But this is war [I'm not really sure why]
[Apocalypse]
OOC: Overview of Apocalypse massively co-written by whattingawhat, still_brooding, thatwas_nifty, diminished9th, youmadea_bear, howbig_canitbe, sonata_adagio, i_willpout, slayer_pet, , and jnana_chaksu. More, smaller and individual pieces will follow.
They still don't have a name for it and according to Giles, it is so old it doesn't have a name. It existed before there were words or languages but it was often drawn as an solar eclipse and Buffy can see why now. It's mass, descending from the sky has blocked out the sun. Personally, she's pretty glad. It keeps the vampires in play and Willow has a shield spell ready for them just in case the sun comes back suddenly when big nasty is gone. Buffy's really counting on him getting gone. They've gathered a small army on Ellis Island and Buffy is pretty sure they're going to need it. She's the golden general, curls spilling over her shoulders and back, scythe in hand. She looks over her shoulder, tossing her hair and nods at Angel who stands to her right. He nods back at her and she looks to her left where Spike stands in full vamp face, ready to take on the armies of Hell for her if she asks. On both sides of them, an army of slayers fan out. Angel's girls, Faith, Lucy and Jill are on his side. As is Hellboy. Buffy doesn't know much about him, but he's experienced and they need that in this fight. Sassy and Cady are on Spike's side. Gabe is there in wolf form, teeth snarling and snapping, hackles raised. Behind them lies the second line. Dawn is there with her crossbow, Willow is chanting magic and Oz is standing guard over her. Brennan, the seer stands next to Willow. Buffy can't help but think that this little gathering isn't big enough. They haven't the man power and they haven't the chance but she has to make a stand because there's no one else in the world that can.
There's a low growl, louder than before and sounding more like thunder. It shakes the ground beneath them and Buffy knows there's only a little bit of time left.
"Okay, guys...here's the plan. I'm not sure we can kill this thing so it's a good thing we don't have to. We need to damage it, hurt it enough to make it retreat a little. If we can push it back then Willow can seal the rip and she's got some mojo that will put a lock on it." Buffy has her shoulders squared and her arms crossed over her chest. "We can win this because it thinks we're trying to destroy it. We've got the advantage and Octopus Dude doesn't have a clue. Remember: distract, damage and push back. Most of all, stay alive. If you're hurt, fall back, pick up one of the long range weapons and work from a distance. And most of all, remember, it may be ancient but it's never seen an army like the one we've got."
It's coming
It's coming
It's coming
It's coming
It's here, tentacles bursting through the darkened sky and wrapping around the statue of Liberty. It smells like sulfur and they're only seeing a quarter of it's body mass. The tentacles move toward warmth, toward mass and they're coming faster and faster to the front line, picking up speed with every second.
"Can we get started here? I've got a pedicure appointment at five"
"Oh, bloody hell. Pedicures? Keep an eye on Niblet and Red, wolf.
"Done."
Jill looks towards Hellboy, just a hint of worry showing through in her eyes. She isn't Buffy. She isn't even Lucy. She always worries. On their way here, she and Lucy made a distinct plan to stay close to either Hellboy or Angel. Both of them have been around long enough to know that there is strength in numbers. On the flip side, both of them haven't been trained as well as they should have been yet. She casts a weak smile to Lucy at her comment about pedicures. They had jokingly promised themselves the reward when they made it through this; not if, when. They never said 'if'. They always made post apocalyptic plans. In its own small way, it helped with their morale.
Pedicures. I'm probably going to need a manicure too.
Spike, of course charges head first into the fight. He holds a long double-edged broadsword and is ready to hack the beast to bits. It never occurs to him to wait or think twice. Battle is where he shines through... if it's the right battle. He loves the fight and he's been itching for a good brawl lately. With the first slice of blade through tentacle, he realizes the magnitude of this effort. It's going to take a lot of slice and dice.
