Javier followed the skunk girl around the corner of the building just in time to watch the fire-and-wind guy descend. It was… a lot. A whole lot. He saw Luna fire off… um, a stink cloud? At the man, and not get much for her effort; the same went for the woman who shot at him, and some others. This mystic was a whole other level. And he was not alone. Some sort of a blast skimmed past the two of them, creating a burst of vines by the building. Javier grabbed Luna, pulling her out of the way. “You should go inside.”

Serena watched the Supreme descend in fire and chaos. "Oh, shit. Oh, shit. That's bad." Not that she knew the extent of the man's powers... but she knew magic enough to know he way outclassed the goons they had been fighting so far. Elemental magic. This was going to get very ugly very fast. Serena felt hopelessly inadequate. Which was a feeling she particularly despised. "Hercules!" She tried to yell over the noise. "There's your worthy opponent!" If she could not be a warrior, at least she could be a battery.

Luna Watched as her attack was swept up in wind and fire, her scent droplets igniting as she watched. Javier pulled her out of the way of some vines. If video games taught her anything the guy probably had water or ice as well on him she thought to herself more to dismiss the fear that was creeping up her spine. Javier was not wrong she probably did belong inside.

The fire meant trying to claw him was likely a poor plan, fur burned rather quickly and smelled awful. And their was death to that was an issue. Her other trick was her scent which the guy had whisked away as if it were nothing. She briefly wondered if Her Defense Professor had ever fought where their was no water to make ice.

"Thank you for saving me and You’re really not wrong, not sure there’s much I can do, dunno about you" She replied even as she saw a wounded Carrick though Rebecca seemed ok. "I'm staying Javier. My power might not be useful here but we can at least try and wear him down or make an opening for someone with more raw power. We should keep moving though" Luna went on trying very hard to sound braver than she was feeling. She watched the Supreme to try and see where the next attack would be from and what it would be. She kept her tail in her paw just in case. She only had four more shots.

"Your pathetic Magic Man you missed" She shouted trying to draw attention from Carrick not sure just how wounded he was and trying to draw his fire.

The bottle neck happened too late. If Jorge were front and center with him they’d be able to make short work of it but he’d have to deal with it own his own. With Shin, watching Maya he could focus on the fight ahead. Too many mystics were on his lawn and it cost way too much money to keep it up. A mystic shot overhead with fire and he ignored it. A few flew past him and he ignored them. “Air support, looks like there are a bunch of people flying overhead... Carrick, Zek that means you two!”

The front gate was before him, water from the sprinklers turned solid and bent to his will as a beam of blue hit one side of the gate to the other leaving a small pass. It didn’t matter. They plowed right through it and he was face to face with someone the size of Hercules. He was glowing different but still. Muscle heads.

“A little busy at the moment!” he dodged the charge as the man barreled into the fountain crushing the stone surrounding it leaving more water flooding onto the grounds. Ice solidified at his feet. He was far enough away from everyone who was helping or he cared about where he didn’t have to worry about freezing them. One of the benefits with working better alone.

They needed to regroup. Without him killing everyone who was attacking the mansion (something the rest of the team frowned upon) he’d have a hard time battling these numbers alone. A blast of fire hit the wall of ice he just built. Cursing into the communication device, “On my way back Mirror, Sabine how we looking in the woods? Tell me it’s going better than here!”

Throwing himself upwards he grabbed hold of a mystic that was... of course they were flying on broomsticks. Ice traveled up his arm to the mystic that was flying overhead, both started to fly downwards after the ice finished incasing the flying mystic. Sam let go before they crashed into a few other magic users who weren’t paying attention.

The god roared ferociously as he pulled the last turret from the top of the of the overturned vehicle wielding both now in his hands. A few mystics ran close but he batted them away with ease. Maybe there was something to these weapons. They were heavy and packed quite a punch. “Know that today you face a god! Ha yes! Come at me!” he smacked a few more mystics away when he saw the flames overhead illuminating the sky more and revealing more mystics flying over head. They were heading to the mansion. His new home and the location of William and Elizabeth.

Before he could call his club he heard the call from one of his masters Serena, her voice faint but the feeling was there. She needed help and it sounded like there was someone worthy of fighting him. Roaring with laughter and a bloodlust (different when he was at the dog fighting ring) he had not felt in some time Hercules jumped back towards his master Serena.

