After Nemesis framed me for the destruction of Suicide Slum and killing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people, I found myself on the run. But refusing to leave Metro City in the hands of a cyborg gone mad, I came up with a plan with Apex, in secret, just before his death because of the trap Nemesis set on the Moon.
With my brother freed from an alien planet, I was attacked by, Ronin, before he realized his mistake. Finally allowing my brother to find me, I let Superion in on the plan, along with Ronin. But before I can enact this plan, we three heroes must first enlist the aid of Elite, Lucian and Drake. The question is, will they try to arrest me or help me? If they do decide to help, I'll need to tell them my plan.
Nemesis has taken my friends hostage after she defeated them all by exploiting their weaknesses. If I don't surrender in the next 24hrs, she will start killing them and the first victim will be the Blue Ghost. The next hurdle I need to overcome is convincing the DSA agents to help me rather than arrest me. If they don't listen, I fear lives will be lost and Nemesis will win.
DSA Helicarrier, just minutes after Nemesis announced her ultimatum...
Elite smiles at them, glad they are willing to disobey orders to help her kick some machine butt. For now, she doesn't think of the potential consequences she will face once this is all over. All she knows is that the DSA barely managed to hold the Helicarrier. But out in Metro City, the DSA is outnumbered ten to one. And while Director Sarah Jones is busy coming up with a counter attack, Elite has already decided to leap into action.
Elite tosses Drake, Lucian and the others a parachute. She smiles at the star spangled hero, glad to finally meet him. She's only been here for 7 or 8 months as the new combat instructor, "Nice to meet you. Since your the ranking officer, you take the lead. But if you don't mind, I'll leap off first so I can clear us a spot to land safely." She winks at him playfully before she goes outside and does just that. She leaps off the Helicarrier. It's about a thousand feet up from the ground and she lands in the midst of the robot army, cracking the pavement under her feet as she does.
Elite cracks her green knuckles, smiling, "Who's first?" The machines don't react to her sudden appearance, other than stare at her with no emotion just before they begin firing energy weapons at her. Some of the mightiest muscles on Earth flex as she pounces on the nearest machine, ripping it's head off before punching a hole in the next before ripping the arms off of another. As promised, she is clearing a path for her team to land in. The battle has begun...
The Devastated Suicide Slum...
Paragon looks over at Ronin, noticing how haunted he looks. She gives him a bump with her shoulder, but softly so she won't hurt him, "Don't worry about it."
Then they both will hear Nemesis' voice as she appears on every computer terminal, every screen, every speaker within the city. Paragon hears the ultimatum and clenches her jaw in determination. Shortly after this, Superion finally finds her and she looks from him to Ronin, tapping on her left forearm which gives out a scrambling signal so that Nemesis cannot overhear what Paragon is about to say, "Glad your here, brother." She hugs Superion and he in turn hugs her, saying he's glad to be here too.
With that, she tells them the plan. Paragon will surrender to Nemesis while Superion and Ronin rescue her friends. But, if they encounter any allies, especially with powers, then they should recruit their help. In the meantime, Paragon will stall Nemesis as long as possible. With a deep breath, Paragon glances at her brother and Ronin, "Are we agreed?"
In the corner of her eye, she sees Elite fall from the sky and begin attacking the machines. Only one with super senses will notice that. She hopes the woman isn't intending to try and arrest her. The last thing she needs is a fight with the woman who bills herself as the strongest one there is.
"Works for me." Ronin spoke, regressing back to his quiet demeanor now that Superion was present. Standing between these super powered beings was a bit intimidating, but he knew he had his part to play. Ronin was resilient, tactically sound, and great in ninjutsu. Even though the two were near omnipotent power and being high in the sky, it was always good to have someone of his skills on the ground as an ally.
Ronin wasn't happy to leave his new friend alone with Nemesis, especially if she was going to 'surrender' to her. Still, it was not his decision to make. Ronin often found himself throwing himself in the path of danger, content with being a shield for the innocent, so he had no room to talk. He would do his best to make things easier for her though. He walked over to her, placing his hand in hers. He had a serious expression as he passed Keira a small vile.
"I wasn't sure if taking you away from the chryonite would be enough to cure your side effects so I reverse engineered it to create a antidote. It won't completely cure you of all the effects, but it will severely dampen them and give you more of a fighting chance against Nemesis if she happens to use your greatest weakness on you." Ronin couldn't help, but grin. "Imagine her face when she pulls the green rock out and you still kick her ass. Paragon, you got this. Stay confident and remember everyone is counting on you." His words would scare anyone else, but he knew they would only solidify her fortitude, she was a champion of the people.
Alright. This is all we've ever wanted, right? Just go out there. Make something of ourselves.
I never expected to be put into a full-scale war on my first mission.
Too bad.
Arnold Haas, recent graduate of the DSA Academy - due in no small part to the efforts of the superheroine Elite - assembled with the team at the edge of the helicarrier. His friend and mentor stood across from him, addressing the crowd of agents already transformed into her emerald marvel state. He disregards the parachute she offers him, electing instead to hype himself up for what was to come.
"Alright, Pinnacle, you got this," he muttered to himself, smacking the floor as Elite leaped off the side.
Without hesitation, he followed her without any safety harness. With the wind whipping across his face and body, he didn't exactly need to worry about what was being torn off by the monumental efforts of his muscles expanding in rapid unison. Slabs of green flesh ripped through his shirt, reducing everything else down to the uniquely-sewn nanofiber pair of pants. His only 'uniform' considering the sheer amount of stress involved in housing the mountainous strength concealed beneath jade skin.
Pinnacle landed a few blocks across from Elite. Whereas she approached the situation like a well-oiled machine, Pinnacle exploded onto the scene as a green comet impacting the ground. Shards of concrete shot out like broken tombstones, cascading plumes of dust and debris in all directions.
As the robots clamored around them, seeing ample resistance built up between the two, it wouldn't be long until a decent area would be cleared for landing. Pinnacle kept tearing his way through the machines, one hand more than enough to clasp around the humanoid-sized creatures and crush them into oil-drenched pulp.
When surrounded by the aberrations, the Jade Giant took one's head between his teeth and pulled up to sever the entire 'nervous' system from the cybernetic hull. Without pause, he continued the carnage, crushing dozens underfoot in pandemic charging maneuvers that left scores of them broken in his wake.
Of course, they put up as much fight as they could. Discharges of energy meant to sear away flesh from bone and turn steel to molten slag scorched his skin, pockmarking it with brutal craters of sloughed flesh. Though, this did not discourage the beast in the slightest. In a flash, he was upon them, smashing the guns or crushing them and the arms that carried the weapons with a single clench of a fist before ripping the derelict up and over as a battering ram to the solid concrete of the city floor.
"Elite! What now? Sell them all for scrap?" he asked pseudo-sarcastically, simultaneously endorsing his superior officer's rank and playing with the fact that they were friends.
Suddenly, a machine clocked him in the face with a hardened fist. This wouldn't have stopped him otherwise, except for the fact that it hurt - a lot. He pulls his head back into view of the robot and he watches as it actually begins to grow to accommodate for the size difference between Pinnacle and itself. Immense metal 'muscles', hydraulic joints and increased combat capability - it was all there. Arnold, inside of Pinnacle's mind, recognized all of it from his research into robotics. It was all extremely advanced, and altogether terrifying to watch.
Alright Pinnacle, just stay calm...
I am calm. But the mission needs to be done!
Wait no!
The two hulking masses clashed, an irresistible force meeting the immovable object. Only, the force had the power of the Pinnacle behind it, and overtook the machine in a tidal wave of muscle and aggression. It could scarcely hold back the behemoth as he rampaged forward with the fury of a runaway train. They crashed headlong into the heart of an abandoned building, and Pinnacle forced the machine against a massive support column by the throat and his forearm. Each punch to the robot's 'ribcage' sent a shellshock of energy rolling through the area, shattering windows up and down the construct.
"You think you're stronger than me?!" he roared in a primal rage. "GUESS AGAIN!"
Pinnacle flipped the automaton onto its back, repeatedly hitting the head until it was driven into the ground. Though, this did nothing to stop the clockwork abomination. It grabbed the fists that assailed it as twin piledrivers and wrenched control of the situation into its favor - or so it thought.
Igniting booster engines on its feet and hands, the machine carried Pinnacle through the first few floors of the building only to be wrestled back outside by a sudden shift in Pinnacle's weight and direction. The beast steered the automaton into the open air, but it forced itself back on track. What glass didn't shatter under the tremors of their conflict before were now being uprooted by the steel paneling that kept it afloat. Continuously driving upwards, the two skirmishing behemoths kept adapting to each other again and again, only to explode out of the top of the structure in a shower of broken glass and crippled steel.
Pinnacle raised both hands, clenched into cinderblock-sized fists, and collapsed them upon the machine's cranium once, twice, three times and the armor began to relent. The beast forced his fingers underneath the shattered skullcap, having to resort to biting at the reinforced metal, all while being assailed repeatedly in the stomach and throat. Yet he never once gave up. He bit into the central processing unit of the machine with a relentless crack of his jaw, and they plummeted back to the earth with no more resistance from the automaton.
He rolled a bit of the robot's brain matter around in his mouth and spat it back out.
"Tastes worse than it looks," he muttered as he stood back up.
Ashes fall from the tip of cigar, the orange flames evanescent as it was pressed against the metallic walls of the airborne vehicle of the DSA. Many had ways of dealing with these sorts of missions, those who swimmingly endangered your safety, your life, and granted nothing as backup. Some individuals were accustomed to having such gigantic stakes and felt no pressure, others would talk to themselves to ease their minds, but Drake, he would rather puff one of his seldom used cigars, it calmed his nerves and, ultimately, halted the trembling of his hands. He wouldn't miss if his body was in its prime condition, he never seemed to and, hopefully, it wouldn't be a day that escaped the norm.
It could very well be his last.
Nicole tosses him a parachute, he allowed it to thud upon hitting the ground, eyes focused on the emptiness of the hangar. His teammates were all much more astonishing than he was, yet that was simply how the world spun, he would never change that and it was okay. Rather, his thoughts traveled far into his life thus far, all those situations where luck had been the sole motive for his survival. Heart palpitating on his chest, almost as if it was about to outburst, adrenaline spikes at an all-time high, words at an all-time low. He sighed, eyes shut, he could hear his every breath, the air leaving his body simply to be sucked back in. Focus, Drake. Focus. A hand reached down, grabbing the parachute. "Fine, let's do this." Nonchalantly wading towards the gap in the back, he took impulse and leapt without uttering a single word.
