforting, it at least meant that he was in one of the more standard incarnations, and knowing something was the difficult part of surviving it.

On the other hand, he was about twenty yards from the car. He quickly flew alongside of it, then did a double-take.

"Hey, wasn't there a, um... something... behind the wheel when we got here?"

The school of Midnighters floated through the portal with practised ease, followed closely by the hovering policebots. Similarly to the demon Sage, when the priest emerged in Hell, he too experienced some temporal disturbance. When he reappeared, he looked like a completely different being. The usual glow of his light brown had gone, his resplendent white hair had darken and now hung loosely at neck's length. His armoured garb was missing, he was unclothed save for the wrapping of sacloth around his waist down. His torso appeared bonier and scarred all over, his entire body looked as though it had been bathed in shadow. What was most noticable though, was the huge expanse of feathers grown out of his shoulders, spanning a total of thirty feet in full stretch. Huge muscles sat behind him to support the extra weight of the wings and facilitate flight.

"Dear God" he prayed, fearful of the sudden transformation. "That was unexpected"

Damsel propelled herself through the portal and remained suspended and airborne on the other side. She marvelled at the lava-red landscape for a while before checking herself back. "Okay people, let's try out this magic communications-network the Midnighter's are supplying and hope it's better than modem. Now where did I put those MAGI files, ah here we go. Right okay, Rotten Luck the mummified zombie; powerhouse enforced by dark magic, check! Illusionist; skilled magician with reality-bending powers, check! Snaerr; spandex-clad magic-type hero with ice-based powers, oh yeah I'm checking you out alright. Moving on! Typhon; fiery titanic demon armed with swords and a large pair of burning wings, yup... hard to miss those. Sage; the thieving Vrakht armed with an oversized rifle and apparently, some knowledge of the City of Dis. Sage where the hell you at? Pfft, that damn demon gone and abandoned us hasn't he?"

With no response from Sage, Damsel carried on. "Fine! Besides him, I think we all here. Typhon you the new guide baby, lead the way." She had just finished her roll call when all of a sudden she noticed her husband weren't looking quite like himself. "Damn Pious, the hell happened to you? Look like you went crazy, stormed Sesame Street and killed Big Bird. Just to wear her on your shoulders. No really, hot air down here turn you into some kinda shadow angel? You ok?"

"ok those of you who can start flying. Follow me if you want but I can't stop everthing so if you are up here make sure you can take care of yourself. Expect baddies we are creating quite a disturbance with all this magic so don't wander off. If you see anything let everyone know we can't be caught with our gaurd down"

Typhon drew his swords and walked directly away from the portal. Each step he took glowed softly whith a red light and let of a warmth, the circle he created parted to let the party pass and disappeared.

The journey into the netherworld had started

Illusionist checked his magic pocket watch to see if going through the portal had made him travel through time to fast. If they had skipped through time to far then the motorcade might already be lost. Satisifed that the watch told him there was at most a few minute distortion he put it away. "So tell me Sage, where did you get...",looking up he realized Sage was gone."...This car." he finished after a moment's pause. The car stopped dead in its tracks, as though to tell him it would carry him no further.Illusionist's eyes glowed as he examined the empty driver's seat, some sort of magic was clearly at work here, though he didn't know whether Sage had truly vanished or if he was only invisible. Either way he decided not to press the issue, most mages werent was powerful as they made themselves appear(himself inlcluded). If he tried to pick appart Sage's trick, the Vrakht might get upset. Instead he stole a strand of ambient magic, floating in the driver's seat. Whatever Sage had done he could examine more closely later.

"Hey, wasn't there a, um... something... behind the wheel when we got here?", asked a surprised Snaeer."Yeah that would be Sage", replied Illusionist as he stepped out of the Lambourghini."He seems a nice enough guy, but hes as mad as a hatter."Illusionist raised his hand over his head and the image of a green top hat appeared in it."I'm Illusionist by the way, nice to meet you." He put the hat on his hood and looked around, then he noticed the Priest."Well...that probably isn't good."

