The Other Gods -- The World Spirit

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

The effects of the Nightmare King have faded, the battlefield is gone. Stacy is rebooting her systems, and will be online again soon. It's over, it's finally over at last. They've won. They're all alive!

Except that it's not over.

Through the city, a wave of destruction spreads out from where a teenage boy rockets out of what's left of Escherville and floats in the air. A shockwave of air shatters the glass in nearby buildings; the stone foundation that serves as the overlay of Stacy's flesh that most of the city rests on cracks where he passes over it. Eyes and tattoos glowing, long hair whipped around by the winds he's creating, Aang is a force to be reckoned with--and not one to be reasoned with.

This is the Avatar in his full fury, angrier than his comrades have ever seen him, nearly thoughtlessly so.

He's overwhelmed by such senseless rage, the world breaks down around him--at the whims of the elemental forces under his control--stone cracking, water condensing out of the air and freezing over surfaces, wind whipping rubble around in a deadly, gouging tumult, fire crackling through the air.

Aang's voice is many voices, old and young, thousands of them all intermingled, as he cries out:

"WHERE ARE THEY, STACY? WHERE IS THE CREW? ANSWER ME!"

Stacy tries to reason with him. Some of her systems are damaged, she is awake and aware, but her security measures are not back up yet. And even when they are, what then? She can't hold him down forever. In this state, he needs to be calmed, and the AI knows that's something she is incapable of.

So she tries reason. ||Avatar Aang, the original crew is dead. Only refugees from podsleep are awake--||

A building is swallowed up by a sinkhole that appears in the stone.

"YOU'RE LYING!"

He doesn't remember what Leon and the others told him in the dreams, about the original crew being dead. His consciousness had been separated from his body for a very long time, and to have it snap back so suddenly to a physical form at the height of an adrenaline surge, that had been trapped in the Avatar State for more than a year...

A whole year trapped as he had been is enough to unsettle his mind, to make him angry. Now that he's free, everything contained over that time--kept stuffed inside so that he could maintain composure--is bursting free in a frenzied maelstrom of emotion and destruction.

Not that most of the crew will know this--for all they know, if they didn't hear his words, he could be the Nightmare King.

"THEY'RE NOT DEAD! THEY ABANDONED US! THEY LEFT US TO HIM! WHERE ARE THEY?!"

||They are dead. Avatar Aang, you must calm yourself. You have been forced to endure a tremendous physiological and psychological strain--||

She isn't answering the way he wants. She isn't telling him where they are, so Aang reacts by destroying her city. A wave of his arms and there's a blast of air that destroys a temple. He's going to continue until he finds them, finds someone to direct his rage at, or until something manages to calm him down first. The latter is entirely possible, given some time--but at what cost?

Comments

Oh Shit! Bystanders!- (Others trying to help/anyone can tag this one)

[cityship]

There are boulders being flung around like wiffle balls.

Duck, everyone.

Some people won't even have a chance to get close to help. Some will be too busy trying not to get frozen to a wall or smacked in the head with a rock, or others will be trying to help protect them from that happening.

Re: Oh Shit! Bystanders!- (Anyone can tag this one)

[thewunderkind]

Shiiiiit, where the hell did that guy...thing come from? Lash was still breathing heavy from all the fighting, but suddenly everything around her was falling, the elements themselves moving around like a blinding rage. It wasn't over?!

Calm down, her inner instinct tell her. Try to find shelter. Make sure he doesn't see you. Normally not a huge fan of hiding, the way the guy was talking chilled her to her bones and she just wanted to be out of his line of sight. Too bad she was so concentrated in her thoughts, she barely heard the rubble falling near her...

Re: Oh Shit! Bystanders!- (Anyone can tag this one)

[bears-omnitrix.livejournal.com]

Said rubble was ripped apart by a loud and very angry sounding Tiger-man.

