ic Blood is thicker than water

[Supercape]

GM

 

 

The orbs smashed into the Barnacle Golem, all eight feet of white and grey blisters. The sound was bad enough, like a crackling explosion of shell. But the spray of gritty shell fragments that filled the air was worse. More than a few passengers got a graze or a but of grit in their eye. 

 

The Barnacles had collapsed, loosing all form and shape. The ones that had not been shattered or swept away simply fell off, spinning and crunching. In the centre of the Barnacles was a young man - who looked like a waiter for the entertainment hall - who promptly rolled his eyes and collapsed on the floor, convulsing with a seizure and foaming at the mouth. 

[Ari]

"BRAAAAUUUGH!" bellowed Wave-Eye as he burst into the room, eyes wide and burning dark, claws twisted outward and fangs bulging in his mouth. The nerve-wracking seconds when Captain Blood had seemed to have all the cards in hand had been bad enough, but the new monsters were something else entirely. They were an unknown, something unnatural to the universe, and even after seeing one spill open under Lady Temperance's wrathful blast and seeing many stranger things over endless years, a triton was raised to distrust and fight the unknown and unnatural when it threatened the world.

 

Landing on one scaled foot hard enough to make the floor under it creak dangerously, he swung around a spined fist, driving it into the heart of the unfrozen barnacle beast with a shattering *crunch*, dragging his fist upwards in a slicing motion. Over his shoulder he called "Well hit, comrades! Let us drive this beast back into the depths!"

Edited May 26, 2014 by Arichamus

[Supercape]

GM

 

The mighty fist of Wave-Eye pounded into the Barnacle Golem with another crunching sound. The Golem was magic, that much was clear - no normal sea barnacle would have felt so strong, strong like iron. But once they shattered, they shattered true. Another gritty explosion of sound and shell splinters, again spraying the room. 

 

Again, once the barnacles fell apart, another guest lay convulsing on the floor, the core to the shell of barnacles. A middle aged woman, most likely a guest, was foaming at the mouth, turning blue, and shooting off myoclonic jerks. 

 

As Wave Eye brought his fist back, he saw a glimpse of barnacles on his knuckles, attached their firmly, and now creeping over his hand, multiplying and crawling...

[Brown Dynamite]

Glamazon had been beaming ever since Tsunami's put the proceedings in a hall.  Temperance's explosive blasts and Wave Eye's own display of his strength only served to further fill her with confidence.  The Atlantean demigoddess was clearly sitting with far more pride than the person who didn't commit the should have taken.  As much as she would like to continue to try her luck at smashing away at the skeletons, the teen knew the option was temporarily off the table.  So Glamazon re-examined the situation.  

 

Noting at first that the amount of bystanders added an element of risk.  She couldn't afford to risk damaging the ship too far on the off chance it lead to them sinking below.  Especially if there was third hostage waiting for them inside the still unharmed Golem.  Which meant a bit more of that talent that often escaped her.  Restraint.  Exhaling she took in her environment as she considered when their reprieve would end.  "Tsunami.  Is it possible to release the shackles placed upon the helpless so that our allies outside may properly rescue them?  And then we may inflict a harm most grievous upon this vile creature"

[Thevshi]

Giang watched as first Temperance and then Wave-Eye smashed the free barnacle golems, freeing the passengers trapped inside, although clearly the passengers were not better off from being freed.  At Thaelia's comments the Asian teen shook her head slightly.  "Not without freeing all our enemies as well."  She replied initially.

 

"However, we seem to have little choice, as we need to stabilize these two passengers condition."  She then added, as she began to focus herself for what she had to do.  "Be ready, I am going to release my hold on time, and then reestablish it, this time leaving the crew members and other passengers free to move to safety and help these other two."

 

With that, Giang released the hold on time that she had already established, before once again swinging her arms out and bringing them together in front of her as ripples of time washed outward, again freezing much of what was going on around the group, but this time leaving more free than previously, intended or not...

[Brown Dynamite]

Thaelia looked over at the entrapped Wave-Eye.  Her first instinct was to try and free him from his precarious position.  But that was an instinct that was shoved away behind seeing how bad the prior two freed guests were holding up.  By comparison Wave-Eye was in a far safer position.  Know that she knew the risks associated with attacking the Golem head on one would think that the Glamazon would instead grab something to separate her from direct contact with her target.

