2013-10-01 - The Pen is Mightier: Part 1 - Than the Sword

7:30 PM LAST NIGHT: "Get him!" The cries for his head ring all too loudly in Gavin's ears. He's got a good lead on them, though. He ducks around a corner, and ahead of him sees an opening in the chain-link fence leading into the construction of a new building. He runs for it, presses through, and runs more, hearing the whooping of the pack of boys behind him. He trips ... and lands hard, ten feet down. And gets up, starts forwards, and trips. He gets back up, turning to see if they're behind him. BUt they run past, not looking in the big pit he's fallen in. He waits, breathlessly, until they're fading into the background, then turns to see what he tripped on. It's a wooden box? Ancient looking, and with odd script on it that's certainly not English. He reaches for it, and with a bit of digging, pulls it out. Pressing it close to himself, he sneaks on home ...

3:30 PM FRIDAY AFTERNOON: His teacher had given them the final hour of class to do the test. He, of course, had been the first to finish. He always did. Now, quietly waiting, he opens his desk to peek into the sacred box he'd found last night for the ten millionth time. And he reaches inside ...

NOW (3:40 PM): Screams erupt from Central Park as a flock of harpies descend upon the innocent people taking their daily walks, breaks, or seeing what venues might be playing that weekend ... powerful wings carry the flock down, and with bird-like claws three people are snagged up, and begin to get carried off. Their human portions and faces look horrendous; ragged, scarred, and utterly terrifying riding that borderline beteween human and full-fledged monster, wickedly sharp talons on the ends of their fingers. Another harpy lands upon a car, and her talons sink into the top of it like tinfoil, and she lifts the car, and hurtles it with violent force towards the road, and an oncoming schoolbus that's taking some lucky children home for the weekend ...

Car, flying through the air towards schoolbus. It's a shame this isn't a less rare occasion in New York, but with all of the supers around it's inevitable that these things will happen.

Fortunately, there are a lot of supers around. And the car flies, flies, descends, and hits...a big green meaty fist as She-Hulk reaches up to pretty much pluck it out of the air. Without even dropping the styrofoam cup of bubble lemonade she's holding in her *other* hand. "Who's playing bowling with cars *this* time?" she inquires, far too cheerfully for the situation. Laura has been in a walk in the middle of the Park, trying to clear her head and is on her way from some of the museums. As the car was lifted, yoinked, and then tossed through the air, Laura ducks and breaks over inot a run. And then goes over in a charge towards the.. Whateve rthe -slag- that is, her claws out then, in a full sprint to try and reach over into melee range to engage the beast. Central Park - New York City(#211Rs)

The heart of Manhattan. Central Park is a haven of greenery amid a forest of steel and glass. Fully 843 acres, the park has many aspects, and is used by millions of people every year. An aspect many aren't aware of is that while it looks natural, there is very little of the Park that isn't landscaped and heavily maintained. From every lake, the Reservoir, to each tree, this place has been shaped by the will of man. Yet this doesn't change the comfort it brings many. The Central Park Zoo, ice-skating rinks, walking tracks, Cleopatra's Needle, Summerstage, Delacorte Theatre, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tavern on the Green, and Belvedere Castle are all here, as is the Conservatory Garden. One can take a carriage ride through the park, enjoy a jog or feed the ducks except of course during the winter.

Jonothon was playing for cash out in the park, like he was wont to do. In the middle of the Battle of Evermore, people start screaming. Jono hopped up onto the bench he was sitting on, and tore off his facial covering. His biokinetic aura flared up, and a twisting stream of orange energy lanced towards one of the harpies! One that didn't have people - after all, if they were dropped, they could get hurt!

Alice Not far from where Jono is playing she sitting on the ground with a beat up hate on the ground asking people for money. Then the screams come and she frowns, "what going on?" Sure she lived in the city all her life seen it messed up one way or the other my villans but this is the first time see been there the fight. She stands and blinks at Jono face and sighs and follows after the strang guy since he seems to know where to fgo.

