The six heroes found themselves trapped between the challenging roar of some unknown beast and a seemingly endless path ahead of them. Their new companion, Calypso had warned them about the dangers of the forest, and how it was alive in a very real way. It was the quest for the key that drove some, the heroic drive to save a damsel in distress for others, and a palpable need to locate the overwhelming melodic aura that drove the youngest among them.

Regardless of the reason, each of them stepped forward, only the Professor to stay behind to guard their back. Black Cat led with Kitsune following close behind, her flaming blade ready to respond to any sign of danger. Calypso had warned them all that the trees they were getting ready to approach were both powerful and deadly, and the fey had to steel her courage to move onward, because only she knew just how real the danger was.

The enormous trees on both side of the path stirred visibly as the group stepped between the reach of their long branches. The tree in the middle trembled ominously, it's branches swaying dangerously in an exotic dance of power. The others though almost receded, pulling away from the group as the fiery sword lit the way for the heroes. Even the largest tree shrunk away from the fire as Kitsune passed.

That's right, you don't want any of this, Kitsune thought toward the tree. I'll reduce you to kindling, and then we can roast whatever it is that's following us along from behind.

The Black Cat approached the turn in the path where the three trees made a good effort at looking like the meanest trees in the park. They seemed cowed by Kitsune's blade, and that suited Vincenzo just fine - he had no urge to do combat with an opponent that much larger than himself, and with that many more limbs. Just the same, the woods loomed over him. Out of the corner of his eye, he swore he saw something - a flitting movement, a being moving to hide behind a tree, something moving just where he couldn't see it. He looked around, darting his head this way and that, hoping to catch sight of what was trying to sneak along with them or up on them. He did not stop his advance - he was sure that whatever it was, ahead was as good a place to face it as any.

Dylan and Calypso followed behind the leaders, with Ashutosh close behind. Blitz was bringing up the rear in his electrical form, taking it upon himself to monitor whatever beasts were stalking them.

Brian rose off the ground, long pulses of electrical energy like magnets, coursing between his feet and the rock below. He didn't rise up quickly, but did still rise, looking out at new angles towards where the rustling had been happening. He hoped for a cat, for a dog, perhaps for a little creature with big, bewildering eyes and an innocent squeak that just happened to sound like a roar from the right angle. He expected he'd be disappointed.

Nausea was a wave to him. As he rose, he felt the oddest sensation, a sweeping wave of illness that washed across his belly, just quick, instantaneous and hot, but fleeting. It was awkward, and he reacted to it only with the slightest display in his blue-sparking eyes.

He fought through it, but the higher off the ground he got, the stranger it felt. It was like passing through a resistor, which he'd done on more than one occasion. That sensation of velocity not matching speed, as if he should've been soaring into the sky, but instead was swimming through a muddled molass of cool winter air.

It was too strange, too awkward, to continue. As Blitz rose, his eyes played tricks on him, flashes of his own electricity making him see shapes where there were, signs of life where none did indeed show.

Rising in to the air didn't seem so bright now. Blitz held, almost twenty feet off the ground, feeling somehow slightly ill, and at the same time altogether confused. He could almost feel the fight or flight within him, both clawing, flight clearly taking the lead in the battle.

Calypso's attention was distracted briefly by the fact that one of her new companions could fly--"Wonder if 'e can carry someone li' tha'?"--but the uneasiness of the forest didn't let her attention stray for long. She felt something out there, and her senses prickled more with every step. Of course, every time she thought she knew where it was, she'd whip around to find...nothing. "'Course they all run back," she thought, "this is rubbish." Still, she put one foot in front of the other, staying with this strange group she'd found. One lock of hair curled itself protectively around her shoulders, and all the ones holding their throwing-rocks rose further into the air, swaying and turning, a movement that might have seemed a cross between seaweed in a current and a charmed cobra.

Blitz rose into the air but it was still difficult to see through the dense foliage that covered the indoor forest. As he rose higher, he could feel his power beginning to fizzle and diminish. As he tried to figure out what was happening to him, he saw two very large white beasts come briefly into a clearing before disappearing again. The closest thing he could compare them to were giant polar bears.

Kitsune walked along, pacing Black Cat smoothly as she attempted to maintain her awareness. The sense of being watched bothered her, but in its own way that was reassuring, and nothing new. She had the Author, and he had been watching her constantly for the past three years, at least. But still, the way she could almost catch whatever it was out of the corner of her eye bothered her. She admitted that she was afraid, but then again, she'd been afraid before.

She tried to recall the... what was it Sara called it? The Litany? "I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer." Focusing her attention on remembering the lines from the mini-series helped distract her a little bit, but she couldn't keep that up. The people here depended on her to maintain her calm, and to protect them. She couldn't let them down, it was her duty.

