Museum Madness

Despite Scarlet's best efforts, the old woman could not be saved. Her webbing was blocked by Crowbane, who summoned a shield of bone to act as a physical barrier. Even then, it was likely that she was incorporeal.

The crows were indeed trapped - clever! - which caused the necromancer to screech: "Gereon! Your aid!" He pointed his hands at Scarlet, sending a summoned skull, flaming and biting, after her. The Screaming Skull was evaded as Scarlet tackled the pillar to the ground. It landed with a tremendous THUD, likely hurting Ms Web due to the force of the impact.

However, the portal did indeed close, the fires going out completely. Crowbane scowled in anger and immediately sent a bolt of black energy at the woman, hopefully forcing her to dodge into the path of the returning Sir Gereon. Gereon, if able, would aim the flat side of his halberd for Scarlet Web in a powerful blow intended to batter her to the ground.

Flick continued on, but the action inside was going incredibly quickly.

It took Scarlet Web some moments to recover from the effects of both the hard tackle unto the pillar itself and, of course, as well as the impact of the skull. She was slow to get up back to her feet, and so she had no other choice but to meet the full blunt force of the black energy black head on, sending her flying backward at incredible speed.

Fortunately she had been able to suppress some of the damage through lifting her arms up at the very last second, but all that changed when she crashed through the window pane of another exhibit and landed hard on her back.
With her hand upon her head, Scarlet Web rolled out from her predicament and forced herself to her feet, only to see Gereon charging toward her with his halberd.

With both he and Crowbane attacking her simultaneously, Scarlet Web barely had any time to react, much less get off a counterattack of her own.

He swung down hard with his halberd, but before it could connect with her, Scarlet Web threw out her hands and caught ahold of the weapon by its shaft and thus a power struggle ensued, with the former Paladin trying hard to lower his blade to slice her in half and she trying equally as hard to survive.
Losing weight to the undead knight given his superior positioning, Scarlet Web latched onto the bottom portion of the halberd with her feet so that all four of her limbs were devoted to the struggle. Even so, she was forced onto the floor, where a crater appeared beneath her.
Her muscles trembled. The ground quaked. The blade of the halberd was mere centimeters from her face, mere centimeters away from ending her existence. She was virtually a sitting duck.

Deep down, she knew she'd only be able to fight Gereon off for only so long. Sooner or later her muscles would give in; sooner or later Crowbane too would take advantage of the opportunity to take her down as Gereon kept her locked in place.

Gereon grinned down at Scarlet with a black smile. His halberd began to shimmer with dark, soul absorbing energy. The spectres behind him wailed, begging Scarlet to flee before she joined their choir.

Crowbane began to approach the sword, content that Sir Gereon would dispatch of the young hero with ease.

Flick blinked as he seen Scarlet's struggle through the webbing. He acted without though, shrinking down and bolting through the tiny gaps in the wall of web. One slip and he'd be stuck, unable to intervene. Luckily for both he and Scarlet, the Fly On The Wall was not to be caught!

Flick leapt into the air, charging up his wrist mounted laser cannon as he did so, and unshrunk before landing next to the corpse-Knight. Sir Garreon barely had time to realise what was happening, as Flick fired, the surprise adding to the impact.

The blue beam struck the Knight of Death forcefully, blasting him from his feet and over the fence into a gladitorial exhibit. Sir Garreon smashes through a full sized model Lion, crashing to the ground heavily.

Taking a relieved breath, the mercenary comments; "Sorry. I know it says no touching, but..." He offers Scarlet his other hand, as Crowbane gestures to the crows. The birds erupt in flames, burning webbing and becoming a flock once more.

Meanwhile, Sir Gereon is far from out of this fight.

Accepting his hand, Scarlet Web pulled herself together. It wasn't until she was standing completely upright that she had the chance to see her savior in full. Much to her suprise, it was Flick! And boy was she glad to see him.

"What in the world are you doing here?" she pondered aloud, running her hand over her head in confusion and as well as to quell the pain from the earlier impact.

The crows erupted into flames and singed her webbing. Well, there went that strategy. Seeing as though they had no time to catch up nor converse any further, Scarlet Web turned around and faced off in the fallen knight's direction, pressing her spine up against Flick's own so that they were back to back.

"We'll save the chitchat for later." She readied herself, taking her fighting stance. "I'll leave that crow guy to you. From what I've seen thus far, he's able to summon crows to do his bidding. Moreover, he's also able to manipulate bones to his liking and conduct a black aura of some sort. Dark energy? I don't know what it is, but avoid being hit by it." She grunted in pain at the memory of being on the wrong end of it earlier. "Trust me when I say that it packs a wallop."

She was ready to act when she suddenly stopped herself. "Oh, and one more thing. There's some creepy bloody lady that keeps popping up from time to time. I don't know where she is at the moment or where she'll pop up next, so be on guard."

With a nod, she took off to combat Sir Gereon, leaving Crowbane to Flick.

Flick grimaces. "Can't we just leg it? I can shrink us--- and she's off," Flick turned to Crowbane. "There's no chance you'll just go home and call it a draw?"

