2650/The Doom That Came to New Utrecht

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The Doom That Came to New Utrecht
Date of Scene: 30 September 2017
Location: New Utrecht, Brooklyn
Synopsis: Several heroes respond to the possibility of a monster lurking in the shadows of New Utrecht during the Apokoliptian invasion.
Cast of Characters: Abe Sapien, Punisher, Hoodlum, Wonder Woman




Abe Sapien has posed:
A week ago, New Utrecht was a thriving, diverse neighborhood. Its buildings hardly competed with those of Manhattan to touch the heavens, but its mismatched assortment of various eras' styles provided it with an overdose of character.

Today, New Utrecht is mostly in ruins--its buildings are smoking, blown-out facades and skeletal frames in which its residents huddle for what little warmth and safety they can while Apokolips' forces attack the city.

Here, on 58th street, a small neighborhood of row houses and duplexes sit quiet, their windows smashed and roofs compromised. It's mostly dark. Mostly.

A few lights flicker here and there--matches and candles. Hushed voices hiss in response. "Away from the windows! It'll see you!"

"I thought it was gone..." whispers a younger voice.

"No!" the first responds. "It got Mrs. Gonzalez only an hour ago. You heard her scream."

"Oh..." says the second voice. "I thought that was longer ago."

Outside, a hunched-over figure lumbers in the shadows, slowly approaching the building where the light is unsuccessfully hidden.

Punisher has posed:
    Frank Castle had heard stories of a monster roaming the streets here in New Utrecht. What once he might have dismissed as fantasy, these days he was willing to give some creadence too. He comes into the area on foot. He has a long black trench coat that falls almost to his ankles as he keeps his head down. He looks like any other man on the street, trying to avoid anyone's business but his own, although his eyes flick about trying to take the area in.

Hoodlum has posed:
Brooklyn isn't her usual stomping grounds. Still, where there's trouble, she'll go. She knows these creatures are all over the place, after all. And at twenty going on ancient, The Hoodlum knows these things have a habit of going bad and escalating. So she's here among the rubble. Much as she hates it, she channels Marquez today. Ambush predator that he is, he's the one the provides her the skill she needs to go stalking burned out husks today. She has her hatchet in hand, sword stowed wherever it goes when she's not using it. In addition to her usual hoodie and domino mask, she's got a black bandanna wrapped around the lower half of her face and some sort of soot-blackened metal gorget around her neck. Marquez made the young immortal paranoid about the safety of her head.

It's the light she approaches, drawn by it much the same as the creature. After all, it's what Marquez the Murderer would do. And isn't it his memories more than other that fill the spaces between the walls of her skull?

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana Prince was moving between fights. She was in mid-flight up in the air a good fifty feet and flying from the southwest to the northeast toward Manhattan. She's covered from shoulder to toe in a volumous dark blue cloak that whips about in the wind whilst in-flight.

Diana takes note of the destruction in this neighborhood below and a great wealth of sorrow fills her heart. She knows there's people here who need her help, but she has to think of the larger picture... and her comm-link to the League was requesting her presence in upper east Manhattan...

Diana continued on her flight, not going as fast as she could because she was still looking for direct threats that she could end along her flight path. Things, she hoped, would not detour her for too long.

Abe Sapien has posed:
The hunched-over figure moves into the darkest of shadows.

A few moments later, the candle-lit room goes black and there are two screams. One is a high-pitched child's shriek. The other is deeper and older--and cut short.

In the room, a figure that looks like nothing so much as a half-naked fish-man clasps the dead mother in its limbs, blood from her torn throat all over its own face, chest, and limbs.

The child, meanwhile, huddles in the corner, trying not to breathe.

On the streets, a small number of locals flee in panic, running with their eyes more over their shoulders than in front of themselves. The path of one such runner--a squat Chinese man--looks like it will take him on a direct collision course with Frank.

Hoodlum has posed:
Well. That makes things a little more simple. Hoodlum purses her lips together and blows, whistling in Diana's direction, then pointing in the direction of the building. Maybe the woman will catch it and proceed apace? Regardless, the scream sends her scrambling across the rubble in the direction of the snuffed-out life, attempts at stealth forgotten. A sword swishes out from beneath her hoodie, even though it's far too long and wide to fit under the damned garment. It flickers with stray bits of light in the shadows,"So help me god, if something jumps out at me... Ugh. I just HAD to watch horror movies last night..."

