Terror-Fest: Angel of the Waters (Invite)

(OOC: Finale is now OPEN. So far signed up are: Jorge, Mama T, Faye, Lance, Kate, Kaitlyn and Locke)

Christanna grimaced as she paced the ledge of the water fountain. A splitting headache had suddenly come upon her and all she wanted was for it to just go away. The pain was tremendous and felt like a lightning storm crackled and crashed instead of her brain pan. The attacks were getting more frequent as the night went on and despite her need to try and ignore it simply hit her harder and faster. That was what was happening now. She paused in her pacing and winced as another sharp pain coursed through her mind. It rolled over her like a thundercloud or isolated earthquake and all she saw was red.

“OH god! Make it stooooop!!” she cringed as she collapsed onto the ledge and held her burning skull.

But as soon as she went down, she was overrun with images that she could make little to no sense of. Images of people she never knew from someone else’s perspective and worst of all were the thundering sounds of millions of voices all clamoring together inside her ears:

>> “… I feel like being generous tonight. For example, if I were to catch two underaged teens drinking alcohol, instead of hauling…,”[/i]

>> "No, I don't really want to be here. I mean it's cold and over exaggeratedly silly. I'm not one for Halloween I don't think…"[/i]

>>"Listen I like you, and I think you like me too…Your not like other guys”[/i]

>> “And it’s not a friar costume... it’s a Star Wars Jedi costume.”[/i]

>> 'Capital, now then I wonder if you two could do me a little favour?'

>> "If K-Kaitlyn gets to stab zombies with her spear…”

>> ”It’s not really monkey brains, is it?”

>> "It is Halloween. We could skip the main course and go straight to…."[/i]

The scream that issued out from Christanna was enough to wake the dead…well the few undead soldiers who stood guard near her. She ground her teeth as she felt like her head was going to split. Instead she forced it back down as she shook her head. She wanted the pain to stop! Why wasn’t it? Why was it instead getting worse? She would blame it on having too much candy but none had even passed her lips. Instead she sat on the ledge of the fountain, rocking back and forth, trying to consol herself. Then…slowly the pain backed off. The images fluttered away into the darkness behind her eyelids and the voices slowly dropped to a murmur before disappearing completely.

The attack was over but she feared when the next one would come. Instead finally opened her eyes and looked up. Her “royal guards”, two men dressed as zombie soldiers looked at her curiously. She waved them off and stood up from her seated position. She gulped hard as she leaned over, cupped her hand into the waters of the fountain and splashed some of it on her face.

“Where’s my asprin?” she muttered to herself. As she looked over across the fountain area, a small smile did play on her lips.

All around her denizens, her minions were readying themselves. More and more of these nightmare dressed creatures had appeared. Her pathetic, vampire-dressed father had done what she told him. He had gone out and gotten followers. Many of them were gathered all around. Some fought amongst themselves, others tortured victims they had managed to find wandering around the park, and the rest simply waited around, though antsy. They wanted the action, the battled and the blood gore she promised them. They would get that and so much more when she was done. The whole city would. But for now, she wanted their numbers to be big.

This is crazy, a small voice in the back of her head muttered.

Christanna snarled as she shook her head, arguing with herself. “No, it is the only justice. This city deserves to suffer for letting my father do what he did to me! They all need to! I’m tired of crying in the dark! Everyone will pay now! Everyone!!”

“Goddess?”

She spun around and found a man who had startled her earlier. Still dressed in his M-R-O shirt and clutching onto a ball of thread, he held out a small white bottle. He clanked it from side to side to assure her that it was full to the brim with pills. She quickly snatched it from him and popped open the Children’s Tylenol package. Apparently it was all the man could find. With a twist of her wrist she cracked open the bottle and chewed the medicinal grape flavored pills and willed it to protect her from further attacks. They definitely were not of a strong dosage but she hoped they would at least help.

