The Cataclysm

With a relieved sigh Ruby backed away from the command deck thankful that Ziccarra’s timely intervention was able to prevent the Earth from consuming the Island of Emerald. “Good job Agents” She applauded, but judging from the static on her comm something else was going on. “Looks like The Goddess is out of the Equation too” Hollin added as she drew close to the massive screen.

"ITSY, DIRECTOR RUBY, WE HAVE A-A GIANT OCTOPUS STARFISH THING WITH A GIANT EYE- OH SHI-"

“Norfleet give me a visual!” Ruby commanded rushing back to the screen to see a green monster with one eye terrorizing Emerald City in the aftermath of the repelled Tsunami. “What the hell is that?” Ruby said looking visibly disturbed with her hands positioned on her hip. “I thought the lochness monster would be more…I dunno dragon like?” Agent Hollins said trying a pull up a picture on Google images.

“Director Gallagher should I ready a response?” Norfleet asked, watching as Itsy, Fraga and Feral Nova were literally getting their asses whipped by the starfish monster eye.

“No redirect it and try to get in touch with Maya Liafador, Nova needs help not a headache. Pushing around the circular console she moved over towards Hollins screen which was actually monitoring the Earth.

“What the hell?” She asked, watching as what looked like seismic activity ran rampant all over the eastern seaboard.

“More tsunami’s forming off the European West Coast” Hollins said, pointing to the projected path of said Tsunami’s. “Are they moving away from the coast, looks like they’re going to converge in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean?”

“Director GALLAGHER!” Norfleet screamed—directly in her ears. Her cat-like reflexes cause her head to quickly swivel in Norfleet’s direction with a scowl. “What!”

“I’ve found Maya Liafador”

“Maya, something big is going down on the planet, There’s a convergence of some sort going on in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. There’s also a situation in Emerald City, whatever it was took Ziccarra out of the equation. Feral Nova, Fraga and Itsy need help!

“Alright, I’m on my way.” Maya replied, cutting off comms. Ruby ran back to Hollins, the tactical planner of all level 8 missions. “What’s the status on heroes?”

“Checking it now ma’am.” Hollins said, opening the STRIKE Database. Ruby headed back to the main screen to check on Emerald City. “Nova, just hang in there Maya’s on the way to help you guys out. We’re looking to divert more STRIKE heroes to your location.”

From the inside of the central hub they could feel the tremors for the massive aquatic beast tearing through Emerald City. The actual “Kill” part of STRIKE wasn’t operational yet, Ruby had instructed Special Agent Crews to retrieve the ships; but she and her team of agents were trapped on the mainland Spain.

Another tremor, this time from the Earth knocked Ruby to the ground, the pain was minor; but she was not starting to feel the true stress of the situation.

“We got planes over Emerald City that lost signal. They’re going to fall.” Agent Norfleet reported; causing Ruby to kip off the floor and dash to her location.

“Status report sent!”

Agents: Renegade, Vocal, Bradshaw, Braveheart, and Flashfire were dark; already on their way to retrieving Retrofire from Guantanamo.

“We’ve got six free members including Maya.” She said, activating the universal comms that would allow here to transmit messages with all the agents. Except the ones on the Retrofire mission.

“Agents, Sorciere and Scaletta; I need you guys in Emerald City to assist Feral Nova with an Issue. “Time Siphon, I need you to locate two planes that are lost in the skies above Emerald City; keep them from falling! Solar Hawk, Turisas; I need you guys at these coordinates over the Atlantic. There’s a convergence of forces there; I’m willing to bet whatever is causing this; is there; but above all. Keep those civilians out of the way!"

“Director Gallagher looks…” Agent Hollins called pointing to the screens to show that the sky had become blanked with crimson red.

"It's talking" Ruby said, leaning over the command desk watching Nova, Fraga and Itsy battle the tentacled beast.

"EeeVeery Thingggg DIESSSS"

@embargo:

Solar Hawk was standing on the balcony of Luna Hawk's apartment, speaking to her other self when the com system lit up like a Christmas tree. She frowned and Luna Hawk smiled and motioned for her to get to work. Solar Hawk took off, listening as the command to meet over the Atlantic came through over her helmet's communication system into her hyper sensitive ears. As the coordinates were fed to her they scrolled across her HUD which immediately converted them into a GPS guidance system, showing her exactly where to go and the fastest path to get there.

There was an immediate sonic boom as she kicked her flight into high gear and began doing super sonic speeds. As a result of her speed it took less than twenty minutes to get to the location from Gothic City. She spent most of the trip traveling just above the surface of the ocean and then shot up into the air as she neared her target waypoint. She used most of the climb to slow down her speed and then took to a seemingly lazy circle over the sight, looking down at the location. Her advanced helmet recorded everything and made copies of the information which it promptly transmitted back to STRIKE command.

"Solar Hawk here, I am over the location already. My helmet should be feeding you information as I see it, please advise on further action." She continued to circle, much like an actual Hawk, while waiting for the other team member to arrive at her coordinates. She slipped her mace from its place on her belt and wrapped the wrist cord around her arm for security's sake. While she held the mace, it was not her only means of combat. Solar Hawk was an excellent fighter with other weaponry as well, though she did not have most of it on her. What she did have was her secret ring which would give her significantly greater edge against anything terribly strange. Of course, if the disturbance turned out to be somehow arcane, her mace would be all she needed.

@embargo:

Time Siphon activated her armor when she got the call and used its advanced anti-gravity systems to fly up into the air. Once she was high enough up she hovered for a few moments, using her temporal vision to locate the two falling planes. The good news was that they were relatively close together, the bad news was she had no idea what to do about two falling planes. She considered her options quietly, calculating the amount of time it would take each plane to fall and considering various options related to her temporal abilities. None of those will work, aging the planes out of existence will only help me...a stasis field would not be practical...although...No, too much temporal energy for that one. Ok, so let's see...antigravity?

Time Siphon took off after the first plane and rapidly accelerated the flow of time for herself, giving her greatly enhanced speed compared to the rest of the world. It burned a little temporal energy but not a great deal, at least not with as much as she had right now. The Time Siphon arrived promptly at the first plane and flew along side of it for several seconds as she considered the best approach. I wonder if my armor can expand or even create an anti-gravity field? Not entirely sure of what else to do she flew under the plane and touched up against its belly. She closed her eyes, carefully accessing the systems of her armor she still had the memories to access. After a bit of a search she found what she was looking for and willed her armor to follow her command. Neurological impulses arched through her brain and into the tiny devices implanted there which promptly fed commands directly to her temporal armor.

The armor's anti-gravity system responded at the speed of thought and created an anti-gravity bubble between her and the aircraft. Soon the bubble grew to encompass the entire aircraft, an invisible bubble of anti-gravity that gradually arrested the plane's descent. As with all other anti-gravity commands her armor was capable of the controls and ability was minutely accurate. She had created a bubble just powerful enough to slowly arrest the plane's fall and bring it to a hovering stop. Too strong and the plane would have floated up into space, too weak and it would have just crashed very slowly. The armor's hyper advanced alien systems had been able to interpret her neurological commands and then did the rest of the work for her. Rather than force Time Siphon to do calculations that were beyond her ability to do in such limited time, it did all of them for her and applied the appropriate amount of control.

With one plane taken care of she flew after the other one and repeated the process. The end result was two rescued planes that would have to be let down to the ground later. For now though her anti-gravity system was depleted and her armor needed time to restore energy to some of its systems. Raeyn allowed herself to land on the roof top of a building overlooking the fight with the giant monster and activated her communication system. "Time Siphon to Command, the two planes have been...arrested, they are in no danger of crashing in the immediate future. My armor's flight capacity is just about gone for the next twenty six minutes, what else do you need me to do?"

@embargo: @feral_nova@itsy

The Goddess was successful in repelling the tsunami, but was immediate in succumbing to the strain of her energy expenditure. While she fell unconscious, the brief moment of stability she brought came to an abrupt end. A colossal, mono-eyed beast with an endless array of tentacles emerged from a rift and was quick to lay waste to everything in its path. While Itsy transported Ziccarra to safety, Feral Nova engaged the monster and soon upon Itsy's return, the spider-themed heroine joined the bout as well. Nova was a pyrokinetic, one blessed with considerable skill, and she combined the scorching power of her flames with the enormous tensile strength of Itsy's webbing to restrain and burn the monster.

Their efforts were commendable, but the creature was aggressive, it would not yield and resolved to demonstrate its raw power as its tentacles lashed out from every angle, swinging with elephantine power and surprising speed. One of the tentacles however, sought to whip Sosuke, the Samurai Saint into the distance. Sosuke however, was blessed with a unique form of sensory perception. One that warned him of impending danger with a tingling sensation in the back of his neck. It was a combination of electro/magnetoreception, extreme dermal sensitivity to atmospheric vibrations, and nearly instantaneous reflexes. The Samurai Saint's entire dermis acted as a sensor that used ambient energy to see through objects. It was not unlike some form of omni-directional x-ray vision.

It was by virtue of this sense that allowed the Black Lotus to anticipate and respond accordingly to the swinging tentacle by hopping onto his back-foot and circling away just inches beyond the tentacle's reach as his hand held his katana by the hilt and drew his blade. Then however, the sky went red and Sosuke's attention was drawn to it, an expression of immediate concern and alarm falling upon his perfect, alluring features. And in his moment of distraction, a stray tentacle rammed into the pit of his gut and slammed him against the concrete wall of a neighboring building. Wincing in pain as the tentacle slid from him, the beautiful samurai's grip never broke from the sword as he staggered back to his feet. Fortunately, Nova and Itsy both posed a great enough threat to deter the tentacled beast from focusing its attention on Sosuke.

"Ah...", the disarming, almost seductive notes of his cool, low voice hung in the air as he understood the monster's hyper-aggressive style of combat. The implications were clear. The Black Lotus would be able to counter-strike. And with a sword like his, a katana that was essentially a programming glitch in the information fabric of the universe, he could cut through anything. Soon a tentacle thrust forward with the intention driving through his chest and exiting through his back. Making use of his cerebral footwork to again circle away from the extending tentacle as it moved past him, Sosuke added more momentum to his circling path spinning, imparting centrifugal force to his sword swing before performing an upwards, rising strike, whereby the Black Lotus added even greater force by using his free hand to apply force to the back of the blade and employing an explosive upward jump as he sliced through the tentacle from below.

Immediately following his initial attack, Sosuke anticipated a second tentacle and jumped over yet another swinging tentacle as he jumped further into the air before combining his superhuman strength with the momentum of his fall to strengthen a two-handed overhead strike as he brought his blade down on the tentacle below him, cutting through it cleanly. The monster however, was powerful, and while the Black Lotus continued his trend of cutting and slicing any of the tentacles that came his way, and both Nova and Itsy did their part to damage the creature, it wouldn't be enough. They needed help. Fortunately however, their S.T.R.I.K.E. colleagues were on their way, and to improve their probability of victory, Sosuke harnessed the power of his pyrokinesis, igniting his sculpted, lean frame and sword with a scorching red flame, adding the burning power of fire to his sword strikes.

@embargo: @solarhawk:

There are times when we don't realize where we are in life, or how we got to that point. It's an eye-opening experience to finally come to terms with it. To some, it's terrifying. It's like waking up in the middle of the night to a muscle spasm, kicking them from the nightmare of falling. To others, it's exhilarating, a chance to finally change something and improve themselves. To people like Ronnie Lincoln, at this crucial juncture, he had no earthly idea what to do.

The alarm to act rang in his ear at precisely 11:37 AM. Of course there were directions, coordinates, and Director Ruby barking all at once - which were...mildly reassuring things. But all Ronnie heard in his rookie hero mind was "Do something". It was like being stuck in a classroom when the teacher handed out a test, but never said anything to Ronnie about it personally. Everyone else knew what to do. Hell, the brainiac volleyball team captain dead front and center of the auditorium finished before everyone else and left already. The first question:

"Am I ready for this?"

Well are you? Everyone on the team is expecting you to perform, whether you want to or not. Perform flawlessly. Perform exceptionally. You're Thor from the Avengers, remember? Just do that lightning thing and quit whining.

Turisas began to swing his hammer in a circular motion close to his obliques. Just like Thor. He grumbled, embarrassed by the similarities. Nobody called out Braveheart for looking like Captain America or Roosevelt for literally being the Hulk. Well, if this were true, he wanted to know if he was as handsome as Chris Hemsworth. Damn it, stop daydreaming and throw the freaking hammer.

With a truly Herculean toss, Turisas disappeared into the horizon of the East Coast, following the momentum of the hammer by clinging to its handle's strap. Within the span of about twenty minutes, he forcibly stopped the magical weapon from going any further by tugging it out of its own mysterious forward travel mechanism. Luckily, a teammate of his had been preassigned for the mission. Maybe she knew what to do.

@last_man_standing:

Solar Hawk smirked when she saw the new arrival fly via hammer. New guy. Solar Hawk did another big circle around the area before she came over to where he was currently located. Her HUD scanned him and displayed STRIKE database information on him for her. "How are you at hitting things with that hammer?" She asked him, coming in close to him and keeping an eye on the gathering of power over the Atlantic. "it looks like we may need to be hitting things in the near future." She gripped her mace and grinned.

He looks almost nervous. Solar Hawk thought as she brought herself to a steady hover. That'll disappear quickly, adrenaline is a wonderful thing. "Speaking of hammers, did you really just fly with that? I haven't seen anyone do that and I've been around a long time. That's impressive" She considered him for a moment. Her ring warmed her finger but she mentally shrugged it off. I want to see how good he is before I think of anything like handing out rings just yet. Same goes for the rest of the team.

Maya’s lithe frame pushed through the atmosphere exuding a crimson aura clearing her path of anything that might be hazardous to her descent. “Fighting evil by moonlight!” She sang pushing through the turbulent atmosphere towards one of the many epicenters of the spurred chaos.

“Agent Liafaodor, your comm. Is still on” Agent Norfleet said, informing her that she could hear the popular anime song. “Oh my bad.” Hair blowing wildly behind her the Power Princess boomed through the skies of Emerald City to perform the task at hand.

She could see that her short time away allowed for all sorts of tragedies to befall the city of Emerald, off in the distance she could see one of the causes. Some sort of octopus eye monster ravaging the down town area of Emerald City, a creature that was freed from its ocean habitat by the mass dispersement of water.

“Guys, things are going to get bad really soon. I don’t have the time to explain it right now; but the Earth is the target of extra-terrestrial influence. We got to wrap this up soon.” She said over her comm. So that all the members could hear her.

“Agent Liafador, Time Siphon is nearby and drained; can you recharge her?” Ruby asked, once again over her comm. “I’ll try” She responded not entirely too sure if she could generate enough energy to put Time Siphon back to where she needed to be.

Landing on a nearby skyscraper next to Time Siphon, the 5’11 Liafador model lightly sauntered in Time Siphon’s direction with her hands extended. “I’m not exactly sure what this will do for you, but I absorbed my brother’s abilities, now I’m manipulating them so they can benefit you” She said, casting a hazy effect around the celestial entity hoping to recharge some form of her power.

“When you feel better, help us take this thing down. We’re going to need it!” Maya said, jumping off the building to engage the creature. She noticed that after parting with Leonel’s energy she was significantly slower and a bit sluggish; undoubtedly from jumping a couple hundred light years in space.

Flying over the monster she immediately drew it’s attention, which was weird; up until now it attacked whoever attacked it, but it seemed to take an interest in her—and she knew why. “This thing is a Reality Warper”

Charging a massive amount of her mystic light energy in her hands, Maya sent the energy barreling into the monster’s eye. The attack didn’t do as planned, rather than writhing in pain the monster seemed to enjoy the energy—as a matter of fact it got larger.