 

One would be mistaken.   Instead, the Glamazon leapt through clenching her fist together and attempting to slam them downwards in a swinging motion.  She found the creature a bit more mobile than its form would suggest as it actually moved out of the way of her oncoming assault.  The ground wasn't so fortunate as she came back down.  The Glamazon's aggressive posture readied itself for another charge.  "I shall take this creature as a trophy."

[Supercape]

GM

 

The Golem was moving again, and seemed to "snap back" to normal time with a ping. It was almost as if it moved faster, for a moment. The Barnacle thing wasn't particularly fast by itself, it just seemed to contort and bend in ways which were most uncanny, unnatural even. It was a wonder to think how the poor guests inside was not snapped in two by the contortions - most probably, another effect of the black magic that had animated it. As Glamazon swung fist, she smelt the sea and salt of the creature. 

 

Captain Blood was shocked, to say the least, now he had also come back to normal time. 

 

"Mutiny! Yer claim my prize do ye? Took me some dark deeds and dark pacts to bring forth the blistering barnacles, it did. And now ye snatch away me prize! For yer own motley crew, maybe!"

 

"Well, I may have lost that, but I'm not to be held in debt to the drowned man! I'll hold up my end of the bargain, sure I will! To Davy Jones Locker with the whole ship! Haha!" he laughed, before floating, incorporeal, down through the floor. 

[trollthumper]

Temperance surveyed the room, trying to block out the boasts of Captain Blood. The golem was still wandering, and given how swiftly it had grown before, there was always a chance it could grow inwards. She didn't want anyone to get caught in the world's briniest iron maiden. The water rose at her whim and swiftly condensed, forming into bocce ball-sized hailstones. She drew back her arm as if making the perfect pitch and sent the stones hurling out at great speed. They struck the golem perfectly, sending it clattering to the floor in pieces.

There wasn't time to breathe, though; if Captain Blood was good on his threat... "We need to get down into the hold, now. I do not know what he's capable of, but if he's done this much, I'd hate to see what he can do around something that can explode."

[Ari]

"Not without them, Lady Temperance!" snarled Wave-Eye, muscles bunching and sliding like snakes under his red scales, the fishman tearing himself free of the barnacles with a cry of relief and pain, stumbling toward the fallen passengers and raking at his body with his claws to get the clinging stuff off. That done, and before the last barnacle dropped to the floor, he'd drawn the conch from his side and put it to his thin lips.

 

'I am a triton...a warrior of the seas...I cannot create, but maybe...I can mend!'

 

With a mighty blast of sound that was felt more than heard, a fountain of water burst from the magic shell, splashing and bouncing across the floor to pour itself over the dying people. Encircling the chests of the former prisoners, the water shuddered and pulsed rhythmically, with each reverberation it slowly brought color and life back to their faces!

 

As the prisoners breathed again, slumping unconscious to the soaked floor, Wave-Eye let the shell fall from his mouth, the booming note ending at last.

 

His shoulders sagged, and his own breaths were slow and labored, but he marched back to the others and nodded shortly. "Lead on. I'd smash through to the pirate, but I'd rather not sink the ship looking for him."

[Supercape]

GM

 

One of the waitresses, whose name tag said "Bella", a young, fiesty redhead, spoke up. 

 

"Is he going to sink the ship? the Engines?" she asked, although everyone knew the answer. 

 

"You gotta stop him! Please!" she implored, casting her eyes around the rescued crew. Unfortunately, most of them were catering staff and the like. Temporary jobs for youngsters, attractive enough for some bucks and a few months at sea. None of them really knew their way round the bowels of the ship. None of them had been on it for long. 

 

Except one. 

 

"Him! He knows the way!" she said, pointing a semi-accusatory finger at Sammy Smooth, the middle aged, orange-tanned, slightly balding and sparkly smooth "entertainer" who sang classics to the guests. Sammy Smooth, who had been singing the same songs, drinking the same cocktails, and trying his luck with the young waitresses for years. The only true Veteran of the ship. 

