5307/Astral Flux: Sleepwalkers

Astral Flux: Sleepwalkers
Date of Scene:	05 September 2018
Location:	New York
Synopsis:	Heroes respond to a flux of magic in a New York cemetery.
Cast of Characters:	Shadow King, Kid, Constantine, Raven, Spider-Woman (Drew), Ghost Rider (Blaze)
Tinyplot:	Astral Flux

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Shadow King has posed:
    Following the Astral problems of August 30th, there has been a continued rash of strange occurrences. Magical presences, explosive fireballs and pyrotechnics, strange ghostly forms, onslaughts of illusions causing extreme havoc in the streets, and other items. The news has not been kind about it, and some admonish the Ghostbusters for sleeping on the job with all of the strange and supernatural events. The public statement of the Ghostbusters? No comment. Also they're doing their best; it's not ghosts.

    There is a beautiful cemetery overlooking the Hudson river. The Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum is reasonably well known. The site is peaceful, green and well-kept, with a rich history in the area. Which makes the current event particularly disgraceful.

    It is well past dark, approaching 11pm. Rumbles of magic pulse near the river, flowing outwards. Bands of magic surround the area, swell, and ripple across the land. A single figure walks the cemetery, in only a white nightgown, her hands and head loose, long streamers of blonde hair flowing with the supernatural flow and ebb around her.

    After a time, she is no longer alone. The spirits all around her become a glittering army of wraiths, as they draw into cohesive shapes. And they begin to spread out, as if handfuls of them were flung out, into streets, into homes. It is not true chaos, as the wraiths draw life from those around them, subduing them into slumber and torpor. But there is a sudden rash of reports, insane driving, and reactions from those who are not immediately discovered by the spirit-like forms.

Kid has posed:
Nothing said 'Screw Curfew' like ignoreing curfew! The massive gorilla was still adjusting to a relatively new mode of life. One with rules, regulations, and blah blah blah. He was more than annoyed by it and so has choosen to travel outside the UN towards where his feet may lead him, drinking a mango-slurpee along the way!

In this case, he was part knuckle-walking near the hudson river, slowly approaching the graveyard. Not that he was visting anyone in particular. Many people had the sense (or rather lacked the nerve) to go walking near a gorrila, giving him a semblance of privacy or so he thought...

He stops for a moment and gazes up, peering, see a strange figure walking through it and the odd etheral...people, lights, mango slurpee induced hallutiation?. Even Kid can recognize something ab-normal. That is untill he suddenly has glareing head lights of a car blinding him! With a the screech of tire, and smell of burning rubber comming towards him, he manages to barely dodges out of the way of the crazed driver, almost dropping his drink!
     He raises a fist shaking it angrily thinking "The hell Man!" But drawn out of his relaxed stupor...is when he begins to notice that there were far more minds in the area than normal, that felt just...off to him. He couldn't quite place it yet...and slurps more on the slurpy as he considers it.

Constantine has posed:
John Constantine has a knack of showing up at the right place at the right time, or wrong place at the wrong time. Depends on your perspective. Tonight, John is definitely leaning towards the latter. All the weirdness had him flush with cash, he might not be in the book like that tosser Dresden, but enough people knew how to reach him to call when the weirdness touched their lives and John was just the sort of bastard to get paid for it, even if he didn't know what caused it.

He'd just finished a job and was part way into a one man pub crawl when the pulse shot out from the cemetery. He felt it of course. It was impossible to miss. For a moment, he just stuck to his bar stool and kept knocking back his pint, but by the time he'd downed the dregs, that tiny shred of a conscience had gotten the best of him and when he was done he set down the glass and headed for the door, old doctor's bag in hand.

As for his bill? He might have forgotten to pay it, you know, fate of the world type stuff definitely more important than those little details.

Arriving at the gates of the cemetery, John dodges a sedan that slams head on into a pole. The driver, he's in bad shape, but despite the old leather doctor's bag he grips, he's no medic. Best he can do is summon a bit of power and utter the words: "Molles somnos, somno iamâ?¦" a sleep spell to put the man under for now.

As he looks up from his work, he notes the gorilla with a slurpee?

"That's a lark," he murmurs to himself setting down his bag and spreading his hands, he utters a spell: "Five elements of the earth, I respect and invoke thee. From the six directions, converge here. Lift all concealments. Reveal thy truth."

A standard banishment of illusions, focused on the obviously made up gorilla.

