7129/Wormhole Woes: Paving through Hell

Wormhole Woes: Paving through Hell
Date of Scene:	02 April 2019
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Doctor Doom and Lex Luthor fight the demons that tried to invade the Nexus. Souvenirs are taken, and the original breach is sealed.
Cast of Characters:	7407, Lex Luthor, Doctor Doom

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Santolouco (7407) has posed:
    Suffocatingly putric acidic smoke defines this realm. Peels of crimson lightning arc behind the sulfuric clouds of this rift, and the screeches in the mind of something beyond mortality announce it's malicious intent. The rift's barrier holds, a violet streak across the red hued sky.
    The rocky ground is jagged, gaps and holes hiding movement that creeps around. There is a crack of thunder, and a shadow in the sky moves, large and hulking, hidden by the clouds.

Lex Luthor has posed:
It's taken a good while for Lex to adjust to this new reality. The atmosphere was hardly supporting, and that psychic scream was an entirely new problem that Lex couldn't out-think. He needed to bring his resolve into play for a totally new form of attack, and as he sits on the ground with his suit gauntlet pressed to his suit helmet, he's breathing hard as the pain turns tolerable.

Lex is alive, but he's obviously completely out of his field of expertise right now. Seems the man has never explored other realities.

Doctor Doom has posed:
Doctor Doom heads toward Luthor, since there is uncertainty on his part that the other man's suit is designed for this sort of environment. It's not like they were expecting to get sucked into another dimension, so... "On my way to you, Luthor. Steele yourself against the mental attacks, and we will find a way out of this."

Not that Doom feels great compassion toward his peer, but his demise would be dreadfully inconvenient right now. As he travels, Doom seeks the source of the psychic screams - they'll need to end /that/ threat quickly, since the multitudes are just lying in wait for the pair to falter.

Santolouco (7407) has posed:
    In the close distance, a mountainous feature seems to breathe, moving. Closer examination might reveal that it is in fact teaming with living creatures, some like the ones that came through the portal, others entirely different. Above, one of the slittle batlike creatures swoops down, Slapping against the helmet of Lex's suit, trying to gnaw its way through visciously. It may be little more than a pest in his defenses, but perhaps a foreboding of what may be coming.

Lex Luthor has posed:
Under normal circumstances, Lex might be thinking a bit clearer. Under normal circumstances, Lex would realize what is going on a bit more than he does.

This is not in anyway normal for Lex Luthor, and even if the batlike creature is doing little more than try to gnaw through the structural forcefield, Lex still brings up one of the gauntlet projectors and sends a repulsor blast at the thing with a frustrated "RRAGGHHHHH!"

It's clearly overkill, with those repulsors capable of enough force to push back and damage battle tanks... but he does it nonetheless, not caring where the beam ends up.

"This must be how telepaths feel when they're fighting each other." Lex growls out, still in pain... but it's becoming a bit more bearable. Maybe.

Doctor Doom has posed:
"Mm." Doom intones as he reaches Luthor. "I doubt we have words to adequately describe it, yet." he says quietly via their comms. "Now we have choices to make. We can flee, but we don't know enough about our foes to know if we can escape. We can fight, which we have more data on doing, but their numbers beg question of our success."

He then points up at the shadowy thing lurking in the sky, "That should be our primary foe, I think, should we decide to fight."

Santolouco (7407) has posed:
    The shadow moves slowly, and from the clouds a foot descends as if to announce it's presence. Dozens of the smaller creatures on the ground are crushed inconsequentially, scattering as it takes another lumbering step forward. Black and scaly talons come from the foot, digging into the landscape. It is probably over three hundred feet tall. There is a roar, an ear splitting sound that is accompanied by the scream in the mind all the louder. It is likely the source of that psychic attack.

Lex Luthor has posed:
"ARGH!" Lex almost buckles under the renewed attack... but he's already adjusting for it by the time he reorients himself. "That thing is annoying, and will probably try to get through the hole if we leave it here." Lex slowly stands, "I need a moment to think, which means it needs to be dealt with." Lex looks to the large creature, "can you bring this thing to heel, or should we just kill it and be done with it?"

The sound of his warsuit reconfiguring can be heard as the plasma cannon on his right shoulder adjusts for sniping.

