(no subject)

[etcircenses]

The fog seems especially heavy in the hours before dusk, and night begins it's creep easily enough with the light already so obscured.

But night had not fallen quite yet when the air raid sirens begin their howling, echoing through the fog and filling the streets with their moans.

The sirens last for what seems a long time, but in reality barely fills 5 minutes. Still, 5 minutes is a long time with that noise permeating the air. As the howl, the fog thickens even more, visibility cutting down to mere inches.

Then, suddenly they stop. A moment of silence, which ends with a growing grumble through the whole town, seeming to come from under ground. The fog sucks back, being pulled away towards the crevasses at the end of town. As it goes, the town starts to change.

To rot.

Paint curls up from walls, dry board crumbles away, ceilings sag and in place, collapse. Some buildings retain their structure, but some show their inner skeletons, nearly reduced to beams and columns. The cracks exude heat, shifting and widening, sometimes slowly, sometimes suddenly.

It isn't just the cracks in the ground that heat up. The whole town seems to have a fire under it, hot, wet heat shimmering over the ground. The various monsters idling around are no longer idling, now aggressive and out for blood.

The town is a sight, and not one for sore eyes.

Except, along main street, one building is a beacon of normal. It looks the same, worn down, but whole. An old theater, The Mayan, with peeling and worn looking cravings of creatures and motifs clearly mimicking it's name sake. Inside is an old fashion, two floor theater, complete with a concession stand down stairs.

And anyone who takes shelter here will find the concession stand fully stocked. The soda machine works, the popcorn maker keeps refilling, and every time the hot dog maker is opened it's full of hot dogs and buns. The candy boxes, too, are full and restock themselves.

It would be perfect if it wasn't full of people who want you dead.

OOC|

A map of the theater can be found here.

Throw any questions here.

You can rp in this post like a party post, or use this information to make your own threads.

Hellrena will be in effect until a second post returning things to normal, I am planning a few days currently.

Comments

Closed to Tony and Stebe

[worldsaway]

As if it hadn't been enough already. As if the fog, the beasts and the drained manner in which his strength carried him had not been enough to satisfy them. Now? There's heat. Not merely the blaze of a summer's day, but temperatures that threatened to melt the entire arena to the ground. The house wasn't safe anymore. If they weren't safe, Thor could be certain others were in an even worse state. Their numbers were already thinning with the loss of Natasha, a loss Thor could feel through the remains of their group, their only choice was to move onward in the hopes of finding a shelter immune to the blistering heat.

So here they are, three men looking more bedraggled than the cast of a Hangover movie, trekking through the heat as best they can. Thor eyes Stark and his burdens wearily, but he doesn't want to make it too obvious that he's watching over him, so his gaze occasionally shifts to Steve to make sure he's as reliable as he's proven himself to be. And he is. "I've had baths warmer than this." He mutters, trying to fool his ego into thinking this is nothing. Unfortunately, he can't fool himself into thinking he didn't hear a rustle in the distance, he's sure it was audible enough for the others to hear it too. He pauses, glancing around curiously, his hand gripping that wrench just a little tighter.

[aboveangrybees]

The oppressive heat already had Steve stripped out of the warmest of his clothes, not wanting them to get filthy with sweat and rendering them useless for warmth later. He needed to stay at the top of his game, not to weigh himself down with the heat anymore than he already was. With Natasha dead and Bucky gone in his grief over it, Steve knew he needed to assure his remaining allies' safety before running off to find and help his friend. Especially since every time he looked at Stark and saw the man trying to cover up how much he was struggling, he knew he'd never feel right about leaving them now.

Not that Thor needed the help, the man was as able as ever. Steve just knew it wouldn't be fair to hoist Stark off on to him. "What, do they bathe you in lava back home?" The humor in his voice is definitely wry.

But then his attention is grabbed when Thor pauses and looks around, causing Steve to grip his 'shield' and crowbar more securely, trying to focus his senses on whatever Thor had seen or heard.

[arrogantalloy]

Tony had been in hot before, hot was easy. However the Afghanistan deserts usually like to make themselves a terrible dry heat, not an oppressive humid heat.

It turns out that Tony is not at all a fan of humid heat. His hair was all but clinging to his head from his sweating, when he saw Steve remove his coat he stubbornly tried to hold out in his longer, because in his mind he had to prove to them he could easily keep up even though he's not a superhuman or an alien god-like surf commercial. Though taking off the heavy coat hadn't really made his life easier because he still had to carry it along with his pillow case full of his smoke/fart bombs, and the tools he refused to abandon to the melting house. Those things alone were making life hard enough.