Wind buffeted against his hair as he dove as he had plenty of times before, the excitement of the free-falling immediately erasing some of his preoccupations. It was a familiar sentiment, it was just another mission, another one he would come back alive to give Larry a tight hug upon reaching his home, sip an almost glacial-cold beer with his buddy Warspool... He could witness the destruction yet another one of the DSA superb members caused, wrecking havoc amidst enemy lines with such excellence, a barbaric magnificence, quite antagonistic in itself. Ha, why the $&*@ am I even here? Am I going to be carrying their towels and water for each time the round ends? Damn, making me feel useless already. He chuckled, a lighter burden on his shoulders at every roar he heard.
He pulled the cord, the parachute rocketing upwards after its release. It took a while for it to enter a proper equilibrium, even longer for Drake's eyes to ultimately capture the best edifice to land atop. He eventually landed on a building slightly away from the main brute force, he unattached the backpack, seizing the bow on his back. Two fingers tapping a device on his ear. "This is Drake, I've landed. What's the plan?"
He didn't have enough time for a response as he promptly put a thermite arrow on the bowstring. A swift release and he punctured the core of one of the many machines. Hit the first, that's a good signal. I'm good, it's gonna work out, we have the green version of Kratos on our side, after all. And the green female version of Kratos too. A smirk on his lips, eyes on his allies, prepared to assist with covering fire at any point.
The choppy song of spinning helicopter blades hung high above Metro City. News helicopters glided above the rooftops as footage of a mechanical army marching to the word of Nemesis aired on news channel after news channel till it'd reached the eyes of Gothic City's Horned Saint; Grimmwald. How he'd arrived, no one knew. But as he climbed out the shadows of an alleyway like a devil escaping the maw of Hell, Kellan felt the cool air brush past him - and the vibrations it carried bounce off his skin. His dermal senses never lied. And as he stood draped in the shadow of a building, his fingers wrapped tight round the hilt of his vibranium sword, Kellan listened to the warning whispered by his senses. Every nearby vibration he felt was mechanical. The product of grinding gears and metal joints. No organs, no skin, no flow of blood.
Seems like every city's hellbent on doing their best impression of Gothic City these days. First Grimm City, now this place, he thought, brow scowled, ruby eyes sharper than any blade. Breathing in with his eyes closing shut, the Horned Saint sank into the nearest shadow before jumping out the shadow of a robot minion with his sword drawn. Sword swung, his elbow extending at the last second as the vibranium blade snapped into the the robot's neck, Kellan twisted his grip - and dragged the sharp edge of his blade through metal and wires till the robot's head clattered on the ground. Then came another, it's metal body gleaming under the sun, and it's soulless eyes promising the death. But like the last, it too was felled. A step forward, and his sword swung in a downwards arc, Kellan ran the vibranium edge of his blade through the robot's exoskeleton till it's torso'd been sliced in two. It's exposed wires crackled and zapped the air with electricity, but more of Nemesis' army came for him.
Like water, the Horned Saint's limbs flowed free and smooth, his vibranium blade glimmering like silver as it sliced through robot after robot till he was surrounded and staring not at eyes - but the barrels of blasters and energy weapons. Chest heaving, his blood cold, and his sword held high overhead and defensive, Kellan's eyes swept the streets for a shadow to dive into but none hung near him. "Well shit...", he panted, lips pulling back into a daring smirk, "At least I can take pride in knowing it took a robot death army to kill me".
There was no time to think or collectively formulate a strategic approach before the shit hit the fan. Independently, the small band of DSA agents had been informed of the situation, some from ground zero. As Lucian quickly snagged the chute from out of the air he comfortably observed the team disembark with premeditated tactical ideas. And with the indomitably explosive power of not one, but two hulking atlas' of herculean proportion carving a swath through the robotic horde, the Hyper-Sapien focused his intent towards the swift and safe evacuation of the nearby populous.
Pressing a finger to his ear while softly jogging towards the open rear of the Hellicarrier; "Get to the highest point possible and cover the evacuation effort. Be our eye in the sky. Call out the largest clusters of heavy metal and steer em away from the civilians and heard'em back towards our juggernauts. You got this kid."
The end of his reassuring sentence was nearly arrested by the sudden surge of turbulence as he dove out into gravity's anchoring embrace. Slicing through the air with his arms tightly tucked Lucian speared onto the back of passing aerial sentinel just a few feet above a rooftop. Wrapping and tangling his unopened cute around the menacing machine's head and neck before ripping the cord, popping the canopy and violently snapping its head back with enough force to sever its ability to operate.
Like a slingshot, diving into a prolonged somersault along mainstreet, Lucian hit the ground sliding into a crouched position behind an overturned car. His first instincts now that he was on the ground was to round up and evacuate any nearby civilians.
Despite his best efforts, the machines seemed intent on singling him and Elite through use of the massive hulking versions. Adapted to them solely on their strength output - at least so far - Pinnacle knew they would be swarmed eventually, with little option to handle the actual numbers. Already, more of the Pinnacle-sized types were on the move towards their position. He didn't need to ask Elite what to do, he already had ideas.
Without a pause in his step, he took a nearby parked car by the frame and hurled it towards the nearest giant robot, forcing it to catch it. Then, almost instantly after throwing it, he followed the vehicle with a flying leap. His fist pierced the hull, crushing it clean in half with hundreds of tons of strength packed behind the blow. The giant collapsed almost instantly, but didn't stop trying to fight back as it took the blow into a staggered roll. The machine stood back up after sliding for an entire city block.
Pinnacle didn't relent.
The Jade Giant leaped on top of the mechanical monstrosity, adrenaline pumping through his limbs and giving him a spike in superhuman capabilities beyond what the adaptive nature of the robots could comprehend at the moment. In an instant, the hull withered and crumpled under the fury of the assault, but it had numerous allies. This would not be a one-on-one fight like the one before it. Two more behemoths peeled Pinnacle away, one for each arm, and they tried to bisect him vertically by virtue of their imposing strength and size. But, even grounded, Pinnacle could feel the strain of their hydraulic systems wishing to become just powerful enough to tear him apart. He flexed inwardly, violently, and the two smacked into each other with a furious upheaval of spare parts and smashed metal ligaments.
Yet they stood, relatively unaffected by the barrage, and one took to pinning the beast with its weight. One of its arms began to emerge and contract in rapid succession, a closed fist powered by immense hydraulic pistons that sent the hammering blow over and over again into the Pinnacle's face and neck area. A legitimate piledriver, adapted to pulverize the augmented bone and flesh of the Jade Giant.
Pinnacle tried to struggle against the continuous concussive forces at play, but his brain kept getting shaken around as if being mixed by a blender. At a constant rate, with no respite, the blows kept coming. He finally managed to compose himself enough to find a grasping point on the offending arm - and squeeze. It didn't matter what he found, just as long as he crushed it completely. Hydraulic fluid splashed onto the pavement, and the machine halted its attack for the first time in what seemed like ages. Taking what he had pulled out of the robot's arm, Pinnacle continued to crushed it into a compacted spike of sorts and rammed it into the behemoth's eye socket, twisting until it stopped moving. Even then he picked up its supposed corpse and used it to smash into the second one of its kind that took it away from the initial battle.
Have to lure them away, Pinn. Can't have a landing zone with these things flying around.
The beast gave a taunting roar at the two crippled offenders to his assault, though they hardly felt or cared about pain. Their destroyed brother-in-arms lay at their side, and they knew no pity for him. Instead their rockets blared in unison, and gave chase to the beast as he rampaged away, gaining a small herd of similar monstrosities in kind. He would have to go back to the landing area sooner or later, but for now he had to gather as many of these things as he could. If he and Elite had a decent fight with just one of them, he didn't want to imagine what a score or so could do to the rest of his squishier friends and teammates.
Interestingly, he happened upon a group of their smaller cousins crowding around someone who definitely wasn't one of their own. Pinnacle carefully adjusted his landing path, crushing several of the automatons underfoot in a boisterous display of outrageous strength. The disrupted formation had no other choice but to lock onto him as he stepped between the rifles and the stranger. He looked at the man in red, and pointed back where he had come from with a massive finger. Plasma bolts seared his skin, but he crunched handfuls of the machines in response.
"That way, go!"
The disheartening drone of the hulk-busting machines rolled out from overhead. There were at least a dozen now, with hundreds more of their smaller cousins marching in cold unison out from darkening corridors and empty buildings. Pinnacle cried out with a sound of pure, unbound rage, the kind that curdled blood and shook stone.
Pinnacle, perhaps in some strange mimicry of his new acquaintance, reached out for a traffic sign and plucked it by the concrete roots to use as a javelin. Only twice did this motion work, and only two of the larger machines feel the sting of a street corner impaling their central processing units. Yet they became wise very quickly, quicker than the blinding speed of the Jade Giant as he implemented this temporary solution to a growing problem. Yet, that wasn't the end to his strategy.
No grandiose speech, no words of encouragement, but rather the boiling-over of such cataclysmic energy and hatred that Pinnacle invariably disappeared from the collective sensing arrangements of the machines in tandem. He crashed upon them as a sudden storm, impaling one last of their behemoth-kin with yet another steel pole ripped from the cement. Yet this one would be different.
Having reached such staggering altitudes with his flying leap, the resulting binding of machine-flesh to pavement sent a shockwave of raw kinetic energy throughout the street. An emerald meteor, some would say, though the devastating potential was only limited to what was to be an otherwise unwise engagement. Time and effort were not on the side of the DSA and its allies. As Pinnacle stood out of the crater, broken machines swept aside in all directions, all he could hear was the reactionary sounds of the remaining bulkier units still active in the vicinity. Though they were pushed away a fair distance and would inevitably return to the beast's coordinates, it allowed him and the Horned Man some actual time for introductions and the like.
"Pinnacle, with DSA," he began, pointing in the same direction as before. "Friends that way,"
His cinderblock-sized fist tapped his massive pectoral muscle, just over the heart.