“You have summoned, master!?!” dropping one of the massive magic guns by her side he looked to the one who was squaring off with one of the children from the mansion. A skunk girl. Before she could say anything else Hercules understood. His glow strengthened as he summoned his might. Jumped again and cratered to where they mystic was ignoring the fire and wind around them. “Welcome to the gun show!” Hercules roared and swung the gun at him the way he would his club.

```Tetsuya Shinbo kept up the protective detail on Mirror. If he moved too far away, the armor bandage would disappear and with it, the pressure. His mental hug. So, he focused on defending their position with his big armor and shard sword, batting mystics aside. Throwing his sword to knock enhanced warriors back. He took a few hits that sent him tumbling, but he got back up again. As a big mystic crackling with electricity approached, he shouted to Mirror. “I can make a reflective surface you know, if we want to reposition.”```

As soon as Zek exited Zekworld astride his Catbird mount, all hell broke loose. Caspar was sent spiraling and there was fire and blazing hot air everywhere.

"Ack! Wrong dimension! Wrong dimension! I didn't even know I could go to Hell!" he shrieked as he lost grip on the Winged Wonder's neck and he began his own freefall to the ground. And Samper Fi-ght wanted him on air patrol? "Screw that!" he shouted into his communicator right before he threw a ball and fell through the subsequent portal right back into Zekworld, where he plunged into the vanishing pool again.

He drifted there for several seconds before dismissing the pool, the water and the portal. He didn't care if Catbird followed him - Zek wasn't ready to fight in The Bad Place. He leaped into the air and grabbed a zipline that took him across the ballfield, where he let go and left Zekworld through another portal.

Meanwhile, mystics in the air were beginning their attack runs. One riding a silver-painted surfboard swooped down and hurled a blast of violet energy at Cold Steel even as the man took out several mystics. Another mystic, riding a spectral flying horse galloped through the air as the woman behind him took potshots at the mutant defenders on the ground with her rifle. Still a third began screeching as she swooped by like a rocket, hurling fireballs at Shin and shrieking at painful decibels.

Others peeled off and began unleashing spells at the mansion itself. Explosions and blasts and degradation hexes began landing, striking the roof across the building.

Then the birds returned.

"The backside of the mansion is secure," Elizabeth said over the comms, her voice tight and strained. "Sending reinforcements to cover mansion airspace. If you need me, speak to any black bird."

Cresting over the back of the mansion from the other direction, a black cloud emerged and rapidly swept over the oncoming mystics. Guided by the mutant mind possessing one of the birds at the heart of the murmuration and murder, birds began slashing, pecking, striking, and otherwise harrowing the amateur invaders to their home territory. The swarms of bugs filled in the gaps.

Mystics began to fall.

> Amelia

Amelia had not seen the shot miss Rebecca and hit somebody else. She had focused on the mystic, who kept blocking their shots. Then someone shouted at him, saying he had missed. Wha—? Oh good.

Hercules landed nearby. With. Turret guns. Then he flew… jumped… with one of the guns as a club. Engaging the mystic. She holstered her gun. Maybe he would have better luck. His was bigger.

Something dropped onto the lawn next to her and Serena. Amelia stared at it.

“Hallelujah,” she muttered to the fashion mogul. “It’s raining men.”

Amelia left the boss man to the heavy hitters for the moment. She spent the next couple of seconds shooting giant blue hand constructs at falling mystics, redirecting them so none hit either her or the woman, Serena. She couldn’t hit hard, but— at least she could shift them with a shove or a punch, as long as they were wearing clothes. Until one wasn’t.

Her coat billowed as Amelia spun towards the nearby mystic.

“Serena, watch out!” It was falling right at her, wreathed in magic flames. And nothing else. Nudity. Her only weakness. “I can’t stop them!”

> Shin

Tetsuya Shinbo And then a woman swooped down at him and Mirror like a rocket, hurling fireballs. Any thoughts of a reflective escape fled. He focused, and launched himself with his shard armor to fly up a few feet and strike down the first fireball with a slash of his sword. The heat bled through his armor, and made him sweat. A stray spark hit his one unarmored place, and Shard hissed.

That would be a nice burn.

He landed next to Mirror, and tore the armor from his body and the shards from his sword into a hastily drawn shield. It was thin, about the size of the flattened body of a car, and used all his shards. The best he could do on short notice. The second fireball impacted against it with a boom. Then, she screamed.

He clapped his hands over his ears and screamed too. The mystic stopped screaming long enough to fire one more ball of flame. Shin sent the shield up towards the sphere, to intercept the attack, and while she was silent, he spoke to Mirror.

“Arrow? Arrow. Shoot her out of the sky. I’ll play defense.”

The fire lady began another swoop. As he prepared to tank another fireball, the looming mystic wreathed in electricity punched him in his chest and sent Shin flying three feet onto the ground. He… had kind of forgotten about the lumbering electrical mystic. Luckily for Mirror, the shield stayed in place to absorb fireballs as standing cover. “Ow….” Shin grumbled.

> August
August ran.