 

"Me! No! No way! I ain't going down there!" said Sammy Smooth, losing his smoothness. "I gotta wife! I got kids!" he lied. 

[Brown Dynamite]

Thaelia was staring down at the floor with keen intent.  Wave-Eye pointed out the risks of smashing around.  It was a sound assessment.  If the ship sank, even if they combined their strength, It would be no easy task to keep afloat.  However, she was both impulsive and petulant at the worst of times.  Raising both fist overhead she prepared to slam them against the floor beneath.  Reassuring herself that it would not sink under the strain.  

 

And even if it did.  That would be preferable to whatever means that the ghost was seeking to accomplish the same result.  The Atlantean royal perked up at Sammy Smooth being used as an example of someone who knew their way around.  "Perfect!  Come along so that you may one day weave tales of your valiant heroics to your loved ones!  Lest your tales turn to cowardice and death."  The pleads of family had the opposite from the intended effect on Thaelia, was instead spurred forward into action.  Bringing her fist down as hard as she could against the floor to chase after Captain Blood beneath.

[Ari]

"For shame, Smooth!" barked Wave-Eye, the black orbs jutting from his criss-crossed skull somehow focusing on the fearful singer "Thinking to save your hide by endangering your fellows? Back in my day, you would have been thrown to the sea-goblins! Be thou a man!" It was sometimes hard to remember the gulf between superbeings and normal humans, especially if, like the triton, you only had limited exposure to comparatively weak surfacers.

 

Glancing worriedly at the Daughter of Earthquakes as she began trying to splinter the floor, the ancient soldier weighed the band's options. 'No sense in granting that lordless wretch any more time than necessary, but still...we must have eyes'

 

"Smooth! Thy first task," the triton gestured to the floor "is to tell us the quickest way to the engines. If it cramps or burns, so be it. These ceilings and walls won't stop Blood, but we can!"

Edited July 12, 2014 by Arichamus

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Ceilings and..walls? whadyya hell ya mean?" bubbled Sammy Smooth, wringing his hands. His hair, combed over to hide the beginnings of male pattern baldness, started to sink, defying the liberal application of gels and sprays he applied to it before every show. 

 

"Whaddya mean ceilings and...oh hell no!" he gulped, clocking on to Thaelia's direct action. 

 

 

A few smashed floors later...

 

"This is a damn ship guys! Ya can't just be smashing through every damn wall and floor!" said Smooth, not living up to his name. His hair and his demeanour were both in a spin. 

 

He pointed with one wobbling hand aft. The engine rooms. Which where silent. 

 

"No more digging, you dig?" he burbled. "Smash down below and you hole the ship! I'll never sing again!" he croaked. By the way his voice dried up, he wasn't in best to sing right now, either. 

 

The door to the engine room was thick, plated steel. Tougher than the doors above by far. But still no match for the four superheroes of the sea!

[Thevshi]

"Whatever Blood's plans are, he will not be causing further damage to the ship, not as long as my power keeps the ship and the water around it frozen in time." Tsunami replied in response to comments from the worried crew members about what the ghost pirate might be planning. "We will continue our pursuit. Meanwhile, it would be best for you to gather all the passengers together and get them to safe locations where you can easily move them to life boats should I need to release the ship."

With that, the Asian teen started toward the direction the crew indicated toward the engine room. When they reached the sealed door, she released the metal door from her powers, to allow one of the others to force their way in.

[trollthumper]

Temperance was a little reluctant to engage in such massive property damage. But there was a great suite of difference between punching a few holes in the floor and blowing a huge gash in the hull. She hoped that Tsunami's weird time magic might include an "undo collateral damage" setting.

Of course, we won't get to find that out if we're all at the bottom of the ocean...

She extended her will above; the water that had come to her command upstairs now fell into her hands. She flung it out towards the door, her will turning it rigid in mid-air. But not as a solid. She'd done some reading in her downtime, and learned a lot more about the various properties of water. Some labs and construction firms, for instance, used a water jet cutter to slice through hard materials. Like, say, solid steel. Their little shortcut had provided a good deal of grit, she tossed it into the stream, and went to work peeling away the door.

