Not So Subtle

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn is falling down the side of the tower, letting one hand vaguely graze against the wall and occasionally catching a narrow ledge or uneven seam to slow her fall and adjust herself from side to side, aiming for a good spot to push off against the wall and into a flip that lands her perfectly on two feet. Right on top of a parked car, smashing it's roof in.

[Samantha McManus]

Following Ryn down is a Hitchcockian assemblage of ravens that do not look particularly fond of her.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn cranes her neck upwards, then slides down the front of the car, grabs edge of the hood near the broken windshield and tears the hood clean off, spinning around and hurling the sheet of metal into the flock like a giant metal frisbee.

[Will Stanton]

Will had (intentionally, mind you) overshot, to land behind Ryn and sort of pincer-movement the crazy girl. It wasn't the traditional Superhero landing; more of deforming into a pile of clay and then springing back up, reforming in midair in one fluid motion.

He jumped and did a spinning kick towards Ryn. The first leg was a feint; there to be parried or ducked. The second leg? That was also a feint, meant to be parried or ducked. But ah, few people expected the third leg; made of iron and steel and spinning in to connect with the Deva's head.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn's response to the kick(s) is neither. Her hands lash out and where her nails rake across Will's leg the clay separates, sending the leg flying while the stump passes by her. Her other hand catches the second leg the same way. And then the third one catches her off-guard. She tries to twist out of the way but only manages to catch the leg to the chest rather than the head and she's sent flying by the impact, bouncing off the windshield of another car and rolling over the roof before falling to the ground behind the vehicle.

When she comes back up her chest does not look like something a normal person should survive, caved in, one broken rib protruding through the skin enough to have pushed past her ragged and torn shirt. She grabs what remains of her shirt and tears it away with little concern for modesty. She forcefully straightens her back and pulls her shoulders back, sliding her ribs back into something resembling a normal shape and some of the fibers of her 'wings' coil around her chest, weaving into both bandage and support for her shattered rib-cage, some of them punching through her own skin and coiling around ribs directly, reinforcing them and helping her breath in by expanding her ribcage.

"Empowering mortals to do your dirty work." she spits out alongside a mouthful of blood. "You gods are all the same! Fine."

She grabs the rear bumper of the car, the metal creaking under her fingers and she heaves the whole thing into the air, sending it spinning trunk over hood at Will.

[Will Stanton]

Will landed hard on his 'stumps', legs quickly regrowing as he tried to regain solid footing to prep for Ryn's counterattack.

"Going to be one of those kind of days, huh?" he muttered, grunting as he got to his feet.

He was prepared for a bumper. Or maybe even a car door. But the entire freaking car heading his way was unexpected, and it was all he could do to get his hands up in front of his face before he was splattered to the ground.

[Samantha McManus]

While a car hood tossed at them would likely ruin most people's day, the flock is mostly just buffeted about by the disturbed air, fazed for a moment but still descending with a purpose. They fan out, surrounding Ryn. Perhaps it's just the pain, but the fury is finding it harder to figure out just what angle the attack is going to come from. It's not at all the same as when they sparred, and it seems the Morrigan has no desire to telegraph her punches this go around. She's acutely aware of where Ryn turns her attention, and several approaches that seem credible at first turn out to be feints.

All up until the right cross that seems to come out of nowhere, aimed at the fury's jaw. It seems to carry not just a physical but a psychic weight.

This Morrigan is learning.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn is fast, but hundreds of beady eyes are faster and the punch slams into her like, well, the fist of an angry god. It knocks her off her feet and throws her a good ten yards through the air and into the side of a moving truck with enough force to crumple it inwards and briefly rocking the truck to one side.

The driver makes the mistake of glancing at the mirror to figure out what just happened and is greeted with the sight of an angry deva clawing her way out of the vertical crater and crawling up towards the roof of the trailer. A sensible response would be to bring the truck to a stop, but a glimpse of Ryn's eyes is enough to shatter any logical thinking and the man floors it.

[Will Stanton]

The crunching sound of a car being shoved out of the way was followed by the roar of frustration, transitioning into a second engine note as a malachite green car peeled out of the parking lot, gaining some air on two wheels before slamming back down and flooring it itself to give chase to the truck, swerving through traffic rather noticeably as it gained ground.

There was a small rollbar-slash-handlebar on the roof, in case a rampaging goddess needed a place to perch, though ravens did often prefer the more direct route.

[Samantha McManus]

The flock swoops up and resolves into Sam clinging to the rollbar. She reaches over the side to stick her hand inside, and Will would get a distinct impression that she needs a spear.

[Will Stanton]

...Which was promptly provided, sliding out of the back seat as if it had always been there...

