2532/Apokolips Now: Where Nightmares Are Made

Apokolips Now: Where Nightmares Are Made
Date of Scene:	27 September 2017
Location:	Mutant Town, Brooklyn, New York City
Synopsis:	Several students from Xavier's find themselves in an unexpected conflict
Cast of Characters:	Phoenix, Lazarlite, Tendril, Okhotnik, Exo-Girl, Moonstar, Black Rose, Mariah

---

Phoenix has posed:
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK
MUTANT TOWN(AKA BUSHWICK)
NOW

Black-helmed, black-garbed Justifiers and their enormous Apokoliptian warhound companions litter the streets and floors of Mutant Town in the minutes after their midnight raid on Mutant Town. Survivors are only just beginning to emerge from their hiding places, some wandering and shell-shocked; others frantic as they search for their friends, family, neighbors-- anyone who was ripped from them by the unfeeling hands of Justifiers, only to ultimately be dragged through one of their Boom Tubes to face the depths of the Evil Factory.

All but one of the portals that bore them is gone; the remaining 'Tube hovers just above the blood and debris-strewn dance floor of a nightclub whose End of the World party was rudely interrupted by fanatics in the thrall of a dark god, its concentric white rings pulsating endlessly inwards. Thanks to cross-fire during the clubgoers' stand-off with a group of Justifiers, one of the club's walls is missing, revealing its gate-lit carnage to the world.

Some of the heroes who banded together to protect Bushwick have split off from the group to continue doing just that, standing guard over the tent city and community center where squads of Justifiers initially appeared, and locals - wounded or otherwise - are being gathered for safety, including the survivors of the Battle of the Nightclub.

As for the others...

Lazarlite has posed:
Lytle is following the teens in the uniforms, they offered to take him to meet their vice principle about joining their school. That means he has to follow them, wherever they decide to go until that introduction is made. Joining a super-school is why he is here. Fortunately his powers make him very tough, with regards to most direct attacks...and otherwise kind of useful in a fight.

Tendril has posed:
    Tendril puts her hands on her hips, frowning at the portal, and waits impatiently for permission to pursue back through said portal, leaning against the giant tigress next to her. Behind her, a quartet of tendrils have sprouted from her back, each one holding one of the Justifier rifles that are currently pointed vaguely towards said portal. Just in case.

    "So? What did she say?" Lexi asks Yana, frowning. "Go or stay?"

    She's looking around a little bit nervously, in case another one of those huge dog things come out of nowhere again.

Okhotnik has posed:
Unable to speak in this form, the ginormous Siberian tigress nevertheless herds the others she came from Westchester with close together, insisting on this as she bumps this or that one with a huge shoulder, strops another with a broad furry flank, nips lightly at another. She wants to hunt for her people, the homeless she has cared for here. But many - all too many - of them are gone. She can smell their scent trails heading into the pulsing white rings. Her tail flits agitatedly back and forth as she waits.

Pursuit would be suicide. So when do they leave?

Exo-Girl has posed:
     Fighting an armed alien invasion kind of sucks when you have no guns. Fortunately, blunt objects and large things getting thrown tend to work fairly well, as do bare fists when you have armor and power assist backing you up. Exo-Girl is pretty sure the length of battered metal pipe in her hand had started life as a table. This theory is backed up by the splinters of wood hanging off the bolts on the far end. She's been at this for hours, running from crisis to crisis around the city, and she can't exactly stop and get a coffee or something.
     Luckily, she's not the only one here, and the people over there look a lot more organized. The armored teen walks over to the group, glad that her armor's distinct enough that nobody's taken any pot shots at her yet. "Exo-Girl. Are we following them, or...."

Moonstar has posed:
    Danielle currently stands next to Brightwind, wearing her Asgardian armor as she looks a bit weary from the fighting. Her armor has a few dents, but the mutant-turned-Valkyrie looks relatively unhurt compared to most. Right now, she seems to be taking solace in a break in the fighting.

    Though she picks up the errant emotion from Diya, and says quietly, "Don't think we're going to be storming the gates of Hell there, 'Diya. We need to keep the rest of these people safe." She's fought all sorts of different foes in her time at the school, but these things... they are something else entirely.

