2012-07-29 From Hell's Heart

Seven hours since the ship appeared. Two separate military vessels and one civilian craft have passed within the radius of the storm that surrounds have gone silent. No other contact has been made. So, the closest team of heroes is called in for backup. Helicopter and naval transport are provided for those who don't happen to have the gift of flight. The marines assigned to the Titans are dispatched similarly, for backup and transport necessities.
The storm can be sighted a good ways out, but the ship is harder. It's a big dark mass in churning waves and pouring rain, an blot in the middle of an unnatural tempest. The transports, once given the go-ahead, pull on toward it. Details can be made out now; it's a cruise ship, a logo across the side marking it as the Sun 11. Dark shapes can be seen on deck through the wall of rain, as well as gaping holes and rifts in the metal that litter the hull of the ship. There's no way this thing should be seaworthy. Worse, to those who have any sort of magical sense, the vessel is putting out crazy amounts of mystical energy.
A little more than a hundred yards out is when the excursion is met with the first signs of resistance. It's a bump in the water at first, a wave that rolls over the ship, and then things that begin to emerge from the water, clambering over the side. They're all skeletal human bodies, half-rotted, bloated with water and apparently not too friendly. The helicopter fairs no better, the metal beginning to ping and rattle against metal as a hail of gunfire is unleashed form figures on the cruise ship's deck.
Wonder Girl was lucky, if she hadn't been at the Tower testing her new costume she'd have been at home buried in her studies and would have missed /everything/. She's lit up with excitement as the Titans fly out toward the ship, grinning at whoever is closest to her, "Do you see those holes? Anyone else getting some serious ghost pirate vibes from this?" Her joking expression changes as she turns out to be more right than she was really thinking. "Ok guys, lets see if these fancy new communicators really work!" That said, she leaps from the helicopter and flies directly at the ship, "I'll see if I can take out the guns!"
Magik is standing on the observation deck of the ship, being one of those that lacks the ability to fly. Her white cloak billows and snaps behind her in the strong winds. As they get close enough for her to start to pick up on the magical vibes her eyes narrow behind her mask. "Whatever's behind this is magical in nature." She says into her communicator, fairly sure that those with her lack the ability to sense magic. When the wave of corpses start to climb over the bow her Soulsword flares into her grip. "Necromancy! Pull the hellicopter off. Be defensive!" She calls out to the crew even as she's running forward. "They're going to try to swarm us!." Her free hand touches her communicator again. "I need to find the source of the magic that's animating these things. It's likely on that ship." She brings her sword around her in a sweeping arc, relying on its ability to break enchantments and magic spells more than its sharp edge. "I need one person to play bodyguard on me while I go looking."
Wildebeest is nervously fidgeting in the helicoptor, putting on the last pieces of his armor. He's in teenaged form at the moment, so as to not take up too much room. His ears droop a little bit at Woder Girl's words, standing up and looking out at the approaching ship. His hands going to cover his eyes, and peeking through his figers at seeing all the zombies on the deck. "Oh man, I'm not even allowed to watch these kinda movies." He complains, though follows Wonder Girl to the open door of the helicoptor... dropping down to hold onto the skid as the Helicpter goes higher to avoid much of the gunfire. Wilde then swinging and leaping towards the ship as they draw close enough. Shifting form as falls, landing in a crouch that almost caves in a large section of the ship's forwad deck. "Want some help?" He calls to Wonder Girl, hoping to draw the aim of some of the undead.
The deck of the ship is about as torn up as the rest of it, the decks going up three stories, with most of the figures on the topmost portion. Rotted wooden flooring makes up most of the area, a pool in the center, stairways and entrances to places below. There's also more skeletal things there, wielding a diverse array of firearms. A few look like modern infantry, a few are wielding World War I era firearms. One guy just has a musket.
Wildebeest almost goes right through the deck, the boards groaning out in protest at the weight. He and Wonder Girl, however, do make wonderful targets. There's no hint of intelligence from the reanimated men, all of them merely turning mechanically, splitting fire between the two people on deck.
The transport Magik is situated on begins to about-face, men on deck rounding to begin firing into the bloated bodies. Her sword seems more useful at the task, one of the clawing bodies taken by the edge, more in the immediate vicinity dropping back into the water halfway up the hull. Once the chopper has delivered its heroic cargo it begins to veer off, shouted instructions filling the military radios. On the bright side, it's fairly easy for someone with the right sense to sense the source of the disturbance somewhere below decks.