The sudden impact of the car being caught causes the airbags to go off - luckily the passengers inside ram into the air-bags, colliding, and not going through the windshield, and the bus is able to move on it's business before anything happens to the school children. She-Hulk did good. Another harpy flies down and grabs Laura even as she's charging, starting to haul the tiny mutant up into the air at high speed, and quickly gaining air. And then, yet another grabs Jonothon, and heads off in another direction entirely, leaving Alice with nobody really to follow, at all. Three other harpies swoop down to attack She-Hulk for ruining their fun, hind-claws extended on two of them, the third swooping and blazing in from She-Hulk's other side. The group of greek mythic monsters seem hell-bent on causing chaos in their wake.

Laura is yanked up and over in the air by the harpies then, and at th enagle as thier claws dig over into her shoulders, she can't slash them over with her wrist claws as she can't get the angle on them. But fortunately mutation gave her a spare set. Laura goes to try and slash up wtih one of her foot claws, going to try and aim over towards on eof the breasts of the flying, screaming beast, and if possible will go to try and skewer it to such a degree where she cna clamber up and over on the back of it and try and 'guide' it by claws in the wings of it to smash nito some of the other aerial ones.

She-Hulk sets the car down. Then sets her lemonade down on a bench, both quite calmly before she turns towards the incoming harpies. "Oh, really. Who's been summoning things out of Homer?" she inquires as she tries to grab the two that are coming in together and, well, knock their heads together. And their wings. And the rest of them.

Alice blinks as the harpy flies down and grabs Jono, "what was that thing?" She watchs as Jono is taken away. She frowns more and looks around the skies spotting more the wing beast. She knows she has to act even with the heroes here they need help. She takes a deep breath and close her eyes and after a moment her bones and join start to snap painfully making cry out her body morphing painfully into a new form now she on all fours. The creature roars and charges for one of the lower flying harpies and leaps into the air claws and jaws first.

Laura is the first to smell it. Alice is the first to taste it. Ink. As blade and jaw, and claw shred harpy skin, there is no blood. Ink. It wells, and pours out of where Alice's jaws hit. It sprays in Laura's face, like an old fashioned ink pen that's sprung a leak in the cartoons. She-Hulk bashes the two harpies together, and literally rings their bells, and they fall down to the ground, down, but not out. That's when the one behind her slams into the big green sexy lean machine, and it's talons dig, hard, into the flesh at her back. Using this as a perch, the harpy begins to do her impersonation of Logan's bezerk fury, and starts slashing at She-Hulk's head, trying to split it open like a ripe cantelope, and eat the juicy innards.

Laura hisses as she swings around, wondering just what sort of beast has made these things, these falsehoods. Right over as the ink blasted her up and over in the face, her claws going down to try and slash through th ewings then to cripple it, and hopefully send it careening over towards the others then so she could head back towards the ground.

Alice is made for the hunt and take down now her mind no longer hers does not seem to notice or care about the ink. She goes for the throat ripping it out as her claws sink into the "flesh" of her prey When the thing lays limp on the ground she let out a twisted cross between a roar and howl. She then turns and jumps on a near by building and leaps off taken down another harpy in mid air. Claws and fangs ripping into it.

Ack. They aren't strong enough to get through her super-durable skull. But the harpy that slashes She-Hulk's head cuts off a good chunk of her precious, emerald hair! She retaliates with a solid punch bent on sending it flying. "MY HAIR DO!" Oh. Now she's pissed.

Alice is able to take down another harpy, but by now her flesh, nose, and mouth are filled with the scent and look of viscous black ink, and the fall she takes isn't going to be a pretty one as the corpse of the harpy crashes towards the ground. Laura, too, gets another blast of ink; the stink of it likely fouling her nose every much as bit as Alice, ... Laura won't be tracking anyone, or anything for a few days, at least. But, the wings are severed, and fall to the ground, lifeless and dead things. The two stunned harpies in front of She-Hulk start to get up, while the one on her back, thinking, very wrongly, it's injured She-Hulk enough, starts to lift the Avenger off the ground, and carry her away.

