Participants:
| Scene Title | Road Trip: Finding Jesus |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | The D-List, having survived the attack by the nightmare-inducing cultists, make their way to the statue of Christ the Redeemer to recover the Minotaur horn. Combat and chaos ensue, of course. |
From the back streets of Rio to the top of the statue of Christ the Redeemer.
"Um, I think I read a few pages about him on a book in Barnes and Nobles when I was in line. Something about his sister dying from a surfeit of buggery, whatever that means." Aillen shrugged at that, and when the stench of the priest departed he gestured to the others and rejoined Hopper. "Plan, we get to Jesus, swipe the horns, and find Zeus asap before Jo's grandma decides to send something worse than giant cock monsters."
Jocelyn grimaces as she meets with the rest of the group, "Yeah, Caligula -little boots. Nickname given to Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus as a child. Known for attempting to appoint his horse consul, repeated incestual relationships with his sisters, and being a general dick. Anyway," she shudders, "Either way, yes. We need to get up there, and start looking around. So if nothing else, we should start walking. That way." Jo nods, only now realizing just how soggy she is from the constant rain.
Walking? Pfff. Hopper returns in a moment with the Van. Grinning brightly from the window. "All aboard the lets get this the fuck over with express," he says reaching down to the cup holder to open up a bottle of mountain dew before flicking a button to cause the sliding passenger door to open. "Let's get D in. He looks hurt… Jo? You got any Mediwuwu?"
Sunrise tilts his head to one side in Aillen's direction, and seems about to bark something before Neil places a firm hand over the dog's muzzle. "No, Sunrise," he says. "Don't tell him." Mostly because Aillen's description of what he read made Neil flinch. "Okay," he says, taking a glance at the Van. He had gotten here through other means. "We should get going."
Jocelyn helps Dion into the van, and frowns at Hopper's question, "Ah, well, No, not really wu-wu," she grimaces as she realizes she just actually used that term to refer to her magic, "But I do have a fully stocked first aid kit, and an introductory course on first aid?" She hops into the van after the others, hauling out an impressively sized first aid kit and starting to sort through various bandages and antibiotic packs, and just about anything else needed.
Once Aillen is in the Van, Hopper guns it and turns down a series of streets, winding his way as fast as possible through the slums and on a dead course for the bridge that leads across the bay towards Jesus the Redeemer. Hopper calls back and asks. "Anyone got a plan of action? We gonna just walk in and see what we can find? What if we meet resistance?"
"Depends on a lot of things. Honestly we can't really make a good battle plan without some basic information about the blue prints, lay out of defenses, and hell, anything that might be a threat. Would be stupid going in expecting to kill everything in sight and we find out its an orphanage filled with cancer and burn victims. But that’s where I come in isn't it?" Aillen grinned and poked his faerie passengers a bit from under his coat. "You guys go sneak ahead to the giant Jesus and let us know if there’s anything freaky going on alright? I'll make sure to give you all plenty of honey and booze when this shits done and over with." He grinned to the wee ones as he opened a window to send em out. "Not much better than an aerial sweep for information gathering."
In his position as the New One, and the fact that his companion is a bit larger than the faeries, settles in towards the back of the van. Maybe they'll be wandering around solving mysteries one day. Sunrise lays his head across Neil's lap, taking some rest time. "But, we'll take whatever we can get," he says. "So…if we have time, what are the specifics on this? I kinda came in on a later page than the rest of you."
Jocelyn has settled onto the floor, still digging in her first aid kit for more anti-biotic ointments - considering what Dion was injured by, better safe than sorry. At mention of a plan, Jo looks up and nods, "Well, we should likely see about looking around, first. Everything I found indicates that it's not just the statue up there. It's a little strip-mall of Christianity. Shops, food court, church, escalators, offices, massive statue. The horns could be anywhere."
Jo looks at Neil, almost forgetting that he hadn't been in on this from the start, "Oh, um. Hang on a sec." Putting aside the first aid kit, she produces a large black leather bound sketchbook from her messenger bag, the one she's almost always writing in.
