The Nerd Brigade Advances

[Toshiro Narumi]

Bruce electro-punched a faux-vampire off of a cliff as the tech team fought their way to the lighthouse.

"Dude. Twihards are like roaches."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"They reproduce by laying thousands of eggs?"

"No." an exasperated Ashlie responds the the voice coming from her own chassis.

"Withstand high levels of radiation?"

"It's a metaphor."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"They everywhere, Other Ash. Everywhere."

[Gideon Rede]

Gideon was a decent engineer, but he was something of an artist at breaking bones. He snapped the knew of a fake vampire before kicking it off the a cliff. He moved on to a second stunning it with a punch before slamming its head sideways into the cliff face several times before rolling it off the paths with a nudge of his foot.

"At least they break easily," Gideon said just barely controlling his bloodlust.

[Loki Laufeyson]

"I'm afraid this is where you stop," said a familiar voice, in between them and the Lighthouse. "This is all far too much fun for you to meddle with."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"We really don't have time for this." Ashlie says.

[Gideon Rede]

"Let's clear the way then," Gideon said to Ashlie before charging towards Loki psychic blades forming around his arms.

[Loki Laufeyson]

"Mmm. No, sorry, not clever enough. Let's try this again," Loki said, raising his arms.

And the group would find themselves about 100 feet back from where they were.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I hate magic."

[Professor Weaver]

From up above, a sphinx in flowing white robes glides down, wielding a staff with a small forked prong at one end and a stylized, elongated head at the other. She lands in the middle of the stretch of elongated space and calls out in Ancient Egyptian, driving the prongs of her staff into the grass. "Ma'at ptah nur an darhohn!" The sudden distance falters and jerks partially back to a regular stretch as Nailah dispells Loki's working.

"Your deceptions and ploys don't stand up to the Truth of Ma'at, Trickster."

[Sean Hall]

Sean arrived shortly after Nailah had dispelled Loki's working with Bear and the rest of the backup for the tech team.

"Maybe you'd like it better if it was fighting alongside you?" Sean asked the headmistress as he walked down the path to stand with Professor Weaver. He couldn't have faced Loki directly, but maybe he could help the Sphinx fight the Asgardian.

[Loki Laufeyson]

"Your deceptions and ploys don't stand up to the Truth of Ma'at, Trickster."

"No. Deceptions are small things; toys I've well used and discarded. Look around you, daughter of Sekhmet. We aren't in the sands of your homeland; we're in Perfidious Albion. This isn't deception, this is mayhem."

With that, he struck his staff on the ground, and the side of the cliff he was on began to rise, high above the X-Teams down below.

[Hazard]

"This! Is! Mayhem!" Hazard cried from behind Loki, attempting to kick the deity off the cliff.

[Loki Laufeyson]

Hazard kicked Loki, who stumbled for a minute, and then turned around and slapped Hazard across the face.

"Seriously? That was your grand plan? A kick in the back?" Loki sneered. "Honestly. If this is what the X-Men have resorted to, I'm afraid you're more doomed than I thought.

And you're not the only one who can have a sleeper agent."

[Hazard]

Hazard just grinned and laughed. "Me? An X-Man? Nope! Just here to fuck with Tomorrow."

The headcase made finger guns and energy beams shot Loki point blank.

[Sean Hall]

Sean focused his magic on creating them a path forwards to the lighthouse. He pictured the beginnings of a tunnel through where Loki had raised the cliffside and spoke softly.

"Sing the song that shapes the stone," Sean said in a sing-song tone. He made a circle with his hand and slowly began pulling them apart the cliff shaking as he Sean tried to impose a shape upon it, the shape of a tunnel through to the entrance, while humming a tune.

[Legion]

Sean opened a crack in the foundation of the cliff, which revealed a room that likely should not be in the Lighthouse, under normal circumstances.

The room was dark, so it would have taken a second or two for most people to get their sight, but not Sean.

The....the room was filled...the room was filled with...

The COUCH. That was no couch, but a Will, on all fours, bloating unnaturally, with a second Will...seemingly attached, blending in, to form the back. Several Wills, arms and legs gone, stumps blending in, lay on the couch...as throw pillows, perhaps? The table was a Will, arms and legs bending unnaturally to force her face up and flat...

The light in the room was provided by another Will, hanging, hogtied, from the ceiling, with candles stuck deep into his flesh, providing a flickering light. Though it would be tough to see from their angle, the candles, too, were Wills, slowly melting as the flames licked down their hair. A second Will served as a sort of lamp, doubled over, her butt sticking high in the air with a lightbulb rudely slammed into it.