Tony was also refusing to think about Natasha's death, while she wasn't the Natasha he knew, she was close enough so he wasn't taking it all which meant he was looking more quiet and determined. If someone with Natasha's skills could be taken out, then Tony was most certainly on borrowed time. His inner contemplation helped him to ignore Thor and Steve's growing conversation. Until the rustling caught his attention, frowning he reaches into his pillow case cautiously.

"I have a great quote for right now. But it'd be lost on both of you." Is all Tony can bring himself to say.

[worldsaway]

"Of sorts." Thor smirks at Steve, enjoying any distraction he can get from the unpleasantness. He's down to his last layers too, the only thing stopping him from going shirtless is the reasonable concern that the skin of his back will take as well to the sun as the buildings around them. He can't help but notice that Stark seems insistent on wearing his jacket. He's not sure if it's because he's figured out something clever or if he's being a fool, but it's the least of his worries now.

Instinctively, Thor's arm moves to draw Tony back away from the ever increasing scuttles and clicks of familiar beasts. "Spiders." He murmurs, but he hardly needs to, before he can announce them they're swarming toward the group. There's at least five of them, all impressively big and impressively hungry. Thor wastes no time charging forward, getting closer than anyone would like to the monster so he can bring his wrench down on its foul skull... Do spiders have skulls? Who cares. What startles him more than anything is that a wave of electricity seems to exit his wrench and meet the spider, sending it into convulsions before it drops dead.

He lifts the wrench closer for inspection, looking over his shoulder at the other two. "Do they always do that?"

[aboveangrybees]

Steve almost cringes when he see's Thor move to protect Stark like that. The genius was like an indignant toddler, he was most definitely not going to react well, but he doesn't have time to pay attention to that as the spiders swarm forward.

With his makeshift shield raised, Steve moves forward, catching sight of Thor's move before he bashing another the spider with the shield, sending it flying back with much less effort than it's normally taken recently. His eyes widen in surprise at seeing the spider flail around on it's back now. Sure, his strength hadn't really been that compromised, it just took a little more effort to effect the amount of strength he was used to, but that, that was like how it used to be.

"No, they don't," it's a distracted answer to Thor's question as his eyes linger on the new dent in his shield. But he doesn't have time to really think about it as another spider catches him distracted, its acid venom eating into the arm as he shoves his crowbar into it's head with an ease that's comfortably familiar.

[arrogantalloy]

Tony is a very logical man, he's lauded for it in magazines. So logically he knows that Thor is just making sure Tony doesn't get hurt, knowing that he doesn't have the same fighting skills as either blonde does. So it makes sense to keep him safe.

However.

Tony is also highly emotional, a part of him that isn't always covered in magazines unless someone important to him finds themselves in intensive care. His emotional side is really a lot quicker to react when he's under stress like now.

"Do you want to not do that in future, Beach Party?" His voice tense as he scowls, focusing on Thor more than the spiders, until the larger man charges for them which it really dawns on Tony that this maybe isn't the time. So instead he digs into his pillow case. The best thing in the bag that he could actually use is a long screwdriver. Because a smoke bomb wouldn't be at all useful right now and he isn't even sure spiders can smell which also makes it not helpful right now.

Having not moved since Thor moved him he looks up just to see the electricity run through the creepy arachnid.

"No one would make an electrified wrench like that." Tony says somewhere between insulted and confused that it happened.

As Steve ends his own spiders life after it attacked him Tony tightens his grip on his screwdriver as he measures the merits of trying to take on any of the other spiders with just a simple tool and a pillow case. He really wishes he'd taken off his coat. Also.

"I want my suit." he grumbles to himself.

[worldsaway]

Unfortunately, Tony's ego is the last thing he cares to protect. It's an instinctive move, the heat had been weighing on him the hardest and he'd been carrying the heaviest burden. It's no more or less than he'd do for anybody in a similar situation, so Tony's protests fall on deaf ears. They can bicker about it later, for now there is only spiders.

"Then something has changed." He murmurs, taking a quick glance at Steve making his own efforts in battle. It's more apparent than ever just watching him for a brief moment that his abilities have heightened, and to test his theory, Thor kicks an approaching spider square in it's middle. The power behind the kick comes easily, sending the beast flying backward and crashing through the weak remains of a fence.

"A change I can appreciate, at long last."

[aboveangrybees]

Steve is with Thor on this being a change he can appreciate.