She sighed as she turned back around and found her father groveling to her, next to the MRO man. She could definitely get used to this type of behavior, pain or no.

“What is it?” she asked suddenly, her eyes sparkled with white light.

“G-Goddess, all preparations are made. You’re horde is ready to lay siege,” her father announced as he slowly stood and kept his head bowed respectfully.

Christanna/Nyx looked about and eyed her army. The legion of costumed, yet maddened people, all seemed to be looking at her now. They stopped their individual feuds and tortures and instead seemed to be looking at her, their Goddess, with anticipation. The sight simply made her smile deep inside as she glanced around. She did not know how long they would all be affected like this. She only hoped that it would be forever…even if that meant a lifetime of pain on her part. So finally, after a moment of thought, she grinned as she waved over two of the larger demonically dressed men.

“They we shall begin. But first, a sacrifice for your goddess,” she smiled diabolically as her embodied Nyx. She pointed towards her groveling father and muttered coldly. “Strap him down and slit his throat.”

“W-What? But….mother! Goddess!!” her father screamed. It was of no use though.

Before he could comprehend, her two demonic sentries grabbed the man hard and pulled him over towards the fountain. They bent him over and extended his neck over the glistening, cold water. Nyx smiled wide as she watched one of them produce a knife from the folds of their cloak. She slowly sauntered over as her guards each looked at her inquisitively. Their slobbering mouths were wide, ready to taste the blood that was to come. A wide, creepy grin inched its way across her face she stepped over and leaned down to look at her father’s sweating face. His make-up was starting run off and his false fangs were half hanging out of his mouth. She noted the look of utter fear on his face. A look that told her that he would surely do anything in order to not be harmed.

But Nyx only smiled as she gently reached over and stroked the back of his head. “Don’t worry…I won’t embarrass you anymore,” her smirk turned angry as backed away and nodded to her guards. “You can’t embarrass the dead!!”

She turned, a headache coming on which caused her eyes to flash an even stronger white. She heard the slash, the gurgle for breath and finally the sound of blood spilling into a fountain of water. Her whole body twitched, angry that the man had dared to give her such a look. But her angry melted when she heard that roar of approval from all her gathered minions. They screamed a battle cry that could only be issued out from the very pits of Hell! And it was a music that Nyx was only too happy to hear.

A steady breath and once more the pain subsided. As the clamor around her died down, she smiled to all those gathered and yelled out.

“Tonight…we take every back! We topple everything my father donated with his dirty intentions and bloody money! TONIGHT we make this city pay for EVERYTHING HE HAS EVER DON – GRaahahhh!!!”

She scream as her white eyes flashed and a long, thin crack appeared on the top of her skull. Hair singed and fluttered off into the night as a beam of light erupted from her scalp. She gasped horribly as another crack, and another all fissured across her face and head, each released a ray of light as if she contained the very energy of a star. It was a sight that could be seen for miles and one that each of her minions bowed in fear to.

Total anger fueled with pain and torment shook her down to her core that the throng of voices made her ears ring. But she was not going to stop now. She needed to issue the commanded. She needed her revenge and now was the only time she would ever get it. With a scream, she addressed all her minions as she blindly flailed about, light erupting from her scalp as the personalities of all she had taken from park struggled from freedom.

“ATTACK! BURN EVERYTHING TO THE GROUND!!!!”

If Poseidon had any previous doubts that this place could ever be confused for Tartarus…those misconceptions were thrown out the window now. The ocean god stared around in complete surprise at his surroundings, this world apparently reordered in the name of madness. Mortals, which he was not sure the vast majority of them were, all ran about and acted as evil as possible. Many seemed to be sacrificing innocent people, others were simply snarling and gnashing their teeth at one another. If ever there was a place that embodied the true meaning of Hell, this was it.

Slowly the ocean god walked into the hellish realm, along with his niece Athena and the mortal queen Gemma by his sides. He tightened his grip on his makeshift trident as he glanced about. So far none of the creatures had dared to advance on them. Maybe they had sense enough realize they should not challenge the power of the Gods. But they were trapped in human vessels. Their powers were limited, especially in the presence of the human queen.

