The Cataclysm Part 3: Everything Dies

The Third and Final Act: Everything Dies

Equipped with FTL capabilities, the Talmut fleet plowed through the almost defenseless outer Ninjan Fleets unchallenged. The last leg of his conquest rest on the Ninjan home world of Xiox, the Omega System Alliance finally rallied the forces to combat the fleet; by now most were backed into a corner. If Xiox feel the entire Omega System Alliance would fall with it.

“The Earthlings have defeated Gaia, and Catalina.” A scout reported at one knee before his powerful emperor. “Hmm…Catalina’s demise was an unexpected one; her plan seemed so full proof.” He murmured gently stroking the dead body of Madison Maynard. In terms of sheer size, the Talmut Emperor stood 8’9 with a grungy blue tint. Because of the ostentatious battle suit he often wore very little were actually able to see his distinct features.

His paralyzing yellow eyes peered through the viewing globe as his massive fleet continued shredding the OSA forces. “Send the rest of the fleet, and proceed according to plan. I will keep my promise to the dark queen. I will eradicate the earth” His body slowly began to take a low glow before disappearing to the surface of Xiox with the body of Maynard to claim his prize.

His forces closer to the Solar System experienced a huge road block, Leonel Pettis, the Azure Son—son of Ziccarra and Alexis Pettis. Filled with rage and guilt sought to shatter the entire fleet by himself. Many of the Talmut’s ships were destroyed in mere minutes of combat with Leonel.

The world breaker vessels were more prepared for the threat he posed, able to withstand the blast of an exploding sun; they could redirect his energy and return fire in full.

Earth-M

Addison’s eyes darted to the curvy blonde in Ian’s possession, before once again fixing on her superior. “So this is just a Tuesday for you?” She jested, trying to add some much needed comedy in such a turbulent string of events. She wanted to ask his plans for the misplaced Maya, in all reality to she could actually stay in this time; being that she bared no resemblance to the Maya of this time; also now that her reality warping abilities were tapped by Catalina.

Her ears perked intently as Ian began to directly blame Leonel and Maya’s parents for their lack of presence during these events. Though she somewhat agreed, she wasn’t going to fully blame their parents. “That’s not all fair sir” She said, slowly hovering around him. “In every universe there is a threat, every reality there is a threat. Regardless of how much we want to blame them…Maya and Leonel should they choose too, could wipe both the Champion and Ziccarra from existence. We have to accept the fact that they’re the threat of this reality, and applaud the fact that they’re on our side.” She said, adhering to the protocols set forth by the Exemplars for addressing a superior officer.

“If you had the power to get rid of them all this time, Why not Y-intercept? a being that has been jumping into multiple realties tormenting and killing people. Why not the Talmut who hang on the fringe of this universe? You’ve got to see the good they can do sir. Not just the bad. I should get going. Xiox is under attack.”

Earth

Having used Maya’s warping abilities, Ruby and the entire STRIKE team were back on their Earth getting settled into the H.A.T.V. The challenge was not over; they had to somehow stop an entire fleet from entering the Solar system. “Who the hell are you?” Ruby barked, her aggression aimed at Commander Stacy.

Barnes, Line, Norfleet and Hollins all stood behind Ruby showing their allegiance to the Director, rather the stern commander. Stacy released an arrogant smirk before, removing her glasses. Taking a half-step toward Ruby the arrogant commander extended her hand for a shake—it was not returned.

“I’m Commander Samantha Stacy, I take it your Director Ruby.” She said, folding her hands in front of her, again giving off an arrogant look.

“I don’t remember appointing a commander.” She said, making a fist; as angry as she was, she couldn’t allow her feelings to overrule her judgment. Ruby’s human body was experiencing a series of changes; thanks to Burns and Time Siphon.

“Uh—has anyone seen Yossele and Dio?” Barnes asked scratching his head. “Come to think of it, I haven’t” Norfleet responded heading back to her desk to do a thermal search for the resident idiots.

“You’re wanting back at HQ, the higher-ups are waiting a conference” Stacy said, walking away as if she had better things to do. “higher-up’s”?” Ruby questioned subtly, she kept her composure to keep the cards in her hands—even though she had no clue who they were.

“They’ll have to wait; I’m in the middle of a crisis.” She said, getting a message from one of her detached agents.

@_retrofire_@maverick_6“Director Ruby, Agent Bradshaw; what’s your situation?”

"I have Retrofire here. I know you said he was important. He's real eager to get up here. To say the least...but the call is on you. You getting this? Over."

“Great job out there Agent Bradshaw, I’ll send a transport to get you guys up here. We’re going to need all the help we can get.” She responded giving the head nod to Hollins to arrange transport.

“Commander Stacy, I need all agents in the conference room now. It’s time to end this shit.”

@embargo:

Time Siphon reported momentarily and took a seat at one end of the table, it never occurred to her that an end seat might be reserved for someone in command, nor did she much care at the moment. Her mind was wandering, unfocused and considering the fleet rather than the room around her or any concerns about seating arrangements. She leaned back in her chair and steeped her fingers, closing her eyes as she thought. "Director." She said after a few moments, coming to a conclusion. "If you can buy me enough time, I can get rid of the fleet. It will never bother anyone again. No ships, no mess, just gone."

You'll kill us! The animal in her mind screamed.

Maybe. Maybe it's time.

"Don't worry, I won't feed off of it. I'll just put it away." She added outloud after a moment. "All I need is the time to complete the prison."

She had little else to say and pulled out her grey cube again, toying with it in her hands and staring down at it quietly. It's going to take this thing tens of thousands of years to recharge. I'll never be able to use it against the Temporal Hunters now. Have to come up with another plan if I survive this one. Perhaps the Hound will see the truth. If I can get the Hound on my side some how the Temporal Hunters won't stand a chance. It's time to end the war against my people.

@timesiphon: @embargo:

"I understand Luna that you might not be a team enthusiast. However you may want to reconsider. Unlike movies comics and so on most the villains don't want to fly solo. We just saw a god a multidimensional being an alien force working together. Given the beating we've taken that fleet might have easy pickings. Remember how I was joking about my foolishness. I took action but also had plenty of people at my back as well. Even if it was stupid trying to take on Leonel I had people to catch me. He raced off though who's there if he isn't enough? How well would the fight with giant monsters go if it was just Itsy? A better future can't be forged by heroes acting as individuals." With that almost on cue an alarm sounded off, a meeting being called. So the wounded Inhuman got to her feet and made her leave from the med bay.

She entered dressed in an outfit of bandages and the obnoxious gowns typically given to patients. Her walk was labored and at times her breathe heavy. Violet hair hung only to her shoulders instead of it's usual long length. She'd clearly recovered well considering her corpse like image on the alternate world. Still she arrived katana at her side and seat taken and relaxed in. Even if she wasn't fighting this time she'd still be there for the team.

"I don't think we can do that Raeyn. Wasn't long ago you nearly spent everything. Don't know much about you but I doubt that cube could return you back to form a second time so soon. And every bit of power you spend is harmful to you. We might need you in the future so if you could not die in the present that would be great." She remarked with a smile and ignoring the pain such a move brought on.

"That said director maybe the commander could help. Don't know or much care who the hell she is. But if Strike has more firepower we might want to know about it. Most of us seem ground based don't know how we'd fair against spaceships you know in space." Especially her Vocal had some air to work on M Earth even against Leonel brief moments as they were air did try to fill the vacume the new god had made. However in space there simply was no air meaning it'd be impossible for the acoustic assassin to do anything.

@embargo@maya_liafador

Earth-M

Addison’s eyes darted to the curvy blonde in Ian’s possession, before once again fixing on her superior. “So this is just a Tuesday for you?” She jested, trying to add some much needed comedy in such a turbulent string of events. She wanted to ask his plans for the misplaced Maya, in all reality to she could actually stay in this time; being that she bared no resemblance to the Maya of this time; also now that her reality warping abilities were tapped by Catalina.

Her ears perked intently as Ian began to directly blame Leonel and Maya’s parents for their lack of presence during these events. Though she somewhat agreed, she wasn’t going to fully blame their parents. “That’s not all fair sir” She said, slowly hovering around him. “In every universe there is a threat, every reality there is a threat. Regardless of how much we want to blame them…Maya and Leonel should they choose too, could wipe both the Champion and Ziccarra from existence. We have to accept the fact that they’re the threat of this reality, and applaud the fact that they’re on our side.” She said, adhering to the protocols set forth by the Exemplars for addressing a superior officer.

“If you had the power to get rid of them all this time, Why not Y-intercept? a being that has been jumping into multiple realties tormenting and killing people. Why not the Talmut who hang on the fringe of this universe? You’ve got to see the good they can do sir. Not just the bad. I should get going. Xiox is under attack.”

Ian was quickly reminded just how disconcerting his unnatural calm to such situations could be to either an outsider, or even one of his own without the harrowing experiences of the First Reality War a part of their own past. Addison could not be faulted in assuming that none of the recent events had even fazed him, somehow paling in comparison to any number of imagined grandiose threats or elaborate schemes from years prior to her service among their ranks. To him any being claiming to have a complete lack of fear was only one of two kinds of people, a liar or a fool, and he was neither. What he did possess was an infuriatingly effective poker face where his intentions and concerns were never for the world to see, unlike his youthful teammate he neither wore his emotions on his sleeve, nor had such troubles in reigning them in barring an outburst being conducive to a direction or effort. Listening carefully to her retort as to his previously expressed views a single hand was raised and single finger extended.

Armistice - "First, do not mistake my lack of outward emotion for a lack of respect towards what has happened or yet to come, playing things very close to the vest is a necessity in my position. Giving any adversary the advantage of knowing my uncontrolled feelings on a matter only allows them the opportunity to manipulate me and my actions through them, this is something one with my abilities cannot allow to happen as the potential risks are too horrific to fathom."

A second finger was extended and he continued.

Armistice - "Second, life is not fair Addison, and even less so for those who place themselves in positions of power over others. One who claims a position of authority, who exerts their will over not only others, but millions, is always going to be held to a far higher standard if they like it or not. I have every right to question any and all members of a clan that believes they are qualified to rule a country, when they cannot even maintain control within their own family. As for Maya and Lionel, they are a threat to this reality, not the threat to this reality, for all their potential they both still have very exploitable vulnerabilities that can be taken advantage of. Do not mistake massive potential for an innate superiority that cannot be overcome, trust me, there are worse threats that inhabit this reality that thankfully tend to keep to themselves. Your personal relationship with Lionel clouds your judgement Addison, you steadfastly give him the benefit of the doubt even in the face of a number of obvious concerns, we do not have the luxury of such a position. While in no way evil, he is reckless, arrogant, and revels in the power he holds. All of these things have already been used once to bend him to the whims of others, and there is nothing as of now to ensure history does not repeat itself. Maya on the other hand is naive and innocent in all things, all too easily led by another to use her good nature against her, and her family is too busy playing politics to protect her from herself."

Then a third finger was raised.

Armistice - " As for Y-Intercept, if you were not one documented with a tendency to fall asleep in class, you would know falls into a special case in more ways than one. One of our own left our ranks a number of years ago and ascended to a position in the cosmic scheme of things where that role was left to her purview, a silent war that has raged since then beyond the view of nearly all of creation. Second, I've personally killed Y-Intercept more times than I can count, yet death is not an absolute to every being Addison, especially one whose essence is best described as a virus infecting connected realities. The Talmut up until now was a faction whose actions were contained to their own reality, meaning outside of the sphere of control given by our mandate, do not give in to the temptation to determine who lives and dies in every situation as no beings, even the Exemplars, deserve or can not resist becoming corrupted by that level of control. That said the Talmut have allied with others who have used incursions into this reality to further their goals so WE are in our rights to intervene. First we disable their fleet and its ability to wage war, that means take out the ships without wholesale destruction and indiscriminate killing when possible, as for the Emperor himself, someone needs to be made an example of..."

