dc_eldritch:

Slaughter Swamp has seen it's far share of dark deeds even before the place got it's name. A place of dark untapped power that has resulted in the creation of the being known as Solomon Grundy. Such power would would eventually attract someone who wished to use it. But such power does not always wish to be used and can and will try to defend itself.

In a pulse of dark power all of the dead in Slaughter Swamp arose as zombies to defend it. It also sent out a call to bring it's prodigal son home to help.

just_a_stranger:

Rutland, Vermont

Though Victoria was capable of long distance travel on her own, and of bringing other people with her when required, she had, instead, opted for Zachary's spells in taking them there.  A bit more obvious, perhaps, but also a good test of their enemy's reactions.

Frankly, Victoria was occasionally of the opinion that Rutland out to be razed to the ground and then mystically erased from memory.  Too many times over the years she'd been doing this, the trail had led back to this sleepy little town.  It had exactly two things going for it: a super-hero themed Halloween parade, and mystical phenomena.

"Be on your guard," she told the others.  "I am sensing... something."

just_a_stranger:

The Oblivion Bar was a place where mystical types from all corners of time and space could gather freely, without the need to antagonize each other and compete in their usual frays of Order vs. Chaos, or good vs. evil.

Even Victoria Craft herself was known to occasionally go there and enjoy a small, fruity drink with an umbrella in it.  Especially on the days immediately following the children's return from a vacation.

But angels rubbed shoulders with demons who rubbed shoulders with cowboy ghosts who rubbed shoulders with talking chimps who rubbed shoulders with Fifth Dimensional Imps.

But what Victoria Craft noticed tonight, as she led Salome and Mina to a back table, was the notable absence of anyone whose powers specifically derived from either Order or Chaos.

She sat herself down and spread a map of the United States on the table. 

"There has to be some root cause of all this..."

just_a_stranger:

Victoria Craft was annoyed.  And she was annoyed because she was perplexed.  Confusion was not, by her nature, something she experienced often.  Joy, frustration, annoyance and exasperation (usually when dealing with Zachary), serenity, happiness, pride, these things came easily enough and were part of her life.

But there was very little that outright confused Victoria Craft, and she found the current situation of the world rather annoying.  The forces of magic were... at large in the world in a way which seemed to make no sense.  In the past two weeks, she had made contact with more than a dozen magical users of her acquaintanceship, and of those, four of them had been... not in their right heads.  One a minor practitioner of Order magics who read palms in Greenwich Village, a chaos magic using brother and sister who'd found themselves at odds, and an Order user who kept a magical library whom she'd had to prevent from destroying his own books.  She'd been able to help them fight off the influence, briefly, but had been forced to subdue them for the time.

And even Terrance Thirteen had been calling, sayings that instances of psychotic breaks seemed to have been up, with people blaming rubbish magic.

Neither of her... charges, so to speak, were necessarily fitting of the pattern, but magic always seemed to attract magic wherever it was.  She would feel safer with Mina and Salome where she could keep an eye on them.

The first leg of her journey first brought her to Mina's doorstep, where she knocked.

faustling:

It was time for a much needed break.  After all of the issues that happened with the dead coming back to life, and then catching word of retarded midgets running around, Percy needed to take a breather from the world of non-magical people.  Somehow, the world of magic seemed more...  predictable.  As if that made any sense at all.  At the very least, it was more familiar.  So Percy Shadow Walked to the Oblivion Bar.  He noticed that it had become a place of refuge for the members of Shadowpact so he decided to give it another visit.

too_sexy:

Sally hadn't been looking forward to the trip to Ivy Town. Jude Roth was giving a guest lecture at that architectural school, and the whole family was going to stay for Sally to check out the University.

With how much she and Dad had been Not Talking lately, she wasn't looking forward to time in the car with Daddy trying to make peace. But somehow... it had worked. Dad had admitted he was wrong as they were driving up. He'd apologized to Sally and Daddy for the way he'd been behaving. It was really a relief. Sally was so happy that when they were there, she wasn't slouching and focusing constantly on keeping away the stares, feeling even more vulnerable and miserable because it was too hot to wear her overcoat. She just felt happy and didn't worry about things.

dc_holiday:

A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest. ~Irish Proverb

partdemon:

With all that had happened Mike was glad to get a break from everything. Black Lanterns defeated. Morgan le Fey dead. It had been hell but they had done a lot of good and that’s what really mattered and he could finally get a good night’s sleep again.

He had debated pissing on Morgan le Fey’s grave but somehow he got the feeling that was a bad idea.

He also had the new power to utilize Hellfire to work with. His dad hadn’t been to surprised when he had told him about it though it did seem to worry him a bit.

But now he got a chance to take a break. He was doing a bit of drinking in Oblivion Bar which was a good time and had mentioned it to the other members of Shadowpact if they wanted to come. He even mentioned the doorway there in his mom’s magic shop in Gotham if they couldn’t get themselves of their own power as he couldn’t.