It was then that he felt Gemma’s hand tighten into his.

>> "Jorge, I need to get to her. Now."

At first Poseidon had no idea what she was speaking of. Of any of the creatures here, why would she want to associate with them? But then he saw the light. There was a glare, a piercing beam of white that reminded him of his brother Zeus and his lightning bolts. He watched curiously as creatures began to move out of the way and there he spotted here. It was a young human girl, or at least something in the guise of one. The child was in agony, but she stood, eyes sparkling white and fissures of white light illuminated her scalp. But must malevolent of all was the look on her face. There was no compassion or sympathy, only pain and anger mixed together into a very volatile combination.

It became obvious that she was the source of that power. The energy the fluctuated off her small form was enough to make him cringe. But one look at her attire and he had to shake his head in surprise.

“Nyx. That…is my grandmother,” Poseidon muttered as he looked between Athena and Gemma. “Primordial goddess of the Night and Dreams! She has become the cause of all this…Sh has become…mad.”

It was then that her last echoing command seemed to stir everyone to move. Before he could comprehend of it, the entire horde that was gathered were on the move. They snarled and snapped before they began to turn on every structure around them. They broke and smashed everything and everyone they could. Then…they began to charge. At first they had paid no heed to the trio, but now they wanted only blood.

Poseidon held it trident up defensively as he pushed Gemma as far back behind him as he could. He did not want to lose her, she had his blessing, but he needed his abilities right now, even if they were dampened by the human vessel.

“Stay behind us Gemma! Don’t get too close!” he shot a glance of understanding at Athena and nodded his head.

With that he suddenly held his trident up and summoned to him all the water he could feel within his reach. He was still weakened, but it should be enough. All he needed was enough to confuse and distract them and that would be what he would get. Within fractions of a second, water flooded around him and became whipped up into a dangerous whirlpool and spun fast. His eyes flashed with anger as the water spun faster and faster and faster. A few of the oncoming horde watched in surprise but Poseidon gave them no chance to understand what was happening. Instead he lashed out and sent break neck fast jets of water out and struck every beast it could.

The next War of the Gods had started.

It wasn't just because he had the costume that Locke dressed up as Jigsaw. He admired the guy. Not that Locke had any desire to lock two people up in an unsanitary bathroom and force them to choose between a slow death and sawing off a foot with a dull blade. John Kramer understood more about how a human worked than those psychologists that Locke was forced to see. The man was as logical as Locke, able to apply science and math in a real world setting (not only for his traps and tests, but the guy was an engineer), and odd as it might sound, some of their beliefs were similar.

Especially that murder was inexcusable. From his hiding spot Locke witnessed the foul act. It wasn't the first time he'd seen someone die. It was something he'd experienced before. Locke had witnessed the end result of Saph on a rampage, and because of this knew what brain matter looked like. The only deaths that he remembered now though were those of his test subjects who were missing that vital piece of human nature that made you survive no matter what it took. His heart held no sympathy for the girl who commanded the army of "undead". She must be dealt with.

Which begged he question of how. All of his tests so far had been in a contained location, someplace that he could set things up far in advance. Strangely enough it was not the crowd that concerned him. They were just fools caught up in an illusion like the doll girl that he had left behind. All the vampires would fall victim of gravity when they tried to fly. Zombies and mummies might be a bit more difficult given the variations of them. Jigsaw/Locke knew that these were actual people, and he knew that he was missing something important about himself. Maybe it was that who he believed he was had been killed.

((OOC: Hope it's okay you all, but I'm going to move out off a posting order. It's already middle of november and I really think this story needs to reach a conclusion. Post away!))

