2015.02.11 - Mammon Strikes Back

Zaraquoy Coordiory planned to get revenge on Kilroy. Once he found out through methods ridiculous, that he was a member of Team: Genesis, he planned to humiliate the team by having the worst and lamest heroes around sign up for the team. But worse, not just the lamest of the lame, but professional actors IMITATING them and film it all on youtube. 
Limrick found out about it and contacted Kilroy. 
Kilroy contacted Cinque, and between the two of them, they were in a large industrial warehouse in the district looking at a long line of badly fitting spandex. A hired security guard at the door looked them up and down and was about to say "No admittance...."
"I don't care if you're the president of the united states...you're not getting in..." he finger pointed at Kilroy....
But another enemy, a more deadly one than a jaundiced former outdoor sporting goods store owner...and a pair of eyes brimmed in fire watched from the shadows...ready to strike.
Marc Spector is on his way to meet up with a friend, though he has no idea why the meeting place is in the industrial district. He's unaware there's either a fire eyed something or a bunch of fake heroes being confronted by two real ones in the area.. at least for the moment.
Loki is snooping around as well, dressed in his scale-patterened tunic and black leather pants. He isn't affected by the cold despite not wearing a coat, which makes him stand out a little. As he lurks near some of the 'weirdos', he tries to listen to what's being said, his sensitive Asgardian hearing able to pick up voices.
Matter Eater Lad, who isn't actually Matter Eater Lad, eats a doughnut in thirty seconds and Zaraquoy claps his hands, "Oh GOOD! You're SO in." Right next to Stilt Man using actual Stilts (not the real thing) and Gerbil Girl wearing what might be Taxidermy as an outfit.
Kilroy rubs his eyes once he just ignores the guard who tries to shove him instead. Kilroy tries not to retch and then looks heavenward. Then he looks to Cinque, "We have to STOP this."
There is a bout of flame as suddenly Mammon, or rather a shadow thereof, steps out and says, "Kilroy....long time no see..." Dressed in a fine red silk tux with a golden calf covered cane, his eyes twinkle, "So...about that contract. I want you to release my inability to enter the earth...."
"Not going to happen. You welched. You're stuck. Good riddance."
Three demons....vaguely looking like teenage boys, one fat with a box of donuts in his hands, one with the horns of a ram, and another with a baseball bat appear in the middle of the 'heroes.' 
"Nothing says I can't use minions Kilroy.....have it your way....let me know if you change your mind.
Marc is looking around from a rooftop, wondering in irritation if he got the wrong place when the panic breaks out not even a block away. ....Well. Maybe he's in the right place after all. He's already in costume, so it's Moon Knight who ends up on the building next to the warehouse, looking in the upper story windows to see the chaos going on. He's not sure of the specifics, but from the looks of the three aggressors and the senses gifted him by his patron marking them as linked to a greater power, it's enough to start with. He pulls out his truncheon..
John's eyes widen as flames seem to rise from nowhere. His breath catches in his throat, and he takes an instinctive step away. However, now there is panic. Fear. Danger. 
With the flames seeming to subside, for now, John realizes that *people* are in danger, and that someone needs to step up. His form wavers and in a moment John is gone, replaced with the Manhunter from Mars: J'onn J'onzz. The Emerald-skinned Martian floats into the air, over the heads of the fleeing 'heroes'. Glowing red eyes seem to flash as his Martian Vision expands his awareness- he takes a quick moment to take stock, and figure out just who among the crowd is causing this danger.
Doctor Umoja nods to Kilroy, "I will try to give you some time to come up with some spell" Doctor Umoja pulls out his plasma pistols and points them at the demons, "Wait, are they actual demons or are they possessed human. Umoja spits on the ground, "I hate magic!"
Loki furrows his brow. The demonic creatures look familiar, and he is about to open his mouth to say something about it, bu Umoja's diss on magic derails his concentration and causes him to say "I find that personally offensive!" and throw a harmless green blob of sparkly magic at him with an irate scowl.
"I am not a wizard Umoja...I can do rites, not....right I'll see what I can do..." maybe the same rite that would banish a spirit might banish the demons....
The three of them begin charging Cinque, the plasma bolts bouncing off their skin as their immunity to fire becomes quite handy then.
Kilroy looks at Loki, "Loki! I'm very glad to see you. Now would be a great time to-" and then a hook, a giant hook rips the fabric of space and lands in Kilroy's shoulder, blood spurting out in a gush. A draconic face comes out of the tear and howls with rage and triumph.
The shadow of mammon says, "Oh you didn't think that was all I brought did you?"
