The Lower Volga - Wither and Rot

[Lora Zalesky]

Famine rode on the back of her robotic black horse as it flew at a very low altitude over seemingly endless barley fields in Western Russia. From her high perch, she spread out her open hands and sprayed a vaporous substance from them down into the crops. It wasn't like the reddish acid she had once used, but was instead inky black. As it landed on the plants, it quickly ate away at them, draining them; and then, like a dark tide, it would wash further and further afield, consuming all in its wake.

[Robert West]

As the Blackbird descended for interception, Rob glanced through the window at the flying Famine.

"Does this thing have any weapons? I forgot to check."

[Sean Hall]

Sean sat in the the Blackbird garbed in his own outfit. The sword he'd been 'given' currently in his lap.

"Just the team in it was my understanding," Sean said.

[Victoria Valentine]

"And that should be enough," Victoria said. "Now everyone leave me alone for a few minutes, I'm trying to tell the Earth to cleanse itself."

[Brett Wakely]

"Capture if at all possible. Right." He exhaled through his mouth, nervously. Somehow, he had a bad feeling about this.

[Lora Zalesky]

The Horsewoman looked up sharply and narrowed her unearthly ivory and jet eyes. The horse suddenly began dropping in altitude into some of the taller barley further afield. Apparently she was trying to throw them off of her trail, though both she and the horse were taller than the field of grain they were riding through.

[Victoria Valentine]

"Oh, darling, that was rather stupid, wasn't it," Victoria murmured.

She sent out a spell to the earth, touching the soil, the plants, the seeds... imploring all of it into rapid growth. The grain that the horse was riding through, the grain seeds that were kicking up at her... all of it to burst into growth to entangle her.

[Lora Zalesky]

The steed locked up in the plant growth very quickly. Once it started invading her personal space, Famine knew what she had to do.

She sprayed the black substance from her hands in an arc, which quickly eat away at the grain. "Ride on. I will summon you later," she said to the mechanical horse's computer as they rode out of the field and into glassland, near an old farmhouse. She hopped off of its back and rode away, flying just above the ground

Famine looked over at the Blackbird and at the approaching X-Men. Fittingly, she was mostly clad in black, some of it being functional armor, some of it elegant, flowing black lace and velvet. It all matched her hair, and the strangely familiar dark veins running visibly down her lower arm.

Even with those differences, though, the shape of her face and the smirk on her lips gave her identity away.

[Brett Wakely]

"Oh my God. That's Lora."

[Nick Varkan]

"Which can only mean Rede is one of them too... should've fuckin' known," Nick said.

[Robert West]

"No point waiting around," Rob says, as the Blackbird lands and the door opens, "Let's hit her hard."

[Lora Zalesky]

"How pleasantly unexpected! I did not anticipate seeing you while I was working so very hard. I am afraid I cannot bear any further interruptions right now, though. I know that I have caused a large dent, but there is still so much left to eat in the world. Entirely too much, do you not agree?"

The smirk left her lips, her expression changing from something wicked to something more sober. "En Sabah Nur has made me greater than ever I was. Know this. You are among the strong, and it is not my purpose to eliminate the lot of you. If you do not leave me be, you will not survive this encounter unscathed."

As she said this, an ominous hissing sound could be heard in the fields behind her.

[Nick Varkan]

"Greater means having Apocalypse's hand up your ass. Who knew?" Nick joked dryly, trying really hard not to imagine what that hissing was.

[Robert West]

"En Saban Nur's philosophy is a load of bullshit," Rob says, "It was outdated back in the 1900's."

"But what can you expect from an old fool that probably thinks that irrigation is the height of civilized development."

[Sean Hall]

Sean gripped the pommel of his sword as he watched the other members of his team banter with the super villain. He began drawing power into himself as he waited to see what exactly was making that hissing sound.

[Brett Wakely]

"Lora, please. Stop."

[Victoria Valentine]

"I really don't think that he thinks too highly of irrigation, either. Just makes more work for his little fangirl," Victoria mused as she walked up. Of those present, only Sean would likely be able to sense the power whispering around her... subtle, strong... and angry.

[Lora Zalesky]

"Very well. You have made your choice." The hissing grew louder and louder, closer and closer...until the X-Men could see the stalks of grain behind Lora overcome by the same black, withering tide they had seen consuming the crops before. As the plants were overcome, they made the same hissing, cracking sound.

Lora reached out with her right hand, and a black cloud of miasma erupted from the field...and flew straight toward the X-Men.

[Sean Hall]

Sean drew his sword and channeled power through it before stabbing it into the ground. The power he drew was much less subtle. The ground cracked and a wall of flame sprang up between the team and the oncoming miasma.

[Robert West]

"I need to set something up," Rob says, reaching into the duffel bag around his shoulder, "Give me a couple of minutes!"

[Victoria Valentine]

"Your acid de-fogger? Or your Crazy Bitch Zapper?" Victoria quipped as she touched the earth. Ahead of them, the ground rumbled, then heaved in Lora's direction.

[Lora Zalesky]

Across the line of fire, they could hear a laugh. A moment later, Famine leapt through the air over the flame, carried by more of the inky, black matter. As she dropped down, she drew a mean-looking, black-handled dagger from somewhere in her outfit and fell upon Sean, striking out with her dagger as the black cloud followed her, temporarily enveloping and obscuring both of them in the stygian substance.