Laura is blasted full in the face by ink then, and is completely covered i the dark goo then as she slimps and slides then over, and gets back up to her feet, going to try and neutrlaize any of the harpies in her area that are still mobile. For the moment, she's too gunked up to get to aid She-Hulk in time..

Alice lands on her feet like a jungle cat but then swipes at it's nose and shakes it head clearly no happy unable to smell. The creature roars and shakes it's head again in anger. She stands over her prey trying to clean it self like a cat would.

A shield flies out to strike the harpy carrying Jen off before boucing back to Captain America. The Avenger's eyes go to assess the situation. "I came as soon as I heard? Where did these creatures come from?" He asks one of the other heroes. Which is enough for Jen to squirm free...minus even more of her hair. Fortunately, even her hair regenerates, but right now she's a mess. "No clue! Somebody probably opened a magic fairy tale book. Again."

The harpy population seems to be dying down ... plenty of cut apart, ripped apart bodies, thanks mostly right now to Alice, and Laura. And, as Alice cleans herself off in animalistic fashion she'll get a taste for just how utterly horrid fresh ink tastes ... As Captain America's shield bounces off the side of the harpy's skull causing it to tumble to the ground and drop She-Hulk, it comes right back to him. And, the two harpies that She-Hulk had bashed together split forces, one moving to the 'injured' green gal, and the other headed towards the 'new' threat, Captain America. They're the only three harpies left. But then there's another blood-curdling scream, and a flash of bright light, glinting off the afternoon sun. A huge bird appears in the sky, the size of a ptyerodactyl, but it's beak is bronze, it's feather's metallic, and it spirals down straight towards the gawkers and onlookers. Two other Stymphalian Birds appear as well, as if they'd descended, magically, from the clouds.

Laura is caught by surprise over by the suddenly rushing giant pteradactyl and the birds flanking it. At any point, these adversaries are being created by purely artificial means, probably magical. Which lends itself to the possibility of someone nearby generating them. But with her face gummed up with ink and goo, she's in no state to try and disengage to track thier progenitor. She tries to remember training lessons from HOpe's trip to the Savage Land. And goes back, on a run then, howling voer atthe large diving bird. Her plans it to head for one of the low stone bridges that dot central park, tryign to lure the bird of metallic prey to following after her nad hopefully getting stuck and smashing. She-Hulk waits. Waits. Pretends to be slow...and then at the last possible moment, she reaches to grab the harpy and, if she gets hold of it, dash it against the ground with all of her Hulk's strength. Oh, her hair's already starting to regrow. She's growling a bit, though.

Alice looks up and snarls at the bird she raise to her feet and roars/howls again something that could been out of a nightmare. Sharp teeth show coated in ink the creature that was Alice did not like the taste of ink but is still hungry and now a new prey is coming. With out warning she brust into a sprint and jumps on the side of a building running up it like it was still on the ground. It going take the high ground and pounce once the birds are in range.

Captain America nods, "I got to really take Stark's credit cards away when he goes e-bay shopping for Asia. This would happen less often." He quips to She-Hulk. He prepares himself for the attacking harpy. His shield brought up in front of him and his feet set. He's ready for the aeral charge. Then at the last moment he ducks so the bird will fly over him. He brings his shield up. With a gesture to Alice, he asks, "She with us?"

She-Hulk slams the harpy into the building hard enough to cause the creature to collapse, and splatter ink all over itself. Only the one harpy left, and it's going to claw and try and tear away Captain America's shield, foolishly. But then, they don't seem to be the smartest of creatures. The Stygian bird descending on Laura throws its' wings forwards, and from it, four deadly and sharp metallic feathers slam into Laura's flesh with precision, even as it tries to descend, and swallow up the mutant with it's razor-sharp bronze beak. And, as Alice attempts to attack, she, too, is assaulted with the same flurry of magical-metal feathers, the birds seeming to want to injure their prey before consuming. And the third bird seems to see the injured She-Hulk; and it dives straight for her, mistaking her for an easy target.

