Masks 2

"Yeah, see, naw, like... we got time to figure out a way to beat the corps that don't turn us all into jellyfish people. The way I've been told, ya'll had to flood West Texas 'cause if ya didn't, the AI would have manufactured itself an unstoppable super army in, like, the course of a couple days."

Sam gave an absolutely not nervous and terrified smile!

"So, like, maybe ask yer pal to slow things down a bit, knock off all the blood sacrifice- Think I'm owed an apology for that, by the by- and maybe we can work out something that doesn't... flood the entire Earth and kill all humanity as we know it?"

Nimue pushes a few bangs out of her eyes.

"Sounds like yer occupied with relitigatin' a whole lotta shite from the past that I was nae here fer. Cannae say whether or not ye were right tae flood Texas, or whether or not ye should have stopped all this 'fore it got so out of hand. If ye'd asked my stupid ass a few months back, I would have given a resounding 'aye' tae the first one, and an even dumber 'they will'' tae the second. Shite just ain't that simple, is it? All of you couldn't come up with anything different back in the day, maybe, an' you couldn't come up with anything fer the megacorps at all, but yer not all there is now. Things have changed; there're people out here who've learn't from you, successes and mistakes, an' who are willing tae fight fer somethin' different."

She straightens out her domino mask, standing up straighter. Gotta use her best, most practiced heroic pose. "The heroes o' my youth had nary a plan when things got real and proper fucked, an' I have nae got a plan either - just a few values I'm gonna stick tae. Stuff like happiness, and friendship, and givin' a shite about people - real pie-in-the-sky, aye. And of all those values, I just do nae see a place where 'bowin' tae a scaly fish god and tae hell with those who bleed along the way' can fit in with those."

Theraea's been standing nearby looking kind of nervous about this whole thing. She doesn't really know who this is, and doesn't know the history of this whole thing, so she hasn't had terribly much to say so far! But now...

"Um... okay, so, the corps are absolutely a problem, but this is sort of like..." Metaphors, metaphors. Humans like those, what's a good metaphor? "...dealing with a plague by dropping a meteor on the people infected? By which I mean, uh, enslaving everyone on the entire planet to this sort of... extradimensional psionic entity is going to cause way, way more problems than it could ever solve. Not to mention wiping out the minds of pretty much everyone on Earth, which will kind of... get rid of everything good about Earth along with the bad things! So, um... I definitely can't and won't help you with that goal."

"Siren," the Demon said, stepping forward. "We fought beside each other once, and we can do it again. We can fight the corporations, but not like this. Mind control and forced mutation isn't helping these people at all. You're replacing the shackles of the corporations with far stronger ones. That thing you're serving was called the Doom of Rainwalk for good reason: it's seizing their damn souls. No good can come of that."

Nocturne nodded in agreement at that, and looked to Siren. "Come on Siren. You were this city's greatest hero once. Don't be its destruction. Nothing good can come of this."

Esen shrinks back from this conversation. Siren and the fucking elder-god-bullshit Doom scare her, and besides, she doesn't feel comfortable butting in to a conversation between her and her old friends. She does mumble to herself,

"Fuck, this fish bullshit would be worse than the corps. God-damned tentacle monsters."

She stops and thinks about the implications of her hookshot.

"...Fucking elder gods, ruining everything."

"But- I- Maybe you didn't hear me?" Siren doesn't feel so good. Her head's throbbing too much for puns. "I'm saying we can end the corps. Like, this week. And it's not like we're losing too much! People can be happy as fish. I'm happy..."

That little voice in her head was muttering again. Help me. "I'm happy." Helpmehelpmehelpmehelpme- "It's better this way. I'm sure it is. I heard the explanation for thirty years-" I'M ALIVE IN HERE HELP ME- "-ah!"

Siren doubles over and clutches her head. The psionic pulse throbs. When she looks back, her eyes are gone black and spooky!