@embargo:

Thee Champion was fast. Enough that he could accelerate to 99.9% the maximum speed that the physical laws of the universe permitted. The perk however, of being a New God, or one of the perks, was the ability to transcend. To be beyond the reaches of ordinary nature and even science. He was extraordinary. Capable of generating magnetic fields that guided him into higher dimensional space where the light-speed barrier did not exist. The boundaries were infinite, and he employed that endless acceleration to dart from Earth-M with Catalina's cold and rigid body to the Madrid Palace prior to joining his son, Leonel, in his efforts to lay waste to the Talmut fleet.

Swallowed into the blackness of outer space, the New God accelerated, bursting through the gelid vacuum as his Greek god frame radiated high-intensity photons as a means of propulsion, a shimmering tail of white whipping behind the aura of light radiation that enveloped him. Soon he was beyond the Solar System, in its outskirts, hovering beside his son. "You took out a good chunk of the fleet. But they're not completely done", Thee Champion pointed out, telepathically reaching his son through the reserves of psionic energy absorbed from the numerous telepaths who fell before him. "You're holding back", the Red & Blue Icon paused, meeting Leonel's gaze of silent intensity, "You never hold back. Not in space. Not outside of the Solar System where you've gone far more destructive than you did on Earth-M".

"I know", the Azure Son responded, lacking in enthusiasm as the telepathic conversation between father and son resumed. "Its hard to be so comfortable with using my power again after almost killing both Maya and Addison. And you", Leonel pointed out. He was, generally, a peaceful soul. One blessed with a charming affability and kindhearted altruism. But he was also a warrior. And whenever his temper was roused or the moment he entered the field of battle, he changed. Gone was the charismatic young man with the golden boy good looks. He was merciless, ruthless. A killing machine who reveled in taunting and making the villain feel powerless before forcing them to pay for their inhumane sins. And he was good at it. He was the New God of Quantum Mechanics but he was born to be a God of Destruction, a God of Vengeance or War or Justice. Or Wrath.

Strangely, he didn't seem to be himself. "There's no time for this Leo. Can't you sense it? Those ships are generating energy too. Of the same magnitude as your gamma ray burst. I'm not just here to help you. I'm here to tell you that right now, here, you have no reason not to cut loose. Do it. For Catalina. Don't let her death be in vain". Alexis' words echoed in Leonel's mind. And he fell silent. In the cosmos, he was considered an unbeatable warrior. "I'll distract them. And you show them. That you only have one level. And its one hundred". Quickly, Alexis burst forward into the path of the fleet, offering himself up as a target for their blast, intent on distracting them from Leonel, and offering the Azure Son the opportunity to destroy the fleet's ships from the inside, by generating high-energy particle collisions in every ship deck to conjure antimatter as a means of eradicating the fleet from within, all while Alexis sacrificed his well-being for him. The fleet's supernova blast wouldn't kill him, but it would be close.

@vocal:

Raeyn lowered her eyes to the cube for a moment, turning it over in her hands. "It should have another charge in about twenty thousand years or so." She glanced back up. "Let me do this one thing. This is my world too now and I want to help defend it. If I can do it without anyone else getting hurt or killed then why not?" She asked.

Raeyn shook her head. "I'm not afraid of death, I've died hundreds of times before, what's one more time?" She didn't mention that this time could be the last, if she wasn't careful. "These aliens have threatened billions of lives for no particular reason and they want to invade the planet I have come to call my home over the last few thousand years. This isn't Cocytus, I didn't choose for this world to fall. It makes no sense to throw away other lives trying to stop the fleet when I can do it if you give me the time to not be distracted."

Raeyn glanced over at the Director. "Director Ruby has a key. If this attempt kills me and you need help, use the key, you'll get your help. Just make sure you do it outside."

@_retrofire_: @embargo

"Copy that." Was Bradshaw's sole reply to her as he put the phone.

"Good news. She's coming back. We're all gonna meet in the conference room. Come on. Let's go." He made no attempt to dissuade the man. He said he was ready? Then as far as Bradshaw would accept, he was ready. "Throw some sh** on."

It isn't too long after that the woman arrives, and Bradshaw is completely kitted up in full body armor. Ready to go as he walks down the hall. "Here's the jist of things." He says.

"We got a squad assembled. All here for different reasons. Different powers, different levels. All that. Everyone with their own little role to play in this team. My mission was in Alcatraz. Started out well but we weren't prepared. We're not trained to function as a group and we aren't all trained in skills that would necessarily be useful out the field. Spies, "gods", assassins, an alien, heroes, samurai, all that sh**. So, eventually, animus caught on and sh** hit the fan in Alcatraz. Killed a bunch of zombies and his men, and you and me are here. Down on earth, we had two giant monster attacks. One team took out one, and the other team took out the other with a few people just appearing out of nowhere, particular this one guy called "Burns" who I'm still lookin' for a file for. Que the embodiment of f***ing earth showing up."

He says as his pace increases. "Corrupted by Catilina, "Gaea" attacks the team and tries to corrupt them. They all resist with the exception of Burns, who goes kinda ballistic but keeps himself under control eventually. They take down and restrain Gaea with Maya Liafador holding her. Then this chick shows up, corrupted to attack them while they recover. Maya then ports them over to earth M, where the main problem is, Catilina..." His eyes go over to the man to see if he's still following all this, trying to explain it all in some cohesive

"Meanwhile, this entire time, Catilina has been on earth M, fighting her father and brother. After the team appears sh** hits the fan again and she corrupts Leo....the guy starts to unleash his power. From what I heard, throwing a moon destroying attack at them. One of earth M's alternate heroes flies forward and sacrifices himself, turning into a vortex to port the energy of the attack, while Burns shields the rest of the team. The guy seems powerful, one of the most powerful there, behind the thundergod, but even he is outclassed by Leo. Still, he does his best to hold the team together and shield them as the guy rips the oxygen away and turns the battlefield into a wasteland....One of my teammates tries to rush him after..." He says, thinking about Vocal, growing angrier as he does.

"She gets damn near vaporized in some stupid attempt to get near the guy, who has a death sphere around him that makes him a walking star with no oxygen near him. Burns pulls her out the fire and probably saved her life...." He says looking forward, his mind drifting off somewhere else for a moment to things not about the matter at hand. More about the soldiers she told him to ease up on. But they were elite, he couldn't hold back much on them. Still, he did kill fellow Americans, and he saw her as something of a kid to look after, though he would never admit that....

"Then..." He starts again, getting his thoughts back on Track. "The combination of Solarhawk's Lantern Ring, Maya's magic or whatever the hell it is and Burns melting down an Nth metal weapon, given to him by a teammate, into nanites, they all manage to get the corruption out of Leo before he busts the solar system. Catalina got overwhelmed by what she did, apparently, all this got to her and she offed herself...now we got an alien Armada headed our way, intent on destroying the earth and maybe the solar system. And our director here?"

He says as he walks through the door with his launcher on his arm, a strange weapon on his back and full armor on barring his helmet.

"Well she's gonna tell us how to end this sh**. So, director...." He had no military bearing whatsoever as he asked her.

"How the hell can be of f***ing service?"

He sounds rather...eager.

@armistice: @embargo@_retrofire_@maverick_6@maya_liafador

Solaris drifted into the conference room since her previous conversation had been interrupted. She floated inches above the deck plate, it was a habit of hers that she found difficult to break. She decided against taking a seat, she was an extra person after all and did not want to take someone else's spot. Instead she found a place near Agent Barnes to stand, eventually allowing her feet to touch the ground.

The Living Star crossed her arms under her breasts and listened intently as everyone began discussing the situation. She adjusted her sun glasses, devices she wore to keep the light from her eyes from potentially blinding others, not because she had to squint when it was bright out. For now she was quiet, observing the way STRIKE came together and discussed their options. As a potential allied organization she wanted to observe as much as she could, temporary lamenting that she was not able to get Ryan invited into the organization.

Many of these people seem selfless, but most of them also seem eager to kill. The nature of the species it seems, kill first, look for a prison later. There is so much good in them though, why must they always cater to their killing instinct? Look at how they come together and are willing to sacrifice their health and lives for the sake of people they don't know...but have no intention of finding a less lethal way of doing it. Humans have such a conflicting nature. I expect as much from a Time Siphon. I suppose I should get used to it though, this is the species I want to protect then I have to protect it problems and all."

@vocal: @maverick_6: @timesiphon: @timesiphon:

Sitting with the chair turned the opposite direction, Jaired watched intently as his teammates spoke. He wore a dark orange suit composed of a vibranium weave. The material was damage soaking and increased his comparably small durability. While extremely powerful, even he knew he might get hit in an event like this, and the last thing he'd afford would be getting tagged and critically injured. Though he knew he could easily revert to his ragnarok form, the speedster avoided using it too much as to save energy.

"Yeah, goin' suicidal ain't something we really need. Besides, us together will be enough to get the job done. All we need is to plan and do all that coordinating stuff. After that, we make stuff go boom, beat the bad guys and we win. Though I'm betting It might be easier said than done."

@theflashfire: @embargo: @vocal: @timesiphon: @maverick_6:

Jason Mcgrath

The Militant Magician was fully uniformed, having donned his signature cobalt trench coat with matching pants, as well as his thermal resistant, ivory colored gloves bearing an odd symbol. Beneath the coat, however, he wore a gunmetal suit formed from an unknown material weave. Without a doubt he could take a considerable amount of punishment and trauma, at a higher level then any average individual. But the the magnitude of this particular situation and threat had forced him to gear up a tad extra. Unfortunately, even with the added protection the undersuit boasted, he remained unsure if it would be enough... And considering his general haughty air, that was saying something.

The Militant Magician had been silent during the course of the meeting, opting to listen rather then speak this time around.Jason's demeanor, generally highly outspoken, was now particularly reserved. His expression appeared somewhat grave, with good reason, of course...

"What the heck does the Director have planned? How in the world are we going to stop the armanda?" Jason thought. It dawned on him the immense diversity of those in attendance, particularly relating to their powers. But even with all of of the firepower that had at their disposal... would it be enough?

It would have to be.

"This is going to be one heck of a bout, there's no doubt about that," He finally spoke. "There's going to plenty of blood, but in the end, blood well shed. We're going to have to think of every outcome, plan out exactly how we're going to take out the alien bastards. Won't be a walk in the park, but we'll do it. We've got all kinds of diverse abilities, all kinds of specialties. We'll put em to work...." He continued, confidence beginning to return to his speech.

Yet it wasn't the overt cockiness he had always displayed. It was pure and honest, genuine confidence. A moderated amount of it...

"Just give us the word..."

@embargo: @vocal: @maverick_6: @theflashfire: @dreadpool10: @solarius: @timesiphon

The doctor had returned with the group to their base. It was clear now that he was apart of this, even though he originally did not intend to. His inner cowardice had told him long ago that he should have left, but now he was not so sure. What would his daughter think of him, if she were living and here, if he had just left the fight, left the planet and those defending it to simply die?

No, he was here to stay, for now, until perhaps this was over, as his role seemed vital. Or well, roles. He was both one of the strongest, and one of the fastest. Behind Vocal and the speedster. The "siphon" had abilities that burns did not understand, from his perspective, she seemed to simply be able to will things from existence at some sort of cost. Though she was injured. The thundergod was the strongest on their team. At his strongest, having a striking power burns had calculated to be somewhere in the exojoules from seeing him strike a mountain sized giant clear out of earth's atmosphere. Perhaps even more yet to be realized. The hawks had weapons to negate magics and the like, something Burns had appeciated, as it allowed him to forge Nth metal nanomachines capable of doing the same. Vocal had sound based abilities, which in all honesty have an endless array of uses. The speedster was a speedster, with a blade using technology unknown to the man. "Bradshaw" seemed to function as leader and seemed to have a potent array of deadly weapons and equipment, and the skill to match. Maya was one of great power, who did not know much of using her power. And thusly, she still required help from others. Most the others, Burns did not yet know much of.

