Las Vegas gets aliens too

Between Knightfall and Blake, it would seem that they had been extremely effective in clearing out the bug infestation. However, ice had formed around him and his minions as they continued protecting the child. People began speaking as Blakes eyes slowly returned to their - ahem - "normal" shade of orange.

He nodded to the kid, and smiled what he hoped would be a reassuring smile. Instead of responding, both the kid and the cop moved to the huddled mass now in the cage. As they commanded, Blake's ghostly zombies fell into the floor where they only left a slightly glowing puddle of  translucent green ectoplasm.

The exposition came that came after that, quickly shook Blake from his state of confusion at the peoples actions. "Wait, but no... I burned them. Wouldn't that pheromone have been destroyed with them? Furthermore, I second the question on how you know this?" People kept yammering, and the man in the helmet had gotten himself arrested. "Shut up!" Blake yelled and slammed the business end of his pitchfork into the ground where the ground cracked underneath the weight he put into it. The adrenaline and injuries he was sustaining was bringing out the demon. He hoped that it wouldn't show up in front of them, as it had only happened one other time since he left home. and he still had no idea how to control himself in the form.

His eyes once again lit into a hellish blaze, and his voice was a deep growl within his throat. "Release him!" He said to the officers, ripping his pitchfork from the ground and pointing it to them. "This doesn't have to be you versus us, we're trying to help you." He then swung his pitchfork back at the girl. "I want answers, lady. How do you know all of this, and are you the one causing it?"

The hard part now seemed distant. Getting rid of the bugs would probably take a much more concerted effort to rid the city of a terrible evil. But, for now some civility could come back to the casino. Or, a security team could bust in and begin demanding questions. Questions the doppleganger of herself seemed readily available to answer. "First of all, it's good to know even crazy things sound smart when they come out of my body. Second, you answered that question with so many full answers it raises a lot of questions about you. Third, that guy being handcuffed on the floor is none of my business. Carry on."

The crowd grew restless. Even with an English woman leading the charge, it would only be a matter of time before the stupidity of others grew too rampant. And one guy being arrested and the other pulling flaming pitchforks, summoning skeletons, and talking in the deepest voice he could- wait did those skeletons go away? Bliss looked behind her to see a slimy collection of ectoplasm. Ectoplasm did not make her cry as a child, so it passed her creep test.

"Second part of the plan only needs one Bliss, so I think we should just listen to the angry mob and burn that one at the stake." Bliss was not half kidding. Not one fourth kidding. Not one iota kidding about burning Dabbler at the stake. Any stake. Any fire really as well. "You can make fire. Be useful for once and let's get rid of this alien invasion at the source. Maybe if we kill her all these things will go back."

Or.

"Hmm. Or maybe they'll be stuck here. Okay, so the consensus is you're a terrible person who happens to look really good. You need to stop that by the way." Bliss stroked her ego as she walked in between the metas and the mob, seeing herself as an in between even though the icy, telekinetic, vampire really had no leg to stand on. "You're evil, but maybe useful. So, stop being evil and start being useful. However you got these things to come here, well, let's use that but in reverse. I know you look like a really smart person, absolutely brilliant if I'm being honest, but you need to actually do something to fix this. And the guy in the handcuffs again is of no concern to me at all."

In the first place, what police survived to join the survivors in the casino were already reluctant to arrest metahumans who helped them. When Knightfall offered to be arrested, the rookies moved in, but the veteran slapped them about the head, knocking sense into him.

"...You idiots? these people saved us!" He reprimands them quickly, before helping up Knightfall, giving him his due respect. "So, You're all going to look into this mist then? Well, good luck. We'll do what we can, keep these people safe." The huddled masses huddled some more, trying to keep their minds off the crisis.

Bernadette looked at Knightfall's deagle he surrendered, and sighed. She walked over to him to help him up, but rather than return the Desert Eagle, the cyborg head of security produced and even larger weapon from her coat. "If yer goin' into the unkown, allow me a temporary trade guv. Your gun should suffice for protecting the civvies, but going into that bloody, interdimensional Mist... accept no substitutes."  

