Masks 2

Umeko looked to the Red Reaper and Orla and nodded, her face invisible behind her helmet.

"Great to see you again! And I'm proud of you!" she told Orla. "I'm sure there's a lot of stories behind all of that. We'll need to meet up once we kick this tree's ass."

And with nobody having any reservations, the two teams massed up. Team 1 was to take the more direct path down the highway into downtown LA while Team 2 would take a less direct path towards that same objective. Team 1 was expected to face more resistance, but they also had more firepower and versatility so they'd PROBABLY be fine.

***

A few minutes later, the primary team had entered the freeway via a nearby on-ramp and were traveling down it towards downtown. Most of the roads were horribly cracked and damaged, and from time to time the flying/swinging members of the party had to give the others lifts over collapsed overpasses. In addition, mutants continued to harass them as they went along.

And then, as they walked in between two small skyscrapers, one of the buildings began to move. Growing many arms, many legs, and hundreds of window-sized eyes, it stood up and let out a roar.

It kind of reminded those Rainwalk veterans present of the hermit crab church, except far larger.

Before the guys had walked down the hallway, Hackerman modified the City Grid Defense so he can access it wherever he wants. He is going to be with the team, because he has the zest for combat and he felt pretty guilty about being in the internet while everyone got mooshed by the kaiju.

"Um. What's the natural enemies of buildings?" Orla asked, getting majorly squicked out by the sight of so many giant eyes peeking out of the windows of the shell of the building as the... horrible nightmare spider thing got up.

"I don't really want to go with the getting eaten strategy again in case it blows up again. Before we fight this horrible thing, anyone got a plan to just slip past it or something?"

"Skyscrapers, huh? I'm not used to them walking around, but I'm sure this one won't be for long!"

Esen jumps up into the air and looks for weak points to attack with her hookshots.

Candy slowly got up and was a bit dazed to the proceedings going around her, though she was coherent enough to thank Dr. Emily. Well, that was one near death experience to compartmentalize. She wonders how many more she's going to have to deal with today.

Just as she thinks that she also sees the building. "Oh great." She turns to Finn. "How flammable do you think that building is?

"Fire probably wont be nearly as effective as we'd like, if there's one thing the omnicorp got right about these superstructures it was fire safety. Used to live in one." Raven said hurriedly thinking about how to tackle such a thing. "Like anything's worth a try but thats God knows how many tons of structurally reinforced fuck-you coming down on us, maybe try knocking it over so it ceases to be our immediate problem and move passed it?"

The Raven Immediately started casting Earth magic to start fucking with the ground the skyscraper was walking on in a vain attempt to trip the thing over in a direction that wouldn't kill all of them rather than waste time fighting a fucking building.

"Yeah I'm going to need a few of the wizards and a ritual to create an earth moving spell large enough to pull the rug out from under this thing. Anyone else got a faster idea?"

Finn taps her chin. Raven makes some good points... But there's more they can do with a bit of teamwork!

"Right!! Candy, if you could hit the top of the building head-on with a sonic blast, we might be able to topple it altogether. Darkmagic, da, liz -- let's get to workin' with Raven!"

She looks over to Ezren and tilts her head. "...Say, are you like. Magical? Don't know what demons are able to do - do you guys have sorcery or somethin'? Could you do the finishin' blow and push it over once it's off balance?"

”It’s me it’s me it’s me I’m the natural enemy of buil-What?” Ezren shook out of his monster-appreciation trance. On the best day of this bastard’s entire life, this chick wanted to talk about sorcery? ”Yeah yeah, nice try wizard, what, you think I was born yesterday? I’m gonna tell you all about the magic you can’t get your mitts on? Not happenin’ sweetheart!” 

He laughed, and the scythe shrunk back down to its normal form so he could un-bend the rebar. ”Get a law degree and try again- I’ll hit the damn thing though. I’ll hit it real hard and I’ll even get eaten if someone has to get eaten again. I’ll do it. I’m kinda pissed I didn’t last time.”

Esen, from her vantage point in the air, realizes that she can help other people do more damage. She shouts down,

"Yo! If anyone needs a boost I can pull you up here!"

"Hey I got an idea. I remember we can call a missile strike from Vegas. Why didn't I do that? Maybe I should do it now!"

Ken prepares to send some CRUISE MISSILES from good ol' Nevada.