As the flock of blazing crows swarm towards Flick, he has his answer. Ducking against the wall, the armoured mercenary has to fire at them several more times to avoid being pecked and seared to oblivion. A few crows turn to ash from the shots, but the others keep on at Flick. Crowbane sends a bolt of black energy towards the renegade, but he manages to avoid contact. Instead, it turns a wooden panel into splinters.

Meanwhile, Sir Gereon stands up with a snarl and picks up his weapon. The Halberd becomes surrounded in black energy once more, as he turns his hateful sneer onto the advancing Scarlet Spider.

As she raced toward Sir Gereon, Scarlet Web clapped her hands together and slowly ripped them apart from one another. Between them, several strands of webbing were crafted skillfully into a long and surprisingly hard staff.

Swinging it around and around in front of her and then behind her back, Scarlet Web grasped ahold of the staff with great strength and leaped into the air, throwing it over her head and aiming down to knock the halberd out of the undead knight's hands.

Sir Gereon keeps ahold of the halberd in his strong grip, before swinging it for Scarlet. However, given her acrobatics, she is likely able to dodge his furious assault. The undead Knight booms out, "It took the Seven Arch-Fiends of hell to fell me, wench!" Despite his boasting, Scarlet can probably find an opening.

Flick runs at Crowbane, getting to within point blank range of the sorcerer when suddenly the flock of crows batter him aside. His shot, which was overcharged, smashes into the ceiling and out into the upper floor and roof. It's a kinetic blast, so nothing goes on fire thankfully.

The mercenary groans, barely able to keep on his feet as Crowbane swings at him with a scythe. Force to act quickly, Flick shrinks. He then jumps and dives passed two attempts at being stomped!

The two weapons clashed with great might, ringing a loud clanging noise through the room. Rather than evade, Scarlet Web actually managed to parry the first of many consecutive strikes made by the legendary knight, and then followed suit by landing with her feet on the end of the blade as he swung hard at her waist.

Tossing her spear away, she stood up on Gereon's halberd and webbed his hands, gluing them into place around the weapon's shaft.

Then, with a slight duck and jump, she leaped into the air yet again and over the knight's head, appearing directly behind him so that the webbing in her hands that was connected to his halberd forced him to comply to her command: forcing the undead knight's arms behind his back --with his elbows pointing at the ceiling-- together along with his precious halberd.
Without pause, she unleashed more and more webbing to restrict Gereon in ropes and ropes of web, before dropping to the floor and issuing a sweeping kick to knock him off his feet and to the ground, hopefully immobilized.

Flick unshrank himself between Crowbane's feet, upper cutting the sorcerer as he did. The necromancer staggered back, giving the mercenary time to overcharge a third shot of his blaster. He struck home, clean on the villain's chest, battering him into the wall and knocking him out. As he did, the crows disappeared.

Meanwhile, Sir Gereon finds himself bound and trapped. Dark magic explodes around him, but doesn't seem to break the webbing when not channelled through his blade. He's at Scarlet's mercy.

Flick nodded at Scarlet's warning, turning around to go and join her. Unfortunately for him, the black female shape returned from the darkness and battered him aside. The mercenary winced, now having been beaten around a few times, and fired several small shots at the woman. His power belt was running out of juice given how many overcharged shots he'd fired, and he only had enough for one more.

"Scarlet... need a hand!" He called, firing his overcharged shot at the shade. The beam of energy passed through her and leaving a massive hole. As the mercenary smirked in victory, the hole closed over and the shade remained unharmed. "Until next time, little Fly..." She spoke with an echoing voice, before charging into and around Flick. The mercenary collapsed to the floor and shrank, his suit out of energy, as the shade expanded and coated the floor in shiny blackness.

At this point, the Shade attempts to draw her fallen comrades down through the ground and into the other realm. Defeated, but able to fight again another day - and perhaps take revenge. Of course, perhaps Scarlet could prevent some of that.

White slots widened as the restricted body of Sir Gereon began to race beneath her. By the looks of it, it was being dragged by the shadowy figure that had rendered Flick unconscious through his own efforts.

This was where a decision had to be made. Should she fight back and try to take a hostage? Should she allow Gereon to be taken back and herself follow them into the other realm? Or should she hop off and instead prioritize Flick's safety?

The clock was racing. And in the end, Scarlet Web opted to hop off and allow the undead knight to be taken away. Taking him as a hostage when she planned to keep the sword for herself only spelled for greater disaster.
She watched them depart, saying nothing more than she already had. This battle had only begun. And as much as she might've hated to admit, the Court of Ash wasn't exactly an opponent she could defeat all on her own.
As they fled the scene, Scarlet Web approached the fallen Flick and took him into her hands, quite literally. Her next move consisted of her committing thievery; perhaps something the master thief in her lefthand would be somehow proud of.
Smashing her hand through the glass pane that protected the sword, she took it in her other hand and stared off in the direction of the spectators that had been watching from behind the web.

Some understood, others protested and branded her a thief. But she knew that was she was doing was all for the purpose of protecting New York City.
The Court of Ash were after this sword. And so long as it was with her, they wouldn't have the slightest idea as to where to find it.

They'd have to find her to get their hands on it, saving her the trouble of having to run after them again.
As the alarm went off, alerting the museum security that their precious artifact had been taken from them, Scarlet Web made off with it and Flick in tow, leaping out of an open window and swinging away into the city.