She lent Knightfall her monstrous Taurus Raging Bull, and a belt of its equally impressive .454 casull ammo; very special indeed, as the bright red tips indicated high explosives within. In the cyborg's hands, it seemed almost weightless, but the weapon was large, heavy, loud and demanded respect. And a whole paragraph to itself.  

The lawyer Blake threw aside, slowly regained his composure as well, and went to the bar for a drink to calm his nerves. He was trying to talk big but his shaking fear was plain for all to see. A few other people followed suit, trying to act like things were going to be okay, but there were always skeptics and curious souls who wanted to know more. Aside from Blake and Bliss, a few other curious figures wanted to press the Witch for answers. Wannabe-interdimensional physicists who asked inane technical questions.

The witch was not very responsive to being pressed. Blake wanted answers, while Bliss was suggested either to kill her off, but second guessed to enlisting her help instead. All the pressure and staring and blame made dabbler's high pitched, grating gremlin voice reach a whole new level of helium voiced, Shampoo-drinkingly awful. "...I said I've been to the place, but I don't know anything about the place coming HERE! I've been hoppin all over the West Coast and this has never happened before so it's NOT MY FAULT! NOT MY FAAAAUUUULTT~ No es mi culpa, por favore!" She screeched, before ending with the sarcastic Spanish.

Dabbler-Bliss's stress caused her other two arms to emerge as she covered her ears and eyes, and simply poofed away in a cloud of energy from all the people and the pointing of fingers. She needed a quiet place where no people were going to blame her. Like the roof. The energy poof was pretty easy to follow, since there was a skylight.

Like the teenager she was, Dabbler simply sat on the roof to pout. The mist was thick up there, and all manner of strange unknown creatures flew about, obscured from view. There was no way to tell if this was just a local happening, or the whole west coast... or maybe the whole world.

"Not my fault. Stupid people, blaming me for everything." And then, Dabbler began to sob. boo hoo.

Bernadette meanwhile had all of the Casino's exits blocked off, the lights dimmed and the music turned off. She didn't know other dimensions, but she knew animals drawn to light and sound. "Try to keep the yakkin' to a minimum, and don't go anywhere alone." She advised the people in the Casino, who all took seats while Amy and the other regular employees distributed water.

Knightfall allowed Bernadette to help him up and gladly took her Raging Bull in one hand, his weapons knowledge kicking in. He looked over the Brazilian revolver's smooth grip and cylinder latches. "Thanks, I always had a knack for sidearms." Any other words he would've said were cut off by a sound like nails on chalkboard coming from the shape-shifter. Turning his attention back to Bernadette he added, "You know her right? Do you think she'd do something like this on purpose?"

"OH! OKAY! SO NOW WE'RE SCREAMING!" Bliss covered her ears while the little witch continued to belt out bars of anti melodic wailing and to accompany the crowd's gnashing of teeth. "WELL SINCE THAT'S HOW- Oh, she's gone." Both of Bliss' ears still felt a sharp ringing from the onslaught delivered by Dabbler, but nothing quite as terrible as the buzz still emanating from outside of the building. "Looks like she didn't take her friends with her."

Knightfall and Bernadette exchanged weaponry while Bliss took stock of anything else she would need in order to take on a situation she knew nothing about in a town where the geography remained a complete mystery to her. "I've got an idea." Bliss' finger shot up to usher along her thought process. "The entire plan revolves around these things being insects. Insects are cold blooded, so any major down turn in the temperature, they freeze to death. All we need to do is test this hypothesis by seeing if I can create a structure around a group of those demon insects and see if they freeze to death. If that works, we might have a way to contain these things."

With a new outlook on what she could accomplish, Bliss moved towards the entrance where she first made her ice barrier, but now Bernadette blocked with her own blockade. "If anyone can keep a look out for that witch, be sure to catch her and keep her under control so I can ask her what exactly these things are." Bliss pressed her hands against the wall, letting ice seep through. "We're going to play it safe for now and just explore what this opportunity could do." More ice would press out, reaching the outer wall of casino.

