Welcome to Gaia! ::

There was another terrifyingly loud explosion from upstairs. Edel frowned and glanced up at the ceiling. That was still coming from the floor the Fates were on. The explosions had to be coming from Abolisher. None of the fates had the ability to cause such a ruckus. "Thank you. We can start with the one attacking my guests." she replied. "I believe the Spectre can handle the other pest."

With that, Edel turned and quickly led the Sorcerer up the stairs. With the urgency of the situation, the house should simply take them to the desired floor within one flight of stairs.


=================================================



The room was next to non-existant now. The walls had been reinforced with magic to keep the rather important guests safe even before the Black Lanterns invaded the home. When Thorn had grabbed the Fate of Death, and sent one of his special explosions at the remaining sisters, the only thing that seemed to be harmed in the room was the furniture.

That got the Abolisher's attention. Mostly because anything he aimed to destroy, should be destroyed within the first try. He simply had to destroy the room. It had taken a few more of his stronger blasts, but he had managed to bring the room down to the remains of an inferno.

Only the frame of the room's structure remained. Black, charred, and crumbling apart to the touch. What planks of wall hadn't been eaten lay broken and blackened in random areas. Wallpaper melted into the wood. The floor was covered in mounds of ash and derbies, with a few flecks of smokey silver peeking through from some of the decorations that didn't melt.

Latchesis's threads were still spun about the room like a web, unharmed, and still glittering brightly with life. It would take Atropos's sheers to actually do the threads any harm. Abolisher had considered trying to make his captured Fate cut down all of the threads so that the room was complete. But...that's not what he was here for.

Besides....his new master wanted both her, and the child she carries to be unharmed. If he cut the thread that belonged to the child....well....best just to leave everything be.

The two fates lay in piles of ash, stunned from the blast but still alive. Atropos was struggling in Thorn's grip, and growling out something in a language he had never heard before. It was safe to assume that she was cursing him...in both forms of the word.

He grinned, making sure that her sheers were safely in a spot she couldn't reach for the time being, and turned to make his exit. His job was to get the woman and get back. He'd lacked off long enough making the room more eye pleasing, he didn't want the Spectre to come after him.
Again.

Edel glanced back as she started up the steps. "Just follow me." she replied, moving quickly.


Abolisher was just about to teleport himself and his captive away when something caught his ear. He stopped and glanced around the hallway carefully, trying to find where it had come from. He'd only caught a hint of noise, but it sounded like.....

Then he seen the witch of the house come around the corner of the far hall. He grinned a bit and aimed his free hand down the hall towards her, sending one of his signature blasts her way

Thorn scoffed. "That creature a lady? Please. I can think of quite a few different titles for her." he replied, then glanced up at the ceiling. "And that is you, isn't it? Do you ever get tired of just being the spectator?"

Edel looked at Strange, then her eyes flickered past him and to Abolisher again. They needed to get him to let go of Atropos. The way he had her, she was unable to break free, or reach any form of a weapon. Not that it would do any good on this creature. They couldn't attack him because it would not only harm his captive, but he likely just wouldn't feel it.
Then her eyes moved to her newest guest, and she frowned. She wasn't sure how to go about her either. She could decide to help either side, or she could just float there and watch.

"If you're only comfortable with the sidelines, then that's all I'll ask. I just need some back up with this." she replied to him.




Thorn grinned a bit. "Are you kidding? My skin's falling off, there's a hole in my chest...I feel like one of my pieces of art." he said, looking up at Zira. Then he grinned. "Say...while you're here...you wouldn't happen to know where Terragon and Cantata are? Would you?"

A whirl of clothes occurred, and a beautiful woman in a silvery dress appeared bside Edel and Strange.

"Did someone say 'backup'?" asked Sandra Roberts, Deputy Director of SHIELD. She glanced to Edel, Strange, and then to their opposition... and she allowed glowing white light to enter her hands. It was not the White Light of Creation, but instead magical energy.

Strange blinked at the woman in white, then re-focused on Thorn. Almost showtime.

--
The smile on Zira's face froze at the mention of her two former friends. It didn't go away; it just froze. And then it widened. At the same time, her dark, delicate eyebrows started slowly descending. It wasn't a nice grin. It was the sort of grin that made you think of Hanibal Lecter, and of dark, bloody places in forgotten basements. "Oh, sweetie... Why wait?" Her voice was still cheerful, girlish, unchanged.

And then her hand turned into a whirring, spinning buzzsaw of gray smoke, but the way that the light glinted off of it made it very obvious that the thing was quite real. The next moment, spikes and scalpels and dark, light-absorbing swords started shooting out of her skin, her clothes, the fingers of her unchanged hand; her hair suddenly looked more like long, flexible, sharp strips of metal and less like smoke, as did her dress... and then she abruptly started spinning toward him, looking for all the world like a silvery Tasmanian devil. After all, he would hardly be much of a Black thingamabob if he was in little cubes, would he?

Strange blinked. "Um... Was that the desired result?"

---

Zira's eyes-- or, at least, two glowing orange and green and purple slits in the center of the whirling tornado of sharp points and dangerous edges--narrowed, and a low, hissing voice emanated from it. "THE F**K WE WILL." It swirled in on itself, then vanished in a puff of smoke.

{Exit Lady Chaos to Land of the Unliving}

Strange frowned. "Er... Hold on just a moment. I'm going to try a new spell. And..." He paused. "Get ready to blast."

Drawing in a deep breath, he let out a thundering shout. "REVERSUM TELEPORTARES!"

{Enter Black Cat from Sanctum Santorum}

Felicia Hardy, still dripping from the shower and dressed in absolutely nothing but a too-small, grey-green towel, let out a little shriek. "What the--STRANGE!"

"I'm sorry!" Steven said at once. And he was... Mostly. He turned to Edel. "I... My apologies. That was a bit of a long shot."