“Oh. That’s not good” She said, shying away from one of its massive tentacles. “This thing is like Rubber, It’s almost impossible to penetrate it.”

“FooooOOlish Humans….I will devour the heart of your planet. Starting with you STRIKE” the beast gloated whilst levitating into the air.

“It said, “Your planet” Maya said replied “As if it’s not from this world.” Then she thought about it, while in Space she felt the fabric of Reality being distorted, it was this beast; but it would take time for that powerful beast to cross realities…

“Unless…guys! This is just a…” Maya couldn’t finish her sentence as one of the many reforged tentacles knocked her from the air sending her small frame spiraling into the concrete below. Without Leonel’s energy her durability was shot, struggling to move in the street she noticed the magic based attack from earlier was being copied.

“Guys... move..." She said, weakly as the mammoth beast begin to charge and discharge a massive magic based attack from it's eye.

@solarhawk:

Damn it, why are all the women in this organization drop-dead gorgeous?

"Uh, good with hammer - yeah,"

You're messing up.

"I mean, I'm good with my hammer. I can...hit things,"

Classy. Wait, did she just ask another question? You're slipping YOU'RE SLIPPING!

"Wha- Oh, right, flying with this thing. Well, I used to be a mathematical studies major in college so centrifugal force and all that,"

Way to impress her with your big words, genius. Just get to smashing like the nice lady on the airship hired you to.

“Solar Hawk gave us a visual” Norfleet said, drawing the presence of the chain smoking Ruby. “Looks like a similar energy signature to what that thing is producing” Ruby said reading the spiking energy.

“Octoeye” Hollins said chuckling to himself. “We’re not calling it that” Ruby said, strolling back to the command desk. “We got a visual on Maya” Ruby said, picking up the fast approaching energy entering the vicinity of Emerald City. “Guys, things are going to get bad really soon. I don’t have the time to explain it right now; but the Earth is the target of extra-terrestrial influence. We got to wrap this up soon.”

Maya’s revelation hit her in the stomach what did she mean extra-terrestrial influences? For now an explanation would have to wait, there were a series of things that needed to be controlled before they’d get to that point.

“I’m really sorry Director Gallagher” Hollins said, taking position on her left. “Sorry? For what?” She asked only slightly giving him her attention.

“This is the first time you’ve gotten a chance to put STRIKE to work, and it’s a situation like this.”

“This is usually, how my first times go” She said jokingly, “Director we’re picking up telepathic activity, patching it through.” Norfleet said, sliding in her rolling chair unnecessarily she hit a few buttons on the switchboard which brought them a live audio feed of what the beast had to say.

“FooooOOlish Humans….I will devour the heart of your planet. Starting with you STRIKE” Ruby stood with her hands resting across her breast, despite the dire situation she stood impressed that a beast from the beyond knew of her organization.

“I’m glad we’re on a first name basis, but why the hell are you on my planet?” She asked via the quantum link set up by Norfleet.

“ToooOOO BRRiiiinggg BaAAcck the TRRuueE EARTH!” Ruby stood confused, she had no idea what that meant, but watching Maya get trashed on the TV prompted Ruby to think of a solution.

“Ma’am I’ve scanned the energies coming for both sites they are the same. They both have the same origin point as well.” Norfleet said, switching the main screen to an energy dialogue.

“This here is what’s known as the Astral Plane, this beast has half of it’s being in the plane. It can’t cross over all at one time. It’s coming through the convergence point.”

Ruby immediately commed into Solar Hawk and Tirusas. “You guys copy that, this thing is about to head your way. Sending support”.

“Support ma’am, we don’t have anything left.” Hollin said, with his hands on his sides. “That’s not true…we have us. Norfleet. Determine which of the two beast are stronger. Tell everyone to hold out until Time Siphon get’s her energy back”

Ruby’s theory was that they could time lock the beast at one of its point making it weaker at the other. With it’s power lossed it would be unable to sustain it ‘self in this dimension.

“Agent Barnes…take us to the Atlantic.

“I’m confused ma’am how are we going to get to the H.A.T.V?” Agent Line asked somewhat confused, as he glanced around the area; he could see would looked like smirks on the face of all the level 8 members.

“We’re in the H.A.T.V” Ruby said, with an arrogant smirk. Without warning the entire skyscraper like building begin to revve up as if it were about to take off.

“It’s been in the city the entire time, standing vertically so we appear to be a building. We just can’t have anything on the horizontal surface when in that mode.”

@maya_liafador: @embargo@itsy

Time Siphon did not have long to wait with the new influx of energy. Her temporal armor devoured it and converted it into power for the drained anti-gravity system. She once again levitated.When the beast fired she moved almost without thinking and through herself between the team and the energy beam. The beam struck her armor and coruscated over it like purple lightning. Her body was flung into a nearby building and crashed through the wall, leaving behind a smoking hole in the building. Fortunately she'd absorbed the attack and prevented it from hitting her fellow team members.

For a few long moments there was silence from the building and from Time Siphon's com system...but she soon emerged from the building again, her armor cracked and smoking, but otherwise she was unharmed. The Temporal Armor could absorb a great deal of punishment before breaking down, it was what kept her alive in a real fight. Now it was her turn.

"Hey squid thing!" She shouted, levitating into the air again, directly across from the creature. "My name is Raeyn." She smiled a little, reaching out with her mind and coiling around its lengthy temporal line. "I have a funny truth to tell you. Everything ages." The Temporal Vampire began the process of draining the creature's life span. It would start slowly, but it would spread and do so like wild fire. What started out as a strange draining sensation would become agonizing pain, the sensation of every nerve catching on fire at the same time.

To everyone else the Time Siphon just seemed to levitate there, not taking any obvious action. A few moments into the attack though and her eyes lit up as power began to flood into every cell in her body, every year taken from the creature serving only to empower her own abilities. "This is my planet!" She growled. "I'm not running anymore!"

The process would take time to kill the creature with as old as it was, but hopefully it would weaken it and allow the other members of the team to launch their own attacks on the creature. If it was able to attack her it would break her concentration and disrupt the process, but it should at least be weakened.

@last_man_standing: @embargo

Solar Hawk smiled a little. "Relax, this isn't a test. You're nervous kid, it's alright, it's your first time out. Just breath, relax and let your instincts do the talking. My name is Solar Hawk, I'll be your friendly Hawk Lord for the evening." She spun her mace and glanced towards the vortex as the new information came across their communication system.

"Incoming." She told him. "Hit anything that gets too close, dodge the rest of the tentacles. There's a good chance that it will be disoriented when it first comes through. The eye is probably a weak spot." Solar Hawk turned to watch the beast come through. "Oh, and you know how everyone in the movies just assumes the bad guy is dead and turns their back on it? Don't do that. Hit it and keep hitting it until it stops moving."

Atlantic Ocean, H.A.T.V

“Director Gallagher! I’ve got extreme activity in the Atlantic Ocean; the energy pattern has changed, whatever it is…it’s enormous” multiple agents ran towards the massive screen overlooking the command deck to finally see what the source of the disturbances was.

From the depths of the now blackened ocean a massive entity rose to full form casting its massive shadow across the huge ocean. “I’m officially overwhelmed” Ruby said in awe of the great beast’s sheer size.

“How the hell do we defeat something that can literally stand up in the ocean?” Ruby said, watching as each one of its massive steps caused a minor tremor in the middle of the ocean. “Look alive Solar Hawk, Turisas; it looks as if what we’ve been looking for has finally shown itself.

“Should I give the command to engage?” Hollins asked watching his director go through a series of facial expressions. “Take that b!tch down”

The order was given, many Agents rushed from their deck positions to their jets to assist in the fight against the mammoth entity. “Director, are you sure attacking it is the best course of action?” Hollins asked, also wondering how they were going to take down something that large.

“Look at the water…” Ruby whispered petrified. With each step the beast took; all forms of sea creatures rose from the depths belly up. “This is the end of all living things.” Ruby said again.

“You still think this is the Avengers fatboy?” Norfleet asked Barnes while they all stood in shock. “Actually seems more like Pacific Rim now…”

“Norfleet, where’s it going?” Hollins asked, still with his eyes on the screen. “Each step it takes covers about six miles, looks like it’s heading towards Africa.”

Within moments the STRIKE Jets began to bombard the huge beast with all types of firepower, but none of it appeared to even phase the beast.

The beast itself marched through the Atlantic seemingly unaware to the fire it was taking. Kicking what appeared to be a blue whale from its path it continued its march towards the Ivory Coast.

“Those planes are like gnats to it, he just doesn’t feel them.”

“Well, make him feel them.” Ruby said, ordering all jets to fire their missiles. The combined might of multiple missile fire finally alerted the beast to the presence of STRIKE. Instead of lashing out in what would be a brutal assault, the mammoth monster extended its hands to the sky and increased the heat coming from the sun.

This one action proved to be fatal for a lot of the STRIKE Agents, one by one; their planes begin falling from the sky from overheating, if the smoke and flames from the plane didn’t kill them; the poison exuding from everyone of the beasts steps would.

A few hours ago - Frankfurt:

Aren strode down the empty streets of Frankfurt, devoid of its usual multitudinous and never-ending crowd, the sleepless directed their gazes toward the events occurring that fatidical afternoon. In the apex of life, the jovial Blitzkrieg Bird received the call from his superiors. Those who sustained his dreams and engineered him the best wings to fly. For a human cursed by gravity, having the prowess to fly such an over-the-top armor was a dream metamorphosing into reality.

The Rhein-Main Air Base stood tall, girding the metropolitan town. The situation unfolded itself in the distant American continent, yet it moved the world... After all, it would be the most dreadfully damaged if the Yankees floundered into oblivion. As an addition to the eyed mass of tentacles assailing the heroes, multiple unnatural events were triggered around the globe. And it was that what Commander Bernhard yelled over and over via phone, demanding the Overman's presence immediately.

Clad in his jacket, pockets laboring as the scabbard for his most puissant weapon, his hands and their abilities to perform miracles either on a two-winged vehicle or on a metallic jumpsuit. "I will be there."

Less hours ago - Rhen-Main Air Base:

"We have a situation, a huge situation. Seismic activity has been on the rise around the European's West Coast. The continent might survive an impact of such magnitude, but people wouldn't. The loss would be too risky, even with a full-fledged evacuation, disaster would be inevitable. That's where you and your tin can come in, kid. You're going to be the barrier between Mother Nature and its creation. Any questions?"

"Uhm, sir, wouldn't you mind explaining how we're doing this again? I do not believe, with all due respect, that the Mjolnr II has been in field tests of this difficulty. It can rebound bullets and partially absorb impact and solar energy as fuel, yet halting gigantic waves?! That's a whole new world for us. Me and the suit, I mean."

"Don't fret, soldier. We've been charging the armor for forty-eight hours. The crystal seems to take as much as we pump in, add that to whatever may come and you have a shot. Convert every necessary ounce to the blasters and evaporate as many metes as you can. We will be sure to take counter-measures if your work fails..."

"B-but, comman-..."

The scarred veteran lifts a mere finger, and that simple act of power stops any incoming complaints from being fired. Kuhn was a subordinate, after all. And as one, he was a replaceable piece. Medals and trophies may ornament a room, but they don't change who you are.

Right now, he was an expendable barrier.

"Do not fail your country, Mr. Herrmann."

Now - North Atlantic Ocean:

"This is Overman, ready to drop."

The robotic voice reverberates inside his helmet. He was nervous, but not only a wrapped stomach or shaky leg. No. He had been through many field missions, fought some terrorists, took tank shells and basically adhered its explosions to his own weaponry... Yet, this... Going against nature itself with possible thousands at stake? This was enough to give him nightmares...

"Wish me luck..."

*Note: all dialogue was translated from German.

@embargo:

"Ok...that's different." Solar Hawk said when the huge monster finally appeared. "I expected the big squid thing. Alright..." She glanced at her companion, rookie though he was. "If you have ranged attacks, use them." Solar Hawk slipped her mace back on her belt, this was not a job for a Hawk Lord anymore, not with the creature killing everything in its wake. This was a job...for a White Lantern. Pitty she'd have to reveal it to her team in this fashion and so soon, but it was the better course of action. Solar Hawk pulled off the glove from her right hand and tucked it into her belt. White energy radiated over her body to form a defensive shield just above the layer of her skin and her outfit changed completely to all white versions of the same clothing with the White Lantern symbol emblazoned across her chest.

Earth records indicated no contact from any Lantern Sects in ages and intergalactic rumor had long held that the sects had somehow died out...yet here, now and very publicly was a member of the most powerful of Lantern Sects, one with power over Life. "You want to start killing shit on my world?" White Lantern Solar Hawk asked of the monster, a slow grin spreading across her face. "You chose a poor time to do so." Her first act with the ring was to create a huge dome of energy over the STRIKE jets to protect them from the bombardment of solar radiation that had been crippling their engines. Suddenly the heat dissipated. "STRIKE Command, please get the fighters out of range of the heat while I can hold this barrier in place." She said through her communication system.

Solar Hawk spared a glance at her eager comrade in arms and his hammer. "Remember what I said about striking from a distance, I don't know how resistant you are to that thing's life draining poison. It's humanoid, I'm guessing it has the usual weaknesses. Try aiming for the head, or eyes." Or brain if it has one. I really didn't want to reveal this already, I need it for later...but it's this or the world, so I'll choose this. Can't bring back Egypt if everyone is dead. Besides...I'm a White Lantern, it's kind of my job now.

(I was going to reveal her fully as a White Lantern much later and then you got all 'kill all life' on her =).)

@embargo, @solarhawk:

Somehow, her warm demeanor made him feel at ease; just calm down, you can handle it. Whatever happened now, they could deal with it. These weird creatures could do anything they wanted to. Right now, STRIKE stood ready, and that's all that mattered. Ronnie - no, Turisas - hefted his hammer at the ready and gave the winged avenger a sturdy nod. He sighed as he looked away at the growing tempest, eager to lash out at whatever these beasts had in store. Little did he know, the old warrior heart of Sven still beat in his chest and the fables of giants would not be lost on his viking mind. The primordial fear of great dangers and apocalyptic war still rang in his ears, even as generations and nationalities passed before the eyes of the world.

As the clouds gathered and the storm grew into a cacophonous spectacle, Turisas beheld the sight that would change his life forever.

Out from the column of blackened water and air, emerged something truly titanic. Even the depths of the ocean could not swallow it whole, and each stride covered many miles. Turisas looked upon the vision with a sense of dread, but remembered well the inspiring words of his teammate on this assignment. But then, once more, the battle made itself even more complicated. Agents belonging to STRIKE were actively trying to force-feed the giant warheads designed to level buildings. These missiles merely tickled the creature, and he parted the clouds with a furious heat. One by one, the armada began losing their crafts - but more importantly, their pilots.

"See if you can turn him south, Solar! Towards Antarctica! I shall do what I can in the meantime,"

With this sudden burst of inspiration, Turisas threw his hammer towards the nearest collection of agents plummeting to their imminent deaths. By grasping onto its collar, Turisas soared on invisible wings through the air, twisting and turning as he saw fit through the use of his enchanted weapon. The subtle twinges in his flight pattern enabled him to catch the pilots on his impressive bulk as they fell rather than see them drown and corrode in the oceanic cesspool. Not content with this, he again used his hammer to open some sort of portal leading to the only place he could think of: Director Ruby's command bridge. With a single nudge in the right direction, he poured about fifty agents all at once onto the control deck, giving Ruby an apologetic salute as he closed the portal.

Now came the hard part.