Well! This is the third giant building monster Theraea's run into, and you know what? She still doesn't know the best way to deal with these things. Especially since this one would likely not have such a vulnerable internal structure as the first.

"Missiles are a good idea! It doesn't, um, look explosive-proof! I'll see if I can help slow it down." Theraea flew lower to look for anything she could take advantage of to disrupt the terrain further than Desmond already was.

---

Dr. Hartmann, meanwhile, furrowed her brow as she inspected this new monster. Yeah, that wasn't something that was supposed to exist. She flew, cautiously, closer, inspecting the giant mutant building with her Special Eyes. Did this even count as a medical problem at this point? Would she be able to harm it by inflicting some sort of biological stability on it? That's what she'd have to find out.

While also keeping an eye on all these other people that were likely to get impaled or kicked or crushed by this thing. Ah, medicine.

Desmond, Finn, Nick, Elizabeth, and Darkmagic gathered together for a group ritual, creating a quick spell circle and joining hands as they combined their collective talents into one big burst of earth magic. As they did this, the Red Reaper, Umeko, Salamandra and presumably Orla held off the hordes of rampaging smaller mutants, giving the others time to take out the building.

Their efforts bore fruit, and the ground began to soften and shift beneath the building's feet. This alone wasn't enough to make it lose its footing, but Theraea's telekinesis kept it from regaining its balance. Then an enormous barrage of cruise missiles from Nevada crashed into its eastern side, causing it to teeter...

Esen, sensing an opportunity, used a hookshot to grab Ezren and throw him up towards the building's highest point. The gleeful demon raised an enormous chunk of concrete and rebar as he flew through the air, slamming it into the building with tremendous amounts of force. It went tumbling to the ground, leaving a cloud of smoke in the air.

At that, Tony Margera rode his skateboard up to Candy, his eyes concealed by a pair of goggles as he nodded approvingly at the carnage.

"Tight. Hey Cadence, hop on," he said, his Board of Rebellion shifting into a longboard to facilitate her before he rocketed off the freeway, streaks of fire and light exploding behind him.



He performed his signature 1280 Rebellion Spin before dropping onto the corner of the building, fire exploding behind him as he did a grind all the way to the fallen building's roof.

"Your stop," he said, ending his streak with a kick flip that sent Candy flying off the board right onto the face of the building. And with that, she unleashed a hellish scream unheard by all as it stripped the cement and windows away, lying bare its wooden insides and hundreds of eyes. Emily got a good look at it at this point, finding its internal structure to be incredibly similar to the tree itself. It was some sort of horrific mutagenic kaiju, and trying to discern its biology would prove to be nearly impossible.

Fortunately, that wasn't necessary! With the building's exterior stripped away and Candy swiftly extracted by Esen, the wizards were able to create an enormous firestorm that began to burn away its wooden interior. This was assisted by Ezren's fiery weapons, Salamandra's fiery breath, and Hackerman's fiery laser blasts from the city's defense turrets.

Within a minute of its toppling, the building kaiju was defeated and the mobs of swarming mutants were retreating for the time being. They had won.

"Oh holy shit that worked," Desmond said.

Orla was about to declare amazement at how well that had gone before some mimetic thought took action as she glanced around.

"Wait. Margera as in Tony Margera? Was that Tony Margera skating by? Holy sh-holy heck, I need to get his autograph. That's gonna be like Christmas and a birthday."

She remembered where they all were then. "After all this of course."

"Fuck YES, teamwork makes the DREAM work, baby!" Finn pumped her fist in the air. "Pleasure workin' with you lot -- Mr. Raven, Mrs. Demon, Mr. Dad, Ms. Darkmagic--" She offered a wink at the wizardly desperado. "Hope to spellcast with you again-- now if you'll excuse me, I've got some friends to check on."

She trots up to Esen, Ezren and Candy! "Hey!! You three okay?! You saw a lot more direct action than I did -- are you alright? What was the thing like inside?"

After an excess of hootin AND hollerin Ezren snagged himself a piece of mutant charcoal. It just felt right. A little something for the pad, you know. A trophy from the best day of his entire life. Almost brought a tear to the poor demon's eye, but then this wizard (derogatory) was up to her shit again.

"Gross!" He exclaimed, chucking the mutant charcoal at her and diving back into the wreckage for a nice chunk.