"I want it to be clarified that whatever else Azuria may have said about me, this is not spandex. It's an incredibly delicate polymer weave designed to repel all but the most extreme temperatures and inclement conditions. Absolute rubbish against most weapons, but um... it's still not spandex, dammit!"

Snaerr glanced around awkwardly, then silently accepted the Illusionist's handshake.

Illusionist grinned. Some times he thought about getting rid of his face mask, maybe wearing a domino mask instead. He usually didn't like people being able to tell what he was thinking but he realized sometimes this had drawbacks."Azuria didn't say anything about you Snaerr, but now that you mention it, that suit looks an awful lot like ordinary spandex."Illusionist pinched the fabric around Snaerr's chest with his free hand. Spandex was stretchy stuff, most superheroes could tell it from other, similar fabrics by touch. Illusionist wasn't one of them but he could pretend, and Snaerr's reaction would tell him wether he was lying or not. "I don't think we're gonna see Sage for a while, and he didn't leave the keys in the ignition, so I don't think that car's going anywhere. Besides, its no good to us if we have to go up a mountain." Illusionist's hands glowed a blue light which flowed into Snaerr, Snaerr felt lighter, quicker, more powerful."This should help you cast magic down here. I'm gonna check Sage's car to see if he left anything good in it. He didn't seem like the sort of guy who would come here unprepared. If anything pops up and attacks me while I'm looking, I want you to hit it." Illusionist opened the driver's door and began rummaging around.

Typhon heard Pious announce the dragons and looked up as the first engulfed Pious in flames. Typhon bent the flames around the flying hero in a cone and redirected them right back where they came from blasting the dragon out of the skies. He drew his swords and gave a mighty beat of his wings to join Pious

"Time to earn our pay boys!" With that Rotten went charging at a dragon. "Hey Ugly how about taking a bite out of me!" The dark magic within him surged getting the attention of a few of the dragons.

The result was much the same as with Pious he was blasted with flames. This didn't even stop him a bit as he leaped at the nearest one and delivered a smoldering Smite blow of his fist into the beasts leg.

"Seriously, leave the suit alone-" Snaerr began, but stopped, his eyes glazing slightly. Suddenly, his eyebrows widened, and he turned away from the Illusionist as he was in mid-sentence, staring into the horizon.

"It can't be... is that..."

Suddenly, the first dragon slammed into Pious, then sent a gout of flame at him. Snaerr sent a burst of frost at him, extinguishing the fire, then summoned his ice sword, charging the dragon and delivering a mighty blow.

Which proceeded to bounce off the dragon's hide ineffectually.

"Oh bollocks."

Illusionist pulled him self out of the car, he wasn't really sitting in it , he just put his torso inside to rummage around. "Whats going...", he saw the dragon attack Pious and for a moment he froze up."..on?"He saw Snaerr run towards the beast, propelled by Illusionist's own magic. Too slow,I'm too slow he realized. Pocketing the strange box with a MAGI sticker on it that he found in the car, Illusionist pointed his other hand towards the dragon. A thick whisp of energy flowed from the dragon into his arm. The monster seemed to move in slow motion. It turned its confused head towards him. Taking his other hand out of his pocket, Illusionist used it to pull red strands of strength from the dragon, he redirected them back to Snaerr and the singed Pious."Freeze him solid Snaerr." He said in a soft voice that Snaerr heard telepathically.

