The Brimstone Place was outside of spacetime, it was outside of everything. Kurt emerged in the same moment that he had left, maintaining his momentum as he moved onwards. The period on transition was an incalculably tiny fraction of a picosecond but Kurt's mind went ahead of his body. He had a synaesthetic sense of the world around him, he felt objects in space as another would feel the air on their skin.

Gravity meant precious little to him. He selected his orientation on apportation as easily as a human might choose how far to curl a finger. His fingers and toes clung to the ceiling where he manifested, his sword held in one hand. Sniffing at the air, he took note of the rank odour of a large predator. Smelled like someone had a big cat around.

He opted to drop to the floor, his greatcoat fluttering around him as he twisted and turned in the air, landing with such ease as to shame a cat. "Hallo! I am looking for Captain America and a dead body vith a fery fancy knife. I haff good reason to beliefe that fery bad things will happen othervise." Really, there was no good reason to be circumspect.

“Right, thanks for all your help” Peter said absentmindedly, not listening to the man once it became clear the conversation was not going to be helpful. Instead he examined the body, the scene and everything else he could in the deep freezer in hopes of finding some clue or for the sensation from before to appear once more.

Bruce could feel the frustration building inside him. Brought to fancy dinner to shame him in front of all these rich people, duped by a fancy doll, his life threatened...all he wanted was to be left alone.



"What the--" Bruce started, but by then it was already too late. He was being pulled somewhere. It was the last straw.

The rage took over.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:28, Fri 15 Mar 2019.

He landed in the kitchen. The white coated kitchen staff pause their prayer circle to gaze at the shrouded figure arriving in a burst of smoke and sulfur and a devilish blue tail. They immediately jump to conclusions.

“IT’S BEELZEBUB!”

They immediately reach for the knifes in the carving block.

“YOU AIN’T TAKIN MY SOUL!”

“I GOT A WIFE AND KIDS!”

“SHE TOL’ ME SHE WAS EIGHTEEN!”

The others pause at the last fellow’s confession, then lunge at Kurt.

In reply to Peter Parker (msg # 74):

The man is almost frozen solid. He looks like your average hotel staff, though his teeth are in perfect condition. Very odd. Is something glowing inside his bottom lip?

There’s something thin and metallic in his pants pocket.

Oh, and Peter here’s what sounds like an explosion with a whiff of sulfur right outside the freezer in the kitchen. And the cooks are screaming about the Devil instead of Jesus.

Peter ignored whatever commotion that was going on in the kitchen, his attention fully on the murder victim. That and really the people in there had not been any help to him at all. "They better start praying harder," he muttered to himself as he inspected the corpse. His landed on  whatever was glowing on the inside of the man's lip before he noticed there was something on the man. First he removed the object to see what it was then lowered the man's lip while making sure to avoid touching the glowing phenomenon.

In reply to Peter Parker (msg # 79):

It’s a knife, slim and long, perfect for concealment, one solid piece of metal.
Finest construction you’ve ever seen and sharpest too.

Inside his lip, glowing blue glyphs as a tattoo, a language you’ve never seen before.

Peter took the knife and stowed it away in one of the interior pockets of his jacket. He was not sure why the man had this on him but he was not going to shout out to anyone until he was back with the heroes. Until then he was going to keep quiet about it though there still was the glyph to deal with.

He pulled out his camera took a picture of the glyph then snapped off another shot just to make sure it would be clear when he developed the film. Once that was done he stepped back into the kitchen and saw the strange demonic looking fellow being accosted by the kitchen staff. His first instinct was to step back inside the freezer and observe this standoff though he knew he did not have the time to wait.

"Hey buddy, who are you and please tell me it's not to hurt anyone. I'm sure you know but we're in a tight spot at the moment." He was not being threatening but he was prepared to move in case this fellow made a move towards him. After all, it never hurt to be too careful especially in a situation like this.

Kurt made himself manifest. He shrugged off his coat and peeled away his gasmask. When it came to getting the wrong sort of looks, Kurt was used to it. He was black in the most literal sense, beneath his inky indigo fur. He regarded the charging figures with annoyance. His left leg snapped out, grabbing the leading man by his wrist, driving him to his knees, a neat motion driving a knee into his face and spreading his nose across it. Kurt's foot grabbed the man's fallen cleaver, bringing it up to nestle snugly against the throat of another man. His friend fared worse, ending up with a full sword pressed against his throat.