With the increase in heat, it would be impossible for further interjections by STRIKE agents. Though not one for purposely using innocent lives in a battle they cannot win, Turisas opted for a second option. He noticed that the beast purposely used the sun's rays rather than lashing out with his bare hands. This lead him to believe in the possibility that the giant gained some sort of power or cogniscience through the sunlight. Photosynthesis maybe? It didn't look plantlike, though.

Rather than settle on the investigation of all the ifs and buts, Turisas twirled his hammer by its collar with such force that the stormclouds gathered overhead for a second time. Thick and menacing, these produced not a speck of rain. Instead, the heart of the raging sky erupted with two lightning bolts conjured specifically for the giant. The first, already impossibly enormous, ripped the sky in a thunderclap heard all the way from Brazil to Morocco. The second, twice that.

But this power did not come without its costs. Turisas only possessed the power of a Valhallan legend, not the god of thunder Thor. He gasped for breath with each electron pulsating through his flesh. With the final release on the first one, he could feel his heart skip a beat. The second exploded in his eardrums and his vision faded from him until he could smell the rancid sea foam. Narrowly denying death, Turisas followed the course of his hammer by its collar to a safe distance and hovered before the giant, regardless of the success or failure of his previous attempt on its life.

Despite the repercussions of his call to the lightning, he had the resolve to keep fighting if he had to.

@fraga: @timesiphon: @embargo:

She knew joining this S.T.R.I.K.E team was a bad idea, this was such a BAD idea! She could be sitting in the Illinois University library right now, drinking her usual caramel mocha whatever... while studying about animals. Animals didn’t want to destroy entire cities! But nooooooooo she was here, in Emerald City getting her @ss kicked by an alien giant octopus starfish thing with a giant eye! But she couldn’t think like that, she had to stay focus, she had to look forward, and remember… thousands of people were counting on her to protect them.

“Nova, just hang in there Maya’s on the way to help you guys out. We’re looking to divert more STRIKE heroes to your location.”

“I’m trying, but it’s not looking good down here!” Zoe yelled out, a heated display of her power roared from the palm of her hands at the aquatic beast. While it was obviously doing some damage to the monster, it wasn’t enough to take it down. Itsy was doing her best as well to distract the beast and her agility was top notch, able to acrobatically move out of the monsters attacks with ease. But it was quickly becoming obvious that the young green hero was on her last stretch, she couldn’t keep this up for long.

“I hate to sound like I’m five… but I need a break!” The arachnid hero queued in, continually shooting her webbing onto the beast trying to get it tangled up like a fly trapped in a spider-web.

“Just a few more minutes Itsy! Keep going!” Zoe yelled until, SMACK, an arm slapped into Zoe’s back, sending her flying face first into the ground once more, skidding to a halt in the sand. Even though things weren’t going as plan, they were at least keeping this monster in the beach area and away from the city. That was the main focus right now. With her body aching she looked up to find the angelic samurai dashed into battle. His own display of his own control over his own body movements were beyond her own understanding. Flawlessly he went on the attack… but then… the entire sky turned into a crimson red.

The heroes became distracted, all of them looking up to the sky to see what was going on.

“This is bad.” Zoe whispered, her entire body covered in goosebumps from fear of what could be happening next. Then, the divine swordsman was knocked down by the beast, his attention being drawn away for a second too long thanks to the distraction in the sky.

“Sosuke!” Itsy yelled, worried about her fellow fighter.

And then… the monster began to speak…

"EeeVeery Thingggg DIESSSS"

“Guys… please tell me I’m not the only one hearing voices in my head.” Itsy spoke, confused on where the voice came from.

“Nope, heard it too, it seems like this monster want’s a fight to the death… no more holding back!” Zoe roared as she charged up her flame as Sosuke went back on offense.

“Wait, you’ve been holding back all this time?!”

“Erm… no… but I thought it would sound a bit intimidating…” Zoe admitted, her flames erupted, sending her flying into the sky once more as she caught sight of the young Goddess, Maya. “Bout time.” Zoe mumbled as beast suddenly turned it’s attention away from the three heroes and focused right on her, completely ignoring Itys, Sosuke and Nova.

Maya didn’t waste any time, shooting energy into the overgrown sea monster’s eye, but before the group could cheer.. the beast seemed to actually FEED off of it, growing bigger! “WHAT THE HELL!” Zoe yelled, watching it’s power grow with it.

“I don’t think that worked, lets not do THAT again!” Itsy screamed, swinging out of the way of tentacle, but just barely, she wasn’t going to hold out much longer.

“Oh. That’s not good This thing is like Rubber, It’s almost impossible to penetrate it.”

“Well… rubber can melt, right?” Zoe flew higher, above the monster, showering it with fire, but it didn’t seem to be having the same effect as it did before!

“FooooOOlish Humans….I will devour the heart of your planet. Starting with you STRIKE”

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?” the young hero roared more annoyed than anything as it began to levitate off the ground.

“If it starts shooting beams from it’s eye, I’m done!” Itsy partly joked, standing on the ground, shooting webbing upward, trying to ground the monster to prevent it from going anywhere.

“Don’t jinx us web-head!

“It said, “Your planet” Maya said replied “As if it’s not from this world. Unless…guys! This is just a…”

SMACK! Maya was suddenly brought down to the ground by the beast before she could finish speaking. Great, the all mighty and powerful Goddess was just pimped slapped by a sea monster. Great, perfect, this day couldn’t get ANY better!

"Well... that was anticlimactic" Zoe sighed under her breath, all that trouble getting Maya down here and she was already down!

Just then, the eye of the monster began to give a deep ruby glow. “EVERYONE MOVE IT!” The pyro hero yelled as the eye let out a beam of energy, into Time Siphon with deadly accuracy. “SIPHON!” Nova yelled out, “Come on guys! Together!” Maya was down, Siphon appeared to be down, their big guns were out! Anxiety began to fill her chest, she wasn’t going to fail, she wasn’t going to let Emerald City fall, not now, not today!

Making a hard swing Itsy’s body flew across the sky in front of the monsters eye and with a quick few ‘twip twip twip’ the monster’s eye was completely covered in her sticky webbing. “BOOM BABY!” Itsy shouted as she threw another line out, swinging out of the way as Nova came downward on the beast, bringing her fists together and raising them above her head, slamming them downward on top of the beast, using her thermal induced strength to knock the monster unstable, causing it to slam back into the ground while Sosuke was standing ready, unleashing a fury of his own attacks on the ground.

Then Raeyn’s voice was heard from the distance. She wasn’t dead! Quickly Zoe moved out of the way, allowing the Time Siphon to do her thing. Which… didn’t seem much to be honest BUT the beast wasn’t moving, in fact it seemed to be almost withering in pain as it’s once powerful tentacles began to withdraw back towards itself. But it was still moving forward, going from the last of the sandy beaches and making it’s way onto the pavement of the city. People who were stupid enough to stick around the surrounding area where now fleeing in every direction in fear, screaming as the monster began making it’s way towards Raeyn, as if trying to stop her from continuing her attack.

“Hey… where’s the S.T.R.I.K.E building?” Itsy asked, realizing the building that once stood tall was… gone?

“Itsy!” Nova yelled out trying to snap the heroes attention back to the battle in hand.

But as they fought, something began to change… the air became thick with heat suddenly. Looking up at the sky the sun’s heat beat downward towards her, something was manipulating the heat of the sun! People quickly began rushing into buildings, sunburns along their body from just being exposed to the sun for a few seconds.

“Holy-!” Itsy yelled as her webbing melted as she was in the middle of a swing, smashing into a light post before slamming into the steaming hot pavement. “Is it me or is it ridiculously hot!?”

The beast began to give an ominous rumble of a chuckle. “FoooollllsssSssssiiiIIsssshhhh EeearrrTthhhllIinGgGss YyyooOUR EEENnnddD iS NNNOooOW!”

Zoe then began to smirk, this sudden change in temperature was exactly what she needed to give herself a slight edge. “I think you have it backwards, YOUR end is now!” Raising her hands upward towards the raging sun she closed her eyes as she began to soak up the high thermal radiation being produced right now by the sun. Her entire body acting like a battery, charging up, feeling her body become stronger with every second then… opening her eyes they glowed a bright white energy and the once golden flame had become so hot that it was now invisible to the naked eye.

The beast then went on the attack, one of it’s tentacles rushing towards Nova without hesitation in attempt to spear her in the chest. The confident hero threw her arms forward she shot a stream of white fire at the beast, aiming for it’s arm rushing towards her and almost like butter, the arm was began to literally melt it down half way down to the nub. The continuous attack of Siphon weakened the beast tremendously and thanks to the sudden increase in the sun’s temperature, it gave Zoe the extra umph in power to finally give her the ability to do massive damage to the monster.

With a screeching cry of pain the monster began to wave it’s other arms in a panic smashing them into buildings as it’s eye glowed once more, trying to take the heroes down desperately.

@timesiphon: @maya_liafador: @embargo: @feral_nova: @itsy

The monster was resilient. And soon the core element behind why it proved so difficult to slay was revealed. It was a reality-warper. It was a being of such unimaginable power that it could bend the laws of physics, reality in its most fundamental aspects to its will. Its power seemed to spike following its absorption of Maya's energy-based attack. Hope for some form of victory began to feel like the manifestation of delusion. Things were growing increasingly hopeless, and though Sosuke the Samurai Saint, encased his body and sword in a scorching aura of red flames to further aggrandize the lethality of his attacks, did not relent in his attempts to defeat the tentacled beast, found his mind beginning to wonder if it was unbeatable.

Then as the subtlest hint of uncertainty blemished his perfect, enticing features as a pant escaped his person, the voice of his mother echoed in his mind, imploring him to continue to fight.

"These people look at you as a source of hope"

"Will you abandon that hope?"

"Can you not feel their desperation? Of your comrades and of the people need all of you?"

"Will you allow this evil to eclipse and rule over the world?"

"HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN WHO YOU ARE!?"

Snapping free from the trance, the beautiful Samurai Saint found one of the monster's tentacles coiling around him with the intention of squeezing his internal organs out of his very pores. "G...GNAAAAAH!", Sosuke's bloodcurdling cry shattered the sky as he screamed his heart out in pain, pain from the fact that his bones were now facing the risk of being broken. In the midst of nearly being crushed to death and screaming until his heart stopped, Sosuke mustered the strength and mental fortitude to hold his sword in place and with his mother's words encouraging him, he drove his blade into the flesh of the beast's tentacle, freeing himself as the monstrous limb retreated, dropping him on the concrete pavement.

"This *couch* creature.. is more powerful than anything I have ever encountered", he panted, facing the crimson sky as he lie on the ground recuperating, the agony having yet to abandon his features. Then as if intent on signing its own death sentence, the tentacled beast drew from its power to alter reality and forced the sun into becoming an even more scalding presence. Only, Sosuke like Nova, was a pyrokinetic. He was not simply the Samurai Saint. He was the Edo Dragon. And the exponential rise in ambient thermal energy was fuel to his fire, literally. Struggling to his feet, he could feel his flame-like aura's temperature rising, and soon the flame forsook its shade of red and went white with heat, not unlike the white ball of heat in the sky, the Sun. While Feral Nova assaulted the beast and drew its desperation, Sosuke too went on the offensive.

It was time to end this. Mustering the energy he still possessed, he darted forward before jumping high into the air to perform a descending strike in the center of the beast's head. Swinging his sword downwards, his elbow joint drastically extended at the last instant with the intention of popping the sword into place. And as the motion subtly twisted his grip, the sword's blade impacted the top of the monster's head with a sharp enough force to break the initial resistance from its skull. From there, the Edo Dragon fluidly continued along the motion, his arms following through with the stroke, dragging the sword through the monster's head as the flames from his aura scorched the flesh and bone that his katana sliced through as Sosuke's combination of technique and his sword's nature as a programming glitch in the universe's information fabric did impossible, from top to bottom, he sliced the monster in half.

If not for Nova's earlier pyrokinetic assault and the Time Siphon's temporal manipulation, the monster might not have been vulnerable enough to succumb to the Samurai Saint's overhead strike. Though if that failed to slay it, he hoped that Nova's searing flames would be enough to burn through its flesh and reduce its sliced remains to ash. It would not be victory, the entire planet still shook with destructive intent and many a disaster and manner of death was soon to come, but it would be a step closer.

@fraga: @maya_liafador: @embargo: @feral_nova: @itsy

Time Siphon was not content to see it cut in half, she continued to drain the temporal line of the beast until its two halves began to visibly decay. As more Temporal energy poured into her body Time Siphon determined she could afford to spare some. She continued to hover in place, unaffected by the increase heat as her temporal armor shunted the excess heat away from her body, causing a shimmering effect around her body from the waste heat.

Since @itsy needed more energy, Raeyn gave it to her. Some of the energy she was taking in flowed out of her and into Itsy, rejuvenating her body and literally erasing the last hour of intense exercise, lending her new strength and energy. The sensation was like suddenly having slept a full and restful sleep without actually having done so.

Time Siphon lowered down to the ground and continued her assault, determined to watch the remains of the creature wither away into nothing more than the dust of aeons. A bit of the Time Siphon's ancient arrogance revealed itself as she continued and the look of the predator glowed in her eyes. "You have no right to claim the death of this world. You will not run from us and all the pathetic beasts sent to destroy this planet will learn my name. I am Raeyn, I have consumed whole worlds, but not this one. This one lives, its people are strong, chaos flows through its veins."

@embargo: @fraga: @timesiphon:

The group of heroes stood around what was left of the giant octopus starfish monster, dust, that’s it. Zoe’s and Itsy’s eyes shift over to Raeyn, and while Zoe was made aware of her power, she had no idea exactly how strong she truly was until now while Itsy, realized exactly why the Temporal Hound was so fixated on finding her. The arachnid hero assumed he was going to be paying her a visit soon when he catches her sent in the city once more. An almost awkward silence lingered in the air as the four stood around… now what?

“Oh snap! I forgot about Ziccarra!” Itsy shouted, shooting a line to find the Cardinal Goddess to make sure she was still safe where she left her, and left the three S.T.R.I.K.E members to figure out what the next step was.

People began to cheer around them, chanting their names throughout the city for rescuing their city, or at least what was left of it. “Good job guys,” Zoe nod to her teammates, a small weary smirk on her face. “I’m going to report in to Director Ruby, can one of you please check on Maya? I haven’t seen her since our friend knocked her down.”

Taking a step away from the group Zoe sat down on some rubble, letting out a heavy sigh of relief as she rest her body for just a minute. “Director Ruby,” Nova began, taking responsibility to report in. “This is Feral Nova, our friend has been dealt with. But I can’t help but notice a sudden increase of the sun’s thermal output, what’s going on?” She sat waiting for further orders while hoping the two Liafadors that were knocked out of the fight were ok.

“Ma’am we got incoming unidentified entity flying from the east. Norfleet reported picking up the target as it entered her radar’s range. “Is it friendly?” Ruby asked, hunched over her shoulder. “Well I can’t really tell considering it’s just a green dot.”

“Don’t get smart” Ruby hissed; strutting back towards the command deck to view how Solar Hawk and Turisas were handling the titan walking the oceans. The inside of the vessel seemed like it was literally on fire, there were agents removing articles of clothing; as to not be drained by the immense heat, but the hardened director remained resilient.

Those watching her saw the various changes she went through throughout the entire mission, but now she seemed calm and collected as if everything were under control. Everything wasn’t under control, but her meeting with “Redacted” just before this event transpired mentally molded her mind to be ready for any of the terrors; despite not knowing what exactly was coming.

She watched as Solar Hawk commanded the skies with unparalleled grace and dexterity, the combination of both S.Hawk and Turisas proved resourceful in ameliorating the situation brewing in the middle of the Atlantic.