Ashutosh swept his gaze back and forth, back and forth, trying to keep an eye on both sides of the path, Dylan and Calypso, and any sparks from Kitsune's sword. He ground his teeth when he realized that Blitz had gone up. As if the movement of the trees wasn't unsettling enough, now he felt certain something was coming up behind him. But every time he looked backwards, the path was empty.

"Is anyone else feeling like they're being watched, but they can't catch the gaze of their watchers?" Kitsune said softly.

"Yeah," the Black Cat said. "That's exactly what it feels like. Scream if you see anything." His high strung nerves made the stab at humor seem darker than it should have, inappropriately light for a dark sentiment.

If I did that, I suspect Aaorrann-sama would protest, and I'm not about to start a literal catfight with an ally, thank you. Still, the sentiment did improve her mood a bit. "I'll try to keep that in mind, Neko-san."

"We are always being watched in this place," Dylan replied. "That girl. The one ahead of us. She's getting more apprehensive and anxious as she moves, but doesn't know we are here. She's still trying to talk herself into something."

"'Ey, if ye can 'ear 'er, can ye tell 'er we're 'ere? Mebbe she won' run from us then? I dun' think she means harm, when she walked by me earlier I couldn't feel no ill from 'er.'

"It's not that I can hear her," Dylan replied. "Here, let me link you with us, and you can see what I mean." Nocturne then sent the tendrils of psychic energy to link with Calypso. She felt the soft knock upon the door of her conscious mind, and he waited for her to open it.

Calypso cocked her head, birdlike, when she felt something enter her mind. As jumpy and suspicious of this new part of the forest, though, she didn't associate it with Nocturne's words, thinking instead that it's some new trick of the plants or creatures around them.

"True, but I'm much more... apprehensive about it, for some reason. I was wondering if something here was playing with my emotions and perceptions." Kitsune sighed softly. "The girl up ahead isn't the only one getting apprehensive, and I was wondering what the rest of you were feeling?"

"I feel ready to go home," murmured Ashutosh absently. His eyes tried to bore holes into the densest part of the greenery. "Have I mentioned that recently?"

"You aren't the only one, Ash," Dylan replied. "You aren't the only one."

Kitsune's lips quirked at that, and she shook her head. Comedy often helped at times like this. "Shop smart, shop S-Mart, hmmm? I wouldn't turn down a 'boomstick', right now, either."

"S-mart?" Ashu asked. "Is that like Tesco's?"

Kitsune smiled, "It's a quote from an American movie, Ashutosh-san." I'll spare you the name, though. Army of Darkness does not sound like it would be heartening at the moment. "When Dylan-san called you 'Ash', that reminded me of it. Better Bruce Campbell than Pikachu, hmmm?"

Calypso shook her head, frowning. Wherever these people were from, it was nothing like her own home. Kitsune, as far as she was concerned, wasn't even speaking the same language. Her thoughts were only distracted down that line for a moment though, before she felt another watcher, or...something, and whipped around to catch it. She shivered, peering out from underneath her increasingly militant-looking hair, and continued putting one foot in front of the other.

The mood for most remained somber as they eased their way down the path, following Black Cat's steady lead. They only had to go about 30 feet past the killer trees before they came to a bend in the path. The shadows playing on the sides of the path were reeking havoc with the minds and nerves of a few of them, so keenly that they could barely watch the path in front of them.

Dylan fell back a little as he felt the mood of his companions shift and alter with each step that took them deeper and deeper into the tangled forest. He felt their heartbeats through the link as though they played their own bass drum, and he began to grow concerned for them and their ability to hold onto reason.

Badabadumpdump!!! Black cat's extra beats echoed in Dylan's head as the dread and gloom took it's hold over the normaly quixotic and gregarious man. Badumpbadadump played incongruously from within Ashutosh's normally peaceful persona. Bumpdabadabumdabada began the clarion marching drums of defiance that Kitsune cloaked herself in to compensate for the fear that she, too, was feeling.

Blitz was maintaining enough control so that there were no recognizable changes to his emotional state. Yet.

Calypso had not yet opened herself to the link, so Dylan was forced to look at her and try to determine her state from her body language and facial expressions.

