| Satyrn, S-Mart, and Superboy (Oh My) | ||
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The slow, metaphysical destruction of Twisted Street continues the further one travels to the west, cracks upon cracks emerging until finally the road, and the sidewalk, really do fall away; chunks of tarmac and compacted soil drifting into the aether surrounding the world. At least something is normal here - on the south side of the street lies the reassuring expanse of the parking lot for S-Mart, everyone's favorite store. Just another day on Twisted. A few NPCs wandering in and out of the S-Mart and avoiding the parts of the street that are drifting off into the aether. Then it starts. It's slow at first, like the gentle humming of a harmonic, but it's three houses away and out of tune. The humming slowly increases its volume, and the source is up in the sky, a good fifty feet. Not right above S-Mart or anything, deeper and further down the street. As the humming reaches the intensity of a five year old blasting his mouth against the harmonica as hard as he can next to your ear, a thick black line six feet wide and ten feet tall forms into existence. For those that have lived on Twisted Street a very, very long time, it's definitely the beginning of a dimensional tear, which means it's either going to be spitting something out, or sucking something in. Once it opens anyway.
Just another day on Twisted indeed. Floating about a foot off the ground in front of the S-Mart, a Cherry Fiz-Wiz in hand, is a young man wearing round, black sunglasses and a day's worth of stubble just begging to be shaved off. He won't of course. It took him far too many years to grow it. Instead he eyes a teenager over the top of his glasses and glides over to try and impress her. "Hey, babe. Ever made out with a superhero?" It was a cheap line, and he expects the angry glare she gives him as she looks at the S shield on his chest and walks away. With a chuckle to himself he mutters under his breath, "Still got it." Unexpectantly he winces, tilting his head to the side. "Why does it sound like Impulse trying to eat his way out of a concrete wall...?"
The humming sound stops dead in its incessant playing, instead filling the area around the Black Line with an unnatural silence. The silence echoes out like a shockwave, audio disrupting into an abrupt absence of sound, as if someone had made the world deaf rather than the listeners. This is only the space of a heart beat before the rending of reality brings audio back into what would put the grandest of sound systems to shame. A massive thrumming base, the entire area of the Twisted Street vibrates, cobblestones rattling, benches shaking. The Black Line splits open down the middle and then widens into the distinct oval of an egg. A gout of black fire spews horizontally from the opening. Satyrn herself is in the midst of the black flame, arms shielded over her face as she free falls downwards in the flame. It's unclear if she's conscious or not. A strange black creature, more fire then sustenance, rides upon her back, rending into her flesh with firey talons as it cackles madly with glee!
There's no hesitation as Twisted seems to be suddenly invaded from another dimension. His drink, falling to the ground in the wake of his sudden disappearance, and just as quickly the so-called Boy of Steel is floating in front of Satyrn, taking in her fiery entrance with a shake of his head. His red and blue jacket billowing around him. "Okay, so you've got major Boss energy going on right now, so why don't we dial it down a notch and try to settle whatever this is without having to break anything?" That's right, he's going to try diplomacy first. And they said he'd never learn!
Satyrn, who is not unconscious but just had her eyes shielded from, you know, the black flame erupting from her. Breaks open her left eyelid as she plummets, heading for the street, or well, a part of it. She might just blast right on through at the speed she's going. She wonders what kind of hell dimension she's ended up in where the monsters look like oddly muscular hunky human teenagers and run around demanding nonsense of people. But she knows there isn't much time for her if she doesn't want to keep getting torn to shreds and burned by these black flames. So, she let's it go. "Break my impact and we'll talk it all out!" She growls, almost ferally, like someone had rammed a bottlebrush down her throat, but really it's just because she inhaled scorching black flames in order to say that. She does a 180, reaching back and scrabbling for the black creature on her back, but it digs in a fiery talon and hops over her reach, cackling wildly. Meanwhile, the portal continues spewing black flames, widening a bit more, like someone lit an acetylene torch and left it on full blast.
