Crunchy and Good with Ketchup

Participants:

Aillen_Icon.jpg Jocelyn_icon.jpg Sophia_icon.jpg Neil_icon.jpg

Scene Title Crunchy and Good with Ketchup
Synopsis An evening on at the Seaport is interrupted when a creature from the deep emerges and wreaks havoc on the docks.

Docks - South Street Seaport

The smell of the river. That is one thing which permeates throughout this east-most section of the City. And with good reason. The surrounding waters of the Hudson are a stones-throw in any direction one happens to stand. All along this dock-side area which connects to South Street, warehouses line up with their vast storage holdings and equipment to move large material off of the boats which constantly moor here to unload their cargo. A vast inter-shipping commerce which brings goods and materials in at all hours of the day or night. Trucks line up just outside of the gates to many port access roads. Some of the warehouses are bustling with constant activity. Though there are some others that seem all but abandoned, not having any traffic moving in or out of their properties for quite some time.


A chill wind whips in from the river, carrying with it the sharp pang of salt, and the ever so slight smell of dead fish, making the area relatively deserted this evening. Flickering street lamps light the walkway, casting a dingy yellow glow over the cracked cement. The constant clamor of dockworkers hustling about - shouting to each as they rush around - blends with the sounds of the water lapping against the pilings and the distant sounds of the city.

Few people hang out around the docks this evening, it's just too cold for tourists to wander too far away from the nearby shops, and apparently many of the less savory aspects of society have chosen to peddle their wares somewhere warmer and drier. Occasionally, a particularly large wave crashes against the dock, rocking the ships together with groaning crashes, and spraying those walking by with cold droplets of water.

It's a little bit of testing for Sunrise, a bit for a need for exercise…and maybe Neil Elliott might be out looking for trouble by going down to the docks. But, the last few days have been eye opening. Namely, that Neil needs more training, Sunrise needs a bit of his blood in order to not get hurt so easily, and… well, there are other things to think about. He'd finally apologized to Dion, so that thought is off his shoulders. Still, he's heading down the street, towards the docks, wearing his leather jacket, and a loose leash around Sunrise's neck as the Retriever pads beside him.

Shopping on a Friday night! Sofia has a peppermint stick in teh corner of her mouth. She hms softly, shivering beneath her rather warm, long purple coat that looks snatched out of a detective novel or bad anime. She doesn't have an animal with her, but she has a shopping back with her and hums as she strides along. "Oh heck, did I go the wrong way again?" Siiiiiiigh. She considers something a moment, half debating flying carpet action but then…

"By the Gods, I can't believe they tried to short us on the payment. Bloody bastards," Jocelyn snarls, uttering a few curses in various languages as she glares over her shoulder at the offending shop. The diminutive Greek woman is stalking rather furiously from the line of shops near the docks, arms crossed over her chest, long braided hair swishing like an angry cat's tail behind her, not paying much attention to where she's stomping so dramatically.

Jocelyn wears a calf length green wool coat over loose black jeans and a fitted off-white sweater, her stone caduceus pendant bouncing against her chest in time to her walking. Occasionally, she casts a glance back at Aillen, who apparently was the one this rant was supposedly to, although she's now just grumbling to herself.

Aillen is walking behind the angry Jo in all black, the material tight enough to display the musculature beneath it since he was built for intimidation when they were doing deliveries. "I know Jo, I know. " He is grinning abit as he watches her stomping off, amused by her tiny ranting, even if it was something where he had to break something to get their fair due. "They probably wont again. Next time I cause some more permanent damage." He takes some longer strides to walk beside her, not wanting her to get herself into any trouble.

The jog/patrol is pretty routine for Neil and his faithful canine companion these days. But on this one Friday, Fate seems to play its hand as Sunrise veers off their route, barking as he lopes forward, leading the blond man. "What?" Neil asks Sunrise, as the dog leads him forward. Apparently, Sunrise recognizes people, and Neil chuckles as he sees Jocelyn and Aillen. Sunrise is fond of dog people, and Aillen is another one, so off he goes. "Hey, let me catch up…" Is the leash Neil's, or Sunrise's, really?