“Whoa did you see that energy spike in Solar Hawk!” Agent Barnes yelled watching from his command post. “I did, what the hell is it?” Ruby asked; somewhat in awe at the magnificence power Solar Hawk had at her disposal.

"STRIKE Command, please get the fighters out of range of the heat while I can hold this barrier in place."

“You heard her, pull them back” Ruby commanded; watching as her attack fighters immediately followed the order and begin to return to the H.A.T.V

“Send a team out there to dock those planes, but hurry we don’t know how long she can hold that shield up!” Ruby barked again, this time to Agent Hollins.

“You guys are doin…” Ruby started to compliment the efforts of her two courageous heroes; only to have a portal open and 50 agents dropped right on her command deck---and her body compliments of Turisas.

“Hnnh, Turisas; I’m really grateful, but next time the top of the vessel will suffice.” She grunted, at the bottom of the pile trying to wriggle her way out.

Rising back to a vertical base; the entire vessel tremor under the horrifying might of Turisas command of thunder, the first startled them; the second cause them to scream.

“He hit it…and I think they have its full attention now. Agent Norfleet said, cutting to an image of the titan turning in Turisas’ direction.

“Turisas, Solar Hawk you have its attention be careful!” Ruby commanded. The beast halt its trek to deal with those it considered pest.

Throwing its hands in the air, a series of spiraling vortex begin to form in the area, coupled by category 5 hurricane winds. This was the monsters sole attempt to prevent the two heroes from sustaining flight, or dodging its next series of attacks.

It’s massive eyes took a crimson tint before firing a massive volley of optical based energy in the directions of Turisas and Solar Hawk.

“WATCH OUT!” Ruby screamed, trying to forewarn her heroes of the coming energy. The winds would be felt inside the vessel; the captain worked arduously to keep them on course, but was finding it all too difficult flying INTO the wind.

“We’ve got an update on the Emerald City situation, the threat has been neutralized; Feral Nova is standing by for orders. Hollins reported.

“Nova good fcking job out there. The heat is being generated from a massive beast in the Atlantic Ocean. This sh!t is literally standing in the ocean, and killing everything in it’s past. Can you guys make it here?” Ruby asked, knowing they took the surefire means of transportation.

“Quite possibly the strongest person on the team, first one knocked out. Where’s the logic” Maya asked rising from the dimensions of her own crater. Losing the energy she harvested from Leonel made her weak, and once again prone to Injury in the event of a direct hit. “She’s already gone” Maya said, walking towards Itsy with all her major limbs covered by her cowl. “When I came too, I saw her fly off. I think she was impressed” Maya said with an energetic smirk.

“I’m Red Cardinal” Maya said shaking the hand of Itsy, the both operated inside the same city, but oddly enough they’d never actually ran into each other until now. Maya typically didn’t go by her “Hero” name because everyone already knew who she was, but on a team such as this; she wanted to feel included.

Following Itsy back to the location of the others she greeted them all with a personable smile and wave before getting caught up on the happenings in the Atlantic. As she listened to the incoming transmission with Feral Nova it seemed her worse fears were finally confirmed.

“Looks like Gaia is here.” She said, looking out at the destruction seemingly lost in her own thoughts. Turning back to them, her eyes darted towards Time Siphon, a perplexing entity to say the least. She was otherworldly and immensely powerful, Maya believed that had she the energy; Time Siphon could’ve probably done this herself “You guys did a great job, but I think this is just the beginning. Ruby said something about a titan in the Atlantic; I can get us all there.”

Maya’s mystical hexing energy came into play; a thick cloud of pink mist shrouded around them; as it slowly begin to subside they found themselves inside the H.A.T.V on the command deck.

“Director Ruby, they’re here!” Norfleet said wasting no time to snap a picture of the team in an oddly iconic hero formation—Maya was the only one to pose.

“Would you look at th—“

“Can it Agent Barnes” Ruby said, walking towards the Emerald City Saviors with her hands folded across her chest. “I have to admit it, I’m impressed. The way you handled yourselves out there was something to watch, but Solar Hawk and Turisas will need your help.”

As Ruby spoke the effects of the clamorous battle could be heard reverberating in the atmosphere around them.

“Before we go, I need to tell you all something. Terrible things are happening. The other day me and my brother went to look into a signal that we found on the moon and it was broadcasting Earth’s location to the rest of the galaxy. In the process of destroying the signal, another Earth—Earth M; appeared in our atmosphere.”

As she was explaining Maya could feel Agent Barnes inching ever closer to her. “My brother moved the planet, but it’s still causing problems in our Solar System”

“Maya, I really want to hear the rest of this story, but we have other things to tend to first” Ruby said, pointing at the titan that seemed to be looking directly at them through the TV.

“That’s freaky” Ruby said, ushering the heroes to the top level of the vessel.

“Maya, quick question were you humming the Sailor Moon theme song earlier?”

“Yes, I was…”

“So cool.” Agent Barnes said, throwing the confused teen a thumbs up.

“I can cast this thing into space, but my energy is on E; I’m going to need time to build it up can you guys keep that thing off me?”

@embargo:

Solar Hawk was suddenly buffeted by intense winds and immediately let the shield down since the aircraft were now clear. She was an excellent flier and that was all that kept her from having her wings snapped and being thrown mercilessly into the ocean. Instead Solar Hawk was able to instinctively find the patterns in the whirlwinds and allowed the winds to move her along natural currents. She did not flap her wings but rather used them to steer her direction as best she could. It was almost graceful the way she managed to keep to the air, but it took nearly all of her focus to do. She hovered for a moment on ever shifting wind currents, her eyes focused on her enemy as she considered her options.

You don't need wings. It was the voice of her ring. Sensing an immediate plan on the part of the ring she followed its advice and used it to construct a white energy sphere around herself too powerful to care about the movement of winds or the lash of rain. This was only a temporary means of course, something to allow her to move rather than be at the mercy of the winds. It was at this moment that the beams of red death came for her. Finally, it makes a mistake. Solar Hawk opened the front of her sphere and pulled out her Nth Metal Mace. There were certainly weapons that could penetrate Nth Metal, most of them were projectile based and built from exceptionally powerful or rare materials. While Solar Hawk herself was vulnerable to the eye beams, her mace was not. Nth Metal was effectively a giant conductor of energy, Solar Hawk herself often used this ability to charge her mace or other Nth Metal equipment with up to fifty thousand volts of electricity, the current a Hawk Lord was capable of generating.

She waited until the beam was very close to impact, seconds at best...then she swung her mace. "HHHYYYAAHHH!!!" She screamed, the sound instantly carried away by the winds. Her mace and the beam made contact less than two feet from her body. For a moment she felt the intense shock but her mace absorbed it quickly, soaking up the energy like a sponge. At the end of her swing as the beam's fire dissipated she released it. Her mace was at the apex of its swing and suddenly the energy shot back out of it, aimed directly at the very eye it had just emitted from. To the untrained human eye it looked as if she had actually batted the energy beam back at it, but in fact her mace had absorbed it and then launched the energy back in the direction it had come from.

This did not come without a price, her Nth Metal mace heated up dramatically while it was absorbing energy well above its standard levels. Much of the heat channeled through the handle and into Solar Hawk's hands and body. The intense heat was a greatly reduced version of what she would have absorbed from a direct impact, likely something that would have incinerated her in an instant. As it was the heat was more than her organs could take. Her Hawk Lord physiology responded immediately to protect itself and shut her heart and brain down as well as her other critical organs to protect them from the shock of the hit. Her gold blood stopped flowing and the orb she had created vanished. Solar Hawk plummeted toward the ocean below.

That likely would have been the end of her first incarnation, but her ring had other plans. The ring took over in mid fall where her body could not. It guided her fall and sheathed her body in brightly glowing white energy. All of this took mere seconds as the ring took over for her limited regenerative properties and began immediately healing the damage done to her internal organs by far more heat than they had been designed by Amun-Ra to absorb. She had nearly hit the ocean when her body awoke and her eyes snapped open. She took flight on instinct just feet above the waves. Down here the winds were less severe, guided as they were towards the areas she had been flying in with her erstwhile allies. She hit super sonic speeds in a second, creating a large sonic boom and flying over the waves as fast as she could manage. Her ring was now dangerously low on energy and would need time to recharge, having expended much of it to save her life. Now it operated to protect her from the toxic effects near the surface of the water.

Solar Hawk flew at the speed of a high performance jet fighter, water shot up behind her from the mere motion of her body through the air and she raised her mace again.

This time fifty thousand volts of electricity ran through her hands and into the Nth Metal weapon. She knew better than to strike the enemy at this speed, it would shatter her arms. Instead she brought herself into a rapid spin and then released the mace at the fastest point. The weapon traveled at speeds in excess of Mach six by the time it slammed into the giant creature's right knee. One of the hardest metals known to exist hit at speeds fast enough to obliterate organic tissue or crumple metal of similar quality and at the very same moment fifty thousand volts of electricity were released into the target.

For her part, Solar Hawk needed to re-arm. She flew up as quickly as she could and, once more buffeted by winds, slammed into the deck of the STRIKE carrier hard enough to dent the metal. Her body flipped up into the air and slammed back down twice before she finally stopped moving. The ring on her finger expended the last of its energy to heal the obvious damage and then went dormant as it began the process of recharging. Solar Hawk groaned, slowly forcing herself to her feet as her natural regeneration, much slower than the ring, took over where the ring had left off. Her helmet was severely damaged, the entire right side missing, smashed apart somewhere on the deck of the carrier and gold blood covered that entire side of her face, even as it began to heal. Solar Hawk was out of the fight, at least for now. "Someone give me a weapon." She demanded, not really knowing when to quit.

@maya_liafador: @embargo

Time Siphon walked calmly across the deck of the carrier, stepping to one side at the moment Solar Hawk came careening in, just in time to avoid being crushed by her. She looked out over the battlefield, her eyes studying the creature's temporal line. She smiled a little. "Oh you're pretty." She said of the huge monster in a very strange and especially creepy voice...just the sort of voice that would remind everyone, as if they needed it after the previous fight, that the Time Siphon was something of an unknown quantity.

She let the others talk for now, half listening but mostly watching. Her eyes narrowed and her mind gradually, slowly coiled around its temporal line like a hungry python. If she began the process she knew it would immediately focus on her, so for now she did nothing but observe it. Taking it's temporal energy would take tens of minutes without interrupting. Part of her longed for her to do it, consequences for everyone else be damned. The rest of her knew how difficult such a task would be. She was not at her peak power level, she still had *billions* of years of temporal energy to gain before her entire memory pane would come back together. At that point this would be simple, the time would slip from the creature in seconds rather than minutes. Unfortunately, that was not currently an option.

Oh but I would love to feast on you... She sighed audibly, realizing this particular meal was not to be. She released its temporal line and turned her attention back to her fellow heroes while they debated on the deck of the carrier. Raeyn walked over to Maya and looked her in the eyes. There was a hungry, predatory look in her own that showed Maya there was a dangerous animal tethered inside of Raeyn, a creature always looking for a way out. "How much time do you need?" She asked, the animal stayed caged for now.

@feral_nova: @maya_liafador: @timesiphon: @embargo: @itsy

Following the hard-fought battle against the tentacled, reality-warping monster, the gathering of heroes breathed a sigh of relief. That brief moment of serenity however, was nothing more than the calm before the storm. Panting from the sheer intensity that the bout demanded, the Samurai Saint's golden heart warmed at the cheers that the encompassing civilians directed towards the S.T.R.I.K.E. members. Though he never sought it, it was always gratifying to be recognized for the effort one puts in improving the lives of others. Glancing all about the ruined city, Sosuke's pale, crystal blue eyes took in the sight of the fallen metropolis. He'd never seen a city burning up until this day.

Though the fires had been snuffed, smoke still hung in the air and blanketed the daytime sky in a layer of polluted gray. Infrastructure had been reduced to rubble, and the irony scent of blood from those who perished was prominent in the air. Much of the ground was broken, rearranged by the erratic fissures that had carved their path throughout the city in a rampage that was only just beginning. Sighing, Sosuke smoothed his long, lush raven hair back as it had been made wild and messy from the feverish pace of recent battle. While Itsy zipped into the sky by virtue of her web-slinging powers to verify that Ziccarra was still where she had been left, The Goddess' daughter, Maya Liafador emerged to greet her teammates with an engaging smile and amicable wave.

Reciprocating the renown model's greeting with one of his own, a gentle smile of charming affability graced the Samurai Saint's disarming, alluring features as he issued a silent but cordial bow as per Japanese custom. Soon the S.T.R.I.K.E. members tasked with lending their other two teammates assistance against the Goliath that stood in the Atlantic Ocean wreaking havoc and devastation found themselves in a carrier prepping for the next bout. While they discussed ways on how to approach their new foe, Maya wasted no time in revealing her ability to cast the titan into space, a positive that unfortunately came with a negative; she required time to accumulate enough energy to force the titan from the Earth to the cosmos. While Raeyn, one of their more powerful teammates posed an inquiry on how much time the Liafador Power Princess would require, Sosuke offered a strategy.

"I do not mean to interrupt", he began, the cool, almost seductive notes of his beautiful, low voice echoing with a mesmeric quality that seemed to aggrandize his ever-present mystique, "But there is a way to give you the time that you require". Meeting Maya's gaze while occasionally sharing cordial eye contact with all those present, the Samurai Saint spoke with measured poise and calmness. "Our opponent is very large. Unusually so. So much that his feet touch the Atlantic Ocean bed and his head stretch far into the clouds. He is formidable and gigantic, but there lies a problem in being that large. Weight distribution", Sosuke paused. "When something increases in size, its volume increases faster than its area. If one doubles the size of an object, then the surface area increases by four times.. but the volume of that object would increase eightfold. All of that volume comes with an extremely large amount of weight".

"Obviously, our foe's body can support all of the weight that comes with it being so large, but it is much easier to break something big and heavy than something light and small. It is why a mouse can jump off a table and suffer no injury, while an elephant would break a leg by simply tripping over something. Unlike most large animals however, our opponent's massive weight is supported only by two legs", the Samurai Saint pointed out. "Its legs are the points through which all of its enormous bulk is focused. In order to not only provide you with the time you require but weaken the titan, we must focus on attacking its knees", Sosuke suggested, "Its knee joints are its most vulnerable body part because it is its body mechanical support for all of that weight. All of the stress of its mass and the pull of the Earth's gravity is focused on its knees; its weak points". Having spent the majority of his time since being transported to the present accumulating knowledge, specifically scientific knowledge, Sosuke held full confidence that his proposed plan would work.

@solarhawk: @last_man_standing: @embargo: @omegablast452

It is not often I so choose to aid our seemingly hopeless world. There seem to be enough people to help it already. I often seek to stick to myself, and my dog. However, it becomes more and more clear the more idle I stand the more I miss. Perhaps I may dabble in this activity, particularly this human and mutant conflict.. But I wish to perhaps...study this alien entity. It may soon come to involve myself, if it seeks to wipe all life from earth.

Burns sat on the bottom of the ocean, gathering resources. Garnering power. In a tranquil, meditative like state. The body anchored down by the weight of Burn's 950 pound body. Preparing for what would soon approach. Champion's of earth converged. Their gathering power, soon to contribute to Burn's own power, as he forged something black from the ambient materials. But now, something approached. Something of massive power and size, unlike most natural things of this earth. Burn's eyes flashed open, as the unearthly creatures foot landed right in front of where the being had suspected, a mere foot away from him.