Madness and chaos. That was the only way to describe the events that unfolded before the ages old lord of the oceans. He watched as swarms of vile creatures, men dressed in costumes came charging their way. He was quick to defend, sending jets of water out and around, striking foes between the eyes and quasi-drowning them until they collapsed into unconscious heaps. But he was barely making a dent in their numbers. Apparently Nyx had managed to gather a vast majority of the denizens and hellish creatures of the night to her side. Poseidon normally would be only too glad to wipe them off the face of the planet, but Gemma, the mortal queen, had revealed to him that they all were simply men in costume. Humans who did not know who they really wear.

To be honest the Ocean God could care less. If they treaded too far…he would make each and every one of them pay for it.

He stood as still as he could, water flowed dangerously around him in a shield that looked almost impenetrable. Any creature that came too close were knocked by the force of water that was equivalent to a fire hose releasing a torrent. He then watched as his niece Athena charged out into the group. Blasts of divine energy send the hordes flying in all directions. A small grin played on his lips as he watched her disappear into the crowds. She looked so innocent and small in that vessel, but any who dared to underestimate her, he was sure would suffer for it. He only hoped that her human form would be able to handle her abilities. He feared her burning out from other doing it.

“Athena! Be careful! The human body you inhabit may not be able to withstand a constant use of your divine abilities!” He knew his voice was lost, so he would have to keep Athena in his line of sight.

A glance back and he saw that Gemma was still behind him. So far he and Athena managed to hold the line rather well. Bodies of fallen creatures lay strewn about them and ahead he could see still that flare of bright white light. That was the one Gemma said she needed to get to. He did not know what good that would be but he hoped whatever she had planned, it would help.

Another look back to the mortal queen and Poseidon, the bringer of earthquakes and tidal waves charged into the fray. His shield of water dropping down, he ran forward, staff spinning around him expertly. The first to make the mistake of getting too close was a rather dangerous looking character. It was a man in a strange, white mask with holes drilled into it for breathing and sight. He wielding a dangerous, one sided axe that seemed to already be splattered with blood. The lumbering fool was quick to try to hack into the Poseidon’s skull, but the ocean god was swift. A quick twirl of his staff and the metal bar struck hard, smashing into the side of his opponent’s face.

Poseidon watched the man go down with a whimper and he was quick to step over him. He lashed out, struck and drenched to the best of his abilities but the opponents kept coming. He hit hard and fast, trying to making an opening. They had gotten the villains attentions now. He could not see Athena anymore, but he saw her aftermath. Bodies were strewn about, broken and bleeding and though Poseidon tried his best to keep from harming these people too badly, they were making it difficult. It came to the point that this was simply going to be about survival now. It was either him or them and he was not about to allow these creatures to overcome him.

A sudden outshoot of his hand and he screamed as he sent another torrent of water out into a group of rushing villains. They were getting closer to the source of light, he could see Nyx, his grandmother, looking panicked as cracks formed all over her face. She was screaming orders, trying to send more of her troops on the attack and questioned who these interlopers were.

Nyx panicked as she climbed back onto the ledge of the water fountain, standing high up and glaring out over the group. Her reinforcements were rushing back in from the corners. They would be upon them in seconds.

Poseidon yelled as he felt another of her minions slash out and scratch his arm. He ocean god snarled as he shoved the beast back and cautioned another look back at the mortal queen.

“Gemma! Prepare yourself!” he yelled as he then turned and pointed his staff directly at Nyx. “Grandmother! You’re madness must en-!” He was abruptly stopped when another of her servants, a greasy faced man where a strange black tunic with the letterings of M-R-O etched upon it. He started to scream and smack the ocean god over and over again on the forehead with his ball of thread.

“Leave her alone!”

Poseidon stared up at the person in disbelief and struggled with him. Whoever this MRO was, he was heavy and had a lot more strength than he originally let on. The ocean lord struggled as the MROer tightened a grip around his throat and continued to beat him with a ball of thread upon the forehead.