"Oh no wait!" Mia said running just as she she saw everyone leaping off the helicarrier, she was apparently a bit late on the news. She did, nevertheless, have a vaguely good idea of what was going on, mostly, there were a ton of robots in the city, and that was something that she might be able to do something about. Mia breathed trying to make sure she stayed calm, first real danger right here, she whispered the word and blood armor surrounded her, this time covering her entire head, something she wasn't fond of doing. The armor would boost her abilities based on the metabolism of anyone around, unfortunately the army was robots, and that alone would have been a problem, except for the fact that there were so many heavy hitters here on her team.
She leapt off the helicarrier, flying like some red abomination. It was rather a dismal sight with her head covered by the blood armor, rather inhuman in appearance, it was based off a vampires spell after-all. But just about as deadly as it looked. She dropped and did her best to speak to the rest of them, "Hi, this is Rondstrum, sorry a little late but what can I do?" she asked in a voice that very much did not match her outfit.
She grimaced watching the robots clash with the heroes. Alright, it was time to give them some back up, she didn't have time to wait for every order, she could feel the power of Elite, Pinnacle, Paragon, and all of them coursing through her armor to a degree boosting it massively. That was...rather intimidating actually. But there was no time to dwell on that either.
She was still a bit high to really gain attention right now, but soon enough she knew there would be something coming after her, she had already started speaking the thirty second spell Legend of a thousand spears.
"You're all gonna want to cover your ears pretty soon."
In just half a minute, a literal thousand spears would dart at mach one into the horde of robots, intentionally avoiding the heroes but it would probably get a lot of attention pretty soon. And when it did she was hoping she could land, from a ground position it would be easier to create a mass amount of stone golems, at the very least to even out the numbers. But she really had no idea what she was dealing with, and she didn't want to just drop to the ground before she was given instruction.
It’s truly touching that Ronin would give her an antidote to Chrysonite. That the man would care so much. It’s a very sweet gesture and it touches her heart. Paragon takes the vial and leans up, giving Ronin a kiss on his right cheek, whispering in his ear, “That is so sweet. Thank you.”
Paragon steps back and examines the vial, scanning it’s chemical composition and memorizing it so that she can replicate it in the future and all from memory. For now, she drinks the contents of the vial before she hugs her brother, Superion. With one last look to her companions, she then flies off to meet with her destiny.
Superion watches her fly off, nervous of the possible outcomes that can come from this. But he trusts his sister that she knows what she is doing. Then he looks over at Ronin, “My senses tell me other heroes are here, helping with the evacuation and fighting the machines. But we are fighting a losing battle here. Eventually the machines sheer numbers will wear us down because for every machine we take down, two more take it’s place. We need to do something to even the odds, even turn the tide. Got any suggestions?”
Elite is happy to see Pinnacle in action in his new form. And he’s a sight to behold. “We could, but we don’t have time to sell them for scrap.” She says in reply to his banter.
That is all Elite has time to say when she sees Pinnacle getting clocked by a giant machine even more bigger than the one she fought on the Helicarrier. She tries to leap to his aid, but finds herself being attacked by a huge flying machine that picks her up and flings her up and away, smacking her into an abandoned tenement building. Getting back up, she leaps out of the building in a shower of metal and glass as she attacks the flying machine. The two lock into battle to see who is stronger.
Elite brings the thing down by tearing it's wings off and smashing it's head. Then she leaps back close to Drake’s position to give him cover while he sneaks off some shots, “What Lucian said. You can do this, Drake. Get to a higher position and be our eyes in the sky.” She has every confidence in the archer. And if he needs back up, she is here to give it to him.
Suddenly, two huge machines begin to attack Pinnacle at the same time! They try and hold him down for a pounding. Elite tackles both but two more come for Pinnacle, attempting to overcome him with brute strength.
Even as Pinnacle manages to save Grimmwald’s life by attacking the very machines who who threatened him with energy weapons pointed at him, the Crimson Spider is the one who gummed up those weapons with her webbing before they could be fired. But Pinnacle did the rest when he did his move against them. Something the Crimson Spider couldn’t have done quite as spectacularly.
Still, the Web Head swings down to Grimmwald and lands by his side, “Hello, Mr. Horned person. I’m the Crimson Spider. Nice to meet you, it looks like you got into a little trouble. Glad that big guy came, not sure even I could fight all these things at once, but at least I gummed up their guns for you! And I talk too much, sorry! Let’s say we kick some butt, huh? Don’t worry, I got your back. Let’s say we have a team up! We can be the new dynamic duo!” She punches the air for emphasis.
With that, the Crimson Spider is already attacking the machines, making sure to keep them busy fighting her and Pinnacle. But some of them get through and try and attacking the horned saint anew with their fists rather than their guns since they have been gummed up with that annoying webbing. Still, it’s not easy work. For every one they take down, two more replace them. A more permanent solution must be found. And soon. But at least now Grimmwald has allies and it won't be so easy to die. One such machine tries to come up from behind Grimm and try and pin his arms to his sides.
As Lucian helps with the evacuation of Metro City’s innocent civilians, Nemesis takes a special notice of the star spangled hero from her safe position somewhere within Metro City. From here, the man cannot hear what she says, “So, a man wearing similar colors as Paragon enters the fray. An inspect more than anything. Still, according to my records, this man has a bad habit of overcoming impossible odds. Time to heat things up for him.” Without even thinking about it, she summons a special kind of machine that wields a shield and it throws it at Lucian, trying to hit him with carefully measured martial art attacks.
Elite hears what Mia asks the group and she signals that they are evacuating the civilians first even as they battle the seemingly endless number of machines. When Mia attacks with her spears, a thousand machines either get heavily damaged or outright destroyed. It’s thinned out the numbers a little but they just keep coming, replacing the ones that are lost. However, Mia has bought the team a little time for a breather if they wish to take it.
But the breather does not last long for Mia because as soon as she hits the ground, a flying machine screeches at her, trying to knock her off balance with ultrasonics.
Ozzy's usually icy expression relaxed for a moment, smiling at his new found friend. With friendship came worry for someone he cared about, which was something he was not used to. He helped many people on a daily basis, but they were random innocent civilians. To have someone he actually knew be in danger, was a very different story. Oz pulled his mask back on as he watched Paragon fly away. She'll be ok, he told himself. He closed his eyes, cracked his neck and took a deep breath.
The Umbra Ninja opened his eyes, a newfound expression of determination apparent on his face. He crouched atop the roof, staring off in the direction of the battle as if he could see what was happening. He was soon accumulating a plan of attack. Ronin looked over at the Man of Steel, thinking about the power difference between the two. He was right, the robots would keep coming and coming and Superion could be able to hold them off easily, but Ronin would be risking getting overwhelmed all for nothing.
"Normally I'd take out the satellite to interrupt the connection between the Nemesis and her drones, but I've read her file. I know her capabilities and that's simply not possible." He took another breath, continuing his thought process, "Still, they're machines and machines are manufactured. If the manufacturing plant is taken down, all we will have to do is worry about Nemesis and the last of her robots." Ronin looked back over at Superion, "I have no powers, eventually I'd get taken down out there, so I'm going to use my time and skill to sabotage Nemesis production line. It's up to you wherever you think you'd be most useful."
Ronin took off, running from rooftop to rooftop until he found himself above the mayhem. Superion was right, there were waves of robots being held off by a rag tag group of heroes, mostly DSA agents. They were doing a good job together, holding them off and rescuing every civilian possible. He found himself impressed, a well oiled machine that was taking care of every problem possible. So much so that Ronin knew he'd be waisting his time here. He nodded at Superion and whether Superion joined him or not he would begin to track one of the waves to it's source. He sighed, seeing as their enemies we're funneling their way out of the sewer system. Going underground would put him and especially Superion (If he had joined) at a severe disadvantage. Still, he had no other options. Ronin entered the sewers a block from where the machines were exiting, in hopes of not being spotted.
Landing in the murky waters, Ronin quietly listened for the machines. Even though the sound of the rushing water filled the air, he was able to discern the sounds of a production line, much more uniform compared to the sound of the traveling mob of robots. He nodded his head in the direction he believed the plant to be, either to himself or to the Man of Tomorrow and proceeded forward. "This...this isn't going to easy." Ronin was right. The tunnel had taken him down a lower chamber and into a large echoing chasm. Sitting in the carved out earthly hole was line after line of different sized robots being manufactured piece by piece. The preassembled robots were not the only ones present, many performance ready machines guarding their yet to be born brethren.
Ronin shrugged, placing six arrows on his bow and shooting them into the ceiling. He then swan dove off the scaffolding he arrived on and landed atop a giant laser cutting machine. Rising his sword up, it gleamed in the artificial lighting before being buried down into the laser cutters base. Doing this allowed Ronin to have full control of it's movement, allowing him to aim it at one of the large dispensary machines. The laser tore through the surrounding metal fixtures as his previous arrows began to detonate. The surrounding robots spotted Ronin, but were interrupted by the explosion and flaming debris raining down on them.
Ronin may not be as powerful as his fellow heroes, but he knew a thing or two about espionage, sabotage, and ninjutsu so this would be his part to play.
The Horned Saint felt it. His dermal senses'd caught them. The twitching vibrations of muscle fibers thicker and stronger than any he'd ever sensed. And like a meteor cratering the ground, the Jade Giant left the Earth's crust a cracked and lumbering mess. "Damn", Kellan paused, ruby eyes lifting to meet the blue of the behemoth who'd saved him, "You took all your vitamins as a kid huh? Big motherfunker", he chuckled, raspy laughter flowing out his calm grin before he heeded the titan's warning with a nod and sank into the nearest shadow - disappearing. Leaping out the shadow of a building standing where the behemoth'd pointed him to, Kellan felt the ground rumble, and his eyes widened like saucers at the sight of the street being torn asunder before him. I shouldn't be too surprised, he thought, leaping out the path of the cracking pavement, He's built like a sports stadium. It'd be awkward if he wasn't this strong.
Landing on the ground with nay a sound, his fingers still wrapped round the hilt of his sword, Kellan stood to his full height as his senses caught another the arrival of another whose web-slinging powers lent their aid to Jade Giant toppling the robot army around them. He's fast, Kellan thought, feeling the ground shake as the Jade Giant landed some feet from where he stood. "Insurance huh?", he rasped, one brow raised as he met eyes with Pinnacle, his hand never straying from his sword should more robots attack. "Thanks", he smiled, the curl of his mouth small but genuine. "You can call me Gri-", he stopped, cut off by the words of the web-slinging hero who'd helped fight off the robot army. "I should thank you tw-", he stopped, his dermal senses catching the vibrations of a robot darting from behind. Turning at the heel and spinning like a whirlwind, the Horned Saint's feet shuffled him out the robot's reach, his body spinning as he swung the sharp edge of his blade into the robot's side, wrists twisting as he dragged the blade from one side to the other, slicing through till the robot's torso fell to the ground - completely severed from it's bottom half.