Black Rose has posed:
    Yana Asarov is dressed in a sleek yellow-and-black futuristic sort of suit. It goes with the blue hair. And, the suit also offers a lot of protection, considering it's made from sume supersecret material of futuristic or scientific origin. "She's not responding," she answers Lexi, tucking the phone back into place.
    She looks over to Diya, "Alright. Yes, I know. So, here's the plan. We're going through. I doubt our phones are going to have coverage where we're going." She taps on her phone a few more times, "So, we've got two ways out. I'm texting Illyana now, to have her come over, and check the portal out. Figure out where it goes. And, give us a way out in thirty minutes, latest, if we can't find our own way back."
    She pauses, adding, "These asshats have a way into our world, so, we need to grab it. Likely, Big & Ugly is going to have it on him. And he's going to be waiting for us on the other side. We go in, we grab, and we leave. No sightseeing. And, everyone stays together."
    Yana looks meaningfully at everyone, waiting until each person has agreed to these conditions.
    Jean? Jean is probably going to kill her. If she doesn't die. Or, her father doesn't.
    "Alight. Let's go. One at a time. Diya, first. Then Lexi, and you," she points at Lyle, "Moonstar, and then ... you, if you're going. I'm Kinetic. I'm last."

Mariah has posed:
    Jackson Heights is home to a large Colombian-American population, and as such, it was a natural hiding place for the rogue mutant named Mariah. It wasn't hard to see what was going on from nearby. It didn't take much to arouse her sense of ire.
    Having stuffed her face quickly, she snuck her way into Mutant Town, still chewing a mouthful of chicken, fuelling up for what was certainly going to be a fight. The mass of iron and steel tucked into her clothing and backpack were being instantly converted to liquid gold, flowing over her skin in defense, and gathering into five orbiting blobs hovering over her head and shoulders.
    Waiting in an alley to avoid being seen, one of the gold blobs floats down the ground, rolling along like a living ball of mirror-surfaced jello into the street.

Okhotnik has posed:
The huge tigress glances up at Dani, concentrating, projecting a sense of ... well. Of hunting down and gathering kittens, and returning them safely to the nest. She is not at all used to this whole telepathic empathic hoodoo. But she does her best to use it.

Given an assignment, however, the twelve-foot long, six-and-a-half foot tall at the shoulder Siberian tigress, over a thousand pounds of ferocious feline, ambles to the front of the mob of Westchesterites. Just pardon her if she curls her tail around the ankle of the mauve one. Ears flatten a bit as she sniffs, getting closer, waiting for the briimstone Russian to appear and do her thing.

Moonstar has posed:
    Danielle looks over at Yana, "Alright, you've got the lead." She grins at Yana, conceding the leadership role to the other student for tonight, "If we're going outdoors, might be best if we do aerial recon." Patting Brightwind on the neck, she mounts up on her winged stallion (?!?) easily, and they head towards the portal with the others.

Tendril has posed:
    Lexi is distracted by the newcomers, looking over at the exo-frame girl as she arrives. "Hey!" she says cheerfully, then shifts as the tigress turns, reaching back to pat the big cat's back. "Yup, she's with us." She says to the tiger. "It'll be fine Hottie, just gotta go find th' mutants that got nabbed an' get 'em back here." she says, pointing the rifles more in the air now, her tendrils swirling behind her a bit as she moves up behind the big cat, taking position behind her. "Hah. Better than stayin' here? Yer kiddin' right?" she says, glancing back at Sev. "That's where these guys came from. Probably lots more there than here."

Lazarlite has posed:
Lytle takes his place in line, it seems the heroic thing to do. Also, he does not want to lose his new...Friends? Allies? Classmates? Well whatever they are, he wants to stick with them.

Exo-Girl has posed:
Sev shrugs. "Better than staying here." Her voice comes through a modulator, still carrying a bit of nervousness. But who isn't scared in an alien invasion? And then the GIANT TIGER walks in. Exo-Girl takes a step back, apprehension. "...The Giant tiger is with you guys, right? O-otherwise I"m hallucinating...." Tiger's okay. That's good. "Well, if I go through, I punch more aliens. I stay here, I probably get ambushed. Or people ask awkward questions." Kinetic seems to know what she's talking about though, so... Second to last it is. When her turn comes up, she steps forward over the lip, stomach lurching with the sensation of free fall.