[Samantha McManus]

Hefting the spear overhand, Sam sends it hurtling at the emerging fury, trying to pin Ryn in place.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn kicks off the side of the speeding truck and flips, tilting her head as she's hanging upside down in mid-air, the spear narrowly grazing her cheek before it embeds in the side of the truck and Ryn finishes her jump onto a nearby car. This one doesn't have any convenient hand-holds but somehow she manages to stay on her feet, leaping for a car speeding past the suddenly swerving truck and off her temporary ride as it breaks and threatens to create an imminent blockage.

[Will Stanton]

Will cut a HARD left, weaving through the breaking and swerving traffic, headed for the lane -- and edge of the highway -- that Ryn seemed to be roughly headed for. He briefly went up on two wheels to squeeze through a tight gap, wobbling a little unsteadily, before slamming back on the asphalt and roaring back into the chase.

[Samantha McManus]

For most people, hanging onto the roof of a car during a car chase, even with a handle, was a suicidal idea.

The Morrigan is not most people.

Given that she can sense Will's intent just before each risky move, she's managing to stay clinging on as they try to close the distance.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

The Deva continues to leap from car to car, trying to get ahead of the sentient vehicle carrying a goddess of war. LA's roads are uncharacteristically fast today, despite the density of cars. Everyone seems to be in kind of a borderline reckless hurry, though perhaps the two raging supernatural beings might have something to do with the general sense of agitation. Eventually the car Ryn is on peels off onto an off-ramp at the last second, leaving her with a swiftly widening gulf to bridge to one remaining on the highway.

Instead she opts to lean into the sudden swerve and as the car swings around a curve that's a bit too tight for it's speed, she pushes off and lets the centrifugal force whip her out into the air and away from the elevated road, aiming for the sprawling roof of the nearby mall. Despite the almost certainly terminal velocity, she lands in a roll that inexplicably eats up her momentum enough to let her come up into a sprint. Right for the windowed dome, crashing through it and into the food court below.

[Will Stanton]

The radio in the car crackled to life, as Will turned sharply towards the elevated wall of the overpass.

♪♫One jump, ahead of the carhorns.
One hop ahead of the flock
One trick that's sure to bring disaster
She's quick, but I'm much faster.

Tuck your wings and hands in, wish me happy landin'
All we've got to is...jump!♪♫

And with that, Will revved his engine and launched, wheels bounding and creating upwards force in defiance of the laws of physics, as the car followed Ryn's path up and down towards the dome proper...

[Katarina Kane]

Do prdele! Katarina swore, as she saw the green Audi flying overhead. She swung the Panda around, tires squealing as she crossed lanes of traffic, and headed towards the sprawling parking lot of the mall.

[Samantha McManus]

A little voice in the back of her head is grateful that Miriam probably isn't seeing this, as she hangs on tight for a rough landing.

[Narrator]

Sherman Oaks Galleria on a day like any other. That is until a dozen 'government' agents in suits pour into the food court. There's orderly and clean evacuations for imminent PATHS business and then there's the protocol when speed is more important than control. Within a minute of the agents arriving and calmly informing people that there is a bomb people are falling over themselves to clear out the area in a panic. And not a moment too soon. The last stragglers are still running out of the area under the large skylight when Ryn slams through the window in a shower of glass, arms crossed in front of her face. She lands right on top of a table, the impact snapping it off it's leg and making her grind it to a stop after a couple of meters.

Leo, Tosh, Miriam and the agents who have taken up positions around the area have barely any time to react when a literal chariot of the gods obliterates what was left of the skylight. Sure, the chariot is a clunky old Audi and the god a twenty year-old college student, but nevertheless they descend in a halo of light caught in shattered glass, sailing over Ryn's head by less than an inch.

[Will Stanton]

Just before the very-modern-and-up-to-date-thank-you Audi smashed into the ground, it twisted and curled up in on itself, briefly enveloping Sam in a bright green ball of clay that deformed and sprung back as it impacted the ground. Will absorbed the impact, the ball opening up and depositing Sam upright and ready to go across the food court from Ryn, while Will himself slid and slammed into the frontage of an Orange Julius.

"...Let's go on that one again..." he grunted, getting to his feet.

[Leo N. Eskandari]

The dramatic entrance of a freaking car crashing through the dome caused Leo to smirk. He was starting to really like these people.

Music began to pour from the PA system as he stepped out from behind an escalator, coat off and ready to fight. "I gotta say, I can't fault the others for betting on me to go rogue. I don't really know myself well enough yet to say that it won't happen. But I never figured you would, not as long as Katarina is part of the Society. So, why? Do you really just want a fight that badly?"

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn lifts her head at an angle with enough force to flip her hair out of her face and grins at the music kicking in.

"Tried to make her understand the truth in a language she knows. Didn't work." she says, pulling the shimmering sphere from her pocket. "There's one thing I'm good at. You want to stop me? Try."