Calypso's slender hands were twisted into claws in front of her, making her look rather like a frightened squirrel, but mingled with the uneasiness on her face was a stubborn determination. Her head was up, chin poked forward defiantly as locks of hair intermittently snapped forward and back like striking snakes. It wasn't the fright that got to her, she was used to running scared, it was the feeling that something in here, no matter how invisible she'd been, was focused on her and only her. Every time she caught a glimpse, it seemed she was being watched by ghosts. Not like the ones in the rest of the place though, those spirit things, aside from not seeing her anyway, seemed right pleasant in comparison. What followed her now felt old and malevolent and twisted. "I en't done nothin' to ye, leave off!" In spite of her defiant posture, Calypso seemed to shrink in on herself, though her hair seemed to compensate protectively, prickly as an angry cat.

"Bhenchod!," yelped Ashutosh. He stopped short and whipped his head back and forth, wild-eyed, trying to take in both sides of the path at once as horrible figures emerged from the shadows. They had no faces but he knew, he knew, they were staring at him. "What the hell are they?" he whimpered. The grotesque shadowy creatures slipped behind the trees as soon as they heard him ask his question.

Calypso looked at Ashu apprehensively, and in a voice as small as his asked, "Ye got 'em, too?"

Ashutosh regarded Calypso for a moment. His haunted eyes communicated a more eloquent reply than anything he could have said aloud. Ashu's attention snapped back to the boundary between the path and treacherous forest. He extended his hand towards Calypso's own, both offering and seeking comfort.

If she was surprised by this gesture, she didn't show it. It was a hand, extended from a friend in a place where they were surrounded by everything but. She took it, the barest twitch of her lips an attempt at reassurance.

The answer to that question popped into Kitsune's mind in an instant. They're gardeners, of course. Because they help to maintain the trees! Kitsune stifled the giggle that tried to creep out, and shook her head. And if I tell them that, they're going to be sure that I'm insane, especially after my confession last night. I need proof, or at least someone to grab hold up and pummel until I get some satisfaction.

As they rounded the corner they could see the woman that they had been seeking. She had on a pair of blue jeans and a football jersey, her hair was pulled up into a high pony tail in the center of her head. She was too involved in her nervous sway to notice the heroes that were only about ten feet from her. Her head was darting left and right, watching the dense foliage as she pranced delicately forward, almost on the tips of her toes.

Well, she's going to jump, so I'd best be ready for it. If I were interested in quotas, I suppose I would be gratified to see there are more women involved, but I don't like the notion of innocents entangled in such things. Kitsune smiled to herself. Although that implies that I'm not an innocent, I suppose, but that's all right. I'm a heroine.

Kitsune cleared her throat carefully as they approached and scraped her foot along the path, to give the woman a warning that there was someone behind her. Although Ashutosh's exclamation ought to have been enough warning. I'm not sure what he said here, but it did suggest the vulgar, from the volume.

Ashutosh barely registered the woman ahead. He had to watch the sides. Those things were still watching from the depths of the forest. Soon they would come for him. The phrase he'd done his best to forget came back to him. "A replacement for Tapestry." I'm filling in for a dead man. He died here and so will I.

Dylan watched those around him and knew what he needed to do. He gathered his thoughts and recalled his readings of Siddhartha and balance. He thought to his own meditations and felt the stillness of the pool. He placed himself in the pool and let peace radiate from him until the pool's surface rippled with soft undulations that caressed Ashutosh's spirit; his own pool. Wordlessly Dylan shifted Ash's psyche until the man saw himself seated in the lotus position and floating above a peaceful lake.

Dylan then turned to face Calypso and knocked again with his is mind, hoping she would receive the link and join them.

As whatever-it-was tapped at her mind again, Calypso actually jumped up and back a foot or so. Looking around wildly, she noticed Nocturne watching her. "Bloody 'ells, tha's you?" Cautiously, she opened her mind to the knocking presence, glancing apologetically at Ashu, whose hand she had not relinquished when she jumped.

Dylan sighed with relief as she opened up to him and accepted the link. {Do not be frightened}, he sent to her. {All will be well} He waited until he felt her relax, then dove down hard to find a moment in time that sang to her of calm and joy. Dylan latched onto that moment and pulled it back up with him. Higher and higher his psyche flew until he pulled Calypso out of the darkness that was surrounding her and into the light that was that moment in time. He placed her gently within the cocoon of peace that was the moment, and watched her relax. He then returned to his consciousness, to this world, ready to aid anyone else that might have succumbed to the dread of this unnatural forest.

She watched curiously as she felt him, for lack of better description, change her mind, but she couldn't see him actually do anything. The forest was just as scary, just as full of shadows, but the sense of utter dread they carried seemed masked somehow. Even though that little suspicious part of her brain insisted those ghost things were still out there, Calypso no longer felt the need to whip back and forth, searching for them.

The telepath caught a quick mental flash of a roiling lake as his link to Ashutosh shattered.

