[Issue] Eil Mor, the Second Titan

[Toshiro Narumi]

Bruce attempted to claw open the skin of the creature. Perhaps then he could actually do something.

[Haley Crusek]

Haley felt whole again with her powers restored but something--maybe just the extremely hard landing--had made sure that her back, already sore before the plane trip, felt extremely uncomfortable. She cracked her neck and back as she stepped out of the downed plane.

"Okay," she said, her irises starting to glow ever so slightly as she floated a few feet up into the air to get a better view, though the shade of blue was a lot closer to purple than it ever had been when this had happened before.

"I'ma try to rip this things legs off like a fat guy at Red Lobster crab fest. she shared with the team telepathically.

She dropped to the ground, took a deep breath, threw her hands forward and then made a yanking motion with her arms. The sheer force of the telekinetic energy was palpable to nearly everyone near her or the creature--Haley smash!

But could Haley aim?

[Narrator]

With his claws already in the monster's skin Tosh tears at it and is rewarded with chunky gelatinous goo bubbling out, followed by the creature stopping to try and maneuver one of it's legs to try and swipe him off.

But instead of the leg slamming into him Bruce feels a contracting force increase around him before finally settling in on the creature's leg, the strange hair on it crushed flat against it as telekinetic force clamps down on it and tears. It may not get wrenched from it's socket, but the sheer force pulls the entire creature a couple of feet backwards, it's two free legs gouging furrows into the ground before it finds enough purchase to brace itself and tear it's leg free of Haley's grasp.

The gash Bruce opened up in it's skin is still 'bleeding' clear chunks and the whole cap begins to shudder. Underneath the translucent skin Bruce can see some of the blurry organelles within moving and unfolding into a squirming dark orange mass of frilled tentacles...

[Toshiro Narumi]

Bruce was about to let Kabuto handle things when Ennio took over.

"Relax. I've got this," he said before taking a deep breath and diving into the gooey mess and propelling himself towards the eye.

[Will Stanton]

"Man, I hope those aren't stinging jellyfish tentacles" Will rumbled, as he plodded through the knee-deep water towards the creature. Slow backup.

[Haley Crusek]

Haley grinned, pleased with her success. She watched will plodding through the water slowly, "Want a lift? Could fly you over or see if we do a better fastball special than Morrigan and Shijin."

[Will Stanton]

"If you think you can lift nearly a ton, go for it -- but let's make it a screwball. Aim for the legs; knock the tripod off it's damn feet."

[Wanda Johansson]

Wanda moves the vortex around the creature, pulling up water and trying to move it around to cut off the creature's path to the town. "Take care, might get a bit windy."

[Narrator]

The creature's internals are much less fluid than Ennio might have anticipated and filled with almost sinewy tissue between the chunky goop. He's making some progress, but it's slow and his lower third is still sticking out when the creature finishes uncurling it's three long tentacle frills in an almost majestically slow motion. One of which reaches up and wraps around Ennio's leg. It's almost imperceptible at first, the frills incredibly soft even as it gets a good hold on him. And then a moment later, just as it yanks him free, the burning starts like a million red hot needles.

[Haley Crusek]

"Screwball special, comin' right up," she grinned.

Haley braced herself again, almost pantomiming the motion of picking Will up and throwing him. Her eyes flared with purplish light and she roared against the pressure building behind her temples as she flung Will through the air.

"I am going to need an Exedrin the size of my torso tonight," she panted before floating into the air to move closer to the fray and help where she could.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Ennio squirmed howled a string of colorful curses for several moments before having the mental clarity to let Kabuto take the reigns. Only then did he realize, well, the gravity of his error. Kabuto is very heavy.

[Will Stanton]

Will tumbled through the air, shifting and twisting as he went, into a solid steel cannonball. How the conservation of momentum worked there would puzzle many a physicist, but the increase in mass did not notably slow him down from Haley's shove.

His intention was to let himself slam, hard, into one of the creature's legs. And then, after his momentum carried him deeper under the creature, he'd shift again into a more taffy-like consistency, wrapping around the legs to further restrict movement, if indeed it was still standing at all.

[Narrator]

Ennio, dangling in the air by his throbbing foot, shifts into Kabuto and immediately falls to the ground. At least the creature kind of breaks his fall with it's tentacle! Of course then he feels it tug him up again and for a moment he thinks it might somehow have enough strength to lift him up and slam him in a clean 180 degree arc back into the ground, but before it can really lift him up, Will happens.