The demon stood poised on one leg like a marbe statue of a ballarino. "Efen zee defil is an angel. You all haff many sins to repent. Go and do your penance." Easing blades away from soft flesh, he straightened himself up, looking upon his attackers with more disappointment than anger. "I am Father Captain Vagner. Vere is zee knife and zee shield? Time is off zee essence."

In reply to Kurt Wagner (msg # 82):

Captain America stepped forward. "By 'the Shield,' I believe you mean me."

He calmly sheathed the sword upon his back. The slight, slender figure buried the cleaver in the door he had entered, throwing it back over his shoulder with surprising force for one of such elfin stature. He nodded his head to the Captain. "Yes, I beliefe zat you are zee vone I haff been looking for. I don't suppose you haff happened to see a corpse vith a vibranium blade? If vee do not unite zee two zen zere vill be a catastrophic loss of life."

He had yet to see any sign of the Doom fellow, but Kurt could kill him once more pressing matters were attended to. It wouldn't do to have New York City and much of the United States' eastern coast destroyed in a cacophanous cataclysm.

In reply to Kurt Wagner (msg # 84):

"A vibranium dagger? No," Cap said, looking the strange man over. By his accent, he could be Latverian or Prussian, but his actions didn't seem like those of an ally of Doom. "My shield is vibranium. It's shaking the building apart, but Dr. Richards is trying to dampen the resonance, while the rest of us search for the source of the signal that's causing it. If there's another piece of vibranium in the building, it shouldn't be too hard to find. It should be making a lot of noise."

Kurt cupped his chin, his darkly burning eyes narrowed as he took on a pensive expression. He snapped his fingers, which made hardly any noise given his fine fur. "I haff it. Vee use your shiield as compass. Vould you hold it out horizontal and flat? Qvickly, please.

"I have the dagger," Peter said though he did not pull the blade out or even indicate where it was on his person. "Found it on a dead man in the deep freezer but how did you know the dagger was on a corpse? That's a little strange, so if you want it then start explaining what's going on and why we should trust you?" So far the stranger had given him no reason to believe a word said especially in this sort of situation. It might have seemed a little odd for him, man who looked like a member of the press to not be afraid after what he saw the person do to the kitchen staff. Then again so far this evening had been anything but normal.

Kurt cocked his head, looking at the other man. "A little strange? I am fery strange." There was no point in pretending otherwise. Kurt accepted that he didn't look terribly trustworthy. On the other hand, all his physiological strangeness provided him with the means to do things no normal man could manage. "I vas told vere to find it by vone of my people. Gifen that he vas correct, my trust vas not misplaced."

He smiled, which had the unfortunate effect of showing off some very fine, sharp teeth. "Vould you two please touch zee objects together? Zen I can go and deal vith Doom."

Coming up from a shadow inside the hotel, Ty found Tandy's efforts had breached the barrier enough for him to enter. Kurt had already established this-but Ty had been worried the field might have harmed or even killed the man for trying.

Ty transported throughout the hotel, knowing where Richards and his family had been eating before Doom had kicked him and Tandy out. In the meantime, he would grab anyone he came across and throw them into his cloak. He could restrain himself from 'eating' them for a time, but it would not be enjoyable for them. He had little choice, as he might very well be there only means of escape from the doomed building.

Once he appeared in the dining room, he would transport on the table so everyone would see him. "We need to go! Quick! Everybody into the cloak!" He said, his shadowy form billowing out. Of course, he was looking about the room for Mary-who no doubt detected him long before he arrived.

“You’re obviously new to the city because unless you got a dragon in your back pocket then you’re only a little odd” Peter explained with a shrug since the man’s appearance was not as bizarre compared to the other strange sights he had witnessed. “You’re going to have to explain more than you just happen to know. Someone killed the man but why? As for the dagger how are we to know bringing it with the shield will not make this worse? Sorry but blind faith isn’t going to cut it here.”

The reporter glanced over at the Captain as if to gauge how the American hero was taking all of this then looked back to the blue furred man. “So please explain what’s going on and where Doom is.”

Roberto decided to step into the cloak, it was weird. He had no idea how it could possibly work, nor the danger it might put him in. But, the shield was a definite threat while this one was only a potential threat, so he'd have to take it. Very Well, I shall do what you demanded me to do.
He says as he attempts to walk into the cloak.

Reed's voice is slurred as he starts to rise from the floor, pushing his jaw back into place.

"What is this about a knife? The only thing that will cancel out the vibrational cycle of Antarctic vibranium is Wakandan vibranium! If by some miracle you've found some you need to bring it here right away!"

