Pixie darted around the skyline of the city, quite honestly bored with herself. She supposed that she could have gone to the media library, but really wasn't something she was feeling all that moment, and one could only groove to so many Dazzler tunes in the Sensoriums before getting bored of that as well.

Exhausting all of her resources (and convincing herself that it would be improper to sell people her hallucinogenic pixie dust), Pixie had instead decided to play Tinkerbell. Sure, it was immature, but she had wings, and what better thing to do than circle around this castle or that, pretending to be the famous fairy that Walt Disney had made his mascot so many years ago?

A lot, actually, Megan, Pixie thought to herself as she circled around the Gotham Clocktower before coming down in the statuary.

She hadn't actually seen this place before either, now that she came to think of it. Hopefully, none of the statues here would show her things she would rather not know. She'd had enough of that upstairs.

She landed in front of Luke Skywalker and flipped a switch at its base. Nothing. She flipped it again. Still nothing. Pixie then backed away and sprinkled sparkly pixie dust on the statue. Still nothing, but at least it looked pretty?

Pixie sighed.

She needed something...adventurous.

If one had ran into Spider-Man recently, they would notice he was feeling a bit like crap. He hated to have found and brought Merlin into custody, but at the same time it was the law of the ship. Now, granted, he hated the rule of "all past deeds don't count here", because what's to stop madmen like Norman Osborn from showing up and doing something that ends up killing people all because everyone decided to give blank slates?

"Okay, granted, I'm all for second chances and all - and I've given plenty in my time - but I swear, I feel like a real heel having to drag that kid to the brig." Spidey said. "I mean, he helped someone, got them free... and the nutcase regained control and is using all of us as his playthings just because of the law!" He let out a sigh and looked back at his companion.

The Statue of Liberty.

"I mean, you're lucky - you get to stand here, looking all over us with your Super-Sized Sylvester Stallone statue protecting you..." he pointed to the accompanying Statue of Justice. "...while I gotta deal everyone being unhappy because everyone's on edge over something!"

He shook his head as he leaned back on his perch on Liberty's arm.

"Seriously, all I need now is J.J. to show up and start blaming me for everything!"

Man, right about now, I'd kill to have Johnny show up...

About the only good thing to come out of the whole mess dealing with the Nightmare King was that Julian finally managed to get his head on right. He finally knew who he was and what he was meant to do. But more importantly, after the year he had, he finally remembered what the X-Men were supposed to be, and how far off the rails everything had went.

Now it was time to get things back on track.

He called the other X-Kids together, to meet him at the ruins of the Xavier Institute to talk. It was time for the X-Men to get back to basics, and ironically, by doing so, possibly evolve it beyond anything the X-Men have ever done before.

If they were going to do this, they were going to get it right this time.

Not much time for rest during emergencies, unfortunately. However, now that part of the crew has had time to regroup, the task won't be as horrible, right? Right? Well, either way the Nightmare King isn't slowing down. It's time to break into Escherville-one way or another.

Though there might be a bit of a bit of resistance along the way. Watch out for more monsters! Have fun!

((OOC: Are you guys ready for some ACTION? Nightmare critters ahoy!))

You're the ones who are good enough (or lucky) enough to be close to Escherville. You've had the good fortune to be scooped up and now you need to regroup and get ready to take on the Nightmare King himself. Time to reorganize and gear up as best you can with what you've got. The Nightmare King isn't going to wait for you.

Get moving.

_{((OOC: This is for the various groups/peoples who will be fighting the Nightmare King directly or assisting in that endeavor. If your character was in one of the Challenge from Beyond Groups, tag them in here! Feel free to do some tagging back and forth and enjoy yourselves. Please get tagged in by Tuesday night, March 2nd though, so we can get the Final Fight properly organized. ))}

Nightmare becomes reality....

[roster: leader - Sokka, Bella, Castiel, Dean Winchester, Rhiow, Pixie]

Carol really didn't know what she was doing as she made the post to the com. Sure she had been sick and tired of all of them dancing around each other, grouping off, being just people rather than heroes from the same world. She'd noticed the other heroes forming a team, they got on so well it made her sick to think about her own world.