Will cannonballs into the creature's leg, hearing a faint crack and knocking the leg out from under the thing. It doesn't fall far, the angled nature of it's crab-legs letting it catch it's weight with it's 'knee' but in the process landing right in the taffy Will has turned into.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Kabuto ripped the tendrils from his leg and got to his feet.

"Two can play at this game, you gelatinous fiend!" he announced as he gathered tendrils in his four arms and pulled.

[Wanda Johansson]

Wanda peels some wind off the vortex, trying to push it under the creature to help with toppling it over.

[Narrator]

The creature is caught between three forces. Will is gumming up it's leg, keeping it from getting a solid foot-hold to pull against Kabuto, who in turns can feel the strength in even this somewhat ephemeral-looking appendage. If the creature had the right angle it would simply lift him off the ground and negate his strength. But as it is it's off-balance, scrabbling with it's two free legs to brace itself against the wind whipping underneath it.

And so it comes down to a contest of strength between the Rock-Beetle and giant Jelly-Crab. At least the tentacle doesn't seem to sting this form as badly, though he can still feel his hands getting a little numb from the continued contact. Slowly, he can feel a sinewy-tearing in the tentacle as connective tissue begins to give out and finally, with one final rip the tentacle comes loose near the base, along with a chunk of clear, gelatinous mass.

The creature let's out a wail that the X-Men don't so much hear but feel throughout their entire body and it only takes one look at the thin layer of water on the ground to realize what it's doing. The ultra-sound it's emitting is affecting the water, including that in their bodies and as the scream reaches it's crescendo the creature slams it's bulk down into the ground and sends the X-Men flying along with a sphere of water that expands in all directions.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Thinking fast, Ennio took the reigns again and directed the rush of water around himself, the two conflicting currents creating a whirling maelstrom around him as he slid back along the ground from the force. But at least he wasn't being flung away anymore.

[Wanda Johansson]

Wanda experiences a new problem with floating on air as the wave sends her tumbling away. She gets tangled in one of the park's trees, working to extricate herself.

[Will Stanton]

The creature let's out a wail that the X-Men don't so much hear but feel throughout their entire body and it only takes one look at the thin layer of water on the ground to realize what it's doing. The ultra-sound it's emitting is affecting the water, including that in their bodies and as the scream reaches it's crescendo the creature slams it's bulk down into the ground and sends the X-Men flying along with a sphere of water that expands in all directions.

Taffy has the ability to stick to things, so you would think Will wouldn't be going anywhere.

The water in taffy is far less incorporated than it is into a human body, so you would think Will would be more affected by Eli Mor than the average bear.

Here's what actually happened:

If you were to freeze-dry taffy, you would find out that it expands -- about four times it's original size, as a matter of fact. And so, Will too expanded, beyond what he considered his normal 'limit', with the added push of an outside force. That should be more than enough to encase not only the leg, but a significant part of the body of the creature, as well.

Unfortunately, taffy also becomes crunchy and brittle after the process, and, in fact, so did Will. The creature, for the moment, was essentially wearing an outer 'shell' of some kind; one that found itself unable to move or shift as it tried to recover from what was, at it's core, a sonic-based attack; something Will has always been vulnerable to. He might still slow the creature down or delay it, but it would be a bit before he could proactively continue in the fight.

[Haley Crusek]

The immense wave of vibrations sent Haley tumbling out of the sky, only barely managing to tuck and roll before hitting the shallow water. She was dazed enough that the incoming sphere of water was likely to crash over her without her noticing its approach.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam is able to weather this for perhaps a little longer than some, but the noise plays havoc with her equilibrium and soon she goes tumbling.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Ennio gritted his teeth with the effort of fighting the wave as his sensitive ferret ears began to bleed from the sonic effect.

[Narrator]

With a hardened mess of Will encasing it's leg and part of it's bell the creature is momentarily immobilized. Will would be the first to notice the process of the Titan trying to free itself, which is water continuing to swell from it and creating a pressure-filled gap between itself and the Will-cast that keeps building up as water spills from it here and there. Until the creature finally flexes it's leg hard enough to burst the hardened taffy wide open and shake it off. But doing so took some time that let people catch their breath and recover from being tossed about. And it no longer seems interested in moving towards the town, instead flaring it's two remaining stinging tentacles and shifting to move the leg Haley and Will attacked towards it's 'back'.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"You messed with the wrong hombres ya Metroid reject. "

Ennio gave way to Bruce, who dashed close enough to spit a ball of electricity the creature's way.