Bliss pushed the ice from her hands, at a ninety degree angle centered on her chest as the apex. Once the ice moved out from what she believed would be thirty meters, she began to curve the walls back towards each other, creating the outer walls for her icy containment center. As quickly as she could, Bliss would attempt to close the top, catching any insects inside, all the while, Bliss stayed safely with the real wall of the casino between her and the insects.

Bernadette shook her head at Knightfall's query. Dabbler saved her, sure, but it was at the behest of a more forgettable man.

"Eh, all I remember was she showed up one day out of the blue and there were murderous robots and tentacles. Maybe if ye asked her nicely, she'll do what ye ask. Stairs are over there." Bernadette turned around to her staff, shouting orders seeing as casino management decided to go quiet. Most likely in their panic rooms. "Get these people blankets, and have em huddle up. S'bout to get cold in here." The Casino staff nodded, taking the cyborg head of security's orders seriously. Bernadette watched as Bliss started making a lot of ice, bringing the temperature of the Casino down.

Sure enough the insects scurrying about the Casino perimeter were discouraged by the temperature drop, despite the trail of pheromones that lead to a score of dead Scorpion Flies. They try to find alternate routes, converging on the skylights on the roof. The same roof was Dabbler was sulking on.

"Icky bugs! Go away! GO AWAY I hate bugs! Shadow fire shadow fire! FIRE! FIRE FIRE FIRE!" She screeched, the demonic eyes in her palms opening, their gaze falling on the insects. As the creatures met Dabbler's hellfire, they combust quite violently, turning into smoking heaps of limbs and insect guts on the roofdeck.

Dabbler was not keen on staying, as even in the thick mist she could hear the buzzing of many creatures. She gazed down at the Casino to get back inside, back to all the yelling and blaming, but when she teleported she found herself ten feet off the roofdeck, and fell on the thick reinforced glass. It seemed the mist interfered with her power."Oh, that's not good..." She said, lying on her back, seeing insects come after her.

Knightfall took Bernadette's word to heart and rushed up the stairwell heading up to the rooftop. Once he'd gotten up the stairs he heard the shape-shifter screaming her head off, much to his ears dismay. Wishing he could cover his ears he opened the doors to the roof only to be greeted with the thick mist and a big ass group of the alien insects. With the shape-shifter nowhere in sight, Knightfall assumed the worst had happened to her and gladly took out his anger on the insects. Knightfall fired his grappling hooks onto one of the insects propelling himself onto it's back, he then drew the gun Bernadette had given to him, popping a cap into one of the insects while struggling to hold on to the insect he'd grappled as it tried to buck him off.

Blake was suddenly overwhelmed with stress. he didn't know what to do. Why the hell was this all happening at once. He quickly moved outside to find the mist surrounding the area even more. "I guess the bright side is that no one is going to be driving in this shit..." Said Blake, and as if the universe wanted to flip him the bird; a vehicle decided to screech straight into him as a thud fell onto the reinforced glass. He couldn't do anything to help as the heat from his skin began to melt the hood of the car.

The engine suddenly stopped, and Blake growled and his eyes became red as the hair on his head elongated into a black mane and a pair of antlers sprouted from his head. Teeth, and jaw elongating into a muzzle and a set of sharp teeth. He saw it was happening, and he had to force himself to calm down. These effects suddenly began shrinking back to reveal his normal face and orange hair. He groaned as he felt his jaw return to normal. "Infernus!" He crowed and his pitchfork found his hand, having dropped it in the street as the car hit him. He stabbed the pitchfork into the engine and quickly moved to assist the witch. He used his pitchfork to melt through the glass and caught her in his arms. "Let's get you out of here."

The ice worked perfectly.

Then it did not.

"HEY!" While Bliss did not know who she was shouting at, Bliss was in fact shouting. A fact made clear by the exclamation mark at the end of her dialogue. "Who made fire in an ice castle after I explained my entire plan. It was a great plan. Was. Now, it's- uh oh."