Sofia pauses. She looks over her shoulder. She might not UNDERSTAND the languages, but one gets a feel for various curses. She blinks owlishly. "Um. Are things okay?" She asks quietly. She's still in a pretty good mood, pulling the peppermint stick from her mouth to talk. She pauses again. Is that a dog? Her eyes are a bit wide. "Oh wow. That is kinda freaky. Like that creepy haunted hoohah freaky, but not. Okay, definitely not that freaky." Fate is still a force to boggle over.

Jocelyn snorts, shaking her head, continuing to mutter under her breath rather grumpily, "Damned stingy, penny-pinching Goblins. Thank you, again." She offers a strained smile to Aillen, slowing down her stalking a bit. With a heavy sigh, she composes herself, looking up when she hears a barking and yelling, raising her eyebrow. "Well, hello Neil, Sunrise," Jo offers with a bit of a wave, reaching down to pet Sunrise when he's close enough. She chuckles as Sophia arrives, offering her a wave, too. "And stuff's fine. Damn goblins who run the ten-cent shop back there tried to short me for a rushed delivery," she shrugs, dropping the rant without much other comment.

Aillen gives a grin seeing Sunrise and drops down to squat beside the dog, giving him a bit of a rubdown as the power given by his father kicks in so he can understand the puppy. "That’s a good boy there. Did you bring your protectorate?" He glances about and smiles to Sophia as she approaches first then nodded to Neil. "Evening to you too there. And yeah, we were out on business. Thankfully it wasn't too much roughhousing needed. Always feel bad having to threaten ‘em with my spear when things get too far."

Sunrise's tongue lolls as Aillen gives him some attention, though he also sniffs around Sophia's shoes while wagging his tail. The dog chuffs at Aillen «I did. He insists on coming with me everywhere.»

Neil glances down at his dog. "I can hear you, you know." But, he looks to the humans with a shrug. "Out and about. How's tricks?" The mention of things going on is enough to pull him in. "What kind of 'em?' Did Dion mention the plant people to you guys yet?"

Sofia just rubs the back of her head a little awkwardly then smiles and waves back. "Oh wow, I'm sorry." She tilts her head. "Hopefully not like literal goblins or like internet goblins…?" She ponders. There's an amused smile at the dog. She'll offer a hand to sniff and gently scritch between the ears if Sunrise likes. "They're okay. I've been kinda worried about Zach," She admits. "Ever since that weird amusement park ride. And plant people?"

Jo nods, "Literal goblins. Short wrinkly little bastards who despise spending money on anything," she says, shaking her head, "Hopper's told me about that ride thing. He's got me looking in to what could be the source of it. Apparently he's been doing reconnaissance and all that jazz. Hadn't heard about plant people though." Jocelyn shrugs, "I swear, this shit is getting more frequent recently. It's, ah, a bit disconcerting."

"Plant people? Well that’s something new. Do they look anything like Poison Ivy?" Aillen grins, knowing damn well it wouldn't be lucky enough to be that. "And yeah Jo, I hear you there. If its not one thing its another. Don't have hardly enough time to solve one problem before another starts up. I hope that the other kids out there are able to keep up with it too." He shakes his head at that, knowing they'd have to or it'd be worse than that.

While our brave heroes greet each other and share war stories, something in the atmosphere around them has changed. During a lull in the conversation, it is obvious that something is quite wrong - the industrial din coming from the cargo docks has gone silent - for that matter, the wind has stopped gusting as well, and the river is suddenly as flat and unmoving as a sheet of glass - even the boats have stopped their creaking and groaning, sitting perfectly still in their moorings. The suddenly bright moonlight casts harsh shadows across the eerily serene scene, as though it were some sort of still life.

"My god! Run! Dear god run for it!" comes the extremely panicked cry from the docks, breaking through the previous silence and quickly being joined by other desperate cries, as a flood of dockworkers round the corner, stampeding as quickly as they can away from the docks.