Superboy blinks at the growling, but he's been around Batman. That's not intent, sometimes people just think it's cool. He hesitates long enough to see the newcomer struggling with some sort of monster - and that's enough for him to pick a side. "So this monkey on your back is called Impact, huh?" He rushes forwards, grabbing it by the head and yanking it backwards with enough force to rip a tree out of the ground. Through his teeth he grumbles from the sudden struggle, "I don't know about breaking it, but maybe we can at least distract it...?" If it's enough to tear it free, he'll fall backwards onto one of the cars in the S-Mart parking lot dragging it down with him. Otherwise…
The black fire creature's head is grabbed. It was busy tormenting Satyrn, not paying attention to its surroundings and especially not Superboy, so its head gets grabbed and it's pulled! Of course, it did have one of its talons buried deep inside of Satyrn's back, which rips out a large chunk of skin, tissues, and muscle as it comes free. The creature gets pulled backwards, but it doesn't hesitate to switch targets, black talons of fire attempting to dig their way into Superboy! But that's not all, physical contact means the black flames that were around Satyrn disappear and reappear around him! He'll now find himself enveloped in scorching supernaturally burning black flame! This isn't your ordinary flame like you'd find on the face of the sun, this is hell dimension flame that just lives to consume and provide murder heat instead of life giving. Then again, maybe none of this will be a problem for Superboy. Satyrn lets out a loud cry of pain which she turns into a muffled grunt instead. But as the flames flicker off of her she isn't going to complain one bit. She turns herself fully around so she's facing the sky and slows her descent, not completely though, she still smashes into the Twisted street, concaving and cracking the cobblestones underneath her, but she doesn't punch right through, and it's way less damage than she would have taken otherwise.
"CRAP! CRAP! CRAP! CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!" -KA-SMASH!!! One can almost hear the word balloons as the former Metropolis Kid crashes into someone's broken down pickup truck, crushing it like a tin can. Superboy feels the flames burning him alive and screams in pain - but doesn't let go. Instead he locks his gloved hands tighter around the creature's neck, doing everything he can not to let it loose onto the innocent civilians. While it may be trying to bite and claw at him, he does at least have the advantage of having grabbed it from behind - for all the good it does him. Shakily he pushes himself up to his feet trying to scan for the woman he'd pulled it off of. "Lady? If you've got some plan, now would be a REALLY good time."
Satyrn takes in a sharp breath as debris rains down onto her. She knows she can't rest. She managed to resonate that dimensional tear into place, but she always ends up in another hell dimension. She has no idea what this one will be like, but the fact that someone helped her instead of attacked her straight off. Well, that's the most she's seen in nine years. So, she doesn't take the time to catch her breath, or use some chi to seal the multiple wounds that are now evident across her body. She rolls onto her side and pushes herself to a knee, yelling the distance towards Superboy. "Air. Air!" She knows that's not enough information. o O ( Dry wells this is bad. ) She isn't someone who wants people to die for her own safety. Well, unless she knows the person and wants them dead. She holds her hand upwards, palm facing Superboy and the black fire creature. Black and grey chi energy gathers around her palm and then spreads out in a warbly sheet about ten feet wide. It then shoots out from her and rapidly passes over Superboy. As it passes, the air itself is pulled into it, like someone had created a vaccuum. It only last a second, but for a moment there is zero air around him and the creature. The black flames sputter and the creature freezes in place, mid talon slash.
Luckily Superboy has been on enough team ups to catch the gist of it, especially when he sees that flash of chi building around her fingers. Without a moment's thought he chucks the beast into the air, choosing to duck as suddenly everything stops. Well, maybe not 'stops'. He raises an eyebrow and looks up when the flames suddenly vanish, has a moment to see the beast suspended in mid-air in whatever odd moment is happening, and in the next blink he doubles over on the ground, grabbing at his neck wishing he'd taken a moment to inhale some oxygen before getting hit with whatever this is. For something that happens in the span of a few seconds it would almost be impressive. Ignoring the flailing and whimpering of course.
The black fire creature emits a cackle that sounds like a guttering fire as its tossed away and loses most of its black flame. Without the flame, the creature looks almost like a stick figure that someone stuck a facsimile of bones onto. It goes sailing up, up and away, but the moment it leaves the odd effect Satyrn created, its black flame envelopes it again. It's ascent slows as it works to get itself back on course towards a target, uncaring which as long as it can inflict pain. Satyrn collapses forward, catching herself with her outstretched palm. She coughs out a cloud of black smoke, cursing something about wells as she inhales. Blood seeps from at least a dozen wounds across her body. But the saiyan knows there's no time to rest. Resting is for when you're safe, and she has been safe for nearly a decade. She reaches a hand up towards the creature, trying to judge its path, but its hard, it's dark, this part of Twisted isn't well lit. Still, black and grey chi begin to gather, her entire body trembling. "Can you chuck it back in?" She rasps. Oh yeah. the portal. It's still spewing black fire, but it's started to slowly die down. The hole isn't closing, but the flames are definitely dwindling.