Moon Knight swears under his breath, though it's quickly bitten off. Well, he throws that silver dart right at the eye of the creature peeking through the tear; he has a feeling whatever it is, it's not anything they want wandering around Earth.
"Focus, young warrior!" J'onn shouts, recognizing Loki in the fray. His voice is deep, and seems to almost echo. "People are in danger, now is not the time for petty egos." With his 'encouragement' given, the Manhunter from Mars swoops down to face one of those three demonic entities- the one with the baseball bat. He throws a fist- holding back on his full strength just in case the hellbeast can't handle it.
Underneath his mask, a frown appears on his face as he realizes his plasma blast fail to cause any damage. Doctor Umoja decides on a different strategy, when he sees that more people are joining in to help, or least he hopes that they are here to help. He quickly uses his super speed to try to take a demon by surprise, and launch it in the air.
Loki spins toward J'onn, his long hair whipping around him. He looks at his hands and then at the demons, then at the dragon. He's never been in a battle without his brother or the Warriors Three, so he is very nervous. Frigga had been teaching him sorcery, but he hasn't really used it around non-Asgardians. His fear starts to build, and his hands begin to glow. He looks back and forth, uncertain what to do, so he does the only thing he can think to do - he just explodes with magic, sending a burning concussive wave in all directions.
The people who were panicked and still hiding in the warehouse, are spread around like bowling pins, not REALLY hurt, but are very pretty in a deliverancy horrifying way as lycra and spandex flies as it otherwise never might.
Umoja's blast on the demon with the ram's horn and super speed connects and he is knocked back, doubly so as he moves and SLAMS into a nearby wall. 
Manhunter connects with the largest of the three and finds he does need to pull his punch but still connects and it hurts. The demon slams back with more strength than might have been expected but both are hit with force.
Soggy Paper Plate sneers at Loki and creates slippery grease underneath the God ready to trip him up only as the blast goes in all directions and he begins to bounce off the walls like a greasy ping pong ball, "This is.......uncivil!!!!" He howls with rage.
Mumblebeard lifts Kilroy into the air with his tail, all set to breath fire on him while Kilroy tries to get the hook out of his shoulder when the Shuriken made of Silver nicks the otherwise impenetrable scales. The dragon roars with rage and breaths fire at Moonknight, about to hit him when his head is knocked out of alignment by the blast instead, setting fire to the glass on the south wall, melting it instantly.
The silver figure near the roof dives to the side, knowing it won't be far enough--- only to find something diverts the blast, turning another section of the windows to slag instead. He says a quiet word of thanks, but while some might count themselves lucky and leave while the can, Moon Knight uses the grappling hook in his truncheon to catch one of the beams in the ceiling and swing down to ground level in the wake of Loki's blast, kicking at whichever demon he can reach, for preference the one shouting at Loki.
One of the drawbacks of having a variety of different DNA sliced together inside of you is one of those DNA are susceptible to magic attacks. If it was just a soul blast, Umoja might be standing, but a concussive magic blast knocks him towards the wall. He lets out a deep growl as his healing factor starts to make sure he doesn't lose consciousness, "Someone stop that Dragon, and watch it with spells! Feckin Magic!"
That baseball bat connects with J'onn, sending him back. A gout of flame, however, shooting over head has him gasp in fear. Loki's wave strikes and he stumbles forward. That fire breathing dragon is certainly among the most fearsome of things he's seen- J'onn's fight or flight response hits hardest of all. The Manhunter from Mars barely keeps himself together, seeing the dire situation the other heroes are in. He can not run when there are people to protect- even if the sight of such fills him with dread. He swallows, before looking to the bat-wielding demon. "Enough!" The Manhunter runs forward, his arms shifting and changing as if fluid. He attempts to wrap the demon up and give him a good constrictive squeeze. He looks towards Loki, 
"You can do this," he offers the fledgling hero. "Remember- be the man you want to be. You want to prove them wrong, now is your chance!" What exactly J'onn is talking about may be a mystery.
One of the people most likely to be fashionably late and not really mean it to be fashionable is John Constantine. Especially where actual demons from an actual hell are involved. Since he boasts the unique characteristic of basically being the center of a celestial feud, he doesn't typically hesitate much at wading into the battleground...and he'd planned to be here. He'd planned for *other* people to be here. While everyone else is engaging the things directly, John's taking a wax crayon he got from somewhere and starting to draw on the ground, a half-ash cigarette hanging from his lips. Where'd he come from?! If you asked him, he'd say rumor has it the stork brought him.
Mammon is not done yet. He growls as he sees John Constantine. "Nonono!"