Oz stands back next to Willow, Brennan and Dawn, his hand gently holding onto her forearm. The effort it takes to stay human is magnified tenfold in this moment. But he knows that he needs to keep control of the beast because he knows which side the beast is on. Unlike Gabe, he has minimal control of himself in wolf form. He feels Willow draw the calm she needs from him as she recites words beneath her breath that causes her eyes to glow dark and empty. Dawn is fitting her crossbow with bolts and taking aim. She doesn't wait for a signal, Spike's charge into the battle is a signal. The seer, Brennan is focused on the beast, feeling what it feels so that he can tell Willow when it will retreat and she can complete the spell.
The battle has begun.
The battle is on.
The battle is fought.
Willow has her eyes closed, empty and black as they are and she's murmuring words. She's drawing calm from Oz and she reaches over to draw emotions from Brennan. This thing isn't even closed to scared yet. Her hair is beginning to bleed dark at the roots. If she can just get this all to come to the right moment, it'll be over before it's done. Dawn is launching a steady stream of bolts at the monster, hitting a fair amount of the time but it's not slowing the monster down much.
Gabe leaps in after Cady, unwilling to be too far from her. She keeps him grounded. She keeps him from hurting the wrong things. Teeth bared and hair standing up along his back, he follows her. Cady has a short sword and she and Oz have been working on swords lately. She's careful though because she's still sore from her recent brush with tentacle guy and he scares her. Her sword bites in deep but it sticks fairly well and it takes a good pull to get it out. She remembers the next time she strikes not to go so deep.
Hellboy is close on Spike's heels, a great axe in one hand and a gun in the other. He's firing shots from the giant gun into what he assumes is the middle of the mass. He twirls the axe in his left hand letting it bite into the tentacles and climbing up the mass as if it were some great mountain instead of a writhing creature from some dimension they don't recognize. He's aware he's leaving Jill behind but he hopes if he can get to where he needs to be, the rest of this won't be a worry at all.
Angel has a broadsword and he's sticking close to Jill and Lucy. Buffy can handle herself and he knows that. He's in vamp face and working on the same slicing and dicing method that Spike is. The broadsword slices through the tentacles rather easily but he knows it's going to be a long hard road. Out of the corner of his eye he's watching the girls. Lucy is holding up pretty well until a tentacle wraps around her ankle and jerks her to the ground.
"Ow! Dammit! I didn't want bruises for Manilow," Lucy grumbles at the top of her lungs as she's getting an ab work-out trying to chop at the tentacle with the swort sword she's got in one hand. "Oh Auburn," she curses as she hits tentacle but her shin as well, blood welling along her skin. She cut through a pair of ankle boots she really likes and a pair of jeans are ruined as well. The tentacle lets go though and Lucy scrambles back. Angel grabs her arm and hauls her to her feet.
"Are you okay?" he asks her even while he's slicing at the tentacle that had hold on her.
"NO," Lucy pouts emphatically, content to let Angel take over while she examines the damage done. "These jeans are ruined and so are the boots. They were brand new boots."
"I always wear old clothes to an apocalypse," Buffy quips as she moves in. The scythe, typically makes butter of the tentacles and if that were all they had to worry about, they'd be alright but the growling is getting louder and the sky is getting darker.
It's always darkest before the dawn
Spike feels a tentacle pierce his chest just as he slices through another. He screams with the pain but pushes through, slicing another in half just before it reaches for Sassy. He puts his boot on part of the rubbery skin to brace himself and uses the leverage when it pushes him off to get higher. Gabe, in wolf form follows Cady, sharp, over-sized wolven teeth clamping down on the beast anywhere he can. He can still feel the ache in his bones from the night before but he refuses to leave Cady's side.
Hellboy is too high for Jill to follow but she stays low, craning her neck every few moments to see if he's still visible. At one point it takes her so far off of her game that a tentacle hits her in her stomach. The force throws her, catapulting her into the air so that her back hits a nearby brick wall and she falls to the ground. She's winded for only a moment before she stands back up, a little shaky and charges back in. She can feel cracked bones screaming in protest but slices through the first tentacle that comes at her, then the next and the next...