Another Will, her stomach bloated, was blended into the wall, hanging there, turning her face to look at Sean as he walked in. Her stomach was see-though, made of glass, and inside of it, two more tiny Will-mermaids swam, swimming slow spirals and flips.

In front of the table was a Will, stretched out horribly, a television screen surgically implanted into where his chest should be, wires and cables snaking out the back into an outlet on the wall. On the dresser (another Will, of course, with drawers cut into her body) were twelve more tiny Wills, each speared through the chest by a fine string, attached to one another like that.

The bookshelves were two Wills, with one Will each as each shelf, the carpet on the floor seemed to be a skinned Will, the fireplace was burning, with logs made of Wills...

..and...every...single...Will...turned....to...look...at....Sean.

[Loki Laufeyson]

Hazard just grinned and laughed. "Me? An X-Man? Nope! Just here to fuck with Tomorrow."

The headcase made finger guns and energy beams shot Loki point blank.

Loki grunted as the energy blasts hit him.

"Then GO fuck with Tomorrow, then" he said, dashing forward with Godlike speed and wrapping his hand around Hazard's throat.

[Hazard]

"I... am... infinite..." he choked out, clawing for breath.

[Loki Laufeyson]

"I am a God."

[Hazard]

Hazard went limp.

Another Hazard came at Loki with a bone blade for an arm.

[Sean Hall]

Sean opened a crack in the foundation of the cliff, which revealed a room that likely should not be in the Lighthouse, under normal circumstances.

The room was dark, so it would have taken a second or two for most people to get their sight, but not Sean.

The....the room was filled...the room was filled with...

The COUCH. That was no couch, but a Will, on all fours, bloating unnaturally, with a second Will...seemingly attached, blending in, to form the back. Several Wills, arms and legs gone, stumps blending in, lay on the couch...as throw pillows, perhaps? The table was a Will, arms and legs bending unnaturally to force her face up and flat...

The light in the room was provided by another Will, hanging, hogtied, from the ceiling, with candles stuck deep into his flesh, providing a flickering light. Though it would be tough to see from their angle, the candles, too, were Wills, slowly melting as the flames licked down their hair. A second Will served as a sort of lamp, doubled over, her butt sticking high in the air with a lightbulb rudely slammed into it.

Another Will, her stomach bloated, was blended into the wall, hanging there, turning her face to look at Sean as he walked in. Her stomach was see-though, made of glass, and inside of it, two more tiny Will-mermaids swam, swimming slow spirals and flips.

In front of the table was a Will, stretched out horribly, a television screen surgically implanted into where his chest should be, wires and cables snaking out the back into an outlet on the wall. On the dresser (another Will, of course, with drawers cut into her body) were twelve more tiny Wills, each speared through the chest by a fine string, attached to one another like that.

The bookshelves were two Wills, with one Will each as each shelf, the carpet on the floor seemed to be a skinned Will, the fireplace was burning, with logs made of Wills...

..and...every...single...Will...turned....to...look...at....Sean.

Sean paused not entirely capable of processing all of the Will's and their various states. Noticing the stares is what made him act.

"Not that way, no most certainly not," Sean said rather quickly before closing his hands to collapse the doorway. He didn't want to meet whatever created a room full of... whatever that was. "We'll just try a different way around, yes."

Sean tried a different spell this time grabbing a piece of chalk, a knife, and a mirror from various pockets. He drew a complicated looking design like he had back when they'd been chasing the vampire. He traced the final rune with blood and smashed the vial of quicksilver against the cliff. The mercury spread to fill the spell circle, leading hopefully this time not to a land of horrors. Otherwise Sean supposed it was time for them to fight a god.

[Byrna Cooper]

Sean tried a different spell this time grabbing a piece of chalk, a knife, and a mirror from various pockets. He drew a complicated looking design like he had back when they'd been chasing the vampire. He traced the final rune with blood and smashed the vial of quicksilver against the cliff. The mercury spread to fill the spell circle, leading hopefully this time not to a land of horrors. Otherwise Sean supposed it was time for them to fight a god.

"Anything I can do to help?"

Bear ran up to Sean, throwing away her one empty satchel, and opened her second satchel, taking a defensive position while Sean did his magic thing.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"If you could take out the alien considering himself a god currently in a slap-fight with the lunatic, that would be fantastic." Ashlie says, pointing at the two figures on top of the cliff Loki raised up.

[Byrna Cooper]

"Sure thing!"