"FALLING ROCKS?! FALLING ROCKS?!?!?! THERE ISN'T ANYTHING RATH CAN'T HANDLE EXCEPT THE POWER OF A THOUSAND EXPLODING SUNS! PAH! FALLING ROCKS! LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING ROCKS, IT'LL TAKE MORE THAN THIS TO TAKE DOWN PEOPLE WHO ARE TRYING TO FLEE THE WRATH OF AN ANGRY GOD!"

A safe refuge? For right now, anyway...

[toariversodeep.livejournal.com]

At a few points throughout the city, makeshift-looking sirens (http://k53.pbase.com/g3/33/552133/2/55197914.siren.jpg), crumpled and broken, spark silently. They were the first thing to go when the full influence of the Nightmare King hit, with the way they might have disturbed some of the nightmares otherwise. Roxie never had the time to properly ward them.

But there is another place she worked on—a refuge, for however short a time, against the storm. Roxie's little lair (http://trans9.wikia.com/wiki/Level_Four#Roxie.27s_Lair), warded a dozen ways against outside interference, is like a rock against the surf. Hurricane-force winds part around it without so much as disturbing the lettering on the sign out front. It might seem like a rather useful place to run and hide, though it's not at all clear, by the abtruse and arcane runes glowing across all the walls, just how long it will be safe.

Re: Oh Shit! Bystanders!- (Others trying to help/anyone can tag this one)

[lilyofthedrills.livejournal.com]

Something was angry and thrumming with power way above her, flashing and full of sturm und drang. Yuri huddled in the middle of the street behind Borg's drills. Small boulders rebounded against the organic steel, rattling her growing bones.

"Oh no, oh no oh no oh no!" She cried to noone in particular.

Re: Oh Shit! Bystanders!- (Others trying to help/anyone can tag this one)

[raptorwithagun.livejournal.com]

Red Snout bounded (okay, limped) over to Yuri and reached out to grab her collar with his teeth, dragging her towards the relative shelter of a half-destroyed building. They could at least hunker down behind that, right?

"Yuri! Stop that!" He could barely hear himself think over all the noise, but he'd be damned if he let Yuri sit out there in the open.

Re: Oh Shit! Bystanders!- (Others trying to help/anyone can tag this one)

[itsaboutaction.livejournal.com]

Superman didn't need his hearing to hear the destruction. While he was glad that the nightmare world he was in earlier was gone, he was starting to wonder if that wasn't safer than before.

"This isn't good at all..." Kal uttered before turning to some of the others gathered around. "Everyone MOVE! It's too dangerous out here! Get as far away as possible!"

Right now, he wish he had a way to fight back. The crew was in danger and he couldn't do anything to aid them.

Re: Oh Shit! Bystanders!-

[dis-courageous.livejournal.com]

Komali had been huddling, eyes closed and trembling in a small crevice between a stone bench and a brick wall. He hadn't known what kind of building he'd hidden in, only that it was stone and therefore fireproof. His nightmares had been, as always, of fire.

But then the explosion had come— different from before and when he opened his eyes, the creeping lava was gone, and in its place driving winds. The child had rushed to look out the doorless entryway and all unknowing had been swept up like down. The Rito were hardly a heavy people.

Bird had eventually met a wall weakened and crumbling by the typhoon forces, and the unsteady bricks collapsed over and around him. Miraculously, he wasn't dead, or even badly broken, but it was well beyond the young prince to do more than sob and scream— he couldn't lift the weight that threatened to crush the breath out of him as it pressed him into the crack-crazed ground.

Re: Oh Shit! Bystanders!-

[gogopowersuit.livejournal.com]

Of course Samus was concerned about the crew. She'd been on this ship too damn long not to care about the crew. And even though she was a mess of cuts and bruises and carrying a heap of broken armor on her back, she was determined to get through and fight for them.

