5054/Astral Flux: South of the Rip

Astral Flux: South of the Rip
Date of Scene:	29 July 2018
Location:	South of New York City
Synopsis:	South group fighting the mushrooms also finds a way to close the rip in the sky!
Cast of Characters:	Iron Man, Poison Ivy, Storm, Crusader, Superman, Spider-Woman (Drew), Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Shatterpoint, Doctor Doom
Tinyplot:	Germination
Tinyplot2:	Astral Flux

---

Iron Man has posed:
The sky has broken open. A rupture. It is south of New York City, and approximately a quarter mile high, and 100 yards wide. It blazes, pulsing a fluxing energy, a streamer that all can see for quite a distance. It seems to be churning, and where it leads is truly anyone's guess. But there are other problems, beyond the rip in the sky.

Mushrooms are everywhere. They came out of the ground, having burrowed, dormant. The fungus seemed to have been so dormant and quiet, giving some illusion in the quiet that it was gone. And now they lunge upwards in the darkness of the evening, and start to move. They head towards the rip in the sky. All of them: they pulse along the ground on churning oozing piles of fungal spores, eating whatever is in the way, or burrowing under things they cannot easily pass. Many of the mushrooms are the size of people, a few much larger. Most of them are outside of the city, but still some come from inside it: the parks, the graveyards. They singlemindedly move towards the rupture, bringing with them herds of their squid-like guardians.

Poison Ivy has posed:
Pamela Isley can sense it. The disturbance in the Gray. The Green is in an uproar over the impending invasion. Ivy has been quiet the last few weeks, synthesizing as much of the specialized fungicide as she can, as well as various means to deploy it. The Parliament of Trees touched her mind, and she leaves, having hired a cab. She has various chemical tanks, and a satchel full of various seeds, and other small bombs. Ivy is going to war. The cab driver is in thrall: Ivy can brook no interference. Against a foe like this, Ivy is on the same side as everything else. She moves on, readying herself for the fight to come.

Storm has posed:
    Ororo could see them, as high in the sky as she is. She alternates her view from the rip in the sky to the traveling fungus, lowering her gaze even further to see those gathering to help fend of the fungal chaos. "There are so many," Ororo calls out through the communications unit in her ear. "And, this rip in space... Has anyone figured out what is causing this to happen?"

Crusader has posed:
With the tear in the sky - there was no time to lose. Crusader has been busy helping to deploy weaponary to various hero groups where he can to help combat the fungus, sticking mostly to the earth itself for quicker deployment.
    And that deployment was needed now. Crusader ship, filled with canisters of toxin, as well as extra freeze guns and swords - speeds towards the event further from the city, getting a feel for what was going on below. He sends out a message broadcasting on all possible frequencies "Hello, this is Crusader of the JLA, hailing from the south ends of The Rip - One is comming in with gear, if you can fly or find or make a suitable spot for distrubtion it would be appreciated" hopefully there was or he will need to drop the things and hope people can scavenge fgor them

Superman has posed:
Kal hears about the rip in the sky simultaneously from Crusader's communication on his JLA communicator and from the TV he and Lois were watching from the couch in their apartment. Kal squeezes Lois' hand, then he is up, changed and gone from the balcony in a flash. Moments later he is in New York and near Storm.

"Crusader, keep an eye out when you're dropping supplies, don't get bogged down. And get word to the authorities to have everyone shelter in place, inside."

"Storm, how accurate can you be over a large area? Can you create cold zones to funnel the ones coming into the city into fewer channels toward the rip? I'm going to see what we're dealing with here."

With that he rockets off toward the rip to inspect it more closely.

"Stark, are you on the air?" he tries over a joint JLA/Avengers channel.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Jessica was perched high above the city, clinging to the side of a skyscraper. From there, she could see the threat in all its context. Pulling her hair up and donning her mask, she quickly begins her webslinging descent toward the fray. "Are you guys seeing this?" She asks into her comm. "I'm going in. Could use backup."

Within minutes as the crow flies, or as the spider swings, she is in range to see the mess in more detail. "This is gonna take coordination," she mutters to herself, trying to get in as close as possible without touching the ground.

Iron Man has posed:
    "Hi," comes Tony Stark's very recognizable, casual tone of voice onto the communications unit. It's a broad band: JLA, Avenger, and so forth. "Something below it is projecting this thing up into the air. It's all covered in fungus, so I can't really see what's doing it, but. It's a portal, that I can say. I'm going to send a drone in, and see if it's Narnia," Tony provides. "Otherwise, I can make a bunch of educated guesses, if you like."

    The mushrooms aren't just moving. In the past, when one mushroom has grown so large as to encounter another, it absorbs the new one into itself.
    And these are still doing that behavior. As small ones move into proximity with each other, they stop, and merge. One of the two stalks bubbles and collapses into the ooze of the other, and the larger one cannibalizes its 'friend', growing more powerful and larger. And resuming movement. It's happening in a scattered way, more heavily where the creatures are more concentrated, naturally, creating less concentrated areas: and bigger monsters. Some have clearly eaten enough to be horrifying building-tall stalks lurching their way down and through streets, though their mushroom-shaped tops aren't fully grown yet. It makes them very eerie, swaying tall forms.