[Supercape]

GM

 

As the water swirled into door, Wave Eye and Glamazon took to either side. Both had the strength of dozens of men, if not more. Even their mighty grip alone crushed the handles on the door, and ripping it asunder was as easy as tearing paper. 

 

Inside the engine room, there was smoke. And not the nice kind. Thick, acrid smoke that hit the lungs like an arrow. It was hard, or impossible to breathe, and it only looked worse inside, thicker, denser, and hotter. 

 

The engines - well, presumably they were in meltdown. but it was impossible to see them clearly. Note only was smoke belching every way, but a veritable mountain of the twisted mutated barnacles had encroached every bolt, nut, and crank of the engines. The waves of barnacles seethed slowly, rolling, waving, as they embraced the engines. 

 

Captain Blood was there, ghostlike and arrogant. Hearing the door, he spun round. 

 

"So! Me hearties! Followed me to the bowels did ye? Ready to go down with the ship???"

[Ari]

Wave-Eye burst through the door with the others, its debris raining down on him and bouncing off like clattering hail. Sliding to a halt he pointed an accusing claw at Captain Blood "Pirate! Lordless one, what do you gain from all this? Your own vessel travels the seas as wraithlike as you yourself! Your immaterial crew is reborn as soon as it is bested! Whom do you serve by this, wretch of the deep?"

As he spoke, the triton drew his conch, and as the last words echoed he blew a thunderous blast on the aquatic trumpet, sending lashing blades of water surging around the barnacles!

[Supercape]

GM

 

It seemed to happen almost in slow motion, as if Tsunami had stopped time. Whatever horror the barnacles had come from, their insidious infection was deep and powerful. Powerful enough that Tsunami could not stop it. It was like a train crash about to happen...

 

The power of Wave-Eye was staggering. The water smashed into the barnacles that blistered, shattered, and exploded around the engine room. It was raining splintered and whole barnacles. Something was eerie and nauseating about them. 

 

Then, a deeper explosion. As the barnacles ripped off the engine, the smoke and heat magnified for instant, before condensing into a deafening slam of twisted metal and fire. 

 

Captain Bloods laughter could be heard for an instance, before the sound of water rushing in through the holed ship drowned him out. 

 

Sammy Smooth screamed. 

 

"I can't swim!"

[Brown Dynamite]

Thaelia did not even have time to admire her companion's fearless assault.  In an instant the scene turned into one of pure chaos.  The blades of water were tearing into the barnacles for sure.  Unfortunately that only seemed to turn them into shrapnel effectively weaponizing their environment.  It would have been an interesting sight to behold if they weren't dead center in the midst of the danger zone.  Thaelia opened her mouth to speak her own taunts towards the spirit, her efforts quickly dashed by the sudden explosion.

 

Glamazon was sent flying by the concussive force of the explosion.  The searing heat bearing down on her mentally all the further as she found herself too startled to properly react.  The demigoddess was left unaware as the flying bits of barnacle latched onto her flesh.  Tying her limbs to her torso.  "Accursed creatures, you dare.  You dare."  Her admonishment towards the barnacles never fully formed.  Her head knocked into a bit of a loop in the daze of the commotion.  Not even able to focus in on the danger presented to Sammy Smooth immediately.  

[Thevshi]

Giang had felt the strange barnacles that covered parts of the engine room struggling against her power, some deeper force restarting the flow of time in the compartment.  And then Wave Eye struck out against whatever it was the Captain Blood was planning, and the engine room exploded into chaos.

 

The Asian teen was luckily quick on her feet, her years of martial arts training serving her well as she rolled to one side, avoiding the worst of the explosion, her watery forcefield handling what little effects managed to brush against her.

 

The smoke and gloom in the compartment did not hamper her ability to detect the massive amounts of water that were beginning to pour into the ship through the pierced hull, or the water gathered around the still intact portions of the hull.  Focusing on the water around the gap in the hull, Giang reached out with her power, causing the water to take a solid form, coving the hole and repelling the ocean water that was trying to rush into the ship.  For the moment, her solid water patchwork job held, keeping the ship from taking on any more water.

