Andromeda does her best to hold her sheath quiescent. Peeling it back would be a horror, but reducing the initial energy in a dual-reactive system like this is what's needed to play a long game. Her sheath never tires, but this slime was a single reaction. She could outlast it; she'd had worse things slowly cook within an inch of her skin, her eyes, her mouth.
It's not bugs, it's not bugs, it's not bugs, it's not bugs, it's not bugs...
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Having ones emotions laying under hundreds of pounds of cold still water has one benefit. It is lack of fear. Samantha understands the potential harm of this act that Gothic is against, but one person, even herself (most notably not her father or the other that rest like a small fire inside her) does not matter in the wake of so many others potentially dying. Statistically it would just not make sense to take the risk.
Quickly she takes the battery backup she gathered that should be powerful enough to energize the entire subway transit system for at least forty seven minutes and inserts into the compatible port in her tablet.
"Yes" she tells the telepath, and grabs the side of their head again, ready to project. "Wait" she grabs her phone, types a simple message
Sam: Sorry to Chloe
Then she is back, hands ready, apocalyptical wasteland pictured "Ready"
Her mind is one of the most intelligent in the world, linked to one of the most talented telepaths in known regional space, but still it is torn apart at the slightest touch of the massive mindnet. Samantha screams, or at least she thinks she does. Every molecule in her matter seems to drift out like it is all letting go then snaps back with all the force of an angry rubber band. Over and over.
She forces the message, the scene, every single part of it, in those moments between drift and snap, until finally she crumbles to the ground, a drooling leaking mess.
THWAP! THWAP! THWAPTHWAPTHWAPTHWAP!
Given the command, Chroknight punches the nodes as hard as they can, then starts rushing to leave in relatively the same direction that they had come from. At least at these relativistic speeds they were unlikely to get lost long enough to end up riding the Deathcap into space.
What did she see? She's Gothic, she probably already knew. No privacy but what they let you have. Not like she's going to blab to anyone. She probably knows all the big secret identities, who would care about yours? Not your team, that's for sure-
Chroknight nearly slams into a mycelium wall that had not been there when they'd come through before. It was shifting. Changing, and something had happened when the nodes were struck. A sense of unease lurches in their stomach as they get a sense of the noose tightening around their neck. Time to get out of here before it goes to space. This is not my first choice of space jaunt!
"Gothic, please tell me I'm getting close to an exit," Chroknight pleads.
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Things were getting heavy and Indarius felt a sudden gust of wind buffet into him freeing him of the spores. He looked over to see Nimbus, good ol' Nimbus must have been his doing. He started to call out in thanks but spotted speed a particularly nasty looking spore floating next to him "Watch out!" He pushed off of the Deathcaps disgustingly spongey surface towards Nimbus as the hero darted down and away to avoid the spore which trailed after with a vibrant curtain of microspores following after. Indarius quickly pivoted and dove in a corckscrew to follow the hero and his tailing foe snapping at it, though the rather pesky spore was unusually dodgy.
Indarius struggled to hold push up the weight, though most of the heroic efforts of the group were slowly being patched up by the expanding network of arcane pillars and net across the surface.
Indarius trapped somewhere between furred and scaled, like a dragon half coated in extremely fluffy mushroom tendrils turned to Nimbus, with slavering jaws and let out an agressive roar before lunging at the Wind-manipulating hero who dodged downward followed by the flailing rapid wingbeats and menacing clumsy jaws of Indarius.
"This is so gross," Chitin says as he starts ripping and pulling at the wet, ropy strands of fungus away from the afflicted first responders.
"I don't tink your lights affected the fungus. I tink it hurt de hosts," Abeki tells Aquarelle as she has her psychic constructs help Chitin.
Just then, there's a shout from above everyone's head! "LOOK OUT!!!" Half-Pipe shouts as he zooms past on his energy board! "SOMEONE GET THIS DRAGON BACK TO HIS RIGHT MIND!!"
Following right behind the Herald is Indarius, snapping at him like he was a particularly elusive spore!
What do you do??
Indarius broke his descent moments before impact causing a massive downwind as his wings beat against the air. Kicking up residual dust, spores, and broken blacktop chunks right before the dragon landed with a shuddering thud.