[Wanda Johansson]

Wanda extricates herself from the tree with a few scratches to show for her tumble. She hovers in the air, assessing the situation. She couldn't ground a lightning bolt through it, not without risking everyone standing in the water around it. But this thing was a weight against the balance, its 'fingers' on one side of the scale and she could certainly play with the scale too. "Buy me some time," Wanda says into her com as she lands, hands working through the air in a complex gesture that seemed purposeful even as part of her brain moved to working on instinct. The magically sensitive could feel the hum as Wanda began to chant to herself, words that came to her in the moment.

"Mother of life, Lady of earth,
Keeper of the flow of nature..."

It almost seemed like the tattoo on her right arm was moving of its own accord, the vines twisting and moving, but that was probably just a trick of the light and the movement of her muscles.

[Narrator]

The crackling ball of electricity strikes the creature (it's not nimble enough and too big to dodge out of the way) and arcs across and through it, though a lot of it grounds itself into the surrounding water too. Enough that Haley and Sam can feel a faint buzz still despite not having approached much. The creature weathers the electricity coursing through it but it's gelatinous parts have grown a little opaque and it's staggering a little, flinching when it puts the bulk of it's weight on it's damaged leg in the process. It seems less like an expression of pain and more a purely mechanical reaction to the leg not supporting it as well as it should.

In response one of it's two remaining tentacles lashes out at Bruce in a downswing that slams him down into the water and even through his shark-skin he can feel the needling of the nettle-stings. At least being pressed down into the water doesn't actually pose a threat to him.

Placing her metaphorical hand on the scale Wanda can feel the massive impact the creature has merely by existing much more clearly. It's like an invasive species or an oil spill. Part of things in some ways but amassed and refined to the point of being destructive. This thing did not come to be naturally or by some fluke. And try as she might, she can't undo this imbalance. It'd be like trying to stop a landslide with a pebble. Maybe, with enough time and determination she could set up a chain-reaction with said pebble to create an avalanche of her own to cancel it out but the consequences on the natural balance would be similarly devastating.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Thinking better of electrifying everyone, Bruce surrendered to Kabuto's righteous indignation and relinquished control.

The bug-man's stone body made the sting barely noticeable, but without good leverage, his strength wasn't doing much to help him get out from under the tentacle.

"Unhand me you intolerable invertebrate!" he demanded as his eyes went red and he pushed even harder to get up.

[Wanda Johansson]

Whatever magic Wanda is working dies on her lips as she realizes the enormity of what they're facing. Even if she wanted to tip the scales, she can't. The weight on them is just too great and it might kill her to even try to channel that much through a working. Instead, she floats back up into the air, kicking up water as she does so and tries to reassess the situation.

[Samantha McManus]

Having to steady herself again as the electrical pulse goes out into the water, Sam finally closes the gap as she scoops up a fairly hefty tree limb with a splintered end from the flotsam surrounding the creature. Trying to use it to parry any incoming tentacles, she aims to plunge the splintered end into the bell.

[Narrator]

The creature is busy with holding down Kabuto, forced to add the second tentacle to keep him pinned and raising one of it's good legs to stomp down on his head when Sam runs up and stabs a tree-branch at it. The skin holds for a moment, tougher than perhaps expected, but the ragged splinters of the branch puncture it in a couple places and with a second thrust punches through. There's no screech or pained sound of any kind, but the gelatinous cap quivers wildly as the creature extends it's legs and stretches up. Inside it's bell the strange 'eye' swivels and zig-zags wildly and both tentacles let go of Kabuto, lashing around Sam in an embrace burning with nettle stings.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Kabuto gave the reigns back to Enni. He scrambled to his feet, blue-white fur covered in mud and grass. He frowned and gave himself a good rinse.

"Hey Will. Can ya get me back up there?"

[Will Stanton]

No response from Will, right away - it turns out being shattered into a zillion pieces takes a little bit to recover from!

[Samantha McManus]

Sam spasms at first in the creature's grip, but slowly, fitfully, she almost looks like she's reaching up to try to grip the tentacles.

It's only pain, Sam. You've done pain. You're the bloody Morrigan. It shouldn't exist. Show it.