 

"Do not be so quick to assume that anyone will be going down with the ship so easily."  She called out to the ghost pirate as she maintained the temporary repair.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Captain Blood spun round to face the motley crew of marine heroes. Angry was one word to describe his face. Furious was another. 

 

"Curse the lot of ye! I sold much to get the blistering barnacles of the sea! Made promises that I best keep, or woe betide what's left of me soul!" he said, swishing his cutlass left, right, and forward in vexation. It finished with a theatrical point at the foursome. 

 

"I promised the Drowned Man a ripe harvest of drowned souls. And one does not cross the drowned man! A new spirit walks the depths, me hearties, and black is his heart! Blacker than mine, and stronger too!"

 

He paused, pulling back his cutlass and giving a desperate laugh. 

 

"Still, there is more than one way to scuttle a ship! Believe me, I have had plenty of practice! The ship may be adrift, and ye have patched this hole well enough...but how many holes can ye patch muahaha!"

 

With that, the ghostly spirit walked off, up through the air, making for the upper levels of the ship...

 

"Help! Help! I'm drowning!" screamed Sammy Smooth, although the water was only waist high. It slopped around him, and the heroes, but rose no further, Tsunami's force was a solid suture on the skin of the ship. 

[trollthumper]

"You're in the shallow end of the pool, right now," Temperance said. "We need to find where Blood's going next, or else we'll really be drowning." But there was still the matter of the barnacles, at the very least. The good news was that everyone had been standing fairly close together when they'd been hit by the barnacles, which meant she had to put slightly less effort into this.

She called up more ice from the shallow depths of the engine room, swiftly fashioning it into spiny balls - tough enough to scrape away barnacles, but blunt enough to not do any lasting damage to the people caught in their grip. She hurled the balls with soft but firm force, aiming them towards Glamazon, Wave-Eye, and Sammy. She noticed that her pitch had gone a bit stray when she'd gotten around to Sammy, and the barrage was much softer and misdirected. But she would just have to live with that... and the tide of complaining that was likely to ensue.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The barnacles may have been blistering but so was the awesome power of Temperance. It was like a storm wave, crunching and blasting over the barnacles, causing cracks and a fine dust of sea shells to reach the air. 

 

The ghastly things put up a fight though. Undulating and grouping, moving with the water rather than against it. And barnacles had plenty of experience to face powerful waters. That said, it was too much for Wave-Eyes new friends...they splintered and shattered, and fell off Wave Eye like the sounds of pebbles falling into water. He was free. 

 

 

"Hey man! What about me?" screamed Sammy, still bound tight. Some of the horrors were crawling over his nose, encrusting him more and more. 

 

"I'm gonnna die! I'm gonna die! Not like this! If I die! I'm going to sue you! See you in court!" he wailed, incoherent with fear. 

[Brown Dynamite]

Thaelia rolled her eyes as she heard the threat of litigation.  Undead litigation at that.  Sammy smooth was clearly not a man of valor as the Atlantean held it to be true.  His cowardice meant nothing, as in the end her honorbound duty to keep those in danger meant he wasn't about to die.  Not if she had something to say about it first..

 

"Let the Daughter of the Seas ease all thy concerns.  On this day none shall perish."  Flexing her muscles against the barnacles they began to strain under the force of her divine might.  The barnacles cracked and splinter.  "Graah."  The pieces were sent flying smashing into the walls of the already beaten down ship.

 

Thaelia was pleased with herself.  But pragmatic enough to realize they didn't have enough time for her to boast about conquering the strange manner of barnacle that had ensnared her.  The story would come after the spirit's plans were put to rest.  "Save the loud one.  I know not of this Drowned Man comrades, but we shall not let these fiends run amuck.  One phantom at a time."

[Thevshi]

Giang lowered her hands once the patchwork repair was in place, her power focused on maintaining the seal.  She looked over as Temperance managed to release Thaelia and Wave-Eye, with Thaelia quickly rescuing the lounge singer. 

 

"We should hurry."  The Asian teen commented to her companions.  "I cannot guarantee how long my repair will hold, and if Blood holds true to his thread, it may not matter if he starts creating additional damage."

 

Turning to Sammy, she added, "tell the Captain to get the passengers near the life boats, to be ready should Blood cause more damage to the ship."