"Understood. Standby for pickup." Magik says a moment before a disk of light opens at her feet and rises quickly, disappearing in a blink. The transport comes about and starts to head away from the zombie ship. A stepping disk appears under Wonder Girl's feet a heartbeat later, rising up and stealing her away from the middle of the fight. Cassie has a brief glimpse of the blasted wasteland of Limbo, but there's another disk of light at her feet again, and a moment later she appears next to Magik elsewhere on the cruise ship where the zombies are a bit thinner and there's a door. "We need to get belowdecks. Whatever the source is, it's there. Wildebeest, keep them busy. Let me know if you're in trouble and I'll extract." She nods to Wondergirl to take point. Protect the mage!
Wildebeest grins sheepishly when he almost visits the second level of the ship jumping on board. "Sorry, my bad!" He sheepishly calls to Wonder Girl and Illyana. Wilde actually pulls up some of the rotten wooden boards and starts whacking zombies overboard with powerful swings. The bullets thankfully seem to be pretty much just hitting and then dropping to the deck for the most part. "As long as I can leave the light on tonight!" Is he joking? Serious? Who can tell. Wilde throws a punch once his wooden weapons are useless, and ends up flailing around with a Zombie stuck on it. Which sends more of the Zombie Attackers into the drink. "I'll be fine! But you so owe me ice cream after this." Ok, that part is most certainly not a joke.
Lots of bullets fill the general vicinity of the deck of the ship, but hand-eye coordination is not the strongest suite of people dead for, in some cases, several centuries. Bullets ping off both bracers and armor, the corpse that Wonder Girl hit having its head literally ripped from its shoulders, while Wildebeest sends bodies flying around like bowling pins. Splash, splash, splash, one even bounces off the deck of the military transport below.
Below decks things are in state of wet. Seaweed has grown on some walls; puddles of water still remain in patches of the floor. Doors are missing, some entire rooms are missing, in some cases rifts in the metal allow a glimpse out into the storm outside. It's down two floors with the occasional bloated corpse attempting to claw and rip someone's throat out, but it's not a big deal.
What is a big deal is the source of the energy. It's in what used to be some sort of dining room, a once-luxuriously decorated area that now has tables, chairs, and all sorts of other things haphazardly littering the floor. In the center a brass circle has been set in the floor, and who robed men stand on either side, hands outraised. Contained in it is a shifting humanoid shape, something that can't be seen entirely through the red haze. That's where the magic comes from. Another man stands in front of a large map that's been plastered across a wall. This one is much more visible, tall, dark hair, dressed in a black and scaled suit. Everyone seems pretty intent on what they're doing, too much to notice anyone arriving.
Back on the top of the ship, things get less under control as soon as the two other members of the team leave. From one of the doors of the ship a hulking figure comes tearing out, something very dead, but also very not human. Human in shape, but with fish-like fins and crab-pincer arms. It comes at Wildebeest like a freight-train, bowling aside other corpses in its wake. It will probably be unpleasant should impact occur.
When Damian informed his father of the carnage, he forgot to leave out some important details. He did relay that the Titans were calling for help. He also relayed that Nightwing was busy. Through the grace of good faith or fortune, he was granted permission to use 'the Boat.'
He gave the engine a rev to gauge the RPMs before shooting down a long underground passage from the cave out onto the ocean. Next stop, the ship. The going is tough, but the boy forgot about fear a long time ago when he had it beaten out of him by the hand of his grandfather Ra's al Ghul. It's replaced with focus. As the Batboat screams along the surface, he sees the target.
A hand grabs the railing on the side of the boat and a short figure somersaults over the edge next to Wildebeest. It moves quickly in the night; flashes of leather and dark green. Upon closer inspection it looks to be a young man clad in gear not dissimilar to Nightwing, team leader of the Titans. He flings a small device at the fish-like finned monster with crab-pincer arms. If it hits, there's a small explosive that attempts to set in on fire. "Nightwing is unable to make it," the young man's cool voice announces. "I hope you will accept me in his stead."
Wonder Girl has time to toss Wilde a grin over her shoulder before she's transported belowdecks. "Ice Cream sounds awesome." She replies via communicator, after a quick glance around Magik and herself. Giving the mage a nod of understanding she begins moving in the direction indicated. The first zombie-bloat simply gets the gun she'd claimed tossed straight through it like a boomerang. Then she's flying down the stairs, her eyes out to inform Magik of any holes in the steps before she reaches them.