At his feet, Susan Richards is shuddering as the shield begins to fade in and out of view.

Considering that a lot of people thought that Kurt was the Dragon, the Beast of the Pit, the Herald of the End Times, it was not quite as far off the mark as he expected. He wasn't going to complain about anyone telling him that he fit in. Perhaps New York City really was as strange a place as he had been told.

He held up his hands, palms upwards. "I am a priest, fais is fery much my business. As for vhy zat poor man is dead, I do not know. I did not even know zat you had zee knife. I do not know vere Doom is at zis moment." Kurt was desperate but he also happened to be quite the optimist. He truly believed that he could see the best in everyone, even if there wasn't always a whole lot of good to be found. Parker didn't strike him as the sort with ill intent. "Vhat is going on is zat somevone has come and offered you a means to save zee city. I vould call it zee hand of God. You may haff ozer ideas. Do you haff so much blind fais in your own judgement zat you vould risk killing a whole city off innocent people."

"It's killin' her, Reed!"

Ben pulls the shield from Susan's grasp and holds it over his head, he flexes his arms as his body starts trembling and pieces of rock fall from him.

"N-n-never s-s-send a g-g-g-geek to do a j-j-j-jock's j-j-j-jpb!

Reed watches in horror.

"Ben! NO!!!

The Richards family was no where to be seen...other than a burning hole in the ground. One man volunteered, and stepped within the void. Otherwise Ty was franticly grabbing as many people as he could. He had to find Mary, but did not seem able to see her anywhere. "Mary! Mary!" He called out as he grabbed panicking people at random and shoved them into the cloak.

Roberto felt deep cold and an utter void surrounding him when he went inside the darkness. For a brief moment, he felt his greatest fear rise to the surface of his mind...but that ended quickly as light suddenly burst forth. He seemed to have 'fallen' out of a shadow, outside the hotel.

He could see a nicely dressed woman staring at a spinning knife made of light in mid-air. It seem to be craving away at a glowing bubble surrounding the hotel-which he was now outside of. Furthermore, another patron of the hotel just bumped into him as they where shoved out of the shadow. Then another, and another. All manner of people where stumbling away-running at high speeds away from the hotel. Waitstaff, janitors, wealthy guests, and anyone the teenage boy in the cloak could grab and shove into the portal below his chin.

OOC: Roberto is now at this thread.
link to a message in this game

In reply to Ben Grimm (msg # 94):

"I don't have the shield. I left it with Dr. Richards," said Captain America. "Follow me."

Cap led Fritz and Parker back to the dining room, where Ben was holding the shield up over his head.

"Uhh... that's not going to dampen the vibrations..."

“You have your beliefs and I have mine,” Peter retorted with a shrug when the stranger started going on about his god but the theological debate would have to wait until later. Well if they all survived this encounter. He followed the Captain and when they entered the room they saw man of living rock trying to destroy through brute strength. It might work but it was going to cost Grimm and there was no telling what else would happen if this action resolved.

He cursed under his breath, not happy at this turn of events when there was still too many unknowns for his liking. First it was the insistent pulling from what he could only guess was from a particular arachnid deity then it was the priest whose appearance made the man look like a walking contradiction. Why things could never be easy in this city was beyond him but he was going to have to play the only card that might actually be useful here.

“Hold on Rocky and keep the shield steady,” he yelled at Ben as he produced the dagger from his jacket pocket. He dropped the camera before he ran in out of fear it would be damaged. Funny, he was not so much worried about his safety, but the thought of losing the film used for this shindig was not one he wished to entertain.

With the dagger drawn and gripped tightly in his hand the reporter ran towards the shield. Being this close to the vibrations was likely going to do a number on him but small price to pay if this accomplished what he was told it would. Peter gritted his teeth, prepared for the worst then brought the weapon on a collision course with one of America’s greatest symbols.

The clearest, most beautiful sound you will ever hear reverberated as the two strains of vibranium made contact. Peter felt the dagger in his hand begin to tremble as the energy from the shield throbbed inside it, the stylized panther engraved on the hilt growing brighter  until...

The blade turned to dust in his hands, vanishing with a whisper.

Ben looked down at Peter, then back at the shield as he offered it back to its rightful wielder.

"HEY WAITER! WHEN ARE WE GETTIN' DESSERT? I'M STARVIN' OVER HERE!"

[cue the laugh track as the curtain draws at the end of this episode]

THE END