Black Rose has posed:
    "Beast Riders," Yana points Dani towards the corpses on the ground, "From this portal came through, with some kind of very powerful person, and kidnapped some mutants from here and took them back. It's not going to be for anything good. We're going to get them back," she explains.
    She looks to Mariah, "Welcome to the party. If you want to go through an alien portal, save a few people, and then travel back through fire and brimstone to get back? You're with us. Follow me." Again, she says, "I'm Kinetic. Pleased to meet you."
    She turns a wry smile on Mariah before she watches everyone else go through, then she, too, follows.
    Her own power is beefed up, providing her a 'buffer' against most physical attacks, and she's got a collapsable baton out, ready to use.

    She adds to Sev, "Tiger's with us, yes. Her name's Diya. She kicks ass."

    Then? After the others, Yana steps through ...

Mariah has posed:
    Gold Rush is rather surprised she's been seen, but hey, this is mutant town - she reminds herself that she's not among cartellos and bandoleros in the jungle anymore. No longer needing to hide, she makes her way out into the visible street, approaching the group of rescuers. The other gold ball lumps down onto the street, rolling like mercury into the other, following at Gold Rush's side like an obedient fantasy game slime.
    "Fire and brimstone don't scare me. Nothing does anymore." She grins mischievously in the middle of a reflective gold face.

Phoenix has posed:
??? ???? ???????
????? ?? ??? ????
NOW

Stepping through the 'Tube floods the heroes' senses with brilliant white for what seems like an eternity before abruptly giving way to roaring applause, the co-mingled aroma of blood and sweat, curving black walls cut with alien circuit lines and ringed with stands, unforgiving ground beneath feet, and a lingering hit of copper on the backs of tongues.

"WELCOME!"

bellows an unseen announcer, to thickening cheers, "to the ARENA-- OF THE GODS!"

There is no Boom Tube; the only way out of the vast, black ring where the heroes find themselves is a barred tunnel on its opposite, eastern end-- and the only way to it is through an eight-foot Adonis clad in form-fitting, green and black spandex complete with more of those strange circuit lines formed into a glowering face upon his chest, and a full cape fluttering at his back. Red light seethes visibly in the depths of his eyes as he regards the heroes gathered across from him.

"FIGHTING-- on behalf of the PLANET EARTH," the announcer continues, "out of the CHALLENGER'S CORNER: we have-- a COLLECTIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON-- OF SCRAPPY, WELL-MEANING INTRUUUUUUUUUUUDEEEEEEEEEEEEERS!" and draws a tide of jeers down upon the group.

"And their opponent, the REIGNING CHAMPION of the ARENA-- the UNDEFEATED, the UNCONQUERED, the UNIMITABLE-- THE LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMP!"

For as long as he's allowed, the champion with the piercing eyes turns his attention, along with a dazzling smile and a broad wave upon the crowd, which positively erupts in adulation.

"As ALWAYS, the only rule in the ARENA OF THE GODS is that there ARE! NO! RULES! So STRAP IN, lowlies and gentlemen..."

And on the announcer drones, the Lump soaking in cheers for as long as possible.

Tendril has posed:
    Lexi stares. "...the LUMP? Seriously?" is her first reaction to this. Mostly to distract her from the fact this appears to be a trap. "Also fuuuuuuuuuck..." she adds, looking around at the arena, the four rifles she's holding pointing vaguely in Lump's direction. No mutants to save. No Justifiers or dogs though. Yay?

Finally, to Dani. "Wait, are we in Asgard now? Because Arena of the Gods..."

Moonstar has posed:
    Dani shakes her head, a psychic spear forming in her hand as she says to Lexi, "No. This was a trap." She frowns, "And now we have to fight our way out of it. Besides, no Asgardian with a smidgen of pride would let themselves be called 'Lump'." She looks at Yana, letting Yana set up the play, though Dani looks ready to get Brightwind airborne.

Black Rose has posed:
    Unplanned. Unplanned, and, unwanted.
    Yana doens't have the cheek that Tendril does, only stating the obvious, instead. "This isn't good." She looks to those with her, "Team tactics, everyone. Keep your distance, until we know what this Lump can do. And -- even then use caution. They're going to 'play' with us, a bit. Do not hold back. Or we're not going back."
    She'll keep her fingers crossed that Illyana can pull them out. All they have to do? Is survive for that long. "Stay together, best you can. Groups of two, or three at least."
    The old 'divide and conquer'.

