That's not bottled wine in this cellar

[marvel-citizens.livejournal.com]

The catacombs under the castle feel more like a hotel than a dank cellar. The walls are a pleasant pastel blue, hung with paintings of African landscapes and idyllic pastoral scenes. A rich, sunny, indirect lighting fills the hallway. Regularly spaced doors lead off to small rooms. Each one has three coffins, one along each blank wall. One room has a set of matching tapestries hanging above each coffin. The next is decorated with vintage Coca-Cola advertising. The one after that looks like the inside of a Jackson Pollack painting.

There are no shadows, no dark corners; nowhere to hide.

Comments

[house-of-mystiq.livejournal.com]

Mystique lights a cigarette. This is getting on her nerves.

"When are they scheduled to wake up?"

[marvel-citizens.livejournal.com]

"Nightfall. Right now, they're literally dead. When the sun hits the horizion, they'll wake. Don't expect any grogginess. They're either on or off."

[spidey2099.livejournal.com]

S-Man skulks alongside them all.

"So... do we start popping them open now, or do we go find the queen and lighten her up first?"

[house-of-mystiq.livejournal.com]

Mystique takes a long drag off her cigarette. "How much fire does it take to light them up?"

[house-of-mystiq.livejournal.com]

Raven kicks off the nearest lid. Nothing familiar under there. It's a work of seconds to shift her forearm into a bone blade and cut the thing's head off.

The next coffin is open. She leans against it for a moment, bracing herself, then opens the lid.

[marvel-minions.livejournal.com]

Mortimer Toynbee lays inside, his tongue lolling out of his mouth as he sleeps.

A human woman lies beside him. She stares up at Mystique, her brown eyes wide and terrified.

[house-of-mystiq.livejournal.com]

"Get out."

Mortimer.

The kid's like her goofy nephew. Even though he's a few years Kurt's senior, it's like the two of them grew up together. He's saved her life more often than she can count.

Now she's going to take his.

[marvel-citizens.livejournal.com]

The woman holds a trembling finger up to her lips, shaking her head 'no.'

[spidey2099.livejournal.com]

Time to get to work.

Everything is off-kilter.

The sooner they get out of here, the better... and if this is as stupid and suicidal as it seems... well, let's get that over with quickly, too.

He heads up to the first coffin he sees, crouching by the foot of it and slowly opening it up... fully expecting the sudden jump-scare that always happens in these vids.

[marvel-citizens.livejournal.com]

A black haired woman with creamy white skin lays within. Something about her looks vaguely victorian. There's a golden locket around her neck.

She's not wearing much else.

[spidey2099.livejournal.com]

Kill her. She's a vampire. If she was awake, she'd kill you and your whole family, and she has powers. Dangerous. Evil. Kill her. She's not human. She's not some poor naked woman asleep and peaceful. Kill her. Right at the neck, clean severed head. She's not just some other poor sap with an accidental freakism that she's turned into an insane lifestyle... complete with deadly fangs... she's... evil... they're all evil. Just do it. They're cannibals, like the Vulture. You let HIM die, why not take the next step? Come on. Time's wasting.

...

Shock it.

His hand shakes.

[marvel-citizens.livejournal.com]

His claws are deep in her flesh when her eyes pop open. She takes a ragged gasp, staring at him in shock and horror.

One hand clamps around his wrist. The other searches for her locket.

[silver-sable.livejournal.com]

Silver starts opening coffins.

There aren't many people, she thinks, she can find in here that will give her pause. Machette in one hand, she makes ready to cut off heads.

[marvel-citizens.livejournal.com]

The first coffin is a smooth faced African man, clearly one of the newer Barons.

There's a hint of blood at the corner of his lips. He's smiling in his sleep.

[silver-sable.livejournal.com]

Silver doesn't sneer or curse or seemingly feel much of anything as she reaches into the coffin. One hand grabs his head and the other brings a powerful back swing across his throat, looking to severe it as cleanly as quickly as she can manage.

[marvel-citizens.livejournal.com]

His eyes open as the blade touches his flesh. Before his mouth can open to scream, his head is severed from his body.

The room holds two more unopened coffins.

[rogue-starsr.livejournal.com]

Sarah lets the others handle the slaying. That's a bit much for her, at least without someone standing up to fight, as necessary as it may be. On the other hand, she knows Strange is in here somewhere, and its not here.
She starts pushing her way deeper into the stronghold, trying to will the hammer to detect magic, in hopes it might lead her the right way, until Joshua decides to be more directly helpful.

[proteus-maximus.livejournal.com]

Morph's shifted into the form of a very recognizable Cimmerian barbarian. "By Crom, my sword +2 will penetrate their damage reduction easily!"

[marvel-citizens.livejournal.com]

Two doors down, he'll find a room painted with a map of Earth during the Hyborian age. Artistically arranged swords decorate the remaining walls, along with mounted heads as hunting trophies.

[proteus-maximus.livejournal.com]

"Whoa. Cool. 'Cept for the severed heads."

[discodazzles.livejournal.com]

Alison starts to follow one of the others then decides not to. "Call if you have someone resisting. I'll light up their night," she offers with a grim smile. She moves to a door, opening it and stepping inside. She focuses her powers to her index finger on her right hand, pointing it like a gun as she kicks the lid open on a coffin and prepares to laser the vampires head off.

Sure, it isn't getting them closer to Strange but at least these ones won't block their exit route when the time comes. The less they have to fight the better.

And part of her is going to enjoy this.

[webslingah.livejournal.com]

Spider-Man is on guard - spider-sense at a continual low buzz in this place. He's not killing the sitting-duck vampires - when they're asleep, they don't get a chance to react properly, and that's hardly any fun at all.

[tj-nocturne.livejournal.com]

TJ, at first, simply keeps watch while the others go on the merry slay-spree, firing a 'bolt here and there at the corpses if they look like they might move, but soon shrugs it off.

"Okay, let's get this over with" she mutters to herself, and approaches the nearest unopened coffin. Just think Buffy she tells herself. If a blonde high-school student can do it, she can too. They're not alive, they're not people, they're monsters animating the dead bodies of former people.

She opens the lid.

[marvel-citizens.livejournal.com]

"Boo!"

The long haired brunette vampire inside is laying on his side, wearing nothing more than enthusiasm and a smile. He waggles his eyebrows suggestively.

"Hey, beautiful. Sneaking downstairs for a nap?"

[tj-nocturne.livejournal.com]

"GAH!"

-Bwamf bwamf bwamf. She fires off a series of hex bolts from one hand. "It's awake and it's hitting on me!"

Her grip tightens around the blade in her other hand. Seems it's easier to come to terms with killing them when they're so skeevy.