A twisting flick of the wrist and Kellan's blade was eased back into it's sheathe. Yet as he gazed down at the sea of mangled metal, broken gyros and cut wiring, Kellan's eyes lifted from the gleaming robot corpses - and zeroed in on where his dermal senses were pointing him to. There, in the horizon, he felt it. Vibrations from the stomping, the marching of second wave of robots. But then the air cried out as a storm of spears rained down from the sky and tore the robot army asunder. Whoever'd done so had bought them time. "Look, fighting them's useless. For every one of these things we destroy, three more pop up", Kellan pointed out, turning round to lock eyes with Pinnacle and Crimson Spider. "So instead of staying here and fighting until we get tired and swarmed to death, we need to end this quickly", he asserted, eyes sharpened like a blade, blood and confidence cold like ice. "We need to shut down the manufacturing process of these robots. The factory or whatever's producing them in such large numbers".
"Would one of you know where these things keep coming from? Or who's building them? Because we need to shut it down. Now".
The technological savvy of the Titan of Valkna worked in tandem with the brilliance already available in the helicarrier's engineering crew. He had long ago abandoned the menial cell he was appointed when he was first brought here, though it served him well as a sort of bedroom given the circumstances. Its main function of holding him had presumably crumbled away under the circumstances that he posed no active threat to the DSA. In fact, he acted as a sort of ally. His techno-psionic mind connected to the earpieces he needed to communicate through. Added to that, he had basically mapped out not only the helicarrier itself but also most of the surrounding circumference of Metro City for his own use.
Swarms of machines sought to overtake the floating DSA base, though most were concentrated on overtaking the agents that had already plummeted into what was essentially an active warzone. Tarvok entrusted this situation to them, but he would help in whatever ways he could. This didn't differ from some of the planetary invasions he was already familiar with, though on a much smaller scale.
"Phil, Kelly, I need you two on Proto-Deck Alpha, there's a major hull malfunction that could compromise your current project. Arthur, Nick Baker, and Maddie - turret emplacements nine and seventeen have been overrun and require reboot," he mentioned this with a casual wave of his hand, tearing the mechanical horrors responsible for devastating these guns into little more than airborne scrap metal. "Lars and Megan, how are the shield generators?"
"About 80% online, Tarvok," Megan replied, with gunshots echoing in the Titan's mind.
"Do you require support?" he reached up, forcing a dozen or so of the automatons into a singular area - collapsing their central processing units all at once in a haze of vaporized oil and metal.
"Negative, only a couple here. Shields should be operating at full capacity now,"
Tarvok looked around, reflecting the pulses of plasma that immediately affected his person or the lives of those agents and crew scrambling across the deck to various areas in need of support. Very few injuries, all superficial, but he couldn't communicate with the engineers on a critical level while he was concentrating on shielding the DSA agents who were - in turn - providing covering fire and medical services. A Catch-22. No actual solution.
A plasma bolt reduced part of the ship near his feet to a smouldering hole. He frowned.
"Well, they're not," he gave in retort to Megan. "I'm going silent for a moment, just to establish a perimeter,"
Mental radio contact went short, reduced to a glimmering static in his mind. His arms outstretched, he concentrated. Recording the size of the helicarrier, he needed to take into account the actual feasibility of having it encased in psionic energy. To keep the machines out, and allow DSA members and allies in should a retreat be authorized. All of this he put into effect, scribing the laws of the field as it finally came into physical being - and stayed there. He sighed heavily, each breath an effort in of itself. Those machines that were attaching themselves to the helicarrier or that had found a way inside to try and sabotage it were short-circuited entirely. Having to find that specific wavelength was difficult, like applying one's voice to shatter a glass - but in this case using one's mind to disintegrate unwanted materials.
"That'll buy us a few minutes, I'd wager," Tarvok clicked back into his connection to the engineers, making reference to the fact that the robots were clearly adapting to what they were encountering here from the agents in the streets below.
He rolled his neck, not wanting to try what he was going to anyway. There was really no other option. He patched himself through to the various DSA earpieces and any allied frequencies on the ground. He would probably have to move the air around Grimmwald into a 'voice' of sorts. The information he had was invaluable given their current state of affairs.
"Hello? This thing on?" he mildly joked, tuning into each earpiece at once.
"Not much time, name is Tarvok Enurum. Presently allied with DSA, and circumstances have become less than optimal. There are currently three factories churning these things out - you can thank Ronin for crippling one already. Weird thing is, the remaining three seem to be... moving for lack of a better term. They're just as much adapting to the situation as the robots themselves. They might be disguised as normal buildings or as ruins, but I've marked them all with a psionic frequency that you should be able to see. They exist in a spectrum that the robots can't perceive, but be careful anyway,"
As Tarvok spoke, large orange markers indicating where these factories are started to appear. Just as he predicted, the robots didn't seem to pay any of these markers any attention. It appeared as though only human and humanoid brains could process them. And, true to his word once more, two of them were crawling in different directions while one stayed stationary.
"Once these are down, you have a clear shot to where you need to go. I'd help you all out further,"
He looked up at the crown of his psionic shield that kept the helicarrier from the invasion force proper. A massive android was starting to claw its way through, unrelenting in its advance upon the Titan.
"But that's going to have to wait. Good luck!" he managed to squeeze onto the comms frequency before he shorted himself out.
Without pause, the titanium terror lunged at Tarvok from the sky, leaving a gash in the psionic field as he crashed headlong into the Titan's body. Tarvok became pinned on the spot, but fought back by lifting up against the pressure building in the monstrous arms and torso of his opponent. He lifted a leg, and smashed it into the robot's kneecap, though it didn't shatter. Regardless it collapsed and he punched it several times in the head - yet it remained intact. The robot overcame the Titan in a swath of energy being emitted from its hand, and Tarvok put up his arms in a rudimentary shield only to have himself fall under attack from a relentless barrage of closed fists.
At length, he grabbed the offending limbs and wrestled them above his head once more. The psionic field, once bleeding away, coagulated and protected the helicarrier. Hesitant at first, Tarvok made ready to teleport elsewhere. The behemoth in front of him would destroy everyone on board otherwise.
"You made a mistake coming here, Tarvok of Valkna,"
"Wow, you know who I am? I'm impressed," the Titan scoffed in retort.
The field will hold. I have confidence in that much.
It has to be this way.
In a flash, the two colossal forces were gone, teleported by Tarvok's psionic prowess to a distant corner of Metro City, uninhabited and dreary. With that same pulse of light and cosmic energy, the city block surrounding them went up in a cloud of dust and fire - but Tarvok contained it to only that city block. Though they would traverse countless miles in their battle, they would never once leave that smouldering arena isolated solely for that confrontation. Only one would emerge alive.
"You cannot win. I have come here to destroy you."
Eye in the sky, huh? Sounds easy enough. Drake tapped the device on his ear once more, visibly content with such an understanding task. There was no way he could descend to their level and survive for long enough to be effective somehow, at least not within his own insecurities. "Yes, sir. They won't know what hit them." A remark filled to the brim with confidence on his adroit ability as a marksman, if they required his aid from a distance he could comply as swimmingly as he could walk or breathe, a safe-zone for making his shots, yet the more the situation got out of hand, the worse it would be for everyone.
Calm down, Drake. Look at them, they can handle this swarm. Trust your team. A single drip of sweat rolled down his jaw, his gaze shifted towards Nicole, she trusted him before and it had worked out just fine. They would encounter whatever conceived this robots faster than the Knightfall baby factory, and they would wreck enough havoc for them to cease production entirely. All he had to do was maintain the refugee situation safe until then. Drake nodded amicably at those inspiring words, resonating within his eardrums, carved on his mind. His lips edged into a smug grin. "Please, who do you think you're talking to? Of course I've got this!" Once more grasping his bow tightly, taking some distance between the edge of the building and himself.
Luckily enough, he wouldn't need to look out much longer for a taller place, another building already reigned sovereign beside the one he had previously landed. "Lucky me." Stupid &*$#, don't jynx it just yet. His fingers rapidly inputed the code for a cable arrowhead, his free hand reaching for the projectile. "If I fall, please don't let me hit the pavement. The last thing I want today is a lame death." Drake jocosely warned his green-skinned partner as he jolted into action, rushing forward as his knees mustered enough strength to send him up toward the other edifice.
Time slowed down, his eyes thoroughly pinpointing countless targets for his arrow, the bowstring is pulled smoothly. Can't reach the top from here, can't hit the windows unless I want to be a pretty smudge. The arrow leaves his finger, soaring majestically as Drake bullseyed the adamant concrete wall in-between two windows. Perfect. The cable pursued the arrow readily, pushing Drake upwards as he already typed yet another sort of ammunition, this time the suction-cup arrow, something to aid his balance. In one swift motion, Drake cocked back his arm and smashed the projectile against the wall, making sure it was fixed before tightly gripping it. "Probably a minute before I'm stuck to the rope only." Drake mindlessly explained the situation to himself, a rather needless detail that only hinted at his nervousness of being airborne with close to no protection. He removed another suction-cup arrow, placing it cautiously against the window. Here goes nothing. A quick pull and his result couldn't be any more satisfactory: an ajar window. Not tight enough to prevent him from squeezing through somehow, releasing the cable to the arrow as he slid into the edifice.
He still had quite a few floors to go through.
Phew, hardest part is over. Now... Oh, $%*& me. An evanescent smile becomes a frown as every machine roaming the area had their focus on the new arrival. Drake sighed, eyes darting around as he attempted to identify the quickest way up. Thankfully machines weren't smart enough to destroy signs for the staircases. Or it was merely a minor bother that didn't matter when your enemy can tear through buildings just because he/she is green.