Raven has posed:
    Raven has been attuning to this particular series of astral disturbances. They are rather frightening- even Raven herself has had issue staying in control, which is... Troubling to say the least. If anyone should always remain in control- if anyone -could- always remain in control- it is Raven. Her nature has gotten a touch more morbid than normal- but if she'd lost herself like the others, well... Everyone would likely be just a little bit dead, or a similar but definably worse.

    The wraiths wander the streets, and as one passes, from an impossible direction- a wall that seemed to sprout some weird black rash, a swirling mass of darkness so pure it might as well have come directly from someone's livejournal- emerges the hooded- hoodied? Hoody isn't an adjective, but it likely works- form of Raven.

    Grim as ever, the dreary, monotonous voice that adds its din to the night streets calls out to the seeming spirit.

    "You are not supposed to be here. You should go home."

Shadow King has posed:
    The spirits prey on anything that moves. That does include cars, and it includes people that are coming by. A young woman trying to take a video attracts one such spirit, as it glides directly at her. She doesn't run fast enough, it hugs her in an eerie embrace, bearing her slowly towards the cement....

    Other ones see the gorilla, and begin to converge. Similarly on Constantine. They continue to appear in the graveyard, though they are perhaps not all entirely related to it.

    As the illusion spell negation cast by Constantine flushes over the graveyard, a few of the ghostly forms change. They were hiding their demonic nature. Little demons were interspersed with the spirits: tagging along, perhaps. They are not ghosts at all, they are physical creatures blending in with very simple illusions. What are they doing there? They are here, possibly, because they felt the magic just as clear as the others did. It isn't just 'heroes' (or people in the gray zone) that have responded. Most of the shadowy demons, though, revealed, scream and hiss, and flee direct sight, unprepared to be so unveiled. They are cowards, these: imps joining in on a larger activity. They will regroup, no doubt. This amounts to about half of the 'crowds' previously drawn to Constantine and Kid just fled. That will buy some time.

    Raven's statement to her 'spirit' makes it look upon her, and then drift directly towards her, ghostly face still holding solidity. It is unable to recognize that she is a threat to it, it is single-minded in an attempt to siphon her life from her.

Kid has posed:
    Kid slurps his slurpie and procedes to flip Constantine the bird as he begins casting at him. Seriously summon the 5 elements of earth (which is an element) from 6 directions? How does that even work! Between zombies and this...and lack of 'real world' raising, the idea of a magic isn't actually crazy to him. Eitherway spell also reveals - that yes this is a gorrila, deal with it.

Now the demons and stuff that are revealed from the spell...makes him slurp in short bursts for a moment. Welp, time to fight! He been rearing to go all weak! Unsure of what these things do, or what they are capable of, Kid sets down his mango slurpie...and procedes to knuckle run towards the apparent spirits and apperations. Actually leaping up to come down and smash his fists into any beneath if he can! He never actually fought or seen spirits before so...yea. Amature fighter is amature.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Jessica Drew was driving with a freshly-baked pizza riding shotgun. Normal night, like any other. Except when she stopped to fuel up the car, there was a madman ranting outside of the convenience store. Nothing terribly out of the ordinary...most of the time. But since she has been on high alert, any lead might be worth a followup. He kept repeating something about a cemetery...THE CEMETERY.

"Buckle up, Pepperoni. We're going for a drive." By the time she reaches the location where a man has slammed into a pole, Jessica can only assume he is unconscious from his injuries. She pulls the man from the car, determining he is still breathing, for now. And she summons an ambulance four blocks over, webslinging her way there with the man in tow. She leaves him there just as the ambulance arrives. Then, moments later, she has returned to the cemetery.

Constantine has posed:
John cocks his head when the spirits are revealed but the gorilla stays. "Well, I've seen weirder," he mutters to himself.

"Oi, Koko, if you can talk best not get too close to this lot," he calls to Kid. This lot, meaning the spirits.

He needed a moment to think and take stock but it wasn't bloody likely that the spirits would give him that of their own accord. Ducking down to his doctor's bag, he opens it up and yanks out a pen knife, grimacing he pulls it open then lays out his right forearm. He begins to cut a sigil into his flesh, uttering the words:

"Copias luminis talem defendat, et opus meum mihi." When the sigil is finished it flashes with a warm soft light and John breathes a sigh as the pain of the cutting goes with it.

"Alright you lot, see if you get around that," he mutters at the spirits.