And then there was there leader, seemingly powerless. Having thus far only used conventional things in order to combat what little she could and relaying information and orders to do so. However, she did seem to hold the unified command of these extra-ordinary individuals into some semblance of a unit, one who stood against all odds and probability to defeats threats of the unknown and things that seemingly dwarf them and everything else in scale entirely. They still persisted, and they proved Burns wrong when he stated that some of them were useless. She would give them support where necessary and the use of such. Indeed, they all had their uses. None of them could do it all, but they all had their uses and would use it together as a team to fight off these foreign invaders.

The 7 ft 6, 950 pound cyborg walks into the room now where everyone had gathered. His eyes surveying the room, as he then spoke.

"Shall we begin? I grow weary of these sort of extra-terrestrials. The sort that always seek to destroy our seemingly insignifigant planet. We've survived this much, for this long. Let us end this, once and for all."

Ruby took position at the head of the conference room, surrounded by people that’d already gave so much to get back on Earth, once again they were tasked with defending it. To her left, were Agent’s Norfleet and Barnes, one was a communications guru, the other mastermind in the Applied

Sciences department. Both found themselves injured just a few short hours ago, but not these humans were ready to take the final fight to the extra-terrestrial threat. On her right, was Commander Stacy; though Ruby didn’t seem to appreciate her role in the organization, she was indeed happy there was someone willing to accept being cursed out.

“Anyone ready to quit yet?” She asked, hunched over the rectangular desk. “I don’t fault you if you are; I mean none of us were expected to be met with what we’ve fought so far.” She said, lightly walking back and forth peering into the eyes of heroes/agents alike. “Gods, Demons, Celestial beings, Aliens all in one show.” She said still peering at the STRIKE team.

“I despite what it may seem. I am only human” She said, pointing to her now patched up wound. “I didn’t ask to be born or created, but I’ll be damned if I don’t defend it. I’ll be damned if we don’t defend it for everyone else who can’t!” Ruby borderline screamed the thought of Earth—her Earth, being under attack infuriated her.

“There’s one more threat, just one more…so let’s end this.” She said, turning her head up to Time Siphon’s proposal that she could actually eradicate the entire fleet. As Ruby opened her mouth to speak, Vocal cut her off sharing Ruby’s feelings on the matter in the process. “I understand you want to save us all Raeyn, but it’s my job to tackle this fiasco with as little casualties possible. We will keep your proposal in mind, but for now let’s call it plan C.”

Before passing the table over to Norfleet, Agent Bradshaw and Retrofire appeared; asking how they could help the cause. While she knew Retrofire could be of actual use, wasn’t too sure about Bradshaw, he like her seemed to be completely human.

It was in the innocuous chatter that Ruby’s eyes spotted a few people she’d never seen before, Solarius; a member of the Champions Unlimited, her presence solidified the notion that the threat was real. Jason McGrath a man she’d actually only seen once, his presence was welcomed as they’d need as many hands as they could possibly get. He was ready, Flash Fire was ready, Vocal, Solar and Luna Hawk were ready. Bradshaw was anxious; even the 7’6 Dr. Burns was ready, she believed had Burns not been there; she and Vocal would be dead.

“Right now my brother and father have engaged the fleet. The fire power they command is immense” Maya said her raspy voice a mixture of literal pain and sorrow.

“We’ve retrofitted a bunch of our fighters into carrier for space, now it won’t get you guys to the battle in time, but that’s why we have the Eden Transporter. It’ll teleport us to the forefront of the battle, keeping them out of OUR system. Using the beacon signal Maya found at the start of all this, we were able to triangulate the location of the fleet.” She said, circling a massive area on a map.

“WHAT THE HELL? There fleet is that huge!?” Agent Barnes screamed, it was apparent this was the first time he’d seen the chart.

“They are, but here’s the plan. Maya is injured, but can fly through space without a problem. She’ll blow a hole into the command ship, and we’ll board. Agent Norfleet with be with you guys to switch the command signal which should cause the ships to fire on each other based on the size. Now, with that said…we don’t know which one is the command ship. Or really how many command ships there are.” Ruby explained, instructing them all to proceed with caution.

“If Leonel and Thee Champion are already out there, we can get them to plow through some of the riff-raff. A signal buff, which Agent Norfleet has will allow her to spot the signal, as it’s being sent so we can find the mother.”

“Any questions?” She asked, staring into the eyes of her team.

@embargo:

Solaris had one. She adjusted her sunglasses, they never really felt right but she wore them for the sake of others. "What can I do?" It was a simple question, one that came with little fanfare or introduction. Solaris didn't care what was asked of her, only that she could help. Their plan was going to get a lot of aliens killed but Solaris was certain she could avoid causing fatal injuries while she did her part, whatever that was.

"I do not need a ship or air supply or any of the usual survival implements you might need for others on your team. I will do whatever you ask of me, though I will not be directly responsible for killing. If you wish me to disable ships I can do so. If you wish me to break into a ship and damage something I can do that as well. I just do not want to continue on the sidelines. I have watched your team up to this point and have been impressed and was here on other business, but since this crisis is continuing, I wish to be of service while I am here."

------------------------

Time Siphon shrugged a little at Ruby's words and looked down at her cube again. In truth she was brooding a little, but she would obey the Director's commands. Perhaps it was not the most mature of responses but at heart all Time Siphons were still essentially just scared children in the dark. She slipped her cube into a storage compartment of her armor where it was quickly sealed away in a very small temporal vault. Plan C indeed. At least it isn't Plan not gonna happen.

"What do you need me to do until Plan C then?" She asked after a few moments.

Earth- M

Addison opened her mouth to respond, only to see the curvy incarnation of Maya; slowly started to stir in Ian’s hands. “She’s waking up.” Addison pointed, watching as the Billion Dollar b!tch’s eyes shot open in fear. “What the hell…” Maya asked, looking down to see that she was suspended in the air. Her cascading cerulean eyes darted upward and focused on Ian. “Get off of me!” She screamed, pushing away from Ian; just barely able to sustain flight. The entire ordeal caught Addison off guard; she stood watching a bit perplexed as to how this Earthling knew him.

“What did you do kidnap me?” Maya screamed their last encounter wasn’t a pleasant one; though she truly didn’t remember WHAT happened; she was well aware she was not the victor. Maya’s hands charged to fire a photon blast, in her weakened state the extreme energy flux served no purpose other than harming herself. Before the blast left her hand, Addison absorbed it into her person before restraining the young woman. Snickering behind Maya’s back, Addison couldn’t help but feel like Ian’s inability to make a GOOD first impression was coming back to haunt him.

“Well, I’m going to leave you two to hash it out, I’m going to aid Leonel and Thee Champion in plowing through the fleet.” She said, releasing a somewhat docile Maya. In her trek across the cosmos Addison met this former exemplar, Sha of Infinite Forever’s; the guardian of a place known as the World Terminus.

She wasn’t exactly sure what the World Terminus was, but she did discover SOIF and Ian had a fling, and she was right about Ian’s qualities--both the good, and the bad.

With the snap of a finger, the young Maya Lopez was transformed into a retro version of her “Solace” costume, complete with staff. She hadn’t dawned this custom since her legendary ICE DRAGON costume before pointing her staff in Ian’s directions.

“Where are we and why am I here?”

In Space

“I thought you guys could use a bit of help” Addison said, floating behind Leonel and Thee Champion with an Eden Teleporter in her hand. The moment she pressed the button, the fabrics of space parted; and hundreds of OSA fighter ships poured through the gigantic hole.

“I know Madison would’ve wanted to help you guys too.” She said, entering the portal. “But, I need to go make things right on Ninjeta, I’ll be seeing you!” She said disappearing into the cosmic portal.

The Talmuts knew the Champion was a distraction, but with the Ninjan fleet buzzing around them; they sought to take out many with a coordinated strike. One of the main vessels, not being torn apart by the power of thee champion; fired a massive beam of energy into the ambient space. Shortly, after other begin to follow suit, until they energy expanded and eventually exploded; destroying everything within the immediate vicinity.

@embargo: @addison_hopewell:

A voice, feminine and familiar, rang through his mind as he hovered in the blackness of space. Was she reaching his mind from afar or? "Addison?", Leonel's eyes widened, his frame turning round to catch sight of his only surviving friend from Reality-M. With his father already tearing through a portion of the Talmut fleet, leaving a trail of floating debris and shattered hulls in his wake, Leonel found himself puzzled before in what felt like an instant, Addison, through a portal, conjured a fleet of her own to provide support fire against the attacking Talmuts. But as soon as she appeared, she vanished. "Wait!", Leonel's words failed to reach her. She was no longer there. With no time to grow wistful or longing following her departure, his attention returned to his priorities.

He watched, earnestly, as Thee Champion plowed through some of the fleet, a field of scorching, high-energy particles enveloping his hyper-herculean frame as he did his part, offering himself up as a distraction. The Ninjan fleet was immediate in contributing to the battle. But with another fleet present, Leonel would have to exercise caution in projecting energy in the massive quantities he had grown accustomed to. "You sense that?", Alexis inquired, reaching his son via their shared psionic link. "Yeah", the Azure Son, responded, detecting the rising quantity of energy from the Talmut fleet. "They're trying to take everyone out in one go. You know what to do". First it was Thee Champion, absorbing as much of the expanding energy as he could into his personal quantum dimensional state.

Following, Leonel did the same, absorbing as much as he could in that moment. Though they were unable to save every single ship that comprised the Ninjan fleet, the New God duo did however, manage to prevent their complete destruction. But the devastation was evident. The scorched and erupted remains of nearly half of the Ninjan fleet populated the empty space beyond the solar system. And both father and son had sustained wounds of their own. The heat burned through patches of their flesh and charred bone. Wounded but still capable, they resumed the bout.

Hoping that their allied fleet would respond in kind, both Alexis and Leonel sought to offer assistance to the allied fleet by projecting all of the previously absorbed energy from the Talmut fleet into an explosive blast of their own. Hoping to eradicate a significant portion of the enemy fleet prior to S.T.R.I.K.E.'s potential arrival on the scene, the New Gods continued their assault.

@addison_hopewell:@embargo

Earth- M

Ian could feel every minute movement of Maya's body, every single almost imperceptible undulation as her subconscious mind gave way to the waking world around here, yet already aware that something was amiss. Upon opening her tired blue eyes that unconfirmed feeling was made all too real as the first visage she came upon was one with whom her last memories were of a heated conflict whose resolution still escaped her in her weary state. All it took was a single glance and years of training, honed under the tutelage of her adoptive father, were thrown aside and overcome by the temper that was her most well known calling card.

Wilhelm - “This should go well, just use that tried and true Pierce charm Ian, should go just fine.”

In her weakened condition it would have taken little effort to keep her restrained, but to do so would only ensure that Maya would assume the worst and resist in every way possible. Ian's only concern was that she could cause self-harm through a misguided attempt at defending herself from a perceived enemy and simply let go, leaving his hands and arms held out in front of him in an attempted silent sign of peace. As usual Maya not only would not allow him to get a word in as she cast unproven aspersions his way, but also attempted to escalate this into a direct confrontation at the drop of a hat. Ian simply stood there shaking his head in resignation as she once again demonstrated the stubborn pride that had led her astray all too many time before.

Wilhelm - “That makes THREE times she has shot first, I can already sense your red ass.”