Rachel saw the team starting to work together. The first dragon had enflamed her husband but Typhon came to the rescue, controlling the fire and turning it against the dragon before he too took off into the skies. Rotten Luck was quick to taunt, Snaerr doused the fire attacks with his frost and the Illusionist was siphoning power and speed to favour the team. "Boost me" she called to Illusionist, as she flew upwards to join the airborne fight. She latched herself onto the first dragon and swung onto its back. With a ferocious effort, she unstrapped her assault rifle and offloaded a whole magazine on full auto, directly beneath the dragon's neck, severing its head. As she leapt onto a second dragon, she spoke out telepathically. "I'm counting about a dozen bogies, target them one at a time people. Seven of us on one is better than seven on twelve. Illusionist, reduce inertia so the non-flyers can leap up. Look sharp people, this sh*t is on!"

"I twy to get as many of dem... Them on me as posible. Just Hawe something for me to eat aftew this is done!"

He shifted so he could affect as many Dragons as he could at once then he screamed. The scream wasn't a taunt just a flash of pain as he reached out with his powers and drained life force from what ever he could around him (Soul Drain). Thought he was careful not to hit anyone on the team with the radiating darkness. His glazed over black and he went on the offensive striking out with Shadow Maul.

What burns he had were already healing but his shoulder got a nasty gash when one of the dragons slashed at him.

"Typhon, Snaerr... thank you" said Pious, now gathering up his energy and preparing to strike. A wall of bright white light surrounded his whole body as he energised. His form seemed to change shape, growing larger and sprouting scaled armour. Suddenly, with great speed he dive-bombed, fists first into the group of dragons tearing at Rotten Luck, releasing a blinding explosion of light. The combined damage from the mummy's soul drain into shadow maul combination and Pious's build-up into white dwarf flare stunned the dragons but didn't keep them held for long. The giant twelve monsters just kept on coming, determined to destroy the dark-powered zombie and his intruding friends. "Damn it" Pious yelled. "These things are strong, we need more damage!"

Snaerr stared down the dragon for a moment, when he suddenly felt a surge of magic through him, so powerful it hurt. At that same moment, he heard a very subtle voice in his mind.

"Freeze him solid."

Telepathy. So frigging weird.

Snaerr took inspiration nonetheless, forcing the power through his hands, gritting his teeth against the pain, and then finally flying straight at the dragon, rearing back one fist, which was glowing a vivid blue.

"Hey, ugly!"

He thrust his fist into the dragon's eye, releasing the energy in one burst. The dragon remained still for a moment, then suddenly convulsed as spikes of frozen bodily fluid shot through the beast's hide, impaling it from the inside-out.

"Snicker-SNACK!"

Illusionist looked around. He could see at least a dozen dragons, he'd never fought a dragon before but they seemed tough. He wondered if something had sent the dragons at them, or if the dragons lived here and Sage's portal sent them into the middle of the dragon's nest. He wondered if Sage set them up. He was also very gratefull that a combination o adrenaline and magic had slowed down time for him.

"Boost me" he heard Damsel yell."I'm counting about a dozen bogies, target them one at a time people. Seven of us on one is better than seven on twelve. Illusionist, reduce inertia so the non-flyers can leap up. Look sharp people, this sh*t is on!"

Ok, those were orders, he could follow orders, people wouldn't get mad at him if he listened to them. He raised one hand and sped Damsel up. Who else? He tried to remember the list Azuria gave him, he'd had no idea where he put it. Pious could fly, so could Typhon, he boosted them. Snaerr was boosted, he made Snaerr lighter. Sage had vanished, his own magic wouldn't efect him, and he cast both spells on Rotten.

Illusionist's head hurt. Something was wrong with this place. His magic felt wrong. Hand were cold. Like something was feeding into him. Dragon was swooping down at him. Both hands outstretched. Giant flash of light. Dragon must have closed its eyes. Different spell.

There was another, dimmer, flash of light and Illusionist was knocked several feat backwards. A strand of negative magic he had carelessly twirled around his finger was powered up by the Netherworld and bled into his spell. 3 Rotten Lucks brandishing fire swords lept towards the dragon and began hitting it. Illusionist lifted his head up to see what happened, his body felt strangely numb."Ok, that was unintentional."