Doctor Doom has posed:
"Of course." Doom says confidently, yet with a silent 'but' in there that he doesn't explore in detail. Instead, he says, "We should take the more expedient path. If you're able to keep its attention, or at least keep the smaller ones off me, I should be able to render it incapable of harming us and solve our dilemma."

He glances once to Luthor to make sure the man is steady enough to enact the plan, as well as look over the field of battle to gain a sense of whether they will have more creatures to deal with yet.

Lex Luthor has posed:
"The sooner, the better. I have a days worth of pure atmosphere in my life support system, so let's make this quick." Lex responds, before his thrusters engage, and he's going at maximum acceleration to max speed, his gauntlet projectors already firing blasts at the creatures around the big one. Seems Lex is content to support Doctor Doom, this realm being more his expertise.

His suit scanners are already working on creating a working overmap of the area, along with a projection of hostiles in the area for him to deal with. The big creature gets a scan too.

Santolouco (7407) has posed:
    The head descends from the low hanging clouds, orange orbs afire as the jagged maw opens, trained on the two humans below. It's missing its right hand. Around it, the smaller creatures start to swarm to its feet, moving forward as it fixes its gaze on the two. From its forehead, a pulsing red gem speaks into the minds of the two men.

    "You will give me passage to your world." Its command in the mind is compelling, a draw that makes it challenging for a non-psionic to resist. From Lex's scan, the large gem has a strange energy that radiates from it, unidentifiable to anything on Earth. The hide is thick, it's bone structure strong. Sharp teeth snap a threat as the creatures below start to swarm toward the two across the landscape.

Doctor Doom has posed:
"Foolish demon!" Doom thunders through the amplification of his suit. "You are correct in one thing only, it /is/ MY world" that bit sounding /distinctly/ possessive "but grant you naught but defeat, for you raise a hand against Victor Von DOOOOM!!" That last bit seems to linger, rumbling a bit like a proclamation of his power. After all, he is the most dangerous man alive.

Already, his rockets are fired and he jets off toward the beast, more specifically the pulsing gem on its head, firing blasts of eldritch power at the creature's eyes, throat, and such.

Lex Luthor has posed:
"I can't unseal it... and I can't relocate the breach without accessing the other side." Lex states in a sort of lazy monotone as the mental command washes over him. Lex will need to figure out how to design a suit to keep out psychic attacks later. For now, Lex is busy flying around the titanic sized creature and dealing with the swarm. His thrusts are kept at maximum as he turns the creatures around it into target practice.

Occasionally, when he spots larger creatures, he brings up the plasma cannon, idly stands still, and starts to snipe it out of the sky.

Santolouco (7407) has posed:
    The smaller creatures are blasted by the casual engagement from the Man of Tomorrow, and Doom's threat draws full attention from the monster.

    "You will become part of me..." it growls mentally, focusing it's full psionic focus onto Doom. This of course gives Lex a reprieve as it pools its energy into trying to break through Doom's own psychic barrier.

Doctor Doom has posed:
"EXCELLENT idea!" Doom growls back, defiant to the last against this thing as he flies straight at the thing's face, aiming his blasts so he can shred the eye and dive right in. The gem is on its head, right? Probably easier to dislodge it from the inside of the skull than it is the outside - less dealing with hands swatting at oneself.

*ZOT* *ZAP* *ZAPOW*

Lex Luthor has posed:
"Finally. I can think." Lex breathes in huge relief as the psychic attack moves off him. Now that he can actually take in the situation, it becomes clear what he needs to do. Instead of dodging around it, he needs to become a giant target to draw attention.

Lex stops in mid-air somewhere in front of the gigantic creatures face where Doom just went into the creature from, and starts to casually fire repulsor blasts at the creatures around him to draw their attention. "As good a time as any to field test it..." The plasma cannon barrel reconfigures on his shoulder, transforming from pulses, to a beam emitter, and he starts to fire the plasma beam straight through vast clusters of the swarming demons... only occasionally interrupted as the power subroutines glitch.

