The Sword of the water god and such

Hound's faithful watch continued as what appeared to be a stairway to hell's gate it self appeared in the floor of a rather unlikely place, a random dirty ware house in Los Angeles. At the very least, Hound expected such a place to be located under a Kindergarten in California. The one who appeared to have summoned the stairway and the young girl seemed eager to venture forth, drawn in by some unforeseen power. Meanwhile the man who smelt of electricity seemed to be wary of such a course, smart man. This was the point during a scary movie most people would be screaming at the screen and throwing popcorn despite having no effect in the faint hopes that the people would not go down to the deep dark basement where someone was waiting with a chainsaw or axe.

Hound continued to watch, now wishing he had popcorn...

Sean sighed. He ddin't expect Brightside to understand. He was too sweet. Though thats what made Sean love him. "yeah Bright i am." He said it with a sight. Foot tapping against the clean concrete floor. Then he said something that caught Sean slightly off guard. Giving a look that made him feel like someone took his heart and wrung it like a wet rag. It felt weird to see him have that look. Sean was only a second away from saying sure lets go. Then he remembered why he came. He wrapped his arms around Brightside. "I won't blame you if you don't wanna come." he said it in a defeated tone. He wanted Brightside to come. No he needed him. He was so focused on Brightside he still didn't notice Alice. Sometimes Sean just lost sight of obvious things when his emotions were involved. He loooked up into Brightsides eyes. His now back to their greyish color, but slightly glossy. Reflecting the light of a lamp. As if begging him to come along anyway. He couldn't do it alone. He just couldn't. It felt all too wrong to.

Brightside hugged Sean close, both for his own comfort and for Sean's. He kissed the top if his head protectively, trying to think of what to do. He certainly felt less afraid now, but that didn't mean this wasn't outrageously dangerous. "Ok," he whispered, "I'll go. But if any serious shit goes down, and you don't leave, I will knock you out and drag your ass back up here." He smiled at Sean, hoping he knew the threat was just a joke. "Now, comon. We have a random-staircase-down-to-hell with our names on it." With that, he pulled away from Sean - and noticed the random girl that had decided to peek at the staircase.

Oh fuck, he thought, she had better not be thinking about going down there if she's a civilian. He turned towards the young woman, trying to act stern. "Miss, in case you weren't aware, this is private property. You have no right to be here." Brightside scowled, trying to look as intimidating as possible. Then, without a second look back, he started to go down the staircase. It was odd; he couldn't see any end to it, and the further he got, the darker it became. "Comon Sean, let's go!" he shouted, taking another step on the staircase.

Except, there wasn't another step. Only empty, empty, air. Brightside gave a small yelp of surprise before plummeting down...

Alice continued to stare down the hole, there was so much energy coming out of it. She felt herself get goosebumps as the energy rolled over her. Her attention was now completely focused on the darkness, her eyes glazed over as she gazed down into the darkness. Suddenly, a voice cut through her trance. She looked up at Brightside, "What?" she asked weakly. In any other situation, she would have been intimidated... but she couldn't seem to bring herself to care. She tilted her head slightly as Brightside headed down the stairs. She closed her eyes, trying to peer through the darkness. Stairs... stairs... stairs... then... nothing? "He's gone." Alice whispered before looking up at Sean. "He's gone!" she said, louder this time, the shock evident on her face. What was down there?

Sean and Bright? Hopefully Bright was a pet name. Hound smirked as the two men interacted, he could hear the one named Sean's heart rate change as he looked at the other man, his skin flushed ever so slightly, and a distinct change in his hormones occurred. The man was in love, it was cute seeing a man act like a prepubescent teenage girl crushing on a guy, despite being the man powerful enough to open the gates of hell.

Then Bright descended down the stairs and disappeared completely... even his smell. That was more than just a little odd. Hound bit his lip, his curiosity was boiling over, despite the little voice that was telling him to turn around and run, run until this is all just a bad dream.

Then again if these guys released demons upon the earth, running would be pointless... Hound sighed and hung his head, these guys are really going to do it. They are really all going to go down the stairs of hell and then touch something which releases some unspeakable evil which is going to try and bring about the destruction of the entire planet earth. They are then going to fight it and decided the fate of the world. Two men and a little girl. Sounds like a bad Michael Bay movie. With lots of explosions. Crap, crap, crap, crap.

Hell. Always wanted to visit, I hear it's great in the winter time. Yep, I'm going down there. I am so crazy.

Sean looked in shock. Face frozen in a look of helplesness. Gone? How could he be gone? "No" Sean mouthed. As he appproached the hole i the floor. He had to follow Brightside. He would never leave him alone to this fate. Then he took the dive. Falling into the seemingly endless darkness. Till all he saw was the dark. It felt like it was trying to claw its way into him. Hungry andlustful. As he fell farther and faster, Only the darkness was there. So he fell. Mouth open trying to scream yet no sound came out. As if the dark had took his voice away. He hoped he would stop this falling. Hoping to find his beloved. Then get the hell outta there.