Dylan shook his head at Ashutosh's defiant gesture, but wasn't sorry he did it. "No telling what you two would have done had I not counteracted whatever it is that is making you all so jumpy. You're welcome," the kid finished before turning away at the sound of Kitsune's voice.

Ashutosh's gaze unthinkingly followed Dylan's but he was too dumbfounded at the cavalier treatment to care about another new arrival. Mess with my head? And so casually at that, like I was nothing? Some hero. He squeezed Calypso's hand and dropped it.

Realizing there was no immediate crisis, Ashutosh focused his attention back to Nocturne. "OK, Dylan," he said coldly. "Thank you. Thanks for violating my trust." The words came out softly, but with the actor's charisma behind them they landed hard.

The teenager was not put out at all by his words or the emotion behind them. "What I did was probably save your life," Dylan replied. "And, if to do that I had to cross a line, so be it. Had I the luxury of the time to have sought your permission, or if I had thought you would actually allow me to save you, I would have. If I saw you take out a gun and try to point it to your head because someone or something was causing you to do that, would you have me stand by and watch you kills yourself?"

Ashutosh dismissively turned away from the younger man, took off his sherwani, and became absorbed in carefully folding it.

Dylan shook his head. And I'm the one that's a kid. "The way I see it, you have two ways to handle this. Admit that while you might not like what I did, it was the right thing to do and we move on. Or you can hold on to this resentment and never have to worry about me again. But the idea of "teamwork" and watching each other's backs will be gone. The choice is yours."

"Is it?" replied the actor with forced calmness. "Or will you take the choice away from me? That's what you're arguing, isn't it? That you have the right to mess with my mind when you think it's best? And then you lecture me about trust!"

He looked at Dylan with more sadness than anger on his face. "Badly done, chohta bhai. Badly done." With automatic care he folded his jacket over his arm, even though the possibility of returning the garment to the wardrobe department suddenly seemed slim. The panic was gone but the truth remained: he could well die here. His survival depended on these strangers, but he was clearly inconsequential to them.

"You're right. I shouldn't be allowed to make decisions on my own," the kid said with a degree of indignance. "What was I thinking. Don't worry, it won't happen again. I'll wait until I am told what to do by my elders." Dylan then slammed shut the link he had established with the others.

"You shouldn't be allowed to make decisions for me," Ashu said heatedly. Whatever unnatural thing the young man had done to him, it had certainly worn off. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been this mad. His hands had even curled into fists, and he'd never in his adult life raised a hand in anger. He bit back the next six things he wanted to say and took a deep breath.

Calypso watched the the two young men argue back and forth, and she shook her head. Unfamiliar with the dynamics of her new group, she had only "violation of trust" issues from Ashu and what seemed like a pretty good case of authority problems from Nocturne. As she figured, neither of those could be solved arguing about them in this place. Her hair rustled amongst itself and one lock emerged, darting forward to wave a piece of white ribbon between the two, and Calypso batted it down impatiently. Of all times for the dratted stuff to have a sense of humor.

Gritting her teeth, she stepped between them, taking the place of her flippant hair, and held up her hands. "'Ey...I know it likely en't my place ta be sayin', but this en't the place fer a fight, neither." Her tone wasn't reproving, more pleading. She looked at Ashu, "Wha' 'e did, mebbe it wasn't righ' but 'e meant no 'arm, ya? An' now 'e knows." Looking to Dylan, she gave him a fleeting, comradely grin out of view of Ashu, lest she seem to be taking sides, and finished, "An' ye know t' try warnin' or askin', at least quick-like, now, arrigh'?"

Ashu's insides were too knotted to be able to smile, but being lectured by a tiny tearaway with impossible hair was enough to pull him up short. His hands relaxed, and tiny trickles of water fell from his fingers unheeded. "Yeah, okay," he said reluctantly. "Time and place." He gave Calypso what he hoped was a grateful expression, but he looked as sour as he felt.

Kitsune tried to push the disagreement that the others were having to the back of her mind, as she spoke clearly to the scared woman in front of them, attempting a veneer of normalcy to the matter. "Excuse me, Miss, could you give us directions to Castro Street? We're a little lost, and my mother is probably worried about me being out so late." Well, if she didn't take it as proof that I'm a raging slut selling my body over the Internet. Sorry, mother, but I'm not turning tricks with clients on Craigslist. No doubt you're quite disappointed. Kitsune did inscrutable quite well, fortunately, and her thoughts of her mother didn't even rise to the surface. Well, Dylan might have picked it up, but she tried to control the acid tone of her thoughts and to harness the energies it created within her.

