Genosha: August 22nd, 2021 - 10:50 PM
Veil & Sunshine
Location: the Carousel
Skills: Invisible Energy Manipulation, Disease Manipulation, Perfect Aim
With the Quiet Council freed and the magnetic field down, the people of Genosha were finally able to begin to flee. Roughly half of the Quiet Council dedicated themselves to the evacuation effort, leading people away from the Carousel and down towards the southern end of the island, specifically Hellfire Bay. They didn't have enough ships to get everyone off of the island, but the hope was that there'd be enough teleporters to assist - and of course that Selene would be subdued before she made Genosha uninhabitable.
Specifically, the Quiet Council members evacuating people were Destiny, Mystique (now conscious), Reeva, Esme, Mister Sinister, and Polaris.
Of course, the pounding headache afflicting all magic users - including Pixie and Max - wasn't the only side-effect of the soul gobbling Selene and now Andy were doing. No, the island itself was being damaged by this. All of the plant life in the Carousel was dead and now rapidly decaying. The destruction inflicted by the Quiet Council had left its toll on the landscape as well, the ground shaking threateningly, an earthquake that hopefully would not get any worse...
The Stage
There was a flicker of pride in Selene's cold black heart as Andy began to drain some of her energy. Whereas she had lost interest not too long ago in having any sort of active motherly role in Andy's life, Selene could see the promise now, the vision. She had been wrong about her daughter. She wasn't a little hero after all. She was a vampiric predator and Selene smiled. Selene was immortal. She had nothing to fear. And all she could see was the promise that one day, perhaps one day soon, Andy would be Just. Like. Her. Mother.
"Oh, poppet, you're going to make mummy--" Selene began to say, only to be cut off. Despite the acheron being roughly the size of a Pokéball, somehow she noticed it. "You must be joking - you brought an acheron to defeat me? A child's toy? That may work on hissy little demons, but I am SELENE!" She could see Max down there like an ant. She raised her foot up, fully intending on crushing him, only for two sharp pinpricks of pain - one in her ear, the other in her cheek.
"Urgh, all of you little pests are ruining my mood!" Selene snapped, focusing in on Zarina now. "I should've known better than to rely on the Council - they're all bark and no bite. Jacques, dearest, be a good boy and kill these pests, hmm?" Her voice was so loud and booming that everyone present would be able to hear - would be able to hear Selene give Jack an order. Was that a bright move for her to make? Probably not. But Selene wasn't particularly bright. Or detail oriented.
Selene's attention then re-focused on the shiny glowing blue daughter in front of her. As much as she was very proud of Andy right now and excited about the dark future she glimpsed for her, Selene was NOT going to let Andy ascend to divinity first. Ever a drama queen, Selene lunged forward and sank her psychic fangs into Andy's neck, throttling up the speed of power transfer. As Andy shrunk down to only being 10 feet tall and Selene reached 100 feet, she had to hold up her daughter with her hands in order to continue to feed.
Did Selene need to do this like an actual vampire? No. But it was more fun, so she did.
"Unhand my child at once!" a thundering voice shouted, as the Master of Magnetism flew up into the sky, using the metal carefully threaded throughout his suit. He flicked his hand forward and ALL of the metal in the Carousel went flying at Selene, including Lila Cheney's guitar to her annoyance. But it hardly even phased Selene. It was like just pebbles hitting her chest.
Down at ground level, Lila Cheney had gone off to assist in evacuation efforts, teleporting handfuls of mutants at a time to her Dyson Sphere in outer space and then jaunting back over to Genosha without another word.
"Do you have any experience with fighting witches?" Dazzler asked Echo, as she sent off rays of bright light at Selene. It seemed to weaken Selene somewhat, but not really noticeably.
Sunshine and Marrow then arrived, with a bloody gash across Sunshine's forehead that she seemed to be ignoring for the most part. Marrow was beat up as well, bruises forming against her pink skin that were a vivid shade of purple. "One of you assholes have a plan?" Marrow asked, looking at Max, Echo, and Dazzler.