With the song fully kicking in Ryn moves without holding back. Agents on the second story balustrade open fire and she zig-zags between bullets faster than mortal eyes can follow. In the blink of an eye she's crossed the twenty yards to Leo, leaps for a wall and kicks off with enough force to cave in the wall, tackling into Leo and slamming the both of them through the side of a cinnabon store and out the storefront.

[Samantha McManus]

"That's what this is about? All of this because you're bloody sulking?"

[Leo N. Eskandari]

While flying through the Cinnabon, Leo delivered a punch to her head strong enough to crush a human's skull. Upon landing and skidding across the floor, he kicked her off of him launched himself to his feet with a grin on his face. This was not the outcome he had hoped for but, God-damn it was exhilarating to not have to hold back.

He charged her at high speed and delivered a powerful punch to her midsection, though in his suppressed state it was unlikely he would be able to harm or even keep up with her. But he could keep her busy.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Deva or not, Ryn does have to breathe and the blow drives the air from her lungs and sends her flying, crashing down in the food court.

"I'm doing..." she says between clenched teeth before spitting out a mouthful of blood. "What I'm meant to. The Gods never liked it. Come then and I will remind you why they call me the Implacable One."

She dashes and tosses aside the tables and chairs in her way, some of them with enough force to throw them at the agents still trying to get a bead on her. When she's mere feet from Sam she leaps and the strands of her wings flare behind her like a nest of snakes, aiming to skewer the psychic birds around Sam while two corded bundles threaten to pierce her shoulders.

[Samantha McManus]

Sam winces as parts of the flock are skewered, but she's still more than focused enough on Ryn as she reaches out and catches the two tendrils, even as they draw blood.

"Was it because you ran into the one thing that was even a little bit hard for you, and you promptly gave up?"

Then, Ryn gets an odd sensation. The birds she skewered didn't die. They're being reinforced somehow, and they're all flying away from her, pulling those strands taut.

"I don't think you're trying to convince any of us you're unstoppable."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

For a moment, Ryn hangs there, suspended in mid-air and trying to pull herself closer to Sam as the flock pulls her the other direction. She spits a glob of mostly blood at Sam and her eyes are shining with hatred. Sam doesn't know how but in that moment she knows that Ryn's eyes as much brand as they are reflective of the cold flame of retribution. A curse placed by many divine hands to cast her out and not far at all from the motivations Sam deduced. Not that the raging Deva snapping her razor teeth at her is likely to realize that link of rejection and hurt

[Will Stanton]

Meanwhile, the gunfire was getting...quite heavy. And rather indiscriminate as well. The Agents weren't trying to hit Leo, of course -- he was on their side. But the out-of-control Ryn, as well as the interdimensional interlopers, were all prime Agency targets; shut down the things that pierced the Veil and ask questions later.

Will wanted to get in on keeping Ryn down -- having tangled with her once before, he was a little unsure even the combined powers of Sam and Whatshisface could keep her down for long. But no one was keeping anyone down for long if they got shot. And so, he ducked out from his cover alongside the Orange Julius and darted across the court. He stretched his arms out, grabbing on to the second-floor railing, and slingshotted himself up, swatting small-caliber bullet fire out of the air as he launched himself towards the goons with the guns. In one fluid motion, he rolled from agent to agent, limbs sprouting to deliver disarming blows at unpredictable angles as he went. He tossed a couple into a KayBee Toys window, stacked boxes of Ninja Turtles figures scattering to the floor -- just in time for Will to keep moving on, drawing fire from the figures down below.

[Leo N. Eskandari]

Leo dropped into a knee slide as a table sailed overhead. As he hopped back to his feet, he saw that Sam had Ryn temporarily pinned in mid-air. He wasn't sure just how she was doing that but it gave him the opportunity to get a free shot at the Deva. When he caught up, he grabbed Ryn from behind and nodded to Sam. His muscles bulged and he delivered a powerful suplex, driving the divine avenger with enough force to cave in the tile floor. OH YEAH!!

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Ryn is torn free from Sam's hold on her as well as her own tether to the goddess' shoulders and is cratered into the ground, head-first. The tiled floor shatters along with Ryn's spine and she collapses to the broken floor. At least for a moment. Then the filigree fibers growing from her shoulder blades rise and lash themselves around Leo's arms, tightening until blood begins to well. Holding him off for a moment a small handful of fibers find Ryn's own neck and plunge into it, eliciting an ear-piercing scream from the Deva as they thread through her spinal cord, re-fusing nerves and pulling her vertebraes back into alignment with a wet crunch.

Rising from the foot-deep crater she grabs the much bigger Leo by the front of his shirt and hurls him up to the second floor, right into Will dodging through the gunfire. Blood is running down her face from somewhere on her scalp. For a moment there's a (relative) lull until a single gunshot rings out from the revolver held in both of Miriam's shaking hands. Ryn's hand moves in a blur that swats the bullet out of the air and sends it ricocheting away before dashing right for the black-haired telepath.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Which is when the muscular shark man that the PATHS agents were somehow not shooting at came at Ryn with a shoulder-check. "Skadoosh!"