Poison Ivy has posed:
Pamela Isley lowers the window of the cab. "Go faster!" she yells to the enthralled driver who puts petal to the metal. She has a dart gun in her possession - and is sniping smaller mushrooms with darts that look like tranq darts - but any small mushroom they strike disintegrates into dust after a pain sound - larger ones stumble. She finally stops as near the breach as she can get, and gets out. She stares at one of the colossal shrooms, gritting her teeth, finding a grassy hill to stand on. She throws a handful of seeds up into the air to scatter around her then concentrates. Over a dozen cacti erupt out of the ground all around her, growing more and more.

Ivy uses the dartgun to snipe any shrooms that would attempt to interrupt the rapid growth as the cacti rapidly grow past head-high and show no signs of stopping. The strain of doing so much at once shows on Ivy's face as she's swaying, having to lower the gun, all her energy focused into the cacti as they grow more... and more... and more, Ivy sinking to her knees from the strain.

Crusader has posed:
Crusader grunts "Understood Superman." he says as he flies closer to the city. It is than he hears Spider-Woman comminicating over the comms - only recognizing the voice from various news outlets He speaks into the comms "Spider-Woman, we are indeed seeing this. One is bringing in supplies to help now" his ship already entering the edges of the city. "Head towards One destiniation - a large silver ship"
    Crusader's ship touches down slowly to ensure not to crush anyone. The ship opens up and Crusader rolls out the freeze guns, swords as well as canisters of the toxin. Within moment he in the police comms "Officers - get everyone inside, and send who you can too" some address "Got some effective weapons you can use"

Storm has posed:
    At the mention of supplies being brought in, Storm turns in the air to see if she can find the ship. Before she can think about moving, though, the Man of Steel is hovering next to her in the air. The shock of his speed subsides, and then she offers her thought process.

    "I can be as accurate as we need to be," she replies, confidently. "But it will take a few minutes." While she instructs nature to do her bidding, the reactions don't form instantly. It is very much like cooking; Storm has to prepare her ingredients first before delivering a chilling cold to the area. Luckily, she is prepared to do some damage to the fungus today.

    Hearing Tony's voice and instantly looking below, Storm sees a woman fighting the fungus below, deploying several growing cacti. When she sees Pamela fall to her knees, Storm darts in the woman's direction, flying with an agility that allows her to avoid contact with the moving army. Touching down, Storm helps Pamela stabilize her footing.

    "Are you okay?" Storm asks, watching the cacti continue to grow.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
"Can someone give me a location on the equipment?" Spider-Woman calls out over her comm, as she suspects her answer lies on that ship. She has ceased trying to maneuver through the fray until she has more direction. Instead she is throwing out webbing to grab the smaller mushrooms that sprout and give a powerful jerk to rip them out of the ground. It's like putting bactine on a severed limb.

Superman has posed:
Kal flies low over the center of the mess trying to get a look at what might be projecting the portal and just how much effort it would take to uncover it. He reports what he is seeing into the comms as he recons. He glances up and sees Stark's drone going into the portal.

"We'll take your guesses, Stark. We need to know whether to help these thing through or go to war to stop them. And keep an eye on your radar. If the Pentagon goes hammer down on us, we'll need some warning to keep them from adding fuel to this fire."

Iron Man has posed:
"Wow. My drone is taking a wild ride. I'll get back to you," Tony says, sounding relaxed about the situation, at least via the communication. "So far I'm on that end, keeping a lid on the panic, but it won't be forever. On the upside, I don't think the rift itself is dangerous."

The mushrooms continue to pause and merge. There's a great deal of blasts and activity showing north of the rip, as if a battle were being waged.

Crusader has posed:
"Yea, head towards the Big Silver Ship" Crusader tells Spider-Woman again "On" street name. He was a bit busy handing out some swords and guns to police officers and even some citizens who apprach - each of them doing their own part to freeze or zap any mushrooms.

Noticing Storm and Ivy, he waste no time in delivering to them some freeze guns and sword. He wasn't overly concerned about their health at the moment and instead slides three cannisters towards them "One is not sure if you ladies can use these" weather mixing the toxin into the plants or into the air "One hopes you can"

Crusader than begins to fire upon some mushrooms of his own, mainly aimming to keep them away from fleeing citizens. he talks into the comm towards Superman and Tony sound annoyed "Is the Pentagon stupid enough to really send Firepower? Please tell One this is what is referred to as a wise crack" cause good lord, humans are going to make themselves go exstinct

Iron Man has posed:
A close recon to the rip in the sky shows a teeming mass of squidlings occupying the ground all around it. The ground itself seems ripped and torn open, like something (the rip?) exploded from below. It looks like it was some sort of underground parking complex, but with all the squidling masses there, hard to tell. What it appears to be is that the fungus mushrooms are walking to the rip, merging if there are several, and entering the rip itself, while their squid minions stay behind.

Storm has posed:
    "It's on the South of the rift," Storm replies through the comm. unit.

    She makes sure to check on Pamela, still looking around at the dozen cacti that are growing larger around them. Storm does not know if it is her claustrophobia or her desire to not be on the ground, but she makes a decision to take back to the air. "Take these," she says to Pamela, offering a freeze gun and sword. "I have Mother Nature on my side."

    With a thought, Storm is aloft and flying higher into the sky. She concentrates and clouds begin to gather ahead. Arms extend to the heavens as she places all of her elemental ingredients into the sky. The temperature lowers significantly, getting colder by the second. The clouds threaten to release snow, but they need more time.