Wonder Woman has posed:
The screams is what got Diana's attention, though the whistle certainly helped as well.

The flying woman in blue suddenly came to a halt and she looked down to see civilians running... her advanced hearing gave her a rough outline on where the scream had come from. She had a calm look on her face as she scanned the area beneath her and then leaned forward and shot toward it, her black hair flipping wildly in the wind behind her head as she went.

Moments later and Wonder Woman would touch down in front of the fleeing civilians...

"I am here to help you." She told them.

Diana's blue eyes caught sight of Clarine-with-sword running toward the direction of the scream as well...

Wonder Woman stepped in this direction as well now, her blue robe falling from her body to reveal her armored form and her hands going behind her back to retreieve her own weapons, sword in her right and long javelin in her left.

Diana moved in a course to intercept Clarine, picking up speed to catch her. "Hold." She told the girl. "We must be exercise caution."

Abe Sapien has posed:
Amid strings of obscenities and incoherent babbling, a single idea is communicated: "MONSTER!" sob the fleeing residents in a variety of languages. Some fall to their knees in front of Diana, clutching at her boots. Others, some sense of faith or safety restored by the heroes' presence, pick up their pace toward the nearest subway station.

In the ruined home, the fish-man lowers the dead mother to the floor and returns to the shadows. The girl in the corner sobs hysterically, even as she tries to cover her mouth and muffle the sounds of her grief.

Not long after, there's movement in the darkness of the alleys--quiet, stalking movement.

Punisher has posed:
    Frank doesn't start running at the sound of the screaming, but he certainly is focusing his attention. His coat flaps open. The skull on his chest is seen for a moment before he pulling an automatic rifel out from underneath. He moves quickly, watching the fleeing civilians flood towards Diana. His eyes turn and catch the movement in the alley and begins to move that way with the rifle pressed to his arm and muzzle down.

Hoodlum has posed:
"Caution is for frailer beings than you or I." Still, the woman grips her hatchet and sword more tightly, and looks over to the woman. Her lips compress into a thin line. She lets her voice drop into a lower register, hoping that's enough for her to avoid being recognized by the lady. They only met once, right? She shifts her feet, though, pointing her sword in the direction the scream issued from,"Whatever it is might be getting away! It's going to hurt more people!" Her voice is desperate in tone. But it's Wonder Woman telling her to hold. And when Wonder Woman tells you to stay put, you at least give her a listen!

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana glanced in the direction of Frank Castle, she saw his gun and the picture of the skull on his chest... but she wasn't acquainted with the legend of the Punisher, so he looked more like a pissed off mercenary to her... but one issue at a time.

Diana swept herself up to the home and to where Clarine was. "Foolhearted rushing, leads to more mistakes than you might think. No matter your frailty level." She replied to her, and she did recognize the young woman, but this wasn't a time to mention it.

"There is a frightened person inside."

Diana rushed at the building, choosing to help whomever was inside and chase the beast after. She'd go through the broken home and to the sound of the frightened whimpers.

"Come with me." She encouraged the girl. "There are others outside who you can flee with." Diana would put her javelin away and reach a hand out to help the girl.

Abe Sapien has posed:
From the shadowy alley, the fish-man emerges, its green-blue skin coated with blood splatter. Slowly, it creeps toward the Punisher and the heroes nearby.

From a holster at its hip, the creature slowly draws a pistol. It raises the gun and cocks it, the barrel seemingly pointed directly toward the skull-marked vigilante.

On the opposite side of the street, a thick cloud of black smoke rises from a smoldering crater that had been home to an extended Filipino family. A shape moves through the cloud as though it were stepping through a curtain, and the shape--a parademon of Apokolips--raises its claws, bares its teeth, and lopes silently toward Diana and Hoodlum.

Punisher has posed:
    Frank's attention is on the fish-man so he does not see the Parademon appearing behind him across the street. As he sees blue skin and the blood, he does immediately think that this is one of those creatures he had been hearing about. He has not yet seen a Parademon himself so he doesn't know that isn't what he is looking at.

    The rifle comes up especially as the creature draws the pistol. "I'm going to give you to the count of two to drop that weapon or I'm going to turn you into fish tacos right where you stand." To bring the point home, his hand goes to the action and pulls it back with a click pulling a shot into the chamber.

Hoodlum has posed:
Hoodlum nods to Diana, fingers clenching on the sword again. Still, she can't imagine that her size combined with big sword and hatchet is very inspiring to the little girl inside. Still, she followed Diana, and let her take care of such things. The woman has a lot of experience heroing, after all. Marquez only ever played the lone wolf. Good at it, but not exactly a heroic personage.