"Hey Nimue!!" Candy says cheerily but a little raspy. "Honestly that was a lot more bearable than the bearcupine..." She rubs her chest. "It was also very cool to use the upper limits of my power, don't get to use that often!! Like, once I screamed it was just like 'PSSHHHEWW'" Candy uses her voice to actually make the sound effect of glass breaking but less loud and more manageable to hear. "And once the glass was gone it was like.... Super umm... Is Eldritch the word? Maybe not that but there were a LOT of eyes and it grossed me out. I bet it would trigger tripophobia if I looked at it for longer. And it wouldn't be possible without Tony here. Thanks pal."

Esen offers Finn a high five.

"Didn't get a good look, to be honest. Like a tree kinda? It was weird. Glad it's dead."

"Thanks, that was pretty sick. Good job," Tony Margera said to Candy, stopping his skating for a moment to take a breather after that mess.

As they all stood around taking a breather after their victory, the building and its treelike interior melted into the ground. Pulling back into itself, it sank to become a massive tunnel leading underground towards the tree. Deep, rumbling laughter came forth from it, shaking their bones and wringing their stomachs.

"Come," said a deep, mocking voice. "Come see the culmination of my machinations. You've already failed. It's too late."

"Um....." Candy looked at the whole group slowly. "Should we just..... Walk into that??? Also, I have no idea who that is. Also, were probably not late... Right?"

"Maybe the mutant thingy learned to be an evil supervillain somehow rather than just a weird force?"

She didn't seem too upset about that. Actually kinda chipper. She'd never been monologued at by something that didn't live inside her skull as an abusive murderous voice.

"I stab things and don't die so... I can't really help determine whether it's a trap except by walking in there."

Ezren scrambled out of the building as it sunk, clutching some charcoal to his chest. Tear that souvenir from his cold dead hands. Tucking it into his jacket pocket, he straightened up, giving it a good think.

"Yeah, I think we should just walk right into that." He nodded, as he began walking right into that. "We've been beat. We're all done for and shit, may as well see these sick machinations."

"Oh aye," Finn nods along with Ezren. "Might as well kill ourselves right now -- but not before seeing how great this grand reveal is." She chuckles. "Pride goeth before the fall, or whatever the fuck. Keep yer spirits high, Candy -- whatever this guy's up to, we're game." And if they weren't, at least they'd make some cool corpses.

"Let's do this, everyone." She proceeds into the fucked up tunnel!

"Okay, I'll try to get the second team in through another avenue. Good luck! I don't know how good reception will be down there," Emily said, sounding somewhat afraid.

The team proceeded into the hole, finding it to be lined with bio-luminescent root systems that lit their way as they went. Etched into them were numerous artistic renditions of death, depicting the heroes all dying in humorous ways. The path led deeper, and as the group followed it they began to hear a loud, mocking voice ringing through the roots.

“You just walked into this hole?? You know I can crush you right? How are you all still alive being this stupid? I swear all you idiots know how to do is walk forward. Being heroic conditions someone to be utterly asinine.”

There was a sigh, and the group walked on. The way behind them had closed up, only way to go was forward.

“Oh well it can’t be helped. On the plus side I’ll have an audience for the Grand conclusion of my plan. You shouldn’t blame yourselves for failing though. My plan played out perfectly, of course it would, it came from my brilliant mind. The only true person to stand in my way was Victor Vorcen. I took care of him though. It was easy really, you see, I watched some old cartoons, and there was this one where the guy turned himself into a pickle. Funniest shit I ever saw. So anyway Victor is a pickle now and all his resources are now mine, and soon the world will be my resource. All will serve me and worship my beautiful self. Those who don’t will cease to be. The world is mine to mold. You know what? On second thought, do blame yourselves, it will be funny and I can laugh at you when we meet, or now. Hahahahaha!“

They stepped into an enormous antechamber beneath the tree, countless stories tall, lined with similar glowing roots to the ones in the tunnel. They were incredibly deep now, and the tree was all around them threatening to crush them at any moment.

From above, a woman unfamiliar to most was lowered down to them on an enormous tree root. She was humanoid and quite conventionally attractive, with toxic green eyes, a super long purple undercut, a black turtleneck, and a long green skirt. Her skin was silver with light scales, and her mouth wore a mocking, confident smile. She looked to the Red Reaper, who looked back at her with his hatred visible despite the skull mask.

"“Also fuck you Red Reaper. You prick.”

“Alright any last words before you- Wait, what the fuck is that thing?” Radka points to Therea.