Santolouco (7407) has posed:
    The beast shrieks as Doom plows through the eye socket, a spray of black blood flowing as it claws ineffectually at it's own face, trying to get at the intruder that has just blowed into its head. The smaller demons swarm away from Lex, as the cannon pulses through and obliterates several of them. They become like a single army of ants, aiming for their patron to come to its aid. Flying, climbing up its body, they quickly scurry on the way up it's legs and arms, trying to defend it from Doom as he works at the monster from the inside. Surely many of them are small enough to get inside the hole in the eye if they reach it.

Doctor Doom has posed:
It's not like Doom is dallying; he sets to work quickly, relying on sensor data to locate then work on dislocating the gem from the demon's skull. What a /prize/ this will make!

The Monarch of Latveria intones with naught but malice and - of course - DOOM in his voice, "You sought to make a servant of Doom, foolish demon but it is you who shall serve /me/; I shall leave your wrecked body for your servants to feast upon, for they serve you not out of devotion but out of FEAR of your power."

Several surgical blasts to loosen the moorings of the gem.
"Power..."
More blasts, aimed at the servants that make it inside the beast's skull.
"Which is now..."
This all must amount to an indescribable headache for the demon, right?
"...MINE!"

Doom makes a push of great effort to heave the gem from the beasts head, escaping through the self-same hole created.

Lex Luthor has posed:
Thinking on the fly is something Lex is very good at, and at this point it's coming in handy with assessment of the situation. They're hive minded, or at least in a strict hierarchy with channeled aggression. Time to switch tactics.

When it becomes clear they're moving around Lex to defend the creature, and Lex turns around and flies directly into the hole seconds ahead of the swarm. Settling down directly in their path, his left gauntlet is brought up, and Lex mentally starts to rewrite some of the projector code right there, forcing the shield in the gauntlet beyond it's intended surface area as he plugs up the hole with his secondary force shield. The shimmering 'surface' of that shield is visibly glitching though, with the occasional split second gap produced from such complicated improvisation.

"The system was never designed for this, I can only keep it up for a moment." Lex notes over the comm link, his right gauntlet plasma blade being ignited as he waits to crush any attempt to get by him with it.

Santolouco (7407) has posed:
    The makeshift plug is immediately assaulted as Lex blocks the beasts, the hand coming up toward him. It's about to pluck him free when Doom bursts through the top of the head. The tone in the area changes dramatically as the hand drops, and the body becomes lifeless, a moan of defeat escaping its last breath.

    The swarm goes from a coordinated mass to immediately a chaotic frenzy. Some continue to attack the shield, while others begin to gnaw at the flesh of their master, or attack one another in a desperate hungry rage. Instead of an army, it has become anarchy.

Doctor Doom has posed:
Outside of its host environment of the demon's body, the gem begins to pulse wildly. This is a complication Doom has calculated for, and begins enforcing his will upon the gem to bring it under his control. As he does, it begins to shrink - after all, power is not directly proportional to size whatever people might like to think. Even small things can be wildly powerful, and especially dangerous then.

"Gyyyaargghh" growls Doom, punctuating the amount of effort he has to put into this.

Meanwhile, the wormhole has already begun to collapse on its own, just more slowly than folks might like. And there's all the residual mess, so once Doom has the gem the way he wants it, he makes use of it. "Luthor.." he says at last "I am going to use the power I've taken to cleanly seal the wormhole - there should be sufficient power left to get us home, once we find a suitable location to open a new portal." Obviously he'll be bringing the stone along, as a souvenir if nothing else; he absolutely thinks it has value aside from being a trophy, however.

Lex Luthor has posed:
It's a good thing the swarm turns into anarchy, because the shield almost collapses on it's own seconds after the gem is taken. Electrical sparks can be seen coming from micro-circuits under the gauntlet armor moments before Lex deactivates the shield, and he takes a moment to bring up a suit diagnostic in his eye HUD. Meanwhile, he responds to Victor, "Nothing critical damaged, though I'm going to need to do work on the gauntlet. Without remote access, I can't make another breach."

Thrusters are engaged so Lex slowly floats out of the eye socket, and he turns around to regard Doctor Doom, "After you."

Doctor Doom has posed:
Once Doom is done 'scrubbing' the residue of the wormhole, to help prevent any future incursions if there's something else around more powerful - or as powerful - than the beast they just defeated, he is ready to go find a better (and quieter) spot from which to get them home.

"Indeed." Doom intones, and flies off in said search of said spot.