Issue 1 Downtime

"Don't break out the champagne yet," Sean said his hand crackling again before he launched another bolt of lightning at Lora.

This time, she was ready. Famine launched herself to her feet and whipped out something that had been hidden on her back. It instantly telescoped, and she brought it to bear in front of herself. The top portion actually looked like a pair of scales, though Famine brandished it like a staff.

The lightning bolt struck a dome-shaped field that shielded Famine and dispersed the lightning bolt. With a gesture of her hand, more the miasma erupted from the ground where it had been eating the grass and, as she was finding Nick and Sean to be her biggest hindrances, Famine sent directed the black plumed to converge toward them, hoping that there was some direction that Nick in particular wasn't shielded from.

And here I thought that learning to call the Winds of Watoomb wasn't going to be useful any time in the near future, Victoria mused, mustering her concentration as she worked her way through the spell to touch the winds, sending them whirling through the air to cut through the miasma and gather it up.

"I have had all I can deign to stand of your meddling," Famine declared as she rushed toward Victoria, spraying some of the black fluid from her hand towards her.

"Bitch, you don't even know who you're playing with," Victoria answered in a low growl, running her arms through a gathering motion as she chanted another spell, sending a torrent of ice forming through the air, first at the fluid and then at Lora.

Nick's power was already spread so thin that Famine's extra mist was enough to begin breaching his perimeter.

"Damnit..." he muttered, dropping a couple of containment shields to shore up his last line of defense.

Famine brought up the staff in time to block the effects of the ice on herself, but the liquid hit the grass harmlessly as a solid chunk. She drew out her dagger once more and made a vicious slash toward Vicki.

"I'm going to have the worst headache after all of this," Brett muttered, as he closed his eyes and created three more copies, sending them all toward Famine to help out Vicki a bit.

Sean watched as the others moved into close combat with Lora.

"Let us bind the darkness," Sean said bringing his sword down towards the ground. Ghostly chains sprouted from the spell that was lighting the area and tried to entangle Famine.

"And you look so cute with your little knife, it almost makes me feel bad to do this," Victoria smirked. She gave her wrist a flick and the spell renewed, this time scattered through the air before her so that the ice formed in needle-like shards that shot in at Lora.

She brought the staff to bear once more before her, creating a force shield which did a pretty good job at deflecting the ice...

"The knife is a simple tool for a simple job. En Sabah Nur gave me something more complex for more...persistent problems."

...but Famine's attention was so focused on Victoria that she took no note of the shackles until one of them had clamped onto her above the ankle.

"You are a simple tool," Victoria scoffed, sweeping her own dagger-wand in the air in a complicated gesture, causing an implosion of energy on the forcefield to try to overload it.

The force field held, but only barely. Victoria was easily straining it to its limits with the spell.

Unfortunately for Famine, the magical shackle was becoming too much of a detriment for her to allow it to remain in place. She slammed her staff into the ground, which successfully unbound the magic and destroyed it.

Brett stepped in just then - or rather, three of them. They fought to restrain her for the moment. It wasn't easy, given how much she struggled. One was knifed in the heart, and another was hit in the head quite hard by the staff-scale-thing, but the last held her just long enough...

...for two more of Sean's shackles to grab hold. For now, her defense was rather wide-open.

"Pies are done!" Rob shouts, stabbing a staff into the ground, "Guess what I legally own?"

There was a pulse of green energy along the ground and suddenly an explosion of plant growth. Vines and trees whipped at Lora, attempting to hold her into the place as a veritable forest rose up around everyone.

Famine fought back by spraying around more of the black material...to little avail. For every vine, stalk, and tree she killed, it seemed as though two more would take its place. Rob's machine grew more life than Famine could seem to take away. Ultimately, she was suspended several feet in the air from numerous vines.

"...I think it worked," Brett said, looking around at the sudden forest, astonished.

"Remember what happened last time you said that?" Sean asked as he sheathed his sword.

"Mmmm... much better than getting Gaia angry for me doing that," Victoria admitted, smirking up at her.

"I'll just keep my mouth shut when someone wins the battle for us from now on," he said to Sean.

"Initiate Chariot Protocol," Famine muttered from her place among the vines. A small red light on her wrist started flashing.

Thanks to all of the sound buffering provided by the vegetation, the X-Men probably wouldn't hear the approach of the robotic black horse. As it swooped down through the trees, she gave another verbal command. "Initiate Ra Protocol."

As the mechanical steed came into view for all of them, several slots opened up on either side of it. Quite a few very, very bright flares rained down into the newly-made forest near where the X-Men stood. Famine sprayed out more of the black mist -- just enough to burn away the vines binding her arms, legs and body.

She hopped down onto the machine as it hovered just below her, sheathing her dagger and retracting her scale staff to put it back into place, before pressing a button somewhere on the machine's 'neck.'

"We are not finished," she called out, as a brilliant field of light started enveloping and spinning around both horse and horsewoman. And, with a flash and a boom, Famine had suddenly vanished.

"Well," Robert says, "That was a pretty successful test run, all things considered."

Sean stared at the space then looked over at Brett.

"See," Sean said before beginning to chuckle.

Brett just shook his head, half-smirking, and made a 'zipping' motion across his lips.

Dammit, Lora...

The sudden plant growth had given Nick a much needed reprieve, but by the time he got his second wind the enemy had fled.

"Why is it always the 'superior' ones that run away like fuckin' pansies?" he groaned as he walked up.