Yep, when ice melts it makes water. When Bliss makes forts of it to try and kill insects, it makes a lot of ice. By the transitive property, a lot of water just starting pouring into the casino. Absolutely nothing bad would come from that, but still, Bliss knew a prime target in the blame game when she saw it. "Little, stupid demon monkey."

Possibly racist. Definitely mean. Somewhat deserved.

Last time Bliss tried to turn an angry mob against Dabbler for little reason other than petty paranoia. Now she would use frustrated paranoia.

A thud echoed out above her. Looking to the ceiling, she found a glass skylight. Pressed against it was a little demon monkey. "Oh." It did not take long for the telekinetic press of her powers to shatter the glass, dropping Dabbler to the ground below. "Hey, you." A small amount of ice began to form in Bliss' hand, not staying long before turning to water. "You wanna take a guess as to why I now have a superpower dealing with water?"

KNIGHTFALL - ROOFDECK

The scorpion-flies and their slightly larger predator flitting about the roofdeck were small fry. The rounds contacting the bugs resulted in said bugs exploding into ludicrous gibs, and kept penetrating into the bug behind them. The small critter caught by the grapple was too small to even move Knight, let alone carry him.

"Buuuuugs! I hate bugsssss!!!!" Dabbler fired off chaos beams as she tried to get up, but the condensation made the skylight slippery.

This disturbance drew the attention of larger denizens of the mist, and the creature Knight had grappled had become the lure on a fishing line for these insects' natural predators. A four winged monstrosity roughly the size of Knight, some vile cross of spider and bat, let's call it spider-bat, swooped in to take Knight's fly, only for it to take the grapple as well. This one struggled to let it go, and resulted in a heck of a struggle. It screeched some unholy screech, and it was obvious that all this commotion on the roofdeck was drawing more and more attention. One would hate to imagine what hunted the spider bats...

Frustrated at its entanglement, the spider-bat shot web from its spider-butt. Of course, being an interdimensional alien, said web was also highly corrosive acid...

BLAKE

The outside was only slightly less populated, the flies fleeing the danger of the ice. Monstrous and otherwordly they may be, they were hardly more intelligent than earth animals.

The guy driving the offending car was long dead. His driver side window was smashed in, a bug sucking his brains out. There were larger shapes in the mist drawn to the heat and noise, shapes that towered over the first floors of most buildings.

Dark shapes. Unspeakable shapes.

Dabbler did appreciate the rescue from the roof, and glad to be inside. Sadly the mist was now overhead, and it was not a welcome sight to the people huddled in the casino.

"Oh god... we're going to die... aren't we..." A pessimist said, after drinking from a glass half full.

"We can't stay here with the skylight cracked open like that! We have to do something!" said the smarmy lawyer.

"Can't the Elsa rip-off form a new skylight made of frozen fractals?" Someone in the crowd was trying to be funny. Disney reference funny. At least two people laughed.

Elder Mason had awoke from his fainting session from earlier, seeing the huddled masses huddling together.

Someone was kind enough to share some water with the elderly preacher. "...Here, mister. You passed out."

"Thank you child." As if this thread wasn't convoluted enough, there was now a preacher arc, as Mason began talking. And people listening. "...Did I not say this before? I warned you all. For our sins, for our shortcomings... the devil hath come, and his harbinger has brought the apocalypse down upon us?"

"Behold ye now, the sky, it churns. LOCUST. They devour ALL in their path." Only a few people listened for now, but they all shot the metahumans some harsh, accusing stares. The elder seemed to enjoy the sound of his voice.

BLISS - CASINO FLOOR

As Dabs was returned relatively intact, she was confronted by the mean lady whose face she had copied.

Dabbler found herself threatened by a great ball of water, and a question she maybe should have ignored. "Oh, oh! Is this a rhetorical question? Hmmm. Are you a waterbender? You can control ice and water? Are you like Moana, and all water listens to you?"

Seeing that Bliss was not in the mood for Dab's games, her tone of voice changed,
from squeaky gremlin to a vividly accurate mimic of Bliss. "The Mist... is coming from underground... from under the Casino... If that's helpful to anyone..." Dabbler-Bliss said, freaking out most observers still with the uncanny resemblance.