Lazarlite has posed:
Lytle feels pretty wierd as he passes through the tube. The lights momentarily overwhelm his vision and he stumbles upon srrival. He grasps the edge of his cape...he is used to fighting with limited impact...and his cape is his weapon of choice. Few enemies know how to cope with his cape fighting skills.

Exo-Girl has posed:
Sev shakes her head as her vision suddenly comes back, looking around and finding herself in... Tron? A Tron Arena. Aaaaaaand that's a supervillain. "$&#." Exo-Girl looks down at herself again. Scuffed and battered armor and a table base with some alien blood on it against... some giant guy. At least the girl with the shadow tendrils has guns. Not that she'd know how to use them if she did have them. "Okay... What's the plan now? And that teleporter thing's messed with my helmet I think. Or something." She smacks the side of her helmet with one hand, commanding her helmet's systems to reboot, starting in safe mode. She'd like the status data, but if she brings the sensors and subsystems online one by one, she might be able to trouble shoot on the fly. "Don't get close. Got it. Guy probably has the reach on me anyway." She's gonna stick with Kinetic right now, the seeming leader.

Okhotnik has posed:
A deep, basso subsonic rumble emanates from the tigress at the lead. Unlike her usual passivity, she does not sit down, but stands, hackles raised as she stares at the closest available threat. By far not the only threat; this is not a tigress commanded only by an animal's knowledge, instinct and wisdom, but also shares a soldier's intellect, skill and experience. Her tail lashes back and forth as she awaits the moment when the threat becomes clear. Only then will action take place.

The tigress will protect those that are hers, right up until these alien screwballs manage to do what no one and nothing else has managed since the tiger attacked her in Siberia: to actually make her die.

She tries to filter through a morass of sensory information, and then she turns her head and ROARS quite loudly right back at the crew that came through the portal with her, then AGAIN right at the Valkyrie. She is projecting for all she is worth: distrust, a trap, not a nebulous thing, but actually with limbs caught, bound, tortured. And the rage of the unjustly, dishonorably mishandled.

Mariah has posed:
    "No holding back? Good. I was afraid I was going to be lectured about how killing is wrong," Gold Rush replies.
    She steps closer to the Lump; her gold blob spits out a fist sized minature of itself that begins to roll towards their opponent. Her plan? Assessment with measured responses.

Phoenix has posed:
"... without further ado:"

A gong sounds, filling the arena with rumbling brass that brings the audience to a tense, readied hush.

The Lump rolls his head around his neck slowly, deliberately-- as if for the first time; the motion doesn't stop until he's staring at a gold blob rolling in, courtesy of a woman looking to take his measure. The twin rubies of his eyes flare to violent, molten life, slicing through the probing gesture as they seek to visit the same fate upon Gold Rush herself-- and then, with a violent twist of his head, upon the rest of Mutant Town's defenders. Wherever they strike the walls or ground, they generate violent jets of smoke and not much else-- no smoldering, no malformation, nothing; whoever's responsible for this place seemingly had the foresight to make it resistant to its champion.

Once he's nearly staring behind himself, the Lump finally cuts the heat streaming from his eyes in favor of-- vanishing?

No-- flying, straight up, 'til he's nearly touching the black, hexagonal panels of the dome, a green and black blur until he pauses to survey his handiwork for just a moment-- before vanishing again.

The next time he appears, it is with a rumbling blast rivaling that of the portal that brought them, along with a wave of compressed air-- all courtesy of a single, ground-shaking punch that leaves him kneeling.

Lazarlite has posed:
Lytle rushes to the front of the group as Lump takes to the air...he knows he is probably the hardest person to hurt and the best able to defend others. The moment the shock wave hit him...it stops dead. He Uses the power he absorbs to expand his absorption field over the immediate area...the wave of the attack seems to simply stop when it hits Lytle as he absorbs not just what hits him directly, but everything in an expsanding radius. The effect uses up almost all of the incoming energy to sustain itself though...it is great at defending others, not so great at giving Lytle power.