Addison could tell that he was not amused by the satisfaction she was radiating from seeing her senior teammate take accusation after accusation from this stranger with which he obviously had a colorful past. Ian knew that something as simple as the snicker made behind her back would only further to anger the still confused guest of this reality and decided to just let it go and attempt to reason with Maya once she had a moment to get her bearings.

Armistice - “Be careful Addison, the Emperor will by now know of the failures of his fellow conspirators and may well have directed them to go down to the last man. Use your teleporter to bypass their shielding and disable their main power source from within, ships of that size not only lose the use of their most fearsome weaponry, but FTL propulsion when forced to rely on auxiliary sources. They can be no threat to Earth should they be unable to even arrive there in the first place.”

With that he slowly glided over to her before allowing her to take her leave, a single curled finger moved a misplaced bang of hair from obscuring her vision.

Armistice - “I know all of this has been very difficult for you Addison, parts of your past you wish would just stay there coming back out of the blue and opening old wounds you have still not yet accepted. I just need you to hold on to your composure a little bit longer, now go help your friends and keep that fleet at bay. This will all be over very soon, one way or another.”

As Addison took her leave, Ian turned back to the now coherent Maya Lopez as she stood ready and waiting in a facsimile of a costume from days before the two had ever met face to face. Even in her almost powerless condition there she was, defiant in every sense of the word, staff in hand and making demands she had no hope of making good on. She could see his entire body take on a feeling of tire at these kind of interactions.

Armistice - “This is neither the time nor place to continue this sadly inevitable song and dance Maya. You are entitled to many a question but those answers will have to wait until the threat you now find yourself entwined within has been dealt with immediately.”

A single hand reached forward and before Maya could react to what she would all but assume to be a response to her earlier attempt, her body began to simply absorb the gradually increasing radiation of focused photons emanating from his palm. Knowing her powerset inside and out Ian knew this was the most efficient manner with which to give her enough juice to return to earth under own power for now.

Armistice - “I am not the one that kidnapped you Maya, actually I'm the one that rescued you from those responsible. Explaining exactly how and why you ended up here is a complicated discussion that will have to wait for now no matter how you feel on the matter. Unimaginable numbers of people are dying as we speak and that takes precedence over your wants and needs. For now go back to Earth and make way for Barrett Island, California and hole yourself up in the only home there until you recover. When this threat has past we will have that long talk and I promise you the answers you demand, until then regain your strength and keep a low profile.”

Without waiting for a response Ian took his leave, it was time to take this fight back to the source and end it before the losses on each side became too great and peace became nothing more than a broken dream for all factions involved. Maya saw his form bend into itself and disappear, a capability she had never seen him utilize before, and left her alone in the silent expanse of space.

Talmut Empire

The same form that only a moment ago left the agitated Maya Lopez behind to consider his words on the matter, now found itself standing on the opposite end of the room and facing the massive frame of the Talmut Emperor himself. From the onset of these events Ian had found himself forced to bottle up his emotions as the petty personalities, self-serving agendas, and delusions of capability involved had allowed death and destruction to rain down across multiple sectors of space without ever capable of seeing past their own ambitions. The very ground beneath their feet began to vibrate and resonate with such a force that the intricate tiling began to crack and split, starting by numerous spidering fissures only to give way to endless and wholesale splintering throughout the rooms expanse. Gravity and spacetime began to visibly warp around Armistice himself, emanating further until the disturbance occupied the surrounding area to the point visibility was slightly obscured, as if looking through the fumes of gasoline. All of the frustration at being forced to stand aside in respect to their mandate was allowed to boil up to the surface, should the Emperor choose to be the recipient of that wrath, so be it.

Armistice - "Whatever goes for a master plan in that deviant mind of yours has all but fallen apart Emperor, no matter what happens from this point you will never achieve rule over even a single civilization you set your sights upon. No matter your intent upon involving yourself in this agenda, events have unfolded in a manner with which this has become a no-win scenario in terms of conquest. Recall your fleets and end the loss of life while you still have a shred of leverage to use on your behalf during the peace discussions to come. Otherwise I will be forced to negotiate the terms of your empire's surrender....with your successor."

@thee_champion:

With a opening gateway of swirling energy the cosmic elemental surfaced into the ongoing conflict amongst the stars. Space craft of various sizes littered the horizon. Massive fleets slowly beginning to engage eachother in a conflict that'd likely litter this part of the system with debris. Debris that scavengers and pirates could use in the future to be scourge upon other worlds. Truely the environmental hated these large battles. Destroy a hundred ships and lose what millions of lives. Destroy a dreadnought and you provide a vengeful fanatic a weapon to level a kingdom. Subtlety was damned in these giant battles which was a shame.

As the rarity that was a cosmic elemental Seras was capable of many things. Even as relatively young by her species standards as she was a elemental at her age could do much. The predominant ability however for her kind was the ability to be almost limitless in the amount of elemental forms she could take. She could be composed of anything from plasma to Vibranium from a air to foreign planetary substances. Made ever more potent by the grand scale of the universe and all it had to offer. This was further backed by the Brigade which supplied her in the ongoing efforts for galactic peace.

On her own Seras was presently able to breach the light barrier. She couldn't go faster then the speed of light. She could however completely opperate at those speeds. Within the collective of super powered individuals many could travel at such a speed and beyond. To fight at those velocities was harder. She arrived in front of the family fused blasts simply absorbing it into herself as the energy sponge she so easily could be. That energy as well as all that was generated from her move into the trajectory now rested in her palm.

It was quite beautiful in image as if a small star was held in the cosmic beauties hand. The rest of her body shifted to a distant alien material that would allow tell loathing comunication. Provided of course the two gods wanted to listen. It was just a rock boosting brainwaves in theory, far from intrusive. "I do apologize I'd hoped if I ever met you on better terms. However I can't sit by and let an entire military force be wasted for the safety of a solitary planet. Much as I love earth I don't think it's survival requires the complete eradication of another societies survival. They may be led by a tyrant and by all means let's lay that tyrant and his devoted to rest. If your plan however is to demolish everything however then shiznos we've a problem."

Not just a defender of earth but all races the elemental dared to oppose two of perhaps the fiercest beings to exist. Should it come to violence her first move would be to go for the older hero. Moving at virtually I standouts speed she'd seak to strike the god with all the energy presently harnessed. Two massive blasts that could have potentially cut the hostile aliens forces in half. And two collected sources of all the energy built up from moving at light speed. Her hand sought the gut of the god with a explosive force of a collision of energies that some might argue shouldn't come to pass. She targeted the champion predominantly for his composure. He could potentially be reasoned with. Similarly the younger one had within the ongoing conflict back on an invasive world and now shown a victim to emotion. Meaning harm to the parent should it come to a fight might encourage angry and thus potentially sloppy combat. A possible advantage:

@embargo: & the rest of STRIKE

Meanwhile Vocal gave a smile at the director there was a charm to her bravado. And just like those she led she'd jump into the worst of scenarios despite the odds. "When do we leave that's the only question I have?" Despite her injuries nothing would be holding the violet vixen down.

Rolling his stiff shoulders and then his neck, Bishop nods at Bradshaw as the discs in his back pop like muffled firecrackers. He couldn't help but smile as Bradshaw asked for his orders. It was surprising to hear a man so ready to ride into a fight of this size, but a relief and reminder that there were men, average men at that, willing to do it. "What he said" Bishop says pointing a tumb to the side.

As Ruby speaks he glances around the room. Retro didn't know her until now, it was all a wild whirlwind of chain reactions. The only reason the reactivated hero was going along without that many questions was because he knew that if he stopped, and had a moment to himself, he'd start believing that Cat might actually be dead.

Everyone in the crowd seemed to be reenergized by Ruby who spoke with the power of a forties era general behind enemy lines. She didn't have his full trust but she at least had is respect. "Director, I don't know you and none of you know me. But I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get this threat neutralised. I mean whatever. I'd like to be in whatever team this guy is on. He's crazy as hell but if he can outhink Newcastle, I want him close by. Please."

Without waiting for a reply he walks over to Agent Barnes, whom she pointed out was a science team member and puts an arm over his shoulder, "Barnes right? I'm Retrofire. Can we go talk?"

"Uh...sure, I guess. Permission to be dismissed for a moment director?" He says looking to ruby for the green light who was so busy giving commands she didn't even register the request.

"I'll take silence as a yes." Retro says nudging him out the door, as the two start walking fast down the hallway towards the agent's lab

"I used to be a big fan of your dad- I mean, I still am but- You know with him being dead and all- Uh, sorry. What was on your mind?" Barnes asks

"It's fine, he went down swinging that's what matters. I was looking over what Ruby was suggesting, and the way I see...i'm going to need to get airborne. My dad could fly, but I'm strictly ground level. Any chance you've got something cooked up that can change that?"

Barnes smiles wide, "Funny you should ask." He turns the corner into the lab, a new swagger of confidence in his step, "I was working with Agent Braveheart...well, more like I was designing something without his knowledge, as a surprise. Or at least a new toy if we ever went mainstream. It's a suit with microfiber wings" He says pushing a steel keycard into a twice over steel box and entering a six digit code to make it click with an unlocked mechanism, a star-spangled suit revealed under blue neon lights as smoke rolls out and washes over the floor in front of them " I originally built t with a power pack that uses electrical conduction in the atmosphere to manipulate the air and glide through it. Or essentially fly. The beauty of it is...your powers are bio-elctrical right? We can 86 the power pack. That means more maneuverability, more speed, more lift. You'd be like a damn bird out there and nothing would be able to stop you- well at least not running out of juice."

"Nice...but why the smoke? Does it need to be kept cool?"

"Oh uh...no. One second." Digging back into the deep side of the cabinet Barnes pulls out a small fog machine, "just for dramatic effect...What? I majored in marketing for a while, wanted braveheart to buy the idea of having wings. Stop looking at me like that man."

"...Anyway. What's with the shield?" Bishop says, his eyes dragging off of Barnes and back onto the suit that sat behind a shining shield.

"Ah, yeah. It's not as strong as Bravehearts but it is strong. Should take most any damage and disperse it. But if you ca avoid the shot altogether, I would. it's more meant as a second line of defense, not a first line of offense."

"Can't I just ditch it?"

"'Fraid not. Suit only works when the shield is connected to the arm of it. We'll figure it out after but right, there just isn't enough time. Speaking of, go try her on and we'll get back into the meeting. It's time."

"I see what your about to do, and don't" Retro says with his finger in Barnes' face.

"To put it on" Barnes says

"God damn it... 'put what on...' "

Pulling out a pair of sunglasses and snapping them to his face, barnes smirks "the last suit you'll ever wear"

A bit disoriented, Maya sat in a chair on the far side of the room excluding herself from the situation all together. A portion of her were drained from the strenuous amounts of task they were completing at one time, since the start of this endeavor she improved one tier in her reality warping power-set. The other portion was with knowing Catalina was dead, many of her teammates probably only knew of all the vile things her sister had done; but she could only see the good. She teetered on the brink of tears, her body matched her emotional state, visibly beaten to the point that cellular regeneration would take hours.

She sat sulking while her brother, and father were taking on the Talmut’s head on, she sat borderline crying while her team prepared to face the Talmut’s. None of them had lost what she lost, and as the first tears began to stream down her face she forced herself back into the midst of the planning, despite not wanting too.

Though she didn’t feel like she played a major role, Maya knew she’d only lost one family member; if she didn’t help now, hundreds of people would be lost. “W-what’s the plan?” She asked, wiping the smearing mascara from her face. Her pain was caught by Norfleet, she said nothing; but offered a consoling hand.

As Ruby prepared to explain the plan again, her eyes momentarily met with the power princess, Maya. “Never mind, scratch that Solarius. You want to help? You’ll take Maya’s job. Blow a hole in the main freighter to give our guys an in.” Ruby’s eyes darted back toward Maya’s whose jaw had dropped in shock.