Meanwhile, Leo disentangled himself from Will and looked over the railing at the action with momentary disbelief. Was that what that Tosh kid was? A freaking wereshark?

"Holy shit, kid..." the agent laughed. Without further delay, he launched himself over the railing and landed in a superhero crouch.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

While Tosh Bruce's tackle does take Ryn's attention away from the very fragile Miriam, she takes it with the stoic solidity of a brick wall somehow, her feet barely skidding an inch, both arms braced against Tosh's upper arm. Her fingers dig into his arm like steel cables and she drags him off his feet and swings the giant were-shark around in a 180 degree arc, through a (thankfully fake) column and into a solid wall.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Oh shit..." uttered the wide-eyed shark man as the small figure didn't even budge from his attack. He barely had time to wonder just how much stronger than him Leo #2 was before he was sent flying. The impact with the wall forced the air from his lungs and he fell to the floor in a daze, leaving the monstrous mutant vulnerable.

[Erynies Adrasteia]

Despite Ryn's apparent murderous rage, she does not follow up on her attack on Tosh, nor Miriam for that matter, who has dropped her gun in favor of taking cover inside a clothing store.

"You call yourself guardians and ignore the deepest rot!" she barks out at the room at large. "Face me and perish, but my only quarrel is with them!" she points at Sam. Well, at least she's acknowledging that Sam's grievance is real although her approach to conflict resolution still seems to be mortal combat. Understandable, perhaps, that the Gods of Old sought to rid themselves of her, although many of them were fickle, wrathful cowards in some shape or form. Either way it seems by antagonizing Ryn Sam has inherited an ancient grudge.

[Samantha McManus]

"She's going to see this, you know," she says, circling around Ryn.

"Or is that the point? You want her to make it easy for you and really reject you."

[Leo N. Eskandari]

Leo had a strange feeling of distrust towards Sam that he couldn't explain. Or, rather, of anything related to the old gods. He knew it must be from the thing sharing his mind, body, and maybe even his soul. But he had gotten no sense of ill intent and doubted Ryn did either. As Sam pointed out, this fight was all about Ryn's confused emotions.

He veered off to check on the shark kid. Kneeling down, he helped the mutant to his feet as if he didn't weigh half a ton. "I see that you're tough, but you should probably hang back if that's how easy she swatted you away."

Bruce groaned. "Yeah... I've... never had that happen before."

[Erynies Adrasteia]

"I am what I am. You dress up your blood and death in human-things to make yourself more tolerable to them. You and yours made sure there'd never be any doubt about me! And now you come to me to tell me to stop being the monster that eats monsters? To be nicer about it? To be considerate of these... these spineless flies who circle the rot rather than rip it free? Who run from the truth because it scares them? Then let them be scared!" she shouts and her wings billow into a cloud of darkness that writhes around her like a nest of snakes, lifting her into the air.

A couple of agents who didn't get bowled over by Leo and Will pop off shots but Ryn lifts her hand and the hot lead flattens against her palm before dropping to the floor. Her eyes are flaring bright blue until she's all but twin lights floating in the shadows condensing around her. "Come then, Morrigu and see the oblivion that has ended gods. And perish!" The wave of primal fear that rolls off of her is sending most of the mortals to run or cower in terror. She throws herself at Sam and Leo, shadowy fibers lashing and stabbing like steel garrotes around tooth and claw that rend flesh and spirit alike.

[Leo N. Eskandari]

Leo shoved Bruce out of the way and dove to avoid the fibers. He was going to be a sitting duck--no, a liability--unless he gave all of his strength to this fight. But he was afraid that the serum wouldn't work a second time... and that he might become the next threat if he lost control. Sam was a goddess, right? She could handle Ryn, right? He didn't need to do anything.

But he knew it wasn't in his nature to cower in a corner. As tempting as it was to look out for number one, he had to fight. It was a fight between gods yet that somehow made it harder to stay out of. What was he that made him need to punch a god?

He arose with a growl of determination willing himself to access the power he had suppressed. Claws grew from his fingertips and his hair lengthened as he charged the rampaging goddess of vengeance. He gained speed as his muscles strengthened and he dashed close with a punch to her chest.

[Will Stanton]

The eyes. The EYES. The eyes had it. That must be what she's doing; that must be the source of this ice in his stomach and the sweat on his back. He'd been in worse situations than this without the crippling fear, so it must be artificially imposed.

Will thought all this while smashing two Agents' heads together, knocking them goofy. He then took three steps back, and then launched himself off the second floor railing, coming in for Ryn's head. He wrapped himself around and around her eyes like a bandage., trying to block them from sight and prevent whatever this was from affecting people.