Right. His arms instantaneously flexed as he immediately realized the first machine to react, bow at hands as an explosive-tip arrow well-nigh instantly left towards the robot's path. Left. Two. Virtually at the same time his mind read their next movements, his body responded with astonishing elegance. Two more arrows are gripped by his steady fingers, legs flex as he switches directions, a single beam zaps in the gap between his abdomen and forearm, he could feel its incredibly high temperature as it effortlessly ripped apart a chunk of his shirt's fabric. Not yet. Hold. Breathe. He leapt sideways, eyes always analyzing the encompassing area rather than being fixed on a target he would definitely hit. Now. Two arrows fly this time, a corrosive acid is ejected from one's tip as it melts metal into goo, strident shrieks scratching Drake's ears. The second one was his infamous putty arrow, unlike the one back in the helicarrier, this one addressed the robot's insides, glueing pistons and gears into place so his systems would eventually become fully damaged.
The clanking never diminished, however.
Desperate times... "Desperate measures." He smirked slyly, taking three arrows this time. His eyes were set on the stairway as he promptly rushed that way, hands brandishing his recurve bow, always pointed towards the gelid gazes of the murderous machines. Argent, lifeless fists covered in blood. The first arrow was released, hitting the ground before his robotic foes, glue scattering all throughout the place. A second arrow hits the middle of the room, sprays of acid eating through the concrete as if it was nothing but paper. A bright simper as he ultimately reached the door, waving ironically as another shot whizzed by his head. "Sayonara, &%¨$@es." The third arrow is quick to leave the bow, touching the weakened floor before an outburst made it collapse, debris scattered all around, glue spreading towards the machines to immobilize them in a plethora of distinct ways.
He didn't have time to appreciate the mischievous masterpiece he had crafted with his limited arsenal, however. Civilians needed his aid and thus he hastened his step, huffing his way through ostensibly endless flights of stairs until, quite a few minutes later, he arrived at his final destination. "This is Drake, I'm in..." He panted jadedly, torso leaning forward as one hand rested atop his bent knees. "I'm in position and ready to engage." The archer bobbed his head side-to-side, taking a thermite arrow as he witnessed a single robot chasing a small group of survivors. Unlike any average human, his privileged sight permitted him to easily spot enemies from afar, something that should be humanly impracticable. Still, his aim never once wavered. He inhaled, pulling the bowstring, timing the machine's next steps, and exhaled, releasing what would be a fatal blow had the technological abomination had any life in the first place. "Not on my watch."
Glass, heavy debris, and ground rumbling aftershocks continued to throw a disturbing parade through the ailing city. And as Lucian had instinctual feared, the tendency to confront a catastrophe with a loose and meta heavy hand had escalated the level of city wide destruction.
Luckily Metro City's first responders were trained in the new World disciplines of meta, mutant, and superpowered protocols and procedures. Leaving large portions of the metropolis tentatively abandoned as citizens were continually; and safely, evacuated along a makeshift underground railroad. Of sorts.
The Hyper Sapien stood off to the side slowly sweeping his arm along, keeping the orderly exodus of hundreds of citizens moving. Their backs burdened with the weight of uncertainty, as well as numerous makeshift backpacks and folded blanket carry-alls. Desperately trying to selvage some semblance of their valuables, their keepsakes.
Still, from an optical standpoint, the televised wreckage could not possibly play well with an already emotionally distressed populous. DSA agents engaging in wide scale and massive property damage could cripple its reputation moving forward. There had already been several radio checks, calls for orders and unexpected participants. Aliens who had hours earlier been detained where now using the full resources of the DSA. Hell, the DSA themselves had yet to gain any official orders in regards to Metro. The situation was truly an ugly one and it would require on the fly reactions and an ability to spontaneously adapt. "Lead the robots away from the populated areas as best you can. Get their attention, get them out over the bay or high above the city and take, them, out!" There was no time for individual responses. Made evident by what happened next...
Partially distracted by his previous introspection Lucian never saw the robotic facsimile. Its fabricated shield violently smashed into the small of his back with the anchored kinetic force of a superman. Temporarily shooting the DSA captain forward before a dipped shoulder re-arrested his own momentum. Somersaulting forward, the All-American acrobat purposely over-rotated. Laying out at the end while simultaneously turning just enough to unholster his shoulder mounted H&K Mk23, and letting off several shots from underneath his arm before ever hitting the ground.
*PING PING PING
Each shell fell harmlessly compacted to the ground. "Thats a'hellova shield" the militant hero mischievously thought. Elsewhere the Urban Shinobi, Ronin, was busy exercising his enterprising espionage skills. The first of hopefully many who would tactical converge on the robotic manufacturing plant.
"Hey buddy you okay?" an officer ran over and asked. Instantly regretting his decision as the shield wielding AI marched towards them both."NO! GET OUT OF HERE." Lucian barked as the officer instinctively reached for his gun. "I got this."
Mia barely had time to think once she landed, almost immediately one of the machines started screaming at her. Physically there was no problem, the armor was boosted by numerous powerful individuals here, she realized she could probably just walk right through the machines at this point but that wouldn't really accomplish much. Her ears however still took a hit of sorts, she bent over covering them for a moment gritting her teeth before she lashed out with the tendrils of blood ripping through the air and shredding the machine by tearing it apart. She grimaced a bit still, ears ringing painfully somewhat. But there wasn't so much to be done about that. She lifted her hand slowly and as she did five massive Golems of stone arose from the ground like they had just hatched, pushing through the ground itself until they stood tall and started clashing with the machines intent on beating them until they were nothing but metal sheets.
Primarily this was to let her enough time to think, unlike the machines the Golems wouldn't evolve. But their massive size and the power she'd given them was enough to blast right through most of the smaller ones with ease, and could reform themselves without Mia having to do it herself. She was no strategist but she did need time to think, that's what these gave her. There was a few things going at the moment she just couldn't handle if she was having to throw her tendrils around every which way. She then heard an unfamiliar voice, that of Tarvok Enurum. Giving them information about where the factories making these things were and the indicator of their locations. However then she heard Lucian Lebeau's voice telling them to move the machines away from anywhere people may be.
Well, that made things difficult, she couldn't do both very easily there was a chance she'd just get the droids following her towards the factories rather then away from the people. Alright, there was another option, she could drag them away then rush back leaving them to fight with her Golems while she went after the factory. Hm, what was a good way to get attention, noise and something big. Alright, then that's what she'd do next. Mia rose into the sky rushing away from people, her armor shooting out tendrils to make her appear like some sort of massive octopus and make certain the machines could see her. Then once she was a distance away from other people she whirled them past each other repeatedly creating a crashing roar as the air was forced to try and keep up with them. She called her Golems towards her, always keeping some of them attacking the machines as the retreated so they'd keep at them. And as she did so began to arise more of them from the ground. Sure, if they were broken small enough they couldn't reshape without her putting effort to it, and doubtless if the larger ones came for them that could happen. But it didn't matter how many of her golems she lost, only that she got the machines away from the people and towards her, she was fairly certain she could handle a horde of them now, if at least by using the shields of lancelot as defense, and he tendrils as offense.
Superion says nothing to the Ninja because he knows the man is right. He follows Ronin into the sewers, careful to stay afloat above the trash and sewage. The lead piping in this underground network prevents the Man of Steel from using his X-Ray Vision. However, the lead does not prevent the Man of Tomorrow from using his super hearing. He knows where to go because he can hear the sounds of the production facility despite the roar of rushing waters. Superion does not even want to think about what is in those waters.
When Ronin comments that this is not going to be easy, Superion nods once, “Agreed. Be careful.” But just as Ronin makes his way in, a heavily armored, reinforced, door shuts on Superion’s face so quickly, he runs right into it. The door is now cutting him off from offering Ronin any kind of aid. “No! RONIN!”
Superion slams a mighty fist into the door, making only a small dent, but causing a very loud noise. If the machines were not aware of their presence before, they are now. Superion keeps pounding on the door, with each hit comes a small dent. This is taking too long. X-Ray Vision cannot see past the door nor can he see it’s inner workings to try and find a way to open it. So, he takes the kid gloves off and hits the door a few thousand times in the span of just seconds. Eventually, the door finally gives way.
When Superion finally gets into the room, he sees a massive production line that Ronin has barely begin damaging. Machines are well on their way to fight the heroes and some of them look like they can go toe to toe with Superion. “Ronin, heads up, we’ve got company. I’ll keep as many of them as busy as I can while you continue to do your work to disable the production line. This thing is too vast. Look for something like a central power core that powers this entire thing. It'll be really big.”
Superion becomes a blur of motion as he zips from machine to the other, blitzing them as superspeed. But there are so many of them that it hardly looks like he’s making a dent. But then the big ones show up and Superion really has his hands full with those ones even with someone of his power. Especially since the Machines have now adapted and are employing his weakness against him. Still, he fights on.
Some machines get through, however, and try and land some hits on Ronin. Nemesis speaks through them, speaking in that sexy robotic voice of hers, “Your wasting your time, hero. Give up now and I might decide to keep you as a pet.”
The Crimson Spider scratches her head in response to Grimmwald’s suggestion, wondering how they were to locate this so called production facility. But then she recalls sensing two images of humanoids sinking into the sewers. Which is odd because the machines were coming out of that and not going in. One of the images had a cape, so she assumes that must have been Superion. She doesn’t know for sure because she cannot ‘see’ details due to being blind. Her sonar and radar senses just tell her something is there and gives her a basic image of it, but no details can be discerned.
“I think I--” She dodges a laser shot at her head, “--noticed two guys--” Marie backflips to avoid another laser shot, thanks to her spidey sense warning her of it, “--entering the sewer a few blocks from here. They might know where the production line is, won’t hurt to follow them. I got your back if you want to follow them.” Marie fires her webbing at the machines, gumming up their eyes so they can’t see, which causes them to shoot wildly. One shot threatens Grimm’s life so Marie tries to grab him and move him out of the way.
If Grimm wants to follow them, then if he gives the word, Marie leads the way to the sewer cover Superion and Ronin used, “Here, they entered through, OWW!” The Crimson Spider holds her ears from the loud banging Superion is causing when he tries bringing down that armored door. To her super sensitive hearing, she might as well be standing next to the Man of Steel. Grimm might hear it as well with his enhanced hearing. But then Marie seems to hear some kind of voice, telling the heroes that two more production facilities exist and are on the move. She looks in Grimm’s general direction, “Let’s go find one of those production facilities, huh? I bet between the two of us, we can find one or we can help Superion and that Ninja guy.”
