Coming Together

[sand_hawkins]

After a while at the Kenton house, three gentlemen walk through the door.  All business.

"Gang's all here." Sand says, first in the door.  Following behind are Trevor...and Caleb.

Comments

[damage_girl]

"Sand!" News. More importantly, it means everyone's safe. Someone would have called ahead if there had been trouble, right?

Corrine fumbles out into the hallway. It takes her brain a second to catch up with the rest of her. Sand's safe, but Trevor and Caleb-- wait. Rewind.

Caleb.

When the HELL did he get in on this?

The side of her face twitches. "Well, th-- --rty just kee--s getting --ger and --igger."

[caleb_z]

Caleb fights the instinct to stare, instead briefly lowering his head as he collects his thoughts. Trevor had warned him about what was happening to Corrine - the blinking seemingly in and out of existence - but he wasn’t prepared for the sight. Still, he maintains his composure.

There’s more, though. She doesn’t feel like the tidal wave of power she normally does. It feels distant, unfocused. It’s almost as though she were a dying Duracell….

“Corrine? How are you feeling?” he asks. He’s been told that some of the JSA’s best were already working on the case. Good.

[kingofbrain]

Brainwave comes down the stairs from where Corrine kept her personal PC, along with a stack of papers. He looks towards Caleb. "One more for the good guys, Sand?"

[sand_hawkins]

Sand nods. "Hank, this is Dr. Caleb Zukov, he's been acting as a sometime mystical consultant for the JSA. DEFINITELY someone I'm glad's on our side." Sand turns to Caleb and smiles a very genuine smile. Despite some of the past drama involving most of this room, Sand knows Caleb will help greatly in things. "Caleb, this is Henry King, aka Brainwave. He's a friend of the JSA and a psionic."

[green_shield]

Tara is in the back of the room looking like a one woman science fair. Alchemical text have some pretty exactly and decidedly old school instuctions. She not sure what she can fudge on and what she can't, so she set everything up exactly as textbooks stated. She too distracted to even note her mental dating scorecard that Sand is next to Caleb and smiling

"Hey Sand. Got the potion brewing. Next thing I do in this is make us some Zestis," she jokes weakly.

[sand_hawkins]

"How soon until we get a finished product?

[green_shield]

"At this point, T-mius 42 minutes and counting."

[sand_hawkins]

"Excellent. Hank, what'd you find out?"

[kingofbrain]

Hank King waited patiently for the other debriefing's to finish. The whole idea is to get Corrine healed, and he wasn't sure if whatever he found was going to help in that regard.

Before he begins to speak, however, a book from the bookshelf behind him flies off and smacks him in the head.

[damage_girl]

"Kno-- it of--!"

Corrine's used to the house being unwelcome to visitors-- hell, it's usually unpleasant to her-- but this is SO not the time. It hasn't been this bothersome in over a year. Maybe it's the number of visitors and not just their presence. "Cou-- be me. If it --orry about that. This pl-- --s always be-- like Evi-- Dea-- Two."

[kingofbrain]

"S'ok. Although I've only seen 'Army of Darkness', myself."

"OK. Sandy, it's interesting you brought up Eve Eden because she's all over what I found. I did the search for "Land of the Nightshades" and the closest hit was "Nightshade Dimension". That led me to Eve Eden - apparently she and her brother were there as children, she got out, he didn't.

"Then I found something in the case files of the Suicide Squad of all places. Apparently they went there to rescue Eve's brother, except he was possesed by this demon called the Incubus, and it was his intention to put his companion, the Succubus - bingo, second term found - in Eve. Unfortunately, the beast was already interred into a teammate named June Moone. He ripped the Succubus out of Moone and put her into Eden, and then apparently all hell broke loose.

"Then I did a search on June Moone and the Squad, and I got hits on this woman named the Enchantress, and damn, was that entry red flagged..."

[sand_hawkins]

Throughout this entire affair, although Sand has shown a variety of emotions, his general demanor had an air of confidence and relaxation. As if he was thorougly convinced that this was something that would be solved and dealt with.

After all, that's what heroes do.

This is the first time that the assembled in the room that Sand's demeanor changed from calm...to a very subtle form of horror.

He flips on his communicator. "Oracle, this is Sand of the JSA with a priority alpha alert, outgoing over JLA, JSA and Titans channels, acknowledge."

[green_shield]

Tara's reply to the news about the coms is not printable due to comics code. Needless to say, if there were any doubts the medical student grew up blue collar in New Jersey they've been excommunicated. She already has her bow and the midnight bombs on her belt while the others do the assessing. Bricks have to go to the front. She hands him a erlenmeyer flask filled with something that smells like baking soda laced with cheep gin.

"Boss 41 minutes and the Chimp called earlier and said there was this plant he was using the Watchtower scanners to find. Whatever the fuck happens this cannot get screwed with, got me?"

Yeah, this is bad enough to make her lose her cool just a touch. The swearing is venting that stress.

[sand_hawkins]

"Actually, if he's eventually coming back here, and he tries to call, that might be a saving grace." Sand said, and he looked at everyone

[hotshot1280]

"Put a tail on it and call it a weasel?" Trevor asks incredulously, for a single moment questioning the fact that he took on mages with this guy in the lead. At last he shakes his head, giving up on any thoughts of Sand entering the 21st Century. "Never mind. Whatever the plan is, let's do it."

[damage_girl]

If she was solid, she'd hit Trevor with something. She knows well enough from the general concept she's been given that they're not getting most of her sentences, and it's a waste of time to even yell at him.

"--y magi--s unre--ble ri--t now. --'m aced."

[sand_hawkins]

Before Sand can acknowlege, he notices outside that the skies had darkened considerably in the last 15 minutes or so. Given the time of year, and the fact that's it not even 6 PM...

"We're out of time. Caleb, get Brainwave cloaked, then get Corrine and the antidote upstairs. Hotshot, Green Shield, out the back door and circle to your positions. Hank, as soon as you're mojo'ed up, take your spot inside the house." A pause. "I'm going to greet our visitors."

He then walks over to Corrine and attempts to kiss...but she blinks. He finds her lips when she blinks back in, and hold's there until he feels he's expressed his feeling sufficiently. "Be safe."

As everyone finishes gearing up, Sand says as he's walking towards the door. "Keep your heads. Remember, we're superheroes. What could happen?"

[hotshot1280]

Trevor yanks his hood into place and heads for the back door. His pack is already on his back, and he pulls the zippers on the sides to allow access to his grenades as he goes, and pulls on a pair of open-fingered gloves. The strike-pads across the knuckles and palms are stainless steel, and can be heated to glowing without burning away the gloves.

"We're going to get in a fight with a team that kicked the crap out of the JLA. This oughtta be interesting" Trevor mutters as he circles the side of the house.

[damage_girl]

Corrine grabs the edge of Sand's shirt just to keep him a second longer. The blinking prevents her from a real grip, but it's enough.

She starts up the stairs, pausing at the top for Caleb. With closed eyes, she says a little prayer as she waits.

[caleb_z]

Caleb would argue under normal circumstances that averting his eyes is merely respectful. The disappointment that it's not him anymore is clearly written across his face. The fact that perhaps it never was, from the things Corrine said in January, doesn't make this moment any easier