In the dining room, she pauses to whisper in Illyana's ear, "It's like Titanic 2001. Or that other movie, I forget the name." Peering at the ritual, she adds, "So, can I clobber now, or do we need to do some kind of voodoo first?"
A larger group of Zombies seem to have somehow recognized or at least been directed to converge on Wildebeest. They dogpile on Wilde, gnawing and biting at furry flesh that their old bodies and weak muscles can't hope to break. But it does kind of freak Wilde out a bit, who's not used to dealing with Zombies. And Wilde does what your loyal family dog would do after a bath, crouch and shake like mad. And Zombies again go flying, leaving a few skulls and clenched bony hands hanging on for dear life. And then here comes a new challenger. "Woa...." Wilde is just starting to say, as he's charged by the creature... "It's the Boss Battle!" Wilde growls, and digs his heeels in... halting being pushed back. Of course, this rips open the deck under them. O.O
Magik picks her way after Wonder Girl, having to jump and climb in a few places but she doesn't complain. As the two blondes get to the source of the trouble, she whispers to Wonder Girl, keeping the communicator open. "The two in the middle are containing a demon in the middle, which is powering the ship. We can take them down, but then we'll need to deal with the demon. Take down the other guy while I try to figure out if I can send the demon back to its own plane." Magik shoots Wonder Girl a warning look. "Careful though, he's packing a lot of magical power."
What few dead men remain on deck turn quickly on Nightwing when he arrives, several bloated bodies flinging themselves in that direction. Gnarled hands reach to try and get a hold, while a few others that still have their weapons open up fire in that direction. All of them have their attention on Nightwing now, converging in a wide cone around him. His tactic did help knock the fish-man-corpse off balance, setting it ablaze as it crashes into Wildebeest.
It's not about to give up that easily, though. One hammer-like crab hand rises into the air, hovering there for a second before it slams all of its weight down on its opponent. Whether he can block it or not, the struggle is just too much for the upper floors of the ship. The give way with a grind of metal and snap of wood, sending both figures plummeting down to the floor below. Specifically, into what used to be the ship's nightclub.
Down below the man in black has noticed that they have visitors. He turns, gaze snapping toward Magik and Wonder Girl, face contorting into an angry frown. "What is the meaning of this?" He steps forward, one hand raising skyward. "Do you know where you are? Do you know WHO I AM?" Unfortunately, he's not readily recognizable. And there's not a lot of time to dwell on it, considering a massive fireball blooms from his hands and goes shooting across the space between him and the girls.
Darkwing's eyes aren't visible behind the dead-white opaque lenses, but for a moment he closes them to focus. When he opens them once more he's all business. Instead of running, he runs at a group of them. He gives a one inch punch to shove the first away, bringing a knee up to the solar plexus, a roundhouse kick to the back of neck of another. Elbow after elbow smash at the neck of the next closest one, but then the small ninja knows it's time to get out of there. He is jump gun fires across the boat and he leaps up, using one of their shoulders as a stepping stone to the sky.
"I can take them both, if it helps." Wonder Girl whispers, though she nods in acknowledgement. She starts to sneak forward, hoping to use surprise. But they are noticed too soon. Scrapping her plan, she straightens, pulling up one of the tables with her. Eyes going wide as they are suddenly attacked with /fire/ she flings the table sooner than she'd planned, like a frisbee, and uses the momentum to throw herself at Magic and try to tackle her to safety! "Gorramit, no!" She calls out from the ground, "And I don't really care, jerkwad!"
Illyana pages: Magik have any ideas of how to get the demon to go home without letting it loose?
"If it were just a matter of disrupting the spell, I just need to get close enough." Magik replies to Wonder Girl, frowning in concentration as she works on reading the glyphs in the containing circle to try to figure out a safe way to deal with the magic. When they're spotted she curses and brings her sword up to... block a fireball? Yes, apparently that's what she was going to do, but when Wonder Girl tackles her she doesn't try to evade, just turning with the other blonde so they can roll and get their feet under them as quick as possible.
Long distance to Illyana: Aqualad rubs hands. That sounds like a great idea!