Vincenzo said nothing, but he worried. Was Kitsune losing it? The stress in this forest was practically visible, and the impact it could be having on any of them was not to be ignored. If she lost it, she would be a loose cannon in a very dangerous world. It had not occurred to him until then that he might have to be on guard from his new companions as well as for them, but it made sense - he could feel panic creeping about in his spine, twisting in his guts, waiting to take him over.

The girl whipped around at the sound of Kitsune's voice, the panic in her eyes and pale face was evident. She took a defensive pose, almost immediately, her stance made it apparent that she was trained in some form of martial arts. Her eyes swept over the costumed heroine and her flaming sword, she seemed too stunned and scared to reply. Then her eyes took in Black Cat's masked form.

The girl ahead was not what he was expecting, whatever he was expecting. Something more medieval, he thought, something from a faerie tale. This was a girl from the late twentieth, early twenty-first century, and she seemed to be unaware of them for the moment. Whatever she was expecting, it wasn't a short girl with a flaming sword and a man dressed for a masquerade. If she ran she would almost certainly die, he was sure of it. What would kill her he didn't know, but he was sure there were any number of things lurking in the shadows waiting for her to panic.

As his gaze met hers, he knew almost immediately that she was going to faint. Whatever the woman had been through, their appearance had apparently been enough to push her over the edge. Her blue eyes were haunted with fear, and any fleeting hope that she may have had drained from her as he watched. Black Cat was in motion as her limbs began to crumple into lifelessness.

"Hang on, miss," the Black Cat said. His reflexes, more than nominally cat-like, worked into overdrive as he sprung forward to catch the falling young woman. In one swift graceful motion, Vicenzo was able to leverage himself below the girl and catch her as her body slipped lifelessly into his arms. He couldn't help but notice that she was a very pretty young woman, even though she couldn't compare to Kitsune's exquisite perfection.

Nocturne's calming influence, whatever it was, had settled Calypso enough that she managed an eyeroll as the Black Cat rushed forward, catching the girl before she hit the ground. Calypso decided that at some point she had to inform this woman that fainting was probably the most dangerous, and certainly the most useless reaction to any situation. The Black Cat, however, seemed the best equipped member of the party to deal with her, so after that momentary amusement, Calypso went back to scanning the sides of the path.

"Well, that could have gone better, but at least she didn't go tearing off into the brush." Kitsune sighed softly as she regarded things, and let her eyes drift to see whether she could catch one of the gardeners at work, if that was what they truly were. "I think I might have a theory on what those shadowy figures are, but it's sheer guesswork at this point."

Inwardly, the heroine seethed, Anno Hideaki, if I manage to find out that you are responsible for this.... mind fuck, I will personally come to Japan and shove your head so far up your ass that you will achieve Instrumentality. Kitsune managed to remain alert, though, waiting for the shadows to come to be enlightened.

"What shadowy figures," Dylan asked. "Something is messing with your minds, but it isn't from a telepath. I don't know what it is, but it caused two of you to feel like you were seeing the same thing. Like I said back there. Something isn't right in here."

Kitsune chuckled, a hint of tension in her laugh, "Oh, I suppose you could say that." She paused to exhale, "I hadn't seen the shadows, myself, but I had thought of something akin to Gardeners, to fertilize the trees." Kitsune shrugged irritably, "If the trees are carnivorous, they could be lures to draw or drive in prey. If we were panicked, we would be much easier to take down. It's only a theory, though, I don't know how true it is."

Kitsune turned to regard Calypso, "Do you know anything else about the trees there? They certainly seemed aware of us."

She shrugged. "Leave off 'em as much as ye can? They notice things, but I dunno 'ow, or if it's summat as controls 'em."

Kitsune nodded her head, and turned to regard the trees. "We should probably get this woman out of here, and maybe regroup a little bit? Or do you think it's better to press on, Neko-san?"

"Regroup? Like, to say, go back? Ye dun' wanna do that. The trees get the ones as run back more'n them's runnin' forward." Calypso wasn't really trying to argue, just speaking from what she'd seen.

Kitsune sighs softly, "I'm not surprised, I think. I suspect that it might have been the trees themselves projecting those shadows you were seeing earlier. All right, that is going to make things interesting when we try to go back to the Fex and the others we have met, but I believe it can be done. It must be done, if nothing else. And if we aren't panicked when we return, I believe that we can convince the trees to let us pass. If not, then I'll have to come up with another solution." The warrior nodded firmly at that.

As Kitsune and Calypso were having their discussion, Black Cat felt the slight stir of the petite woman in his arms. Her eyes fluttered open for a moment before closing tightly again, as if to somehow wish herself away to safety.