Black Rose has posed:
    "Tendril, keep your distance as best you can." Yana takes a deep breath, ... "Remember. Teams. Feint, and Attack. Best you can. If I go down, you listen to Moonstar." Already cognizant of the fact she may very well die, and these people are -not- messing around -- but, hey. There's little better way to flex your mutant abilities and test your limits than a real life and death situations.
    Kinetic has a very specific idea in mind, though, and she starts running, fearless, towards Lump. Look. An ordinary human. Moving at ordinary human speeds. Just an ordinary, average, everyday human. Running. Towards Lump.
    At least, until she gets within perhaps a hundred feet or so -- she's seen what those eyes can do. What his fists can do. And so she kicks it into high gear, suddenly amping up her own velocity to full tilt, around 100mph or so, aiming just to get a single hand on Lump with that sudden burst of speed.
    If she's lucky enough, she'll get that hand on him -- and, he'll find himself moving suddenly in super-slow motion, as if he were in some sort of cartoon where he was frozen and moving at 1/10th speed.

Moonstar has posed:
    Dani doesn't waste time, taking to the air to evade those beams as... well, that also keeps her out of the shockwave of the Lump's landing as well. Wasting no time, she hurls her psychic spear at the Lump, aiming it right for his head.

Okhotnik has posed:
The laser eye beams sweep across, and instead of dodging out of the way, the tigress leaps into the way, blocking the beams with her own body to prevent them from striking those behind her. She smokes, she burns, she roars in pain. But she lands, her flesh already repairing itself rather impossibly, as she waits for the next attack. When Lytle runs in front of her, she growls in protest, but what else can she do? At least he somehow manages to soak up that shockwave, protecting the others. Now, she waits, staying near Tendril for now, Okhotnik waiting for an opening. An opening for claws, teeth and gigantic feline rage.

Tendril has posed:
    As the battle begins...Lexi has a...distracted expression, her eyes flicking around the arena, her nostrils flaring slowly as she inhales. Not so much that she doesn't notice the sudden blast of laser eyes as they cut through the ball, then start sweeping towards her, as her eyes widen as she starts to lean back....then there's a huge tiger leaping in front of the blast as it cuts into her side. "HOTTIE!" she wails a bit, crouching down next to her as she braces against her as the shockwave rushes towards her, before she raises the rifles, opening fire, sending a blaze of energy bolts shooting towards Lump, as she leans in. She's temporarily distracted from what got her attention, leaning in to Diya's side for the moment.

Mariah has posed:
    Gold has remarkable heat resisting properties; it's used for heat shielding, and as such, the blob of gold suffers little to no effect. The heat of the eye beams is dispersed and deflected back outwards, diffusing into a sudden thermal flash within the immediate vicinity. Likewise, Gold Rush is momentarily lit up with red-orange energy, the air booming with a thunderclap of sudden heat that dissipates as fast as it came.
    The gold surrounding Mariah has flared out like a sheet in front of her to protect her from the heat and noise; once the danger is past, it reforms around her, both balls of metal slithering into the 'suit', thickening it.

Exo-Girl has posed:
     ...of course he has laser eyes. Exo-Girl dives to one side, bringing a forearm up and over her faceplate to protect her helmet's optics, and her eyes. After the noise of the discharge stops she drops her arm and... He's gone. Wait, he's at the ceiling-Nope, gone again. She drops into the classic 'superhero landing' and braces herself as what's left of the shockwave passes over her. "He's big, why hasn't he charged us yet? Playing it up for the crowd or something?" C'mon.... Those flickers are /really/ distracting. She switches to thermal and... This isn't right. A wave of vertigo runs through her, the frame's neural link into her brain delivering entirely different information to what her eyes are seeing. "G-guys, it's not..." Do not throw up in the helmet do not throw up in the helmet, DO NOT THROW UP IN THE HELMET.

Phoenix has posed:
Kinetic and Lytle learn the same lesson, one after another: the amount of energy generated by the Lump - whether via his strikes or the sheer speed with which he's capable of moving - is staggering-- sufficient to beat a bullet to its target or stop a locomotive, easily. When Kinetic modulates his speed, he does indeed appear surprised by the sudden, palpable shift-- as he rises from his kneeling posture at roughly the speed of an unmodulated man and glances down at his hands.