"No offense, but I always thought you'd be the magic person that goes out of control that we have to kill one day," Sunshine said to Max bluntly. It was somewhat of a compliment - she thought that he was that powerful. She didn't wait too long though for a plan to be formed, before conjuring up her smoky green orbs of disease, and she started to just lob them as Selene. She was thinking up the most wicked sounding viruses and diseases that she could, even as doubt filled her mind. She didn't know if it was possible to make a goddess ill.
The disease orbs hit, as Sunshine had the mutant power to always hit her mark. Brief bits of green flared up against Selene's glowing blue, as the illness briefly took hold, but Selene's godly immune system quickly fought it off. Attacking one at a time seemed futile - they needed to consider a new strategy.
Mutant Underground Table -
Legion scrambled backwards as Miranda released them from the box. They stared at her uncertainly, with wary eyes. Made entirely out of swirling water, the shape was still a rough approximation of David Haller, but not quite. "S-stay away from me!" Legion screeched at Miranda. And then they sent a blast of water at Miranda, narrowly missing, before turning around and running away. Legion was headed towards the exits more of less of the Carousel, threatening to blend into the fleeing crowd that was in the process of trying to evacuate.
Shi'Ar Bartender Set-Up
Pixie stopped the chant, seeing Veil not only reappear but come to her senses. She was battling the migraine that was threatening to put her out of commission, doing her best to just ignore it and continue to function. Pixie fluttered on over to Veil and Spark Plug. "I'm going to help with teleporting people away, if you two see Max, tell him to try mutant magic, not human magic to stop her. I'll come back to help as soon as I can, just - urgh - my head is pounding and not too many people can teleport people away here," Pixie explained, before giving Veil and Spark Plug a thumbs up. She then fluttered on over to a group of mutants and in a flash of pink, they vanished along with Pixie.
Veil blinked back tears, nodding at Spark Plug's words even though she didn't fully believe them. She'd spend the rest of her life trying to atone for this night, Veil realized. She turned and stared at Selene, scarcely able to believe that this was real - that there was a woman taller than some buildings, glowing blue, and eating the souls of everyone here who they had promised were safe, who they had promised to protect. It cut deeper, knowing that this wasn't an act of hatred by humanity, but a betrayal by one of their own. It had been naive for them, Veil came to understand, to allow everyone into their mutant paradise. People could change, but some simply did not want to.
"Can you use your emotional powers on her, Callie?" Veil asked. She wished for a moment that Cyclops was there - he was famed for having insane plans for every insane possibility, and Veil was certain that this exact version of events was probably tucked away in one of his binders. "Maybe if we can mess with her mentally, it'll make it easier to take her down - I don't like just pounding away at her, I feel like there has to be something we're missing... We should find Max, tell him what Pixie said - maybe it'll help him come up with a mystic strategy."
Veil then formed a force field around Callie and herself, to protect them from harm. And she offered Callie her hand, intending on running towards Selene.
Midway Between Shi'Ar Bar and Underground Table
Ben couldn't even believe himself that he had once had a crush on Jack. There was something about how calm, collected, and nonchalant Jack was about everything happening that made Ben's skin crawl. He didn't trust a word that came out of his mouth - only liars boasted about how good they were at lying and then in the next breath promised this was the truth. Ben could feel the tentacles within him straining to come out, to grab Jack and thrash him around, and then ask him if he was still so calm and sure then.
"If you're lying about this - if Casper doesn't come back - then I'll kill you myself. You fucking disgust me," Ben promised Jack, his right eye twitching slightly. He turned to follow Max through the portal to fight Selene, when he heard Selene's booming voice asking Jacques to come and help her. He turned sharply and stared at Jack. "She better not mean you," he warned. His tentacles came out through his stomach, but they weren't grabbing anyone - not yet.
1x Laugh