Nathaniel struggled to keep hold on the insect as it was now being whisked off by a new creature equally as ugly as the first few, as it shot acid out of it's rear end. "Hold on now you insolent beast this is my kill." Then Knightfall pressed the Raging Bull against the fly's chest, digging into it and firing. Then he retracted his grappling hook and fell backwards through the hole in the skylight. "Hopefully that shot will go through the fly and kill the other thing along with it," he thought as he plummeted to the casino floor below. Before his back could inevitably slam into the ground or a table, he manipulated the adrenaline in his body so he could focus on his target, and shot both his grappling hooks at either side of the skylight edges, latching onto them and abruptly stopping his fall. Once he had made sure he wasn't dead, he retracted his hooks and dropped down the rest of the way onto one of the casino tables.

Blake shoved wide the doors as the criticisms flew. He had heard the loud sounds outside and had decided it would be good to try to warn the people inside. Criticisms flew about himself and the members of his little ragtag team.

The pessimist was met with a kindly smile from the cambion, who was doing his best to hide the monster hiding just beneath the skin. ”Death isn't the end, you'll be fine...probably. Don't worry, we’ll protect you.” Blake said and continued moving through the crowd.

To the lawyer, Blake glared. ”Oh, sure. Go outside. Find more shelter. I got hit by a fucking car, driven by a dead man. Less people for me to fucking save.” Blakes skull began moving under his skull as he heard the crowd turn against the group of would be saviours.

Finally, he came to the man who called Bliss a “Elsa rip off.” Blake knelt in front of him, his teeth elongating into beastly canines. ”Perhaps she could, but have you ever considered letting it go? The cold never bothered you, anyway. Right? Oh, and if you say anything like that again…” Blake grinned even wider as his eyes became the glowing red of the beast. Deer antlers slowly sprouting from his skull. ”I'm going to rip your soul from your body and use it as my personal bitch.” He said as his voice became a deep growl.

Blake walked away from the man as his own feet became hooves, and slipped free from his shoes. ”You haven't even fucking seen the devil yet!” Blake laughed as he slowly lost himself to the beast. Black fur starting from his legs and moving to his head. His body elongating into that of a large cats; his wings sprouted from his back, this time black. His face elongating into that of a horse and his hands elongated into claws. A spade tail sprouted from his back and his pitchfork remained in his hand. Though now, flames poured from his nostrils as his pitchfork went dark. The flames died out as the glowing red metal became more menacing. ”The Devil is done with this shit.”

Bliss needed to think for a minute about the downside of letting everyone die. Everyone except her. In most cases, letting everyone die would involve her dying. The plan where she let the bugs kill everyone and devoured the flesh of the victims, all the while Bliss escaped, made her look like a huge dick. While she thought about all those different scenarios, someone made an Elsa reference which would involved the person currently writing this to Google Frozen to see if that is the blonde one or the other one. The writer knows it is not the snowman. Also, straight up murdering a guy seemed currently outside of what Bliss would do, so Bliss resolved it in a very Blissful manner. "Have fun getting eaten by bugs, morons, because between her spreading fire that completely ruined my plan- that was killing all the bugs I might add, and everyone else doing nothing to help, that looks like the current course of action."

Someone tried to help. After possible a demon straight out of hell spoke with the preacher about everything either right or wrong with the world, Blake began to shift into a creature straight out of a nightmare of a equinophobic "Jesus, it's like you guys are cheering for the iceberg because you think the band plays better going down with the ship. I just said fire means I can't use ice, so I get this." Water dripped from Bliss' hand. Not a water power. Not hydrokinesis. Not even like a water hose. The current state of ice Bliss used looked more like a running faucet.

"Mist from under the casino?" Taking advice from an untrustworthy source seemed more compelling when the untrustworthy source looked like Bliss. "Gotcha. I'm going downstairs. You can all do whatever." Bliss took her leave towards the door leading to a set of stairs going towards the bowels of the building. Not wanting to leave a hole in the ceiling, but being without ice powers, Bliss pulled the structure of the roof to a compromise, causing it to collapse on itself, filling the hole with enough pressure from both sides to keep it from falling to the ground while being strong enough to resist attacks from more bugs.