Raven has posed:
    Hunger, panic, and the like- these are things to Raven. Mutable elements. Tools. Her expresion is blank, deadpan. Some might even call it bored, but to be fair, those in the know would be aware that it's because Raven doesn't -let- herself feel excitement. The spirit's face nearly meets her own, and with it, the midnight purple of her eyes lock on its.

    "That is a bad idea."

    Very suddenly, emotions in an area around her begin to shift and change. Raven begins consuming some- flipping them around in others. Manipulating the panic and fear of the citizens, she supplants the hunger and sadness in the spirits with the panic that they're causing. She can only exert so much control- but calming the innocent bystanders while sending the spirits running back to their mistress is... Within her capacity. After all, were Raven to really flex, she could consume the emotions of half the continent.

    It doesn't come without a price- consuming these emotions lingers on her mind- the sadness, the fear, it all passes through her like a fine mesh sieve, filtered back into citizenry and spirit alike. It isn't about to quell everyone or everything- but the nature of it, the sheer -power- of it, lights her up like a christmas tree, spiritually and astrally.

    The daughter of Trigon is here, and someone is playing with Demons. Very swiftly, Raven shifts focus. The wraiths are controlled by someone- something, perhaps- in the graveyard. Her teleportation is heralded by the shadow of a great black bird along the ground, from which she emerges, amongst a setting in which the gothic girl so easily fits.

Shadow King has posed:
    The woman in the nightgown is softly singing to herself as she walks. The spirit-like forms continue to grow around her. She is giving her power to them, creating them. It is a breed of sorcery. And untended, is drawing demons in as well. Her magic summoning is not restrained in the manner it should be. This is a wild spell: unpredictable. From a magic standpoint, she is crazy to do what she's doing.
    "And in the naked light I saw ten thousand people, maybe more; people talking without speaking; people hearing without listening," sings the woman in the nightgown, her blonde hair twisting and falling into her face as a spirit-like manifestation rushes past her a bit closely. She ignores it fully. She spins around, walking in a circle near one of the fountains, entirely owning the crazy person act, if it is an act. She does not react to Raven's proximity or anyone's.

    Kid leaps upon a spirit! And that doesn't really do much. It's like brushing through spiritual cobwebs, as they are partially phased out. However, the swinging and smashes don't please it, and the physical assaults disperse and confuse Kid's quarry. It seems to orient as if suddenly waking up. It opens its mouth in an 'o' at Kid, and fades away into nothing. It is as if he jarred it enough to make it realize the error of its ways. Or he killed it. Maybe.

Two demons that fled the illusion are interested in Jessica's car. Their illusion gone, they're angry and annoyed. They are small, squat little black and red ugly things. Imps, maybe. One of them blows a giant raspberry on her window, attempting to scare her into gunning the gas into traffic.

Constantine was going to have a lot of friends. He still does, except that they create a ring around him, giving him a good three yards of space. He starts to draw rather a large crowd. They leave other objectives to go over and stare at him, at his blood, and at his sigil. They seem particularly drawn over by his magic. The longer he thinks, the more friends he's seeming to gain: but at least they are just looking at him, not attacking other people. If he wanted to gather them up, he's successful at it.

Raven's absorption doesn't redirect the spirits. Instead, as their emotions change, it jars them out of what they had been doing. They fade away, as if released from the control they were under. The placid sadness and hunger has something to do with what's driving them. Without it, they cease to be solid.

Kid has posed:
    Well wouldn't you know it! Punching ethereal being works! Remember kids, do as Hulk does and smash everything. Sure kid hit ground, but he didn't mind. Instead he rolls with it, trying to punch multiple spirits and 'jar' them back awake from whatever was happening.

His nose flairs, as he senses their hunger and saddness. It made him hungry for psychic energy. But...he wasn't about to mess with the dead that much! Not yet anyways as he rams his fist through a spirits heart, imagining ripping out it's heart!

But one thing does catch his attention...the singing. Kid doesn't really vocalize himself, but he knew the song. He actually gives pause to listen. Soon he sends out a telepathic pulse that may or may not reach people with the next lyrics as if joining in to the singing rather innotcently "People writing song that voices never share. And no one dared. Disturb the sound of silence"

Constantine has posed:
"Always good to have fans," John says as he's mobbed by the spirits. Good news, is the glyph seems to be holding them at bay, the bad, the magic was fading from it drip by drip, and when the last drip drops he's going to find himself in the middle of a pack of hungry spirits.