"God Steve, you'd be pulling your own hair out if you saw us all like this." She knew talking to the dead in the Sensoriums wasn't a good idea, but she couldn't help it. As she moved into the room, she looked around herself. Her first thought was to form the Avengers memorial garden, but the mutants on board wouldn't like that. She'd been at Xavier's plenty of times, but the Avengers weren't connected to that place.

"Central Park please. Add in the memorial garden from both the Avengers mansion and Xavier's." She didn't know if it'd work to help connect them all or not, but maybe it would. As she stared at the statues she moved to an empty section and stood, her Ms. Marvel costume appearing on her body as she stood at attention.

She wasn't Captain America, or even Captain Marvel. But she'd led the Avengers before, and damn it she'd do it again.

Jaime Reyes voice sounds over the comm-rings--all of them--and it sounds very urgent.

« Everyone on the ship, listen up! This is Jaime Reyes, your local 'Blowing this pop stand' coordinator and escape facilitation engineer. I need everyone on the ship to come to the City, in front of the Precinct, immediately. Grab people who don't have their comm rings with them--and tell them to grab their comm rings, people who are sleeping, whoever you find, and try to make sure everyone on the ship knows to come. This is very important. This is "getting the heck out of here" important. »

When they arrive, they arrive to find the Command Staff waiting, and a tiny, tiny young man standing on stone ledge from a fountain, waiting for them.

Here goes nothing.

Due in part to his cooperation, Daimon was released from the brig after several days. The experience had certainly given him further incentive to control his darksoul he hoped.

There were several people he wished to talk to but he was tired in his soul if not his body.

He wandered the city. He wanted to return to the Vatican but he was afraid of what he would see. He was even more afraid of what he might do.

If Leon Kennedy had not stopped him, what would he have done to Sawyer?

Julian was still irritated to hell and back. Thankfully someone had pointed him in the direction of the Danger Rooms Sensoriums so he could blow off some steam.

He had to be a little more creative about it, though. Without his powers, the urge to fling himself at danger didn't seem particularly smart. So, instead, he had the room recreate his favorite basketball court. It was located on the SoCal coast, just off the beach.

The sound of the waves nearby was relaxing, and he could even smell the ocean as the breeze crossed the waves and on to shore. Normally, he'd be something close to being at peace here, but he was still bugged and irritated.

He wanted to blame the collar. It was heavy, it itched, it was screwing with his jumper. But, really, it all ran much deeper than that.

( Read more... )

"HEY!"

Paco hopped up on one of the flesh-couches in the Observation Deck, waving his arms around.

"Anyone who wants to know where the non-creepy toilets are, meet me at the Hub! We'll go and hit the City and I can give you the run-down on what we know about that place so far."

Message delivered, he hopped down and headed for the Hub to meet up with this John guy and his friend.

After being released from stasis, having the slime removed from their bodies and clothed in the creepy, pulsing leaf-suit that everyone wore, and being taken to the Weapons & Possessions lockers to collect their belongings, the new arrivals would find themselves standing in the Observation Deck. Round windows lined the fleshy walls, revealing the bright display of lights that was inter-dimensional travel. They would also discover that there were people--members of the command staff and crew that had woken earlier--waiting for them.

Megan Gwynn - known as Pixie to everyone on the ship - stared down at her platter, one of her purely black eyes twitching in disgust. Yeah, it was nutritional, but this...this slop kind of just proved that nutrition wasn't all it was cracked up to be. And here, if I could use my powers to make myself hallucinate and pretend that this way, oh, I don't know, a thick juicy steak, mashed potatoes, and lots of gravy, this would be a lot easier to, ah, digest. Shaking her head, Pixie stood up and, leaving the food where it was, lifted off into the air, her multi-colored butterfly wings flapping gently as she left the cafeteria and flew into the rest of the city.

For as long as Pixie had been here, she'd kept to herself for the most part, lost in her own world of dreams and daydreams. It wasn't that she didn't like being here or anything, or that she was a snob, she'd just kept to herself. It was something that she was working to change - just as she was working on getting used to these new powers that Magik had given her back in Limbo. A soul dagger that could cut through magic. This new...development...had also given Pixie an aptitude for magic. It all left her feeling very different from when she'd merely been a mutant who could cause hallucinations. I still haven't decided if all of this is a good thing or a bad thing, but this is as good a trial by fire as any to figure it all out, she thought to herself as she turned a corner.