KNIGHT

The crowd generally stayed away from the antics of the metahumans, and gave Knightfall his space. Only the security head was comfortable speaking to him.

"...Well, did you manage to talk to her? Seems she's about ready to do something productive." Bernadette couldn't talk for long though, as Blake was now stirring up trouble with the civilians. "Ah sod it."

BLAKE

The crowd was already under extreme duress from all the bugs buzzing around overhead, when Blake had to go all one-winged angel on them. Transforming a demon in front of a crowd was a surefire way to induce panic, and the huddled refugees swiftly scattered like rats, leaving the main casino floor and finding safety elsewhere, where they could observe the preacher from afar.

"...no... NO! Do not flee my children! Do not fear this devil! My faith protects me! Our faith will protect us. Pray for strength my children! I do not fear you, demon!" The elder said, hanging on through sheer faith... or stupidity, standing his ground against Blake, as if ready to take whatever he was going to dish out. The cross he held was just some cheap plastic coated in wood-colors, bought from a souvenir shop in town, no real holy energies coming from it to threaten Blake.

And some people bought it, stood their ground and began bothering the sky with their mumbling.

"...The power of heave casts you out, devil!"

"I refuse you, devil!" About four or five people stood their ground with the preacher, making gestures against Blake.


BLISS

With the roof partially caved in the ominous sky was now out of sight and out of mind, and people were now focused on the problems among themselves. Namely a devil trying to prove some kind of point to the scared civilians.

Bliss went her own way and the fake-Bliss followed behind. They pass through the kitchens, where the buffet food preparation had halted, the staff long since left due to the crisis. All the prepared food was left unattended, and Dabbler was happy to help herself to a Rotisserie drumstick and some buttery mashed potatoes.

They passed empty service corridors, then the monotonous drone of the  utility rooms, then into the basement where all the important looking pipes were. Even here the extra-planar mist had seeped, yet, there was no sign of something big and shiny. The basement was just an average basement full of basement things.

Dabbler-Bliss found the basement dull and unstimulating, tossing her plate of chicken bones anywhere. "There's nothing here. Can we go back to the kitchen and ask for chocolate chip muffins? I saw a shelf full of pastries bound for the buffet except nobody's in the mood to eat. I find the policy of throwing out food just too wasteful."

Except, someone who passes a perception check would notice the faint music coming from one wall. Particularly, behind it. Music in the form of german opera, some opera connoisseur or someone with a smartphone and the right app would recognize as Carl Maria von Weber. It was probably racist to think german opera meant the presence of Nazis...

"Didn't get a chance too, I'd already been attacked by more of the creepy critters outside. At least she made it out okay." As he finished his sentence Blake decided to wig out and turn into a demon horse. "And there goes the neighborhood... Hey, Seabiscuit! Would you kindly accompany the rest of us downstairs? If not Toby Maguire sure could use another sequel to ruin his career." He then made his way downstairs with Dabbler and Bliss, taking a roll from the kitchen as they went by. When they reached the bottom floor of the basement he instantly recognized the soft echoing of German opera seemingly behind the walls. "Um... excuse me but everyone else hears that right? Not just me?"

Blake was now in full animal mode; everything he created disappeared. His mouth widened in a snarl at the preacher. He could sense a faint aura of danger as he watched them pray, but in demon form; Blake did not care.

He swiped with a single claw, and it bounced back hitting him in the face. The claw was rapidly transformed into a hand; before growing black hair once more.

He attempted to breath fire, but as if a force field was surrounding the little group. This angered Blake further; so he jumped at the group, and suddenly he was rebounded. A skinny little New Jersey kid with bright orange hair and eyes. Suddenly, Knightfalls words rang in his ears; and despite the cheers of victory the crowd would undoubtedly be releasing. Blake flipped off the religious puritans, and busted ass downstairs.

Hearing the music; he perked up. Classical music? Who would be playing music in the midst of an alien invasion. Other than most of his friends, he supposed.