His first instinct is to call the door to the House and get gone from this place. He could feel Raven's workings at the edge of his perceptions and knew other hands were here to help. He'd done his bit, hadn't he? Gave it a try.

A stubborn part of him though, holds on.

"Going to regret this in the morning," he says, then he turns his eyes skyward and casts his will to the heavens.

John's tattered soul was a poor conduit for holy power, but John knew the folks upstairs weren't like to ignore a chance to intervene against this wrongness if given a channel, even a shabby one, like him. He feels the attention of the divine like a dozen judgmental eyes of Sauron upon him. It makes him feel tiny, but he intones the words ."The Sacred Cross commands you" He feels the power flow through him, a light that illuminated all his flaws. "The Star of David commands you," More light, more power, but would it be enough? "The Omkar, the Lotus, and the Shahada commands you!" The power stops coming, what's in him is what he gets, John brings his hands together then spreads them wide apart to channel that power saying, "Disperges in ventum! Be not, and be gone!â??

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
Jessica startles and screams, gripping the steering wheel of her car. When the little demons continue to harrass, she parks the car and gets out. Unwrapping her skirt and stripping off her blouse, she reveals her spidered bodysuit. She pulls on her mask ad begins to approach the spectacle, trying to ignore the little demons unless they continue to follow her. Raspberries are hardly a cardinal sin.

Raven has posed:
    Raven, it seems, is not without her wits. "Yes, we know, all around you are a million faces. Worn out places." she chides, the sarcasm on her voice somehow literally dripping into the materium. She is still -pulling- from the world around her, eating fear, dispelling sadness and sating hunger. It is an aura that seems to, in some way, delete the spirits that happen into it. This is not specifically an effect that requires no effort- but of the things Raven can do, it is the least draining.

    Raven takes to the air, approaching the singing woman she'd just mocked to confront this issue directly before her insanity brought worse into the world. "You need to stop this, before it gets worse." There is a pause, there, as Raven starts to read the girl's emotions- to determine if this is a genuine lapse of sanity, or if it is some sort of act. Whatever the nature, Raven cannot stand idly by while this maelstrom of mystic energy raises dead spirits, and calls demons. If the girl does not respond positively, Raven will begin to weave her own magic, the aura of it makes itself present. It is black as night perhpas even darker than the blackened sky itself, surrounded by a corona of bright white, as if turning the light itself to a photo negative. At the same time, she begins chanting- weaving a magic less fanciful than Constantine's in its incantation, and alien in its origin.

    The idea is to counter- like waves striking one another in a pond and cancelling each other out. The chanting grows louder over the first few moments, until her voice reaches a peak that might be considered aggressive.

    "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"

Shadow King has posed:
    Kid's spirit smashing days are going well. Some of the spirits end up being illusionary imp-demons, though. And they bite hard, like little steel traps. Four of them were near him, and they mob in as soon as he strikes true on one of their buddies.

    Constantine's spell is beautiful: it obliterates like a star falling on the spirits. At peace, they all fade in a mighty halo of his holy energy. Constantine stands alone. Well, except for one imp, that is entirely blinded by all the holy energy, and stumbles around in confusion, a little crisp.

Jessica's imps do multiple things. One steals her skirt. The other climbs into the driver's seat of her car and begins to attempt to make it drive. A few seconds later, the car pulls out of the parking spot. Imps? Gremlins!

The walker's song continues. But she skips the verses that Kid helped her with. She heard him. Or she just did a strange jump in the song. "Fools, said I, you do not know; Silence like a cancer grows."

    Her hands spread, and a ripple of magic, just like the ones that brought everyone here, flares from her like a spiritual explosion. Her hair shreds as the magic tears into her, clumps of her lovely blonde hair falling away to the dirt. A price paid, as well Constantine knows. And new waves of spirits come. They pour forth. They replace those banished, those sent away. And these have a different emotion. A calm, darker purpose. Hungry and calm. The sadness is missing in these.

    Raven appears near her as the spirits arrive, and attempts to get a read. The woman technically isn't even present. She's astral walking somewhere. This is a strange shell of some kind of thing left behind. A tiny essence that is making her body walk around. Pretty horrifying.

    "Hear my words that I might teach you, Take my arms that I might reach you," sings the sorceress, stumbling against the fountain, unresponsive to Raven entirely, but still extending her arms out. Not really at Raven. More to something in her head. Some thread leading somewhere into the astral. Many of the spirits crowd her now, as they go in all directions. They ignore her, but they also don't avoid her. She disappears in their glowing cobwebs and silent, eerie quality.