Being sliced and diced by the razor sharp tentacles, Hellboy is doing his fair share of damage on his way up. He sees Jill hit the wall and he jumps from where he's at, leaving his axe buried in the creature. His landing is ground shaking but she's already recovered and doesn't need his help as much. He's grabbing tentacles and wrapping them around his arm, heedless of the razor sharp quills that hook in his arm. He pulls and pulls, attempting to rip the tentacle off at some point.
The creature is tired of Angel hacking at it and it shows it's annoyance by wrapping a tentacle around his torso, quills dig in and he can hear ribs crack. Buffy is there as Angel gets lifted off the ground and she's hacking at the tentacle with her scythe. There's a long cut across her cheekbone that's dripping blood and one whole side of her top has been shredded. Once the tentacle wrapped around Angel is mostly hamburger, it drops the vampire. He coughs and wheezes out a thank you.
The growls are shaking the ground and it's as dark as night. The creature is beyond pissed off and if all the blood on the ground is any indication, it's gotta be hurting.
"Now." Brennan whispers, eyes glazing over with a filmy white as he senses the demons' fear. It's about to retreat and the massive creature can't hide it's thoughts from him any longer. They are one. "Now, Willow." Oz watches the seer for a moment to make sure he's okay before looking to Willow. "Draw from me. You can do this, Will."
Willow's murmuring is getting faster, louder and her hair is black almost all the way to the tips. She looks up as she feels the power flowing out of her body. It's not enough though and she knows it. She can feel a tremor and it's like the creature is laughing. She pulls hard on Oz then reaches past Brennan to grab Dawn. The brunette might look like a girl but she's still a key holding more power than most beings here. It's dimensional power and that's exactly the kind of power Willow needs. There's a scream and the rip is trying to heal itself. It's knitting over and under and around the creature. It's sucking and pulling and pushing with Willow orchestrating the whole deal.
The dawn always comes
It took days for the creature to arrive, days to gnaw from it's world to this but the battle to send it back took less than hour. When it is over the warriors are battered and bruised, wounded but victorious.
OOC: Overview of Apocalypse massively co-written by whattingawhat, still_brooding, thatwas_nifty, diminished9th, youmadea_bear, howbig_canitbe, sonata_adagio, i_willpout, slayer_pet, , and jnana_chaksu. More, smaller and individual pieces will follow.
They still don't have a name for it and according to Giles, it is so old it doesn't have a name. It existed before there were words or languages but it was often drawn as an solar eclipse and Buffy can see why now. It's mass, descending from the sky has blocked out the sun. Personally, she's pretty glad. It keeps the vampires in play and Willow has a shield spell ready for them just in case the sun comes back suddenly when big nasty is gone. Buffy's really counting on him getting gone. They've gathered a small army on Ellis Island and Buffy is pretty sure they're going to need it. She's the golden general, curls spilling over her shoulders and back, scythe in hand. She looks over her shoulder, tossing her hair and nods at Angel who stands to her right. He nods back at her and she looks to her left where Spike stands in full vamp face, ready to take on the armies of Hell for her if she asks. On both sides of them, an army of slayers fan out. Angel's girls, Faith, Lucy and Jill are on his side. As is Hellboy. Buffy doesn't know much about him, but he's experienced and they need that in this fight. Sassy and Cady are on Spike's side. Gabe is there in wolf form, teeth snarling and snapping, hackles raised. Behind them lies the second line. Dawn is there with her crossbow, Willow is chanting magic and Oz is standing guard over her. Brennan, the seer stands next to Willow. Buffy can't help but think that this little gathering isn't big enough. They haven't the man power and they haven't the chance but she has to make a stand because there's no one else in the world that can.
There's a low growl, louder than before and sounding more like thunder. It shakes the ground beneath them and Buffy knows there's only a little bit of time left.