Sarah Jones is where she belongs, the command deck. Once again she gives the order to go to red alert. Nemesis was attacking again, but this time in much greater force. She has since seen how useful Tarvok can be as an ally. She didn’t appreciate him giving orders to her men, but she didn’t have time to argue over it and gave the order to her agents to listen to Tarvok. Sarah listens to her instincts and they told her to let Tarvok bark some orders. Those instincts have served her well over the years and they haven’t failed her yet.
Sarah will not stand idly by while the Helicarrier is taken over or destroyed. “Someone, put that fire out!” Someone puts the fire out that erupted on the bridge and Sarah goes back to barking out additional orders.
All she can do right now is hold things together here. “Shouldn’t we launch our fighters, give our ground troops some support?”
Sarah turns her head and glares at the agent who suggested that, “And then what? Nemesis can control technology. What’s to stop her from taking over our aircraft or this Helicarrier if she wanted to?”
“We have to do something, our men are down there!” The agent says in protest.
Sarah closes her eyes a moment, clenching her fists. She’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. Good men might be dying and there's nothing she can do about it without suffering even more losses. Then she opens her eyes again, “I know. But there is something we can do. Tarvok just gave me an idea. Scan the city, I want those production facilities located and then I want those coordinates given to Tarvok so he can tell our ground troops where to go. Our communications are useless and based on what I’ve learned about our ally, he can be our means of communicating to our ground troops.”
The Helicarrier has the benefit of recently being outfitted with upgraded sensory equipment. Top of the line stuff that most others don’t even have yet. If they can’t detect the additional production facilities, nothing can. Sarah sits back down on her command chair, thinking to herself, You can do this Lucian. I haven’t abandoned you or the others down there and I have no intention of doing so. Just hold it together.
(OOC: Feel free to have fun with this, Tarvok. ^_^)
Drake is superbly skilled to have done what he just did. So far, everything is working out great. But unfortunately for him, a machine sniper is trying to take him out. Of course Nemesis is trying to stop him from being the eyes in the sky...
However, Elite is nearby and she tries her level best to protect Drake from being turned into mince meat. She throws a chunk of concrete at the sniper, nailing him in the head and causing it to explode. She winks at her fellow archer and waves.
One of the shield wielding machines almost seems to smile if it weren’t for the fact that it doesn’t have lips. However, a sexy female robotic voice speaks from the machine as Nemesis speaks through it, “Really, Agent Luician. Do you honestly think you can win this fight? Even if you do, I am many and you are one. Paragon has surrendered to me. It’s only a matter of time before I get what I want. Plus, saving these civilians? Tsk.” The machine wags a metal finger just before it throws the shield again, hoping to score another hit. For now, the cop is ignored in favor of a more promising target.
“Even if you save these civilians, Lucian, don’t forget I have hostages of my own and you still haven’t located them.” She says, smirking if she could but...again...no lips. “Not that it matters, you’ll be dead by then.”
Mia’s tactic seems to be working. Making herself seem larger than life with those tendrils and then using her golems as more of a distraction. Elite sees it from where she is fighting and she is amazed. But she cannot locate a facility yet without knowing where it is. But as soon as Tarvopk finds the two additional ones, Elite is going to target the nearest one and begin smashing.
In the meantime, Nemesis notices what Mia is doing. Tilting her head, she commands a large group of the machines to merge together into one, forming a much larger machine. That machine begins to to attack Mia with it’s giant fists as it tries to frustrate the rookie’s brilliant plan.
In the Meantime, in an unknown location...
Paragon is strapped to a gurney that is standing almost upright. A chunk of Chrysonite is nearby, weakening her. Thankfully, due to Ronin's antidote, it's not weakening her nearly as much as it ordinarily would have. But Keira is very good at pretending so she says in a weak voice, "What's wrong, Nemesis? You seem a little distracted. The battle isn't going as planned, is it?"
Nemesis walks calmly to Paragon before giving her a rough back hand, "It's nothing I cannot handle!"
Still, Nemesis had not counted on this much resistance. That is why she took care of the JLA. But she didn't count on the DSA agents or a few other heroes to come and help Paragon or the city, regardless of their reasons. Still, she can salvage this situation. She can still win this.
@paragonxxx: Scott fly into the city and land onto an unoccupied rooftop and looks over the battle. "What on earth is going here?" He mutters to himself. "What with all the robots? Hmm. Guess it doesn't matter. These people clearly need hel-" Red meteor was cut off as he was grabbed by the back of his head by one of the machines and faceplanted in the street below. The blow dazed him but overall he was fine. But the machine wasn't done as it continued its assault by ramming its fist into the back of Scott's head over and over making cracks in the ground. Scott grits his teeth and grabs the robot's fist before in can make another blow and slowly turns around, his normally blue eyes now burning hot red. "Ok. You had your turn." He growled. "Now it's mine." Using his other fist he slams it into the machine and sent it flying across the street. He flies after it, grabbing it by the ankle and slamming it on the ground hard enough to detach its angle from its body. Scott look at the body of the broken machine grinning. "That's was almost too easy. Taking the rest out will a cinch." He stated cockily and as he turns he sees that there are more machine, some that are even bigger than the other rampaging the city. Scott lets out a breath of frustration. "I need to learn to keep my mouth shut" He growls before taking off to help the city.
There, at the heart of the chaos unfolding in Metro City, the Horned Saint fought with the instincts of the killer he once was - and the hero he hoped to become. The hero he knew his girlfriend, Ashley Knightfall, to be. So his grip twisted and his sword swung, arms and body flowing free like water as he sliced through robot after robot, their gleaming exoskeletons no match for the vibranium steel backed by his skill and strength. Like all who'd come to Metro City's defense, Kellan fought tirelessly against the robot army as bolts, gyros and metal chunks flew through the air, and yet he was the only one whose ears failed to catch Tarvok's word. Kellan wore no earpiece, he didn't trust them, he didn't anything a technopath could breach and spy on him through.
So he heard nothing. Only fought, till the orange glow from Tarvok's markers bounced off Kellan's eyes. The buildings, Kellan thought, brow furrowed, his mind not quite sure what they meant. "Hrm...", he scowled, his paranoia creeping up the nape of his neck, his focus dropping for a split-second, and the Crimson Spider's words falling on deaf ears before he felt her pull him out the path of a laser. "Thanks", he nodded, quickly turning in the direction his dermal senses swore someone - or something - was ramming into an armored door. The vibrations caught by hyper-dermis were strong. Whatever caused that is something I'll have to watch my step around, he thought. "Alright, let's go", he finally answered, following the Crimson Spider. "Let's shut down the production facility and shut down. Helping Superion and whoever ninja guy is would be a nice thing to do, but shutting down the production facility will spare this city from having to deal with these robots any more than it has".
A man would fall out of the sky, creating a thunderous crash. The shockwave would send the surrounding drones flying. Unfortunately that wasn't enough and they multiplied after their destruction. In an animalistic way they would pounce on him , delivering a series of consecutive blows. They formed a pile over him and continued to attempt to claw him down. However a bright light would emerge from under the pile followed by an omnidirectional concessive force,once again send the drones flying. The Sentinel would fly upwards and out of their reach, but a titanic android would deliver a mighty blow to the Solar Soldier, he would crash into the bottom floor of a lobby where the humongous robot can see him. It began to charge at him, but was then penetrated by the sentinel him self as he flew through the Droid at nigh-luminal speeds.
He would look at the ground where the other androids scurried towards him, some flying. The Sentinel would create a barrier around himself as he watched the robotic figures attack it. He was deep in thought trying to think about how to kill something that just makes more of itself. The barrier would disappear with Vaskijda delivering a tectonic blow to his attackers. He would hear something, tuning out the constant metallic screeches, he would here a heart beat. Another one of the humongous droids would deliver a punch to his back, but the Sentinel the mechanical fist. He would then rumple it, but was attacked by the droid's other fist, he landed into a pile of the smaller robots. He would unleash stellar energy from his eyes, forcing the mechanical opponents off of him. He would then fly away,knowingthis was a battle he couldn't win, but then stopped. He heard a heartbeat once more, it was faint, but it was still there. He couldn't rest now as the androids were flying after him.
He would look towards the androids and gave them a mighty telekinetic blast, conserving his Stellar energy for later use. He would lower himself and would watch the droids recreate themselves and multiple. He sit patiently as they rebuilt themselves. After a few moments, there was twice as many as there once was. The Sentinel got up and ran to the army of robots with a might yell that could be heard from miles.
Justin Becker hurried through the streets crowded with broken metallic bodies and cascading waves of fleeing civilians. He pointed them towards maintained evacuation zones, but his objective now was to support Ronin. He muscled his way past blockades of rubble and burned-out tin men, eventually finding the factory that the DSA agent had last been reported. It was a mess of structural integrity, with half of it collapsed under concrete blocks that belonged to the ceiling - now gutted by laser cutters. He waved down Ronin, making sure to check and see if the coast was clear.
"There are three more factories in the area, sir, we're trying to locate them all but cloaking tech and everything," he huffed.
A lie? Perhaps. Operatives were informed via Tarvok and Sarah Jones about the same thing mere moments ago.
But Agent Becker wasn't done with Ronin. He stopped breathing heavily. The convincing act of effort melted away, and he spoke again.
"Buckhanan, Nightwing, Hoshi,"
He would watch as Ronin fell into a comatose state - only able to be influenced upon by one more code. Something the 'DSA agent' wanted to save. He silently made sure the commlink wasn't operational, finding that there would be no way for this meeting to be transmitted anywhere. His eyes suddenly glazed over with something more sinister, predatory.
His fingers curled into his own ear, pricking a different frequency so he could communicate.
"You have my thanks, ma'am," he said bluntly flicking the commlink off and returning to the task at hand.
"Washington, Ares, Oda," came in the form of a whisper into Ronin's ear. "The next time you see me, and when I snap my fingers, you will kill the Man-Made-Devil," @grimmwald
"Cadillac, Zeus, Arrowhead,"
And without any explanation, he would be gone with no evidence of him even being there.
The fierce battle between the Titan and his contemporary raged on in the psionic sphere holding it from the outside world. Concrete atomized, and steel was reduced to dust. The energies of countless supernovas exploded in tandem with each other, and yet the field held. Nothing escaped beyond that city block. Tarvok crashed his fist against the force field the mechanical marvel constructed against him.