She was knocked back in a whirlwind of debris. She clenched her teeth to push on- when she heard a cry. She recognized it almost immediately. Her attention was immediately focused on finding the source. She pulled herself up and in an almost panicked hurry, abandoned her potential post in aiding security against this threat. It crossed her mind that she should probably be doing the opposite. It wasn't totally unreasonable to believe that someone would find Komali, to think that she'd do a much better job at the frontlines than she would on a search and rescue mission. And yet, she could not shake the feeling that she had to find him. So she searched.

Re: Oh Shit! Bystanders!- Wind Dancing? Not so much

[ayasofia.livejournal.com]

Sofia's powers had returned once again. She felt the wind in a way that few, if any, of the others could. It was explosive and overwhelming, yet despite the chaos, it was controlled.

She braced herself and reached out to block off the windstorm. "This is-" She gritted her teeth. "Much too powerful." But she was succeeding, at least to a point. No one should be getting thrown back against walls with enough force to rip them in two. She hoped.

Re: Oh Shit! Bystanders!- Wind Dancing? Not so much

[cardsharkgambit.livejournal.com]

Two glowing rectangular objects sail past Sofia, striking a boulder that had been heading in her direction and exploding on impact, rendering it into little more than dust that was quickly caught up in the windstorm and swept away.

"Don't tell Gambit you givin' up now, cher," a familiar said from just behind her. It was quickly followed by another set of explosions as Sofia's future teacher the Cajun dispatch another set of boulders. "Who dat leave me to play with?"

Re: Oh Shit! Bystanders!- (Others trying to help/anyone can tag this one)

[trenchcoatange1.livejournal.com]

Castiel emerged from Escherville just as a massive boulder went flying toward him. It sailed straight for him until its arc inexplicably changed, causing it to crash into the ground sooner than it ought to have and roll the last few feet until it came to a stop mere inches from where the man in the trench coat stood.

Cas seemed to study the massive boulder for several moments, contemplating it with an almost child-like curiosity then, without uttering a word or showing any hint of astonishment, continued on his way like a man completely unaware of the chaos that was exploding around him.

[magetrouble.livejournal.com]

"Where are you headed?" Kala loped after the man awkwardly, her fingers pressed to her red stained, bandaged side. Rocks pinged off her shield as she held it up to deflect more debris.

Re: Oh Shit! Bystanders!- (Others trying to help/anyone can tag this one)

[playsin-traffic.livejournal.com]

Tony dragged himself into cover, fervently hoping that he wasn't going to end the day getting crushed by a crazy, glowing kid with elemental powers. He was hurt, he ached all over from exhaustion and a ton of scrapes and bruises (not to mention the wounds on his leg and side). He was close to just passing out from exhaustion. So, he huddled in his corner, waiting for the storm to pass.

[governorkang]

The battlefield was gone, leaving Kang somewhere in the City he didn't recognize immediately. Panting, he lowered his axe, and jumped nearly three feet in the air with the aid of his wings when he heard the unmistakable sound of an entire building being destroyed in the distance, muffled by the winds that were picking up. Immediately after, he cursed in a mix of three languages and pulled his left wing closer in to his body with a grimace; there were several bullet holes in the membrane, leaking greenish blood. Then, he noticed the figure floating in the air, in the center of the storm that had overtaken the City

Shit. Was that the Nightmare King?

The elements were going crazy, and beginning to tear the buildings around him apart. He needed to find shelter, fast.

Re: Oh Shit! Bystanders!- (Others trying to help/anyone can tag this one)

[demon-alessa.livejournal.com]

Alessa was limiping back to the factory. It was the only thing she had at this point. Her powers were waning, Shadow and the others had gone, and she needed to be where her base was. Unfortunately for her, the rampage was far, FAR from over. Debris hit the girl's smaller frame intermittenly and she was happy to not be huamn: she would have been crushed by now. Still, these wounds hurt nonetheless, and she hoped she might, for reasons that eluded her, convince some of the others to take shelter with her.

She fell a moment, and felt the frustration of not being able to get back up as easily. Damned sapping of energy. She could have just beamed herself there of she hadn't wasted so much!