"Okay, guys...here's the plan. I'm not sure we can kill this thing so it's a good thing we don't have to. We need to damage it, hurt it enough to make it retreat a little. If we can push it back then Willow can seal the rip and she's got some mojo that will put a lock on it." Buffy has her shoulders squared and her arms crossed over her chest. "We can win this because it thinks we're trying to destroy it. We've got the advantage and Octopus Dude doesn't have a clue. Remember: distract, damage and push back. Most of all, stay alive. If you're hurt, fall back, pick up one of the long range weapons and work from a distance. And most of all, remember, it may be ancient but it's never seen an army like the one we've got."
It's coming
It's coming
It's coming
It's coming
It's here, tentacles bursting through the darkened sky and wrapping around the statue of Liberty. It smells like sulfur and they're only seeing a quarter of it's body mass. The tentacles move toward warmth, toward mass and they're coming faster and faster to the front line, picking up speed with every second.
"Can we get started here? I've got a pedicure appointment at five"
"Oh, bloody hell. Pedicures? Keep an eye on Niblet and Red, wolf.
"Done."
Jill looks towards Hellboy, just a hint of worry showing through in her eyes. She isn't Buffy. She isn't even Lucy. She always worries. On their way here, she and Lucy made a distinct plan to stay close to either Hellboy or Angel. Both of them have been around long enough to know that there is strength in numbers. On the flip side, both of them haven't been trained as well as they should have been yet. She casts a weak smile to Lucy at her comment about pedicures. They had jokingly promised themselves the reward when they made it through this; not if, when. They never said 'if'. They always made post apocalyptic plans. In its own small way, it helped with their morale.
Pedicures. I'm probably going to need a manicure too.
Spike, of course charges head first into the fight. He holds a long double-edged broadsword and is ready to hack the beast to bits. It never occurs to him to wait or think twice. Battle is where he shines through... if it's the right battle. He loves the fight and he's been itching for a good brawl lately. With the first slice of blade through tentacle, he realizes the magnitude of this effort. It's going to take a lot of slice and dice.
Oz stands back next to Willow, Brennan and Dawn, his hand gently holding onto her forearm. The effort it takes to stay human is magnified tenfold in this moment. But he knows that he needs to keep control of the beast because he knows which side the beast is on. Unlike Gabe, he has minimal control of himself in wolf form. He feels Willow draw the calm she needs from him as she recites words beneath her breath that causes her eyes to glow dark and empty. Dawn is fitting her crossbow with bolts and taking aim. She doesn't wait for a signal, Spike's charge into the battle is a signal. The seer, Brennan is focused on the beast, feeling what it feels so that he can tell Willow when it will retreat and she can complete the spell.
The battle has begun.
The battle is on.
The battle is fought.
Willow has her eyes closed, empty and black as they are and she's murmuring words. She's drawing calm from Oz and she reaches over to draw emotions from Brennan. This thing isn't even closed to scared yet. Her hair is beginning to bleed dark at the roots. If she can just get this all to come to the right moment, it'll be over before it's done. Dawn is launching a steady stream of bolts at the monster, hitting a fair amount of the time but it's not slowing the monster down much.
Gabe leaps in after Cady, unwilling to be too far from her. She keeps him grounded. She keeps him from hurting the wrong things. Teeth bared and hair standing up along his back, he follows her. Cady has a short sword and she and Oz have been working on swords lately. She's careful though because she's still sore from her recent brush with tentacle guy and he scares her. Her sword bites in deep but it sticks fairly well and it takes a good pull to get it out. She remembers the next time she strikes not to go so deep.
Hellboy is close on Spike's heels, a great axe in one hand and a gun in the other. He's firing shots from the giant gun into what he assumes is the middle of the mass. He twirls the axe in his left hand letting it bite into the tentacles and climbing up the mass as if it were some great mountain instead of a writhing creature from some dimension they don't recognize. He's aware he's leaving Jill behind but he hopes if he can get to where he needs to be, the rest of this won't be a worry at all.
Angel has a broadsword and he's sticking close to Jill and Lucy. Buffy can handle herself and he knows that. He's in vamp face and working on the same slicing and dicing method that Spike is. The broadsword slices through the tentacles rather easily but he knows it's going to be a long hard road. Out of the corner of his eye he's watching the girls. Lucy is holding up pretty well until a tentacle wraps around her ankle and jerks her to the ground.