[Sean Hall]

The wall of flames around the group dimmed significantly as Sean was forced to focus on a crazy woman trying to stab him. Sean didn't block with the sword, but with his arm. It had turned to stone or at least some other suitably strong substance. It was hard to tell when the two were shrouded in an ink like cloud. He then swung the sword at the horseman who was apparently intent on poking him full of holes.

[Brett Wakely]

Brett, meanwhile, donning a pair of brass knuckles, created four illusions of himself, all of which he sent toward Seth and Famine.

[Nick Varkan]

Nick threw up a TK shield around them (sans Sean) to keep out the miasma.

"Hurry it up Doc, I'm not sure how long I can hold this shit back."

[Victoria Valentine]

"Then be offensive instead of defensive," Victoria said as, protected by the wrath of the earth-spirits, her dagger formed in her hand and she dove in with Sean to take the fight to Famine.

[Lora Zalesky]

Famine's blade sparked as it struck Sean's arm. The stone that he had put there sizzled for a moment before Lora leapt back from the arc of his sword. The tip of the blade just grazed her armor.

The black substance, along with causing a stinging, burning sensation, would leave those exposed to it feeling a bit weaker, like they were, well, hungry.

Famine dispatched one of the Brett copies with a slash of her dagger across its throat, and a second with a stab to the stomach. The third managed to give her a bit of trouble by parrying her blade with a brass knuckle. Once she saw the fourth copy and Victoria both closing the gap, though, she drew more of the black haze that had replaced her acid around herself, instantaneously.

[Robert West]

Nick threw up a TK shield around them (sans Sean) to keep out the miasma.

"Hurry it up Doc, I'm not sure how long I can hold this shit back."

"You can't rush science!" Rob says, halfway through building some sort of apparatus.

[Brett Wakely]

Brett, cursing to himself, focused his thoughts on the black cloud that Famine had created around herself, trying to discern where she might be hiding within it.

"There you are!" He sent his two remaining copies into the dark cloud, their direction a good indicator for Victoria (or anyone else, for that matter) of Lora's location.

[Sean Hall]

Sean watched as Brett's copies ran into the cloud and tried to draw a bead on where Lora must be. He didn't like the pangs of hunger he was feeling.

"Oshtur guide my hand as I wield Polaris," Sean said as magic crackled from his sword. He pointed it towards where he thought Lora was and let loose with a bolt of incandescent energy.

[Lora Zalesky]

Sean's aim was pretty much right on. The light provided some illumination within the toxic cloud, including a dark silhouette. This gave everyone something to aim for, including the two Brett copies, which Famine evidently had to immediately begin tangling with.

[Victoria Valentine]

Goddess, what is that? Victoria gasped, falling back, deciding that no, a direct assault may not be a good idea. She fought the stabbing pangs of hunger as she focused, beginning to weave a cleansing spell to ensnare Famine and the gunk that she was spewing at them.

[Brett Wakely]

Brett tried to fight Famine through the inky cloud, but with only the light from Sean's spell to work with, it was hard trying to keep track of her. Thankfully, the illusions didn't have to deal with the wasting effects of the cloud, but that didn't make fighting someone (mostly) in the dark very easy.

[Lora Zalesky]

There was little Famine could do about the lingering effects of Sean's light spell, but for the moment, she was okay inside of the cloud except for dealing with Brett's copies. She grinned malevolently at one of the illusions, which was unknowingly very close to her in the darkness.

"I taught you most everything you know, fool. Do not presume to think that you can defeat me." She jammed her dagger into the cheat of the illusion, and it instantly vanished...right before the final copy grabbed and tried to restrict her from behind.

[Brett Wakely]

"I have a hold on her, but not for long," the real Brett grunted as he stood next to the others, eyes closed as he concentrated on controlling the copy. "Do your worst."

But please, don't hurt her too badly... he silently hoped and wished.

[Sean Hall]

Sean was perhaps less worried than Brett, but he didn't know Lora that well. His off hand crackled with electricity before he sent a bolt of lightning towards Lora.

[Lora Zalesky]

There was a shriek from inside the dark, fluid mass, which suddenly seemed to lose a lot of its cohesion. The dark vapor slowly began to diffuse, spreading outward from where Lora had concentrated it...though it was still too thick to see through it very clearly.

[Brett Wakely]

Brett jolted back a bit from where he was standing.

"Oof. I think I got some feedback from that lighting there." He rubbed his wrist under his nose, and came away with blood. The electrical bolt had destroyed his last copy, but...

"That blast of yours hit her proper. I think she's out."

[Lora Zalesky]

Famine lay like that for a few moments, probably long enough for the X-Men to start feeling like it was all over...

...and then, instead of continuing to drift outward, the miasma sank into the ground all at once. Black patches spread into the ground, from from each of them erupted a plume of the substance, straight up.

And then Famine looked up.

[Nick Varkan]

Nick quickly dissolved his shield and put up new ones around severe plumes including the one that had sneaked right under his defenses.

"Do what you're gonna do Doc!" he groaned, his powers strained.