Poison Ivy has posed:
Pamela Isley takes the freeze gun, hmmmmming softly. She smirks at Crusader. "I don't need your poison - I have my own. Take one. I formulated it specifically for our friends here..." She gestures to a few canisters at her feet. She nods as she is supported by Storm. "I'm fine... it's... tiring... to accelerate the growth of so many at once." The cacti are now TWENTY feet tall. And... the cacti are still growing, but slower.

Ivy nods in satisfaction. "They are ready." She snaps her fingers. "You may control the skies... but I control the Green." The cacti shudder... then as the shroom-creatures start to approach the breach, the cacti unload, firing their needles at them. Any shroom creature that these needles strike shriek and wither and die. "I've worked on these for weeks..." she whispers softly. "Their needles are infused with that fungicide. They are basically an artillery platform." She grins widely.

Superman has posed:
"Looks like some of the others have decided to go to war, Stark. If this portal is going to get rid of the shrooms we need to know, Stark, otherwise I need to get to work on these big ones."

He blasts up above the city and scans for pockets of stranded civilians. He zips between them at blinding speed, delivering people to relative safety while he waits for a call from Stark on whether to facilitate or stop the shrooms making it to the portal.

Crusader has posed:
"Less boasting more working. One does not care who made what" Crusader says. Weather the toxin by batman or the poison by Ivy, he didn't care long as it got the job done. Crusader can be...curt to say the least.

That being as a particular large group of fungus gets near. He takes one of the Toxin Canisters and one of the Ivy Canisters and tosses both of them at the large group, before a sword quickly follow peicing both canisters. The result was both of them attacking the fungus.

Crusader rises into the air, freeze gun still in hand. With some folks are high altitude, and some on ground, he figures some Mid height may be useful. His bird eyes few allowing him to hit group of fungus - stopping or slowing them from reaching people Superman was rescueing.

"Superman does have a point, would be useful to know weather to stop them or help them through that portal. Preferably before they overun the city"

Iron Man has posed:
"My drone is in... Mexico. Is there something special for fungus in Mexico?" Tony reports, sounding baffled. There is a pause. "OK, them getting to the portal is BAD. I'm sending a few more drones, I'll get some more feed from them, because what I can saw so far before my drone was wrecked--- I'd prefer to think is a glitch. Remember the mold in /outer space/? Yeah, I'm reminded. It's huge, but not doing anything yet, probably sucking these all in first. So, I'm working on shutting off the portal. Just there's so much interference."

"Whoever is making giant toxic cactus, that... yes. More of that," Tony comments with amusement into the comms. "If we can hold off the tide, we might get some of this area under the rip cleared off to get to the root of what's making the portal."

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Spider-Woman makes her way to the silver ship and lowers herself, touching down lightly next to it.She recognizes the canisters and odd swords from her meeting with Kal and Flash. She's no marksman, but she's a deadly shot with her web, right? Taking equipment, she arms herself, turning toward the seeming mass exodus of mushrooms. "Wherever these guys are going, I highly doubt it's safer for /us/ if they make it there. She fires a web and swings up, using the freezing quality of the sword to behead some of the mushrooms still small enough to do so with. The others take parting shots as she stabs as deploy as she can into them. It's then that she hears confirmation from Tony on the comm - "them getting to the portal is BAD."

Superman has posed:
"Mexico?" Superman says as he finishes ferrying a small family out of harm's way. "Stark, there is some kind of massive fungus mind in Mexico. It peeked into the Astral plane a few days back and caused havoc. Are there any other portals open on the Mexico side feeding it?"

Without waiting for an answer, Kal flies back to the rip as quickly as possible, windows shattering in his wake. He takes a deep breath and then lays down super cold air all around the portal and even under it. He picks a spot and smashes into the frozen mass,shattering it, to try and get a peek at whether anything underneath is maintaining the portal.

Storm has posed:
    It isn't long until small pecks of ice can be seen falling from the sky. With a more concentrated thought, the clouds finally release a flurry of snow raining down at an abnormal rate, especially in the Summer.

    "Mexico?" Storm repeats, hearing that the fungus getting to the portal is not a good idea. She acts quickly and flies closer to the portal, the snow building more fiercely behind her. Hovering over many of the fungus approaching the portal, Storm extends her hands and sends a large blast of artic winds into the fray. If she needs to, Storm will then push further in any effort to flash-freeze the army before her.

Iron Man has posed:
A telepathic message is sent to nearly all of those fighting the mushrooms. The message is as follows: "They are moving for the portal. Stop their advance by any cost!" For those familiar with him, it is Doctor Doom.

Crusader has posed:
"Nual mention that an unsually large fungus was in Mexico. She also mentioned these things get smarter the larger they get" crusader says. Now knowing they needed to stop the fungu, Crusader breaks out the freeze sword

He flies towards the 'roots' of the larget fungus and slices into them, freezing the legs and slowing them, but it wouldn't stop them. They needed to stop these things and fast.

