ic Summoning Shenanigans

[Scuffles]

GM

The cloth binding the flying villain's eyes went up in smoke as his fireball went off around the still invisible Weaver, but moments later Rene's magic swirled around him once again. The flames dimmed and flickered for a moment as the boy fought to stay awake. And failed. Snuffed out like a candle he hovered in the air for a couple of seconds longer, then keeled over forwards and fell. With a loud smack he landed face first on the road. The impact didn't even wake him from his magically induced slumber.

The summoner - Marcus - tore free of his blindfold just in time to see his partner in crime land, and swore colourfully. With the stolen package from the delivery tucked securely under his arm he dashed towards the fallen pyromaniac, ducking and dodging away from more swirling towels and scarves as he went. Reaching the other boy he grabbed a firm hold on the back of his robe, glanced at the still battling girl, then disappeared with a loud pop and a flash of light.

The warrior demons all continued to flail and thrash at the flying cloth as it blinded them, although the ones near the wrecked Toyota found it a large enough target to tear at with their claws despite the distraction. One managed to shatter the passenger side window, and the trapped civilian's screams got louder still as she found herself threatened even more directly.

[Tiffany Korta]

Revenant was still fairly new at this hero business but she knew enough to try and keep an eye on everything going on around her, so she was aware that the battle seemed to going their way. Taking this as a good opportunity with a little effort shifted the car she had recently been standing upon. Swinging it like a very bulky club she attempted to hit the swathed demons that had been traveling toward her.

“It seems your allies have abandoned you to your fate. I don’t want to hurt you anymore that I need to, but if you don’t surrender now I’m going to have to.â€

[Scuffles]

GM

The three demons, still struggling with the magically animated cloth swirling around the area, never stood a chance as Revenant unleashed on them with a tremendous swing of her improvised (and car sized) baseball bat. All three were launched into the air as the vehicle smashed into them with sickening crunch that shattered their armour and left an enormous dent in the side of the car.

The three summoned creatures turned to smoke as they flew through the air and dissipated, banished from the world through sheer physical might. From nearby Liberty Park a cheer went up from the civilian onlookers, although one man looked far less impressed, cringing as she yelled out "No! Not my car!"

[Scuffles]

GM

As Weaver fought to put out the strangely persistent flames that clung to his clothes, the cloth that he had animated to blind and confuse the villains fell inert and dropped to the ground.

With her vision finally unimpaired, the angry young woman with the dark robe turned back towards Revenant - just in time to see the heroine blast three of the demons into smoke with her oversized club. The youngster gaped for a moment, then snarled in fury and flung herself at Lucy once more. The blows once again had impressive power, but her control was just not up to the task and the more experienced fighter was able to easily avoid damage.

[Supercape]

Despite the Carnage, the youth (well, nearly everyone was young compared to Rene, but in this case the adjective was deserved) of the villain stayed his hand. He had no wish to fight the infernal power he was seeing with a blistering eruption of his own arcane prowess.

"Summoning such creatures is not ze wisest of actions, my friend!" he called out "restrain yourself, lest your recklessness consume you!"

Having said that, he once again reached out and produced his own painting, summoning a spiralling, twisting network of iron chains that fell from the sky right onto the demon-summoner.

[Scuffles]

GM

The young villain wasn't quick enough to dodge Rene's magical chains for a second time, and they looped and twisted around her then snapped tight, trapping her arms tightly against her sides. The young woman howled in rage and struggled against the restraints but couldn't burst free despite her impressive strength.

Meanwhile the demon warriors, finally free of Weaver's magical blindfolds, renewed their attack. The door of the wrecked Toyota was wrenched free as one began to climb in after the trapped driver, while two others continued to rend and hack at the hood and roof.

The other four spotted Revenant and shared a look at each other, then charged the formidable woman. As they closed and lunged to the attack however they managed to obstruct each other. All four swings went wild, and for a moment it looked like the demons were about to fight amongst themselves. The hissed and snarled at each other, then turned back to the heroine, spreading out slightly to stalk her as they prepared for another attack.

[Tiffany Korta]

Revenant moved towards the young woman, she was still convinced that she could talk the woman round but it might be necessary to subdue her first. Still one more try to stop her attacks before Lucy would had to really hurt this poor woman.

“You really don’t have to do this. You’re out classed and out matched.†To prove the point she punched in the face one of the demons who was approaching her from behind. “It’s probably best for everyone if you just surrendered.†she gave a girl a confident smile.

[Scuffles]

GM

Revenant's fist smacked into the unsuspecting demon's face with an awful sound and the evil creature went flying backwards, disintegrating into a puff of black smoke as it went. This did nothing to deter the remaining villain however. In response to Revenant's simple taunts she just snarled and spat, fighting furiously to free herself from the magical bonds that held her. It was no good though, Rene's chains proving most resilient despite her impressive strength.