He snaps his fingers and his Queen on the chess board, Anti-Life herself steps through a rife between the worlds and begins whipping up tendrils of miasmic power that begin to spread through the building like an Enomie, silken, and glowing, beautiful in their own way but deadly radiating from her like a nimbus...one touching one of the unconscious humans and making them wrack with pain.
A Rai stone moves one out of the way just in time, but the Dragon turns the scythe in his tail and cuts deeper, ending the magic from the God of Commerce.
And Kilroy turns and just begins to BEAT on the thing, taking out a flash bang Grenade that explodes in its face as it roars with anger.
Moonkight attacks the Ram's head with his truncheon as it howls with pain, as it shoots forth lasers from its eyes (not fire) but painful if they connect beyond imagining. It is a death demon goat laser goat laser death demon!
Soggy Paper Plate stops ping ponging around long enough to use one of the many more sophisticated powers he asked for...when he is clobbered by an angry Godlet wielding strength and raw magic. The weakest of the three he howls in pain and begins to retreat. "Ow!" "OW! OW! OW!"
Baseball Bat Demon is entendrilled and whuffs as the air is knocked out of him. Being a human empowered, he needs air and slowly begins to fall unconscious. 
Mammon points to three or four of the humans about to be consumed by Anti Life. "Give in Kilroy. How many people need to die for your pride? I will get back eventually anyway. You know I will."
Moon Knight lands after slamming into the goat-demon-teen truncheon first. He prepares for a follow up attack, only to see his eyes suddenly glowing with a strange sort of 'tweeeee' powering up noise? ...Well, better deal with that. He sends an elbow lashing up under the goat demons' chin, intending to snap his head back and open him up for a take down while hopefully aiming-- whatever that is-- up towards the ceiling. "Your kind has no place in this city!" he says darkly-- it's pretty corny and it's not like he even knows what's going on, but he says it like it's entirely serious.
Once the demon wielding the bat is out, he is gently placed on the ground. With regular humans in danger, and some creature stepping out to harm them its obvious what J'onn must do. Not unlike superman, his eyes flash and a pair of concussive force beams fly at Anti Life. "Get away from those people!" he shouts as he quickly flies towards the demoness/creature with fists out- fully meaning to snatch the creature away from her quarry.
Eyes widen slightly as he notices Anti-Life rising appearing from the rift. A deep rage begins to rise in him, he quickly gets to his feet and steadies himself. "Just this once, no one gets a choice! Everyone dies!" Doctor Umoja goes full Kryptonian on the dragon. Using his super strength, and speed to throw a variety of punches and muy thai knees at the Dragon.
Loki begins to use his innate shape shifting in unpredictable way, starting o shapeshift into a small green and gold dragon himself, pouncing after Soggy Paper Plaet. He doesn't have much control over his shifted forms but he figures the teeth are intimidating enough. "Move and I'll eat you for lunch!"
Good Loki. John grins a little to himself, just a twitching of the corners of his mouth really. The design is finished, the crayon slid into a pocket in his trenchcoat, and then he finally -- finally -- ashes. Apparently on the design. A sigil? And when the ash hits the crayon's deep carmine lines, it brightens to neon red, lighting him brilliantly. "Someone nudge the fat lady. Mammon! You're fucked, old son."
The concussive beams hit Anti Life, who is made of tough stuff, and is able to shrug off the worst of it, but she is forced to readjust the tendrils and send them toward J'omn, ready to drain the life from him if they hit. She is putting on a brave show but he can sense the pain in her mind.
Moon Knight successfully causes Goat Death Lazer Demon Goat Death Demon to shoot the ceiling with his face as rock comes tumbling back down onto him. "OW!" He is slowly lifting away the rubble. Slowly. 
Loki is successfully keeping all the totally KEWL powerz that he has been given from being used by Soggy Paper Plate (and it is actually a rather impressive list) but fangs and pain and blood make concentration impossible as he howls with rage.
Umoja's ass whooping of the dragon is impressive. He has never really known a superior opponent and he is temporarily driven back, dropping Kilroy like a sack of meat as he brings his hook to bear, whilst breathing in to unleash firey death.
As the lines are completed, Mammon howls with rage. NO! So close! He directs all of the others, "Ignore them all! Kill John Constantine."
Oh. And while not unconscious, Kilroy just kind of lies there.
Moon Knight gives a sharp stomp to the rubble to encourage doom-goat to stay down, but then his head snaps to the side as Mammon shouts. In a different tone than before he calls, "Oh, -now- you show up!" Though despite the chiding he is quickly shifting position to get between Constantine and the remaining minions, even throwing another silver dart at the creepy woman with the tendrils. "Does him wanting to kill you mean you're about to fix this mess?"