Flipping through the pages, she starts reading back what has happened, "So - basic run down, questions later. My grandfather, Zeus, is a philandering man-whore, and his wife really doesn't appreciate that. The massive amount of rain that has been going for gods knows how long is largely due to the fact that Hera, his wife, poisoned him in revenge. We thought we were going to fight Hogzilla, turns out that was a ploy to get us out of New Atlantis. Hera's a bitchy cop who pulled us over, tried to kill us, then sent angry centaur/bike/men/things after us. Crazy lady in a cafe who likes pie and coffee told us we needed Minotaur horn to fix up Zeus. Several google searches and poking around online lead us to believe that the original horns of the Minotaur slain by Perseus in legend were here, in Rio, because the architect had them." She looks up from the book as she finishes, "Questions?"
The entire weight of the van shifts, pressing everyone to one side as the vehical hits too wheels to avoid a small fruit stand that wasn't seen before. There is a crash as the van hits the ground once more, bouncing, causing Hopper to let out a maniacal laugh. He fishtails around a corner and over a median and BOOM you are on the bridge. The faeries are well on their way, disappearing into starlight as the van rockets towards it's destination.
Aillen falls over onto Jo as the van shifts them before righting himself. "Dammit Hopper, what the hell was that?" He shook his head as he glanced out the window over the bridge. "Monsters haven't killed me yet, and I'll be damned if I die in a car crash." He sounded slightly grumpy, but perhaps that was for the fact that his soda was spilled on the floor of the van now.
If there was anything Neil had to add, it's cut off when Hopper suddenly gunning the car slams him against the inside wall. "Ah!" He's not that upset about it, since he's all with the thick skin. Still, he looks over to Jocelyn. "Okay, I think I'm good on questions," he says. "That makes a lot of sense. I think there's something about Scions and grandmothers." Neil has his own. All… nine of them.
The faeries flitter back into the car about 3 minutes later, laying down all manner of information to Aillen who seems to be the only one who can understand them. Hopper for his part only grins a crooked grin and offers. "Sorry….Was trying not to cause too much property damage. But there always seems to be a plate glass window, a fruit stand or an old lady with a buggy any time I put the pedal to the metal." He quips. "We ready?" he asks, leaning forward in his seat to note the giant statue looming before them. Then he slams on the breaks.
Jocelyn yelps in pain as she's suddenly landed on by her larger friend. As Aillen manages to climb off of her, she sends a rather pointed glare at the back of Hopper's head even as he explains. And then she's slammed forward into the back of the driver's seat, as she wasn't wearing a seatbelt or any such thing. "The bloody hell, Hopper! I don't think it would kill us to travel slightly below the speed of sound. Really. Might even be less painful." She uncurls from her relatively rumpled position, looking up at the massive statue, "Well, I don't think we have much of a choice as to being ready or not. We're here." She shudders - something's a bit creepy about the looming huggy Christ figure.
Aillen shook his head at the info dump from his tiny friends. "Alright, bad news. Lots men wearing black all over the place looking for what we're looking for presumably. And all the normal sorts have been fragged or worse." The seat in front of him took a jostle as his shoulder bashed into it on the sudden stop. "Right, next time seat belts." He unwedged Gae Bolga from the spacing besides the seats, looking to Hopper to see if they were really stopped before he made his weapons any more dangerous to friends. "So assume that any chap in black aside from us is going to try and kill, rape or worse to us. And they're looking for the same crap we are. So stealthy if we can, but its most likely going to come down to a battle of nasty proportions and theres going to be a good deal of collateral damage. So anyone squishy stay a bit back if ya can."
Dion considers, having just been listening for a while. Though, then he notes "Or… We give them something else to focus on while the rest of you are finding the horns." No, it isn't the ideal solution. But he's likely particularly distracting for this type of person. Not that he wants to get caught, of course. Ew. EW. But if there's a lot of these guys it might be best to just have them looking the wrong way for a little while.
