Masks 2

The dude nodded quickly at Candy, shoving the cigarette in his mouth and placing a handful of tiny bottles of whiskey into her hand. Pockets of mystery. Pretty sick crowd, exciting megadisaster, and some gear to boot? What more could a guy ask for- he went to go snag a helmet.

"Could be." He answered Orla, feigning concern. "All kinds of shit dormant or hiding under the earth, not like you could tell up close anyway. If you don't want to damage the delicate sewer ecosystem, might I suggest blowing shit UP! That's my vote."

Upon seeing that this guy is loaded with alcohol, Finn puts up a finger, opens her mouth--- then her eyes dart to Orla. Yeah, no. She needs to stay strong. Better to deal with her Demon demons than her alcoholic ones.

Her eyes swing on back to this dude with the freaky pockets. "...So. Uh. Keep up with comics enough to know about most of you, but we got a mystery man in our midst, far as I'm aware. Suppose it's only worth asking - this fella with anyone? Or did he just invite himself?"

Theraea looks at the Mystery Man, then Finn. Mystery Man again, Finn again.

"...No! No, I have no idea who he is. Um." Back to Jacket Dude. "Hi! Who are you?"

”Name’s Ezren. See I was just on my way to break shit, and you’re right here with explosives and this tree is just waitiiiiing-“ Ezren gasped, placing his hands on his cheeks in shock, ”That means we’re besties right now, don’t you think?”

And with that, nobody had to call him some variation of “that guy” anymore. Huzzah!

Lady Light and the Demon both turned to look at him when he said the name Ezren.

"Ezren? You found a new host! It's great to see you again! Glad you could join us," Lady Light smiled. "Sorry, I didn't recognize you."

The Demon gave Lady Light an odd look, then looked back to Ezren. "How'd you get back out of Hell so quickly?"

Ezren’s rude little smile got wiped right off his face, on the realization that his popularity had gotten ahead of him. He started trying to figure out if the gear and the beatings of bestieship were worth the awk.

”Oh uhhhh same girl mood big oof didn’t even see ya wowwww- I’ll have you know I’m beloved so getting the key out is easy, thanks. I thought we were here to uhh-“ He took a moment to actually look at the assembled team. Lots of costumes. Hmm. ”Save the city, and the precious sewer creatures, let’s focus.”

"God I like this guy." Ken quips, out of the blue. OR IS IT?

The Demon shook her head, shrugging.

"No matter. Not sure how you found us or what you're doing here, but we'll take the help," she said, looking to everyone. "For the record, I hate the idea of crawling through mutant-infested sewers too."

By this point, the resistance troops that had arrived with Candy and the Demon had finished unloading the arms, supplies, and explosives from the dropships. Their loads completely dropped off, the dropships began to power up their engines and ascend. As they went, a number of gigantic thorns shot out from the city foliage, soaring several miles and narrowly missing the dropships as they traveled away.

"Warning shots," the Demon said, glancing back towards the city. "We should probably get moving. Emily, do we have any options for cracking the walls?"

"Hi everybody!" Emily said over their resistance-assigned communicators (which Ezren, sadly, lacked). "Best option is probably a concentrated cruise missile strike. We can launch a barrage out of Nellis if the Omnicorp's missile defense systems are offline. I should let you all know what options are available, actually. We have jets and missiles operating out of Nellis Air Force Base near Vegas if you need air support. On the sea front, both Siren and Atom Rain are standing by to attack from that angle. We're also ferrying in a number of resistance heroes and troops, but right now you're the tip of the spear."

At the mention of Vegas, Folly smiled broadly beneath her mask.

"No harm in trying the missiles first. Fire a barrage at the eastern wall," the Demon told Emily. "If that doesn't work, Thereaea suggested explosives. Any weakspots?"

"Yeah! If you can plant three of those plasma charges under the eastern wall, it should produce a strong enough blast to make a breach. It'd be a pretty loud entry though," Emily told them all.

"Not like the stupid giant tree doesn't already know we're here," Gullgirl muttered.

"Um, okay! Okay, let's see. Um. Yeah, this doesn't seem like a stealth mission? Uh- nice to meet you, by the way, Ezren! Anyway."

Theraea gazed up at the giant tree, expecting to see missiles fly by at any time. "Anybody an... experienced demolitionist? I can carry the charges, but - I mean, if someone else wants to then go ahead. Unless we have another way to get past a wall. Which. I do, but. I can't really teleport everyone."

Orla gave a quick look at the demon, not Demon.

Um. Well, every other hero seemed okay with it.

The tree shit was, concerning, but there seemed to be a plan so that was good.

Well, she moved up to Ezren, a little suspicious at the whole 'host' thing but, best to be polite, noticing that he was missing some comms.

"Hi, so they're gonna shoot some missiles so long as the city defences are down. There is some back up but we're on the front and we have some support from an air base too. There's also plasma charges that are super loud but we can place them under the wall seems to be the options if the missiles don't work." She said quickly, covering the comms info from Emily.

Looking back to the main conversation, she quickly added "Wasn't it that we needed to place the bombs under the wall? Can you just, teleport under the wall, dump them off and pop back out?"

