Hellfire Gala: Payback is a....

[Ayame Harada]

OOC:

*this thread takes place in the lower levels of the Hellfire Club. I believe they are called The Catacombs...*

IC:

The lower levels of the Hellfire Club were left more or less unattended while the grand gala was going on up above. Three women moved through the corridors, a witch's light stone the only thing giving any hint that anyone was there. They were silent as they walked, stepping over a few mice and broken bottles along the way. 

"I thought you told us your brother was involved in the renovations here," Ayame Harada hissed as she kicked a rat with her left foot, sending the rodent squealing into the darkness. "It looks like any common passage, used to take those in trouble out of danger."

"He was not involved in it, but he has studied this place for years," Elizabeth Priest Garret replied as she grasped her witch's stone tightly. "And it is indeed a nexus point for mystic energies. It explains why Selene Gallio felt so at ease here."

"Indeed," Harada replied as their third compatriot, Patience Rydenborne, walked in stony silence. "All we need is for Patience to start wailing again about her daughter. We do not need to be..."

"Be quiet!" Elizabeth snapped. "We all lost children. We know her pain. Do not judge her. Do not judge me."

[Elizabeth Priest Garrett]

"And if you judge me, I'll send you back to your father in the pits of Hell," Elizabeth growled as the three women made their way under the mansion. The ceiling above them seemed to throb as the preparations for the youth ball ended and the band hired for the evening kicked into their first number. "This is an alliance of convenience. I don't have to like either of you, and you certainly don't need to like me."

"If you keep talking, Patience will start crying again!" Ayame snapped as Elizabeth spun on her heel and glared at the demon in human form. "What? It's true. She is a simpering little..."

Ayame suddenly stopped talking, flailing at her neck as if to pull a set of hands away from her throat. Elizabeth looked behind the petite Japanese tengu to see Patience Rydenborne's eyes flaring with violet light. The little crazy was suddenly developing a backbone.

"Patience, please, do not kill Ayame," Elizabeth cooed as the taller, dark haired woman's eyes returned to normal, and the tengu gasped for air. "We can find any number of people to kill later. It is Manhattan after all."

 

[Patience Rydenborne]

Patience Rydenborne's life, up to this moment anyway, had been a disaster. No. A nightmare wrapped in a gossamer sleeve woven of despair and longing and pain. She had been happy in her youth, and she was much older than her two compatriots likely realized. She hadn't been at peace for centuries, and the death of her daughter Isabella had only made it worse for the latest wife of Jackson Rydenborne.

She had been in a sanitarium for troubled mystics when Elizabeth Priest Garrett visited her. It was shortly after Bella had died, and Garrett was trying to help heal her own wounds at the loss of her son and Bella's boyfriend, Edward.

What no one realized at the time was that their meeting would lead to this moment. Ayame Harada had been contacted by the Jackson Rydenborne and told about the death of her son Takeshi. That led the tengu to seek out these two other fractured women, and then a plan was hatched to right the wrongs, or supposed wrongs, done to them by the X-Men.

And that was why they were roaming in the dank underbelly of the Hellfire Club on this very night. These mothers, united in their grief, were going to get their children back one way or another.

As they moved to the nexus point of the ley lines under the mansion, Patience watched her companions closely. She didn't trust Ayame as far as she could throw her, and Elizabeth always had an ulterior motive. Patience needed to be careful. Getting Bella back was all that mattered. And if she had to sacrifice herself to do it, she would.

[Ayame Harada]

"I am tired of waiting," Ayame huffed as the three women finally made it into one of the chamber directly below the main ballroom. "This had better work, Elizabeth, or you will pay the price for deceiving me."

"I need to concentrate,"  Elizabeth snapped back as the room started to glow as long taper candles lit up the dark corners of the catacombs. "If anyone tries to enter this room, keep them out."

"You mean kill them?" Ayame asked as long talons formed on her hands. 

"I don't care what you do, as long as you don't harm my brother, my son or his girlfriend," Elizabeth said as she turned away from the tengu and channeled her energies into a pentacle cut into the floor. Suddenly rivers of golden light started to stream down the walls and into the pentacle. "My trick worked. They won't suspect a thing."

"Pray that they don't," Ayame muttered as she stood across from Elizabeth and watched the door they had just used to enter the room. More rats started to run from the corners of the room and out the doorway. Even they did not want to be part of this ritual.

[Elizabeth Priest Garrett]

Elizabeth kept her eyes closed but smiled inside as she felt the rivers of golden energy flood the pentacle under her feet. The plan was working, and soon they would have their children back. 

At least that's what she thought.

Suddenly the golden light turned a fiery red as it shot up to the ceiling and then engulfed the entire room.

"What in the name of heaven are you doing?" Patience yelled as she grabbed Elizabeth by the arm and yanked her out of the pentacle.  "What is that...that thing?" she stammered as she pointed to a rift in the wall. Two large demons walked out and stood on either side of the rift and held it open like the doors at a nightclub. A grizzled old woman with a casting staff walked out of the rift and smiled at the trio.