"Storm - Superman - One believes you two can combo off. Storm if you can give us some heavy and One means HEAVY - perhaps superman can flash freeze these guys possibly stopping them or at the very least slowing them down enough for more of Ivies poison to affect"

He slams into a mushroom toppling them over. As he hears the telepathic option he broadcast over the comms "One thinks the flash freeze is likely best idea...unless we can make a wall to block the portal"

Poison Ivy has posed:
Pamela Isley sighs. "Mexico?" she asks. "I thought we were dealing with a spatial breach, not... a portal to Tijuana." She frowns as she keeps her cacti reloading and firing more barbs at any shrooms approaching. She is also firing darts from a dart gun at the larger ones which is a more concentrated burst. She is near the breach, so that she can snipe on the shrooms wlaking toward it, without being directly in their path. Some of the cacti are being chilled by Storm's storm. "Hey - not the cacti!" she yells up to the weather goddess.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
"Mexico? That's bad news." Jessica replies but at Crusader's suggestion, the Spider-Woman suddenly brightens with new direction. She webslings at top speed toward the rift and gets as close as possible, pausing at any point around it to shoot several webs, anchored to trees, abandoned cars, anything they can grip onto, beginning to build a vast network of webbing, and working her way as quickly as possible, albeit too tediously slow for her tastes, around the rift to close in the gaps wherever possible.

Iron Man has posed:
<Both scene orientation:>
    It has started to snow at the site of the tear in the sky, and much if it is now coming into the weather in the northern area as well. Heroes all around the tear are acting to stop the advance, though little appears to be directly on top of the rip itself.
    And then, the flash of Superman at the base of it shows, as he tears into the teeming swarms that are at the base of it, guarding whatever is below the rip itself. Similarly, other flashes of activity of other heroes show, from both north and south, as heavy efforts are made to stop the mushrooms' advances. It is effective, and those right on top of the rift have a short time to try to decide what can be done.

In the north, several massive mushrooms have been attacked: a few of them simply keel over and die, others hit with considerable toxin and frozen might. Whole patches of ooze are being frozen solid, which causes difficulty, as others approach but cannot merge with it, and everything just stops, while they try to merge but cannot! Sonic blasts continue to cause disarray, and the fungus from the north is virtually entirely shut off, with the well-coordinated team.
    In the south, Toxin is being spread heavily from some type of artillery, and the moving fungals are being stuck down with webbing, causing weird traffic jams of them while they stop to merge, and then get poisoned. The slowing snowfall has similarly slowed them, though there are now some truly massive mushrooms down that way, merging, as the huge ones have not been dealt with as heavily.

Iron Man has posed:
A pack of the squid-like minions has formed off and is rushing directly for Ivy and her arsenal. They are thick, going as a large force, to attempt to overwhelm her and her cacti, to shut off the problem coming from there. They are in numbers great enough to surge through the spines even if they take losses: that is no doubt the point. She will probably need assistance to hold that front.

"I think I'm calibrated to make this trip... yeah, no problem. I could use a vacation, honestly; I'll see if it closes on the other side. Might take out the big mushroom by myself: You're welcome." With a group of his drones, Iron Man blazes on into and through the portal, near the top of the rip, disappearing.

At the base, Superman can use a combination of force and x-ray vision. There is a nest of the creatures tightly wound in a sphere around.. something. Someone. A person is there, underneath layers of creatures. He looks barely conscious, but the rift is clearly coming from him, surging up and out of the human male.

Storm has posed:
    Storm does not hear Pamela's yell in her direction, her mind focusing on the hordes of fungus still managing to make a way to the portal.

    Hail, the size of basketballs start to fall in concentrated areas inside the army's framework, with a group of five to six balls of hail following the direction of Storm's hand motions. The arctic winds propel the dangerous ice buildup as an offensive to protect the portal behind her.

    "Tony, don't you even think about taking that on alone," Storm says through the comm. unit. Turning in the air, she watches as Iron Man disappears into portal where many of the fungi are trying to get to. Instead, they are finding themselves under the cold mercy of nature on Storm's watch.

Poison Ivy has posed:
Pamela Isley just stares at the army. "Oh shit..." she whispers softly as she sees the stampede heading her way. She points as all dozen cacti start firing at the stampede, the roars of the hurt ones hopefully catching someone's attention for she doesn't seem to have a radio. She is firing the cold gun as well, but knows this isn't going to be pretty. "I'm sorry guys," she whispers to the cacti. She stands her ground - she won't abandon her plant warriors.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
With no idea whether it could possibly be effective, Spider-Woman begins to weave webs between the larger converging mushrooms, attempting to bind them. The effect is basically cargo netting between the mushrooms to keep them from merging. Whether it could possibly work is beyond her knowledge. In between binding those mushrooms, she begins a second round of webbing behind the next wave of mushrooms, to entangle and isolate them from those held back from the rift by her first wall. If there's anything better than a wall around the rift, it's two walls around the rift.

Crusader has posed:
And Ivy won't stand alone either. Crusader saw the horde of squids comming towards Ivy - seemed Jessica and the other had the rift covered, but it looked like ivy needed some two.

Crusader makes a quick drive by his ship, picking up three addition freeze guns - and grows a second set of arms. Hovering just above - and connecting himself to the guns - he fires at four of them!

He wasn't just fireing randomly though, as he freezes he slowly hover upwards trying to create a Wall of Ice and Squidlings. The cacti may need to volly their needles higher - but it was better than nothing.

Crusader speaks into the comms "We got a good horde of the squids near One and ivy, use this to your advantage" he looks to ivy - "Ivy, can you make a few super doses? And by super One means" he gestures to the massive walking stalks "Enough tot ake that out" he keeps up the rate of fire at the squids, eating into his own energy to help power the guns beyound normal capacity.

Superman has posed:
"I found the source of the portal, it's a person!" Kal calls into the communicator.