“Truthfully, I don’t think you’re mentally or physically ready for this mission Agent Liafador. I’m requiring that you stay here and undergo a psychiatric evaluation by Commander Stacy.” She saw it, even though Maya wanted to force herself into the confrontation, the young Liafador had lost her will to fight.

“Let’s hope we don’t need plan C” Ruby said, turning back to Raeyn; even though she was focused on Maya and Solarius, it was obvious that she heard the question. “You’ll board the first world buster with Bradshaw, Retrofire and Vocal to bring down the IFF. Everyone else will board the second vessel, and bring down the IFF. I think it’s important to note, that everyone who can survive in space should engage the fleet.”

Ruby’s attention was snagged briefly by Vocal who asked the most pivotal question. “We’re leaving now. Everyone man your stations. Agent Norfleet, release the hound” complying with Ruby’s command, Norfleet hit a button on the command dash, causing a stage to present the vessel on the fighter deck.

“I would go with you guys, but I’m afraid this is a little out of my league. Take care of my girl” She said, patting Norfleet on the shoulder.

“Let’s go guys…” Norfleet said, taking a huge breath before heading toward the fighter deck.

Addison’s ornate body descended upon the planet XIOX with loud reverberated booms. Her very figure cut the sky and half en route to the surface. Though Ian had given her a strategy to help with the defeat of the Talmut fleet, she thought it best to leave that to STRIKE. She feared they would get too used to the assistance of the clandestine Exemplars, and that wasn’t something she wanted.

She also couldn’t bring herself to look at Leonel, not only did his power threaten the entire STRIKE team and herself, he almost destroyed the entire solar system. The Talmut invasion of Xiox, had not yet begun to take a destructive turn, she arrived just in enough time to thwart the presumed battle that was set to take place in Farwick.

--

The battle in space between the OSA and the Talmuts took an unanticipated turn, another cosmic being appeared and began to launch and assault on the New Gods. “Position fleet two and three as planned, position fleet four to intercept our position.” He commanded, within moments the Talmut’s fleet increased, double by the size of another flight of fighters and destroyers. Equipped with two world-destroyers, and three command ships, the battle for space and Earth became just that much harder.

==

As the Exemplar, Ian, made his presence known; The Emperor just watched from Madison’s throne room with his hands positioned behind his back. “Ahhh Exemplar.” He hissed, not caring to turn and meet the would-be assassin. He felt the astute shifts in the mechanics’ of space and time, and even the unsettling fissures that rumbled beneath his feet—tales of a furious exemplar.

He knew all too well the powers the Exemplar’s commanded, not from any personal experience, but his master taught he and his brother the basics of their order. “If you know what I think you know, then you know that I cannot be killed. So what’s your next move?” He asked, turning to meet the fearless Ian, his eyes exuding deviant cosmic energy.

When he became the Emperor, he made it known that the Ninjan Empire would fall, but also agreed that his Empire would not span past the now conquered Ninjan borders. Though vile, he was typically a man of his word, it was something people attributed to him—aside from not aging.

What could’ve spurred a man to go against his word? He sought what his master before him obtained, he sought the heart of the universe.

@dreadpool10: @maverick_6: @timesiphon: @theflashfire: @doctor_burns: @solarius: @_retrofire_: @embargo: @haven_:

"Shit". The word echoed in both Thee Champion and Leonel's minds. In response to what? Their joint attack being rendered moot by the energy-storing powers of a nameless cosmic entity, and the Talmut fleet's unfortunate growth in scale and power. While the Azure Son wasted no second in what, in his belief was fruitless banter, and resumed his charge, energizing every particle that hovered in the blackness of space, electromagnetically propelling them towards the enemy fleet with the kinetic energy and scorching heat that only near-superluminal velocities allowed, Thee Champion paused. Securing another enemy, one whose capabilities they knew nothing of, would succeed only in derailing their efforts to protect their world.

And so, hovering in the empty space that marked the outskirts of the Solar System, he listened, expression earnest but nonthreatening, held by his archangelic features as his eyes, pearls of deep, unending blue met the cosmic being's fiery gaze. "Your reasoning is flawed", he began, telepathy his means of communication, rendered possible by the psionic energy absorbed and stored in his personal quantum dimensional state. "An entire military force whose sole purpose is to conquer everything or destroy those who want to keep their own freedom. An entire military force led by the violent vision of a tyrant who, when time comes, will eradicate everything. We don't stop him now, his fleet survives and it won't simply by my planet that dies. But everyone else's in this galaxy and of all the others. You stop us in favor of his fleet over the entire universe?".

Mildly, the New God's head shook. "No. This is the one moment the blood-price is not too high. I will not let them destroy my world. And I will not let you facilitate the enslavement or destruction of the entire universe". A proclaimed lover of life, where was this entity when the Talmut fleet attacked the Omega Systems? During the destruction of the prison planet that held Catalina and many others? "I'm going to protect my world. Because if I don't, nobody will". And it certainly wouldn't be her, if brief history were any indicator. He sped, nay, blitzed past her, high-intensity photons selectively radiated by his frame, his means of propulsion as he, tore through as much of the Talmut fleet as he could before, blasts, two searched for both him and his son. While Alexis evaded, the cosmic entity's blast instead struck the smaller Ninjan fleet helping protect the Solar System, as if proving her status as a destroyer instead of a preserver.

The second blast however, was successful, partially at least. While a portion burned through some of the Azure Son's flesh to heat his bones, the other portion, absorbed into his personal quantum dimensional state, was immediately redirected, to obliterate a portion of the Talmut fleet. And it seemed, just as both Thee Champion and Leonel were set to resume their attack on the Talmut fleet with assistance from the Ninjan fleet, S.T.R.I.K.E. arrived. While disrupting Director Ruby's instructions was no priority, the Herald of Hope recognized that against both the Talmut fleet and the nameless entity that sought to slow their righteous efforts, help was necessary. And so, telepathically, he made a call for aid from any available S.T.R.I.K.E. member. "Guys, we need some help here. Any one of you who can. We've got a new hostile. A cosmic being of some kind. Leo and I can't take on a fleet this big and another enemy. We need additional support".

@embargo said:

==

As the Exemplar, Ian, made his presence known; The Emperor just watched from Madison’s throne room with his hands positioned behind his back. “Ahhh Exemplar.” He hissed, not caring to turn and meet the would-be assassin. He felt the astute shifts in the mechanics’ of space and time, and even the unsettling fissures that rumbled beneath his feet—tales of a furious exemplar.

He knew all too well the powers the Exemplar’s commanded, not from any personal experience, but his master taught he and his brother the basics of their order. “If you know what I think you know, then you know that I cannot be killed. So what’s your next move?” He asked, turning to meet the fearless Ian, his eyes exuding deviant cosmic energy.

When he became the Emperor, he made it known that the Ninjan Empire would fall, but also agreed that his Empire would not span past the now conquered Ninjan borders. Though vile, he was typically a man of his word, it was something people attributed to him—aside from not aging.

What could’ve spurred a man to go against his word? He sought what his master before him obtained, he sought the heart of the universe.

The Mad Emperor could see the cosmically adorned face of the lone Exemplar slowly shake from side to side, as if actually caught by genuine surprise by the dismissive stance taken. Beings such as the Talmut Conqueror were those in possession of vast power, and therefore almost to a man (or woman) carried along with it a sense of immense pride and self-assured ego to match. Accepting that as fact still left Ian with a sense that the titan standing before him had already accepted the outcome of this star-spanning war as a given, what to come next nothing more than a formality. Ian was being dealt with as if his presence was not only expected, but ordained, yet the manner with which this confrontation had taken so far showed a flawed perspective having taken place. The Emperor assumed by knowing of the Exemplars, Armistice was nothing more than another known quantity already planned against in this fray. An assumption based upon the organization, and not the man, one soon to be seen as unsubstantiated presumption at best.

Armistice - “You presume too much Emperor, to the point of thinking you even know me. So self-assured that my entrance is that of a blunt instrument of retribution for the blood on your hands, I expected more of you.”

With that the blurred surroundings began to take form around them both, what the Emperor had assumed to be the first salvo of an inevitable salvo of personal might, was actually nothing more than a visual manifestation of Ian's counterpoint. The outline of vague humanoid forms took on their true form and appearance, an endless number of beings whose allegiance could be considered good, evil, and every shade of grey in-between.

Armistice - "An endless number of powerful and ambitious beings, one and all held back from crossing over by nothing more than the potential repercussions of our order, but what would come of your little revolution should I simply decide to...stand aside? How many would gladly drag you back to the space between realities for me, to see you trapped like an animal to live out your immortal days? You have garnered a very impressive array of enemies to call upon your highness, and every last one means another obstacle you do not have time to devise a plan to overcome."

Slowly arms crossed as Ian gave a moments pause, allowing the gravity of such threats be taken for what they were. Apparently the limited information given to the Talmut did not include why the name Armistice was given by his enemies and not his allies.

Armistice - "I believe the move is now yours Emperor."

@dreadpool10: @maverick_6: @theflashfire: @doctor_burns: @_retrofire_: @embargo: @haven_:

Solaris arrived at the same moment as the rest of the Strike Team and she was a figure of ancient, burning wrath. While the New Gods could generate serious fire power, Solaris was a living star. Rarely did she unleash much of her true power, afraid to hurt those around her on earth, but out here in space there was no one to hurt. The living star tapped into her true potential as the fleet continued to attack the Liafadors and the opposing fleet that had been unleashed upon them. She spotted the ship that was to be her initial target and closed her eyes for a moment. Solaris reached deep into her core and a fiery corona surrounded her hands and emitted from her eyes the moment she opened them again.

Many people compared extreme temperatures to the heat of the sun but the earth's Sun was but one of trillions of burning stars and some burned hotter than others. One such star was Solaris, who had burned millions of times hotter than Sol when in her solar form. Even though her power was now contained in a humanoid body she could still generate those levels of heat. More than that, she could tap into and unleash unadulterated nuclear fusion, the power at the heart of any star. With energy radiating from her hands Solaris put both of them together and pointed them to the ship the other members of STRIKE were preparing to board. A great beam of nuclear retaliation arched through space at the speed of light and struck the side of the Talmut ship with the full power of an ancient star. Metal vaporized in an instant and the beam ate deep into the internal structure of the vessel. Solaris had chosen her target carefully, a location in the ship not likely to contain any crew. The beam turned the contents of one of the ship's armories into particles and then erupted out of the other side of the vessel before its strength was finally consumed and it faded into harmless glowing light.

The Living Star sought to take some of the pressure off of the New Gods, not by engaging the so called preserver but by engaging the fleet. She flung beams of nuclear fury at an increasing rate of speed. Every shot was aimed precisely at areas of ships critical to functioning but not critical to life. Most of her shots were therefor sent for engine systems, weapon arrays and other such systems. A ship rendered incapable of fighting was just as good as a dead one and it would mean the Never-Killing Hero would not have to compromise her morality.

---------------------------------------

Time Siphon could fly through space under her own power. Her Temporal Armor sealed itself to maintain her environment and her anti-gravity system provided the propulsion. Time was of no concern to her or her armor and she easily traveled the distance from earth to the location of the battle. Time Siphon was the first through the breach in the world buster created by Solaris, she floated through the gaping wound and awaited the arrival of the others. Intent on preserving her temporal reserves she activated her plasma systems. The plasma projectors built into the palms of her hands activated and prepared for combat. Raeyn lowered into a crouch and coiled her mind around the Temporal Lines of the ship's security crew. If a fight ensued, she would use her plasma weapons and support herself by consuming their temporal energy as well.