"Who are you?" Elizabeth asked as the woman pulled back her hood. 

"No one you know, child," the old woman replied as she flicked her fingers and sent the trio flying into the wall. "Thank you for opening the doorway back for us."

"What about our children?" Ayame yelled as she scrambled to her feet and tried to leap at the crone, only to be held in mid-air and unable to move.

"Child, you didn't think your demon boy would have gone to Annwyn? Did you? Please. You have all been duped. By me. Who do you think dropped that idea in your fertile little minds? And now I can get what I came for. MacFeorais blood."  

[Morgan Le Fay]

As the crone stood in the middle of the pentacle, her body started to shift and change as the demons kept the trio of witches away from her. "Now, that feels much better," she said as the rivers of red energy started to wash over her.  "Doom thinks he can keep me locked away in some temporal prison while he makes his way with the Scarlet Witch? He is a bigger fool than anyone thinks he is!"

"Who are you!" Anyame shouted as the woman in the pentacle clucked her tongue at the trio. 

"I thought you all would have figured that out already. Your modern education systems must be severely lacking. My name, you pathetic lot of witches, is Morgan Le Fay. And I am here to take back what is rightfully mine and dole out retribution as I see fit. This energy you were going to use to resurrect your children is exactly what I need to solidify my presence in this era so those like Victor Von Doom can never imprison me again!"

  

[Jack Sparrow]

Jack and Mira had made a break from the gala and started to make their way down into the catacombs of the Hellfire Mansion.  The pirate had his cutlass drawn as he led the way down the narrow passages underneath the grand ballroom where the gala was being held. 

"I once heard Logan's lament on why the X-Men can't attract more normal foes. Something about ants and picnics. One day he will have lived as long as we have, and he'll really understand what it's like to have the gamut of craziness thrown at you. I wonder why the hell Le Fay came here?"

[Niamh MacFeorais Stark]

As the pirate and the sorceress stood in the hallway, a girl started to move slowly out of a doorway down the corridor. She was about 13, and her reddish-brown hair had been done up in curls for the party, but she had never made it there. Her silver and black party dress was torn and dirty, and she held a small dagger in her left hand. Demonic ichor stained her arms, and her shoes were soaked in blood.

Niamh MacFeorais Stark was not from this world, and she wondered how she had wound up here in the first place. But right now her biggest concern was getting out of this basement before some demon came after her again. She was so sick of demons.

Moving down the hallway now, Niamh saw the man and woman standing outside one of the other doors and tried to run to them, but a demon came up behind her and tried to pull her inside the room where she had been hiding. Her screams filled the corridor as she tried to fight off this newest attack.

[Morgan Le Fay]

"And I have had quite enough of that caterwauling!" Morgan screamed as she heard the ruckus in the hallway. "You!" she shouted at her demon guardians. "Take these three and haul them upstairs. I need to thank them publicly for what they have done to help me this night."

Morgan stepped out into the corridor as the girl was pulled back into the shadows, but she saw the man and woman standing there and started to laugh loudly. "Mira Mcgowan and Jack Sparrow! Now my day is nearly complete! Be good little souls and march back upstairs so I can see the looks on everyone's faces when I bring down the house in the most literal of ways."

The demons by now had shoved the three witches out of the doorway and behind Morgan.  "You can thank these three pathetic creatures for bringing me here. Resurrecting the dead usually doesn't work, but it does make it easier for the living to cross dimensions."

Morgan smiled slyly at Mira and then clucked her tongue against her teeth. "Why are you going so down market now, Mira? Isn't he a bit too low class for you?"

[Dorcha]

Mira looked at Morgan with a sly smile as her eyes glowed green. The two had some history together and at another time she almost became a ally of Morgan but that was another time and another place.

"Ah Morgan I see you are still the hell raiser....No pun intended that you were the last time I saw you." She said slowly advancing towards Morgan. Her words about Jack made her let out a laugh. "Oh well I've been called worse in my time.....You would know that better than anyone Morgan. Besides our extended family has a history of unusual connections" She said sizing up the cause of the disturbance.

"Regardless of what these silly witches tried to do I can't allow what you are doing to continue."

[Morgan Le Fay]

Morgan looked at Mira and shook her head. "My dear, it's simply too late to stop it. Would you want the likes of Victor Von Doom to control all of magic? You know as well as I do that he is an amateur in all this. He plays at it like some prattling school boy trying to impress his latest conquest, but he has no damned clue what he is doing. You and I, well, we know better."

The half sister of Arthur Pendragon smiled as she thought on Mira's words about unusual pairings. "Do you mean that dog that your cousin Kari seems fond of at the moment? I did see them on Avalon when the Scarlet Witch upended reality. I might not have been able to escape my prison until now, but I saw everything. What she did. What Doom has done. And now they are together. Can't you see that they will be the end of everything?"

"I think we can see that you are trying to kill everyone in this building, Morrgie," Jack replied as he stood next to Dorcha. "And that you want to make sure everyone you hate pays a heavy price. I may not be as magically savvy as Mira here, but I won't let you do this either!"