The sound of something large thrashing in the water, followed by the groaning snap of wood planks giving way beneath something heavy reaches your ears above the cacophony of screams. Heavy footfalls crunch against wooden planks, growing closer. Whatever is coming is currently hidden by the massive cargo ships and boxes, as well as the constant stream of panicked dockworkers.

"Poison Ivy was cool, but I like Harley Quinn better," Sofia admits. She nods, "That's good. Hopper was there. Figures I went to get ice cream…" ! The bat signal! Or in Sofia's case, the nerd beam! She lifts her head as the cries come. "Ack! Citizens in distress! Wait, I forgot to pose. Oh well," A shrug. She looks worried now though. "Sounds like something is stomping?" She moves over towards it. Caution is not her strongest suit when it comes to heroics it seems. She hesitates though, looking toawrds the others.

"Bigger, with a lot more vines, and…" The sudden drop in noise is something the Norse Scion picks up on, and he goes still as Sunrise turns his head towards the docks, in synch with his master. Just as the screaming starts. "Any chance of it being a holdup?" Once the sound of footfalls rings out, and the sudden flood of docks workers, Neil steps out of the fleeing mortals way. "Guess not," he says, summoning the ichor within his body. The irchor seeps through his skin, forming a form-fitting shell of dull-gray iron around him, for protection. He got caught with no protection at the greenhouse, so he's not going to mess it up this time. He reaches for the shield strapped across his back, under the leather jacket. "Get ready. Sounds big."

"I have got to stop saying things like that." Aillen watches Sophia start moving then looks as Neil turned into a slab of iron. "Right, well subtlety is out the window then I guess. Guess the goal is contain and destroy, keep the mortals protected." Looking to Jo, he gives a slight shrug. "Least the trouble waited till after the delivery."

He holds his hand up into the air and speaks in a slight murmur, and with a sudden feeling of canine around them, the legendary spear appeared in his hand as he starts stalking forward, his own body beginning to be covered in ichor as well, though his shines brightly in the electric lighting and moon light, a silvery material covering him.

Jocelyn pauses, listening to the silence, "Oh, oh dear." She turns to look at the quickly approaching swarm of dockworkers, "Right since when have we been ones for subtlety?" Jo smirks, stepping reflexively behind Aillen to avoid being trampled by the running of the dockworkers, her hand going to the stone pendant at her neck, muttering a few words in Greek as she does so. The sound of the flutter of tiny wings is almost lost in the tumult, but a moment later, Jocelyn's sword appears in her hand, the silver and gold chased hilt gleaming in the dim lighting. Instinctively, she follows Aillen forward, watching the docks in front of them.

The footsteps pause momentarily, and a blood curdling scream, followed by a rather sickening crunch indicates that one of the dock workers perhaps did not run quite fast enough, after which the crunching steps resume, faster than before. The two boats nearest the group are now shuddering with each footfall, and the ground below your feet is starting to jump a bit in time with the sounds, feeling a bit like a minor earthquake. It now sounds like it is at a run, scrabbling on the concrete walkway at the end of the wooden dock.

Quite suddenly, the source of the footsteps emerges from between the two boats, about 20 feet away from the group. A serpentine creature, standing nearly 10 feet tall at its shoulder, whips from between the ships, scaled body glistening like an oil slick in the moonlight, dagger like claws scraping gashes into the concrete as it skids to a stop. Set into it's angular, snakelike head are two eyes the color of the deepest ocean, lacking a pupil. A long violet tongue emerges from the creature's mouth, tasting the air curiously, before it lets loose with a hissing roar that seems to reverberate through your bones. Also, this roar reveals that it has teeth. Lots, and lots, and /lots/ of very sharp teeth, dripping with some iridescent fluid.

