savetheearth | town meeting, alien breaking hoa rules

"Shit--" She flies back down to the floor in an attempt to dodge, but it isn't quite enough on its own. When the snake is about to make impact, she turns dark, melting into a nearby shadow. Once it passes, she reforms. What the fuck? Ugh. She shakes her head. Dealing with a new power could wait. Looking towards Russel and Harper, she scowls.

"Get her out of here!" It's sharper than she intended, but under the circumstances? To hell with it. Back to the snake. Her arms spread outwards, a great shadowy mass forming and spreading out in front of her. Rachel flings it forward, aiming to wrap and immobilize the thing.

Oh forget the background music, would you? People need to concentrate here.

Along with the pain, now, words and emotions flow into her mind. She doesn't know what this is going to do but as the pain subsides she starts to sing this new, unknown song. The air comes alive with dread yet pleasant music of isolation and loneliness. Miranda's voice provides not only the melody but the backup as well, as if an invisible chorus and band were supporting her.

Meanwhile, a ball of writhing purple-black energy manifests over her head.

The snake doesn't have melty shadow powers, so it keeps falling with the weight of its own momentum, right into the wall with a dull crash. Before it can even try to regain its lost footing, Rachel's magic wraps around most of its body.

But not its feet! Tiny little feet struggle to right the rest of its body -- and in that struggle, whatever furniture, whoever is nearby, is in danger of being thwacked by its tail.

Behind the group, another voice can be heard.

"Haaaaaaaa!"

A crescent shaped blast of energy emerges, flying through everyone without harming them and slicing toward the snake. Upon hitting it, it will pass through the snake as well, but not before doing some damage to it and any hostile creatures that might be lurking behind it.

Flying alongside the crescent shot is a trail of prismatic light, directed right at the snake. Should it hit, it will be snared in place, for a time. Rushing in behind it is Luci, looking around for someone.

Looks like your ride is here, Harper.

Harper was almost certain that'd be it when the chair came careening at her "rescuer", who looked no more prepared for the hit than she did. So it's just as surprising when the chair bounces off the flats of his arms and goes clattering to the side. And that's where her minimal understanding of what was going on ends, between Cure Love, harsh orders barked at her from a woman who'd just melted, and a song echoing in her head, making fear grip her tighter than anything else ever had.

For a moment, instead of moving, she's focused on Miranda, on the impossibility of the sound she's emitting, but it's quickly dispelled by the two blasts of energy meant to help in slowing down the snake. It's then that she sees the source, or at least one of the sources.

"Luci!" Harper darts to her feet. While she's still not sure she should move out from behind this "Cure Love", she has never looked so happy to see her best friend.

Harper's voice rang through the chaos and cut into her deep. Instincts kicking in, the other blond rushed in front of her, giving her a reassuring smile and giving her hand a quick squeeze. "Sorry it took me so long. I'm so glad you're okay. We're going to get you out of here, okay?"

That warmth quickly fell away as she assessed the scene. She wasn't sure about the other girl, but Rachel at least had a fair bit of firepower, if she wasn't mistaken. "Rachel, Cure Love, can you clear us a path out? Ez, can you rush her out? I'll keep this thing off you two." Shifting between commanding to nurturing again, she looked back to Harper. "Ez is gonna get you out, I'll be right behind you. When he tells you to, grab his hand, close your eyes and just run. It's less disorienting that way."

Harper nods, teary-eyed, repeating those directions over and over in her head to give her something concrete and stable to focus on. Luci knew what she was doing, and she trusts in that. Without knowing what's going to happen next, she waits for those exact instructions...

Save one brief moment where her attention strays — was that something twinkling? Glancing over, Harper catches sight of something white and jewel-like, floating next to her. On impulse, she reaches to snatch it right out of the air.

And to her surprise, she feels it move. Little arms, and legs. Cupping the creature, she lowers her voice, even in the chaos, "You have to come with me, okay?"

Between Rachel's black magic and Luci's white snare, the movement of the snake statue is, indeed, restricted. Thin lines begin to crack where Ez's energy attack passed through it, as well as where Rachel's black shadows had initially hit it -- though perhaps some may be difficult to see if the black magic is still ensnaring it.

Just as he was about to acknowledge and implement the order from Rachel, suddenly chaos and two new heroes on the scene.

"H-hey!" he protested, as Harper ran out from behind him, but when he saw who she was running to, he understood. Finding safety in her friends wasn't something he could fault her for.

One thing Russel was very good at was rolling with hectic circumstances. It was an important skill for a football-player to have, and even more important for a hero. He immediately shifted gears with Luci's order, calling back, "I'm on it!"

Clearing a path, in this case, meant removing any obstacles between them and the stairs. People, broken furniture, snakes--well, he probably wasn't going to be removing any of the snakes that got in his way. Finding a way around them, though, that he could do.