J'onn J'onnz shouts in pain as those tendrils strike against his martian flesh, however, he is made of tougher stuff than those humans Anti Life had tried to drain. His regenerative nature means he has more life-stuff than what might be expected. J'onn works through the pain, his own limbs splitting into a multitude of tendrils as he grabs at the demon-creature's limbs and applies crushing pressure to each. Close now, his eyes again flare as another blast of concussive force shoots from those glowing red orbs. J'onn's mind reaches out amid the chaos to blast at the fel creature, "Back to where you came from!"
 Loki grows bigger and grabs Soggy Paper Plate in his clawed hand. "NO. None of you will Kill him! If you n him, you will have to kill ME and I don't think you want to make ODINANGRYRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"arooooo!
"Ah-ah-ah! You know what your higher-ups would do to you if they knew you were responsible." Constantine takes a last drag from his cigarette and flicks it before him. Knowing him, it probably has some sort of time-bomb magic in it for one last hurrah, just in case anything gets too close. "And they *will* know. Best to cut your losses, yeah? Cos you're all about the profit." He's so casual about it all. Probably comes from his life experience. A hand dips into his coat, and he reaches into the cigarette pack to pull out another fresh smoke. "Mm," he answers Moon Knight. "Sorry I was a little delayed. Had to check my sigils. And well...I sincerely hope so." If he's done it right, at least.
It's amazing how fast it ends. The Demons are depowered in a puff of smoke, though Loki is gnawing on a very angry teenage human. Anti Life shrieks in pain as the blasts hit her, but just as she is to launch a massive retaliation she vanishes. 
The Dragon, of course, wouldn't give a CRAP about what Mammon wanted, and could easily hold his own against every one here given his magic...but the concussion bombs in his mouth is not a good thing and he is knocked back through the tear, sealing it. 
There is an explosion but Kilroy and Umoja reach cover. Shards of space time fly through the room, largely avoiding the unconscious humans.
Moon Knight is armored, though he ducks away from the explosion anyways, having no idea how much good it will do against whatever all of that is. Dragon sealed, creepy tendril lady gone, demons no longer demonic...well, at least mostly.. but apparently also just stupid kids.. he lets out a breath. "..Guess it's good you checked your sigils, but when you asked me out here I figured it was to chat and get a burger or something. If you're planning to stem off a demonic invasion, you could include that in the memo, next time." though he still seems rather focused on the three ex-demons.
With the disappearance of the dangers, J'onn takes a moment to breath- exhaling as the worst of it seems over. He becomes insubstantial, and like some sort of ghost disappears into the earth- simply floating through solid matter as if it were air. The Martian Manhunter is gone, just as he appeared: all at once. He waits not for thanks, or to exchange words with the other heroes. 
A block away, John Jones steps from the shadows of an alley. He steps up to a pay-phone and dials emergency services. "Yeah. I'd like to report some injuries..." The Private Investigator gives the address... "Some heroes took care of the worst of it, still, I do believe some of the civilians are injured." The phone is hung up, and John Jones walks again into the night.
Doctor Umoja pulls down his mask as he looks at Kilroy, "How bad are you hurt?"
John holds up his hands, glancing around. He gives Loki's direction a smile, before he's taking a drag off his cigarette and strolling over to Moon Knight. "Sorry. Didn't have too much time. Details may've slipped me mind." Details like 'there will be demons' and 'hell may be involved'. Oh well. "Make it up to you? Pint at the Oblivion?"
You say, "I'll live. This is a bad cut but the advantage of being a God is that you heal quickly." He nods to John as he heads out with the Moon Knight and Loki, "Thank you as well. Your aid was greatly appreciated.""
Moon Knight glances to Kilroy, but it looks like he's alive and has someone looking to him, so he turns back to face Constantine, perhaps willfully keeping Loki out of sight just now. "I think I could be talked into that." besides, he was wondering why Constantine was acting so strange last time they met up anyhow. "You need a hand?" he calls to Kilroy though, just in case.
John glances over to Kilroy, and around at the others. They'll recover. This was probably pretty bad an experience for everyone who found themselves involved, but people are pretty sturdy. Surprisingly so, sometimes. He turns his head to exhale a plume of smoke, away from Moon Knight. "Mm. Won't have to twist your arm, will we?" He lightly teases, grinning.
Moon Knight nods to Kilroy, a bit surprised. "Maybe I'll see you there sometime." he allows. To Constantine and his ever present nimbus of smoke he answers, "Not much, anyhow."
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