Well, everyone else is doing it. She winces at the sickening crunch and looks a little ill. "You -" There's outrage. Poor hapless mortal. Sofia pulls her charm bracelet off and snaps it. A chain whip appears, and she frowns. "Okay, you overgrown … sea snake! Thingy!" She pauses. "You're kind of a jerk, I mean who goes and EATS PEOPLE?" Seriously. Jerk. She takes a deep breath and starts towards it then, "Um. Rawr? Eat pain? Shoot, I should work on that battle cry thing." Regardless, she considers. "I … also don't get the feeling you're a peaceful type. So um, have at thee?" Yeah, brave warrior here. Whatever. She's wading on in. Kinda. Maybe mom's motivational drop kicks work.

The headband around Neil's forehead glows. The headband itself is black cloth with threads made from a piece of Bifrost woven through it. "I can help," he says to Sophia, as he notes her warrior's challenge. He reaches a hand out, touching Sophia's shoulder for a brief moment. "Excuse me," he says, as he invokes his parent-given abilities. Whatever he does, it toughens up Sophia's skin some, though there is no physical change like his own armor.

"Sophia…. Leave the battlecries to me." Aillen raises Gae Bolga over his head, as the light of the world seemed to focus upon him for a second, as if fate upheld the position of the spear-bearer for the chance of a proper painting to be made. "Gnor brodi!" Course, nobody quite understands what he was shouting in Gaelic except for Jo, but it has an uplifting effect, valor starts to run through veins like whiskey as Aillen starts to advance on the dragon with spear held high.

Jocelyn blinks at the beast in front of them her eyes going wide before she squints at the creature, "Tha… that's a. A dragon? What the hell is a bloody dragon doing in New York?" She half yells incredulously, mouth agape momentarily as she continues stalking forward, her sword held at the ready. She seems to stare intently at the creature for a long moment, as if attempting to assess the weak points of the dragon.

The dragon appears momentarily confused as the last of the dockworkers escape, its nostrils flaring as it turns its head, attempting to snap at the last few stragglers but missing grabbing any more hapless mortals. At the twin battle cries, the dragon flicks its long tongue out again, orienting itself on the four young Scions in front of it after a moment, letting loose with another growling hiss, jaws gaping menacingly and snapping at the air in Sophia's direction.

Jocelyn pauses in her shuffle forward, looking up at the Dragon's eyes and grinning slightly, before she glances back at the others, "I, I think it's blind," she says in a stage whisper, watching as the dragon's fangs dribble iridescent liquid onto the pavement, grimacing at the growing puddle of saliva, "And I think it's poisonous. There's a good chance it's poisonous," she nods, watching as the dragon flicked its tongue out again, tasting the air and hissing softly, "Either way," she continues to whisper loudly, "It navigates by sound and taste. It's not much stronger than we are, I think."

Seeing the giant lizard, Sunrise starts forward once Neil undoes the leash. Neil needs his hands free, and Sunrise obviously wants to move. "No," Neil says, not harshly, but firm. In his head, all he can see is a giant vine smashing the dog into the ground. Not again. The thought of almost losing Sunrise hit him harder than he let on to Dion. "Not yet," he whispers, the multicolored threads in his headband flickering again as he places a hand on the dog's nose. "I won't lose you," he says, that fear making his voice hitch, just so.

Aillen nods at Jo's words as he takes stock of the situation himself. It is nasty enough being a poison beasty, so it is best to keep back out of range for the moment. "Alright, I'll try and keep it away from you ladies. " He runs over towards one of the side pseudo alleys filled with boxes and he leaps towards them, landing atop it before kicking back off, causing the boxes to fall with a horrendous racket, and as he falls back towards earth, he hurls his spear towards the dragon beasty with such force that it makes a whirr as it flew.

Sophia sighs and takes a deep breath. "Okay." No more battle cries for her. "Ew." She winces. "Poisonous but blind. That sounds like it could end badly." She considers. Regardless, she has a slightly less epic entrance, darting in along behind Aillen — for the moment she's a touch slower. Her chain whip lashes out with the sharp side towards the dragon and has a fairly formidable reach. While dominatrixes, Devo fans and archaeologists would be proud of her, only time will tell if her blow lands.