"Foolish insects." Whatever that psionic-laced voice was, it was not Siren. Her mouth was stretched open and her lips were turning blue. Small black veins began to trace the skin around her eyes. "I have felt you, crawling on the surface of my tomb. I remember you, little god. Last time you had the Spear of Oceanus. The Spear has been neutralized. You stand no chance."

"I have brought many gifts. I will show you my world made manifest. You will run or you will fight."

"But you will join me, or you will bleed."

The voice falls silent and Siren crumples into a ball. When her eyes open, they're back to their normal colour. "I just don't get it," she mutters to herself. "I'm clearing out those capitalist overlord bastard. Everyone should want that! I mean, unless..."

Her eyes fall on the distinctly-non-fishy heroes, and the tech the skill heroes were using. "Oh, no. Glubbin- fuck. They got you. They got you all."

"That's it, isn't it?" Now that she's got a working theory that the Voice approves of, she sounds more sure by the moment. "You're all corp mercs! You came to stop me! That's how they got so strong, no one fought back! You just took the paychecks!" Siren looks like she's gonna cry for a sec! Then she shakes herself off and puts back on a fake, sharky grin.

"Well, you're shoal not gonna get any further than this, small fry! I've haddock up to hear with your foolfish stomping around my city, stabbing my citizens. We're never gonna give up on a fintastic future for everyone. After all..."

"It's always sharkest before the prawn."

With that savage pun, Siren flickers out of existence. A psionic illusion.

And then...

Behind where Siren had been, a giant shark charging out of the temple was suddenly made visible. Its mouth went back far, far more than it should, and its skin was covered in sharp teeth. The teeth inside its mouth were at least a foot long, and were arranged in hundreds of rows on hundreds of layers of jaws, which could all snap independently of each other. Its mouths were smeared with blood, and were more than large enough to consume a human. One could guess that its bite was incredibly strong.

It was at least fifty feet long, and was rapidly moving towards the bubble!

No time to despair. No time to lament. All Finn has time to do is throw on her best fake grin, grip her blade, and run forward. She has to pick up enough momentum, dash to the side RIGHT before she runs out of time to avoid its jaws, and slam her blade into its gills.

It's all offense, all the time here.

Maria grit her teeth, fists curled up as one unwelcome acquaintance made a puppet of this. Woman. Not really a girl. Had to be around fifty. Thirty whole years, listening to this? It was definitely, definitely a pissed kind of tear, that one in her eye. She took the magic'd up helmet and threw it, "AURA, CATCH!"

"WE'RE HERE BECAUSE WE WOULDN'T SUBMIT TO THEM! SIREN! YOU! ARE! ITS! PRAWN!"

And then, she just sorta. Stood there? A little locked up. The bubble of air around them expanded, and then detached, heading for the shark to slow its roll. Wasn't going to cast a wide net until she was sure they actually had Siren. Like. There.

Cadence was just in tears over all of this! It was very sad! The poor girl seemed to be under that guys spell. She didn’t blame her at all though. That thing is powerful and she almost fell pray to just THe Song herself. She had a feeling this person might not like what she wakes up to, what she’s done. But she still need help right now! Fish are cool! But they need to be set free! And people need to stay people no matter how cool fish are.

She wipes away her tears and sits up on Zils shoulders and pulls out her staff and turns on the stunning function. Gotta stun that shark!

Hm.

No, that wasn't good at all. Yes, maybe it was promising that the Voice of the Deep considered the group worthy of personally taunting - the scariest things in the multiverse didn't usually bother - but relative measures of how scary horrifying eldritch abominations are weren't very relevant when you're right here on the ground with a giant shark charging right at you. No, something needed to be done about this.

So Theraea tried something new! She reached out toward the Giant Shark and channeled the Abyss, attempting to alter the flow of time around it to slow it down. If it worked for something of that scale at all, it probably wouldn't work for long, but it's a hell of a lot better than trying to throw a park bench at it or whatever.

Sam looked at the creature that was 20% mouth and 90% teeth.