Bear reached into her satchel, pulling out a brown object And threw it with all her considerable might at the Asgardian trickster.

...

Until it changed course suddenly, slicing through whatever shields Ashlie had protecting her, and impacting deep into her metal structure.

[Sean Hall]

"Anything I can do to help?"

Bear ran up to Sean, throwing away her one empty satchel, and opened her second satchel, taking a defensive position while Sean did his magic thing.

"Yeah, throw these at the Asgardian," Sean said handing Bear a vial with bone powder and silver powder in it. "Bones and purified silver shavings. It should make gathering magic difficult if you hit him or near him."

[Ashlie Minamida]

Ashlie opens her mouth and nothing but an electronic screech comes out of her vocalizer at first, the hole in her chest cavity sparking.

"Critical battery damage detected. Transferring programs to m-m-mainfr$^#@#!^)a-a-ame..."

[The Mockery]

Bear smirked, taking Sean’s components and spilling them on the floor.

She then opened her satchel, and a dirty, raggedy cloak, a large amount of liquid makeup, and some sort of crude headpiece flew out, enveloping her... until it was clear Bear wasn’t there, man.

“AHahH, It’S gOOd tO Be BaCKKkK...”

[Sean Hall]

"Oh, bloody...." Sean said feeling the pile of components pull ambient magic towards them. The only consoling factor was that The Mockery had poured them out instead of throwing the vial at him because it had a enchantment on it to make the vial explode if it hit something hard enough, which would make a mess of the spell he'd been assembling and well his body as well.

Sean was somewhat hoping that the spell he was putting together would work or not work soon because he really couldn't put energy into it and defending himself from The Mockery at the same time.

[The Mockery]

The Mockery strode up to Sean, her suddenly pungent odor becoming overpowering.

“wOUlD yOu LiKe iT BlOOOdDy?” She asked, before retrieving a blunt, rusty, disgusting knife, and licking Sean’s neck and cheek.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Ash!" Bruce cried out.

He glared at Mockery. "You're going down you clown college reject!" he roared, charging to grab at her.

[Sean Hall]

The Mockery strode up to Sean, her suddenly pungent odor becoming overpowering.

“wOUlD yOu LiKe iT BlOOOdDy?” She asked, before retrieving a blunt, rusty, disgusting knife, and licking Sean’s neck and cheek.

Sean suppressed a shudder as The Mockery licked him.

"Only if it's your blood," Sean said though he wasn't in much of a position to threaten anything at the moment between trying to tear a stable hole through reality and having well nothing readily available to defend himself.

[The Mockery]

The Mockery moved at inhuman angles and unexpected directions, easily dodging Tosh’s grapple.

“IS It LeNT iN tHIs REaLitY? I fEEl lIKe A fiSH SanDwICh..”

She then eerily floated up into the air, out of immediate reach.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"I'm shockingly bad to eat!" Bruce quipped before he spat a ball of lightning at the stinky villainess.

[Sean Hall]

Sean was incredibly grateful for Tosh's arrival and while the Sharkdude fought the Mockery he to pulled the two points in space together. He placed a hand on the circle he'd made now covered in a mirror-like sheen from the quicksilver and spoke the final pieces of the incantation.

"We walk the world within worlds," Sean said, "The labyrinthine paths of the wraiths."

[The Mockery]

"I'm shockingly bad to eat!" Bruce quipped before he spat a ball of lightning at the stinky villainess.

The Mockery held out her tainted knife blade up, blocking the lightning as it seemed to be absorbed within the filthy depths.

She then tossed the knife to the direct centre of the magical circle, the electricity expelling and disrupting the incantation at the last possible second.

“DoN’t gO, Don’T sLOw...” She chirped, as seven more pieces of dirty silverware floated out of her satchel, encircling her head like a halo.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Bruce shrank and was replaced by Ennio the ferret.

"How about a bath ya filthy varmint!" he said. Water appeared from nowhere and snaked around him with increasing speed before rushing at her with substantial force.

[Loki Laufeyson]

Hazard went limp.

Another Hazard came at Loki with a bone blade for an arm.

"Whelp! Do not distract me in my moment of triumph!" Loki shouted, shooting a blast of pure energy from his staff at the second Hazard.

[The Mockery]

Purple eye beams shot out, blasting the advancing water to vapor.

“SoO FocUSeD oN thE hERe AnD NOw, nO tHOUghts On The ramIFicATionS...”

[Professor Weaver]

"Don't lecture me on consequences. You're filth even compared to the place you call home." Nailah says, sweeping her staff and conjuring up a blindingly bright light around the Mockery.