He figured if they had a crowd he might even spring for a back room for the team to hang in.

black_lantern:

Morgan le Fey was back one of those black rings had found enough of her remains after the Demon had killed her to bring her back. It sought to control her but a simple black trinket couldn’t control Morgan le Fey of the Elder Folk with the amount of magic she controlled. Still it was annoying and nagging and she didn’t mind taking a few hearts along the way so long as she could complete her goal.

Even with all her great power and the power of the ring now at her disposal she had been foiled enough not to underestimate those damnable heroes. She needed a distraction to draw their focus away from her and what she was up to.

Flying over the city of London she began to weave her spell speaking in tongues even older than the first settlement man had ever made there in London back before it was ever known as such. Soon a gateway appears on the ground below her glowing with dark magics. Pouring forth from the gate her army of darkness like she used on Camelot all those many years ago. Though this time they reeked with decay and death and bore the symbol of the Black Lanterns upon them though were not Black Lanterns themselves.

“Lay this city to waste,” She commands her army as she flies off to take care of her other business. That should prove to be more than enough of a distraction for anyone who might sense what she was up too.

faustling:

Percy often found himself using the permission he was given to explore Shadowcrest's library whenever he needed to mull over some things.  The magical world had recently experienced the death of Morgan Le Fey.  It was shocking, to say the least.  And before that, the Titans of Myth had risen.  A cult of Cthulu had even become active once again.  His nerves were so easy to get acting up, but reading through magical texts always calmed him down.  So to ease his mind, he started reading through the books in the library at Shadowcrest.

dc_holiday:

There's a piece of paper and a pen attached to a bulletin board. Across the top is written:

New Year's Resolutions
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Anonymous entries accepted.

greengenes:

Mickey had roped off the living room in the JSA Brownstone for the afternoon. She had spent the entire morning getting the food ready and setting up. She had sent out invites to the JLA, Titans (both East and West Coast), Shadowpact, Outsiders, Birds of Prey, and of course, the JSA girls. She had also invited Cindy in case she wanted to come, and Angie, as she was basically a JSA brat herself. Mikey had built her a projection bot, and security bot that would alert her if any of the boys thought to try and see what the girls were up to.

Mickey finished setting up the projector. She had pictures of all the guys from the various teams that she had managed to get to her hands on. She made sure that there would be enough food and drinks for everyone, and waited for people to start arriving.

faustling:

They had all met during the ordeal with the Titans of Myth--some before then--and decided collectively that they should talk.  Percy didn't understand the intentions of the others, but he was there as requested.

first_son:

The Titans of myth being freed from Hades goes beyond just the YJLA. The adults are also working on it, but haven't had a lot of luck, especially with so many of their number in semi-retirement. As such, Jon moved beyond his original plan to hold a meeting of his team, and called to invite representatives of the other teams as well, calling all active roster YJLA, and inviting the other teams to send 1-3 people so things didn't get too crowded. Then they can inform their people what's going on.


"So, folks, we have a big problem. The monsters and beings that have been appearing around the world were freed from the dimension Hades. We don't know how or by who. The Olympian gods have not been forthcoming, even to the Amazons, and even very powerful mystics have been unable to pierce the mystery... though past experience has taught us that's often the case with affairs of the gods. They limit their direct interference in mortal affairs, in exchange, mortals have a very hard time dealing directly with them. Sadly, even though the original Grecian Titans don't have any such compact, to learn what happened, we'd need to get past Hades' protections. The Greek gods may be incapacitated, or may be somehow bound by the compact of the gods. Its very possible that once the original Titans reached Earth, their captors couldn't directly interfere."

He sighs. "Direct confrontation isn't the likely answer. Single gods have fought groups including my father, Wonder Woman and a handful of other senior leaguers. Many of the Titans have the power of an entire team. The Titans are more powerful still - the only reason the Greek Gods defeated them was due to greater unity and better tactics. Don't mistake me - they can be beaten, but we're going to need a good plan, and possibly more allies and greater resources. At this point, I'm open to ideas."

dc_monsters:

The great and might Chimera was flying around the city of Metropolis. It spouted fire from its lion head as it flew closer to the ground to attack the masses.

If no one interfered soon the Chimera would live up to its gruesome legacy.

too_sexy:

Sally Roth's dads rode with her on the train to Gotham. It was one of their more awkwardly quiet family trips ever, though she supposed it was better than going to school like this.
Her stepdad tried to talk to her reassuringly as she hunched herself over in her Granny Flores's overcoat. It wasn't particularly cold, but it was the best defense she could think of against the turned heads.

Eventually, they reached Gotham. Her dads helped her find the home of the lady Mr. Blood had mentioned, and then headed off to deal with some of her father's business stuff, get some food, and have a long talk of their own. Her stepdad initially wanted to stay with her at Miss Craft's, but her father didn't think it was a good idea. "It's not like you'll understand any of it," he'd said, and then silenced the oncoming angry retort with whispers he thought Sally couldn't hear, about making it a 'girl thing' to make it easier on her.

So Salome Roth was standing in Victoria Craft's doorway.