Soon the beasts foot rose from the water, his stride covering thousands upon thousands off feet, as Burns would appear on the creatures ankle. "What a magnificient being you are. I could never create something as large as you are, that moves like you do. Why I bet if your feet graced the lands, the crowd of your head would tickle the top of the earth's stratosphere...." Burns said as he adhered to it's leg and as others saw fighters fall from the sky, what Burns saw were platforms to ascend to the beast. He took a great bound of the creature's leg, as he jumped and landed on a falling fighter Jet then jumped off it nimbly. Clearing thousands of feet as he jumped off to the next Jet, and the next jet. Slowly getting higher and higher. Soon he came upon the highest chest. Denting it with his landing upon the craft, as it spiraled out the air. The pilot tried desperately to eject, but to no avail, and Burns watched, out of pity.

I recall when I was human. When I was week. Poor fool, simple fodder sent the simple guise of an attempt, housed within an insufficient craft to compensate for his innate fragility. No tool to make him more capable nor an adequate body. Wasted potential. Burns looked upon the young boy, who looked shocked to see the thing reaching towards the glass, and ripping it off the cockpit as he grabs him by the throat, him struggling against the fierce winds as the plane falls against the ultra strong arm of the Doctor. "Such a waste..." Burns mouthes too low to be heard by the wind, as he crushes the boys neck, killing him instantly. A fluid creeps along his arm. Burn's "blood" if one wished to refer to his vital fluids as such. He however, called it "Ichor." It seemed to dissolve the man, absorb him onto the surface off Burns body. "I will not waste your body. Young one. The raw material will be put to good use." Burn's Ichor simultaniously sought out the Jet's fuel own power.The Gel soon flying over to Burns himself, as he leapt from the plane, and landed on the creatures torso, standing sideways.

The itself seem to roar in retaliation, as the thundergod command to Strike down this titan with it's thunderous wrath. Energy arced along the beast, who absorbed a majority of it. However, Burns abosrbed some of the energy that traveled, storing it in his superconductnig loop, the heat the beast created serving to slowly charge the Doctor, and aid in his endeavors to apply his versatile, but power hungry, array of abilities. From the man's consumed body, he forged heated claws composed of aggregate nanofullerene harder then diamond,denser and arrange to be stronger then any material, and an edge of width measurable in molecules. He then proceeded to run up the creature as he saw it launch beams of a sort at the winged woman as he proceed upward running up the being's chest as it radiated heat, then jumped up onto the creature's shoulder and then jumped above the creature, flipping elegantly as he descends towards the beast now. As he starts to yell at the epically proportioned giant.

"i wonder what wisdom, one such as you may hold! Or if you hold sentience at all. Perhaps I may find more. Likely, you think me, nothing more then an insect, a mere gnat. I expect no reply from the likes of you. However, a sample, corpse, or failure may speak for itself." Burns raised his hand, as he garnered powered from the storms the creature itself and thundergod created. Striking himself as he falls back down and lands on the thing's nose, and seeking to jump towards it so that he may thrust his claws into eyes at MAch 8, with force in the hundreds of thousnds, and then with his other hand, seek to sink his claws into the creatures eyes, gripping with 400,000 tons of force in grip alone, and seeking to rip his claws through the creatures eyes, seeking to jump away to escape attack, and descend towards the ocean.

Reykjavik, Iceland

The end of the world is back, it would seem, he thought. It always comes back in one form or another, be it through sheer human evolution, or magic, or by a celestial body struck awry from its course through space. But every time there are people who fight the end. Who oppose the last chapter in our little novella.

He slid back in his large chair, chin resting upon his intertwined hands. His fingers moved back and forth, tying and untying themselves, as he watched the screen hovering before him. His brain stretched within his skull, molding, adapting to the current situation; his eyes moved back and forth behind closed lids, his mind processing every last bit of information that the screen afforded him.

STRIKE is there. 50% sheer power, 20% organization, 20% advanced technology and funding, 3% gung-ho trigger-happy heroes with no concern for civilian lives, and at least 2% pure ineptitude, give or take. They might be enough. But what about minimizing civilian casualties? They're treating this encounter as a military operation. This isn't some Civil War battle; this is a siege. There are others, too, seemingly unaffiliated with STRIKE...and the Time Siphon is there as well, fighting alongside them. Clearly, they do not fully realize the threat it poses alongside the perpetrators of the latest attack on planet Earth.

His brow furrowed behind his chrome-colored helmet, the advanced technology within pulsing with activity, supplementing the man's flurry of thoughts with pure mathematical data. A single visor hid the entirety of his upper face, scarred by his last great public action. In order to conceal himself from the world, and thus work in peace, he'd faked his own death. The only problem was that he'd done so a little bit too well. The data kept streaming into his mind, informing him of possible variables, and affording him the knowledge necessary to hypothesize what the outcomes of various actions would be.

Nearby civilians...military operations...location of the Atlantic Creature...all very interesting. I could lend my assistance to them, but I feel as though STRIKE would eventually become an obstacle. They wouldn't see things the way I do. And yet, they certainly have the best chance of repelling this little incursion against humanity; at least 60% chance of success. With my help, the odds would get better, yes...but would it be worth it?

He bit his lip, slouching deeper into his metallic throne. It hovered in place, a small zero-point generator holding it gently above the floor.

And were I to provide help, what would my objective be? Collateral damage mitigation? Or would I attack the as-of-yet unidentified Atlantic Creature myself? I could, I suppose, but would such an effort eventually be futile were I unable to respond to other threats? And here I sit, wasting precious time debating my next course of action.

His teachers would have told him he was overthinking it. "But there's no such thing as OVERthinking, sir," he'd told his first grade teacher, an innocent little smile plastered across his tiny face. He remembered the way they'd looked at him. Then he'd stopped acting so smart in front of everyone. Everyone pitied him anyways, due to the brain tumor. But of course, it wasn't a tumor. It was a good thing. Something that would enable his brain to stretch, to grow, to theorize, to change the world. But he was overthinking it slightly. Any more time spent on self-debate would obviate the need for him to act at all; were he still to influence the outcome of the conflict at hand, he'd need to make a choice.

Very well. Into the fray I shall go.

He stood from his chair, marching confidently over to the armory section of his secluded laboratory. With a gesture, a mere flick of his wrist, a small box flew into his hand, projected by the same energies that kept his chair afloat. Wrapping his fingers around it, he watched as it opened up, changing, conforming to the shape of his hand. Soon, rather than holding a box, he was wearing a small, foil-thin silver glove. He flexed it experimentally, opening and closing his hand, and watching as small particles of light moved between his fingers. This will do...as well as these. Stepping onto a small platform, he felt the bottom of his wrapped feet being rubbed by the intricate machine, coated in microscopic zero-point particle projectors wired directly into his helm. Stepping off the platform, he noted that he was now walking on air, exactly as expected. Wondrous, he thought. A true shame I cannot bring myself to share such miracles with the civilians of my world. They would only, after all, abuse the technology. It wasn't his arrogance preventing him from providing the citizens of the Earth with his inventions; they would only destroy themselves with his creations. He'd done the math.

As far as stepping back into the public eye, it had been a while since he had done that. Having isolated himself from the rest of the world, he'd carried out acts of justice through other means. Connections with a few good men had enabled him to continue to fight the injustices that plagued the world, without needing to leave the sanctuary of his headquarters in Reykjavik. But now was not the time for games; he would intervene, and do so with the same flair he had observed in the super-men and women of the present.

Adjusting his helmet once more, the black-suited man stepped through a small portal, a rift through space-time, walking on air into a new environment: the airspace above the Atlantic Ocean.

His legal identity was Miles Graham.

But his name was Outlier.

The Atlantic Ocean

Miles walked casually across the air, his feet coated in zero-point particles that kept him afloat. With perfect balance and by exercising subconscious control over the particle emitters through his helmet, he was able to effortlessly maneuver himself across the sky, observing the titan that strode across the sea floor. Unthinkable noise would have assaulted his ears, were it not for the helmet, and his...adaptations. He felt the shockwaves blow the sea breeze against him, small flecks of moisture dotting his uniform. Designed to maximize efficiency and comfort, it adhered directly to his stretchy skin, protecting him from the harsh environment as well as the effects of air pressure on his superhuman form. Striding over the vast expanse of ocean, he casually observed the fight between the Atlantic Colossus and a robotic man. He narrowed his eyes, remembering a fact possibly more pressing than the presence of the Colossus.

The Time Siphon will be here too.

It would be dealt with later, of course, unless an opportunity presented itself to him to take care of that issue before it got out of hand. But as for right now, there were more pressing matters for the Luminous Logician. He opened up his communicator through his helm, speaking calmly and with authority into the transceiver.

"STRIKE. Allow me to extend my proverbial hand in greeting you and your organization. I'd like to help you with your little..." he smiled, watching the titan flail about as it came under attack from various forces, "...problem. You can call me Outlier, if you wish to address me in an official capacity. I know how fond your group is of code names."

Massive airbursts shook the entire environment, shockwaves rippling in a dome through the skyline. Miles merely adjusted his mid-air stance, akin to a dancer or a man on a balance beam. As he sent his message to STRIKE, he began calibrating his metal gauntlet, readying it for an attack on the Colossus. Once charged, it would project an energy beam that would divide the very atoms of the Atlantic Conqueror in twain. Assuming, of course, that such an attack would be effective against an unknown entity of apparently undefined power.

Magic is so damn unpredictable, he thought with a sly smile.

Here we go again.

@fraga: @last_man_standing: @embargo: @omegablast452@feral_nova: @maya_liafador:

Time Siphon considered the samurai's words and nodded a little as he spoke, beginning to realize his plan even before he had fully revealed it. "That may just work. I might be able to take out one of the knees myself but that kind of precision requires direct contact...and I'd rather not try to cling to its knee for that long." She glanced at the other heroes for a moment and made eye contact with Ruby, quite unintentionally.

Someone will tell her eventually. The Temporal Hunter is on this planet, he'll probably seek to interfere in this alliance, get you thrown off the team instead of fighting you while the team is here to help. She glanced away, finding somewhere else to look. How many lives have you taken Raeyn? Once they find out, none of these people will want you around. Heroes and mass murdering tyrants don't mix.

Don't listen to her, give these people a chance and they'll give you one. It was the girl's voice this time.

"I'll take the right knee if you guys take the left." She said at last. It went against her nature, but a lot of things were going to have to go against her nature if she was going to make this planet work.

@feral_nova: @fraga: @doctor_burns: @timesiphon:

The world was acting quite strange indeed, these were the days where Hero's would gather to engage in conflict against great foes. Omega would have joined them earlier but he was saving his strength for when they would truly need his help

I will wait...

Omega squinted his eyes as he was high in the horizon floating above, this creature was massive but the Lycan wanted to wait for the most opportune moment to strike it.

The living embodiment of Earth—Gaia, floated high above the Atlantic adorned in a flawless gold battle bikini armored styled with two rapiers watching the erratic battle from a safe distance. Her eyes covered in a thick veil of malignant darkness courtesy of the Catalan Countless, Catalina Liafador. For centuries she watched as those that called her sphere home polluted and killed the very essence of what made her so unique within the solar system.

How dare they futile fight their designed destruction at her hands, but do nothing to stop the terrors they willing impose on one another. Her eyes dart back to the skies for only a moment—there it was once again sitting over the horizon Earth-M, the imposter Earth that knew nothing of its celestial displacement; but stood ready to occupy the space of her domain following its destruction. One by one she watched newcomers come to assist with the threat she shed; but the time had finally come to deal with the matter at hand.

Parting the skies with consistent sonic booms, the heavenly entity landed in a crimson windshield on the fighter deck of STRIKE’s H.A.T.V. Moving just above a limp Gaia continued to strut towards the main hangar where the STRIKE HQ was located looking to end the problem at the presumed source.

With each step the powers of her world’s heroes molested the skies in an attempt to surmount her golem. Not afflicted in the least bit by the gale force winds she dug her two rapiers into the surface of the carrier before halting just a few paces away from the door.

It could feel the souls of her inhabitants drawing near, they wanted to fight for their salvation; she’d gladly oblige.

Watching from the comfort of their massive ship, the STRIKE agents watched as both Turisas and Solar Hawk clashed with the golem throwing every one of their resources at it. “Solar hawk seems to have injured the beast….it looks pretty fcking mad.” Hollins pointed out.

“Yeah, but that’s not it; up until a minute ago there was actually something ON the beast. I picked up a pretty substantial energy spike on its eye, whatever it was; the tactic was hit and run. Almost as soon as the energy spiked it was gone.” Norfleet reported, pulling up a rudimentary thumbnail of what the suspected entity looked like.

“It must’ve came from the ocean…” the young agent then added.

“Incoming!” Barnes yelled doing his best to catch the winged warrior, Solar Hawk; the loss of energy on her part was felt as she smashed through the main window of the carrier. To everyone’s surprise the ageless warrior did not tend to her wounds, she was swiftly back on her feet to request a weapon to continue her battle.

“NO!” Ruby yelled storming in her direction. “You almost got yourself killed once no sense in doing it again, besides we have a plan.” She said looking at Agent Hollins. The brief gaze was a huge façade neither of them had a plan, but Fraga most certainly did.

“So we can weaken it by taking out its knee’s perfect” She said, realizing up to this point the only people to actually deal damage was Solar Hawk and Turisas; and for whatever it was worth the unidentified entity from the ocean. Her desperate eyes scanned the deck for Maya only to catch Time Siphon eying the young model with seemingly insidious intent.

“Maya!” Ruby yelled intentionally trying to snag the model’s attention as well as Time Siphons. “How long do you need to charge?”

“I need about a good 30 minutes.” She said softly, knowing it was probably asking too much.

“Holy sh!t 30 minutes what are you charging a spirit bomb?” Barnes barked finally feeling the pressures of this little endeavor.

“Can it Barnes, start charging. Fraga put your plan into….

THOOM

A massive tremor shook the entire vessel; something landed and it was not an aircraft.

“Director Gallagher we have a breach on the surface!” Agent Norfleet reported. “Give me a visual.” Ruby said moving towards the center screen to see a redheaded woman standing ready for battle. “Jesus…” she muttered, walking back towards where the Emerald City crew just arrived.

“We’ve got trouble, there’s a woman standing on our ship. If she takes us down we’re all done for” She said, doing her best to keep calm.

“It’s Gaia” Maya clarified, having saw what Cat did to her in space; she knew the celestial entity meant no harm, but in her current state she was just as dangerous as the golem.

Before the overwhelmed Director could begin to bark new orders, a voice that was not her own appeared over the PA system.

"STRIKE. Allow me to extend my proverbial hand in greeting you and your organization. I'd like to help you with your little...problem. You can call me Outlier, if you wish to address me in an official capacity. I know how fond your group is of code names."

“He hit it…” Hollins whispered, diverting her attention back to the Golem in the Atlantic. Whatever the “Outlier” did managed to not only hit the beast but cause it to actually stumble.

“This is Director Ruby, We’ve got a plan to launch that thing into space; I need you to assist my team until it’s a go” She said returning the message.

“How would anyone know what and who we are; we haven’t gone public yet.” Norfleet said confused.

“I asked myself that question…just last night”

“Anyways, Feral Nova take the place of Solar Hawk and help Turisas, Time Siphon, and Fraga topple the beast. Solar Hawk, I think there’s someone outside waiting for you.” She said tossing the winged warrior a sword.

“Maya, I need that that time cut in half, we have to end this sh!t now”

Needless to say the massive golem didn’t take to kindly to the unceremonious attacks at its eyes. Through a telepathic link it shared with Gaia, it received it’s command—flood the European Coast. Rising its massive legs from the water it very slowly brought them down to send a powerful fissue through the ocean floor; once it’s foot made contact with the ocean floor, a lot of lives would be lossed.