Her heart thuds in her chest. She knows parademons are nearby. They're big. Not the Kurgan, maybe, but they're still BIG. And no matter how strong you are, leverage still matters. And truth be told, most of these things are stronger than her. Bigger truth? Last time she fought these, she had to grow her spleen and one of her kidneys back. They've exsanguinated her a sum total of twice. And the first time she fought them? They got lucky. She cocks her hatchet back behind her head, ready to throw, unable to hear the silent run of the parademon.

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana helped the girl reach the front of the broken house and was motioning her toward the civilians that were still out there where she'd left her cloak on the ground, a few of them waiting/wanting to be there for Wonder Woman (maybe the felt safer the closer she was?).

Diana could hear Frank's voice, it was muffled and quiet, but she heard what he was saying to whatever was in the alleyway with him.

but that was the least of her concerns when the Parademon appeared and LUNGED.

"Help her!" Diana shouted at Clarine about the child from the home they'd just entered.

Wonder Woman would turn toward the lunging Parademon and counter-lunge right back at it with her sword angling out in a potentially devestating thrust!

Abe Sapien has posed:
The fish-man frowns. "No," he says in a cold and calm voice. "You're not." With his free hand, he gestures toward his waist. "Check the badge."

There's no badge there, and the fish-man clearly notices that. "Shit," he mutters, and begins feeling his belt for the absent proof of authority. "Don't do anything stupid!" the creature calls to the Punisher, its attention diverted.

Meanwhile, near the other heroes, the parademon glides through the air in its lunge--not targeting Diana but the /child/.

When the Amazon's sword slices at it, one of the creature's wings falls off, and its glide becomes a fall.

As it hits the floor, it rolls and then leaps up at the nearest figure ... which, at this moment, happens to be Hoodlum. The parademon attacks face-first, its jaw snapping a set of razor-sharp fangs at Clarine's shoulder.

Punisher has posed:
    "Uh huh," Castle says not really buying the story coming from that voice. He looks as if he is about to say something else when he hears Diana shout. His head snaps back towards the Creature from the Black Lagoon and fires off a three shot burst before he is running back up the alley towards the street and this enormous attacking creature. He is some distance away just yet so he is running towards them rather than trying to shoot just yet.

Hoodlum has posed:
And of course, Clarine is interposed between the child and the creature as Diana calls out. She's bent over, pressing her hatchet into the child's hand, and offering a smile visible on her eyes through the holes in her mask,"Take this hun. It's a magic axe. Anyone tries to hurt you, you just throw it and the run, really fast. Find a police offer. Someone with a badge, oka-" Instincts gained from centuries, maybe millenia of combined experience scream at her.

She turns just in time for the Parademon in its second leap to fasten its fangs deeply into her shoulder and the side of her neck. She's a big girl, but no matter how old one rates her, that HURTS. Muscles, artery, more... They're pierced, torn, and without her hatchet, she can't just wail on the beast fastened to her. So she fastens her hand about the thing's neck, trying to hold it still until she can slide her sword between its teeth to keep it from closing its mouth. Then, accepting the cuts to her hand, releases her hold on its neck, and begins to push the blade towards the back of its mouth, trying to force its jaws open. Blood is already pouring down her torso. So. Not more sturdy than a normal human after all? "AAAAAAGH. Stab it! Don't worry about hitting me. Just stab it until it stops moving!" And then to the little girl, she calls out,"RUN!" Oh. Huh. Was that her subclavian? Boy howdy, she sure feels woozy.

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana swept past the Parademon, having only severed a wing when she'd hoped to run her sword right through its neck, it had evaded just in time... at least enough to save its life, but not said wing.

Diana landed and spun around to a halt, seeing the parademon recovering and going for Clarine. An inhale was taken and Diana started to run, her free hand going for her hip where she pulled her coiled-up lasso free from her side. A moment later and the golden rope was unfurled and it began to glow a bright shining light around the otherwise darkened areas.

Diana was too late to keep Clarine from being injured, but she lashed the lasso out to grab the now-stabbed-demon and pull it backward away from both Clarine and the girl with the magic hatchet! She'd yank on the rope, to drag the beast back to where she was!