He's still looking when Moonstar's spear surges through his skull, widening his eyes and sending him into sharp spasms. Tendril's rifle beams splash off of his skin with little apparent effect, the champion powerless to avoid them-- to do much more than try and focus on the Russian girl approaching him-- to look at anything-- anything-- but--

"Simyan, now," a male voice booms through the arena, "begin downloading their traits into the X-Demons-- I told you that the psychic would--"

"The psychic?" a gruffer, almost animal male scoffs in return. "Please! Look at that one-- she's wearing cameras on her head! Cameras, Mokkari!"

Psi-spear still embedded in his head, the Lump's hands - and the rest of him - rapidly expand and shift, taking on a wrinkled texture and sickly, magenta hue as Moonstar forces him to confront his greatest fear as his beautiful facade rots away before the heroes' eyes. Within seconds, his face has been reduced to sorrowful eyes and a wide, permanently grimacing mouth all set in an amorphous blob, and there's nowhere left for the Lump to hide from the truth of his existence.

THE EVIL FACTORY
NOW

Metal restraints - strong, but not unbreakable to those with enhanced strength - secure Mutant Town's defenders to a series of metal gurneys as they find themselves coming to in an entirely new setting, surrounded by dozens more in the same predicament-- some of whom may be immediately recognizable as Bushwick natives. Arranged in a semi-circle, the gurneys collectively surround a great, green chair cut with those alien circuit lines, dozens of conduits - one for every body - snaking across the ground to feed into it; seated in the chair is the Factory's immobile, magenta jailer known only as The Lump, a pitiful entity physically befitting his name in every way.

"They're going to break out of the simulation, Simyan," the higher-voiced of the two men - a tall, yellow-skinned man with vertical black markings running down his face - snaps while darting past gurneys to fiddle with a console set a few feet to one side of the captives. "Now, instead of after a few minutes, or hours, or days, or however long it took for the armored one to figure it-- oh, why do I even bother..."

Save for the tigress and the Exo-Girl, within moments of Mokkari hitting the console, the heroes feel their powers begin to drain-- gradually, but palpably.

"Why you let the crone talk us into a security system with an image problem, I'll never understand," Simyan grumbles while leaning over Tendril's gurney.

Okhotnik has posed:
Enhanced strength? Does being a super-powered thousand-plus pound Siberian tigress count? Apparently so, as that powerful torso twists, ripping the metal braces away even as they cut into her fur and skin; heedless of the pain, the tiger ROARS deafeningly as she thrashes about and frees herself, then bounds over to another of the metallic gurnies, biting into the braces holding down Tendril and ripping it away, tearing the girl free and then bounding to the next. She shows no intent to attack their captors, only to free her compatriots, and then all of those they came to save.

At least until someone is stupid enough to make her any more angry than she already is. Okhotnik is pretty well at her limit right now.

Exo-Girl has posed:
     Exo-Girl staggers, dropping to her knees as the frame's systems and her mind duke it out. "Not... Real..." Only one thing for it. She clenches her eyes shut, and issues a series of commands.
    >Initiate Reboot Sequence
    >FRAME IS IN ACTIVE MODE. ARE YOU SURE? Y/N
    >Y
    >INITIATING SYSTEM SHUTDOWN. REBOOT IN FIFTEEN SECONDS.
    Exo-Girl is left on the arena floor, on a knee, leaning forward to rest on her hands. ~Okay. Ignore everything I hear. Eyes shut, focus on the link. If I can get control of the frame back, I can tear loose...~ As soon as the power comes back up, even before she can get fully orientated, she attempts to jerk her arm upward, her Exo Frame set to maximum amplification. Assuming she can get free, and keep seeing through the frame, she gets to punching whatever looks expensive, and trying to free her teammates.

Moonstar has posed:
    Dani feels that weakening sensation, and Brightwind actually bucks a bit underneath her. And she plays her trump card, because at this point she feels time is a factor more than anything else. Using her psychic powers, she reaches into the Lump's mind, making it face its greatest fear...

    That it is just an immobile and ugly little lump. No handsome champion. Just a thing of no consequence. It screams in terror and denial...

THE EVIL FACTORY
NOW

    Dani's eyes blink open, and then they narrow as they take in their surroundings, getting a feel as to what's really going on. She squirms a little bit, testing her restraints even as she feels the power draining. Because this. This is Not Good, at all.

Black Rose has posed:
    Yana begins to stir, at first, slowly, as if waking from a dream as the simulation ends in her mind, thanks in large part to Dani's empathic efforts and fear factor. But she can feel something changing. She can feel her powers and abilities dimming even as the arena loses some if it's inherent realism as the Lump comes fact to face with himself.