"Ow! Dammit! I didn't want bruises for Manilow," Lucy grumbles at the top of her lungs as she's getting an ab work-out trying to chop at the tentacle with the swort sword she's got in one hand. "Oh Auburn," she curses as she hits tentacle but her shin as well, blood welling along her skin. She cut through a pair of ankle boots she really likes and a pair of jeans are ruined as well. The tentacle lets go though and Lucy scrambles back. Angel grabs her arm and hauls her to her feet.
"Are you okay?" he asks her even while he's slicing at the tentacle that had hold on her.
"NO," Lucy pouts emphatically, content to let Angel take over while she examines the damage done. "These jeans are ruined and so are the boots. They were brand new boots."
"I always wear old clothes to an apocalypse," Buffy quips as she moves in. The scythe, typically makes butter of the tentacles and if that were all they had to worry about, they'd be alright but the growling is getting louder and the sky is getting darker.
It's always darkest before the dawn
Spike feels a tentacle pierce his chest just as he slices through another. He screams with the pain but pushes through, slicing another in half just before it reaches for Sassy. He puts his boot on part of the rubbery skin to brace himself and uses the leverage when it pushes him off to get higher. Gabe, in wolf form follows Cady, sharp, over-sized wolven teeth clamping down on the beast anywhere he can. He can still feel the ache in his bones from the night before but he refuses to leave Cady's side.
Hellboy is too high for Jill to follow but she stays low, craning her neck every few moments to see if he's still visible. At one point it takes her so far off of her game that a tentacle hits her in her stomach. The force throws her, catapulting her into the air so that her back hits a nearby brick wall and she falls to the ground. She's winded for only a moment before she stands back up, a little shaky and charges back in. She can feel cracked bones screaming in protest but slices through the first tentacle that comes at her, then the next and the next...
Being sliced and diced by the razor sharp tentacles, Hellboy is doing his fair share of damage on his way up. He sees Jill hit the wall and he jumps from where he's at, leaving his axe buried in the creature. His landing is ground shaking but she's already recovered and doesn't need his help as much. He's grabbing tentacles and wrapping them around his arm, heedless of the razor sharp quills that hook in his arm. He pulls and pulls, attempting to rip the tentacle off at some point.
The creature is tired of Angel hacking at it and it shows it's annoyance by wrapping a tentacle around his torso, quills dig in and he can hear ribs crack. Buffy is there as Angel gets lifted off the ground and she's hacking at the tentacle with her scythe. There's a long cut across her cheekbone that's dripping blood and one whole side of her top has been shredded. Once the tentacle wrapped around Angel is mostly hamburger, it drops the vampire. He coughs and wheezes out a thank you.
The growls are shaking the ground and it's as dark as night. The creature is beyond pissed off and if all the blood on the ground is any indication, it's gotta be hurting.
"Now." Brennan whispers, eyes glazing over with a filmy white as he senses the demons' fear. It's about to retreat and the massive creature can't hide it's thoughts from him any longer. They are one. "Now, Willow." Oz watches the seer for a moment to make sure he's okay before looking to Willow. "Draw from me. You can do this, Will."
Willow's murmuring is getting faster, louder and her hair is black almost all the way to the tips. She looks up as she feels the power flowing out of her body. It's not enough though and she knows it. She can feel a tremor and it's like the creature is laughing. She pulls hard on Oz then reaches past Brennan to grab Dawn. The brunette might look like a girl but she's still a key holding more power than most beings here. It's dimensional power and that's exactly the kind of power Willow needs. There's a scream and the rip is trying to heal itself. It's knitting over and under and around the creature. It's sucking and pulling and pushing with Willow orchestrating the whole deal.
The dawn always comes
It took days for the creature to arrive, days to gnaw from it's world to this but the battle to send it back took less than hour. When it is over the warriors are battered and bruised, wounded but victorious.