Hopper thinks for a moment or two. "We can try something else…" he says grinning a little bit. "It worked with the Gremlins….I mean. I could go all Caligula, y’all can dress in black and pretend to be my entourage and we can have everyone looking for the damned thing all at once? How does that sound?"
"If you think you can do that we can try. But we gotta be ready to yank you to safety the minute something goes wrong." Aillen didn't much like the idea of leaving them in danger like that after all. "I just wish we had an ace in the hole, like a piece of it or whatever so we could find it easier."
"We can try," Neil says, and looks down to the dog head in his lap as Sunrise looks up at him with doggy eyes. "We'll figure something out. In the meantime…" He moves up in the van, tapping Hopper on the shoulder for a moment. "Some more protection. We have to use what we have…"
Jocelyn frowns at mention of the Men in Black, "A distraction would be good, I think. Or a disguise. Or both, honestly. It's not ideal, but since when is battle ever ideal?" At Hopper's suggestion, she sighs, "Um… I don't know how much black clothing I have with me that would work. But, it's, ah, worth a shot?" She shakes her head, "Nope - no pieces of it. All I've got is a piece of a Herm - decidedly not minotaur - and that's really not going to be helpful," she shrugs, pointing at her necklace.
Hopper gives a nod of his head and scratches it. "Well, then we can do the come and get me technique, and I can draw them away, leaving you guys free to find the thing…I mean. I can do the Matrix thing till the cows come home….I'm faster than they are and I can make em chase me." He thinks for a moment. "Jo can use her wuwu-eyes and fly around and see if she can spot anything that looks of interest. D, Neil and scooby can sneak up the stairs and search the inside….maybe D can do a trance and see whats up while I have the boys in black occupied. And Alehouse can back up Jo." He looks around for confirmation or negations. "That a plan?" He asks before digging in his backpack, pulling out a few fireworks, handing them out. "If there is trouble and we need to convene to a location, fire these off. They're screamers…You can hear em for about a 3 block radius in a loud city…."
Dion thinks more. "You know, I have to learn to move faster. So when I draw the wrong sort of attention I can keep ahead of it." he says with a bit of a frown. "I'm not sure I'll be any good at searching, but I'll do my best. I don't think I can divine more yet. Usually, I can only do it once, about a particular matter. And I think this is all related."
“Works well enough. And we we can take out any enemy combatants without them noticing all the better. And be on the watch out for any pissy goddesses too. She'll be perfectly happy to squash us all if we even look like we're gonna win. Seems the sort and all." Aillen looked out towards the place and put his hand to his chest a moment as he brought up his magic spell to search for Wu wu, not doubting theres loads of it here already.
Jocelyn nods, hand on her pendant, blinking a few times as to clear sleep from her eyes, "That sounds like a plan, indeed. And I don't think Hera would get so directly and violently involved," she grimaces, "I think the gods sort of have a thing about not directly harming each others kids… but, yeah, not something I'd bet on. So, Aillen and I take to the air, watching for interesting magical items…" She looks around the van with the Unlidded Eye. She takes the firework from Hopper, tucking it into her messenger bag, which is slung over her shoulder in readiness.
"Finding things, we can do," Neil admits. Though, if he is showing any confidence in the statement, it's more understated than anything else. "Though if we're found out, I can hold them off while the rest of you come to bail me out." Pause. "Hitting things with a shield. Not all that effective."
Sighing a bit, Hopper pulls off his glasses and starts to strip down to his boxers. He then throws his bag on and takes the tar jar, pouring it over himself until his boxers turn into a pair of gold booty shorts. He makes sure the rabbits foot is on it's cord. He then stands up and steps out looking at the others. "How do I look? Like a date-rape waitin' to happen?" He asks, looking for approving nods or skeptical looks.
Aillen blinked a few times looking at Hopper. "You are terrifying my friend. I'll leave it at that. " With that, he rummaged through his bag a moment to pull out a black baseball cap and put it on, now the only thing showing really was his white face. "Night sky, dark flying. Don't get too far though. I can only throw about the distance of a football field give or take. Rather not have you dying while I'm trying to get into range."