@embargo: @fraga: @last_man_standing: @embargo: @omegablast452@feral_nova: @maya_liafador:

Time Siphon nodded at Ruby's orders and took off immediately for her objective...just in time to see it raising its foot with obvious intent to smash. Come here little meal, it's time to for me to dine.

Time Siphon's advanced anti-gravity system and flight controls all but ignored the winds as she flew straight for the creature's raised leg. If she could age the knee to oblivion the leg would fall off and do far, far less damage than a driven kick into the ground. Raeyn dodged any clumsy attacks it attempted to make and latched onto its knee. Her hands made contact and she began the process of draining its temporal energy. She could drain the whole creature from a distance but they did not have time for that. At personal contact range she could make much more precise attacks, like aging the knee, for example. It would take seconds, rather than dozens of minutes that it would take to age the whole beast.

She coiled around the knee's temporal line and the process began immediately. If the best could feel pain it would feel it rippling and pulsing through its knee. Raeyn kept one eye on her surroundings, well aware that it would probably try to throw her off or smash her like a bug. Her anti-gravity system remained on just in case she had to flee the scene suddenly and the ancient Time Siphon's Temporal Armor began to heal the cracks created in the chest plating by the attack earlier in Emerald City.

@fraga: @embargo: @solarhawk: @doctor_burns: @jack_: @timesiphon:

Everything happened so fast. Turisas didn't really pay much attention to anything in that moment, not even Director Ruby as her usually shrill and commanding tone fell on deaf ears with the pseudo-Asgardian. The mathematician within Ronnie suddenly became inspired, painting a vivid image of continued kinetic energy redistribution. He began to twirl his hammer methodically, and with a cunning purpose. This was about the time the giant became blinded momentarily by an unseen assailant grasping for his eyes. Time didn't seem to matter as within a span of what seemed like seconds, another part of the unaccounted reinforcements arrived. This one made his presence vocalized, and even seemed to topple the giant somewhat with an impressive array of subatomic neuralizer rays.

Yet, these did not seem to achieve the desired effect of crumbling the beast entirely.

The hammer of Turisas began to glow white-hot with the speed at which he spun it, but also built up a truly horrifying display of electricity - even more so than the previous efforts of the godling. He still had to calculate and measure, taking into account the angle at which the giant twirled and restabilized himself in the tidal waters. Time Siphon seemed hard at work with following the orders of their collective superior officer, but Turisas had too many thoughts on hand to simply do what he was told. Toppling the legs would be one thing, but there would be no discernable way of removing the giant's corpse from the ocean. Following that logic, maybe it had already deposited untold amounts of spores into the waves, paralyzing coastal regions for generations to come. The biological devastation could only be hinted at if this creature was allowed a resting spot at the bottom of the sea.

In that moment, as one of the giant's kneecaps would crumble, Turisas revealed the first part of his plan. Following the collar of his hammer, the godling closed the distance between him and the giant with record speed. This did not diminish the momentum stored within the weapon. He simply redirected it, adding to the already formidable spin. What would come out of this impact shook the oceans and divided them for a split second, revealing even down to the roots of the tides with a white-hot flash of lightning spanning many hundreds of feet in diameter.

This Biblical task, reminiscent of the Red Sea parting, had been planned for the giant's chin, with the desired effect being sending the thing into higher orbit and with any luck to Venus, where it would wither under the shadow of its corrosive atmosphere. Of course, Turisas did not simply rely on his hammer's power alone. His monstrous strength became evident as he did not really know how much to put behind the swing, so he just slugged for it like a major league baseball player aiming for the cheap seats.

@last_man_standing:

Everything was so intense, the group of heroes stood inside the H.A.V.T as one thing lead to another, then Ruby began barking out orders to everyone. “Anyways, Feral Nova take the place of Solar Hawk and help Turisas,”

“Right!” Nova didn’t waste any time as she rushed out and leaped off the H.A.V.T, free falling for a moment before her body erupted into it’s golden glory, taking off like a rocket towards the massive beast, her eyes wide behind her helmet as she closed in, realizing just how big the monster was.

But before she could even reach it, Turisas was already on the attack, but… the attack looked like it was going to be too much with all of the heroes that were rushing towards it at the moment. “TURISAS WAI-“ but it was too late, with an ocean splitting clash, and a blinding flash, the backlash of the attack alone was too much for the young hero to withstand.

The sea split and the waves rushed upward to the sky, the shockwave of the attack slamming into the unprepared pyromatic hero. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t withstand the blast and like a rag doll it sent her flying back into the H.A.V.T, her body slamming into the deck as she could feel her ribs crack upon impact. “AH!” she cried out, wrapping her left arm around her ribs as struggled to get on her knees. “Sh-sh!t” she mumbled to herself, trying to push herself back up from the ground. “well… that wasn’t embarrassing…” she grumbled to herself, hoping that everyone was too blinded by the attack to have seen that.

@maya_liafador@embargo

The command deck of the STRIKE mobile headquarters could easily be described as nothing less than organized chaos in action. No matter which way one turned, the bodies of agent after agent practically tripped over one another in a desperate attempt to manage every new threat as they continued to appear in devious fashion. As admirable as their herculean efforts had been up to now, their control of the ever changing situation was slipping fast. None present would dare to state anything of the sort out of the fear of earning the wrath of their fearless leader, but the looks of growing concern upon each and every face told a different story. Picking up these non-verbal cues would be all but impossible while a participant in the fray, but hovering overhead in full specturm stealth allowed one to tune out the noise and maintain focus on where it was needed and desired.

Wilhelm - “Divide and Conquer at its most basic Ian. Multiple threats that require immediate response that are not only concurrent, but taking place far enough from one another to force STRIKE to split their forces without knowing who will be needed where and when. While the field teams are showing results, the fatigue and injuries continue to accumulate. None of them have had even a moment to catch their breath, all it will take is for one to fall with no one to take their place and the momentum will shift to an unrecoverable degree.”

Ian - “Every facet of this assault has been orchestrated in a very set order and along precision timing, none of this is being freelanced or made up on the fly. Every new threat is designed to accomplish a specific task and so far all looks to be going according to their plans. The first creature, by nature of its very abilities to use her own powers as its fuel, was designed for the singular purpose to take out Maya. With her on the sidelines the second creature would require the majority of the firepower to deal with due to the immense danger it represents to the civilians nearby.”

Wilhelm - “Leaving only an exhausted and near defenseless Maya to defend against the very confused and beligerant celestial entity currently in the process of kicking down the door and preparing to lay waste to everything in its path. They knew not only how to hit them, but in the manner with which STRIKE would respond, exactly as they intended things to occur. Even the unexpected reinforcements from the general metahuman community were not enough to derail their plans.”

Ian - “Enough analyzation, lets see how these sons of bitches like it when part of their master plan doesn't go according to the playbook. Wilhelm, get ready to open the floodgates.“

Without waiting for the inevitable reminder of just how close his upcoming actions were to turning bent mandates into broken ones, the invisible overseer moved silently across the command deck until finally coming to a rest standing directly behind Maya. His observation of the two siblings in action had allowed him to gather enough data to replicate the effects of the energy transfer matrix used to share surplus energy reserves between them. Armored palms gently rested on each of her delicate shoulders and before she could utter even a sound of surprise, unimaginable amounts of raw power derived from internal and extradimensional sources poured into her body, filling the chasm left by her earlier confrontation. With this he began to speak to her in a veiled voice in order to calm whatever fears began to come over her, to any exasperated onlooker it would look as if Maya was somehow drawing power to recharge herself from places unknown.

Armistice - “Just relax Maya, I'm not here to hurt you. Your teammates are not going to last long enough for you to recharge on your own without your brother here to help, so just consider me your fairy godfather you summoned by clicking the heels of your Louboutins together three times. I only ask for three things in return.”

First, keep this little exchange to yourself for now, plenty of time for questions later.

Second, be more careful in the future, you aren't indestructible you know kiddo.

And last but not least you, my dear, are now fully charged, go kick some ass.

@armistice: @embargo: O_Din

Solar Hawk was there as well. She thought she heard something with her hawklike hearing but could not make it out. She shrugged and wiped gold blood from the exposed part of her face, getting it out of her eye and flicking it onto the deck. The wounds it had come from were healed and she walked out of the door to confront the being that now threatened the carrier.

"My name is Solar Hawk." She told it. "This is usually the part where you threaten me, call me a pathetic mortal and inform of your godly heritage. Let's just skip that bit if you don't mind, I'm all wore out on speeches today. Now I figure this sword here isn't made of Nth Metal so you have a slight advantage, but that's alright." Solar Hawk grinned. "I like a fair fight. I'll let you take the first shot, you're move."

It may have seemed to the uneducated that allowing the being to make the first move was a mistake, but it was not. A skilled warrior like Solar Hawk would not take the first move against a foe they did not yet understand the abilities of. By allowing Gaia to go first, she was also allowing it to showcase at least some level of ability first and give Solar Hawk something to work off of. She was also doing something else, buying her ring time to regain at least a small margin of its charge to use in the fight to come.

@maya_liafador: @jack_: @embargo: @timesiphon: @last_man_standing: @feral_nova:

While the others did their part in executing the Samurai Saint's sound, tactical approach to toppling the powerful Goliath, Sosuke himself remained in the carrier. Lacking the ability to fly, he had no means of exiting the airborne vehicle without facing the risk of being suspended in the sea where even the subtlest of the titan's movements would generate waves that would carry him off to who knows where. Instead, the Samurai Saint attacked from a distance, atop the gargantuan carrier's deck. The salty, ocean breeze was quick to assault his senses as his hair, a long, beautiful mane of ebony fluttered wildly in the wind as he rested his gaze on the Goliath while his teammates did battle with it.

Attacking the giant's knees was the key to victory. Its massive bulk and unbelievable weight was supported only by two joints, if he could increase the stress on the knee joints from its cyclopean mass, he would have done his part. Hoping, or rather trusting that the other S.T.R.I.K.E. members would not deviate from the plan, the Black Lotus began his assault. First he harnessed the power of his photokinesis to disarm the enemy prior to a direct attack. And he disarmed through disruption of one of the most prized forms of sensory perception; sight. Because one is only able to 'see' because the brain analyzes the physical information acquired from the light that hits the back of the eyes, preventing photons from reaching said eyes would effectively blind the victim.

Sosuke however, lacked the raw power to prevent all ambient photons hanging in the environment from reaching the titan's eyes, instead, by virtue of his photokinesis, he prevented the light that bounced off from every single one of his attacking teammates from reaching the back of the Goliath's eyes. While the giant would still be able to see the world, the S.T.R.I.K.E. members were, to him, rendered invisible. As they attacked, he literally wouldn't see them coming. Next, the Samurai Saint made use of his osteokinesis; the ability to manipulate bone. With its origins found in geokinesis, osteokinesis enabled Sosuke to manipulate any of the earthen elements e.g. salt and calcium, in his or another individual's body. In this instance however, his primary target was the calcium in the giant's body, namely, in the titan's knees. Tapping into the power of his osteokinesis, arms extended and palms facing the giant, Sosuke began.

He manipulated the calcium deposit in the giant's knees, severely decreasing its bone density and weakening its bone structure, enough that the sheer weight of its massive frame began to cause unimaginable stress on its knee joints, the mechanical support for its weight. Sosuke however, did not relent. While he left the giant's knees extremely hollow and in agony from the stress of its weight, he held faith in his teammates to capitalize on the brittle bone structure of its knee points, and moved on to the next phase of attack. Again relying on his osteokinesis, the Black Lotus made use of calcium metal's hazardous reactions with water and acids in the body to generate heat and calcium hydroxide to saponify (turn into soap) the fats and liquefy the proteins in the titan's mouth, esophagus and stomach. Hopefully the team's collective assault would prove powerful enough for Maya to ready her attack and fling the giant into the blackness of space.

@embargo: @timesiphon: @last_man_standing: @feral_nova: @armistice: @solarhawk: @fraga:

Miles stood far in the sky, focusing on keeping the beam from his glove aimed directly at the Atlantic Colossus. The rest of the opposition had begun exclusively targeting the giant's legs; it was the most viable strategy, being that they were currently holding his massive frame. Directing his arm lower, his advanced brain mapped out the path of his beam, precisely locating the most advantageous point to target. The particle weapon had proven effective against the foreign threat, proving that it still obeyed the most conventional laws of nature. His right arm had been pulsing rhythmically with the weapon, bending unnaturally under the strain of directing such an intense beam. Any average man's arm would have been destroyed by the recoil of the particle gun, but Miles' stretchy cells had been adjusting to the impact, bouncing back and forth on a microscopic level. The only observable result was a curious wobbling of his entire arm, which, while still stiffly aimed at the giant's legs, was moving back and forth up near the shoulder.

Miles' cells, genetically and molecularly altered, were entirely different than those of a normal man. He could not stretch great distances, nor permanently deform his shape; but, he was able to mitigate nearly all forms of impact against his form, including the kickback of the gun. Like a man made of rubber, he was able to contort his forearm to just the right form in order to handle the weapon, without any discomfort at all.

Perhaps, were I to proceed further with the process, I could find myself stretching my limbs to vast distances, not unlike my brother.The risk, however, would be in the further degeneration of my cells. I might even become a living liquid. That's no way to go through life, he had thought many times in the past. Rather than stretch like putty, he himself would bounce around, while still retaining humanoid form. The most he could do in the way of elongation of limbs was to move his pinkie a tiny bit longer than normal, and even that had hurt a little. But for now, all he needed was to keep his arm steady.

His helmet still providing him with information regarding the conflict, he began striding closer to the giant, intent on adding more power to the beam. It would be entirely inaccurate to state that Miles was flying; he was instead walking as one would on the ground, except in the air. Thus, he was not moving too quickly, and he may have looked unnatural to any unfamiliar with the nature of the superhuman. Like religious figures of old, he strutted across nothingness, one leg in front of the other, casually adjusting the intensity of his beam. He began speaking softly, not on any radio frequency, to nobody in particular except the Colossus, regardless of whether or not he could be heard or understood.

"Afternoon, sir," he murmured, spinning a small knob on his glove, "...by now I'm certain you've garnered that you are not welcome here. Being that you have made no attempt to negotiate, and have instead caused cataclysmic damage to several inhabited zones of our planet, we're going to remove your living presence from our world. It's nothing personal," he continued. He knew that talking to himself was illogical, but it helped him remain calm, and in control. He did not believe in 'chi,' but he knew that the subconscious effects of calmly speaking to one's self were indeed real. Most would think that a genius of his caliber would not need to do so, but he rather enjoyed it. It let his mind wander slightly, and gave him the sort of dramatic feel of an old play, an epic written by the likes of Shakespeare or Homer.

"At any rate, I'm certain you now see that your little incursion on our world has amounted to little more than the deaths of hundreds of innocent marine lives. And while the ecological damage done to this segment of the Atlantic is truly lamentable, the real shame is your as-of-yet unsuccessful invasion plan. What did you expect," he sneered behind his mask, "...that you would just walk to the shore, unopposed? If this was intended as a diversion, it is working well, but that doesn't seem like your style, now, does it," he continued, his grin widening.

Collect yourself, Miles, you look insane.

"Anyway, I'm sure your little gesture against our planet has made you realize how unprepared you truly were, monster." The Colossus howled in pain, continuing to flail. The waves grew taller, splashing far up its legs and licking the heels of Miles' feet. "...Unprepared for STRIKE. Unprepared for me."

His grin grew disproportionate to the rest of his face, stretching all the way up to his cheekbones, not unlike a cartoon character. The cells comprising his skin tissue were stretching a little.

Tone it down. You're letting adrenaline get the best of you.