Faye was dragged through the woods by The Boy by her hand as they fled from the raised stage where they had encountered the dark altar and the people that cavorted around it. The encounter had all left them injured, Faye herself sported painful cuts that bled freely from her fight with Britney and her deep knife strikes across Faye’s thigh and arm.

The three of them where heading towards a bright white light that seemed familiar to her but she couldn’t remember where she had seen it before. Then they were out of the trees and looking down at a huge fountain surrounded by a horde of creatures and fiends that raged and fought amongst its self. The Boy caught her attention and pointed off to their right where a group of people seemed to be assailing the monsters. She didn’t recognise any off them but the Woman With Skin Like Night that had taken her fire square off of her what seemed an age ago.

Back in the woods The Boy outlined his plan; She and Alice where to run down to the Queen, as he called the dark skinned woman when the fighting started while he distracted the monsters.
It was a stupid plan, Faye didn’t want him to go away and leave her and she certainty didn’t want him to get hurt or worse. She was about to voice her opinions when The Boy surprised her by leaning in and kissing her on the lips, stupefying her and leaving her lips lingering on air as he ran off.

“No! Come Back!” she shouted as he disappeared into the bushes
“Why?” she asked Alice.

She felt like crying and not just from the pain of her cuts. Without The Boy nearby she felt vulnerable and that scared her more than the thought that she was about to run headlong into the middle of the creatures around the fountain.

As if reading her thoughts the ground started to shake and a great eruption of noise came from the bottom of the hill. Sneaking out to look Faye saw that the small group around the Queen has begun to make headway towards the fountain, A man and small child stood at the front of the little group and where they looked no manbeast could stand for blasts of energy that ripped through them flinging slow moving fiends into the air or gouts of water that forced the horde back and threatened to drown those that didn’t get out of the way.

Faye swallowed the hard and took one last look at Alice, offering a week smile before she started running down the hill.
She made it down the bottom and started weaving through the few stunned manbeasts that remained. At first they didn’t seem to notice her for the carnage that the small child and the man wrought but as she got closer to the group she was suddenly knocked off her feet and sent flying through the air by the edge of one of the shockwaves.

Landing hard she screamed out as a great pain shot through her injured leg, dizzy she tried to stand before her leg collapsed underneath her. Biting her lip she reached down and felt her leg, her hands came away bloody from where her wound had started bleeding again. Closing her eyes she let her head slump back down on the rumbling earth, her breath came out in ragged gasps as the pain washed through her body.
She became aware of someone standing over her and looked up through teary eyes and the figure above her.

Was it The Boy? Had he seen her fall and come to rescue her?

Smiling through the pain she raised herself up on her elbows and reached out to him but he didn’t help her up.
Confused her lips formed a question but before she could ask it the figure stamped down hard on her chest forcing her back down hard, a strangled cry of pain escaping from her lips as her head bounced of a rock. She tried to rise again before the foot descended on her throat pinning her to the ground.
Struggling as her breath left her she clawed weakly at the figures leg as the edges of her vision began to darken.

Nyx watched as her minions fought on, ready to rend everything in this city apart when suddenly people began to intervene. She had no idea what they were doing, why they were fighting her. But whatever the reason was, it seemed as if they had some real power behind them. They were mutants, they had to be! So far most of the people she met acted like their costumes but none of them actually had any of the powers that came with it. It did not make any sense to her. How could these mutants in costume suddenly challenge her?

She snarled as she tried to think of what to do next. The twelve year old had gotten so caught up in her schemes and the blinding pain of her migraine that she was not paying attention to the scene as it unfolded in front of her. With a gasp she pointed at one of her demonic guards and aimed him towards the fighting group.

“What’re you doing, imbecile! Attack them! Kill them now!!” she screamed and stomped like a spoiled brat.

The demon was quick to obey but had been thrown down by a powerful jet of water. Nyx/Christanna was surprised as she looked about and saw that many of her minions were either running past the attacking group or were falling to their expert hands. Then…the whole fountain broke. The earth tremored, hard! It was enough to crack the edge of the fountain. She was quick to jump off and scramble to the side just as a huge chunk fell apart and poured water out all over the scene. Nyx gasped and turned to look back at the advancing group.