Kal uses freezing breath and force to punch and force his way through to the person in the center of the squidling ball. He grabs the person to pull them free of the mass, using more cold and force to loosen the clingers on. Then he moves skyward, carrying the person, even if it means pulling along some squidlings, watching to see if the portal moves along with the person. "Can you hear me?" he calls repeatedly to the person as he lifts them clear of the mess.

Iron Man has posed:
The squidlings assault heavily, and push hard on both Crusader and Ivy's barrages. A second group come around from a side, pressuring there, but suddenly a magic circle appears beneath a rather large number of the mushrooms. A magic circle?! Regardless... those knowledgeable will be able to tell dark magic is at play here.

Circles appear all over the place, grabbing mushrooms out of nowhere. It looks relatively random, though it is certainly a help to Jessica's walls, catching some of the ones that were getting close to it. The heroes in the north are extending aid to the heavier problems still plaguing the south side of the rift.

And then, a mushroom emerges from burrowing amoung the cacti. It abruptly starts to eat one of the cactus, in the pool of digestive ooze under it, having appeared just in their midst. However, it can't stay there: it has to head towards the portal, and begins to drift that way, as if called by it. A squid drops from the towering mushroom, and snares for Ivy, attempting to drag her by the arm into the digestive zone. It is a small one, but it will still give her arm a considerable wrench, or worse!

When Superman touches the man, he starts to squirm and shudder. Ooze drips down through from above through the rift: a backwash of horrifying ooze, attempting to eat Superman who dares interfere. Metahumans aren't immune to the digestive acid. The man seems entirely out of it, staring up at the rift that is coming from him. The rift... it does move with him, though slowly, as if delayed.

Wonder Woman has posed:
From the north, from Manhattan more specifically, the screaming engines of the Invisible Jet slice through the sky on a course southward toward the disturbance. The alert had reached her and she'd been preoccupied with another similar event going on, but Wonder Woman was now arriving via the wings of her mysterious plane.

"Superman." Diana's voice comes over the comms of the Justice League. "What is your status?" She asks of the blue and red caped hero.

The jet, even though it cannot be seen, can be heard circling in the skies now, likely taking in the full scope of the fighting going on down in this ruined city.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Jessica, her breath laboured and posture clearly fatigued, is horrified at the ooze coming down at Superman, and immediately thwips a web up toward the man he is carrying, just in case. It fires out, makes it halfway, then falls uselessly to the ground. "Oh my God, no," she says in disbelief. "This...never happens to me." She takes a deep breath and bolsters her resilience. "I'm running on empty here," she says into the comm. "Does anyone have a protein bar? Or, y'know....a cow?"

Superman has posed:
Superman reacts without thinking, taking a deep breath and blowing frigid air at the sudden rush of ooze. Then he tries avoid it, pulling himself and the man he carries up and away from the portal quickly. He turns his back as he moves to shield the man from the ooze headed their way in case he is not able to avoid it all.

Kal looks down at the man he is carrying and winces. "Sorry," he says, then smacks him in the back of the head hard enough to knock the man out, but hopefully not hard enough to do real damage.

"Wonder Woman! I've got the source of the portal... Now we need to put down those giant mushrooms. Don't let any get through the portal to Mexico!"

Poison Ivy has posed:
The fungus has outsmarted her, and one erupts right under her! She screams in outrage as one of the cacti is being consumed. And with the pain of the planet, nothing else mattered, including Crusader's question, as she tries to save it... and then... one of the squiddies jumps her drops her into the ooze and Ivy now starts to convulse, as she is trying to get out of the deadly corrosive, the cacti shaking in pain - without Ivy's control, they aren't firing anymore, and Ivy is in no state to attack.

Crusader has posed:
"Oh for the love of Juthuum" Crusader growls. He flies down and freezes the ooze around Ivy...before scooping her up with one hand, as well as one of her canisters.

He speaks over the comms "Superman - again, combine your power with Storm. Soaking the big guys and than freeze them - even busting open fire hydrants should help." he says. But he had other worries.

Crusader lands on a relatively empty spot...and procedes to pour Ivy own fungicide over her. Freezing her would be too dangerous, but he couldn't just let the fungus eat her either. He hopes this works.

Iron Man has posed:
A slam of palm down on the man's head makes the portal source jerk and shudder, but doesn't knock him out. It is as if something is forcing him awake, well past when he should normally still be aware. He does, however, wake up. He screams in Superman's face, full-bore terror and haunted pain. His eyes are open, and beg for help, even if he can't say it or voice anything other than the long scream.

Storm has posed:
    The exploding mushrooms catch Storm's attention first. Then, it is Superman's announcement that he has the source of the rift that catches her attention next. With her head turned slightly to see the Kryptonian flying through the sky and the portal slowly following behind him, Storm refocuses.

    A chilling tornado swirls angrily from the clouds, aiming at the front of the army of fungus, and it slices through their ranks. Sending mushrooms flying away from the portal, Storm creates a focused beam of arctic winds towards those that remain. "Freeze!" Storm screams, ushering her command onto the mindless hordes surrounding them.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Jessica rips off her mask, as her hair falls in sweat-soaked waves down over her shoulders. She begins checking abandoned cars until she finds one with a bag of now cold (and probably when they were served, cold) McDonald's cheeseburgers.