Re: Oh Shit! Bystanders!- (Others trying to help/anyone can tag this one)

[ghost-bait.livejournal.com]

It was like they didn't even get a chance to breathe! The shattering glass rained down from further up the street, with a force that made Miku freeze up. There were earthquakes, there were tsunamis and then, there were completely unbelievable situations like this one. They had to get to shelter, but her legs wouldn't move, and her hand around Steve's warmer one tightened.

But if they didn't move, another part of her reasoned, they would die. And probably, judging by the way the glass skewered the street, in a very messy and unpleasant way.

Re: Oh Shit! Bystanders!- Hey Mom, Look What I Can Do!

[in-venting.livejournal.com]

Sherry had gotten separated from the others, and once the bigger nightmare had faded from the city, had run off to look for her parents. It was completely fine to admit what she felt - she was worried, terrifyingly so, and hoped that they were alright. Not that she'd said word one of that when she'd let go of Vega's hand and hauled herself down the street.

As far as the little girl was concerned, it was a sound plan, until a gust of wind picked her up off her feet and slammed her into the side of a building. It hurt, and the little girl groaned as she struggled back up to her feet, one hand on the wall and the other checking the back of her head for stickiness. Sherry sobbed, and bit down on the inside of her cheek to muffle it.

There had to be another way to them. She just needed to think to find it.

Re: Oh Shit! Bystanders!- (Others trying to help/anyone can tag this one)

[bonnypiperlad]

The cold and the rain and the war was bad enough. But when the rain stopped being rain and then became bits of rocks and glass hurled by extremely high winds instead? Frankly, to borrow some slang from Claudia, it sucked.

He didn't know where Kaylee had gone and couldn't have kept up with her even if he wanted to, thanks to his leg. Jamie regretted the loss of his stick - vanished along with the nightmares. It would have helped immensely. All he could really do now was try and push his way against the wind and find some sort of shelter, all while attempting to avoid flying boulders.

There was something up ahead that looked like it might work, at least temporarily. Gritting his teeth, he started towards it.

Confrontation - Security and the Gaang

[cityship]

He needs to be either talked down... or put down.

Re: Confrontation - Security and the Gaang

[grayaura.livejournal.com]

"So much for it being hard to find him," Mai muttered as she carefully kept her balance on Static's flying disc. "Now what?"

The Gaang's approach

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

The goal? Getting Katara to Aang.

That's a lot harder than you'd think. Whirlwinds of air push them back, fire flares out at them, stone cracks and is flung in their direction, sheets of ice pelt at them.

They'll only manage if they work together.

The Avatar's Love

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

Only one person can talk him down.

Medics (Arha, Chopper, Hunter) [No tagging until the second subthread is done]

[cityship]

Halp.

Re: Medics (Arha, Chopper, Hunter) [No tagging until the second subthread is done]

[jesushasayak.livejournal.com]

Aang collapses into Katara's arms, and he's quite the armful now--he's taller than her--and she'll likely feel the blood-slicked back of his robes, near the exit wound. Two wounds--the bullet went right through. Trembling as if he's cold, he relaxes against her.

He gurgles, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, "Katara, I think I just got hit by lightning again."

That's the closest thing it feels like, like something shot right through him, although his nerves aren't jangling all the way through his body this time, and he didn't see bright white. He's seen guns in action, but never been shot by one.

"Wow, hey, that's a lot of blood."

As he falls back into her arms, and is lowered to the ground, listless and boneless, he looks up at her, and his hand brushes her cheek.

Ha ha! he thinks, wildly defiant. You said I never would. You said I'd never see her again, that I'd never...

He hadn't known what he was talking about--the Nightmare King, that is. But maybe he had known what he was talking about when he said Aang was going to die. Aang has the idle thought that it might very well be the case right before his vision fades to black, but his last thought as he slips away is that, as far as last sights go, the face of the girl he loves isn't a bad one to go out on.

He's fading.