He snarled and bayed swiping at invisible foes, before making a gallopin charge towards Aquarelle slamming a dangerous taloned paw down next to him. The attack left a cratered section of crumbling street. "Hnnshabnaaf." Came the gibberish as he shook his head and looked around confused.
Leaving that spot he lunged towards Abeki next whipping around with such speed that his tail swooped a hair over Aquarelle, and several first responder's heads knocking over one of their vehicles and flinging it into a nearby street light.
Barreling overhead of Abeki striking another unseen foe the dragon rolled across the ground uncomfortably tucking to look back at the group and stand on his hind legs unsteadily. "Braaafsnaamm."
Sucking in a massive breath as the area near him began to freeze over.
Breaking his descent moments before the spore impacted the ground near all of his friends before he could catch it. The combined wind of his wings and the collision sent a spray of mind-altering spores scattering across everyone causing them to cough worryingly. Indy landed shortly after and looked around noticing that several smaller puffballs had also been created from the impact which he bashed out of the way so they couldn't further infect anyone.
"Not good not good, is everyone okay? Gui!" He watched as Aquarelle struggled against the spores, convulsing his skin and clothes rippling in hard to look at but beautiful patterns. Gotta pin him doen before he can do any harm he thiught as he lunged towards his friend now under the Deathcap's control. His paw came down firmly but gently atop Aquarelle and once he lifted it he saw his friend thankfully knocked out but breathing. But there had been more spores.
"Okay all safe, gotta help the others." He swung his head back to look behind him where many of the other students and aid forces were also writhing against the spore cloud. "No, no, no!"
He whipped around and went after Abeki, stamping on her and deftly rolling over her. Only to turn and see the horror, uncountable spores hovering over everyone.
"Only one option to save them all, hope I can make it cold enough to freeze the spores." He stood tall and took a deep breath.
Aquarelle was about to dismiss all his illusions and try his lights against the Deathspore, using Statian's data, when Abeki suggests he got the wrong idea. "Oh... dat mekes e lot of sense."
Sh!t.
"Well, den..." His eyes go wide when Half-Pipe shouts.
Aquarelle ducks as Indarius lands and gapes as he swings at the others. How was he supposed to stop him? His illusions worked because he was changing what others were perceiving, but if his mind was already experiencing hallucinations, there was no way how to predict what would the dragon see of his illusions.
"How much of 'How to train your Dragon' you tink is accurete?" He says as he charges to tackle Abeki out of Indarius's freezing range. As they land, he starts to think.
Hallucination... How can I counter it if I don't know what he sees? Is it totally random? Can't be, otherwise it would be a s~@+ty weapon for the Deathcap as Indarius could still see it as an enemy, just a different one. It probably just make him see friends as foes and foes as friends... so we switch it up again?
That was a plan at least. Many of the flying signs vanish as Aquarelle could only multitask to some extent. Around themselves, Aquarelle creates fungi filaments covering them. Next, he covers the Deathcap fragment in a different illusion, of a large robot that somewhat resembles Ordnance.
Indarius chases hallucinogenic phantoms overlaid upon his friends and allies, causing the city's defenders to go scrambling for safety! In a desperate ploy, Aquarelle tries to counter the psychedelic shroom trip with his own illusions to make friends to foes and back to friends again!
The wildly discordant images manage to snap Indy out of the worst of the hallucinations, though colors still appear vividly bright and movement strange and trippy to the dragon.
Chroknight attacks the nodes and tries to retreat, but just then a seismic rumble shudders throughout the entire chamber, pitching the armored hero off their feet! Before they can recover, a psychic echo of mindless pain invades the edges of their mind, making them want to curl into a ball and weep!
Just as millions of daggers start to plunge into every nerve ending, Chroknight feels them withdraw. ::Too close... go... other way. Losing track...::
Gothic's voice in their head goes silent, leaving Chroknight alone in the gargantuan space fungus!
What do you do??
=================
Andromeda waits moments that are agonizing for a variety of reasons. Eventually, she dares to flex her sheath outwards and to her relief the hardened cocoon shatters! As she rises up, a violent quake rocks the mushroom and throws her hard against the spongy walls, rattling her and causing phantom pain coursing through her mind! ::Nnngghhh... get up... It's not leaving yet...:: Gothic's pained voice sounds in her head, brushing away most of the psychic agony pressing against her. ::Gave it a... go away message... can't sustain...::
As Gothic's voice fades, Andromeda sees the nodes she'd come for.
