ic House of L (IC)

[Cyroa]

James blinked. "Oh hell," he said quietly, using the H word twice in under a minute when he almost never used it at all. He felt the energies building, growing exponentially. A source long damned up suddenly about to burst free. It was going to be way beyond what was normally possible. And there was no way he could fight or counter that level of power. It was like wave after the Invasion...

He couldn't stop it but he could shield them from it. He released Erin's hand immediately, and began to eave a mystical pattern in the air. He was really not ready for this kind of thing but it wasn't like he had a lot of choice in the matter. His brow furrowed, he concentrated, summoning his own powers. "Erin, get everyone close! Quick," he gasped out harshly, voice tense from concentration and building the mystical shield. "We're almost out of time!"

[Gizmo]

Trevor was sprinting forward before his brain could make any sense of what his eyes were seeing, fedora placed back on his head in a forgotten motion. Instinct and training collided as he bounded over waiting room chairs, inky black mist cascading from his every pore as he ran, obscuring his face then his silhouette as it spread forth around the dark haired teen. His only coherent thought was to get himself and his concealing shroud between the abruptly dangerous Rick Lucas and the crowd; between a threat and his new friends. Even so, a single, guttural syllable grated from his throat, cutting through the mist and turmoil like a cold scalpel. "Enough."

[Electra]

Erin didn't quite understand what James was doing, but at this point, that didn't matter much anymore. The world seemed to be collapsing around them, and it wasn't the time for a lot of discussion. The fog suddenly filling the room made her job much harder, rendering her eyes useless and forcing her to concentrate on her other senses. There was Faith's soft sobbing breath, there was Chris's unusually fast heartbeat, there was Trevor's grating Midnight voice. She picked them out one by one, doing her best to pull them back across the room into whatever safety that James could provide. There were others, too, that she nudged in the right general direction, but her teammates were her priority right now.

[Ecalsneerg]

"Holy hell, dude!" exclaimed Chris, grabbing Rick's arms as he popped Captain Thunder and Bolt out of existance. "You... Ok, screw this!" Ignoring Young Freedom's attempts to get him teleported out, Geckoman pulled down his goggles and glared at Rick. "I'm gonna put you down until you're in your right mind enough to fix this. I know you're grieving, but..." Geckoman balled his fist.

"That's no excuse!" he shouted, launching a lightning-fast blow towards Rick's head.

[April]

Though Eve barely knew Mark, her heart was heavy with his loss, not only for his own sake but for the impact his loss had on Faith. Having stood quietly beside her cousin since their arrival in the hospital, the diminutive telepath was bothered by the little support she could provide.

She had been so focused on her cousin that she partially tuned out Rick's ranting. The abrupt disappearance of the Captain Thunder and Bolt, their mental presnce completely vanishing, shocked her to awareness. Everything was happening so fast, and it was all wrong.

--Please,-- she shouted, her mental voice plaintive. --This is a hospital! Hasn't there been enough tragedy today?--

[Avenger Assembled]

Geckoman's attack on Rick Lucas was a signal for every hero in the room to dogpile the increasingly deranged former sidekick, the old man vanishing beneath a pile of bodies as the darkness of midnight mist closed in over the room; the air full of curses and pleas and Martha Lucas' increasingly loud screaming as her world came collapsing all around her. Suddenly there was an awesome rush of energy in the room as the pure, unadulterated magic of creation and power roared through the fabric of reality all around them. In a flash of light the midnight mist was gone, and so was every hero who'd been trying to pin down Rick, the windows shattering as whirling patterns of inky black dots spun crazily through the air all around Rick's hands. The Freedom League, and much of its reserves, were gone, just like that.

"I see now!" he shouted. "I see it all!" His eyes were a noticeable shade of pure, solid black. He focused on his weeping wife and shouted, "Martha, I'm doing this for Mark! For all the children of Freedom City, and all our friends!" He threw his hands wide, the power growing till he was hard to look at. "Everything's going to be okay, I promise!" And then, he shouted a cry so loud as to ring to the edges of the universe:

I WISH EVERYTHING WAS THE WAY IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE AGAIN!