Things had started happening very rapidly. When mystics had started approaching from behind, unhappy with him for sending other mystics away with his power… he absolutely had not waited for the lady with the plant fairy summon to thank him for his assistance, and invite him onto the team. He’d just said “Yeah, okay! Never mind! Good luck!!”

He had skirted the terrifying plant fairy thing, tossed up a minor illusion of a wall between him and the nearest mystic, and fled. Another mystic, another illusion. The mystic’s sword slashed through a flaming summon illusion, and left him alone.

Disengage, disengage! Run, dash, run!!!!

“I suggest you look over there!”

“I suggest you focus your attention on that terrifying crow aiming to peck out your eyes!”

“Danger danger, sir you are on fire. I suggest you douse yourself before you get burned.”

And on and on he went. Eventually, he reached a fence. Because he was in the forest outside the mansion. He looked to his left. A mystic was opening a door-shaped portal, ready to pop on through to the other side.

“You need help. Take me with you?” He suggested. The mystic nodded, and gestured him through. And that is how August arrived from the forest side of things to the mansion courtyard.

The second he arrived, a mystic fell from the sky right on top of his portal friend, crushing him instantly. The mystic was huge. Had… been… huge.

“Sucks to suck,” he said. Then he set eyes on some guy as he got punched by another huge mystic. “Huh.”

“Maybe don’t punch him while he’s down?” He suggested to the lumbering oaf. The man stared at him.

“I hate mind control…” he muttered.

Oh no! The guy had resisted his spell. And now he was chasing after him with fiery hot punches! Yipes! Oh no!

“Heavens to Murgatroyd!” But at least the mansion resident wasn’t getting assaulted any more.

August ran. And ran. And ran. Until something encased in ice crashed down behind him, atop his pursuer. He spun and stared. Birds suddenly appeared, like in the damn song. “Cold Steel….”

They were crows. Not doves. That made it a lot less… something.

He had only briefly met the man, fled. Knew him from the news, and his dad. Guy was sort of the only reason he had even come to the mansion, and— freaking saved him accidentally, from out of the sky. He didn’t know what to say.

“Uh. Hey. I’m here to help you?” He shrugged.

The Cataclysm smiled wider as the big glowing man bounded through the fire and took a swing at him with one of his own minion's turret guns. "Nice tattoos," he said, a tattoo on his own chest vanishing. He didn't even flinch as the god's gun struck him— instead, his body began glowing bright blue as all of the kinetic force of the attack was absorbed. "...but mine are better!"

He stabbed a palm out toward Hercules and all the kinetic force he'd absorbed, as well as a little extra, blasted the demigod out toward the mansion like a green comet.

The Cataclysm paused for only a moment to admire his handiwork before turning his attention to the rodent-looking mutant. "Ah, someone else wants to play. Fine, I'm in the mood for roasted rat!" He swept his flame-covered arm at Luna and Javier and a tribal tattoo along his forearm vanished as a wall of flame, six feet high, swept toward them.

The man flying over and hurling fire was... terrifying. Javier felt out of his league. He watched the man take a direct hit from Hercules - and Javi had fought alongside Hercules before, he knew what he was capable of. And yet, the mystic took a direct hit and didn't seem any worse for the wear. Javier felt his heart sink. But then Luna, brave little Luna, fired a shot at the guy, and in return, they had a wall of flame tearing towards them. "Watch out!" Javier grabbed the girl, and for lack of a better idea, he jumped. He needed to get her clear of the fire, no doubt, he had to. So he did. Jumping, and falling through a second-story window of the Mansion behind them, just in time.

"Men is the worst thing it can rain" Serena noted with a frown. And yet, it was. The girl she'd helped did a good job throwing them out of the way. Until she didn't. And in that moment Serena realized she had been wrong: burning men was the worst thing it could rain.

"Oh come on!" Serena yelled, backing away. Not fast enough. This happened at the same time Hercules took a swing at the main baddie... which drained power from Serena, making her stagger. She went down, and the burning mystic landed on her legs, making her cry out in pain. "OW, F**!" Everything hurt for a moment. Gritting her teeth, Serena reached into her pocket and burned another earring. The flames shifted color, turning green and heatless around her. At least that.

Fireballs were flying everywhere. "Arrow." Maya agreed; she did not have time to look for Becca, or check on any of the teammates. It was pure chaos. She stuck by Shin, who summoned a shield. Maya took aim, just as another mystic, crackling with electricity, scored a hit at Shin, sending him flying backwards. "Shard!" Shit. Maya had had enough. She fired an arrow at the electricity mystic, then another one for good measure. Shooting not to kill was getting more annoying by the minute. Maya hit the electric guy in the shoulder and in the leg, and then through his side for good measure. Apparently, he was electric, but not super durable, losing grip on his spells as he went down.
Maya turned as the fireball lady came back around for another volley. She fired an arrow, hitting her in the arm. The woman screeched, and Maya dove for Shin. "You okay?" It was time to move. Maya put one of the small mirrors she carried down, pulling Shin into it, so she could move them both a little way away, exiting one of the ice mirrors in some partial cover.

"Who thinks we could put the big bad in mirror jail for a bit?" she called into the comms.