However many times he'd held a woman in his arms, it was always a wonderfully heady experience. He felt the narrow weight of her lying stiffly against his left arm, and looked down at her pretty face with tight shut eyes. Usually, when he wound up with a woman in this position, her lips were his next target, and he felt something familiar and predatorial stirring within him. The same story, retold so often in his life that it seemed like a rerun, a dance move, a recurring dream. Still kundalini sleeping at the base of his spine woke up and started to think about uncoiling, fostering an appetite he had no time to satisfy.

"It's OK, you're safe now," he lied. He said it knowing full well it was a lie. It was like an instinct when he had a woman in his arms to say whatever was necessary to make her feel better, especially if it was better than the truth. Still, even for Vincenzo this was a radical departure from accuracy. She's probably never been so unsafe in her life, but what could he say? We're all gonna die? The fingerless tips of his gloves let him feel the smooth perforated surface of the football jersey she was wearing. He looked at the woman in his arms and wished she would open her eyes and say something. Holding her was like holding someone else's ice cream cone. It was very hard to resist having just a little taste.

The woman opened first one blue eye and then the other when she heard Vicenzo's reassuring words. She stirred again in his arms as she tried to regain some of what little composure she had left. One of her hands gripped him tightly, not wanting to let go of the first real and kind person that she'd met thus far in this cursed place. "I...I...I thought you were one of them. And there were so many of you. I just don't know what to do..." Her words were stammered and her bottom lip quivered as if she were ready to burst out into tears.

"Let's get you upright first, yes?" The petite blond nodded her head obediently as Vincenzo lifted her to her feet, and kept a steadying hand on her shoulder in case her knees decided not to cooperate. "I am the Black Cat," he said, offering his winning smile and his hand to shake, feigning normalcy in the face of darkness. "This is Kitsune, he said, gesturing to the small woman with the flaming sword, and Calypso, and Nocturne and Ashu. Blitz is above us. Who might you be?"

The damsel looked at each of his companions as they were introduced, but the color drained from her face when her eyes met Calypso. It was as if she'd seen a ghost. She turned quickly, looking to Black Cat for reassurance, still clinging to him with one of her hands. Once she saw his calming gaze she settled back down and nodded her head. "I...I'm Barbie Johnson."

Calypso rolled her eyes in disgust. "Ye know, if I'd wanted t' harm ye, I coulda done it earlier rather'n try t' stop ye comin' in 'ere. I en't one o' them ghosty gits."

"Oh." Barbie's face fell even further into the depths of despair and her vacant blue eyes batted twice. "I'm sorry...you...you...you looked scary."

She truly couldn't help it. Calypso had no response but to burst out laughing.

As Vicenzo listened to the others as they chatted up a poor lost woman, his ears remained alert to the sounds of the forest around them, listening for rusting leaves, breathing animals, snapping twigs. The blond provided a welcome distraction from the very creepy forest, but it was still there, all around them, ready to devour them when they got too careless.

He turned to Kitsune, and said "Calypso knows this place better than we do - if she says we can't go back, then we can't. It is no matter, though - all roads lead to Rome."

Kitsune weighed his statement and found no flaw in it, but it was still distasteful. "There might be another path to take to get back to where we were. We do have our other new friends to consider." Kitsune looked to the blonde, "I'm also moderately certain that I could negotiate with the trees in the same way that we did with the Droideka yesterday. We were able to swing them around to our way of thinking. Plus, there is also the Professor to consider."

The small woman nodded to the lady still clinging to Black Cat's arms, while her eyes glanced to the woman's hands to see that it was absent of a wedding band. Just what I needed. Competition. "I'm certain you have had a difficult time since you've arrived here, and believe me, I do sympathize. Would you be so kind as to tell us what happened?"

Barbie swallowed hard at the question and the look on her face made it plain to see that the memory was a painful one. She glanced at Black Cat again, seeming to draw some sort of power from his proximity, before finally replying to Kitsune. "I...no...we...I didn't know them. They woke up...in this place on the floor...and we were all confused. The others went outside...and ...and." She buried her face in her hands, seemingly unable to continue, but she did finish, her muffled words barely audible. "...and they didn't make it."

"Santa Maria," Vincenzo exclaimed. He had worried what the mist outside held for the unsuspecting, and what he had seen since left him with images of what could not possibly be a good end. He looked at her with real sympathy in his eyes, and continued "We woke up the same way - we were lucky enough to go in rather than out. We believe we were sent here to try to end this nightmare, but we have not yet figured out how yet."

"Barbie," he continued, sounding the name out as though tasting a strange dish that may either be wonderful or repellent, "I assure you we were not on our way to a masquerade when we arrived. We are heroes on the Earth we call our home, so you have arrived at last in some good company." He hoped that Ashutosh and Calypso were willing to either fit the description or play along. "I must ask you, what do you do when you aren't being kidnapped by haunted castles? This place does not seem to pick people by accident, and you may have been summoned because someone or something here believes you may be of use to them."