@dreadpool10: @vocal@timesiphon: @theflashfire: @doctor_burns: @solarius:@_retrofire_: @embargo:@haven_:

Bradshaw thought as Ruby explained the plan to them. It was pretty good idea, but the only thing he was wondering was how to go about taking out a world-wrecking ship. He knew it'd have to be from the inside out but where exactly do they go is the question. Maverick Reinforcing in extensive number was a bit out of the question, they had no spacecraft to offer, not like S.T.R.I.K.E did. However what the did have were weapons. Just as Retrofire left, so did Bradshaw, making one call.

He had a few agents bring in something on the deck, something that fell from somewhere in orbit, reaching the base in quick time due to it's height. It looked like a sidewinder air-to-air missile, but was instead all black in color. By the time Ruby was done with the brief, it was already installed on the Jet, and now his attention now turned towards his two specified teammtes, Retrofire and Vocal.

His first words were to Vocal. "No dissuading you is there?" He smirks towards her. "Can't really help but admire what you did out there. Charge at a solar-system destroying god with a sword? Would've been a way to go out. But lucky for you, Doctor was there to pick you up. I respect what you did. I probably would've done the same thing without other options, with all resources exhausted in what seemed hopeless. But, we don't need you trying to be that kind of hero again?" He puts a single hand on her shoulder "I need you alive, you got that princess?" Not even a week ago he would have been disgusted at the thought of respecting some superpowered being of any kind, but now the Maverick Metahuman hunter grew a newfound respect for those on his team, who more or less showed him to see the individual rather than just the race, to an extent. His "racism" was diminished but still there.

Some scars never heal.

His head goes over to Retrofire. "All kitted up. Hope you two are up for this. Sh** both of you are out of the hospital. Heh." He only laughed a bit at the thought. He didn't even attempt to dissuade them from coming. Norfleet gestured it was time to go, and Bradshaw made a few adjustments to his weapons. He checked his telescopic PEPs batom, an Arm mounted full auto launcher, an AK-337 rifle with unique ammo, an advanced directed energy rifle and much, much more he had hidden on his person. He was rather ready to take on an army with troops that outclassed him and jump headfirst into danger...

Now, Norfleet says she is ready, Bradshaw then nods and gestures the two to get on with him, along with anyone else who comes along. "I'll look after her...." Was his reply to Ruby. "Let's go." He said straightly accompanying Norfleet he says boarding the ship. It wasn't soon before the transporter activated and they had flown through.....

What they were met with was a hectic scene of battle, debris littered about and energy flying about as the ship whizzed through empty space. "...So this is what it's like outside orbit....how you doin' over there Norfleet?" The man says, deciding to take up a seat next to her. He felt something of a tingle, one he knew all too well. Telepathic communication, though not something trying to force it's way into his mind, he decided to let himself receive the message and "open up" to it, as the man was almost completely immune to anything short of Omega level telepathy through a combination of training, and willpower.

"Sorry boy scout. Bunch of us are headed for the command ship, whichever one it is. Though I'm pretty sure some people will be more than happy to help. Burns, Solarius. Think you can help out?" He wasn't even sure if they could hear, but they didn't need his command to do so.

With them being outside the solar system, it would probably take hours for them to receive the signals on earth. He also began to contemplate how they'd break the worldbreaker, but perhaps best to focus on getting there first.

"Alright Solarius...why don't you give our friends over there and give em a "warm earth" welcome." Even, the man had that missile from earlier installed for a reason. He was try to blow a hole in a weaker part of the craft itself, especially since the Champion softened it up. And just at that point, she did unleash her power, focusing it into a beam and shooting it out towards the ship, blowing a hole into it.

All the while, he tries to keep track of all that happens. It was ironic, being a hunter of these kinds of people, yet he was trying to facilitate where they should be and what to do because of that knowledge of metahumans he had.

"Let's go meet n' greet..." He said as the ship soon whizzed through space towards the object, soon board the vessel itself.

The others had already went in, leaving Jaired lingering along with anyone who hadn't charged in. Compared to this? The alcatraz cluster f*k was nothing. Excitement coarsed through him at the thought of slaying these space bastards, whoever they were, and saving his planet. The Pettis duo had signaled for backup, and solarius, the living star raced off to comply, meanwhile it was said anyone capable of fighting in space, should, and that the ergo-kinetic speedster would do. In an instant, his hair was white, and around him a violently orange energy was emitted. This was his first time using his ragnarok form in actual combat, and he planned on making the best use.

Half a femtosecond later and he was in the middle of space, both his demonic form and his speedforce aura enabling him to resist the lack of oxygen and gravity, whilst also enabling him to run on what seemed like nothing, which was actually just the speedforce. In this form, he could quite litterally crap on the speed of light, a velocity he hadn't acheived since 4 months ago, and even then, it was completely accidental. However he loved the feeling, moving at speeds even the fasted superhuman could merely dream of. He zipped around at casual 10 roemers, liquifying most ships that came his way through use of his velocity and energy output. Energy beams sailed around him, some teasing a tenth of his speed but never actually hitting their mark. After seconds of fighting the fleet, something that seemed like decades to the speedster, he decided to help tackle the main threat with the champ and his son.

It took practically no time to locate them among the chaos of space, and Jaired had a certain aura of cockiness and a comical attitude. "Alright, lets do this."

@dreadpool10: @vocal@timesiphon: @theflashfire: @maya_liafador@thee_champion@solarius:@_retrofire_: @embargo:@haven_:

It was requested that those who could so subsist in outer space unaided do so, and Burns was one of those inividuals. Oxygen was optimal, but not necessary. He stepped forth on the Eden Transporter a cloud of massive machines following, flying into the area. As he stepped out he looked into the already ravaged fleet and the new cosmic threat that so loomed about. Thee champion requested aid, and so the Doctor would deliver.

Quintillions of tiny machines flew out from behind the doctor as he floated along in space and then the STRIKE jet he previously commendered from STRIKE came towards him floating up beneath his feet. "I will take care of the fleet, and then join you soon enough." Burns on the Jet flew forward through space, it being adjusted in shape to his whim to withstand his rigors as he flew to a large ship at approximately mach 10. He then jumped off it, spinning as et back as he now soared towards the ship.

There was no sound in space at all, though the noise of Burns kicking through through the ship's hull with force somewhere in the lower megatons was appearant. As air rushed from within the ship, his swarm followed him, quickly overtaking the ship. Time slowed to a crawl as he thought and processed at light speed. His mind guided by photons. It had only taken a few minutes for him to understand it's technology.

"A faster then light device at last. The barrier of relativity has finally been lifted, and the universe is now open to me....however, my job here is not quite complete..." This was a lucky occurance. He'd been searching for something like this for some time.

He slowly begins to sit as in his new completely reformed spaceship, it being changed on the very scale of it's molecules and atoms, and being composed of composites of the alien's own technology and his own. The matter of the very ship itself being programmable and adjustible to Burn's own whim.

"There was a quote that goes with this..." He reclined back in his seat as he feigned contemplation. "Ah yes. Eric Drexler. The acclaimed creator of the concept of molecular scale technology. How did it go...? Ah yes, it goes....."

*Ahem*

"Imagine such a replicator floating in a bottle of chemicals, making copies of itself…the first replicator assembles a copy in one thousand seconds, the two replicators then build two more in the next thousand seconds, the four build another four, and the eight build another eight. At the end of ten hours, there are not thirty-six new replicators, but over 68 billion. In less than a day, they would weigh a ton; in less than two days, they would outweigh the Earth; in another four hours, they would exceed the mass of the Sun and all the planets combined — if the bottle of chemicals hadn't run dry long before."

However....I have no such scarcity on energy or raw material at the moment. The thundergod supplied me with much, and now, they shall supply me with more."

A hole forms in the front of the ship as a large particle cannon begins to charge, he aims it at a near by ship and thusly, using immense gathered energy, he fired a projectile, a tiny ship, which gradually accererlatedat it at 99% the speed of light.

It weighes approximately three hundred grabs

A few nanoseconds later, the ship feels the collision as the projectile mutually annihilates, unleashing a what would be perhaps the most destructive 45 megaton (TNT) yield explosion on earth. The craft heats up to temperatures in the trillions as a relatavistic stream of particles reduces that which is collided with to primarily, gamma rays, minute amounts of anti-matter, quark gluon plasma as was was this point, a particle beam, annhilated most anything it's path.

Burns then lets out a message, a widely broadcasted signal towards the aliens. If agent Norfleet can send signals towards them, then so can he. He used their plan, to disort their communications and cause ship's to fire on themselves. All the while, a nanotechnology "infection" spread about the area. He even spoke in their language now.

<"Extra-terrestrial worms. If anyone must be purged, it is you. You seek to attack to attack my homeworld? For that? I will swallow you whole. Attempt to destroy me as you may, your efforts are futile.">

What Burns was in actuality doing, was drawing the fleet. He caused disruption across the entirity of their systems thanks to using a copy of the command ship's signals like Norfleet had, causing some ships to fire on themselves, but very soon they realized the man who did send those signals.

Signals can be tracked, and that ship had the duty of inflitrating the world breaker ship. He had figured stealth would be optimal. No signal for them to be tracked, as Burns drew in a signal now. Much of the armada would now converge on his own position, as Machines gathered outside of Burns, and the hull of the ship itself changed. Soon after, the ships all fired in unision on the ship Burns was present on, it rapidly quaking from heat as he sat in his seat, plotting.

However, to their surprise, the ship was unmarred, as it absorbed the energy of their blasts with 99% efficiency, converted it into electricity and stored it into a superconducting. cloud of capictors formed around the ship to prevent overload, lasers shooting the hull of the ship itself even. Once full on capacity, the ship simply reflected or refracted any laser fired on it. Particle beams, and plasma blasts were deflected completely around the ship. Ironically, a kinetic weapon would be the best thing to pierce the ship's framewise, weak hull.... But they hardly seemed to have such things in favor of directed energy, though Burns would have to keep on the alert....

<"My turn...">

Burns ship grew larger as it absorbed ambient materials, and then it unleashed a swarm of hypersonic missiles in all directions, the swarm flooding and hitting ships not to detonate, but to "infect" with the chemistry altering nanomachines. Indeed, Burns turned entire ships against eachother now, changing the matter of hardware, allowing them to be easily hacked and even turning some ships into entire copies of his own ship.

Indeed, it was not long before he had an army of ships he turned into his own forces, all controlled by his own mind. Any living beings inside, were eaten alive by the machines and turned into components and minute amounts of fuel. Fuel for the reactions coming from the ship's own highly advanced reactors.

Promptly after, he a large majority of the Armada engaged Burn's newfound Armada in combat, both sides taking damage, as Burn's ship could be overloaded, but they can heal from minor damage easily and even reassamilated, and remade into another ship.

Burns didn't translate his final message.

"Heh heh....AHAHAAHAHAAHAHAAHAAHAHA!!!!"

He was very clearly trying to draw their attention as climactic space battle heated up now. As some ships were destroyed, their similtarity and similiar abilities lead to it being difficult to actually tell where Burns' is. All the while, every ship Burns created was just as capable of absorbing energy, forming defenses and firing particle beams, various forms of lasers, visible and not visible and even firing potent solid projectiles that hit with such force as to rend most targets into pieces, vaporizing targets into molecules with their mass and velocity. It was to many, something to behold.

All the while, Burns was in actuality, cloaked, gathering energy. Growing in size. Eating remnants.

Waiting to strike.

@maverick_6:

Cadence was arguably in no condition to race into the ranks of alien forces. The director didn't pull the damaged inhuman from the opperation however. A fact which boosed her confidence to compensate for any wound she carried. And so she boarded the ship with the others ready regaurdless what came or so she'd thought.