[Supercape]

Rene shifted his attention to the car being torn apart by the demons, and the poor soul trapped within. That did not, in his opinion, look good.

He felt like he was in a war again, and that carnage was dancing her way through the streets. Blood and misery - that was his recollection of the various wars he had been caught up in.

Raising his hands, he threw a gesture at the demon crawling in to (possibly) gobble up the driver, and an intricate stream of spider webs flew through the air from his hand, directly into the demon.

"Not so fast, devil!" he chuckled as his magic erupted through the air.

[Scuffles]

GM

Rene's magical webs wrapped tightly around the carjacking demon and plastered themselves to the seats, roof and dashboard of the totaled Toyota, trapping the snarling creature tightly. It thrashed and flailed furiously but the webbing held it strongly, so it succeeded in doing little more than terrifying the trapped driver even more.

The other two demons near the vehicle saw the webs shoot past and spun to face their source. With howls of rage they raced at the still veiled master magician and slashed wildly with their claws. Unable to actually see their target however they managed to hit nothing but air.

The three remaining creatures stalked Revenant, actually showing a semblance of tactical sense by spreading out around her to attack from three sides. All three converged on the heroine at once in a coordinated attack, but clearly they were inferior warriors. Revenant easily sidestepped two of the attacks and parried a third, and the fiends backed away snarling, unsure of how to press the attack.

[Tiffany Korta]

Taking in the scene Lucy saw she had two options either to attack the young villain or destroy the rampaging demons. Or there was always a third option to combine the two.

“Just remember I wanted to go easy on you.â€

Turning her attention on the three demon she studied there movements, watching them circling her all looking for a moment to attack. When she saw the moment her actions were swift and precise, she grabbed the demon by it claws and with a single fluid motion threw the creature towards the young villain.

[Scuffles]

GM

The demon let out a squeal as Revenant caught it in a vice like grip then sent it hurtling towards the still bound young woman. The pair collided with an almighty crash and went down in a heap, chains and all. The demon however immediately bounced back to its feet and gave the heroine a defiant snarl.

That defiance didn't last long. Even as it began to stalk Revenant once more the summoning magic that bound it began to unravel. The creatures flailing at Rene wavered as well, then with a sudden pop of displaced air all of the remaining hellspawn simply vanished - wrenched back to whatever plane of existence they came from.

That left one enraged young woman. Despite having been knocked nearly senseless by the impact of the flying demon she continued to struggle against the magical chains that bound her, snarling guttural curses as she failed to free herself despite all of her strength.

[Supercape]

Rene peered at the woman through his glasses, rubbing his chin.

"Possession! Young lady, you have been dabbling with ze forces beyond your control!" he said firmly, with a punitive tone.

"I understand..." he turned slightly to Revenant.

"Ze spirits perfuse this world, alive, but intangible. But ever so often, ze spirits, they condense, become more real, take life...take mind...like this young lady. Infused with pure rage...."

"Of course, ze question is, how? but I fear only the lady can answer that. And she is, as they say, not quite with us..."

He furrowed his brow and pressed his head to his temples. Broken Crow, probably the worlds greatest master of spirits had taught him a thing or two. It did however, require a battle of wills.

The chant he spoke was of an ancient language even Rene did not know. But its effect was powerful...as he summoned his own inner strength to eject the spirit, pressing his most formidable will into the lady, and then retreating as he did so....

[Scuffles]

GM

The spirit resisted briefly, but it simply didn't have a good enough grip on its host to hold on against the power of Rene's magic. The girl's eyes flared red for a moment and she strained against her bindings, but the battle lasted only moments. She went limp and let out a deep sigh, then her eyes focused once more and flicked back and forth between the two heroes.

Then she burst into tears.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!" she wailed as she looked mostly at Revenant who she had spent the last few minutes trying to punch. "I couldn't control it, it made me strong and all I wanted to do was hit and hurt and break and I knew it was wrong but I couldn't make myself stop!"

Still tightly bound by Rene's magical chains the girl dissolved into tears once more, sobbing inconsolably.

[Supercape]

"I think we can dispense with these" said Rene, with a wave of his hand. The chains evaporated as if they had never been there.

"Now then, my dear" said Rene, with some consolation in his voice, sitting down and patting the young woman gently on her hand.

"Why don't you tell us about it...what happened? please, I know it is difficult, but the more you can tell us the better...."

[Tiffany Korta]

She watched Rene expelled the spirit, it was frustrating that she couldn’t help with such things. But when he’d finished all that was left was a small frightened girl. Now thtat was something she knew she could deal with.

Revenant wasn’t happy that her instinct weren’t right, she had still had to try to hurt this poor girl, but she was there only way to find out exactly what was going one. But first they’d have to deal with a poor frightened girl.

“It’s fine you were not in your right mind.†She embraced her in a comforting, she hoped, hug.