>> “Gemma! Prepare yourself! Grandmother! You’re madness must en-!”

She turned just in time to see one of her cronies attacking a man with a badge around his neck, wielding a metal pipe for a staff. He must have been a policeman but…was he controlling water? Nyx turned to survey more of the group when another blinding pain coursed through her skull. She gasped and screamed out as more cracks appeared before her face. She wanted to scream until her throat was hoarse and raw and she could taste blood, but nothing came out. Instead as she looked up with blurred eyes, she noted the little girl far off to the side blasting people left and right, another man dressed as a Jedi and who knows what else all fighting back. But…as she looked forward, she saw the opening…and a single person heading her way.

Blindly she got up, gasping and rasping for air as her skull felt like seconds away from erupting into a volcano. Through her teary eyes, she watched the elegant, dark skinned, beautiful woman coming towards her. For a second she thought she was an angel, bathed head to toe in light. But as she came closer, she saw that her eyes were closed. She was just another one of them!

“NO! I have to do this! I need to destroy everything he maaade!”

But her voice was cut off. Before she knew it, the woman was close, the pain in her head paralyzed her and then…she felt those arms wrap around her body and hurl her back into the remains of the fountain.

The second the woman had seized Christanna the cracks, the brilliant display of light suddenly was wretched away from her head. It flung outward, out of the reach of the Adapted’s null field and suddenly dispersed. Another cobwebbed wave of brilliant, foggy white light poured out, rushing over and through everyone it came in contact with. Unable to be anchored to Christanna anymore due to being in a null field, the personalities of everyone she accidentally wiped flitted across the landscape of Central Park in a rushing wave of fog and light.

****

Jorge blinked…his eyes feeling raw and red and he stared at the night sky above him. He did not know why but his entire body ached. He felt like he had just run a marathon in the time it took to blink his eyes. Why did he suddenly feel so exhausted? The detective shook his head and felt more pain, more rawness and who knows what other sensations. He coughed as he glanced down, wondering why his hands were so heavy. He then jumped upon seeing it. The detective was holding a young man with the letters M-R-O etched across his t-shirt by the throat and had his other fist raised up as if he were getting ready to strike him.

“W-What the….?” he rasped as he suddenly let the man go and shakily stepped back.

For a second he had no idea what happened, then, his mind rushed as pain set in. Fragments, partial memories of running around, announcing he was Poseidon and attacking people. He almost felt sick to his stomach as he shook his head, as if trying to knock the bombardment of memories out. He wanted to scream but nothing came from his throat. Finally though, after a minute, the memories stopped, the pain subsided and he stared about. Other people were slowly coming out of it, blinking their eyes and looking away from the sky. It was as if each and every one of them had seen something brilliant for one second then returned to themselves.

The detective paused as he glanced about…only one thought on his mind.

“Gemma?” he asked hoarsely. “Gemma?”

>>"Gemma? Gemma!"

Gemma coughed up some water that tasted like mud, and sat up in the fountain. The light was gone, but her vision was still blurred, and she was cold and aching in so many places she couln't even count. She was still holding the girl; she felt small and fragile now, and she was limp in her arms. Gemma lifted her, making sure she was not underwater.
There was not much water left in the fountain. Sitting up, it was barely up to her waist; but it felt ice cold, and she didn't have the strength to stand up. She felt dizzy. Exhaustion and blood loss.
She listened to the voices, praying for everyone to be all right. And to be themselves.

When she heard Jorge's voice, she took a shaky breath, then let it out.

"I am here" she called out, as loud as she could; which was not very loud, considering how bad she felt and how raw her throat was from yelling all night "I'm here, Jorge. I'm fine. I've got her."

Her being the mutant girl who'd started it all.