"No dissuading you is there?" He smirked and her stance hardened a soundless but clear refusal to call quits. "Can't really help but admire what you did out there." That caught her off guard, she never thought Bradshaw to say such a thing. "Charge at a solar-system destroying god with a sword? Would've been a way to go out. But lucky for you, Doctor was there to pick you up." Though blushing slightly with pride and embarrassment she played it off with a shrug. "I respect what you did. I probably would've done the same thing without other options, with all resources exhausted in what seemed hopeless." Any warrior could relate with another if they tried. "But, we don't need you trying to be that kind of hero again?" He puts a hand on her shoulder an action that only aided in making an injured soldier an ironed fortress. She'd charge the gates of hell with Bradshaw. "I need you alive, you got that princess?"

"Aww look at you going soft. Shut up we got this in the bag. Last time on Strike Ops episode two we fought gods. Now they're on our side and the entire team is here instead of a handful. What is there to fear from E.T and friends considering what we've all been through." Her sarcasm only friendly as she took a seat within the craft. "Norfleet please keep me away from oxygenless environments don't know about the boys here but I like breathing."

From there Vocal had nothing to do but ride the scene out. This was a small craft nothing designed for epic space combat. She had no way of helping anyone outside either. In the previous fight there were brief brief windows as oxygen was on the planet the new god was simply destroying it faster. Here though was a complete vacume in the void of space Vocal was powerless. A hint of fear might have been traceable in her poise for that reason. Fighting unknown odds no problem. Trying to navigate unknown craft, fine. But sitting in a lesser grade aircraft amongst fleets of daunting power it wasn't welcoming.

Didn't help that every high tier was cutting loose. She trusted them sure but massive beams of energy flash boiling speeds antimatter and so on wasn't inviting. Massive destructive output was being used and the small earth born space craft had no where near the resiliance to endure the alien weaponry let alone the alternative moves.

Nodding at Bradshaw as the portal opens and swirls ahead of them, a shimmering vague grey image of what they were heading into fluctuating on the portals edge. Bishop snaps the shield onto his arm gauntlet as the ships engines fire up. "Let's get it"

On that note everyone clicks into their seats and grips their weapon of choice. The thrust goes into max overdrive and they blast through into the unknown void.

It was a milky way of fire and scrap metal. Norfleet navigates the mass of molten metallic meteorite that hurled wildly in all directions with impressive skill and accuracy, but the odds were against them. Eventually they'd get molly whopped with ten tons. They needed a course to plot, and there were at least four hundred larger ships commanding the infinitesimal lesser legions. "This is fubar bruh...We need a plan of action, NOW."

The small ship flipped and weaved and bobbed to avoid the deadly beams and obstacles that nearly destroyed them before they even entered the real battlefield. "what the hell is that light?" Bishop asks looking at Norfleet who couldn't answer. Every ounce of concentration was focused on keeping the ship in one piece.

"Do you see that?" He asks turning to Bradshaw who wasn't sure what he meant, with the immense laser fire the sordid soldier gave him a look like he was about to say 'Maybe be a little more fcking specific...?!'

"It's like a net...!"A web of light that strobed, something out of one of Nikolai Tesla's most ambitious dream. It touched down and danced on the hull of every enemy ship. "Of course..." Retro said as the ship flipped and his stomach sloshed around like a bag of wet paper, "Norfleet head for that big ship right there! Now!" Bishop says touching the cockpit window as a green octagon with yellow points forms around the area of the ship he had touched so to navigate Norfleet, "Any particular reason or are you just feeling lucky? This ain't no google search boss."

"It's my-" A laser beam smacks the tail of the ship, slumping them and slowing it's progress for a moment as they entered the main foray, "My powers! I can see in different spectrums of energy that normal folks can't! Every ship is being sent a signal from that one! We shut it down and they'll be flying blind!"

"Why didn't you just say that then?" Norfleet asks with a smirk and a shake of his head, as he flips up a switch cover, and presses an arcade style red button.

Norfleet shoves the sticks forward and goes full throttle into the gaping hole Solarius left in it's hull, the cockpit window view turning from a battle field to two mashed Talmut soldiers spitting blood onto the engine, the ship stopping the vaccum of space from entering the command center vessel. Pushing a button on the control center Norfleet drops a secondary ramp in the front of their ship, "You guys do what you need to do! I'll get this girl ready to make an exit when you get back, but be quick! She's one bad hit from a decommission!"

@thee_champion:

She could launch an attack at terrifying light speed she couldn't control it after however. The gods dodged and a ship vanished from a flurrious amount of energy. A shame she had to take good hearted lives but collateral dammage was to be expected. She didn't want to kill one of the issues though of scenes like a giant space fleet battle though was a shot that misses might very well take lives anyway. What stung more though was the words of the champion. A god was before her and yet she felt as if he was flinging insults to her like a commanding officer to a boot camp recruit.

"Really I'm flawed? Narrow minded is the alien who values all life?" Her present elemental state ideal for psionic communion. "It's led by a tyrant but at the same time nobody considered peace. There is a novel I once read on a foreign world where the hero was an ambassador before a fighter. He had an alien companion that could easily hold it's own but he hated to use it. With every foe he would try reasoning in many places succeeding. Only when all other options were exhausted did he retaliate. Compare that to now, swooping in and launching grand assaults. Never diplomatic purely aggresive." There was nothing valiant to this conflict so far and it was saddening to the elemental to say the least.

"I know I might seem insignificant no heroic exploits on your radar but the same could said for many. What do you know of that star being? Of that demon who fights it's nature? Of that monster of time that seeks redemption? Of those of STRIKE? Everyone here defending life has their triumphs and faults. Some of them likely could of used help from others at times but that doesn't diminish any of their value. What matters is the now and a defense to not see more regions conquered. In a similar light though one can't be so devoid of compassion."

"Do you honestly believe that every living thing in every one of those innumerable amount of ships is irredeemable. From multiple worlds and walks of life some fresh recruits some veterans. Mothers and fathers sons and lovers. All of them are to be damned because of who leads them. Sayings like if you can't save one how can you save any, with great power comes great responsibility. These cliche lines are not derived from one world alone."

"I don't want to fight you I just want efforts to be taken to see tyrants fall without everything and everyone ever tied to one in the process. Death is the last resort not the first. The gods and cosmic beings should be more then creators of ruin." She wasn't making any further notions of violence. She understood the threat needing to be stopped, she simply sought the strike at the heart over the obliteration of the body.

“Pfft yeah right” Maya said, watching as Ian disappeared from view. “He can’t possibly expect me to listen to that” She huffed, once again using her garment grid to switch clothes. This time it was her old Omega Justice uniform, the uniform she wore just before she became the president of Utopia—and ultimately the Trinity Foundation. “Looks like that b!tch stole my reality warping powers” she felt it, that was her biggest source of energy, and now it was gone.

Her eyes darted towards the ground, there was massive destruction all over the once lush planet; she assumed it had to be the precursor to whatever was going on in space. The air here had an entirely different feel, not the air on just the planet; but the entire universe. Having once been a member of ICE, Vine Prodigies, Veritas Inc and other prolific teams of her time; universe jumping was something she was familiar with.

This universe however was different; it still had the majority of its heroes. “Maybe there’s a Ziccarra here too” She whispered, almost scoffing at the notion. “Which means she’s still a bitch” Pushing upward the Dragon of Comfort pushed through the atmosphere with uncontested ease before becoming immersed in the frigid temperatures of space.

Before doing anything else, she encased her entire body in a full photon energy form to protect her physical body from the dangers of space. “Looks like the battle is taking place that way” She thought, feeling the reverberated blast echoing through her own body. Everyone a high amount of photon energy was released, she could feel it.

“There’s also a battle way out there?” She thought, turning towards the opposite direction. The energy resounding from there was faint, which hinted it was taking place further across the galaxy. Opting to aid the closest battle, the former leader of the Trinity Foundation, speed off at the literal speed of light.

En route Maya could feel the faint presence of an even bigger fleet moving past her, she wasn’t too sure if it was friend or foe, but they didn’t fire on her; but they were cutting themselves off from the battle, and seemingly taking a long circular route AROUND the actual fight.

“Hmmm” She thought before continuing on her path to the actual battle. “What the actual eff” She thought flying directly into the thick of laser fire and scrap metal. “This looks like something out of Mass Effect” Maya thought again, doing an aerial barrel roll to dodge innocuous fire.

“Where the fck do I even start?” She asked herself, doing another barrel roll to dodge what appeared to be target locked fire. There was fighting all over the place; there were actually five other beings in space without vessels. They were fighting for whatever reason, but the young Maya didn’t intend to get involved.

The STRIKE team managed to destroy what appeared to be hundreds of ships, but the fleet seemingly had an endless supply of much smaller ships to use at their disposal. As many of the ships went down, Maya’s eyes focused on the adaptive properties of the Talmut vessels, they were beginning to adapt to the force exuded from STRIKE.

“They’re wearing themselves out” She said, watching as the large majority of vessels visibly changed in direct response to Burn’s attack. “Looks like it’s time to work” She said, speeding toward a half dozen of the ships; her energy couldn’t hurt them—they’d adapted to much, but she could blind the pilots with immense photon energy.

“Hey, they’re reacting to our energy…we’re just making this harder for ourselves.” She screamed telepathically as she flew past flashfire and Burns with smaller fighters hot on her tail. She could try a magnetic pulse, but she wasn’t sure what would come of her attack.

Turning to meet the fighters head on, she constructed a massive energy wall; in which the two fighters plowed in to. “What the eff!?” She grunted, watching as the now stupid durable ships bounced off the wall.

“Even at those speeds they should’ve been mangled.” She thought. Her eyes caught the strategic movements of the fighters; they were retreating behind the world busters. “Oh my god…” she whispered.

“They’ve been absorbing our energy. Move. Move. Move!” Maya screamed telepathically, as the massive world buster’s finally put their names to work prepping to fire the main canon.

--

Again arrogant, the Talmut Conqueror released a hearty smirk before muttering the single most evil equation in all of math and science “Y=mx+b” It was the equation that Y-intercept used to center herself as a singularity in the center of all creation years ago, and much like Fraga; the Talmut Emperor was a herald of the cosmic virus.

“You have killed her so many times Exemplar, and yet still she lives. Still she feeds… still she continues to plague the citizens of the cosmos. You stand before me arrogant; and from what I have heard rightfully so. But there is a smudge on the record of the Reality Guardians…that smudge is my master Y-intercept.

The Talmut emperor moved towards the dead Ninjan Queen’s body kicking it back towards him in a show of blatant disrespect. “I’m sure a man of unfathomable wisdom such as yourself, as seen the strategy we have employed to deal with Earth’s hero’s. And now. They shall burn. “Uncloak fleet 3” he commanded, casting a spectral vision of his own, this time Earth… and his mighty fleet heading straight for the planet.

“Check Exemplar. Check” he said, with a timid grin.

--

“Director Ruby, what are all these little dots?” Agent Barnes asked scratching his head in confusion. Ruby released a frustrated sigh before moving toward Barnes with a slight wince in her eyes. “Barnes…where’s the point of origin?”

“I don’t know.”

“WHY DON’T you know?!”

“This is Norfleet’s job, she does communication!” He screamed back, unable to see the severity of what the dots meant. “GET EVERY HERO WE HAVE STILL HERE!”

“What’s going on Director?” Maya Liafador asked weakly.

“The Aliens…they’re here.”

@doctor_burns: @haven_: @maya_summers:

Thee Champion paused, the blackness of space, cold and unforgiving, enveloped him. And though stars, vibrant and twinkling, were sprinkled all about him, it was the darkness that drew his attention. The cosmic entity's words, they were registered, and even an altruist of the New God's level, saw only naivety. "Peace? No such concept exists in the mind of a tyrant. There is no peace to be had with a tyrant. There is only appeasement", Alexis made clear, words of telepathic transmission speaking with gravitas. "And the last time we appeased a tyrant on my planet, the worst war in the history of mankind was born. The highest body count we ever recorded. The screams of children echoing alongside the detonation of the bombs that then took them. I have no intention of allowing that to happen again, not on a cosmic scale", and certainly not because of some elemental being's skewed, self-righteous views on morality.