Kid has posed:
     Another telepathic pulse from Kid occures - after all it was merely music! What can be the harm? "But my words, like silent raindrops fell. And echoed in the wells of silence" comes the psychic pulse. A pulse that was interuptted by four angry little imps that bite hard!

Kid let out a distressed roar at the sudden bites. His fighting was going oh so nicely untill these little jerks show up. Kid does not respond kindly as he slams his fist into one Imp, to ram him into the ground. Even as three other crawl over his body to bite and gnaw quite painfully on him! Infuriated with the creates...he grabs another two imps in his free hands, ignoring the one crawling on him still, and the other on the ground - and procedes TO FEED! Or try to anyways. he never tried to drain a demon, let alone two before! His eyes glow as he attemps to drain their psychic energies.

As this occures he does send out another telepathic pulse, matching the negative light of Raven and the Holy Power of Constatine perhaps "And the people bowed and prayed. To the neon god they made..." his attempted psychic drain on the imps growing ever more aggressive as the lines go out.

Constantine has posed:
John doesn't get to enjoy the beauty of his spell. The power goes through him like a river and then leaves him on his knees shirt soaked through with sweat. The warm glow of the sigil on his arm, gone, leaving on the angry red marks in his flesh.

The damage to John's psyche? So much worse. Nothing like asking a pack of judgemental sods for a loan and letting them run through you, pointing all the ways you fallen short. Lives not saved, good people tricked or conned, the people he's killed. He sees all of it in the afterglow of his spell and it's all he can do to keep from puking in the grass.

Magic, always has it's cost.

Slowly though, John rises, picking up his bag as he rises to his feet. He's only dimly aware of his surroundings, but Spider-Woman's red and yellow costume is hard to miss. "When'd you show up?" he asks surprised by the sudden arrival, of course he was more than a little distracted.

Then the new wave of spirits come. The girl paying the price for their summoning.

"Well this is going to be nasty," he mutters, backing towards the graveyard. "Don't remember do you have webs or is that just the other one?" he asks. "'Cause we might need to get out of here in a hurry."

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
"A bit ago," Jessica replies distractedly as her car is slammed into a concrete barrier, steam issuing from beneath the hood. "I had some car trouble." Then she focuses on Constantine for a moment and pulls off her mask to examine him more closely as her dark hair spills down over her shoulders. "Are you all right? I have webs...I'll help however I can. I...I don't understand this. Is it magic or telepathy? Are these things real?" She already knows, however...the imps are real enough.

Ghost Rider (Blaze) has posed:
A disturbance was felt in the region. So much bloody magic going on around here that it's basically ringing in Johnny's ear. The Spiritual explosion that Raven released just moments before is more than enough to call to certain people like a clanging gong...alerting those nearby.

...or at least that's what a mystic sage who's incredibly high on that magic pipe would probably say. At least in Johnny's opinion. But when he felt that ripple of magic? The Rider stirred....thus, the hunt was on. Mounting on his motorcycle, an un-charged Hellcharger, he drives towards the location of where he believes the magic is seriously going down. Something wasn't right however it was you looked at it.

Arriving to the scene of the action, Johnny drifts that motorycle into a perfect stop...before he dismounts.

Johnny wears a tattered longcoat with a silver, bladed chain around his torso (wrapped diagonally) With what seems to be a hint of a chuckle on his face. "What the hell..?" Johnny asks as he sees all the faces. Many famous, some new.

and here he thought it'd be a quiet day.

Raven has posed:
    There is, all the sudden, a flustering amount of things happening. The girl, definitely not under her own volition, is paying a price that isn't hers to pay. Moving from the girl, Raven comments, overhearing Constantine. "Yes, we should go somewhere... Else. We should -all- go." she states, before opening her arms wide. The clothing she is wearing shifts and changes- altering into a more elaborate outfit. It warps into a deep black blue cloak, the hoody reforming into this elegant attire of a sorceress from another dimension, the high cut sides and boots somehow... Fitting.

    Her eyes lose definition, turning jet black as that anti-light aura emits from her mouth, and darkness surrounds her, stretching out and practically assaulting those present- summoning girl included. It is difficult to fight, as contact with it at all is as if plunging into an ebon quagmire, sucking a person in.

    When all is said and done, those who are caught, or simply go willingly, emerge from nothingness into an endless void, atop a massive shard of stone floating seemingly of its own volition. Above this 'ground', at its center, is the sorceress Raven. It is jarring, to see a girl in her late teens wield such incredible ability- even moreso to be undeniably a magician.