Drooling and hissing softly, the dragon flicks its tongue slowly out of its mouth, tilting its head to the side and regarding Jocelyn with interest as she speaks, despite her attempt to keep quiet and relatively unnoticed. Neil, as he is remaining back for the time being and speaking with the appetizer, ah, Sunrise, goes largely unnoticed. The crashing and rattling of the containers Aillen dashes up draws the attention of the dragon, which whips its head to face the two attackers, mouth drawn wide in a threatening snarl, fangs dripping with poison. As the legendary spear buries itself between the shining scales of its side, the snarl becomes a pained shriek, which it cuts short as Sophia thwaps it with her chain whip, the metal making a harsh /clang/ noise against the dragon's scales.

Whipping its long sinuous body around to face the attackers, spinning Gae Bolga away from Aillen, the dragon snarls and launches, jaws wide, apparently undaunted by the spear in its side or the sting of the whip. Claws digging into the pavement, the beast turns, lunging for Sophia, being the closest, and apparently more tantalizing target.

They always go for the slow ones. In nature documentaries, myths and life in general. "I'm full of MSG! You'll be hungry an hour later!" Aieeeeee! It's coming! Sofia is no fool though, her mom did give her some basic instructions: Pointy things bad. Real bad. You are in fact, made of meat. She pauses, and snaps the whip, then moves to the left, hoping to use the noise as a distraction. She's graceful at least, slender self bolting like a rabbit out of a cannon.

Watching the movements of the dragon, Jocelyn frowns, moving soundlessly to crouch behind the dragon as it turns its attention to Aillen and Sophia. As the dragon lunges at Sophia, Jocelyn lunges forward as soundlessly as possible, her shoes barely sweeping across the pavement as she moves. Instead of a slashing motion with her sword, Jo attempts to stab directly forward.

Moving forward, Neil is ready to push Sophia out of the way as the linnorm (Dad's term, not really his: Neil would think 'dragon') turns it's head her way. It's more reflex than actual thought, but he's not fast enough, and Sophia is able to get out of the way in time. He breathes a little easier, as he turns to the Spawn. It's a large, poisonous dragon, and Neil has…his beloved pet and his father's training shield. Man…

But, the young man gets an idea. "Aid the others," he tells himself, and gets a short running start to built up momentum, and he throws his shield. He's not aiming for the dragon; he's aiming for the spear to drive it in a little further…

As the other heroes start drawing the dragon's attention, Aillen starts to sprint towards it, light on his feet despite the ichor covering upon him. To get his spear he had to get behind it now with all of its dodging about. Planting his foot on the dragon's knee, he launched himself skywards, flipping over top of the snapping jaws of the beasty, and as he came down like a shooting star, he reached out and grabbed hold of the bone haft of the spear, and with all of his weight behind him he yanked hard to try and free the blade.

Phew. That was close. Sophia looks relieved. What would Batman do? Oh right. She's somewhat in awe watching the others fight. "Man… so much catching up to do." Puff. Her distinct lack of a work ethic doesn't help matters much. So for now, she half turns and flicks her wrist to snap the whip at the dragon. "Take that, you overgrown monitor lizard!" She seems to be making lots of noise deliberately as her chain whip cracks through the air.

The dragon snarls fiercely, snapping angrily at the air as too much noise around it appears to be confusing it. It's lashing out wildly now, tail flipping about in fury, making horrid scraping noises against the pavement with each sweep. Once Aillen frees his spear from the dragon's side, the beast turns on the young Irishman, serpentine body making a U shape as it turns to snap violently at Aillen, bits of venom spraying out into the air as its jaws clamp shut.

As the jaws made their way towards him, Aillen dives down towards it, aiming between its legs, and as he hits the ground, he slams Gae Bolga into the concrete beneath him to fling him off between its legs like a bullet.

Jocelyn steps out of the way as Aillen comes shooting out from beneath the dragon like a bat outta hell, spinning her sword gracefully as she circled back towards the side of the dragon, not looking the least bit winded despite her constant movement. Thankful for the distractions of the others, Jo jumps and lunges forward, biting back the emphatic yell that wanted to escape her lips.