The bolts shot from the bird's wings are going a bit fast fo rher to dodge, but fortunately Laura is able to gague best where they will hit to try and prevent them from pincushioning her, and is able to slash others out of midair. Then as the PterrorBird dives from the air, she leaps up over to the side, trying to use her claws to get a 'grip' on the bronzed beak of the bird to slash her way through and hopefully spin and twist up and over to the head.

Okay, another one? Jen spins to meet it with a booted foot. She's back to enjoying herself again, now they're not messing with her precious hair. Hopefully she can toss it right into its building-slammed friend before that one can pick itself up.

Alice roars when hit by the feather but it skin is tough so does not go as deep as it would if she was human. She roars again and charges forward and picks up speed before jumping off the top of the building to land on the birds back. Claws and fangs able to rip though steel ready for the attack.

Captain America frowns as his question not answered. He though stops watching the sky and prepares himself. "Maybe your not kidding about a magic story book." He doesn't know what these bird can do but frowns at the metal feathers.

She-Hulk's attack crushes the huge bird, rending it's metal feathers and beaks, and putting it out of comission, with her anger, and her pure strength. Laura's expertise allows her to dodge most of the feathers incoming, and grab onto the bird; her adamantium claws cutting (albiet very difficultly) into the bird; ink dribbles out and spills from the wound, even as Alice lands on the birds back and begins to attack from the higher vantage; the Stygian bird screeches horribly and begins to spiral down to the ground.

4:00 PM: The School Bell Rings. Gavin blinks, looks up, and closes the cap on the inkbottle and elegant pen, putting them both into the box, closing the notebook he'd been drawing in, smirking as he did so. How cool would it be, afterall, if those monsters could come in, and prevent the bullies from bullying him? ... and, it's another day of being chased home, from the bus stop for Gavin.

And as the notebook closes, the ink disappears from fur and flesh. The monsters disappear, as well; Laura and Alice both tumble, free-falling into the ground. And only the chaos of the mystical creatures is left in their wake as rememberance they were ever here.

As she tumbles down towards the ground, fortunately the blades in her flanks have vanished as well. Yelping, Laura tucks her body in and as she hits the ground goesinto a roll, bones nsapping, but they will heal shortly. Laura pages: Ask Shulkie, she logs everything.

Alice falls to the ground once more landing like a large cat her strength easily able to have her land with out hurting her self. She looks around sniffing the air abole to smell again but not smelling her first two preys but she does smell something else she turns and faces Captain. Her eyes lock on him and with a roar and a push off she chaging at the red white and blue clad hero.

Captain America looks around, "Everyone alright?" He says moving to check Laura. "I'm glad to be able to help. Any clue who did this?" Captain America then sees a beast charging at him. He draws his shield up and takes aim at the creature and lets it fly.

"I'm fine...and I wasn't joking about the..." And then Alice charges the Captain. "Ack. I thought she was with us." She moves quickly to flank the creature, although not TOO quickly. She's well aware of Cap's reflexes...and has been hit by that shield before!

The Shield flies at her but Alice is not really effected by the impact. She take a leap into air teeth and claws out ready to take down her prey. Laura is hobbling over, then as Alice charges the group, hse dives over to the side then, letting the two Avengers deal with the beast.

Captain America dodges out of the way of the teeth and fangs as the shield comes bouncing back at him. Then the shield brought down to strike Alice in the mouth.

Alice bits into the sheild her powerful jaws abale to take out steel but since your shield is stronger it does her no good after a few moments of fitting she breaks a fang pulls away. She roars in pain and turns running off down an side street at full speed.