"Little pirate, you can't stop me," Morgan growled as she sent an eldritch blast at Sparrow and Dorcha.

[Dorcha]

Dorcha held out her arms and formed a mystical shield to protect Jack and her. She then floated up off the ground slightly and shot out a blast of green colored lightning towards Morgan. "Your concerns might be warranted dear but killing everyone in the building is the wrong way to approach it."

[Ayame Harada]

Ayame, Elizabeth and Patience were caught in the magic battle between Morgan Le Fay and the horned woman, and Ayame had had enough of being a pawn or a target. Many of the demons Morgan had summoned were tengu, and they would answer to Ayame who was a tengu princess before they would to an Avalonian mystic. 

"You two can kill each other for all we care!" Ayame yelled as she tried to deflect a strike of the green lightning wielded by the horned mage. It bounced back toward the pirate but glanced off the catacomb wall, causing the hallway to shake. "You are going to bring this whole place down on us!"

Ayame spun and sent hellfire blast at the demons who were guarding them, and she managed to get herself and Elizabeth free. "Leave the maniac," she said as she grabbed Elizabeth's hand and ran toward the steps to the upper levels.

 

[Jack Sparrow]

"Bugger! That was Lizzie Priest!" Jack said as he stayed behind Mira's protective wall. "Thank you for the save, my dear!" Jack was a bit flummoxed by the sudden exit of Elizabeth Priest and the Asian woman, but he was vexed about the disregard given to the third member of their party. "Mira, I better go help that woman before the demon does her in," he said as he started to exit the barrier, only to see a demon fly out of a side door and land in a heap at their feet. 

"What next?" the pirate yelled as Morgan sent another eldritch blast at the him and Mira, and he soon realized he should have kept his mouth shut as a second demon flew through the air and slammed into the opposite wall. The demon was followed by a petite red haired girl with a very bloody dagger. "Who, my dear, are you?" 

"I am Stark...Resilient!" the girl yelled as she looked at the group fighting.

"No, seriously, what is your name?" Jack asked as he looked back at Mira. "I didn't know Iron Man...wait."

Morgan sent another blast at Jack and Mira as the pirate stood there dumbfounded. "Adaryn went on one might about a missing daughter. Do you think...? Of course! It is your extended family after all, Mira. This has to be Niamh."  

 

[Dorcha]

A smile came to Mira's face as the girl identified who she was. "Niamh....It's good to see you little one!" She said as she did her best to protect both Jack and Niamh as she put up a shield around them she focused back on Morgan.

"Morgan.....I understand where your anger is coming from but you can feel how much mystical imbalance there is in the air from what you are doing...."

[Morgan Le Fay]

Morgan snarled at Mira and Jack as the red haired child ran behind Dorcha's barrier. "Do you think, after centuries of being locked away, that I give a damn about this building or anyone in it? If I can shut down Doom and his crimson harlot, then all the better for the rest of the universe. And there are other forces at play here..."

"I think she means the raptor," Jack said as he tried to pop out and get the woman who was held by the demon. "And the raven. Morgan, if you are trying to harness the Phoenix or anything to do with The Morrigan..."

"I know the cosmic force is here, and no, I am not that much of a fool," Le Fay replied as another demon shot past them. She turned to see the final member of the trio that had aided in her arrival--the mentally-challenged Patience Rydenborne--standing there with a bewildering grin on her face and a demon's bloody jaw in her hands. "And you need to be shipped to the cracker box palace, my child."

As Morgan turned back to Mira, Patience ran past her and behind the barrier. She tried to grab onto Niamh and Jack and pull them away, but the pirate stopped her. "We are stronger as a unit...we will stand as one."

"You will be dead as a unit!" Morgan bellowed as her eyes rolled back in her head, and the floor under them started to buckle.

[Niamh MacFeorais Stark]

Niamh was still clutching the dagger as the crazy woman tried to grab her and run but was stopped by the man fighting next to the lady with the horns. The mage with the horns was family. Niamh could feel that much before the floor started to buckle under their feet. 

"I am so sick of this nonsense!" Niamh yelled as she stood between Jack and Mira. "I don't care if you are the queen of the universe, lady," she said as she started yelling at Morgan Le Fay. "My parents were Avengers, and my extended family were X-Men, so I am not going to let you win!"

"What she said!" Jack said as he looped an arm around the girl. "Mira, if we need to run, I have our young charge here. Say the word."

"Please, I can run. Take care of this poor lady," Niamh said as she looked over at Patience. "She feels broken, and I'm not strong enough to fix her. My mom was a healer, but I'm not as strong as she was. And...I can't bring her daughter back. I saw her before. I tried, but she wouldn't cross over."

 

[Dorcha]

Mira was about to respond to Niamh when she heard Kari in her mind and a smile came to her face. {"Guys brace yourself but we are leaving this plain"}She said to the others as she saw what Morgan was doing and held out her hands and chanted loudly as Green energy surrounded them at the same time they latched on to Morgan's body.

"It's time we ended this." She said as the group were transported to the main hall.

TBC everyone in the main thread