Ok... now there's a giant fuzzy demonic teenager and a flaming crabby fish monster... crashing through the deck. Which naturally is going to help spread the flames across the boat. "Thank you!" Wildebeest calls out to Darkwing, as he's wrestling and rolling with the creature... destroying the supporting structure inside the ship. "Oh man, it's like Monster Mr. Crabs!" Wilde calls out over the com... and manages to get the upperand for a moment and slam the creature's head through the wall of the ship. The licking flames now starting to spread to the ship itself. "Ooops." Wildebeest offers.
The dead men don't have many vital organs left they care about, the force and momentum of Darkwing's attacks do enough to stagger and send them to the deck. They grasp and struggle in attempt to catch him, but none of them seems to quite do the trick. There is, however, something waiting for him at the other side of his line. A dead man with a musket, charging with bayonet. As that happens the floor begins to shift, a hole appearing that goes several decks down.
There's barely in pause from the man in black when Wonder Girl starts playing Frisbee with the table. On the contrary, he's willing to serve it right back. A hand rises, the table halting mid-air, sent spinning back toward the girl. "I," He declares imperiously, "Am your master!" And after the table he just tears down the ceiling. With a gesture of his hand a chunk of the metal ceiling comes tumbling down over their heads, along with a fairly sizable chandelier.
Meanwhile, one floor above, things are on fire. Everything is starting to get on fire. The fish creature goes through the nearest wall with a solid crash of steel, clawed hands flailing, tearing up even more of the ship while it struggles. It still tries to break free, but it seems to be slowing, though it does try to take a snip off Wildebeest's head. And he can see a section of the floor collapse just across the hall, revealing the dining hall where the action occurs below.
Darkwing's eyebrows raise as he sees the impending danger. Gotta act quickly. POPPOPPOP. Small smoke bombs erupt all around the duder with a musket. Not to hurt, but just to obfuscate. Meanwhile, Darkwing is diving down through the hole that appears, doing his best to get away.
"Like Hell!" Wonder Girl scoffs, meeting the table head-on. Or rather, fist-on. Her fist shoots out, splintering the table as it meets her knuckles. She's ready to charge after that statement, but the falling ceiling reminds her of her mission down here. Protect Magik. Flying up, she meets the ceiling a few feet over the blonde's headsand starts tilting it toward the sorcerers, "You got any shielding spells?" She asks, launching the ceiling at the center of the circle, "Or those ones that boost your party's hit points? 'Cause we might need one of those... "
Magik likes to watch movies, but isn't much of a video game person as her friend Peter has learned. "It'll take too long!" Magik calls back to Wonder Girl, taking it as an actual request. She speaks into the comms again, raising her voice to make sure she's heard. "Hold onto your hats, all Hell is about to break loose!" That's all the warning she gives as she ignores the armored guy, trusting Wonder Girl to protect her. She teleports from where she is to the opposite side of the circle to try gain the precious seconds of confusion on where she is and then brings her Soulsword down on the magical circle that binds the demon in the center and is powering the ship and its undead hordes.
Wildebeest looks around nervously..... as the fire continues to spread. Ok, nobody knows he sorta helped cause that. They can blame the new arrival. However Wilde doesn't really want to leave the crab monster stuck through the hull like that... and nearly gets a neck-level haircut from the crab. "Hey..." Wilde growls, grabbing the pinchers at his neck and ripping them apart with all his might, noticing the dining hall as the floor collapses. "Hey Guys!" Wilde calls and waves... and then moves behind the crab monster and delivers a kick with all his might. Hoping to send it out and into the waters below. And sorta kinda hoping it doesn't land on one of their support boats.
Welcome to the party. Darkwing drops down amidst the mess going on in the dining hall, just in time to have a table telekinetically flung at him by the man in the black outfit. Wonder Girl finds another chunk of wall flying in her direction, courtesy of the sorcerer.
The fish creature lets out a gurgled howl as it goes through the side of the ship, losing a few body parts in the process. Out in a smooth arc it goes, tumbling down into the water and disappearing from sight.
When the mess of metal that was the ceiling hits the center of the circle one of the two men on the side of it panics, starting backward, as if out of a trance. Before he can do anything to stop further interruptions Magik is there, and the whole thing is getting blown apart. The red curtain falls, and reveals what's underneath.
A man. Blonde hair, white suit, mildly bored expression. "Well. This didn't turn out well for you. Try again later, Curry." And then the ship shakes, jerking violently to the side. Water begins to claim the derelict vessel again, pouring in from the floor, rising up in tendrils to begin bursting through walls and flooding down halls. Everything gets slanted sideways. It probably won't last much longer.