The sound of her name was enough to make her peek over her templed hands, and by the time Black Cat was finished, they had fallen to her side. She still seemed jumpy, when she looked to the dense foliage that lined the path, so she did her best to keep her eyes on Vicenzo. "I was a professional cheerleader until recently...but, there was an accident. And since then I've been changed somehow, I'm much stronger than I should be. The press calls me Bombshell, when they talk about me."

Understanding that the Black Cat was at least trying to be gallant and rescuing for this--whatever the hells a "cheerleader" was, Calypso had the grace not to laugh as he declared them all heroes. Instead she stepped a few paces back, surveying the trees, as her hair snapped about in irritation, both at encountering such a helpless seeming woman and at the delay in getting through this place.

Under her mask, Kitsune smiled sympathetically. Another woman with super strength! By the Four Gods I've been needing to talk with someone about my problems! Do other heroines have similar issues as I do? It's not exactly a question you can get answered from reading She-Hulk. Sadly, Kitsune knew this was not the time to talk about feminine problems, although that playful side of her wondered at how Black Cat would react to such a thing.

"They call me The Item Boy," Ashutosh said, a little too loudly. The blank stares said he'd made a less than graceful entrance into the conversation. "Uh, long story. But 'Bombshell', that's, uh, really..."

More like Ingrate Boy Dylan thought to himself.

Barbie's blue eyes turned to regard the handsome actor when he spoke up. She seemed less than confident about whether he was being sincere or if he was poking fun of her, so she didn't offer a reply.

"It suits you," Vincenzo said, "although I think American women may take offense to such flatteries." Something in her eyes reminded him faintly of Sister Agnes, which made him feel both tenderly and somewhat hungrily towards her. Still the woods were dark and deep but not lovely at all, and the sounds and feelings and lurking shadows in there were still assaulting all of their senses and security, and it made small talk all but impossible for Vincenzo.

None of the conversation made any sense to her,but she'd seen boys in the market falling all over themselves competing for the fanciest girl they saw, and this didn't seem all that different an exercise. Still facing the trees, Calypso smirked, thankful, as usual, to be in the background.

"I never really got it. None of my special abilities have anything to do with bombs or bullets. She shrugged her dainty shoulders, before spinning around quickly to look towards the right side of the path, shivering slightly when whatever it was slipped away before she could see it.

Kitsune bowed to the newest arrival respectfully, "It is good to meet you, Barbie-san, although I could only wish that it were under better circumstances. I will admit to a lot of questions that I would love to ask you, but I will agree that this is neither the time nor the place for it. Do you have other abilities beside greater than normal strength? Myself, I have my mystical items, but I also possess great strength, good speed, and nigh-invulnerability. Plus, I heal quickly." The sense of a smile hovered about her. "Also, what city do you hail from? My base of operations is Oakland, California, although, honestly, much of the press ignores me."

"I'm from Florida. Jacksonville." Barbie paused to look over her shoulder again, her eyes practically dancing with unease. "...and, I don't know...I...I know karate. And I'm pretty fast and, like you...I'm pretty hard to hurt."

Kitsune considered that silently a second, while her lips spread to an involuntary smile. And asking her if she'd ever heard of Joss Whedon would be cruel. But she's obviously never tangled with a vampire. Then again, neither have I, nor do I want to do so. "I need to learn martial arts better, myself. All I have going for me there is my strength and such. But if you can rip a tree out by its roots and use it for some impromptu logging, what do you need finesse for?" Just in case the trees can hear me.... she thought to herself.

The newcomer looked at Kitsune, confusion dimming her eyes even as she nodded her head, seemingly unsure how to reply.

"And I can see where the term 'Blond Bombshell' would come from, Barbie-san. You are quite lovely, and I'm sure when you're using your abilities they are as equally impressive." Kitsune chuckled softly. "I wear a mask to completely hide myself when I am working, because my appearance is too distinctive, otherwise. The gentlemen here could give you more detail, or when we have some time to rest."

Kitsune focused on the link she still had between herself and Dylan. {Nocturne-san, I...} she paused and blinked in surprise when she discovered the link was inactive. What the...? Kitsune paused for a second in recollection, and then sighed to herself. No use for it, duty calls.

Kitsune recovered, and started again aloud, "Nocturne-san, I believe that our new friend Barbie has been affected by the shadows of the mind, just as we were. Would you please tell her about it, and ask her for her permission to help her clear her thoughts? I think that would help everyone here, very much, thank you."