    Then, the tigress frees her after Tendril is freed, and it takes her a few more moments for her mind to snap, to realize what's going on. She looks around, to get her bearings, to check 'her' team, and make sure all are safe. Talk about screwing with your head.

    She nods to Exo-Girl, whose helping to free both 'her' team, and those poor devils captured from Mutant Town.

    And then? Then Kinetic takes her gurney, and she -pushes- it at Lump, with not only all of her own force, but that of the kinetically empowered boost of both speed, and damage combined. They need, afterall, a distraction to get everyone out.

Lazarlite has posed:
Lytle runs a quick laser scan...he feels something wrong with his powers and wants to locate the source of the problem. Something flickers...and he realizes the scene he is seeing is not reality. He concentrates on his powers, forcing his absorption to draw in all energy that is in contact with him. He feels cold, but whatever is touching him will start to lose energy and feed it into him at an increasing rate (which can include freezing the air solidif it goes too far).

Tendril has posed:
    The scene changes...and suddenly, the scents and sensations that were confusing Lexi disappear, resolving to what's really there. There's a flicker of relief in her eyes as she starts jerking at the restraints, flexing her arms as the restraints squeal, then the huge tigress gets to them first, ripping them up open as Tendril rolls off the gurney, moving to help Dani immediately as she grips the restraints, then with a suprising show of strength, jerks them free with a sharp *snap* of metal giving before pulling her up. "C'mon! We gotta get outta here!" she says quickly, looking around to see the others pulling free, then at the console the man is working at. Her eyes narrow, before , she swings a hand, a long tendril snapping out like a whip to slam into the man's chest to knock him away from the console if she can.

Mariah has posed:
    Mariah's response to the feel of power drawing is an emergency manuever; all her gold suddenly shapes itself into long-handled, monomolecularlly honed blades, which form on the ground within easy reach of herself and those nearby. The golden blades suddenly lose their luster and return to being iron and steel, as Mariah withdraws her life force from the metal.
    "Grab them and use them!" she calls to the others. "Low tech answers to high tech problems! They can't take power from what has none!" She grabs a pair for herself, throwing them towards what looks like control consoles.

Phoenix has posed:
Ripping through Tendril's restraints produces immediate results: once she's free from her gurney, the arena and its flood of bad sensory data wink out of her perception, leaving only the sickly miasma of black science, captive mutants, an Exo-operator tearing herself free to wreak havoc, and bickering scientists.

And a bounding tigress ripping through yet more restraints, freeing the heroes one by one as the Lump's psychic prison shatters, dragging them fully back into the real world as Simyan - more primate than man, garbed in a yellow biohazard suit with no helmet - flees from the bounding predator.

"Are you downloading over there?!" he barks while patting himself down for a weapon. "You'd better be--"

"I'm-- gyaaah!" Mokkari exclaims as a tendril swats him from his console, knocking the wind from him and sending him skidding across the ground on his ass.

Seconds is all it takes for the Evil Factory to erupt into sheer, righteous chaos: sparks fly from machinery thanks to Exo-Girl's haymakers, ice spreads through the room as Lytle drinks deeply of the copious energies coursing through the systems he's in such close proximity to, the Lump - already reeling in silent agony from being reminded of its existence - spasms as a gurney crashes into his body.

And amidst it all, thanks to the bounding tigress, more and more of Bushwick's own are waking up-- albeit without nearly the drive to add to the carnage as their champions.

Save for a couple who take up Mariah's offer and commence hacking through nearby machinery with miraculous, monomolecular blades, that is-- those guys and girls have drive out the yin-yang.

Sirens and red lights rain down upon the chaos unfolding within the lab/prison space.

Tendril has posed:
    The sudden sirens cause Tendril to wince, the intense sound playing havoc with her hearing as she shakes her head, then scoops an unconscious Dani up off the gurney, hugging her securely as she breaks back towards Yana, ripping open any other retraints as she goes. "I think everyone's free! We just need ta get outta here now!" she says, looking around as more tendrils sprout from her back, curling to create a makeshift shield to defend both Dani and Yana from attack. She'll let other people handle the beat downs...she's more worried about getting her roomie back out and safe with the rest of her friends at this point.