She shamelessly tears the wrappers off and starts to Cookie Monster the cheeseburgers one after another until she can't hold another bite. She can only hope the speed of her metabolism hasn't suffered in the fray. Within minutes, the dark circles beneath her eyes have begun to fade, and she tucks her mask into her belt and tentatively reaches up to fire off a web in the direction of the large mushroom that tried to eat Ivy. "Yeah!! I'm back in business!"

Green Arrow has posed:
Coming in from the northward side of the city is a Skybike with one Green Arrow sitting atop it, going at high speed. Specialized fungicide arrows are being fired with perfect accuracy into squidlings... or into ooze pits, before cloud gas arrows follow into those ooze pits to blanket whole areas. It's a by now well practiced routine as Green Arrow works overtime on protecting the civilians in harms way.

"This is getting old." Green Arrow quips under his voice mask as he continues. "Can someone send a memo to the hive mind to go home?" Large clusters of squidlings also get mass cloud fungal payloads in perfect positioning to get the lot of them. Many fungal creatures die in the Green Arrows wake as he flies his way across Manhatten.

Shatterpoint has posed:
    There is a streak of ice and a chill upon the spine approaching- all living beings have an innate fear of death- and though most of the people who are present have likely outright conquered it, Caroline's sudden presence is likely to rekindle it anew, adding a chill of the blood even before her presence is fully known.

    The temperature drop in the area is sharp and immediate- terrifying and sudden. Leaping from the rooftops into the throng of beasts that had been dragging Ivy, the revenant arrives with all the prestige of, literally, Death itself. Adding to Ororo's manipulation of the wind, it seems to howl now that she has arrived.

    She cannot currently do much to help Ivy directly- simply being -near- her would be enough to freeze flesh.

    What she can do is make it easier, by leaping directly into the masses of monsters- to shatter and strike, tear and fling.

Wonder Woman has posed:
"I understand, Superman." Diana says from the cabin of the Invisible Jet where she stands between the two pilot chairs that are manned by her sisters. She was ready to disembark the jet and join the fight if need be, but in the current situation she feels she can do enough good here inside the plane still.

"There." Diana says to her Amazon sisters, pointing forward. "Target those. It is time to test the new weapon." The Amazonian flying the ship reaches forward to glide her fingerips up a touch-screen on the dash and the controls change a huge from green to icey blue.

Outside, the Invisible Jet screams overhead, and suddenly from no where a streaking bright blue freeze-beam shoots from the sky and starts painting the mushroom behemoths heading for the portal! The beam sweeps across them, while the Invisible Jet weaves out of the way of the tornado!

Poison Ivy has posed:
Pamela Isley slowly opens her eyes, groaning softly in pain, as Crusader just doused her with the fungicide she created to fight these things. It stopped the digestive ooze from its work, but Ivy is severely burned, her left arm bare of her costume and badly burned, a small burn on her face. She slowly sits up. "It happened so fast..." she whispers softly to Crusader. "It erupted - ate one of my warriors... then slammed me down in the hole..." There are still eleven living huge cacti in a circle by the breach, but they are inert. And one mostly-dissolved one that's still sizzling. Dripping with fungal poisons that are not hurting her at all - she's _sooooo_ glad she designed it to not hurt plants - she stares at her cacti. "Can you take me back?" she asks softly, but looks in horror at all the frigid weaponry around.

The cacti, close to the breach, are wilting from the onslaught. "I can't fight in these conditions... my friends won't do well..." She tries to control them from where she is, but it's too far away and they're too weak from cold and sudden growth to fire their needles.

Superman has posed:
Kal's eyes go wide at the man's reaction, and he looks horrified, wincing at the scream. Kal turns the man around and holds him up with one arm while he slides the other around the man's neck. He squeezes carefully, compressing the arteries but avoiding the wind pipe. Barring a miracle, the lack of blood to the man's brain should finally knock him out.
"I hear you, Crusader. I have my hands full shutting down the portal.".

Kal drops out of the sky to the nearest ambulance he can find. He glances ar the nametag of the startled paramedic. "Steve," he addresses the paramedic. "This man needs help, but whatever you do, *keep him unconscious*." Kal makes sure Steve understands then rockets of to join the fight against the shrooms.

Doctor Doom has posed:
     Arriving from the north along with Green Arrow and Caroline is Doctor Doom. Traveling by simply walking through a magic portal of his own creation, he looks up to the rip in the sky still, narrowing his eyes as he flies upwards towards it. He figures there's enough people here to handle what's left of the shrooms and Superman appears to have taken down the portal-maker. But that does't guarantee the shut down of the portal itself.

     Thus does Doom perch himself on top of a nearby rooftop, watching to see what will happen. Though he does give a repulsor blast here and there to mushroom warriors who get too close.

Crusader has posed:
Crusader feels a shiver down his spine from Carolines' presence. He speaks into the comms "Very well. Good Luck" he tells him with sincerity. He had his own problem as he host Ivy back up "One suggest you tell your 'friends' to go to sleep for now....since Winter has come" he tells her, and with that rises into the air.

Crusader drops Ivy off near her cacti, the ooze and mushrooms there having been previously frozen. He hands her a comm to connect with everyone else. "Try not to die and if you need help. Speak" he says curtly.