Hopper's stripping down to his boxers. Let's… oh, look. Something fascinating to look at way over there. It would be rude to 'accidently' gawk at a Bandmate in booty shorts. "Lovely. Just lovely. So, are we ready to do this?" Dion asks then.
Blinking at Hopper's, ah, new fashion choice, Jo is temporarily at a loss for words, "Um… that'll definitely get some attention… or something." Ducking back into the van, Jocelyn rummages around in her duffle bag, digging for a set of dark clothes of some sort, a few moments later, and she's wearing the only dark clothes she could find - fitted black jeans and a black long sleeve sweater. Pulling her hair up into a pony-tail, she nods, "Sure. Ready.”
"See, if we were back home, you'd be very, very cold right now," Neil says, commenting on Hopper's fashion statement. Well, not so much a statement as a period. Though a period takes up more physical space. Neil takes the moment to check his headband, and the straps on the back of his shield to make sure everything is secure. "Okay, I'm good." Sunrise woofs along with him, which to those who can understand him might translate it as «Carnage for Asgard!» Neil gives his dog a /look./
"You all right?" he asks the Golden Retreiver.
«I am. You are so getting me steak when we get home.»
"Fine, fine…"
That done, Hopper gives the most quirky of heroic smiles before he jogs barefoot through the rain and right into the doors. Instantly fireworks go off, smoke leaks from the windows, but none of them are the screamers. All manner of commotion ensues. Black figures previously unseen go running into the building to give chance. Step one, active. Now it's up to the rest of the D-list.
Aillen stepped out of the van, with his spear over his shoulder as he took into the sky. The fireworks were not quite a good sign in his book, but he'd know if Hopper was in danger, Right? Shaking his head to clear the negative thoughts he flew up higher into the air, beginning the search for bulls. What did millenia old bull horn smell like after all?
Jocelyn watches as Aillen takes to the air, and after double checking that her bag is secured, kicks off from the ground and rising into the air swiftly, eyes squinted against the rain. Her black clad form vanishes against the dark, stormy sky, and she starts off towards the statue, eyes scanning the compound surrounding it for some sign of the old magic that would hopefully indicate the presence of the horns.
While you are unable to see anything through the wall, the place sort of hums with a natural 'magical' energy. Jo can see through the windows, fireworks are going off inside and a near-nude hopper can be spotted blurring through the halls chased by all manner of robed figures trailing after him. There appears to be nothing obvious about it, but with Joc's magic wuwu-eyes, she can see pulses in the structure. Some are harder to read than others. There is a burning sort of oval shape somewhere in the head of the statue, and another one that is more….horn shaped on the inside of one of the 'thorns' on the crown on the outside. The throrn is about the size of a car, so it will be no easy task to get into it.
Aillen grumbled as he flew about, taking some low flying buzzes over structures with his magic eyes up and going. There had to be something useful going on here. Hopefully Hopper didn't die before they found it.
Jocelyn shakes her head at Hopper's antics, although she's quite thankful for the distraction he's providing. She looks at the statue slowly, mentally cataloging where the pulses of magic appear to be. Her eyes ultimately come to rest on the head of the massive figure, and she pauses mid flight, chewing on her lower lip. From a distance, she eyes the central thorn, seeing it pulse in the shape of the horns, "Well, that looks promising…" She looks around for Aillen, planning to bring the glowing thorn to his attention. Midway through looking for Aillen, who is dressed in black and presumably flying around at a high rate of speed, Jo has an 'oh duh' moment, and pulls her cell phone out of her pocket - typing out a quick text to Aillen.
Feeling the buzz, Aillen yanked the phone out of his pocket at the text, then with a brow raised he made a bee line for Jo. Course she found the thing, she was the specialist in all this stuff. As he floated up beside her, he looked to the Jesus statue. "So the crown has the bull's horns in it then? Though whats that weird oval thingy? Guess we get to destroy a monument."