Lazarlite has posed:
Lytle has to stop before he freezes himself. Whatever was feeding him false information has now shut down, so he is able to see again. He says to the others, "That was less than fun." He takes what energy he has absorbed and uses it to blast various panels outherwise out of reach with his laser vision. That should teach these guys about kidnapping Earth People.

Exo-Girl has posed:
Sev disregards the offer of swords for now-She was never a sword person. No training, for one. She settles for tearing through consoles, actuators whining as she bounds across the room after the fleeing villain to aim for a flying tackle, assuming that the tiger isn't on top of him already. Fortunately for him, she remembers to turn down the power before his chest turns into chunky salsa, and once he's disabled a bit of pipe that looks like it was part of a railing can be twisted into an improvised set of restraints, Heaving Simyan over her shoulder in a fireman's carry, she looks to the others. "You had a rescue plan, right? ...And somewhere I can dump this guy? He kinda smells, and I don't want him stinking up my apartment. ...Assuming it hasn't gotten blown up by aliens yet."

Mariah has posed:
    Mariah makes it her job to try to account for every last kidnap-ee getting free and out of here. Wanton destruction can wait; lives are more important. She'll likely be the last to leave unless someone drags her out before hand.

Black Rose has posed:
    Yana has two words for her 'troops'. "Destroy everything." Though, she will clarify a moment later as she flexes her fingers, "Exo-Girl, Diya, Tendril, trash those consoles. Rip. Tear. Fuck. It. Up." Oh. Yana's pissed. She knows the difference between this insidious evil and that of her father's mafia -- they're almost like night and day at present to her. "Do -not- let them bring anyone else back here again."
    A brief glance to Dani, in Lexi's arms tell her that Dani's not waking up just yet -- we'll worry about her later. "Dump him into the gurney," she tells Sev, pointedly. "Tie him up. Let him get a taste of his own medicine."

    "Fly Boy, Gold Girl, let's start getting everyone together, we don't have much time to hold the fort. Yes, we have an escape---"

    A curious portal - very dissimiliar to the one they passed through opens, then, a curious and perhaps to some, somewhat unfriendly looking light out of it at well. "Plan. And there it is. Everyone. Close your eyes as you step through. Until you get to the other side. I'd advise you hold your breath, too. C'mon. Everyone through."

Exo-Girl has posed:
Sev nods, grinning inside her helmet, as she drops Simyan onto the gurney, securing him with scavenged lengths of cable and metal, before delivering a final knockout punch to put him down for the count. ...More portals then. Okay. Hopefully with less motion sickness this time. She temporarily disables the frame's orientation and nav trackers, hand patting at her 'cheeks' as she checks the helmet filters and makes sure they're online. "...Please tell me this one's going to be nicer...." It's probably not. But a girl can hope, right?

Phoenix has posed:
Sev finds Simyan to be a - perhaps surprisingly - resistant captive, wriggling powerfully in her grasp and threatening to bend the restraint around his wrists out of place. Even the final punch she delivers after dumping him onto a gurney seems to stagger him more than knock him out cold, but as Sev draws away - or, perhaps, contemplates delivering more punches - he suddenly goes slack as the tormented Lump gets its psychic hooks into him.

Lytle's energy blasts, along with Exo-Girl's punches, lashing tendrils from the mauve girl, and frantic hacking from the odd, brave-- or just plain angry Mutant Town resident with a sword in their hands more than suffice to make Kinetic's orders a reality, rendering the experimentation dungeon a smoking, sparking ruin in a matter of minutes as Mokkari is helpless to do little more than swat - powerfully, but ineptly - at the tendrils that whip his way.

This is but one corner of the Evil Factory, however-- and as Kinetic continues to issue orders, she's likely in the best position - surveying the situation as she is - to notice when metallic buzzing fills the person-sized vents set high above the lab/prison floor, followed closely by green, gold-armored shapes flying forth. It won't be but a moment before they're readily apparent to everyone else, however, a swarm of spear-toting demons descending upon the dungeon to enforce order, pouring through the vents without seeming end--

-- as a vast stepping disk opens near the tightest concentration of heroes and assorted other mutants.

On the other side lies the safety of Bushwick; between there and the parademon armada lies a brisk jaunt through the hellish realm of Limbo.