The cultists were left behind on the ground as Scandal took to the air - now helpless to do anything to her, she was free to incapacitate them at her leisure whether they milled around uselessly below her or tried to run away. Their swimsuits could hardly conceal any weapons or equipment beneath - the threat from that angle had been effectively neutralized.<br/><br/>One of the tentacles turned inwards, apparently turning on High Priestess now that it had been starved of the Tentacle Grape that was to be offered to it. It pulled down the Burning Man effigy as it went, purple-flamed pieces crashing to the ground. The tendril wrapped around the priestess, unmoved by her cries of "No!" as she disappeared out of sight in its coils. The second tentacle sought out Scandal as though it could sense that she was carrying what it sought, reaching up towards the sky and stretching towards her at great speed, suckers pulsating ready to clamp onto her and reel her in!<br/><br/>Stryka gave as good as she got, and in rapid succession the statues' stony shells cracked and shattered under her powerful blow, until all of the Body Artist's victims were freed from their sculpted prisons. But she had less luck pursuing the responsible culprit through the crowd, having to struggle against the flow of people fleeing away from the burning effigy, unless she wanted to collide with them at eighty miles an hour. Meanwhile Briar Rose lived up to her name, using a thorny solution to cut herself free from her horny predicament, getting back in the fray.<br/><br/>Finally Nanako wised up to what was going on, and transformed into Daibuster, her suit stripping off the more restricting pieces of her ponygirl outfit in the process - but keeping the more decorative pieces that continued to tease her sensitive spots. The cart slowed to a stop now that no one was pulling it anymore, as the driver jumped off abandoning it cart and his wares. He pulled out a handheld trigger, squeezed the switch, and disappeared in a flash of teleportation light.<br/><br/>By the time Stryka broke out on the opposite side of the crowd close to the site of the fallen effigy - wood and flames now mostly replaced by biological mass of the tentacles - the Body Artist was ahead of her and within an arm's throw of the dying fire. She looked back straight into Stryka's eyes, who suddenly felt herself slowing down and found it more and more difficult to move as though she was submerged in molasses, while she pulled out one of the cans and threw...<br/><br/>...but luckily it was stopped by Daibuster's gravity barrier! The barrier wasn't large enough to completely seal off the tentacles from above, but it could and did make a high barrier that would be that much more difficult for beverage and appendage alike to get through. But not high enough to stop the third tentacle from reaching up over the top of the barrier and around, snaking towards the snake-haired woman to take delivery of the rest of her bag.<br/><br/>The crisp tone of a military officer, accustomed to having his orders obeyed without question, filled the superheroines' earpieces. "Avengers, this is General Irving. Strike package is en route, ETA five minutes. Your priorities are to lase the... tentacle thing for our fighters and to capture the remaining hostile super, codenamed Medusa."