    "Welcome... To Me."

Shadow King has posed:
    The singing stops. The girl stands in the midst of this new dimension. The spirits were not brought along. She stands there, hair white and patchy and her face ashen. She stares into nothing, vacant, barely a shell.

    Yet there's that connection.

    Her spirit, her mind, is still out somewhere. She is fully checked out. But the change of situation has caused whatever was driving to lose track of her. She starts to topple, like a broken doll. She's maybe nineteen, tops.

    In the graveyard, the imps are left to their own devices, as the spirits fade out, their summoner gone. They're having a PARTY. It's not full of extreme murder and soul-sucking, it is mostly just .... Wedgies. Pranks. The worst of it is the car accidents and disarray, but street heroes can deal with those.

Kid has posed:
Needless to say...getting sucked into a void of infinite nothing that was the abyss of gods knows what...is NOT something Kid wanted to do. he fought hard, animlistic, punching and snarling and biteing at the creeping darkness with ferocity. He HATED the sensation of being trapped, the idea of it. He didn't even bother finishing his demonic meal, the imps let go for the fighting

But once through...he was fine. Fascinated even, as he looks around to see the others pulled in and appearing. Most he didn't recognize, a few, namely one he did - or at least seemed familiar. The floating rock didn't bother him much or the unsual sorceress...really just getting there was the nuisance.

Though once the 19 year old, spirit summoning balding wannabe begins to wobble...Kid turns and watches. He cants his head as she topples. Welp, that happened. He knuckle walks and half picks up the girl, more supporting her really. He signs with one hand, his watch letting out a message "So - freaky friday, what all this crap? Is it really you or somethin else?" yup, still no sense of filter as he speaks to Rachel, but glances at the others.

Constantine has posed:
There's a blink from John when Spider-Woman takes off her mask, and he takes a moment to appreciate the view. Even tired to the bone a man had to be aware of the priorities in life.

"Me? I'm fine, just had angels and other divine sorts running through my psyche and pointing out all the dingy bits in my soul," John answers, not particularly caring if it makes any sense. "Basically another Thursday night, luv."

"Name's Constantine by the way," he says as he finds a bit of energy to look around and assess his surroundings. "An' yes, this is all real, sadly. There's definitely some magic, probably some telepathy, but it's real," he says before nodding to the spirits. "An' those are real trouble."

However that becomes less of a worry as Raven draws them into... well her. John's mystical senses take it in, process it, give him some warning so he knows to ride the wave rather than fight the current, it wasn't a perfect solution but it saved their souls from being sucked.

"Very prog rock album cover," John remarks dryly of their new surroundings. "Thanks for the save though, luv. Got a plan for our next move?"

As worn out as John still looks, he's taking the weirdness of it all extremely well.

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
"Oh shii.." Jessica trails off as she reels and stumbles, trying to regain her bearings. "I remember this from a video game," she finally manages, though her speech sounds tipsy and almost giggly. She looks around, taking it all in, and the new view is more than sobering.

"Except this isn't a video game. And thank God, because the only thing I was expert at in that game was falling off the big floating rock."

Ghost Rider (Blaze) has posed:
"Oh for Fu-"

Then the dimensions change! Amidst this new dimension, Johnny Blaze stands his ground, despite being pulled through into this strange world. Regardless, it's not like anything he hasn't done before. Or at least one would hope. He tries to look for the source of everything going on right now.

Buuut then creepy girl dolls are breaking a part. He simply doesn't engage yet, even though the Spirit within is screaming to be let loose. John's eyes glow a hellish fire of a red. Though he finds himself near Jessica and Constantine. "So...what'd I miss?"

Raven has posed:
    Raven floats there, in midair, silently allowing the others to regain their balance. As the girl falters and falls, she is caught by a shadowy bird, expanding from the ground under her and allowing her a soft landing onto the stone- uncomfortable as it may be, Raven isn't sure that the girl isn't innocent. Which means that she has to be saved, if possible, and letting her fall onto rock is decidedly unheroic.

    "I figured that when removed from the graveyard, perhaps even the regular dimension we all normally live in, she would no longer be summoning wraiths. However, there is... Another task. She wasn't- I think- acting of her own volition. The next step may be to find her, and whoever was manipulating her." A pause, then. "They may find us." she notes, allowing the flowing cloak and hood to close around her and obscure her form and face.