Allowing the terrifying smile to return back to the normal, calm veneer Outlier had so carefully chosen to be his face, he ceased his communications with the Colossus. Instead, he remained silent and thoughtful as he shot the blue and white laser into the creature's right knee.

Maya watched as her teammates dispersed adhering to the orders of Director Gallagher but found herself unable to help. With her energy deathly low; she was just as useful as Agent Barnes. Her eyes watched as Solar Hawk stormed to combat Gaia on the top of the vessel. “Zoe, be careful!” Maya screamed, watching as she took off in a burning ember.

She hated this, sitting back while her teammates engaged the golem trekking the ocean. “This is stupid, I should be out there!” She screamed, her words dwarfed by an explosion of energy surging through the Atlantic.

“What the hell was that?” Ruby screamed, dashing to Maya’s side, just soon afterwards Feral Nova blew unceremoniously back into the vessel badly injured. “ZOE!” Maya screamed, dashing to the aid of her teammate.

“Got damn it, he’s going to get them all killed” Ruby said preparing to message the rookie hero. “Director Gallagher, something’s happening!” Agent Norfleet screamed; bringing the stern Director back to the helm.

The focused strategic strikes cause both its knee’s to buckle rending it powerless to support its weight. “If that thing falls in the ocean…this planet is doomed!” It was at that moment that the powerful force behind Turisas’ hammer sent the massive golem into orbit. “Holy sh!t!” Maya screamed, watching as the beast effortlessly cleared the atmosphere.

“I guess we don’t need me now…” Maya said with her hands on her hips. “That’s not true, the sudden dispersion of water is going to have cataclysmic effects are you charged?”

Maya apprehensively shook her head no and went back to focusing her energy. “What’s the status on Solar Hawk?” Ruby asked moving towards the main command screen. “They haven’t moved yet ma’am, it’s like their daring one another”

Maya’s body froze en route to the screen, she could feel her mystic energy surging exponentially in her bosom; but it was clear this was not her own doing. “Whoa…” She said, erupting in a magnificent display of energy.

“I won’t, thank you” She responded just below a whisper; to those looking nearby it appeared as if she were talking to herself. Running in the similar fashion as Nova before her, the Red Cardinal rejoined the actives; swooping down low to the unruly sea; she begin to emit a powerful array of mystic energies on the surface of the ocean.

This wasn’t something she could normally achieve; her powers must’ve reacted in an extreme way to the increase allowing her to reactively adapt to the environment. In this case it was quelling the ravenous sea.

“I’ve returned the sea to its natural domains, but it appears we still have one last obstacle to tackle” She said referring to Gaia, the source of all their problems. “BE CAREFUL, she’s been corrupted by my sister’s darkness, it’ll be very easy for her to cast it on one of us”

As she started back up to the vessel to help her teammates catch their breaths; she wondered about her sudden burst of energy. Someone was watching over her—trying to ensure she succeeded. “Thank you” She said, with her head towards the heavens.

@solarhawk:

The armor clad vixen watched as the winged warrior emerged from the inner chambers of the vessel ready for battle. She watched her efforts against the sea golem, and while she fought admirably; she didn’t seem to have the stamina to go a full twelve rounds with the living embodiment. Even though she cared not to show it, the arrogance of the ancient one was amusing. Tightening her knuckles around the hilt of her swords, she begin to draw a strategy that’d best support her methods.

Her opponents wings gave her somewhat of advantage, but also a potential weakness; gripping her blade the silent living embodiment closed the distance , lightly moving on the balls of her feet; she split into three separate entities, an indirect homage to the Cardinal Goddess of Illusion” .

Her projection swung her blades up high targeting the shoulder and clavicle, whilst the real entity sent a blatant strike towards Hawk’s knee, before executing an adept pirouette bringing her secondary blade in attempt to gouge the hero across her chest.

@o_din:

Solar Hawk smiled. The functional half of her helmet continued to scan and identified one of the images as the real one. In the belief that it was possible for false images to still be deadly ones she removed her helmet just as the attacks were launched. The Nth Metal was instantly charged with 50,000 volts of electricity and she threw it against the metal deck plating of the carrier as hard as she could. The charge would not carry far, but it would carry far enough to hit the three images just as they reached her. For her own part Solar Hawk was immune to the effects of her own electrical charges.

Solar Hawk's next move was to leap backwards several feet, putting her squarely in the door frame. The side attackers were not blocked but their strikes would be forced off target. If the weapons were real they cut deep lines down her arms with a trail of glittering golden blood following after them. She ignored the pain and brought her weapon up just in time to deflect the blow aimed for her chest. The slash for her knee had missed by the same principal that forced the other attacks off target, by launching herself backward she was able to slip from the weapon's initial reach.

The ancient Egyptian warrior grit her teeth as blade met blade inches from her chest and used all of her available strength to force the weapon away from her skin. Note to self, tell Luna Hawk I want that fancy mentally activated armor now. Even though it had looked as if Solar Hawk might be exhausted her regenerative properties had already restored her stamina and sealed her previous wounds. The real issue was a lack of mace and the fact her white lantern ring was still recharging itself.

The good news was that Solar Hawk now had an idea of how her opponent would fight and she chose to use that to her advantage. The two images would have difficulty fighting her with her flanks protected by the door frame and the better speed and dexterity of her primary opponent was reliant on space to move around in. While it was true that Solar Hawk could fly, she had no intention of doing so, not when her orders were to protect this door.

"You can't kill me." Solar Hawk said, but it came out in an ancient language. She cursed mentally, the ring had always translated what she said into English. The ring was still recharging then. Rather than feel silly with half a statement she finished what she was going to say anyway. "You aren't a god. All you can do is kill an incarnation and I'll just come back." Possibly three hundred years from now, but she doesn't need to know that.

@solarhawk:

“Hey Norfleet the numbers for the lotto just came out, maybe we can finally ditch this stupid job” Agent Barnes said flanked by other participating members. “We need 7, 8, 9 and 15 to win.” He said eying the numbers. “The first number is 7!” Ruby stood watching the battle between Solar Hawk and Gaia on the deck, but the profuse cheering drew her attention.

“The next number is…42 awww man. I guess it’s good that I didn’t pay my half of the ticket yet. Suck it!” Barnes said, walking off. “Would you guys like to I don’t know HELP SOLAR HAWK” The irritated director hissed already feeling the stress of the day.

“You can’t strike Gaia” Maya said, walking to the command screen. “She’s too intune with our planet any damage she takes we will feel”. Ruby banged her fist against the center console. “I think you neglected to mention that vital piece of information.”

“Well I was going to tell you but you cut me off, I can contain her like I did in space; but she’s not likely to fall for the same tactic twice; we’ll have to distract her.” Ruby’s eyes went back to the battle on the surface, “I think I know a way. I want everyone on the top of the vessel to aid Solar Hawk. Everyone except you Nova.” She said, knowing the fire teen was injured. And Turisas…be careful.”

With astute awareness the living embodiment jammed her sword into the metal plated surface, as the vast amounts of electricity hit her sword, bits and pieces of it actually managed to cause her harm; as it would with anybody composed of flesh. Rising to full form with a half-forged smile on her angelic features; she seemed more or less affected by the minimal damage. “Lightening strikes my surface everyday” She said slowly sauntering back to her starting point.

“Feral Nova, I want you and Time Siphon to hit the lower decks, when I give you the word, I want you to dump our reserve oil barrels into the ocean.” Ruby said, directing them with her finger.

“YOU WANT TO DO WHAT!?” Maya protested in a scream. “Save me the lecture princess. This woman created monsters not native to this world, one that absorbed your powers do you think she can’t do the same? Think about it, if you had to beat the Earth how would you do it? By polluting it.” Ruby explained.

“You had your chance to take her down, now we do this MY way.”

Back on the surface, Ruby’s words were confirmed when the living embodiment threw her hands towards Solar Hawk creating what could only be described as a veil of fire, compliments of Feral Nova.

Clearing the flames in a single bound, she channeled the powers of Sosuke by attempting to mentally break the bones of her opponent, rectifying her earlier failure; whether she succeeded or not, the living embodiment would send her sword diagonally across the Hawk’s chest, whilst churning her feet on the steel surface to send a powerful backhand elbow into the hawk’s face.

@o_din:

Solar Hawk was not immune to fire and had no where to go to avoid it, but she did have a plan to take as little damage to her critical anatomy as possible. Knowing that her wings and any other wounds would heal with time if she could make it through the fight Solar Hawk spread her wings and formed them in front of her like a shield. The fire blasted through feathers and skin to reduce most of her wing structures to bone and scorched flesh and it was an exceptionally painful experience, but it protected her body.

Solar Hawk grit her teeth against the pain and then the bone breaking power was thrown her way. Here things were more difficult for Gaia, rather than Solar Hawk. Her bone structure was adapted for high stress flight situations including speeds far in excess of normal human tolerances. On top of that she was created to be durable and take a significant pounding, her body was not as fragile as it looked. Perhaps Soskue could have done better because of his practice and experience with the power but Gaia was just now using a power she had not previously had. On top of that, Solar Hawk, like any Hawk Lord, had a significant will and pain tolerance. She mentally fought the assault with every ounce of will she wasn't using to fight back the pain of the fire attack. One or two of her ribs cracked, but the desired effect did not occur, Hawk Lords were made of sterner stuff than a typical human.

Gaia's physical attacks were more of Solar Hawk's style. She allowed the elbow strike to land because she knew full well she could take it, the blade was a different issue. Parting her scorched wings she took the strike to the face full on. The elbow strike snapped her head back harshly and gold blood trickled from her nose and mouth. Despite all of it, her blade met Gaia's own, slamming metal into metal with a harsh clang and a bloody grin. Without warning, she spat gold blood into Gaia's eyes, hoping to temporarily blind the woman while she thrust her sword squarely between her breasts. She didn't stop there, she tried for one of her trade mark and often brutal head butts. Without the helmet it would be less lethal than usual but no less painful or, more importantly, unbalancing. The offensive was necessary, Solar Hawk knew she could not take this level of punishment forever before even her body gave out. She cared less about personal survival, she would reincarnate in another time and place, but for victory.

Down below Time Siphon moved to where the oil barrels were and prepared to dump them over board.

Stay awake, Ronnie. Stay awake.

The monolithic blast responsible for sending the giant through Earth's atmosphere, clearing the Moon's orbit, and into the distant unknown would secure Turisas' place as one of S.T.R.I.K.E's agents for sure. However, the attack did not come without its consequences. Calling upon Thor's thunder charred his body, leaving his flesh smoking and skin seared to a crisp. He did not possess the fortitude of a god quite yet. His mortal components still felt pain, and knew limitations. He had just broken past them, and the harsh lessons of perseverance caught up to him. Slowly, but surely, he began to descend, following a painful glide as he lost consciousness, regained it, and lost it again. Blacking out multiple times, telling himself to keep awake, but to no avail.

Just accept the inevitable, and drown.

---

Cameras and agents recording the scene would live to tell of Turisas' amazing survival story. As if propelled by an outside force, the blonde godling was flung from his seemingly inescapable brush with death and into a hangar left open and waiting for more oil drums to be dumped into the toxic waters. Even more strangely, a mysterious man appeared in the control room of the airborne vessel. How he managed to evade the countless security systems, none could say. Yet his stoic expression did not betray a hint of ill intent. This was Freddie Dio, one of the more...

...

Bizarre members of the S.T.R.I.K.E. team. In fact, he was not even an official member yet. Much like Turisas, he was considered by many to be a rookie and a loser. Well, after what the hammer-wielding maniac did to the giant, no one would call him a loser again. Dio still had to prove himself to Director Ruby. He started by casually sipping a tall glass of juice behind her back.

"Sup," he remarked.

As if that was all he needed, Dio commanded the utterly strange telepathic powers at his disposal to replace Turisas at the top of the ship. He watched the monitor displays of Solar Hawk fighting a nature goddess. Some would call that being Gaia, but Dio only thought of it as another psychopath trying to change the world. Of course this involved mass genocide, or "wiping the slate clean" as some would call it. Dio just sipped on his juice some more. It helped him concentrate, much to the displeasure of those around him.

---

Yossele, the Golem of Prague, approached Gaia as of Dio's caution and volition. The will of the impressively intelligent young man complimented the legendary monster's own battle brilliance to the letter. With Dio observing from a bird's eye view, Yossele would be impossible to stop. It would remain to be seen whether or not Gaia had an influence or possible leech on Yossele's powers, considering the golem would be technically in another plane of existence entirely. A ghost to many people, except those with the proper senses for magical creatures. With this handicap in mind, Yossele approached her cautiously, waiting for Solar Hawk to strike before joining in the attack.

"Bring her close. Flank, to her left,"

The beast only needed that direction to go on. With a long step to his right, the invisible and incredibly dangerous golem swarmed the Gaia creature with a massive tsunami of earth-shattering punches, some fifty per second, for about three seconds, shouting "ORA" with each titanic blow. These were more or less merely fencing strikes, to keep Gaia closed in from one side. If she could not approach from one angle, then the three others could have a chance to close in and finish the job. A classic of military warfare, put unignorable pressure on one side and cause the enemy to focus on that. In Yossele's case, it would be pressure inflicted from hopefully invisible hands to Gaia. If not, then she would instead be distracted by his totally outlandish appearance.

@o_din: @solarhawk: @thisisgonnahurt

The beasts feet stamped down, and caused immensely huge waves under the water, causing enourmous tsunami's to form as the earth trembled. Strong as Burns was, he had no surface to anchor himself to at first, and like most any other object descending to the ocean floor, he was swept away in the fierce waves being sent away for miles. This also had the disavdantage of scattering the devouring swarm Burns had forming under the water, originally formed with the intent of devouring the large titan. Though Burns was washed away, he still had various devices still around, namely his quantum dots in the form of orbs, which allowed him to still see and here all that occured.

"Good god." Burns said in response to the titan being quite literally launched into the air by the strike of the thundergod. "The thing must have weighed as much as a mountain. Though, it wouldn't surprise me if such a thing was extremely lightweight, pound for pound. That would also explain how it could possibly be so large....no matter." Burns eventually smashed into the ocean floor, and seeking to anchor himself, thrust his fingers into a rock, piercing it with his entire arm. "I do wonder if I shall return. Hm....oh how the mighty, have fallen..." The words escape his mouth under the water, as through one of his quantum dot based orbs, he watches as the god falls from the heavens, and as the helicarrier is seemingly under attack. It would seem there is more to this then what meets the eye. But, Burns wondered, should he appear there, on a helicarrier? He wished to stay out of not only the public's eye, but particlarly the government's eyes. Although....

"Gaia..." He mouthes, having gathered data from all around the area, from what people said, an from what he could see. An emobeiment of earth itself. Of....natural order.

"Hm..." He thought as a fighter jet, in a state of what many would consider "Destroyed beyond repair" rushed by in the ocean, carried in a heap by the rushing wave. Deciding to return, Burns holds out his hand to the thing, as soon a giant black tendril composed of quantum dots erects itself from the ground and catches it, bringing it down towards him. "Perfect.." He said as he gathered more of his Ichor around him and pulled himself deeper to the calmer ocean floors.

The Doctor's healing hands graced the vehicle, as his vital fluids then went onto the jet, and began to work. He didn't merely master technology. He knew how to engineer matter itself to fufill his own desires. Needing nothing more then energy and ambient material to reconstruct the jet, and rearrange it. The liquid blood made the steel hundreds of times stronger, simply by rearranging it's structure. Diamondoid was incorporated into the framework. Ambient silicon used to repair electronics and even waterproof them. VTOL capabilities and even an artificial intelligence was created on the spot to give the plane even more capable. . "I expected more from an organization such as this. Look at this one....so fat...." The vehicle is complete, and it floats towards the surface as a platform under it raises Burns and the vehicle simultaniously. "I may devour him for spare material, should the time call for it." Though Burns was just as capable as eating other organic materials such as plants and fuel for vehicles, he simply did not like the boy.