Abe Sapien has posed:
The parademon gags and chokes as Hoodlum gets her blade into its mouth, and even as it tries to shake itself free of the troublesome sword, a golden lasso suddenly encircles its neck, and the creature flies--involuntarily--backward toward Diana.

The alien claws at the rope about its neck while it scrambles about, trying futilely to tug itself and the rope free of Wonder Woman's grasp. When it realizes it is stuck, it pulls a capsule from its belt. The capsule hums and extends in its claws, unfolding from seemingly nowhere until it appears as an otherworldly mix of saw and axe--which the creature begins swinging, wildly, in an effort to hack at its bonds. The lasso merely sparks in response to the weapon's impacts.

All the while, the little girl sobs and howls, her eyes shut tight as she clings to whatever illusion of safety she can.

In the alley, the fish-man's eyes widen as Frank Castle begins to respond to him. "No, wai--" he begins, and then a quick burst of rounds strikes him in the side and shoulder, and he takes a grazing round to the head. The figure drops to the ground like a sack of wet laundry while Castle heads toward the fight.

Punisher has posed:
    Frank runs towards the fight and then slides down into a kneeling position as he gets closer. He brings the automatic rifle up and takes steady aim. The sharp barking sound of weapons fire is lost in the screaming and sobbing and gnashing of teeth, but hopefully the bullets are not as he aims for the weapon hand of the parademon.

Hoodlum has posed:
Yep. That was definitely gunfire alright. Still, with her quickly working on bleeding out. She has to make a decision quickly. Her sword comes up, as if she were about to charge in and start stabbing... But wounded as she is, she realizes there's someone there with more good limbs. So as Frank goes running in, she swears under her breath. She makes her sword disappear to the same place she'd pulled it from originally, and turns to sweep up the child in her good arm, slipping around it. "Hold on tight. Remember what I told you about the magic, okay? You see something, you shout it okay." She calls back to Diana,"You've got this, right? I'm getting her clear. If I die, bury me on holy ground."

She runs free of the building, cradling the child's face to her chest... And runs over a downed fish-man. This seems like alien chicanery, but then... She remembers reading about the adventures of 'Squid-boy' when she was a kid. So she bends, and works to try to leverage fish man over her bad shoulder. Kid and fish-man? Her body threatens to buckle from the pain and the light-headedness. Tears find her eyes,"Hey kid. You hangin' in there. This guy is... uh... Flounder-Man." Here's to hoping he's not a weird-looking Parademon.

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana watched the creature claw at her rope and then pull a small device out to try to sever it, but it did nothing to the lasso of truth... She stalked forward and coiled up more and more of the rope until she was about two feet away from the parademon when Frank's gun shots landed across it!

Diana looked up suddenly, right into Frank Castle's eyes and she stared at him in a calm, but judgemental, kind of way.

Diana's eyes went then to Clarine to watch her flee with the rescued girl, she releaed a light sigh and her sword hand came up to aim toward the Parademon's face, should Frank's shots not have killed the creature, then her sword would soon do the job.

Abe Sapien has posed:
The Punisher's gunfire lights up the creature's chest and side, and some neon fluid that must approximate alien blood begins pouring out from the site of each round that meets its mark.

In response, the parademon roars and pulls all the harder at the lasso constraining it, but as its lifeblood seeps out, the creature's resistance quickly grows weaker and weaker until it slumps to the ground, held up only by the tautness of the rope itself.

Meanwhile, barely hanging over Hoodlum's shoulder, the fish-man coughs up a mist of his own blood and wheezes. "Get us ... two blocks north. There's ... safehouse and ... aid," he chokes out, and fumbles for a small device of some kind in a pouch at his waist. It begins beeping in a soft, rhythmic pattern. "Letting them ... know," he manages to say before his consciousness drifts off again.

In Clarine's other arm, the little girl's sobbing is quieted, and she clutches her rescuer tightly.

About them, various Brooklynites peek out from cover, makeshift weapons in their white-knuckled hands and various goods and precious belongings hoarded about them.

In the distance, echos of the din from the full-scale battle carry on the wind.

Punisher has posed:
    Frank slings the rifle over his shoulder as he approaches the dying parademon. He pulls out a hand gun from a holster on his hip beneath the jacket and places the muzzle against the creatures head. "This the thing that has been terrorizing this neighborhood?" He is asking Diana but his eyes never leave the demon.