And with that he is off again. Instead of the freeze rays, he taking up the swords now. The smaller guys were bound to be taken care of by the dozens of heros and their onsalught, leaving the biggest as the most obviouse threat. Crusader soars towards one and slams four swords into it as he quite litterly begins to carve into the Building-like mushroom - the scars spreading an icy layer to slow and weaken the beasts. But weather or not this will actually kill them he does not know.

Iron Man has posed:
"...So," Tony Stark's voice comes back to the comms of the JLA and Avengers. "Funny story," he begins, sounding very exhausted. "There's a creepy telepath over here in Mexico. And five more portals." And then, silence.

The portal starts to collapse, as Superman finds another way to make the man unconscious. It doesn't immediately fall apart, but it does begin to reduce. A few squid that were next to it attempt to enter it, but cannot, they are thrown backwards from it. The connection to enter or use it looks to be severed. The energy pulses downwards, the rip now half as high and wide.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Regaining strength, and protein for webbing, Jessica again sets about webbing up the shafts and caps of frozen mushrooms, then jerk hard on the web to snap them off. One by one, she works her way through the web-entangled masses, snapping off the massive stalks and moving on to the next.

Poison Ivy has posed:
Pamela Isley nods slowly as she sits crosslegged in the middle of the circle of cacti. She is dazed and woozy, putting the comm around her right ear. "I can only take one of you..." she whispers softly. "Who is the strongest?" The one farthest away from the fight rustles. "Alright. It's time to take this to the next stage. The rest of you... sleep. I will return for you later."

The trunk of the chosen cactus splits in half, as it stars to pull free of the ground. She reaches her arms up and the cactus pulls her up. She's perched on a 'shoulder' of a now 20-foot-tall walking cactus. She leans heavily against it - of course she wouldnt' get stabbed with the thorns. She then has it walk towards the tallest remaining mushroom creature - one that's away from the cold zone, and starts firing needles at it. With just one cactus, she can do this even in her weakened state. The other cacti go still, enduring the conditions, spikes growing longer and doing nothing more.

Wonder Woman has posed:
The cold beam being fired from the Invisible Jet's foreward hull continues its assault on the ground forces of the Mushroom Kingdom until the portal ceases to exist and collapses in on itself. "Well done, Superman." Diana's voice says over the comms.

The Jet breaks off and flies higher into the clouds, on a return-wide-angle-course and when it emerges back from beneath a dark cloud it is slightly visible now as the translucent effect was lessoned so that the JL's allies could more easily see where the plane is in the sky.

"Stark?" Diana says over the comms. "What is the status on these other portals?" She requests, wondering why his voice had cut off.

Doctor Doom has posed:
     Once everything appears to be far underway, Doom moves back to ground level by levitating. and he focuses. The Portal was shutting down, sure...but there was a multitude of a telepathic web of many minds that was still coordinating a world effort. He focuses. Huh...many of thm. The first thing he attempts to do is simply mentally follow the trail, see where he can pin point at least a few of them.

     This must be the end game, if portals arn't just opening up here.

Green Arrow has posed:
"Since when did the Stark playboy get involved?" Green Arrow asks over the channel as Iron Man speaks on his ear mounted commlink. At this point, he's linked to the general city commnet that the rest of the responders are using, "The northern section of the city is secure. Why is it taking so long for the rest down here?" Green Arrow asks as he speeds along, working on crowd control.

The combo of fungicide into ooze pits to lure them, then a gas cloud arrow follow up to kill the squidlings and stalks is remarkably effective... causing Green Arrow to destroy dozens upon dozens of the creatures at a time. Meanwhile, any huge behemoth stalks get concentrated doses of the fungicide payloads as Green Arrow flies around them on his Skybike.

"Gotta hand it to Batman. This stuff is pretty effective." Green Arrow begrudgingly compliments The Bat.

Shatterpoint has posed:
    A nightmare has arrived. Caroline has been making short work of the fungal monstrosities. Her proximity seems to be freezing them solid, and with snaps of her fingers, she is calling them to shatter into piles. Like a better metaphor than a hot knife through butter, Caroline is pushing through.

    Her targets are the largest fungal monsters, yet something catches her eyes. Jessica's webs are funneling the creatures brilliantly, but they're not stopping them- they can't, and they're really not -trying- to. As such, Caroline sees a target-rich environment, and joins that particular fray.

    Pulling herself over a building with what seems to be a sentient pair of chains, made of ice, Caroline leaps directly onto the top of the mushrooms, aiding in Jessica's efforts. Her touch? Anathema to their presence. All that is left in her wake will be snow, but she is one person- and they're likely to start fleeing her cold soon.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
"In Mexico?" Jessica asks Tony via her comm. Then, when there is still radio silence from Stark, she asks more persistently. "Tony? Mexico??"

Crusader has posed:
Crusader quips to Arrow "Mabey because all your guys came down here" it was slightly joking. He sounded serious, but the spirit was there. Any number of factors could have effected why things took so long

But having heard the news he speaks into the comms "If there are five portals, all in Mexico...going directly to Mexico, to the source should allow us to combat this threat head on and finish it for good hopefully. One will gladly give any who need it a ride" he let them know, though heros had a way of traveling.

His carving up of the mushroom stalk destroies it. And he fluidly and savgely works on the next one, carving and slice into it, trying to cut it down to size. Falling the stalks as quickly as he can alongside the others

Iron Man has posed:
From the shuddering portal, Iron Man comes blazing out. It's a little bit Indiana Jones, except he has no hat to grab. "Could've warned me, that was a little close," Tony complains into the comm, sounding more upbeat, as the portal finally heaves and closes. "Good thing I'm me." Tony's probably fine.