At Aillen's question, Jo nods, eyeing the thorn, "Yes, it's in the crown. But it's just one of the thorns. We really shouldn't need to destroy the whole thing. It's soap stone over concrete… so maybe we can just sit on his head and chip into that particular horn? From the back. So it doesn't damage the monument too visibly," Jocelyn grimaces, apparently not liking the idea of defacing the massive monument, even if it was not part of her theology. "And I can't quite tell what's actually inside the head. The concrete kinda blocks it, but, well, we'll deal with it when we get to it?" She starts upwards, aiming for the head of the statue by a somewhat circuitous air route, not wanting to make herself an easy target.
Aillen just shook his head. "Ya know Jo, sometimes saving the world from a flood is more important than keeping artwork preserved." He shook his head as he followed with her to circle with her to the more hidden access to the thorn. "Soo breaking rock it is. Unless you happen to have something better, probably best bet to just stab through it."
Jocelyn looks sheepish as they land atop the head of the statue, walking towards the thorn in question, "I know. I realize that. Really I do. But, well, it's a monument. All the monuments to the gods of Greece were destroyed, and while that was shitty, I don't feel right going about doing it to another group, no matter how much I may dislike it." She pauses at the foot of the thorn and kicks the stone in question, not expecting it to do much. "Guess we should start by getting the soapstone layer off."
"How bout I just destroy the stone down till I find a magic set of bull horns, and if Hopper or Dion starts dying before then, you take over and I jump off a monument" Aillen grinned at that and raised up his spear, looking for a good angle to stab the statue to get to the set of horns then starts stabbing the spear into Jesus. Like thats never happened before.
Since Aillen's in the middle of lobotomizing Jesus, Jocelyn is acting as a lookout, watching for anyone who might think a stroll on the head of the statue would be a good idea. Occasionally she looks down at the statue, figuring there's likely a better view of the thing inside the head from up here. She's pacing along the part in the hair, generally trying to stay out of Aillen's way.
Aillen finally stabbed in the last time as rock broke away, mouth covered by his shirt pulled up just abit to prevent from breathing in rock powder. With a muffled voice "Hey Jo, I think I got this thing done." Whipping the spear around to the other side, he tapped a few times with the butt of the spear to try and loosen it.
Jocelyn moves forward, kneeling beside the gaping hole in the crown to get a better look. Now that Aillen's gotten everything cleared, Jo reaches into the thorn, grabbing the horns and carefully wiggling them out of their concrete encasement. Horns now in hand, she rocks back, sitting on her heels, and carefully wraps the horns in a silk cloth, and tucking the relics into her messenger bag as best she can, for safe keeping.
Hopper looking completely smoky, sweaty, and covered in a sort of slimy glisten appears, wearing his booty shorts and little golden sandals. He pants heavily as he drags an Oval shaped mirror behind him. "Quick! I think I figured it out!" He calls, reaching his hand out for the Horn. How and why Hopper got out here is a mystery, but as it always seems to be, he's in the right place at the right time. "They are planning on ritual. I think I know what to do to stop it!" He calls, giving a nervous 'gimmy' gesture.
Move, move, move. Neil is not known for any great speed, but the young scion does know how to hustle when the time comes. Which is where he is right now, Sunrise as well, the Heimdall Son and his dog flanking Dion to get to the back of the huge statue. Along the base of the statue's right boot, there's an entrance hatch, which is pulled open by Neil's sort-of considerable strength. "Go, go," he says, insisting Dion and Sunrise go in first, in case someone catches them and tries to waste them while entering. Back inside, Neil takes the point again…though he asks Dion first; he won't be rude about it. They make their way up, Neil opening his senses to the chaos around him, making sure they can get up there uncontested.
Dion is just fine with Neil taking point, for he is squishy, and good with ketchup. He can hustle too, being in exceptional shape, and tries to pay attention. That's where he's less exceptional. And there's dust in there. It's awful. Despite this great suffering on his part, he soldiers on, following the other young man.