Hoodlum has posed:
"A gun battle is no place for a young lady. Hey, what's your name hun? When this is over and I take a NIIIICE long nap, you and I can get ice cream? I could eat like ten pints of mint chocolate chip right now." The young/ancient immortal keeps moving, and for a while, she merely follows 'Flounder-Man's directions, keeping her mind on moving one foot in front of the other. She's barely able to keep up a fast walk, let alone run or jog, by the time she begins to draw near the place Abe indicates. Even her body has limits, and her head is spinning,"Hey buddy. Which building? I don't... Uh... I don't think I'm doing so well." She stumbles into a trash can... keeps going. "They'll be fine. They've got Wonder Woman."

Wonder Woman has posed:
Diana would unwind her lasso and slide it through her hands until it was coiled up. She watched the life drain out of the Parademon slowly and watched the hardened veteran approach it and her, draw a weapon and crouch beside it. Diana Prince had no love for the Parademons, she felt no need to preserve their lives. They were soul-less warriors for a wretched master.

"Yes." She told Frank. "It was." She added before she hooked her lasso back onto her belt and started to walk back to her point of origin in this small encounter, where she'd left her cloak.

Diana's eyes looked down the road to see Clarine reaching the safety of the neighborhood's union. She'd move to gather up her garment and prepare to return to the distant fighting.

Abe Sapien has posed:
"M-my name," the little girl whispers, her eyes wide, her face wet with tears, "my name--my name is Tracy." She manages to swallow a lump in her throat. "Is my m-m-mommy okay?" She glances frequently, if furtively, at the wounded man accompanying her and Hoodlum.

For his part, the fish-man fades in and out of awareness. As they near the two-block point, the rhythmic beeping of his device begins to sync up with the flickering neon sign of a pawn shop. "Therrrrre," he says with a woozy slur in his voice.

As they draw closer, a man with a handlebar mustache steps out of the pawn shop door. "Got somethin' a bit broken to bring in for repair and resale, eh?" he says with a smirk before approaching Clarine. "Lemme help."

Back at the site of the parademon's demise, the neighborhood is quiet--the silence, for the moment, not in response to the hidden local terror that has been eradicated but, perhaps, for a moment of respite amid the full-blown armageddon overwhelming the larger city.

Punisher has posed:
    "Good riddence," Castle says as he unloads a couple rounds into the pardemon's head. He holsters the weapon as he turns and looks in the direction that Diana is looking. He doesn't have her eyesight so he shakes his head and moves toward the spot where the parademon has appeared. He crouches down to his knees, running his finger through the smoke residue.

Hoodlum has posed:
The Hoodlum doesn't QUITE answer the little girl,"Tracy. People call me Hoodlum. Everything's gonna be okay." This as she draws close to the pawn shop. Abe is relinquished to the repair man. Then the little girl is set on her feet, hair ruffled with one hand. Then the woman falls forward on her face, leaking blood sluggishly. Because really, who wants to be awake for bleeding out, anyway.

Wonder Woman has posed:
Wonder Woman would place her cloak back over her shoulders and she'd let it cover herself over again with the blue fabric that was stained with dirt and grime from her fights. Her hair was a mess and her face was smudged much like the rest of her, she'd been through a lot in these recent battles.

She walked back toward Frank and she offered him a light nod of her head. "Please, see to it that the rest of this neighborhood is safe from any more of these things." She told him in her thick Greek ccent. "But, keep watch on yourself as well. They come in hordes, so do not let yourself get overwhelmed. HIde, if you must." Diana glanced down the street toward where Hoodlum had gone with the girl and the Fishman.

"Protect as many as you can." Diana asked the stranger with the aggressively painted skull on his chest. She may not normally trust a man who looked like Frank Castle does right now, but they were under dire circumstances.

A moment later and Diana would launch herself into the sky, curving northward.

Abe Sapien has posed:
As Clarine falls to the ground, the pawn shop man sighs, the fish-man already hanging limp in his hands. He drags his cargo to the door, leans his head inside, and whistles.

A few moments later, another individual emerges and kneels beside Clarine. He offers a smile to Tracy. "Come on with us, honey. We'll see about your mother." The man shows off a badge to her. "I work for the government. My name's Doyle. Let's help your friends and get you safe."

The smoky residue in front of Frank Castle looks to the average eye like a pile of grime. To the trained eye, it reveals tracks around the area--tracks that resemble those of tunnel rats, of guerrillas, of saboteurs. The parademon--perhaps all the parademons--are learning to exploit the urban terrain if given the opportunity, if given no resistance.

If given no punishment.