Wrapping both hands around a tentacle, she tries to feed the same pain that's roiling through her system into what passes for this creature's mind.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Ennio frowned and impatiently attempted to water jet himself up to the wound. He didn't quite reach, cursing as hIs tiny claws scrambled for purchase on the skin below his target. Just before losing the battle, he turned into Bruce and got a grip. Then he tried climbing.

[Narrator]

The creature's mind is not easily manipulated. Sam, like most telepaths, has been trained on human minds and processing those patterns as metaphors and imagery but here she's faced with a lack of that. Or rather, a mess of concepts and patterns, most of which pertain to aquatic life-forms and water in some way. Sleek shapes dashing through the waves, water gliding around a figure, membranes catching water resistance to propel themselves, the caress of current on gills spread wide and the rush of oxygen. Vibrations in a grid of water molecules, flow of various energies through it, surface tension knitting bonds like flexible sheaths. Microscopic stinging cells, calcified legs, aimless drifting in the currents. It's like a patchwork of things and there, connecting them together, is where Sam finds the most familiar pieces. Common themes linking disparate pieces together like a dream or free-associating poet. But none of them pain, the closest she can find is concepts of a coherent structural 'wholeness' and the threat to it. She's not really hurting the thing the way a person would, but the concept of injury, of a loss of cohesion translates.

In the real world, the leg injured by Will sags a little as cracks widen from strain and blackish-blue blood oozes from it. Above Bruce climbing the two injuries inflicted to the creature's bell suddenly weep chunks of gelatinous mass that dislodge the branch. Deeper inside the 'eye' is deforming like a bubble inside a lava-lamp, then suddenly contracts into a strange oscillating shape that Tosh might recognize as an irregular polyhedron. Not something that should really exist as a 3-dimensional shape.

The creature's tentacles slumps down and let go of Sam, who falls to the ground, seemingly unconscious.


Elsewhere...?

Sam is plummeting through the kaleidoscope of concepts that make up the strange creature. Some part of her knows where she is. This is the creature's 'Spark'. It's equivalent to her Fractal Tree, it simply sits that much closer to the surface, no human thoughts, no Astral Layer to shroud it. And she's fallen right down into it, a fluid, elegant cloud made of silver-scales of darting fish.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Gnarly," Bruce said as he lifted himself over the edge of the wound. He immediately let Ennio take over.

The ferret then experimented with the dark side of waterbending and tried to pull water out of the gelatinous gunk the beast was made of. He thought that might help him reach the core more easily without drawing as much attention as tearing his way in.

[Samantha McManus]

...this again. Deeper than I meant to go.

Well, nothing for it. This shouldn't have a spark. Have to send it on.

She sends the flock out, trying to find a good angle to grasp it.

[Narrator]

Ennio has the feeling this would not work as well on something that wasn't as intrinsically 'water' as this thing, but it works, in a way. Desiccating anything about this creature seems like an almost moot point, since it continuously produces water out of nowhere, but Ennio's manipulating does pull out more gelatinous mass. Maybe he could dig his way in like that...


There's a lot to this creature's metaphysical power, but then there are suddenly countless ravens among it, pecking, probing, circling. But this one is built stronger somehow. The stone creature had been comparatively easily severed; this one clings to some kind of purpose, has a drive anchoring it that feels almost like an intentional foil to what she's trying to do. This thing might not be sentient or intelligent, but it's existence was no mere accident. It was forced into existence by someone or something lashing this spark to their world intentionally.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Encouraged by his success, Ennio redoubled his efforts and began pulling water from the direction of the core in an effort to tunnel his way to it.

[Narrator]

Ennio squirms his way into the creature with more success this time, the tentacles trying to grab him too late this time as whatever Sam is doing is distracting it. It's a little disconcerting to be submerged in the Titan, all sound muted by the mass of squirming gelatinous mass and trying to dig and claw his way deeper towards the still strangely oscillating core. As he gets closer he can feel his control over water being dulled and his head begins pounding the closer her gets, strange translucent organs contracting around him to keep him away from his target. The creature is building up some kind of charge much larger than the first wave it unleashed but he can... almost... touch it...

Outside Wanda would have the vantage point to notice the sea roiling in the distance, an odd stationary wave growing to taller than most of the buildings in Maldon, the water vibrating in tune with the creature's quivering and building towards toppling down towards them and the town.