Jocelyn jumps slightly at the sound of Hopper's voice, genuinely confused for a moment as to just how her friend managed to get atop the 130 foot tall statue. Slowly she rises to her feet, pulling the silk wrapped horn back out of her messenger bag as she stands. She turns around, head tilted to the side slightly as she regards her friend with slight confusion, looking between him and the mirror. "Hopper, how the hell did you get up here? And what's with the mirror?" She looks him over, a slight look of recognition on her face, as she tosses the horn, wrapped in black silk, in Hopper's direction, "Oh, by the way. Nice little boots."
Aillen tilted his head looking at the Hopper there, he smelled right, but where was the little dog mark? As the horn flew through the air, he looked to Jo then down at Hoppers feet. "Wait a second there. What the hell is going on here?" He hefted his spear up aiming at 'Hopper' as he sent his mind questing to find the mark.
Of course it didn't escape your attention that Hopper's sneakers and socks are in the car and that he entered barefoot. The horn flies through the air and Hopper positions the mirror so that the horn hits, sinks in and then suddenly floats of it's own accord. Hopper steps back letting it illuminate the evening with a sickly green light.
"Hera told me you were coming." He says grinning a crooked grin, before the figure shrinks and goes inward, about the size of dion. He's a little man, comically small, with a great deal of Roman attractiveness…. nothing supernatural, but he's attractive.
"She asked me to get rid of you…. so… I'll go ahead and let you meet my little pet." A moment later a horned slittering beast that looks like a giant millipede suddenly pulls itself out of the mirror and lets out a blood thirst roar.
"Now…I couldn't take the horn from you. And I can't kill you…. but if you happened to just do what you did, and the actions came about the way they did…I didn't break any rules." He winks and turns to walk off. "Kill them. I'm going to find the little shit." He then disappears, leaving the team with a big problem.
Aillen let out a snarl as the millipede came out of the mirror and Caligula made his way off from the battle. "Damnit. The horns on the frigging bug now." Now the world was slowing down into the adrenaline fueled haze that came with the start of battle. Now it was just a matter of how to get everyone out of this alive. "Jo take off again, don't get too close, I need you to figure out that damn mirror." He pivoted back to put himself in between her and it so he could give her time to figure out the Wu Wu.
Just as Neil and Dion get up there, that's when they see the transformation, in which Caligula reveals himself. "Aw, crap, it's Farquaad," he says, under his breath. "It explains the giant penis monsters, though." Sunrise pads to his side, growling at the…thing that comes through the mirror. "Dion, get back," Neil says, heading a little closer towards the edge, ready to put himself between his friend and the insect-like Titanspawn. "Today is not my Wyrd," he says, almost a prayer for himself. "This is not my fate…"
Dion just looks confused at first. "What?" he asks, though it seems kind of rhetorical. "What?? What happened?" Sometimes, it's a good thing he's very pretty. He doesn't at all argue with staying back, since the millipede thing looks really unpleasant. "Wait, that was…" Ew. He keeps his footing carefully, but reaches for his cell phone to try to get Hopper. He needs to be warned.
Jocelyn winces as the horn sinks into the mirror, mentally chastising herself for being unable to resist the order. She glares at the diminutive little creep, cursing rather fluently in Latin. She starts backing away from the horned creature, and at Aillen's insistence, she kicks off from the head of the statue, hovering in the air above the scene, focusing on the mirror in hopes that the Unlidded Eye would provide some insight into just what was going on. Her intricately carved sword appears in her hand, the soft rustling of wings accompanying the weapon's appearance as always.
Aillen with his spear already held high for throwing at Caligula grinned as he saw Neil and Dion come up onto the head of the Jesus. He watched the two for a moment, and seeing how Neil was moving, he shifted his own steps, even though they were hovering above the rain slick surface, and moved with ages of practice to take advantage of the distracting motions of his compatriots as he let fly the spear with all his might, the force of the air around it causing rain to flow in the wake of the spear like a tail.