"I'm gonna wrangle that thing."

He went and asked Nocturne if he could borrow a grapple gun, then when Nocturne wasn't looking cut the hook off the end of it, tying the rope into a lasso. Finally, he looked to Maria.

"I can hold my breath for five minutes, just top me off when you can."

Before this Responsible Elder could stop him, he looked to his edgy brother and gave a shout.

"BULL BUSTIN' TIME!"

Having delivered his secret rodeo code, he ran forward, and, with superhuman reflexes, attempted to safely use his lasso gun and knife to wrangle and mount that shark, preferably staying clear of any mouths. If successful, he'd try to wrangle the beast away from the less-melee-focused of the group.

Ken is real confused by the admittedly heart-wrenching scene. Did Coyote and Siren have prior experience with each other. Or they are just that way?

Also Blackstar is going to jump into a shark. Foolish yet cool.

Ken sends in Polybius to provide aid to BS (also for BS to fall back on, if he epic fails in his shark attack).

The shark passed through the edge of the bubble, and kept going just as fast as it had before. It seemed capable of floating through the air just as quickly as it swam through water, which was quite frightening!

Theraea raised her hands and summoned the magic of the Abyss, causing the air around her to distort and warp! The shark slowed to half its normal speed as it passed through the bubble, though it caused Theraea great strain.

Sam took a grapple gun from Nocturne, making it into an impromptu lasso. Raising it over his head, he threw it and caught onto a tooth, pulling himself up the shark! As he struck its side, though, the teeth seemed to vibrate and oscillate. They tore into his flesh, causing several deep, bleeding wounds before he involuntarily fell off. Fortunately, Poybius zoomed in and caught him, flying him off so that Jim could administer first aid.

At that moment Finn ran up, brandishing her giant sword as she swung it over her head. It cleaved into the shark's gills, cracking teeth and skin as human flesh and blood was revealed within. Theraea's timeslowing then wore off, allowing the shark to zoom off and into the air. A taser stunner was fired into it, causing it mild pain as Nocturne threw several explosive darts into it. Its teeth then snapped the line, and it looked ominously towards the many people in the group. Its eyes focused on the bleed, vulnerable Sam...

Meanwhile, the Armies of the Deep moved in to surround the group. Hordes of Fishmen supported by car crabs, with artillery shrimp forming the rear line. Jellyfish flew above, along with giant mantas covered in runes. Lamprey hands followed the mantas, looking for targets.

The charged.

Esen keeps her distance from the shark and tries to stab it in the eyes while simultaneously fending off the fishmen and jellyfish approaching from the outside.

"We're surrounded! I don't think we can take all these guys on!"

She fights defensively, looking around for the Siren. If she can take her out, maybe this'll all stop?

Siren's psionic projection had vanished when the shark attacked. She had only been an illusion.

Not seeing the Siren around, Esen is gonna grab and slash the fish and crabs and keep them from getting the heroes.

Well, Zil has no emotional or personal attachment to this fish girl, so she stays quiet. She seems sweet and nice and maybe naive, and that's what makes it most fucked up for this to happen to her. That's what makes this all sorts of wrong.

The strong always preyed on the weak, kind, and sensitive like this, and Zil was fucking tired of it.

With Cadence on her shoulders, she knew she should be careful. Though it seemed her companion wanted to fight too, so why would she deny her that?

"Hold tight!" She calls. With that, she starts swinging! She's got one hand for her sword and the other to shoot gouts of fire at any bastard that gets too close! She's a big target, and she's ready to be a flesh wall for as many as she can.

Right, well, Maria was readying up to try and knock the shark off course whenever it decided to charge.

This place just didn't get nicer. "Alright- we need to find her, there's cover in the botanical gardens and the... Temple? The temple behind it, I think that's all we've got?"

And with that, she'd like. I mean she'd pick Sam up if need be since she wasn't much good with her aim right now, and help move them along.