What do you do??
With a nerve searing jolt of delight, Andromeda obliterates the nodes, pulping them with the sheer impact of her will and grinding, sizzling, smearing them as all potential force of their mass is abruptly and explosively realized. A seismic rumble erupts in response, and a sour scowl spreads across Andromeda's face, some emotion overpowering even the psychic echo of agony in her head.
Quakes are triggered by nodal eradication; the tin can got to theirs first.
Deathcap's spasms have sphinctered closed the path Andromeda had carved. Fine. I'll just do it again. Yet before she begins her journey outward, she pauses. Tin can still can't fly. It's a long way down to hold a frame-by-frame. A hopeful smile, They might even be trapped in goo.
With that cheery thought, Andromeda angles towards where the epicenter of the- she rolls her eyes -first quake had been. She tears her way across, redirecting when she reaches a pseudo-xylem or whatever these relative throughfares were, reasoning that if Chroknight is mobile then they would be using existing pathways. And if they can feel something moving like this in a clearly directional path, even they should be able to assess the likelihood of who I am.
Still, with Chroknight perpetually off comms and no realistic chance of using a basic cell phone, there is still one more method Andromeda can use to attempt communications.
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The agony that suffuses Chroknight slams them back to normal relativity, clutching their helmed head and retching. It was like someone had just stabbed hot needles into every nerve ending of their body. They knew they needed to move, the tentacles whipping up closer and threatening them with a fate worse than death.
Seeing Andromeda burst through, they pull together and rally. "I'm sorry, I was about ready to hurl from the psychic backwash, but no, let's- left two yards, now!"
They dip back after seeing Andromeda getting stuck in some sticky sludge from the ceiling, preventing her from getting caught up. They're moving and calling back to her. "Keep up and don't argue, just do what I - low, two yards!" The tentacle that would have smashed them together hits nothing but air with Chroknight's warning as they lurch towards the exit.
"Bank right - up, five feet! Right six! Left up eight!" Their instructions get more curt and frantic as they go, seeing every death trap that Andromeda gets caught up in and narrowly preventing her from getting stuck. "Don't want to - down four - go to space - faster now! - in a mushroom."
It's excruciatingly slow compared to running by themself, but they can feel a thrumming now as they hit a section where the wall seems to be vibrating. "Atmosphere outside - punch through!" They direct Andromeda. The sudden sucking air that blasts out from the hole created would normally be something that Chroknight would resist - but they need to get out of there and surrender themselves to the whims of the wind.
Now they were free-falling away from the Deathcap, plummeting towards the ground. Which was not as big of a concern for them as getting up here had been. They couldn't fly, but they could certainly slow their fall more than enough to avoid pancaking onto the street.
Still, if Andromeda wanted to give them a ride, they'd allow it, twisting to salute the Bull above them as they fall.
Those in the shadow of the immense extraterrestrial fungus looming over Halcyon City looking up can see its defenders like tiny specks flitting about trying to drive it off. Their desperate efforts pay off as the massive bulk shudders, sending waves of humid wind across the buildings.
Slowly, the Deathcap starts to rise in altitude assisted by several of the defenders who had reigned in its descent and kept it aloft. Nimbus and Valence put their respective powers to work, while Johnny and Ragnarok (helped by Rendezvous' portal) use their superhuman strength.
The missions inside the Deathcap complete the plan, striking sensitive nodes within the alien fungus to trigger its flight back to outer space! It starts retreating, picking up speed as it rises higher and higher into the sky! After a tense moment in which those on the ground watch closely for their comrades, a small hole is blasted outwards and Andromeda and Chroknight tumble out! Then, on the opposite end, large claws slash an opening wide allowing Ne'veah and Wingblade to burst through!
Before the panther-girl can plummet to the street, the metal-winged girl grabs ahold of her while she shifts back into her much smaller hybrid form. Valence takes over the job of guiding her to solid ground, while Nimbus gives Chroknight a cushion of air to soften their landing.