Out of the frying pan into the fryer. Of course, Damian never read that book growing up. Asian and Middle Eastern philosophy is more like it. He leaps out of the way from the telekinetic toss, but just barely. His feet met the wall at the apex of the backflip and he kicks off to the side, moving him to the other wall before dropping down and throwing some flash pellets. Darkwing realizes he's overmatched, but giving the Titans some extra time is his best bet.
Wonder Girl is grabbing tables to throw at the men, not waiting this time for them to make another move. She hopes, by this, to give Illyana enough distraction to do her thing. But when everything starts going down, she changes tactics. Looking around, and noticing the new arrival with a surprised blink, she asks, "Is there more to come then, or are we ready to get off this boat?"
Magik has to work to keep her footing as the ship starts to tilt to the side and things go sliding across the floor. Her gaze is sharp and keen on the blonde, her sword held at the ready. "Wilde! Get over here. It's time to blow this popscicle stand!" Wonder Girl and Darkwing are both where she can see them to teleport them out and Wildebeest will be in a moment as well. She'll try to grab the other three if she can, but that all depends on the new arrival and what his plans are.
Darkwing is all cool and bouncy and awesome... and that's totally not Wildebeest's style. Of course, now that evil Mr. Crabs is done with, and now it's The Flying Dutchman. Of course, it doesn't look like Wilde gets to fight him... as the ship starts to sink. "GRAAAAAH!" He howls as a spout of water bursts up right infront of him. "I'm coming." Wilde doesn't try to be gentle now, not that he was before. He smashes his way through things to join the others. "We should go. I didn't bring my lifejacket." His ears perk some, as he shifts back down to his smaller form to get closer to the others for getting out of here. "Let's go! Hurry Hurry Hurry!"
Everything is coming down. Bits of ceiling crash to the floor, screams of metal being snapped apart fill the ship as the water reclaims it. The two acolytes near what was once a circle are scrambling frantically toward the stairs, doing a poor job of it. The sorcerer fends off a few tables, but when things start crashing down around him one of the thrown objects strikes him in the chest, sending him careering into a wall. He struggles there, hands raised, trying to keep the ship from falling on top of him.
The demon standing in the middle of the room is surprisingly content with just bringing the house down. Which he's doing a pretty good job with, really.
Darkwing speaks calmly into his wrist as all of the boards and everything around him starts splashing into the sea. He walks towards the end of a lone, long one and walks off the edge as if he's doin' the plank. ZZZZZZZZZ, the Bat Boat whirs in a circle as Damian takes the controls. "I have some room if persons desire."
Wonder Girl shifts to the defensive. Keeping her arms up, she works to block the falling debris as she makes her way to the acolytes. "Alright, Things one and two, you're coming with me." As soon as she's close enough she reaches for them, trying to tuck one under each arm and calling back to Darkwing over her shoulder, "Hey new- uh. Okaaay. Bye then?" Into her communicator she adds, "I'm ready. Looks like the new guy took off on his own, though. Lets go!"
Since the demon seems content to just stand there, and trying to fight him in the middle of the ocean on a sinking ship just seems like a *bad* idea, Magik pulls the extract on the team. Stepping disks open, circles of light beneath the Titans and the two casters if Wonder Girl can get ahold of them. The pools of light rise upwards as Magik answers Darkwing. "Thanks kid, but I've got it." In a flash, the Titans are gone.
Outside everyone can see what's going on. The ship is sinking slowly into a whirlpool, the naval transport having gotten clear of the immediate area, far enough to be out of danger. A few dead bodies are floating in the water, not too many of them are the good guys. Darkwing's got enough power to get out of it, but that ship is certainly not coming back up anytime soon. Down it goes, the nose sinking beneath the surface in just a few seconds. The storm slackens and then abates entirely. Just rippling water and cloudy skies are left in the wake.
Ok, he's a ready covered with gore and goo from fighting Zombies... and a Fish/Crab monster. And you'd think THAT would be pretty traumatic for the fairly... no, incredibly innocent Teenage Wildebeest. Of course, the trip through Limbo is pretty much nightmare fuel, even if they don't remain there that long. On the other side though, Wildebeest's eyes are wide like saucers and Illyana who he was standing next to is being clung too once again. Though more 'OH MY GOD I'M GONNA DIE' than just as a human shield. His ears droop and he whimpers a little bit. "Thank god I went before we left..." He whispers.
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