"Oh yeah. The portal." Master of the obvious, of course. As the beast comes back down towards him, he locks his fists together, hitting it as if with a bat towards the flame spewing maw that the duo had come out of. For good measure he rams it with his shoulder, launching himself towards it as well. "It's been fun…" He stops just at the mouth of the portal, hoping momentum will handle the rest. "…but you've gotta leave." With luck this is the end of it, and he's going to flick up what's left of his now heavily burned jacket, descend to the ground, and decide if he's obligated to hit on Satyrn before or after he offers to take her to the hospital. …if this is not the end of it, he's going to look like a real jackass in a moment. Maybe that'll happen anyways? It'll probably happen anyways.
Satyrn unleashes her built up chi, sending another warbly black grey sheet of energy up past Superboy and around the portal. The air around the portal turns to a vacuum for less than a second, but it's enough to snuff out all of the flames. The creature screams and loses its flame, and its grip, and a black shape beyond mortal abilities to ken engulfs it as it disappears into the depths of the portal. Satyrn grunts and drops her arms at her sides as if she had no strength left. She does, but one has to take every single second of muscle rest they can get when traveling through hell dimensions. She looks up at Superboy as he lands down near her. What should she say? This is probably some kind of male succubus or something. "Thanks." She stays on guard, ready for him to attack her.
Taking a moment to actually assess the situation, Superboy gives her a confident sigh, and then promptly sighs. "Yeah, no biggie. Just another Tuesday, right?" Is it Tuesday? Does anyone have a calendar? She thanked him, that puts her a bit above the usual common thug, but can she be trusted? Either way, she looks like she needs help and that place didn't look like the best point of origin. Maybe he should play it cool for now? "So uh, do you need help? Medical maybe? There's a clinic downtown that's probably pretty empty right now, but there's a larger hospital too if you don't mind the creepy robot staff." He glances over his shoulder at the city snaking off in the distance and frowns, where was that hospital anyways? "Alternatively, I know a place or two to grab a bite to eat. Wanna grab a burger and tell me what that nightmare was all about?"
Satyrn stares at Superboy as if he's speaking a different language. Is he...is he talking normally? Like...about a normal place? That...that makes no sense. Hell dimensions don't really have places like what he's referring too. At least not the one's she's been through. Granted, there was the one with the halogenic...she shakes that from her mind. She doesn't cry, too much saiyan pride, but her eyes do grow slightly wet despite her dehydration. "This isn't hell?" She now takes a moment to look around and sees S-Mart. The cobblestone pieces, the twisting street. Then a beep comes from her side skirt. Her hands tremble as she quickly and agilely pulls out a G-PADVII. "Can't be." She murmurs, hitting it. There's the briefest of moments where the screen flickers, but then big red "ERROR" letters show. What she's always seen since nine years ago. But, there's no doubt. She puts the accursed thing away as quickly as she pulled it out and looks up at Superboy. "This is Twisted Street? By every dry well, I end up back here? No..." She looks ready to collapse, but she doesn't ask for help. There's to much trauma running through her brain right now. "Food. Yes."
Well, it's good for her that Superboy doesn't pay much mind to personal space when he sees someone struggling. He puts an arm around the woman's shoulders, helping her stay on her feet and starts navigating them towards the Usual. "Well, the street we're on is the Twisted Street. You got that one in the first try." He uses his free arm to gesture outwards before putting his hand on her side to help keep her stable. "They call it Mabase these days." She'll feel a sort of energy bubble extending from him as he tries to help that will make her body forget about gravity a moment without making her float. This isn't some conscious ability, just a side effect of his powers. You'll regret asking about it if you do. Superboy continues narrating as they shuffle along. "I used to be a cop here. A member of TASK." His voice becomes gravely as he starts goofing off, "A damn good one. Then I got bit by a snake and struck by lightning-" Thankfully he stops himself and his voice returns to normal, "…wait, I already did that bit. Nevermind."
END PART ONE | |
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