“But we really need to help your friends so we need to know exactly what happened?â€

[Scuffles]

GM

The young woman took a minute or two to compose herself, then launched into a disjointed account of the events that had led to her demonic possession incident. The tale started in a reasonably common way - Cassandra (for that was her name) and her friends Marcus and James, while academically gifted, were unpopular at school and victimized by bullies. The three had dabbled in magic hoping to gain some kind of power over their tormentors.

"James and I had no talent for it at all," she shrugged. "But Marcus seemed to pick it up quite quickly. It was only a week or two before he could conjure a little flame, or make some light, or move something around. I asked him how he learned it so fast just from books and he said it was like a little whisper in the back of his brain, like the magic spoke to him."

"He started reading about spells and rituals that could make their users stronger. We thought that if we were strong then maybe we could make them leave us alone, so James and I went along with it. We did the ritual last night. James drew up this circle and there was candles and some kind of incense burning and he had these.. these things. I don't know, he said they were artifacts of some kind."

"I guess the ritual worked. Sort of. At first it felt good. I was so strong! I've never felt like that before.. but then.. I started to feel it pressing on my mind. It made me mad, I wanted to go out and smash everyone who ever hurt me! And then I couldn't control it and I just wanted to smash everything and I couldn't make it go away!"

The girl took a deep shuddering breath. "Marcus brought us out here to hit this delivery truck," she said as she gestured at the chaotic scene. "I think it had something he wanted. Maybe another artifact or something to make his magic stronger? I don't know."

The tears started again. "We hurt people didn't we? I hurt people. I'm so sorry... I'm going to jail for ever aren't I?"

Meanwhile, with the situation seemingly under control, people began to move back towards their gridlocked cars and police arrived to secure the scene along with paramedics to treat the injured. Much of the attention was centered around the crashed vehicle with the trapped driver and after a brief discussion one officer approached the heroes to request their help in freeing the woman.

Even the delivery truck driver was upright and ducked into the back of his destroyed van to survey the damage.

[Supercape]

"So, ze question is, how did your friend Marcus get so good at Magic, eh?" said Rene, stroking his beard.

He had heard of all sorts of magical masters, and experts. But this was exceptional. Nobody picked up the arcane arts that quickly. And even if he did, somehow, it was outright dangerous.

"And don't worry about going to Jail. What you did was foolish, tampering with ze arcane. But you were not yourself when you caused such destruction. You were possessed. You felt ze rage, oui? that was not your own...and it has gone now..."

Not without cost... he reminded himself. He felt tired and old. He looked at Revenant. She knew far more about the law than he did, even if she was somewhat out of date in terms of training...

[Tiffany Korta]

Lucy gave the young woman a reassuring look

“Well superhero law is a complicated thing, and I’m still catching up with everything, except the earliest tenants.†There was a note of pride in her voice “But you can’t be responsible for anything you’ve done under possession, and no one been harm so that avoids civil suits. Though WE might have to pay for that car.â€

She gave the young woman a cheeky smile.

“But that a problem to deal with later and I’ll help you where I can. But first we’ll have to stop your friends from doing any more harm. Do you have any idea where they went?â€

[Scuffles]

GM

"Damn right you better pay for my car!" was the shout from the owner of Revenant's makeshift baseball bat. He wasn't game to approach the heroes to make more of an issue of it though.

Cassandra brightened just a little, reassured by Lucy's words. She still looked miserable but it was a vast improvement over miserable and terrified. She wasn't however able to help too much with tracking down her friends.

"I'm sorry, I don't really know where they would have gone. I know Marcus wanted one more artifact or something. He said it was a pair with the one from the truck but that's all I know about it. And then I think he had a place set up to do his next ritual but I don't know where it is! I'm sorry, I wish I could help more. Please, you have to stop them! I just know something bad is going to happen..."

Meanwhile, the delivery driver had emerged from his battered van. He made his way over to join the conversation and held up a PDA. "I can tell you what they took," he said. "It was actually supposed to be my next delivery, headed for the Hunter Museum. I don't know exactly what it was but it's listed on my manifest as a dormant, non dangerous magical relic. I'd guess the people at the Museum would be able to tell you more."

[Supercape]

"Then it sounds as if we must head there at once!" replied Rene, thanking the driver.

He turned to the frightened young woman in front of him.

"Do not worry, madam. We can stop this before it gets any more out of hand. Your friend Marcus will be safe..." he smiled.

Rene had dealt with a fair number of crackpot jumped up dabblers in his time, summoning things that really should not be summoned. Unfortunately, he conceded, it did not always work out well...

He turned back to the Driver.

"Do you have a picture of ze Museum? Any thing will do, like in a map or something, it needs to show ze museum itself, like a photograph..." he asked, taking out his magic paintbrush.

He wiggled an eyebrow at Revenant.

"I can get us there in a moment if we have a painting!"