An endless darkness, tormenting and....so cold. And then, for no apparent reason, Brightside was laying on stone. It was cool, but not freezing. He tried to open his eyes....but found that they were covered in frost from his trip through the darkness. He took a moment to brush it off, and looked around him.

He was indeed laying, frost covered, on a very wet stone floor. He was in a truly massive room - hundreds of feet high - completely made of lime-covered stone. In front of him (or rather, 50 feet in front of him) was an enormous statue, clearly time worn but not totally eroded: a man completely covered in scales, his ears like webbed fins, wearing what appeared to be Roman armor and holding a sword, point down. Behind it was the cause of the lime and the wet floor: a seemingly endless waterfall, rich blue in color, that seemed to have enormous depth but lacked the darkness due some strange light it emitted. Well, that explains why I can see, he thought, because there's no torches in this place. Finally, Brightside got up, shivering and brushing some of the frost off his body. He looked behind him, but it seemed there was nothing there but blackness.

Then, Brightside took a look up. Where he feel from, it seemed, there was nothing but stone ceiling, no staircase to speak of. "This is just...weird." Suddenly, as if materializing from nothing, an extremely frosty Sean dropped....from hundreds of feet in the air.

Reacting quickly, Brightside extended his glowing essence upwards, creating a sort of slide for Sean. Thankfully, he directed it correctly; Sean slid harmlessly down until he landed on the floor.

Alice watched as Wally dived in, she shook her head... her head was telling her not to go in... but... "I am so STUPID!!" she growled before descending down the stairs herself, driven by curiousity and that strange energy that seemed to be calling for her. She saw the stairs in her mind's eye as she moved, stopping right at the blankness. She took a deep breath before stepping into the blankness. And so she fell, through the dark energy. She extended her powers, trying to see into the blackness that she was falling through... but she couldn't pinpoint anything. Occasionally, there was a quick movement... but otherwise... nothingness. Alice shivered, doing her best not to panic as she fell. It scared her, partially because... well, it was dark nothingness... also partially because it felt familliar... almost comforting. She really hoped that she'd get out of wherever here was soon.

"Be careful what you wish for." a voice snarked in the back of her head before terror overtook her. She was still falling... but this time, she could see... and she didn't like what she saw. The ground was far away... too faraway, she instinctively knew that she would die. Worst of all... there were no shadows nearby, it was as if the walls themselves gave off light in here. The only darkness was too far away for her to manipulate safely... or effectively. She then noticed another figure slightly below her... it was Sean!! Great... she wasn't the only that was going to die. Then, a slide made of some strange glowing substance formed itself under Sean, saving him from going splat. Not soon after Sean landed, Alice found herself hitting the slide, she winced in pain. "That's gonna bruise." she thought, but either way though, she was alive.

"Watch out!!!" she shouted at Sean, who was still on the floor in front of the slide. She found herself jumping up, and thankfully over Sean, using the speed from the slide to vault her over. As she hit the floor, she executed an aikido roll. "Owwwww..." she muttered, rubbing her newly bruised shoulder. "I need to practice that more often. She blinked a few times, regaining her bearings before standing up and looking around. She found herself right in front of another wall of darkness... and since the last patch, she really didn't want to delve into that yet. With that, she turned around. "Wowwww." the room was massive!!! And besides the darkness behind them, there were no shadows... She shook her head, deciding not to try to figure out how in the world there was light with no shadow. She then stared at the statue, it was weird to say the least. "Neptune?" she mused out loud. She then noticed the state of Sean and Bright. "What happened to you guys?" she asked, staring at the frost that covered them from head to toe. She then looked at her arm, nope, it was frost free.

In another moment down went Hound after them, never once considering how in the world he was to get out again. The hell-hole went straight down like falling down a fair deep well.

Either the hole was very deep, or he fell very slowly, for he had plenty of time as he went down to look about him and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, he tried to look down and make out what he was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then he looked at the sides of the hole, and noticed that they were stone like a castle's wall.

`Well!' thought Hound to himself, `after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! Though a healing factor already makes that happen... '

Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end! `I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?' he thought. `I must be getting somewhere near the center of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think. Either that or this is a whole new pocket dimension, or perhaps another plane of existence... like hell.'

When suddenly he entered a large room, below him a slide of pure light, as he landed it was like touching a rainbow, or rather how he imagined touching a rainbow would be. Instead of sliding he kicked off and landed off to the side with out a sound in a rather shoddy attempt to meld back into the shadows. More than likely the three supers now knew of his existence, but if he was luck he would still be able to take what ever demonic force that was about to be unleashed by surprise. 'Remember, if it asks if you are a god, say yes. Always say yes. And for the love of god, do not imagine the state puff marshmallow man.'

Hound realized he had been holding his breath and exhaled all at once. To his surprise he could see his breath, in fact, now that he thought about it, it was rather cold here... Shit. Hell Froze over! That is never a good sign.