"Keep moving," Neil says, as he circles around on one side. "If he's blind, we can try and confuse him." He sounds a lot more confident about it than he actually is. Between watching the dragon, checking for innocents, and making sure the other scions are all right, he's not doing well when it comes to being distracted. He pulls his arm back, flinging his shield out again at the dragon, trusting in its' power to come back to him soon after.

As Aillen rolls free and the others attacks he shouted out "Move free! I don't know if its blood is poisonous too!" He looks towards the beasty again, knowing that his shout would draw its attention. Still its attention was a good thing, and he pauses, holding still as it turns its maw towards him, and timing it for when its poison dripping mouth was open, Aillen heaves with all of his might once again, flinging the wicked barbed weapon towards its throat.

Gah. Poison blood. Go figure. At least it's not one of those toads that shoots blood from it's eyes right? Right. "Hopefully." Sophia keeps lashing out from her side, trying to be noisy and distracting. Which for her, is easy. The downside of a chain whip is that while flashy, it might just turn against its own user. Sophia has to mind the recoil and decides to go for the nose then, sharp edges of a chain snapping out at the beast. She's got wrist action a Glee fan would envy, huffing softly. Note to self: Work out more. "That is a BAD dragon, bad!"

The dragon is rather obviously growing more and more confused, and the blood-loss from the gaping side wound is most likely not helping with it's brain power, either. Snapping violently at anything that seems to be moving, the dragon is starting to thrash around violently, although it does not manage to direct its attack - missing the four Scions entirely.

Jocelyn frowns at the thrashing dragon, feeling an ever so slight pang of pity for the creature, although another look at the poison foam frothing around the dragon's mouth quickly puts an end to any soft emotions towards the beast. Dodging the lashing tail and flailing rear feet, Jocelyn lunges forward with her sword again, hoping to put the dragon out of it's misery.

Heart thudding in his chest, Neil keeps on the move. He shouldn't be scared, but it's…a dragon. Sure, his Norse relatives wouldn't shy away from it, but they've also had a few millennia of practice. Maybe on smaller dragons. No such luck for Neil, as he circles around the other side again for another throw.

After much stabbing, smacking, prodding, and general maiming, it appears as though the dragon has finally reached its breaking point. It's thrashings become less violent and wild, and when Neil's shield slams into its injured side, the dragon lets out one final high pitched wail and falls silent and still. Almost immediately, the thing begins to… melt. It appears as though the dragon is liquefying from the inside, seeping into an iridescent stream of blue-black water, which is heading for the river. As the corpse vanishes, all that is left are four shining, oily black scales that look like they would fit snugly in your palm, rounded and smooth like river rocks.

Aillen shook off Gae Bolga from the bits of dragon goo as he raised a brow and looked to Jo. "Well that was weird." He leaned down and scooped up a scale, looking it over before shoving it into a pocket. "These things always leave such odd bits of themselves around." He sighed and looked to Sophia and Neil. "Many thanks for the assistance. Glad no one was hurt." He smiled and patted Sunshine and then let Gae Bolga return to whence it came.

Sofia takes a deep breath. "Yeah… no problem. Guess I still need more practice," She looks pained. This heroing thing is tough. She rubs the back of her head, flicking her whip and soon it shifts back into a charm bracelet. She slips it back on. "Well, besides the guy who got eaten," She scowls. "I don't know why I feel so mad over it." Mortals ARE pretty squishy. She just sighs. "Oh well. Maybe I'll go get a box of chocolates." Sadness. "You alright?"

Jocelyn sighs and lets go of her sword, allowing the blade to vanish into thin air, and ducking to scoop up some of the liquid runoff from the dragon into a small mason jar, marked all over with Greek lettering. She frowns at the contents, screwing the bottle cap on tightly, "Something doesn't seem right about all this. I'm gonna have Hopper take a look at this." She pockets the goo bottle, and scoops up one of the scales, turning it over in her hand curiously before stuffing it in the messenger bag too.


Participants received a black dragon scale that grants access to the Water Breathing boon. STd by Eevee. XP was given out.


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