"Please, do summat to 'er." Calypso thought to herself.

"Oh sure," Dylan said with more than just a hint of acid on his tongue. "Thus spake the Village Elders and so soon."

The psychic then looked at the girl and spoke to her in a monotone voice that certainly belied the emotion behind the words.

"Excuse me, Ms. Bombshell," he began quite formally. "Would you mind if I used my ability to see if the spirits of this forest are using their power to cause you to see, hear, or sense things that might not be there? You see," he continued, "It is wrong of me to do this without spending all this extra time explaining to you what I am going to do. I would need to peer into your mind and discover if there is indeed a maleveolent force at work, preying upon your poor, frail psyche. Once I discover this, I will then help you find a mental place of peace and tranquility so that you may once again see the world through less troubled eyes," he finished, but the smug look remained.

Ashutosh listened to this recitation with growing amusement, finally covering his mouth with his hand for fear of smiling. The mercurial man's anger was already dissipated, and in a weird way there was something a little comforting about the kid's pique. If he can be upset, he's probably not a sociopath. He just has bad judgment. Yeah, like the kid in that Twilight Zone episode. Very comforting. His thoughts moved into a well worn groove. Extend every courtesy to the white chick. Don't worry about the brown guy.

Calypso continued to outwardly ignore the group, but a lock of her hair darted out with the speed of a striking rattlesnake, rapping Dylan sharply on the ankle and retreating before anyone could take note of what had actually happened.

Dylan shot her a look as if to say keep that thing ona leas, will ya? before he turned his attention back to the other girl.

Barbie reached out to grab Vicenzo's arm again, as thoughts of the forest spirits, that the kid was talking about, chilled her very bones. ...but as he continued, explaining things to her in a nice easy manner, she nodded her head. Wishing that everyone could speak with such precision about things. "Please. If you think there are spirits in my head, I would like very much for you to remove them." Her trusting blue eyes met the teenager's gaze as she waited for whatever magic he was going to perform.

Oh my God, Dylan thought to himself. She's more vapid than I first believed. Dylan sent out his mind to open hers before him and slid into the layers of her consciousness. He sought out the signs that would tell him if she was being manipulated like the others, and he was ready to help her the moment he found them. He looked for deposit of emotional joy along the way and mapped out where he would need to take in case he was succesful.

Dylan felt positively no resistance as he delved into the depths of her mind. The depths however turned out to be vacant of anything other than fear and worry. He sent forth tendrils of joy and confidence to help soothe the burbling of her contrasting emotions. He could feel it slice into the empty vastness of her psyche, not realizing just how little resistance she had against his mental powers. Even as he watched he saw her trusting eyes light up and a contagious grin spread across her pretty face.

"Oh. Oh! This is much better." She nearly bounced on her tiptoes from her excitement.

Dylan watched the girl dance around with glee now that the veil of fear had been removed from her. If she gets any giddier, he thought, I might have to put her back the way she was before I puke.

Kitsune made no vocal response, but her clenched fists were definitely audible. It was quite likely that were she holding charcoal briquets when her fists closed, dust and diamonds would be the result when she relaxed. Dylan and I will need to have words, I see. Very good.

"OK, back to work, more talk later when we're out of these woods," the Black Cat said, taking his arm back from around the blond Bombshell and rubbing his hands together while he looked around at the forbidding trees. "You haven't seen a troll, have you?"

"A troll? Like a real live troll?!" Barbie's eyes narrowed a bit, this was just the kind of thing that some people could say to her on any given day to poke fun at her slow uptake. But in this crazy place, she could only assume that he was serious, so she replied in kind. "No. ...but there are creatures in the trees and they're following me."

Kitsune stepped forward to take the point once again, as was her due. "If the troll is the king of the hill, here, I'm not looking forward to meeting with it. But, again, we have a lot to do here, to get the next bauble for my collection." That smile seemed to hover about her, then Kitsune stepped forward, carefully watching what was in front of them.

With everything going on with Barbie, it was easy somehow for Brian to keep his focus on the world up above. As they spoke, argued, discussed and considered, he found some measure of comfort in focusing on rudiments of his powers that had needed no focus since he'd truly mastered them. Here, in this unsettling place, he needed the comfort of concentration, and focusing simply on staying in the air worked well.

To a point. Eventually, Brian - still sizzling with blue electrical energy that coursed about his body in long arcs - brought himself more in to position above the group of his companions.

"Ya know, I don't wanna be rude - and it's nice to meet you, Barbie - but maybe we can keep rollin' while we talk? I'm just sayin' ..."

ooc: cleaned up color codes. Will be closing this move soon.