He kicked a chunk of the broken table aside and turned back to motion for Ez and Harper to follow. He was going to do this escort style and take the front.

Ez grabs Harper by the hand.

"Sorry Princess, this is gonna be a bumpy ride!"

Harper and Ez blink out of existence and appear a ways behind, closer to safety.

"C'mon! Let' go!"

"Don't call me — ah?" Any other protesting she might have done on account of this being Luci's no-good weirdo boyfriend is quietly smashed away to a distant corner of her mind. She'd just been over there. Now she's here. Freezing, she keeps one clamped over the little jewel like a lifeline to all that was sane, and the other tightened around Ez's. Because that's the less insane option, right.

...

Wow, she is so done with this. "Fine, let's just get out of here!"

Miranda, admirably for someone so new to her power, has been continuing to sing all this time, but her capacity to wield such a powerful emotion is running thin, and she draws to a reasonable enough conclusion of the spellsong. As it stops, the black ball, now slightly larger than when it first appeared, flies straight at the snake before emitting a dark wave around it and imploding, giving off a final burst of quickly-fading waveform rings of the same dark-looking energy.

Mentally spent, she holds her position, panting, "...I don't think I can start that again so soon..."

She did warn you, didn't she Harper? Luci spoke from experience, and knew exactly what the other blond was going through. Harper at least took it a lot better than she had the first time.

With that loose end being taken care of, she directed her attention at the snake, and to making sure that their exit route was secured. Taking a hold of the prism necklace around her neck, she sent out two spells--one, spinning toward Harper and Ez, to act as a shield, surrounding them in a warm, shimmering light; and the other a prismatic orb of light between her and the snake statue. Beginning to expand and rotate around itself, Luci left it there, breaking into a run after them.

Russel continued to clear a path, shoving aside debris and forcing his way through the mayhem. He mainly kept his focus on the stairs ahead of him, but checked back over his shoulder periodically to ensure Ez and Harper were following.

So far so good, but--

DID LUCI JUST THROW A SHIELD AROUND THEM.

WHY DIDN'T HE GET A SHIELD.

LUCI THAT WAS NOT FAIR.

He ground to a halt, somewhere between impressed and indignant. Just because he was super durable and part of the rescue team didn't mean he couldn't use the protection too!

Of course that meant he'd stopped doing his job for the moment, and all three of them had the opportunity to catch up with him, shields or not.

Luci's magical snare wears off of the snake just in time for Miranda's magic to hit it. The impact is considerably loud, accompanied by the definitive sound of stone cracking. Shards of the snake statue crumble, soon accompanied by larger chunks falling away from its body.

Better be careful, folks. Any more dire hits and this statue may explode.

Rachel tries to maintain her hold on it, hoping to keep its structure together. She moves it away from the orb of light and further away from the escaping group. A shadow casts up around the orb, blocking out its glow and forming a shield to contain it.

Simply destroying this snake was not a good idea, not when they didn't know what effect that might have. She had always been a bit too cautious.

"Guys, we should really get out of here," Ez shouts, dragging Harper along at a run.

Miranda is already getting the heck out of there!

It's just going a little slowly, is all.

Harper's following, only finding herself being tugged too harshly when she's looking over her shoulder to make sure Luci's actually behind them. But then the others... she tries to train her gaze forward again. They seemed powerful, why were they holding back?

"Wh-What's going to happen, if that thing is destroyed?"

Panic quickly washed over her face as the statue began to crumble and the light orb spun faster. She hadn't realized how fragile they really were, and suddenly her attempt to secure a clear opening for her friend was endangering them all and she had no way to stop it. Starting to run back toward it with the full intention of taking the hit herself, but stopped short as a dark energy wrapped itself around it. Spinning faster still, the orb finally exploded, insulated by dark energy.

Quickly looking toward Rachel, Luci gave her both a relieved and apologetic look before running forward again. Sweeping in and grasping Harper's other hand, she looked over the girl's head to Ez. "We need go to. Now!" There was nothing she could do that wouldn't force the snake to reach critical mass, so instead, she cast out another shield--this time sure to hit everyone. That would be all they got from her, the teen closing her eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath. No more spells for a bit.

Oh, yes, actually getting out of here. Good idea, much better than standing around being offended that Luci hadn't given him a shield too.

But then he got one anyway just as he started moving again. THANK YOU LUCI, HE'S SATISFIED NOW. With that additional assurance of his well-being, he continued clearing them a path to the stairs, stopping at the bottom and motioning for them to go on ahead. He would play rear-guard while they got up to the first floor, and then follow them up once everyone was safely on their way out of the basement.

town meeting, alien breaking hoa rules

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