There's no time to mind his injury, instead moving to get between Stark and a spider who's got it's eyes on the man. While he doesn't think Stark is entirely helpless, he also knows the man is not equipped to handle one of these spiders bowling him over.

So, he uses his shield to backhand the advancing spider into the side of a nearby car before casting a look over his shoulder at the man.

"Stark, protect the flank while Thor and I weed out the main cluster. These things are aggressive, we need to make sure they don't get the jump on us," yep, that's his Captain voice he's using.

[arrogantalloy]

"Ah. Yeah." Tony tightens his grip on his screw driver and turns to face the flank. There's nothing there, he knows that however he obeys the order nonetheless.

"Just make sure you really test that shield out so I can see just how good my welds are."

It's time to fight, that much is obvious. Even Tony isn't such a brat or a fool that he would try and get himself in over his head on something.

[worldsaway]

"Perhaps you could join the spiders, Stark." Thor banters back, clearly getting back into a zone of confidence where he feels he's able to joke whilst multitasking. He's kicking, thrashing and electrifying them all with an air of absolute glee.

"Build them watches." He continues, lifting his wrench high and bringing it down hard on a spider's head. "Perhaps then they will not come at such a bad time!" He chuckles to himself, grabbing a spider by the leg and using it to propel it into the distance.

[aboveangrybees]

"Pretty sure guys like this like bad timing," he shield bashes one spider away from him. "Set the watches for the wrong time, maybe that'll fix it," hell why not banter back. He can see Thor's first comment not sitting well with Stark, but he hopes he's wrong. Maybe the snarking will help.

Steve moves fast, throwing himself up and over a spider and slamming the sharpest side of his shield down on it's midsection, putting his falling weight into it. "They're holding up so far," he says it to Tony after his shield messily severs the spider in two.

[arrogantalloy]

"You know. There's probably a market for that. What with all those legs and eyes" Tony quips back. "Might not even have to put them to the wrong time. People with watches are never on time these days."

A spider starts to approach him, he stabs at it wildly goring out an eye which makes it skirt back in pain before coming at him again.

"I want my suit." he sulks to himself but considering how close he is o the others they've probably heard it.

[worldsaway]

"Perhaps the power attracts them." Thor muses, watching curiously as Steve splits one open as if somehow he expects it to ease his concerns. The only thing that could be worse is if a thousand little Lokis burst out of it or something to that effect. He watches Stark for a moment when the spider approaches, as if realising a spider coming for him proves they don't seek power.

"Should we retreat or push forward?" He looks to Cap to make the big choices.

[aboveangrybees]

Steve takes one quick glance around to assess their situation and sees a few more on the rooftops nearby, interested in joining by the looks of it. Things aren't turning in their favor, the numbers against them too high and possibly growing, no fear to drive these things off. That coupled with the unfortunate fact that right now Stark is more a disadvantage without his suit, staying is a bad idea.

At this rate they'll get surrounded.

"Retreat, you and Stark get out of here, find some place safe, I'll keep them distracted and catch up later," Steve leaves no argument in his voice. He takes a step, spinning and backhands another spider with his shield, sending it flying.

[worldsaway]

Until the last moment, Thor is doing his best to thin out the numbers. For as long as he can he's pretending not to hear it until he feels satisfied with how much damage he's done on the hoard. He won't strike up a debate now, but Stark might, and he hasn't the patience for it.

As such, Stark is getting a good shove in the safest direction, Thor keeping to his back to fend off any approaching spiders while he can. "Keep your wits about you." He calls out after Steve, urging Stark forward as he comes.

[arrogantalloy]

Tony had started to turn, when Steve said for him and Thor to leave without him to object. He didn't get to, as he suddenly got distracted with the need to suddenly try and find where his feet are when Thor shoves him roughly.

He splutters and tries to give him an indignant look but doesn't quite manage it. Knowing that Steve's answer is still the right choice he does start to move along with Thor's hearding.

"Don't stop to sign autographs and just catch up."

[aboveangrybees]

He's really glad to see that they aren't arguing it, but instead doing what is clearly the best option, even if maybe not the most wanted option. It's hard to leave a teammate behind like this, but he appreciates their faith in him.

"Don't you know, I'm more the kissing babies type!" He calls back to Stark. The parting comment from Thor is appreciated, even earns a respectful nod, but he has no time to see if the man saw it, instead now focusing on his task.

Steve draws the spiders' attention to him as he moves in the opposite direction of the others, more into the fray, while banging his shield with his crowbar between bouts of bashing and stabbing the creatures. It works enough to herd the spiders towards him and offer the other two a mostly clear escape.