Soon, lost in thought, she came across the library. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips when she remembered her discussion with Gambit. It was all too possible that they had Dazzler's stuff in there. Hoping this was true, she flew right in. Dazzler made everything better.

In the corner of one of the sensoriums, the meatship's resident Cajun stood at a table rotating a glass of half-drunk bourbon with his fingers. The loud thump of bass echoed throughout the room and even, perhaps, beyond into the hallway where it might attract passersby. When Gambit, bored out of his mind with nothing to do, had asked for a nightclub, he hadn't expected it to be so complete. The room was dark, the bar and lounge area lighted with low blue lights, while strobes flashed violently over the dance floor which was full of gyrating bodies. Hell, it even came with it's own cigarette smoke-filled air--although it, like the 'alcoholic' drinks--wasn't the slightest bit harmful.

It was the epitome of 'just a good time', complete with the lack of consequences that were likely to kick some in the butt in the morning if it'd all been real.

"Now dis what Gambit call a good time," he noted aloud, lifting his drink to his lips.


[OOC: That's right. It's a club. Don't feel that you have to reply to Gamibt. Treat this kinda like the meet-n-greets. Just throw up a subthread--or tag into one--with your character dancing, drinking, playing pool, darts, whatever and have fun with them. Just look at this as one big CR opportunity!!]

Squish. Squelch, squish.

The lack of movement was beginning to get to him. Ax sighed and shifted his weight, causing his serving of the mess hall's food to ooze unpleasantly under his hooves. It was too much like being sick, too much like eating those liquid grass rations kept aboard Andalite ships for those too sick or injured to stand up and graze properly.

There was the grass around the Garibah tree of course, but he wanted to read up more about the tending of that tree and its grass before he even tried that. The last thing he wanted to do was damage the tree. Fortunately (or unfortunately), Stacy had Andalite literature in the Media Center, and Ax had some free time after he finished eating. He hoped that they'd be able to figure a way off of Stacy sooner rather than later, but in the mean time, the Garibah needed care-taking.

Squish.

Ugh.

Things can happen without Stacy knowing, that much is apparent now. The damage to her sensors is significant. But the fighting clued her in.

After it's all over, after those captured have been rescued, after the injured have been tended to, only the nest is left, and Stacy takes care of it.

||Infestation of Cluster 42, Level 4, Sector 7, Sublevel 12, Zone 37 has been detected. Triggering internal defenses. Decontamination commencing.||

There is a pause.

||Decontamination complete.||

Simple as that, once she knows the problem was there. Her internal sensors are damaged, especially in the city, and so are some of the systems monitoring them. You have to know what's broken to know to fix it.

Such a simple thing and it only took one man dying to make it happen. (His body is gone, by the way, ripped to shreds and eaten. There's not even a spot of blood on the floor. That's the bugs' doing. The bugs' bodies are gone too--that's Stacy's doing).

||Any injured personnel that still have not received medical attention, report to the nearest lift, and you will be transported to the MedBay. Any uninjured personnel, report to the Living Area, to the restroom facilities to undergo decontamination of xenobiological material. Then report to the Obs Deck to meet your new crew-mates.||

Said crew-mates--and the Doctor, who'd skipped out and miraculously ducked and weaved his way to the lift when he'd realized the Master was there--are there and waiting, and just a tad confused.

[ooc: read this first]

While chaos was going on in the city, a level below the Living Areas, the rest of the ship was functioning normally. Stacy, apparently oblivious to goings on in the city, likely do to her malfunctioning sensors there, carried on with ship business.

||Pod Release Protocols Initating,|| Stacy's familiar voice sounded out to the upper levels, though no one was there to hear her. They were all downstairs, fighting for their lives against giant cockroaches.

In the Pod Caverns, there were the sounds of: Pop. Pop pop pop. Poppuhpoppoppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiiiissssss.

The usual condensation and mist sprayed out from cracks in the pods, they ripped open and the people inside slid out onto the floors, covered in slime. One of them, due to his mechanical nature, slid out covered in a sort of oil mixture, in a smaller body than he'd once had.

Pop. Poppop. KASCHUNKhiiiiiissss.

There was no one already freed from the ship to greet them, only Stacy herself, and the empty silence of a ship caught in the middle of a crisis.