Theraea took a moment to catch her... breath? Did Weavers even breathe? It's a mystery. Nonetheless, she needed to rest a moment after that.

Not too long, though, because things were still bad! So this time, Theraea did her best to call up a bubble of Quickened Time around the heroes, to speed their advance/retreat to the temple ahead! And make it easier to dodge things, too, because there was a lot of artillery incoming.

In contrast with Essen, Nimue goes on the offensive!! Her blade flashes bright as she charges forward, ignoring the Murdershark in favor of the crowd, hacking and cutting and cleaving toward the gardens!

"Toward the temple, then! That's the epicenter of this shite! If we take out whate'er's in that pisspit, we've got a shot at ending this!"

Esen unleashed a hookshot from each arm, wielding them like dual chains as she swung and flailed them through the fishmen around her. The chains cut a number of them in half, dismembered others, and ultimately just made a massive mess of things. At the same time, Zil was nearby hacking through them with her sword, occasionally punching or fireblasting them with her other hand.

Finn hacked and slashed her way forward towards the temple at the center of the gardens. At the same time, Theraea sped up time, allowing Finn to hack and slash faster than ever whilst dodging artillery fire.

Maria went to pick up Sam right as the shark charged the unfortunate Texan. Jim raised his sword to defend them, standing between the source of their oxygen bubble (and his brother I guess) and the murderous shark.

However, it stopped and flipped around, trying to bite a rather bright somebody that had grabbed its tail. Lady Light was there, using some of the last of her power to grab the shark.

And prevent the shark from murdering her fucking aunt and her friends.

Jim took advantage of this to charge, ducking beneath the jaws and slashing at the gills. The Demon, nearby, also closed in to blast the shark with fire before plunging her sword into its side. Then she shot off more fucking fire.

Finally, Nocturne came in last and threw a sticky bomb into its mouth, causing it great pain as the bomb exploded.

The shark began to thrash out of Lady Light's grip, gripping her in its jaws and slamming her back into the ground. The multitude of jaws began to clamp down on her, some of them cutting past her durability and into her flesh. She cried out, trying to push the shark off of her.

At this moment, Zil turned from the fishmen she was engaging and blitz'd the nearby shark, ramming into it and slashing into the monster with her sword. Candy let out a sonic scream, dazing it as Zil kicked the shark off the injured Lady Light. With a last thrust, Zil rammed her sword into the shark's gills, finally killing it.

It floated a moment longer before collapsing to the ground. In the aftermath, Lady Light had several deep and bleeding bites where the shark had cleaved through her durability and her suit. She was bleeding really heavily, and struggled to get to her feet. She let out a gasping "sorry" to Maria before glowing like a flickering lightbulb and zooming off through the water. She moved in the direction of the undercity exit, a trail of blood flowing behind her.

"yeah we did it"

Sam gave a thumbs up as he waited for the (hopefully applied) medigel to work, pulling his hat over his face.

Upon hearing some fish cultists shout, he grabs the musket, points it in their direction, and shoots with surprising accuracy for a guy with a hat on his face.

"I... I think we need to keep moving!" Theraea watched Lady Light go, obviously Concerned for her wellbeing. But, you know, if they didn't end this soon, that'd be all of them. Theraea got ready to telekinetically cover the move for the temple, since that's definitely the center of all this.

The bubble around them wavered! First because nononNONOONONO "NO-" Maria had only a short window in which to process this and start pulling that blood back into her body oh no oh god oh please no- before Lady Light was gone. She stopped in place, slack-jawed at the clouds of blood in the water. It was Theraea's call that got her feet moving again. She knew where they were going, she'd get some... Sun... She'd be... Less........ In danger............ It was fine she wasn't crying she was a well put together professional superperson who didn't get upset about ANYTHING and they needed to MOVE.

She'd deal with that kid later because there would be a later it was FINE it was fine.

... Second, because this dude was firing a fucking MUSKET off in her arms without looking! What the fuck!