"Hell?" Like. THAT hell??? Hmm. She had some questions. Shit wasn't too out of the ordinary, but it was still interesting.

"Well, hell or not, it's nice t'have more hands on deck. Welcome aboard, Ezren." She looks to Theraea. "No experience in demolitions here, unless my liver and my love-life count. I can play bodyguard if you need me, but by how Orla puts it, it sounds like you've got mobility under control."

"Can you teleport back out easily, Theraea? I feel like if the tree knows there is bombs, its going to go react as quickly as it could. Hrm," Ken scratches his chin. "Otherwise, I feel Orla does have the right idea."

Teleporting in blind to a giant compacted mass of concrete and dirt would PROBABLY be bad for Theraea's safety and well-being. Fortunately...

"Oh, you don't need to literally set them UNDER the walls. Not with these kinds of explosives. I think Emily just meant we need to get down to the base of the walls, drill holes, plant the charges, prime them, and get the hell away," Bloodsport told them all helpfully.

"Yeah, sorry for the miscommunication!" Emily told them.

Bloodsport nodded, then continued. "Main problem will be doing all that while being harassed by tons of mutants and whatever else the tree decides to hit us with. If anybody has a plan of attack I'm all ears."

"Hack and slash seems good 'nough to me, aye?" Finn shrugs. "I mean, hordes of mutants can't be THAT much worse than hordes of fish-men, yeah?"

"I can... protect us? Shield our work area from the, um, worst of whatever we're up against, while everyone else can... um, hack and slash." Theraea raised a hand, projecting a small, mostly-transparent wall of solidified... air. Best not to think about it too hard. "I learned that since last time we were fighting hordes of stuff."

Esen comes out of the helicopter stretching her arms over her head. She makes sure her mask is tight and cracks her neck, looking around at the other heroes.

"Hey," she grunts, not really energetic enough to say much else. Non-stop resistance missions and fighting have got her pretty tired.

Ezren's unstoppable charm netted him information once more. Orla was blessed with a thumbs up upon relaying that info.

"Hit the plants, hit the wall, hit plants again when the wall comes down, alright GO TEAM!"

He raised his fists in a quick cheer, and the gas mask in his hands burst into blue flame, morphing to be a little more full coverage over the noggin. Setting that neatly on his head, he started jogging off for the wall. He'd pick up some rocks on the way, and keep an eye out for some sturdy debris that... WASN'T writhing.

"Hack and slash. It's a shame that that solution tends to be so applicable but at least we seem like a skilled bunch in this case." She said, putting on her mask, drawing out her spear and shield, tapping them against each other once, and giving Ezren a nod back and smile.

She moved up to Theraea though, holding the shield up in a gesture that she'd focus on keeping anything getting at her as a priority.

Theraea gave Oria a nod, then turned to watch Ezren... already jogging off... toward the monsters.

"Um! Okay, he... ran off. Um. Well. I guess we should hurry? Someone, um. Someone get those bombs. And a drill? Do we need one of these? We need some way to make a hole, um. I guess, someone who knows what they're doing with explosives, do that! I'll... be right with all of you, when we're ready."

Theraea paused, realizing Ezren was still doing his thing. "Ezren! Um. Wait up, please! We still need to get ready!"

"THEN GET READY! DON'T NEED BABYSITTING TO BREAK A WALL!" Ezren did that little hand gesture like he was blowing her off (coincidentally, a gay little gesture? A forcibly limpened wrist conveys so much), and continued his jog.

“Well Bloodsport. If these are hyper-op plants, I feel like we should set a fire in a small place and let it spread. I doubt plants really have firefighting abilities even if they have poison pollen or whatever. Plus if we are setting us the bomb, they would be too distracted to realize something is aflame until it is too late.”

"Good t'see you, miss." Finn nods to Esen. "Looks like people are about to pop off - you need to be filled in on the plan, or are you good t'go?"

Esen nods back to Finn.

"I think I got the gist. Go in, blow shit up, keep the hordes away, and go for the big tree yeah?"

She stretches again and gets ready to launch herself forward.

Candy seems a little nervous about the suggestions of "plans" But this whole thing has been improv so what the heck.

"If you guys are confident then yeah we don't need much of a plan besides protect the person who's planting the bomb. Kinda like a video game."

"Might not be a bad idea," Bloodsport said.

"Not as useful as you'd think," grumbled the Demon. "Most of these damn plants seem resistant to fire. Or they grow back really quickly. It's hard to tell sometimes."

Bloodsport shrugged went and put the bomb charges on his back. They were heavy and cumbersome, so it was better he dealt with it.

Together, the group turned and began moving across the desert plains towards the LA walls. As they moved, they began to notice grass growing rapidly beneath their feet.

"Not good. Pick up the pace," the Demon said. "Whenever the grass grows in, it's usually to obscure the approach of mutants. Grows in fast, too. We never had much luck keeping it cut."

Just then, they heard the distant sound of missiles howling over the horizon. Glancing back, they saw cruise missile speeding in from Southern Nevada. They got to just over old landing zone before a number of laser blasts erupted from the LA walls, shooting them out of the sky.