Shadow King has posed:
    The girl in the nightgown, she has been 'found': whatever made her do what she was doing seems to catch up. Her hands flare, and she attempts to summon again. Not that she succeeds, in this dimension. Her powers don't work here. Her magic rips open real injuries down her arms, though, since she tries anyway, but she doesn't react to it. She's going to shake and tear herself to pieces, at this rate.

    The attention of whatever was controlling the girl ratchets to her suddenly, finds her by walking back along her astral thread, and her body jerks. Like a possessed voodoo doll she's suddenly hyper-present, and sits up in Kid's arms like a proper little lady, seeming to expect him to hold her, even though the raven is helping out too.

    "I like your dimension," she says, smiley. She looks at each of them.

    At Jessica.

     "Jessandraaaaaaaa. Been a while." So smiley. Her arms bleed down over her fingers, fingers hooked a little like talons.

Kid has posed:
    Well this was five levels of creepy. Still supporting the girl, Kid signs "Who is supposed to Find us Freaky Friday?" he asks. He looks now to Constantine, Jessica, and Johnny as well. On this small rock...it was certainly easier to see everyone. He glances to the 19 year old and grunts. The Demon Chips were not very filling. Granted, trying to syphon off a girl in another girls soul is bad juju he imagines.

That is untill the girl pops up and Kid is gripping her. Alright, attempt at being nice is over, that too much freaky for one day. Now he outright begins trying to drain the girl, weather it is the girl herself or whatever is controlling her, if something is. He doesn't know, he just trying to get Creepzilla to lay back down!

Spider-Woman (Drew) has posed:
"Why Paulie," Jessica quips. "What's a guy like you doing in a nice place like this?" Instantly, she understands the danger, and she fires out filament upon filament - gentle threads, but strong, binding the girl's arms at her sides as best she can with a giant gorilla manhandling her. "I figured you were obliterated by now, the way your little network seems to be unraveling. Too bad you're not here. Hard to sit on your lap when you're in the ass-tral plane."

Constantine has posed:
Oh, this wasn't good.

When the thing pulling the girl's strings arrives, John grimaces, but when she tries to summon and wounds open on her arms, he strides forward.

"You let her go!" he bellows. It seemed this of all things had touched a nerve.

"Or do you want to feel that banishment I did earlier, first hand?" he asks the whatever that was inside of her.

It was a bluff, he didn't have the strength to do that again and to be honest he wasn't sure it'd work on this plane, but he was mad, and it was the first place his mind took him.

Ghost Rider (Blaze) has posed:
When that thing shows up, Blaze sighs. "Shit." Before he stood up, attempting to activate his transformation into the Spirit of Vengeance. Ghost Rider. Though as Jessica and Kid seem to be attempting to force away the creature through the girl (more the latter than the former), John simply draws his Hellfire Shotgun and makes sure it's loaded. "Let. The Girl. Go." His voice turning demonic as he seems to join Constantine in demanding the girl be released from this dark magic.

Well... this should be interesting.

Kid has posed:
Jeez! Alright, Alright! Between Constatain bellowing at him, and Johnny loading some pistol/also telling him to let go, he lets go! Seems Jessica was calling her Paulie...he had no idea what that is about, but some meals arn't worth the hassel. This was once such time, since Kid didn't actually know she was possessed. She just a weirdo who happens to be here like everyone else! Kid drops the girl, letting Jessica webbing hold her as he back off, his eyes ceasing their glow. He signs his watch speaking "Alright, alright. Dang. No need to go executing holy warrior on my ass" he snorts.

Raven has posed:
    The girl begins to try the same ritual again, and though Raven wants for a moment to immediately intervene, the spirit possesses her directly and shortly afterward, begins to, in some way, know Jessica. This causes Raven to stay silent, observing, for the moment. Constantine steps in, and Raven cannot necessarily abide by letting him stand against it alone.

    Rather suddenly, the ground beneath the girl turns, as if she is upon a dolly. Kid is assaulting her psychically, Constantine is making threats, and Jessica is offering sass. The spin will likely remove her from Kid's grip, and maybe the psychic assault, but when she turns, she will be facing Raven. "Or worse," she begins, supplementing the threats from the Rider and Constantine. "You'll deal with ME." The word me is punctuated with the world shifting.

    The black void becomes an almost stereotypical hell. Fire, brimstone, an ocean of boiling rock. Raven's eyes turn glowing, blood red, and double in number. Though only her face is visible, the skin has turned red.