The platform rose from the water, and the Jet, took off vertically, ascending into the air. Burns, crouches, and jumps several hundred feet in the air, flipping nimbly through the air as he landed on the newfound, Jet. Stronger. Faster. Sleeker. The Doctor did not enter the cockpit of the Jet. Indeed it was too small. No, he simply crossed his arms, stuck his feet to it, and willed it to fly as he sped off to rejoin the group. "Forward, to the battlefield!" He exclaimed. Growing more excited as the Jet breaks the sound barrier 3 over in 20 seconds.

Burns reaches them in a few minutes in his newly created, AI controlled Jet,gazing upon the battlefield at Mach 4, deciding on his next move, him rubbing his chin, standing atop the Jet fighter. "A being who copies the abilities of others of the earth. Though, she has only displayed the abilities of metahumans and mutants around her. I may be ideal for this. Being that I am a full body prosthesis cyborg. And the only once human part of me is my mind, But even that has been tampered with to further endure the forces such a body as this..." The man decides his strategy is to engage her and gather the devouring swarm once more. To test her own power. The Jet flew away, and then circled around. Charging straight towards the carrier.

Burn's arc blade unfolded and unsheathed from being hidden within his forarms in moments, as he leaned in anticipation on the Jet.

Let us see if a man made "machine" , the vessel which carries my mind, may triumph over nature...

The doctor leaps from the Jet, which flies under the helicarrier, with a maniacle look on his face. His blades arc with plasma near the core temperature of the sun, as he jumps at her, coming at her from the side at Mach 4, as he intends to dash by and swiftly slash her with his blades. Intending to slash into her waist as she passes with a clean cut from his vibrating blades, as he brings himself to a screeching halt by thrusting his fingers into the carrier. The ground rips and melts as Burns comes to a slow stop, and looks upon his opponent, as an invisible entity seeks to engage her with a flurry of forceful fists. Burns watches, looking for the results of this, before deciding his next move. Standing idly by with his blades. As a small cloud of dust floats around Burns, allowing him to feel everything near him rather then see him, and alert him of an invisible, non-intangible foes.

An impressed grin slowly crept across the striking lips of the living embodiment, Solar Hawk was tough; built for it, but what impressed the celestial being more was the winged warriors ability to thrive in action—able to think on her feet. As her elbow strike dealt the damage she sought to draw, her blade missed its mark and was met with a boisterous metallic clang from her opponents timely obstruct.

Using only a portion of strength to try and gain the advantage of the sword duel, she found herself temporarily disarmed; when the Hawk Lord unceremoniously spit a thick concentration of blood in her eyes.

Left open to the coming assault, Hawk’s sword met the ornate gold plating on her breastplate; while not drawing blood the initial contact from the blunt weapon cause Gaia to stumble backwards on erratic footing. The concussive force from the subsequent head butt knocked her to the ground. Around them minor tremors begin to molest the ocean, the results of their bout.

Rising to her feet with blood dripping from an wound cause by the head butt the living embodiment showed very little pain—despite being mildly concussed. Rising to her feet with the corruption veil of Catalina’s darkness wavering from her athletic body, the Living Embodiment sought to control those dark forces.

Her eyes quickly darted to the right, not a moment later she was forcibly with a barrage of piston-like strikes; each powerful strike sent her body—and the earth, into a seismic convulsion; one that ended with Gaia disappearing in a chasm of darkness and appearing high above them.

Now her wounds were visible, her entire face; not just her forehead had been littered with a series of traumatic blemishes and cuts; for the most part they succeeded in reducing the speed and viciousness of her attacks.

“Heh…” she grunted preparing to take her assault towards the not so subtle specter and Solar Hawk. Readying her blades for more combat, before she could move however; something moved crossed her body managing to strike her lithe waist in the process.

More traumatic tremors bellowed on the Earth below; also causing a dissonance of erratic lightning to fill the air around them. Gaia’s body hit the vessel hard seemingly down and out, bleeding profusely. Four vs. one, even Gaia couldn’t match against those odds; but it was time for her to prepare the Final Gambit.

Pressing the soft tips of her bloody fingers into the metal of the vessel; she begin to release what one could only be described as a cesspool of darkness, a skill gained from the “Queen of Darkness” Catalina.

Like a parasite the darkness begin to swallow the hull of the vessel; making anyone in its path susceptible to the same corruption she was exposed to.

“DUMP THEM DUMP THEM NOW!!!” Ruby screamed, huddled on the command deck with her agents trying not to give in to the corruption of Gaia. The power princess managed to throw herself in front of the energy casting a light magic shield, but this would only protect those on the command deck.

Solar Hawk, Dio, Yossele (?) Burns, Time Siphon, Nova they were all susceptible to being corrupted. The final act of the first terrors had begun.

@o_din:

Solar Hawk grabbed her helmet off of the deck and it suddenly flattened into a metal disc, Hawk Lord forging at its fastest. She put the disc down on the decking again and watched as the dark corruption magic went around it. Nth Metal was anathema to magic, its very properties disrupted arcane energy and made it immune to arcane corruption. With a small section of decking cleared of the energy she stepped into the cleared path and motioned for the others on the deck to join her. Already her wounds were beginning to heal but it was a slow process without the ring, one that would take hours before she could fly again.

For now she had to wait and hope the other part of the plan did what it needed to do. Down below Time Siphon and Nova shoved over the last of the barrels and Raeyn gave them a parting gift, accelerating the flow of time for the barrels so that they plummeted into the ocean at a much faster rate of speed than normal. It burned a little of her temporal reserve, but not enough to be concerned.

Judah Loew, legendary creator of the Golem of Prague.

Grandfather of Freddie Dio, and adventurer. He stood next to Director Ruby, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, but that was due to the power of another creation of his. One he had yet to reveal to the world. Now, as the curtain of corruption fell around the ship, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so.

"BRIAR PATCH!"

Throwing out his hand, a lasso of vines and thorns erupted from his palm, extending out in all directions. These were creations of pure magic, forged in his workshop in Neverafter. Much like Yossele - the golem - Briar Patch operated as a triggered defense mechanism for its creator. However, Briar Patch served as a handheld version and required much less stress to control to its fullest potential. However, the risks were still there. It required to feed on something, whether it be arcane energy or darkness. It digested any kind of energy so long as it had the opportunity to continue feeding until Judah reeled it back in.

From there, it would throw a temper tantrum and Judah had to seal it away.

But for now, Judah found that feeding it the corruptive energies released from Gaia's gambit worked excessively well. Creating a barrier around the airship, essentially enclosing the battlefield, proved to be Judah's own gambit in this contest.

"Director Ruby," he began, holding his arm with his other hand to emphasize the amount of effort required in sustaining this structure - especially at his age. "My Briar Patch will keep Gaia's corruptive aura from leaking into Earth's atmosphere. At the same time, it will create waste products much like any biological creature. If your strategy is to defeat Gaia through polluting the world, then we have no choice!"

He turned to her, a serious look on his face.

"Fire all this ship's weapons into my Briar Patch's thorns! It will convert the kinetic energy and explosions into waste products that we can use to weaken Gaia with!"

"Don't be an idiot, gramps," Dio butted in. "Your heart won't be able to take the strain of Briar Patch converting all of that energy. Just concentrate on keeping Gaia's contamination from seeping out,"

"We're safe for now. I can't really say for certain what's going on topside. Yossele isn't corrupted, I know that,"

Judah shook his head.

"No, if either of our Stands were corrupted we'd know. Briar Patch is able to freely digest energies like this, and Yossele is able to ventilate himself against their influence. You've proven that hitting Gaia only causes further harm. Is there anything else we can pollute the water with?"

Dio pondered on this for a moment, having casually finished his juice.

"Not unless we want to crash the ship. How about air pollution?"

Judah smiled.

"It's a disgusting idea, but I guess we have to be disgusting to fight the goddess of the Earth!"

---

Yossele sprang into action the second Gaia unleashed her corruptive aura. The Golem was linked to Dio on many levels, and knew of his strategy as he spoke of it.

"~Hold your breath, everyone~!" he shouted flamboyantly, expecting everyone to understand his strange accent to do as they were told.

He began to vibrate at a mysterious wavelength, producing a cloud of oddly-colored mist. The Golem often painted himself in different colors to express his creative heart. As of this moment, his clay flesh absorbed so much paint that he managed to convert it all to a fluid form within the water droplets of the ocean air still captured around the vessel by Judah's Briar Patch. This multiplied each time he vibrated his unique body, choking the once-pure oxygen and carbon dioxide with a ghastly acrylic and slightly salty smell. Knowing Gaia's many abilities, one of them to reflect the damage done to her upon the Earth, Dio calculated that she would make herself weak enough to defeat via continuing to reflect the pollution done to her onto the Earth and then having it reflect on her own body and vice versa.

From there, Yossele launched into another vicious barrage of punches aimed specifically for the goddess, having no real pattern and at the same time a most brilliant battle practice that few could mirror in its entirety.

"~Ora~! ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!"

---

"You were expecting to wipe out humanity today, Gaia. But there was one person you weren't expecting. It was me,"

There are many who say, that the most powerful sin, is lust, and that the other sins are simply derivatives of lust.

Burns treaded forward, running, however, he dd not anticipate that Gaia would launch an attack capable of really effecting him at all. However, as Burns saw the pool of darkness, he attempted a halt. However, he was going to fast and it soon intruded upon his mind.

What had allowed the Dark to triumph was not it's power over Burns' mind, as he had control of his mind against forces that would seek to make him his puppet. But he would not willingly be a puppet. The darkness approached him different, approaching a man who viewed himself at times, as a monster, and one who had dark thoughts already inhabiting his mind. It didn't take much lust, before Burns would submit to his wrath and pride.

Dully glowing red eyes looked upon the battlefield as everything from Burns' own perspective seemed to come a slow crawl as he began begin thinking and processing at relativistic speeds. Time appeared to come to a halt. But it didn't. He was simply thinking that fast, and he himself, was practically frozen. He mulled about all of his next moves, plotting carefully.

The cyborg then made his move, using his advanced musculature to propell himself forward towards Gaia at several hundred miles per hour, his speed belaying something of his size. Intent on swatting Solarhawk away with hundreds of tons of force, intending to send her flying away and smashing into a Jet, as irregardless of what happens, he continues towards the earth embodiement.

"NO! She. Is. MINE. To destroy. If the earth should die. So be it." He jumps into the air upon the vines that enshroud the carrier, and then jumps down from them, with force sufficient to dent solid steel as he comes down to Gaia and Yossele with a gigajoule of energy in his punch, with Gaia being the target and Yossele simply being near the blast radius of imminent impact. He flew at mach 4, but his fist struck at beyond hypersonic speeds, speeds much above Mach 8.

Whether or not it even hit, the impact was different from those of most superhumans. Burns striking power came from a combination of speed and mass, and to stike with the roughly 2 megatonne of force he hit with, he had to break the sound barrier many times to reach such impact. It was more or less, comparable to being struck by a meteorite, the impact causing any normal matter struck to vaporise as the impact generated an explosion from sheer kinetic force causing things on the flight deck to be flipped over. The carrier would feel as though it had been struck for a brief moment, before the vibrations would settle. At the sight of impact, there was a large hole where the metal would appear to have been blasted through, steel melted and torn.

At the bottom, Burns was there with his fist on the floor, a dark look on his face. The cyborg would then begin to cough, and breath heavily as he stood up and his prevously fiery, now steaming fist simply fell off. Such force indeed did go back to him.

"Argh...." Burns muttered. Disoriented as he looked about. With power drained, the vine blocking him from sources of energy other then what could be found. He was no more reduced to walk speed as he saunted about, a clear fluid dripping from his arm stub, his ichor. It clotted to prevent further bleeding, as he looked about. His atomically sharp blade unsheathed from his left arm as he looked about at anyone who might engage him. His strength now at the maximum of 2 tons.

His own blood would along the blade to be used as a weapon, but his options were limited without power, and he was injured. He will not be able to regenerate without sufficient energy.

@doctor_burns:

Solar Hawk had a sudden problem, she would normally fly out of the way but her wings had not yet recovered. Jumping aside was not much of an option because it would mean landing in the black crap and simply blocking the attack would destroy her weapon and still send her flying. There was another option though. The stepped back the moment he launched himself in her direction and kicked the Nth metal disc into the air. She caught the disc half a second before his swat hit home and the Nth Metal absorbed the blow without so much as denting. The moment still sent her flying off of the carrier just as the black energy was trying to latch onto her, freeing her from its corrupting influence at the same time. There was nothing Solar Hawk could do once she was in the air and she smashed into one of the jets, tearing through the fuselage like a bullet and crashing out of the other side. The craft disintegrated and Solar Hawk fell like a rock, the Nth metal disc slipping from unconscious hands.

It was not entirely clear if Solar Hawk had even survived the impact with the jet, certainly her injuries would be severe and the injuries she would receive from plunging into the water at this altitude would be no less severe. Solar Hawk soon disappeared from view as she felt at increasing speed. The Hawk Lord slammed into the water at terminal velocity and vanished beneath the waves.

In just a few minutes the controlled chaos Ruby seemed to have over the situation ended with a series of events. “Ma’am, the vessel wasn’t meant to fly in this kind of austere environment; we’ve got to do something or we’ll fall right out of the sky.” Agent Hollins reported.

Maya’s light shield temporarily kept the darkness at bay, but with Nova out of commission; Fraga grounded, and Turisas seemingly drained, if she left the darkness would surely begin to seep into the command deck.

“She’s weakening” Agent Barnes reported, watching as Time Siphon’s efforts to weaken the living embodiment proved fruitful. “Alright, let’s wrap this up” Ruby commanded positioning her hands over her breast trying to think of a way to detain Gaia.

As she thought, a mysterious entity appeared from nowhere; and immediately began to absorb the energy from the darkness, a tactic that eventually freed Maya from her duties; which finally allowed her to join the fight.

“And, I’m going to take orders from a guy I don’t know?” She hissed, not too impressed with his intrusion.

“We don’t need to do anything of the sort. Solar Hawk, Rio and Yossele weakened her enough so I can detain her.” Maya said, jumping through the port window to join her comrades in battle.

Back on top the combination of Yossele and Dio launched another attack on Gaia, but the golden warrior would not allow herself to be bested by the same erratic attack pattern. Everytime one of his structured punches were set to hit, her body disappeared as if he were striking her afterimages.

Just the small bit of pollution caused Gaia to weaken considerably, even dodging the sporadic assault of Dio left her visibly out of breathe. Getting caught taking a breather, the cyborg punch drew blood from Gaia on top of sending her body skidding across the metal surface.

Rolling to a stop, Gaia found herself caught in a mystic energy containment shield courtesy of the Power Princess, Maya Liafador. “I think that’s enough for you today” She said, sealing the container so Gaia’s corruption energy wouldn’t seep through.

Unlike many of the heroes present, Maya lacked the physical strength to endure a full on fight; but she was the mistress of almost limitless energy—even more so now with her power boost.

“Director Ruby, Solar Hawk went overboard! We need someone to retrieve her” Maya reported.

“I’ll send out a quick response team. Now…I want that thing…detained for questioning. Dio” Ruby relied referring to the exhausted cyborg.

Looking into the sky, Maya’s eyes befell the secondary Earth looming in their atmosphere. @azure_son“Leonel…It’s back and I think this time he’s calling you out.”