With a quick breath, Neil forces the ichor inside him through the pores of his skin, encasing his body in a thin sheath of dull, gray metal. Heimdall Scions always do it with protection. Across the battlefield, he meets eyes with Aillen, and an understanding is made. They are warriors, protectors. And dog people. That's always important. The courage borne of the Aesir surges within him as he steps between the celphone-using Dion and the serpentine monster, and at Aillen's call, spins on one foot to hurl his shield right off his arm, which sails in a straight line towards the creature, comet-like, while Neil comes to rest, mentally gauging the shield's return flight path back to his arm. Maybe the shield will get the creature's attention, and keep it away from the others to they can strike.
The Nemean Millipede is not happy. Not by along shot. Escaping tartarus by proxy of a little magical item only to be met with meddling kids with their meddling dog. And then they are rather strong and carry sharp weapons. It lets out a bellow and locks it's hind million legs into the stone like a knife in butter and then suddenly it's 4 way jaws part and it dives forward, like a snake, snapping at Aillen.
With the rain falling from the sky, it made matters like a strobe as lightning cracked across the sky illuminating the world a moment. In the seconds of time passing between darkness and light, Aillen was no longer the fleshy being of meat that he was before, but now covered in a liquid silvery metal, reflective like a mirror. And as the beasty actually shot towards him though he grinned and flowed through the air like a sylph, sliding out of the way of incoming jaws.
Jocelyn hovers above the scene, using her vantage point to look over both the centipede and the mirror, frowning and thinking. She eyes the mirror though, tilting her head to the side as she hears the slight crack of glass from the mirror. And then the centipede is whole again. "Oh, gods, it can heal itself, using the mirror, or something." She's wrapped up in thought, and refrains from attacking.
"Is that the best you've got you pathetic worm! I've fought school lunches that were tougher than you! Sparrows had better chance of hitting me than you!" Aillen didn't really care whether or not the thing understood english. He could have been insulting it in gaelic and probably have the same results. He dove for the beast's back, his hands grabbing for the shaft of the spear as he planted his feet into the segments of it for leverage as he yanked as hard as he could with a grunt to try and free the barbed spear.
Move, move, move! In Neil's head, protecting Dion is Priority One, since that's what was asked of him. So, this is why the young man sensibly does not charge the Nemian abomination. But, he knows his limits. He stares at the shield, his father's gift, for a moment, then smiles and takes aim as he hurls it once more.
The beast is again wounded by spear and shield and again, the wounds disappear completely. The thing appears to have some method of reviving itself. Once again, it turns, this time looking at Neil who is starting to piss it off with his flying shield. He lets out a roar and dives forward.
SPLAT! A black string of goo shoots out from an open window. Then grinning a mad-mans grin comes the near-naked booty shorted Hopper holding the Tar-Baby in one arm, which supports him as he swings out of the window and over the near 500 foot drop, before he lands barefoot against the cement. Letting out a slight giggle, his form blurs as the Knuckle-Buster appears in his other hand and he starts shooting at the beast as things inside start to explode out. Phalli burst through the wall and chaos seems to be following him. "Sorry I'm late!" he calls, laughing wildly. Yes, Hopper is damn near insane.
Jocelyn frowns, sweeping strands of rain soaked hair from her eyes and observing once more as the monster heals itself. She knows the mirror is connected to this thing, somehow. The horn was tossed into it, and then this thing came out. Must be something.
As Hopper emerges from the building, Jo raises an eyebrow, "Nice of you to join us. Hopefully this is actually the real you this time," she grimaces, yelling to the others, "It's tied to the mirror somehow - the mirror lets it regenerate." As she yells into the rain, she reels her sword arm back, setting herself to attack, and lunging forward, the kerykeion sword slicing through the rain with a flash of gleaming metal. As the blade cuts through the air, there is a slight boom, and a shockwave leaves the blade, sailing through the air at the looking glass.
The mirror shatters, first falling into two pieces. As it does so, the creature splits in the middle as well, breaking into two pieces. The green glow fizzles, echoed in the monster. Then suddenly it explodes in a thousand shard, as does the beast. That done, Hopper just grins and looks around. "We did it, right?" The horn sails through the air towards Joc.