    This is all bluster and illusion- but Raven controls the vertical, the horizontal, within her soul-self. She wagers only that the being in control is mystically inclined, and all of the mystically inclined will know the mark of Trigon, know of her heritage- know the sheer -degree- that this not-so-empty threat entails.

Shadow King has posed:
    "Paulie... Paulie the vegetable? Did you like happened to him?" The girl asks, as if being provoked to remember some random guys' name she's met once or twice. "You think that I----" the girl's got a gorilla 'problem', though, and doesn't finish her sentence.

    The girl's mind is coated in something that is as appetizing to consume as licking the concrete, assuming the concrete was New York concrete. It's seen some shit. Her mind itself is barely there, like a little bit of tasty frosting, and then there's this horrible, awful THING. And the gorilla will get about as far as he would if he were literally licking concrete, with consuming it.

    The girl entirely ignores Jessica suddenly, giving Kid the largest death glare imaginable. "...oh please," the girl says, flat. "I will consume each of your happy memories, then all the ordinary ones, while /burying you alive/ in a dark cell until I tire of you, and decide that you believe you're a pile of fungus. And I'm patient."

    She's then spun to stare at Raven. Her eyes flick toward Constantine sideways, even if she can't actually turn. Ghost Rider. Back to Raven. There's some analysis there, as the thing inside the girl judges them. Weighs risk, maybe. "We're just talking," it teases, slightly baiting. Still. That holy thing earlier.... "You can't get to me from here. But, I've said what I wanted to. You're going to rot. This witch is hardly worth anything. Keep what's left of her, then. I'm not without /mercy/. And I do like what you've done with your dimension. Keep it up."

    The thing starts to leave the girl.

Ghost Rider (Blaze) has posed:
Well then, the east is leaving the girl?s-body. Though the Ghost Rider seems happy to still keep an eye on the form of the creature who left the young girl...as if looking for a moment to put a hole in it.

After all....now Ghost Rider seems to be on the the hunt when he leaves this cool dimension.

Kid has posed:
There is one surefired way to piss Kid the Hell off. And that is to threaten him with imprisonment in a tiny cage. It didn't end well for his captors, the cops, or anyone that has tried to cage him. This was no different. Needless to say - Kid's temper flares beastial rage levels. This thing felt like the very thing that been giving him nightmares, tasted HORRIBLE and wanted to cage him?

Next thing that happens in a flash is Kid actually trying to grab the poor young witch in an attempt to crush her skulls in his hands. There was already to much bull today and this broke the camels back. He'll show...whatever it is this thing is, whoever this girl is!

Constantine has posed:
John steps away from the girl at first when Raven turns her private world into a hellscape.

Though as the creature taunts them and begins to withdraw from the girl his senses give him a better 'look' at the thing. It's not an image, a feeling, emotions not his own, suddenly bouncing about his mind, wrath, endless wrath and anger.

"You," he breathes at the creature and without thought lashes out with a gout of flame thrown at its retreating presense. Though in a more sober moment John might question if his flame would even work in this soul dimension.

Raven has posed:
    While not literal, Raven leaps to action as Kid does. Raven has something of an early warning system- Kid's emotions are, at this point, worn on his sleeve. She is aware of his building anger almost before he is, and when he moves to crush the girl, innocent enough as she is, Raven can't necessarily just -let- it happen. The rock elongates under Kid, causing his leap to be longer and require more effort, buying time- for Raven to speak.

    "The thing is gone," she notes, the hellscape having disappeared behind her, "And so are you."

    At that, Kid is simply -gone.- At least, from Raven's soul-self. He reappears in the graveyard, free of harm- and he can go about his evening. He's just... Not here, anymore. Afterwards, Raven turns to Constantine who is right to suspect that the flame doesn't quite work correctly. "She's just a girl. A vessel. An empty one, now. I'll do what I can to fix her. You can find me at Titans Tower. If you want to help, I'll be there."

    At that, Raven calls their presence within her soul-self to an end. Jessica, the Rider, and Constantine are returned to the quiet cemetary, and Raven to the Tower, with the girl- who she'll try and help. She can at least heal her, for what it's worth.

Shadow King has posed:
    The girl is indeed left, ditched, empty. Just that thread that suggests her real self does exist somewhere. Somewhere Astral, probably. She slumps like a comatose person, eyes open, but nobody's home at all. She's walking somewhere else, while this body sleeps. Whether she even knows what happened here... well.

    Perhaps it will seem like a bad dream.