His fall was stopped by a rainbow like sustance. As he landed on the wet ground. He was takin aback by the room.Expansive and majestic. It was all too beautiful. The luminescent waterfall. Giant ornate statue. It all was too sureal. Sean had no idea what to do. He was overcome. Shivering slightly from the frost that coated him. With a thought it turned warm,evaporating away. As he retunred to Brights side. Wrapping his arms around him. As the smell of the ocean still wafted into his nostrils. It was pleasent. Alice came down not too long after him. Followed by a strange man. Who he didn't know. In fact who the hell was he? The water on the floor flexed. Then moving to form writhinglashing tentacles around Sean. He didn't trust the strange man. So he was prepared for anything. Even having to kill him.

Brightside pulled Sean close, glad that he was ok. He didn't want to cause another emotional scene; one was enough for a day. "Well, at least we're not dead, right?" Brightside shivered a little, pulling closer to Sean; though the frost on him was melting, the spray from the water fall made the air misty, and slightly chilly. It didn't help that there was no heating to speak of inside the giant stone room.

Then, two more people decided to go down the dark stairs of doom, and Brightside was incredibly thankful that he had forgotten to get rid of the slide. They slid down harmlessly - albeit pretty chilly for at least one of them. Brightside looked more closely at the girl and, what do you know, it was the same one that had snuck into the warehouse. Brightside sighed; this wasn't going to end well. "Look, little lady, you really need to- HOLY FUCK IS THAT SASQUATCH?!" Sadly, he couldn't seem to keep his voice down; his words echoed throughout the strange room, repeating him many times over. "Uh...how're you, Bigfoot? Hopefully not into randomly killing people, right?" Thankfully, Brightside wasn't afraid; after all, Bigfoot wasn't voodoo, he was just a big half-ape, half-human...thing.

Alice's attention was immediately diverted by another flash of movement. She watched as what appeared to be a homeless man landed silently, obviously hoping that bs wouldn't be noticed... he was. Sean reacted with obvious hostility, pulling move that distinctively reminded her of An episode of Avatar. Then... then Brightside noticed him. He was apparently talking to her at fist, but whatever train of thought he was on seemed to be derailed by the "Sasquatch". She paused for a moment, partially transfixed by the echo. "Later." she thought before looking at the people that were in the room with her. Alice her head, wondering what in the world she got herself into. She once again paused,"Oh what the heck, it's later." With that, she took a deep breath and shouted, "ECHO!!!!" smiling gleefully as her cry was repeated, echoing throughout the room. That urge sated, she turned back to the three men. "Ok... so what now?"

As Hound expected, they saw him. But to his delight, no super giant evil demon god was currently visible and threatening their continued existence. However to Hound's dismay, he and the other super powered beings were about to fall into one of the oldest clichés that has existed as long as comics have.

One hero meets another hero, and immediately one of them assumes the other is a villain. Instead of talking it out, they fight. The fight lasts for 2 or 3 chapters, then they realise the truth, and everyone laughs. Thankfully because it was a comic book world, no one would die. This wasn't a comic book, and someone most definitely could die.

Hound knew full well he had too.... Did he just call me a sasquatch? No, no, bigger things here, focus. Focus. Focus on the big picture. Hound knew full well he was going to have to use all of his cunning, charismatic, diplomacy skills to fix this.

In his head, Hound planned to say "I am not your enemy. I am here to help, I saw the power unleashed and feared the accidental release of monsters. In hopes of aiding you, I followed so we could crush what ever evil appeared. I am here to help you."

However Hound still had almost no practise at speaking in the last seven years, so what came out was very different... "Enemy... monsters... I... crush.... you..."

With a frown, he realised what he sounded like. He would have to write it out, so he reached into his side back to find a working pen and paper, while searching, he pulled out his long, hunting blade to make it easier, not thinking about how it probably looked to be drawing a weapon...

Sean looked at the guy caustious of his action. Then he said something. Now it was sure. He was an enemy. Sean had to kill him. A tentacle lashed out. Aiming to strike the guy down. After all. He only looked like a dirty hobo. Yet Sean knew that looks could be decieving. The ends froze into deadly sharp ice spears. All able to at least peirce the man. While he kept close to Bright. Afterall it wasn't only him he was protcting. As a tendril of water reached to grab Alice and oull her towrds him. She was his friend to. So he had two people to worry about. That was the life of a Tough Guy though. Having to portect everyone. So Sean was always ready for a challenge.

Brightside held up his hand at the hostile Sasquatch, letting a little of his essence flow out, but he didn't create a weapon quite yet. He wasn't sure if he'd need that or a shield. "Comon now, Mr. Hairy, let's be reasonable. I don't want to have to stain the floor." It was too late though; Sean had already attacked the creature. Brightside let his energy form into a simple, disk-like shield, preparing for some manic attack by the beast. Well shit. We're gonna have to kill something, AND probably fight sea monsters or something. Just great.

Alice slowly backed away from the man at his words... but... he still didn't seem hostile, even when he took out the knife. Besides an attacker would have already been ready with a weapon in his hands... unless he was the stupidest attacker ever. Just as she was about to point that out though, she found a tendril of water grabbing her and pulling back towards Sean as he started his attack. "WAIT! I DON'T THINK HE'S HOSTILE!" Alice shouted frantically. She watched as Brightside prepared for a fight as well, "C'mon!!!!" she said, exasperated, "Can't you guys WAIT!?"