Once the mirror shatters and the monster does the same, Neil feels the tension drain out of his body for a brief moment, as the adrenaline rush fades. "Okay," he says, glancing around for any spare cultists. "Okay. And this is the thing we need?"
Shards of millipede bounced off the metal ichor shell of Aillen as Gae Bolga became freed from the beast when it exploded. "Bloody thing, and damn Caligula." He glanced towards Jo as the horn returned to her. "Mission success?"
Jocelyn yelps as her plan actually worked. She's more than a little surprised. As the horn comes flying towards her, she snags the relic from the air, looking it over to make sure the horns were still all in one piece. She frowns, landing on the rain soaked stone scalp, sword in one hand, horns in the other, "Yeah. We got what we came here for," she holds up the horns, "Just got to get it to Zeus."
Looking thoughtful for a moment, Jo looks between her sword and the horn, and grins broadly. She threads the horns through the winding serpents of the hand guard on her sword, wrapping the black silk scarf around the items, just to be sure it was secure. And then, she just drops the weapon, which vanishes with the sound of fluttering wings before it impacts the stone.
And the sword and horn go *PFFT-flutterflutter* and the walls nearest Hopper litterally explode, blowing a hole in the head of Jesus. Light pours from inside and Caligula stalks out, in his true form. Short, but wreathed in warped desire. His eyes glow and his body steps out into the air on a bridge of nothingness. Hopper lets out a yelp and falls about 20 feet before the Tar-Baby shoots and lands him purchase and a saftey line.
"You little fucking -bitch!-" Roars Caligula as he suddenly appears in front of Jocelyn, a hand quick as can be slaps the living -shit- out of her. And suddenly those with magic eyes just spotted rule number 1 being broken…. Cal just interacted with a mortal….fate binding the pair. "Now you are going to suffer and die…. starting by watching your small cocked boyfriend die!" He turns to look at Aillen and offers a cruel grin before stalking that direction.
Aillen raised a brow at that, Small Cocked? "Little boots was it?" He spun his spear about in his hands a moment as he stood his ground, Gae Bolga seeming more alive than ever, the bone of a monster in the hands of a hero, the barbs already out like a porcupine showing its agitation. "You should know better than to touch someone protected by the Son of Lugh." He let out a snarl, sounding more like a growling dog than a person.
The moment, that breath of relief that their quest is at an end…it all vanishes in an instant as Caligula reappears. Neil goes on his guard, and a coldness in his eyes blooms as he sees the decadent god strike his friend. He gets ready to throw the shield, again, but that icy gaze hardens a bit as an idea. Caligula seems to have a certain freaky phallic fixation. "Sunrise," he whispers. "Sic, boy." Beat. "Go Low."
It really doesn't take but a moment for Hopper to gain his footing and instantly turn his gun on Cal. But faster and stronger than the quintet? The big boys. Sunrise never gets his chance before lightning strikes HARD and Caligula screams in agony. "NO! NO! I WON'T GO!" He throws a tantrum. But as soon as it happened, the lightning recedes, taking Caligula and the rain with it. The fluttering of wings can be heard as the sword reappears with a small box tied to it, floating right in front of Jocelyn.
"Damned bastard!" Aillen called out to the disapeared Caligula but he had something abit more important to deal with. With Jo down on the ground he made his way over towards her and went down to his knees. "You still with us Jo?"
Jocelyn screams and drops to her knees, hands clutching the sides of her head. She's shaking bodily, and apparently fighting with herself to try and stay conscious. She looks up, blinking at the box curiously. Taking her sword by the hilt in one hand, she picks the box up with the other hand, tilting her head to the side and flicking open the box. Because opening boxes sent by gods is such a good idea.
Inside the box is a small black book, bound in leather. It looks old and has the greek symbol for 'Sophos' on it. There is a single inscription on the front cover. "To my daughter. Her brain works as fast as her fathers feet. Love, Dad."
… The End.
This is the final installment of the Road Trip series. It was preceded by Road Trip: Bring Us Your Virgins.