"You're a rather impressive design, sleek, strong," he muttered. "But I have a job to do,"
A metal fist rocketed towards his chin, smashing into his face wholeheartedly - but drew nothing but hydraulic fluid. The Titan grappled with the robot's entire skull in one hand, pinning it in place.
"What I'm curious about, however, is how Nemesis designed you to fight me so quickly. Even the models for Pinnacle aren't perfect. What aren't you telling me?"
His psionic weight collapsed in an avalanche upon the artificial psyche of the machine, sending it into a frenzy. Tarvok snapped its arms at the elbows. Then, he saw the plans made in the heart of Nemesis' fortress. The cube being placed somewhere. Thankfully it was still locked, meaning he had time to fix this.
"Well, that explains a lot. I wish I could say it was fun," he spat at the machine, raising it up by the cranium and neck.
A behemoth and a veritable force of nature, Pinnacle tore down handfuls of the machines as he continued to try and communicate with his allies in the fight. Lowering his heavy brow, he looked at Grimmwald and the Crimson Spider, mouthing words with humanoid sounds - but the density of his voice seemed bestial.
"Orange means factory... orange means TARGET!"
Without anything else to say, the Jade Giant leaped away and collapsed back down into the heart of one such factory many streets away. His sheer momentum made it seem as if an artillery barrage had rained down upon the machinery and guards surrounding the manufacturing equipment. Already, dozens were crushed underfoot. Yet Pinnacle knew not when to stop - not anymore. Arnold Haas had slowly begun to disappear in the growing cloud of emerald fury warping his mind.
With cinderblock-sized fists, the Beast continued his rampage in earnest. He aimed from the core of the plant towards what seemed to be an antenna relaying orders to surrounding legions. Whether or not this was the case, he reached forward and snapped it from the ground, using it as a makeshift club to smash apart the suddenly reluctant and unsure robots. He gave a massive shout, breaking it entirely on the face of one of the machines designed to take him down.
Yet these were no longer enough.
His rage had built to a fever pitch, warping his mind, tearing at his body. He couldn't control it anymore. He just felt the compulsive need to destroy, and to obliterate all in his path. His strength grew by order of magnitude until the robots that had adapted to him were as trivial as the rest of them. A factory completely demolished, and a beast surrounded by legions of crushed robots, chewing through surviving models even as they clawed and cried out in disharmonious songs of twisted metal.
I remember being born today.
I remember Mother reaching into my chest, fixing my heart.
I don't remember thinking this.
I don't remember the screams.
A man with a red face, sunken features, approaches the tank. Its occupant does not move.
"Good afternoon, can you hear me?"
"Hello? Can I trust you?"
"Trust me? Of course you can,"
"Who am I?"
"You are Astra Titanicus. You have been designed to save your family from danger,"
"Family?" then silence.
The visitor to this area of the ship steps away, allowing the module to open and the humanoid figure to emerge. He points below, and a table rises to meet his hand. Images of terror were displayed on screen, flashing lights indicating the senseless slaughter of machine.
"Your heart, is the most precious of them all," the man taps Astra on the chest. A glowing light from behind layers of reinforced metal, and it dissipates.
"The purple one... he is dangerous," Astra mutters, instantly recognizing Tarvok.
"Can you destroy him?"
"No,"
It is the visitor's turn to be silent.
"But, I don't want to destroy him anyway,"
Astra reaches out, as if to grab something.
"I want to change him."
Suddenly, Tarvok was invaded by a great pain. His mind, all at once, burned as if on fire. Yet, to leave it at that would be an understatement. His eyes boiled, yet remained solid. His blood hardened in his veins, yet kept flowing. He reached up to scream but found neither word nor comfort. He had no choice but to flee from the field, usurped by an unexpected force.
He passed the Moon in less than a minute, and reached beyond the ancient craters of Mars. Still, his mind cried out in anguish. Still, the simmering terror underneath his skin and folded inside of his skullcap pounded as if with the thunder of billions dying at once. Their cries, their horror, all collapsing in on a single point - the last remaining vestige of their species. This was not the work of necromancy, for the souls were not present. This was the magnification of his own guilt, his own conscious pain.
It wracked his brain as an earthquake, a tremor so fantastic it would have cracked a planet in half. And yet it would not stop. It could not stop. He crashed upon Titan, satellite of Saturn, finding it to be somewhat numbing to the sensation.
But as a pair of boots stomped into his view, he instantly knew his trials to only be beginning.
The Sentinel,rose from the rubble of the devestated mechanical parts in tattered clothing and bruises across his face. He had an idea in mind and was putting it in play. While a dozen of his Stellar Construct Sentinels were fending off the mechanical beasts, he was immobilizinng one with his hand around its cold and metallic throat. He examined the struggling android in search of any openings. A golden aura would surround his finger tips, he would insert them into what would seem like the eyes for the machine. After the mechanical shriek from the humanoid, the Sentinel would feel around, touching the moving parts . He is fingers began to impale the inside of the android, he would then fill it up with stellar energy and would then solidify it, crushing it's mechanical organs and making it an empty robotic shell.
As the droid slumped over; indicating his death. Vaskijda would cause tendrils out of stellar energy to raise out of the soil and into the eyes of the androidss that his own constructs were battle. The tendrils would repeat the same action Vaskijda did to the Droid. The tendrils began to render them as empty shells. While their mechanical skin remained intact the insides would be crushed. But Vaskijda realized as a mistake was that the droids didn't regenerate but was quickly replaced with two more, or that was what he know believes as he saw several enter the field. He pointed to the swarm of the androids and the tendrils quickly began to penetrate them. While his constructs were fighting for him, he began to wonder what was creating them. He would hover high above the ground and watched the general direction of which the seemingly endless amount of androids came. He would then cause his constructs to disappear and would head to the android's starting point.
The destruction around the slums were devastating as he flew over them. He would notice an oddly intact structure that was heavily guarded by more mechanical creatures. As he was about to crash through the roof. He was seemingly tackled by dozens of the machines that appeared to be following him. Enraged, he would tear them appear as they knocked into him. However this gave him away and the metallic sentries began to attack Vaskijda,but not in close combat, but with artillery. A blast would hit The Sentinel in the chest, causing a lingering pain to his chest. "You metallic bastards" He would mutter as his regenerate factor gradually took over. He was inside a cubicle in an executive building. He heard the swarm of mechanical parts whirling as they neared him. He would stand on his feet and blitzed himself out of the building, he would then crash into the production center while encased in a stellar force field. As they fired upon him, he formed would form weapons similar to theirs and would begin to wreck havoc
He would then say to himself,"Time for the Sterilization process to take place "As the inside exploded with concessive light, in an attempt to bring down the building.
Ronin couldn't help but marvel at the incalculable power Superion unleashed on the giant door that had separated the two. Superion had sadly revealed that the two were infiltrating the production plant, but he gave Ronin the distraction needed to unleash the laser cutting machine on the towers of twisting metals that had surrounded the encompassing space. The roof above them began to quiver thanks to the ensuing battle. Still, Ronin's attack only slowed down the emerging robots, not stopping them. He looked down, seeing as dozens of robots were climbing the machine Ronin was perched on, aiming to tear him into shreds. Ronin chuckled, pushing off the machine and swan diving down right before they could reach him.
Unbeknownst to the evil machines, Ronin had left behind a surprise. His enemies did not chase the Umbra Ninja down, but the flames from the fiery explosion of the explosive he had left behind did. Ronin landed gracefully as ever, surrounded by the falling corpses of twisted machines and the chunks of earth that had continued to fall from the ceiling thanks to his previous explosive arrows. Ronin looked up at the walls above his head and could tell that the infrastructure was beginning to crumble.
"One thing I never got about these 'machines are superior to humans' bad guys.." Ronin unsheathed his second vibranium katana as an entire crowd of machines began to surround him. He was hoping Nemesis could still hear what he had to say. "If they're so superior why model them after humans?" Ronin slid under the swing of two robots, slicing through the machines 'achilles heels' and causing them to fall over. "I'm not complaining." Ronin rolled forward and stood up, slashing two more robots across the neck and causing their heads to flop over. "It just makes it way easier for me to see their weak points." He stabbed both swords forward, sliding his blades through the left eye's of two more robots and causing them to sputter and power down.
Ronin tore through the machines, continuously littering the ground with the limbs of the fallen robots until he heard Superion's request of taking out the power core. "Got it!" Ronin sheathed his swords, charging towards the mob of machines heading his way, but at the very last second jumping into the air and projecting himself up further up with help of the jets in his soles. Not known to most, Ronin was very engineeringly sound and could easily pinpoint where the central power core was by the layout of everything before him. Ronin landed down passed the swarming robots and continued moving forward to where he was sure the core would be.
Ronin was correct. The unknown energy spiraling and changing shape in the mechanical constraints was twice as tall as the Urban Shinobi. That wasn't including the machine that was holding it in place, which was being held in a room of it's own. Nothing Ronin had on him would be able to destroy what stood before him. Not unlike the wheels turning before him, his mind started to do the same as he looked around. He could hear the swarm of robots heading his way and knew he didn't have much time left.
"If I don't figure out how to destroy this thing, everything is going to come crashing down on us...wait, that's it." Ronin was speaking metaphorically, knowing that if Superion and him did not destroy this machine, many more people were going to die, including Paragon, but his specifically chosen words gave him an idea. Ronin knew exactly where this battle was taking place under, always being one to map out where he was going so he wouldn't be lost if he needed to make an escape. Ironically enough, he may not be making an escape this time.
The machines spotted Ronin as he attached every explosive cartridge he could on six of his arrows. He winked at them, as he released the arrows from their bow string, but they did not travel towards the multiplying machines, instead going for the already cracking roof. Ronin wondered if this would be the end of him as the arrows exploded one after enough, tearing through what was left up above. He would be responsible for taking out this production assembly, helping to save lives in the process. He knew Paragon would end this, so he calmly smiled as the giant rocks fell from the sky and destroyed the central power core. The giant room continued to cave in, as the light began to shine in from the sky above them, revealing they were under the wreckage of the no man's land suicide slums.
Ronin knew they were under the slums, where there would be no life above them to put in danger. The only one he had put in danger was himself, he knew Superion would get out unscathed. Knowing this was good enough for him, "There's worse ways to die." He spoke as the rocks began to fall down towards him.