Doom, however, had something else slice at him before it closed. A smugness, an awareness. An alien feeling to the mind, almost, yet something also tangible and dark. And the web of minds there. It was as if the creature on the other side looked back, and showed off the huge spiral of connected minds and slaves, and allowed the door to shut.

It isn't over. Yet there was anger there, too. Hidden below. The loss of the portal, that stung.

Storm has posed:
    "He disappeared in Mexico," Ororo responds via her comm. unit. "His communicator seems to be jammed." Whether that is because the portal rift shifted in power or not, Ororo is not to be sure. She continues her barrage of attacks against the fungus, her energy getting close to exhaustive levels.

    While Storm has no qualms with passing through the portal, she is concerned about what is happening in Mexico, if they had a large enough squad to handle the situation, and why Tony went quiet. And in a blaze of glory, the man flies through at the last second.

    "The portal is closed," Storm announces over the comm., her eyes instantly darting to the remaining fungus. "Shall we take out the trash?"

Green Arrow has posed:
"Likely excuse. I saw just as many up there and down this way." Green Arrow replies as more arrows are fired into ooze pits under stalks.

Then, Iron Man came out of the portal. "Stark, the next time they revise the dictionaries of the world, they're going to put a picture of you next to reckless, if they have any sense." Green Arrows jokes as he continues on his merry way, his hood and domino mask fluttering slightly in the winds at the high speeds he's continuing to fly at. Luckily, the power cell on his Skybike would last for another few hours. The combo fungicide and gas cloud gas arrow launches continue to claim dozens more. "Focus your efforts on removing the ooze the stalks are using to move. The minions try to defend it, so you can bait them into clustering." Green Arrow observes over the commnet.

Poison Ivy has posed:
Pamela Isley ponders. Not a bad idea. Her own fungicide works against the ooze as Crusader demonstrated. So as her cactus giant keeps firing at the larger stalks, she is tossing small canisters of poison at the puddles of ooze. She is sitll a bit dizzy, but with just one plant monster in her thoughts, she can manage it. She'll need copious rest when this is done though.

Doctor Doom has posed:
     Doom feels the last slice that those on the other side has given him and he growls. "How dare they strike at Doom." The good doctor then starts to walk in a direction, letting the heroes dispose of the Fungus by themselves. After all, he already did his heavy lifting. But what he wanted to know was what alien bastard had the foolish courage to try and feel his mind?! "Such a huge spiral of minds. If I can find the epicenter, I could end the entire thing."

     Or so Doom tells himself. Regardless, a portal is opened back to beloved Latveria, and with a single glance over his shoulder at the heroes, the portal closes behind him.

Wonder Woman has posed:
The (not so) Invisible Jet streaks through the sky, cutting through the clouds and coming back down to perform another attack run on the Shrooms, that cold ray coming to life from the nose tip of the large knife-shaped jet! "Welcome back, Stark." Diana says over the comms.

Inside the cabin of the Jet, the Amazon pilot flying it is keeping the jet safely out of the reach of any of the creatures down below, while the co-pilot is operating the freezing ray weapon... acting as the gunner, of sorts.

"It is not every day that we get to do operations such as this." Diana quietly comments to her sisters, as a moment of taking in all of what was going on around them settled into the Princess' mind. "Then again, its starting to feel like every day..." She adds softly.

Crusader has posed:
"Doubtful" is all Crusader replies to Green.

But none the less his focus is and has been on taking out the fungus...at least when not trying to save civilions or aid other. With the swords being much more natural in Crusader grip, he dicing through the larger building like Mushrooms. Stopping only momentarily to fire a blast from a freeze gun at a puddle of Ooze when he spots some.

Green Arrow has posed:
"Ask city services if you don't believe me." Green Arrow quips as he continues flying southward. The rip in the sky might be closed, but the fungal threat continues to be an issue. He has enough arrows to continue bait and gassing for at least twenty minutes, before he needs to switch out to his last arrow canister... and Green Arrow is going to keep at it until the city is clear.

Storm has posed:
    The wind lashes about as Storm makes quick work of ridding several mushrooms from the vicinity. She flash-freezes another group and lowers herself to the ground. A breather is very necessary right now after all the battle the ground has been though.

    "I believe that is all of them?" Ororo wonders, looking around.

Shatterpoint has posed:
    Caroline has neither a comms unit nor any gadgets. She is out there fighting the beasts with nought but the gifts granted to her by Death itself, and after not too long, everything in the direction she sent herself is either frozen, or dead, or both- with exception to the civilians, if there are any.

    Eventually, with the portal's closure and the efforts of everyone involved, the threat is ended for the moment. Unless confronted, Caroline is likely to make her way on foot back to Gotham- the trail of impossible cold dying down to a wake of uncharacteristic chill.

Iron Man has posed:
"It might be seen as greedy to take both 'reckless' /and/ 'phenomenal'," Tony answers, a shrug in his voice even if not physically. "It was a good vacation, though I didn't get to work on my tan as much as you'd have thought. I'll get the videos from my trip up soon. I promise they're far more interesting than usual vacation slides. Unless your vacations usually have giant monsters. Then maybe."

"After this .... drinks and food at the Avengers Mansion. See you guys there?" Tony suggests, to those still on the comm.

Because after-party.