Mia’s tactic seems to be working. Making herself seem larger than life with those tendrils and then using her golems as more of a distraction. Elite sees it from where she is fighting and she is amazed. But she cannot locate a facility yet without knowing where it is. But as soon as Tarvopk finds the two additional ones, Elite is going to target the nearest one and begin smashing.
In the meantime, Nemesis notices what Mia is doing. Tilting her head, she commands a large group of the machines to merge together into one, forming a much larger machine. That machine begins to to attack Mia with it’s giant fists as it tries to frustrate the rookie’s brilliant plan.
Mia smiled surprised her own plan had actually sort of started working, Really? I honestly wasn't expecting that! Well Booyah! She thought. Her smile faded as she saw the droids start merging together, Oh crap. she thought as the thing grew into a massive one big enough to strike at her even while she was in the air. She twisted her shields into it's path, the first two shattered but slowed it significantly while it hit the third and hit dead stop. Very little could get past Lancelots third shield. Even as she felt a bit of relief she didn't hesitate to react, in an instant she checked to see if any people were nearby. Nope. Good. Yes it meant her armor wasn't as good as it could be since she was even away a bit from her team mates with superhuman physicals. But what it did mean was that she could mostly let loose on this thing. She however did not hesitate to warn her team of what was going on,
"Ya'll might want to give me some room on this just so you know. It's, uh, gonna get really messy over here." She said her voice still a bit concerned about what exactly she was about to do. @dwronin: @grimmwald: @infinitum: @_drake: @lucian_lebeau:
Mia raised her left arm towards the sky while her left was held as if pulling from the earth itself, "SAY GOODBYE!" She shouted as the sky above the two of them went dark and thunder roared as it swirled and lightning bolt after lightning bolt struck towards the massive machine as the winds picked up, encircling them in a blaze of lightning, clouds, and whipped up debris. The ground beneath her set fire, bursting meters into the air as the ground itself began to melt among itself and dozens upon dozens of golems emerged from it reaching out to try and clutch the giant machine and tear it down towards them as she rained upon it with lightning from above. This was the reason that Mia rarely attempted letting loose in any way, this sort of destruction was only acceptable because of the potential destruction of far worse and the fact nobody else was close enough they might be caught up within it...she hoped anyway. Certainly not a citizen at the very least. She intended on burning and tearing this thing apart in as short a time as possible. Don't let it adapt, just melt and rip the thing to the ground before it even had the chance to fully react. Of course for something this massive such a task wasn't exactly easy, even for her, not without destroying the whole city in the process which was something she was not willing to risk.
Of course even now Mia didn't want to risk the chance this thing might get to her, Lancelot's shield only covered so much space and her armor also only had a certain level of durability which meant she had to be a little extra prepared. So she pulled at the winds, swirling them around her to try and offset anything headed for her while still allowing her to see what is going on without interference. She hadn't expected it to get this bad this quick, and she really hated destroying this much property, it really pulled at her guilt. Nevertheless this was a place in which her powers could thrive if she let them, utter destruction in the hands of a girl who only wanted to help. It was really not a fitting power for someone like her, she would happily have taken some healing gift or even no power at all, but she got this, so she was going to use it as best she could.
Elite holds the dead body of Drake, the first casualty in this entire thing so far and hopefully the last. Tears stream down her face as she holds him before kissing him on the forehead. She wishes she had done a better job trying to keep him alive. This is all her fault. Rage courses through her body, fueling her strength. Now she’s MAD! Elite begins tearing the machines apart like never before.
Careful what you wish for, as they say. You might just get it. And the machines do swarm over to Red Meteor. However, that’s when Elite comes smashing her way through a group of them near the hero, giving him some much needed breathing room.
The Crimson Spider nods her head when Grimmwald says thanks and then again once he says to take care of the production facility. She is glad they are of one mind. So, the Crimson Spider goes inside the entrance to the sewer and makes her way to the production facility. But then stops as her senses detect huge giant of a man. Pinnacle. She sees his jaw move, but not his mouth since she cannot discern details such as that. But she catches his meaning as he points silently to the production facility.
The Crimson Spider swings in, doing her best to gum up some gears and other such equipment that has joints. She also stays within jumping distance of Grimm in case he needs her help or feels overwhelmed. Thanks to Pinnacle and Superion, however, a lot of the army of Robots are focused on those guys while some stragglers focus their attention on Crimson Spider and Red Horned Saint. Energy weapons fire at them, attempting to kill them but the Crimson Spider aids her ally by disarming the Cyborgs and letting Grimm dismantle them. “Where did you learn to fight? Your movements are very fluid.” Marie asks, impressed with his fighting style.
But soon after she says those complimentary words, the explosion from the destroyed power core hits her ears. The ceiling begins coming down. DANGER! Marie attempts to grab Grimm around his waist as she tries to move him back into the sewer tunnel even as the production facility collapses in on itself. “You okay? Please tell me your okay.” She asks, not able to see injuries because of her blindness.
The Stellar Sentinel succeeds in taking out the production facility despite the heavy enemy resistance trying it’s best to make sure he failed. But like an kicked ant hill making the insects angry, the machines swarm over to the solar charged hero and attempt to take him down with weapons adapted to injure him. Do they succeed?
Out of all of them, Tarvok was proving to be the most adaptable opponent for Nemesis. As she watches from computer monitors, she almost admires the alien’s capacity to adapt almost as well as she can. That Dues Engine Tarvok wore fascinates Nemesis. Even from where she is, she can feel it’s inner workings. A twisted metallic smile crosses her lips as she...well. She WAS going to try and take control of the Dues Engine. But then she sees Tarvok flee from where he is, obviously in pain. Ahhh, that must mean Astra came online. She sees that particular experiment worked. One player is off the field now. Time to focus on the rest.
Because of Pinnacle’s rage, he does tremendous damage to the production facility, but now it’s collapsing so it’s best to leave now.
Superion admires Ronin’s good work. The power core is destroyed and the other heroes did an equally impressive job. But now it’s time to leave. As the Man of Steel looks around, he notices that Grimmwald should be okay with the Crimson’s Spider’s aid. Pinnacle would be fine too, but Ronin won’t. Falling debris are heading straight for him. With the swiftness of a fighter jet, Superion reaches the man, covering him with his body as the ceiling collapses and hopefully saving Ronin’s life. Once the ceiling was done collapsing, Superion holds Ronin close as he breaks free of the ruins with one arm, shrugging tons of rubble as if they are nothing.
Daylight! Superion digs his way out and helps Ronin along the way. He smiles at his ally, “Your not hurt, are you?”
The big machine suffers damage, even a loss of a limb or two, as Mia’s impressive power display nearly brings it down. But it’s tough...and persistent. Out of desperation, it fires a focused plasma beam at her torso. Can Mia’s defenses she built up protect her from energy? More importantly, would Pinnacle and Elite’s increased rage, enhancing their strength, cause Mia herself to become even more powerful?
@nemesis_alpha: Scott looks shocked as he sees Elite smashes through the machines. However he quickly gets over himself and then begins to grin. "Damn lady! Just in the nick of time." He said while smash a few robots in his path. He turns back to Elite and holds out his hand. "Names Red Meteor,thinking about a name change,what's yours?"
Mia internally yelped as the energy came towards her turning the last shield against it, even so, she felt herself being forced backwards by the pure force applied as the shield moved and she went with it. Oh snap! She thought seeing the heat warp around and past the shield. Sure it was almost indestructible, though not quite so, but energy had a way of curving around things once it passed it by. And yet, even as it was doing so, it was this moment she felt Elite's fury empower her even further then she already was in the presence of her and the other more powerful individuals. She reached a hand out letting the energy slide over it like slipping ones hand over a fire quickly. Mia had to smile at that, she could only guess it had something To do with one of her teammates.
She shot forwards the shield moving out of the way, it was time to get rid of this thing. With the additional empowerment, Mia realized she didn't have to rely on her powers of magic solely and the suit for backup. She shot forwards suddenly, propelled by the suits power passing the speed of sound almost instantly as the tendrils reached through the air like some thin limbed octopus whipping and ripping several times faster then sound attempting to toss the remains into the burning pit of magma golems below to be pulled into the earth, while she herself spearheaded towards the things center forming before her a spearlike shape to make herself one giant arrow. She intended on reaching it's center, and then pulling in all the tendrils to bring everything towards her crushing them against her armor, though it would surely not get all of them it was only an addition. In the next move she spun combining the hypersonic speeds of the armor and it's tendrils whipping about with a burst of fire and lightning around her, intent on creating a sort of explosion inside the conglomeration of droids.
@nemesis_alpha: The Sentinel would admire the debris of what used to be a production facility. As he turned to depart and he to the heartbeat he heard earlier, he was attacked. As he crashed into the ground he would brush the dust and dirt off of his face, but felt something odd. It wasn't entirely new to the Sentinel for his opponents have experienced it on multiple occasions, but it was foreign to the Sentinel himself, it was bleeding. He would observe the crimson drop of blood, as he began to rise up, only to lay back down again. He watched as a bluish beam, nearly grazing the bridge of his nose, pass right above him. A few moments, after the beam ended, he would quickly encase himself in solar energy and began to search for where the beam has originated from. He would progress down the raggedy path, to stumble on the what appeared to be the beam's sender. It appeared human, or at least humanoid, but no sounds of pulse filled his head, only the scratching and whirling of mechanical gears.
"Are of ally or foe?" The Sentinel would as the ominous figure, he would gradually approach it. He was on high alert for he didn't trust this object, but also doesn't want to make an unnecessary enemy. The figure would be standing in a public pool area for reasons unknown to him but as a sign of respect, the Sentinel would enter the figure's ground. As he would shuffle his way through the pool's water, he would examine the being, for it only moved its eyes. The Sentinel would eventually reach the figure and would extend his hand for a handshake. Unfortunately, his gesture of kindness was followed by a jab across his jaw, recreating the bleeding that he healed from. "You bastard!!!" He would yell before returning the blow with one of his own, against the being's chest. They would continue the exchange punches until a dozen obviously robotic figures meet the two. The Sentinel, tired of the unless blows concealed all of his opponents including himself, in a bubble of stellar energy and they would all vanish.
They would reappear over the boiling surface of the sun where his eyes began to glow, bright enough to be observable to any being a dozen lightyears away. He would drop his assailants into the inferno of the star and watched as the star made no delay in burning them. He would close his eye and would wait for the intense glowing to die down.
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