"Appease him now and like every tyrant, he will want more. He will seek out more. And he will destroy those who refuse to give him what he wants. The universe destroyed or enslaved, all because you didn't want to take initiative". Unfolding both arms, his eyes, pools of deep blue, gazing upon the devastation all about him. Vessels torn by beams of energy, debris hovering in the empty pockets of space between the fleet's battling ships, this was a necessary war. He wasn't going to allow a being whose authority he did not recognize decide the fate of his world. For her to believe that she held the position to make such decisions, it was, in Thee Champion's opinion, the epitome of arrogance, the gem that attracted the grandest of messiah complexes. "Mercy, when shown to the wrong people, will never fail to remind you why those were the wrong people to show it to. I didn't get to hold my first daughter as a baby because I showed mercy to a duo of evolutionary elitists who took her from me and made her into an instrument for their goals to eradicate all organic life".

"My youngest daughter, a baby, was almost killed in our own home because I didn't seek out a man who before nearly killed one of my relatives. Because I showed mercy. My oldest daughter is now dead because the very tyrant you are protecting from me led her down the darkest path imaginable", the New God continued, his voice, telepathically raising, psionic ripples distorting, mildly, the space around them. "And him, my adopted son!", Thee Champion paused, an extended finger pointing towards a focused Leonel who, despite the wounds sustained from the cosmic entity's earlier attack, continued to fight the Talmut fleet despite the dismal odds that sought to sway them from defending their solar system, "His entire universe was destroyed because he wasn't decisive enough! Because he showed mercy to the wrong people! And now his home is gone. And that's why he isn't here wasting his time talking to you. Its why he's there alongside the truest team of heroes from my world fighting the fight that will save this universe from becoming like his. Oblivion".

"And its why I won't waste my time with you any longer. My son is a walking, breathing reminder of what happens when you try to appease the worst possible tyrants. And his universe paid for it. I won't let this one fall just so you can learn the same truth. Make your statements about morality. I'm not here to debate philosophy", the New God clarified, fire in his eyes, the weight of not only the Earth but the entire universe, sitting on his and every S.T.R.I.K.E. member's shoulders, "I'm here, like the rest of these heroes, to save the universe. Look down on me for resorting to this but when things go too far, something has to be done. Why? Because the fate of the universe supersedes your on anyone's opinion on morality".

He said no more, their telepathic session was at an end, and his immersion in battle, resumed. Accelerating forward, selectively radiated, high-intensity photons propelling him forward, Thee Champion, with the cries of Catalina still echoing in his mind, sought to plow through as much of the fleet as possible, but with the Talmut's increasing firepower and energy-storage technology, it was proving too difficult a task. Then, then a beam, monstrous in scope and dimensions, and even greater in power. He was struck. Flesh scorched, bones superheated, and internal organs bombarded with a shock-wave that brought entire planets to its knees. He survived, but his wounds were severe.

@embargo@maya_summers@haven_@maya_liafador

Armistice stood in silence and allowed the Emperor to take all the time he wished in eloquent monologue, the look of relish all too evident as he talked down to the lone Exemplar as to his inadequate response. Only when finally notified that the last of his preparations had proceeded during their interaction did Ian allow himself to interject.

Armistice - “In the future Emperor, you should take inventory of where all the pieces are on the board, before proclaiming a position of confidence.”

As his last word was spoken, the surrounding localized spacetime reverted to its normal state, and the Emperor suddenly found himself inundated by countless messages begging for orders and clarification. The Talmut Empire itself was apparently under attack by a collection of diverse fleets from throughout the nearby systems, with the vast majority of their own fleet deployed along multiple fronts, the battle was going as poorly as one could expect.

Armistice - “I managed to convince the reluctant Omega System Alliance into taking a stand earlier in the conflict Emperor, unlike you they took me at my word and responded accordingly. Right now your precious little empire has been surrounded by the combined attack fleets of every single one of the OSA. Maybe pulling the vast majority of your fleet halfway across the cosmos wasn't the most prudent decision in hindsight. So focused on a dominant offense you left your flank wide open for a counterattack. Congratulations, you will destroy everything in your path only to find you have nothing left to rule, just like I warned you.”

Bending down Ian gently picked up the battered body of the now deceased Ninjan Queen, offering her an expected amount of respect for a lost life, something the Emperor showed himself to be incapable of for one of a number of reasons. The two barely knew one another, sparse interactions over the years in a purely professional capacity, yet he always held a connection with those who paid a price for a mantle of vast responsibility.

Armistice - “I'll take my leave now Emperor, something tells me you are about to have some very angry company who now have some spare time on their hands. Have fun taking on a legion of Earth's champions all by your lonesome, and by the way, that is considered a check.”

Not even bothering to wait for what he expected to be an expletive filled response, Armistice engaged a spacefold and took his leave as proclaimed. His actions did not by any means bring an end to the ongoing threat outright, but the moves would force the Emperor to redeploy their forces in a hastily partial retreat to defend his own throne. Earth's champions would now have a slight reprieve where instead of being constantly spread ever thin, could redeploy along two distinct fronts and engage on even footing for once.

One faction could now splinter off and engage the architects behind these series of trials directly, taking the fight to them and press an offensive of their own. Another could fall back and engage the fleet newly decloaked around Earth and press their forces from two sides. The war was far from over, and the casualties had only begun to grow, but at least now there was a fighting chance of victory should they prove themselves worthy of their chosen professions.

@maverick_6: @vocal:

There was next to no way that Jason would be able to charge into space, fighting horde after horde of enemy ships alongside those capable of unaided space travel. Thus, in the battle against the forces of a galactic tyrant, Jason had a few options to aid the operation, alongside allies. And he didn't have a lot of time to think things over. Thus, at a swift pace, he boarded the ship alongside Bradshaw and Cadence. "Mind if I tag along? Flying around in space without a ship isn't exactly my thing..." He remarked, hurriedly. Even with all of the chaos occurring around them, the Alchemist did his best to maintain a confident demeanor. It was better than giving in to the doubts and worries already flooding throughout his head...

"Not quite how I envisioned seeing space for the first time, I'll be honest..." With little else to do aside from wait for them to reach the destination, Jason took a seat within the small spacecraft. His gunmetal eyes rested upon the windows, seemingly gazing into the endless void of space. The scope of what was occurring would have caused many average individuals to have a nervous breakdown. His insides twinged with a fair amount of nervousness at the thought of what could occur. He managed, with a fair amount of difficulty, to prevent it from showing on his face.

At the very least, the wait gave him time to begin preparing any contingencies or plans for once they got there.

@dreadpool10: @maverick_6: @vocal:

Perhaps it didn't look like it most of the time but Raeyn was actually quite the fighter. She walked down the ramp before everyone else and into the ship. She had been entirely silent on the ride over and remained so now..largely because half of her focus was on preparing Plan C. Once the fleet at Earth decloaked she expanded her range at the cost of more temporal reserve. Coiled around every crew and ship in the two fleets she began a process that would take her the rest of the combat to complete. Since she had agreed to take orders she had no intention of taking the final step in Plan C once it was ready, she simply wanted to be prepared to take that step if necessary.

She strode forward as enemy soldiers poured into the wound in the World Destroyer. She reacted instantly, firing roiling balls of raging plasma from her hands at the soldiers and ignoring their incoming fire. Weapons slammed into her Temporal Armor, scorching the paint and cracking the armor slightly in places but Temporal Armor could go on through far more significant damage than small arms fire was providing. Raeyn made way for the others to come down the ramp and maintained her plasma barrage to provide cover fire and force the opposing soldiers into cover.

@dreadpool10: @timesiphon: @vocal:

Your going soft.

It was something Vocal said that bounced about in Bradshaw's head a bit.

"Hurry up Mcgrath." He says to him as the ship is just about to leave, and then within moments, it goes off into space.

He couldn't help but think of the irony of this, of all of it. He was a "Cape Killer" who seemed to be all but leading a group of metahumans. And now here he is charging into his next fight with a group of them. It wasn't too long ago in New York that he hundreds of mutants at a time or being in Alcatraz, fought and killed 25 artificially super powered soldiers just because they did have powers. The more hilarious part is that he seemed to be actually good at leading them.

He dedicated the essential entirety of his post U.S Armed Forces Career towards fighting the Extra-normal, thinking of ways to and actually going out and combating a variety of powers. Super Speed, Super Strength, Inhuman toughness, teleporting, blood-bending, energy projection, instant healing factors and many many more. Having spent so much time and garnering such experience on combating gave him extensive knowledge of combating the Extra-normal, but it seemed to also give him the knowledge of where and how they could all best apply their powers as he directed them all out of Alcatraz.

But actually being near them and actually having to work with them, he couldn't help but notice how human they all were in truth. There was a general air concern among the ship of what exactly they were going to face, the insurmountable odds they'd have to face. Vocal was concerned and made no real attempt to hide it, Retro was "excited" to say the least, yelling as Norfleet skillfully weaved through the area. Timesiphon didn't seem very concerned, more determined it would seem, something Bradshaw could see, considering how powerful and durable she was. Mcgrath would appear to be unconcerned and stoic, but Bradshaw saw through him like glass. He has a healthy fear.The scale of what was happening outside seemed to dwarf everything in the ship. But he himself had a cool facial expression. Expose someone to something they like enough, and too much of it, they get tired of it. Expose someone something they hate or fear enough, and they learn to conquer it. All the flash and many of them turn out to be pretty beatable. And when they proved unbeatable, many proved to be quite survive able. A mortal man could learn to not fear gods.

They soon made their way through World-Breaker's wound and crashed in. Bradshaw clenching onto the seat as it rumbles and comes to a scraping halt, and then getting up. "Not sure how safe this hole is gonna be Retro." Bradshaw says looking outside as their forces approach.

"Not usually one to give inspirational speeches....but f*** it." He says as he turns around and particularly looks at Mcgrath as he scans their faces. "Overcoming seemingly insur-f***ing-mountable odds is what we do. I'm just mere mortal man and I've seen men with a lot less options then all of you overcome more then what they thought they could. Not gonna know if you don't try, it's worked for me so far, cause stuff like this has my job for a little more then a decade, but I'm still standin' here. And if I can stand here, then so can you. Now..."

*Click* The sound of a rifle's safety going to red, your dead.

"Siphon, Mcgrath, on me, I'm going for defense. Retro, Princess, keep Norfleet breathing and take on anyone who gets close to this ship. I'll try and draw em off the main group. Let's go fight some gods and break us a world breaker."

Maverick Forces, Earth

@_braveheart_@embargo@maya_liafador

There many types of people who worked for the questionable corporation. Among the ranks of their soldiers included those who some would call virtuous, some would call vengeful and those who some would call greedy. They came from many places. Many were former army and former marines. Some third world countries such as Somalia, Uganda, Afghanistan, Sudan and so many more. Some former convicts. Some hailing from Gothic city, many of them being vengeful police officers wishing to make some sort difference or in their own way, avenge their various allies killed meaninglessly by various things far beyond what they could then fight.

But they all fought under the banner now.

It was mostly due to Braveheart's warning they they were indeed able to mobilize so quickly. They didn't know if the aliens were going to make it over to earth, but they stationed themselves about the earth efficiently. Deploying on every continent. Even with more numbers then the entire United States Armed forces (Since many in the army infantry would come to them after their enlistment), they still didn't have enough to protect everywhere, but they managed to be in most all major cities across the earth.

Along STRIKE's Carrier, several divisions gathered and touched down on the carrier without much warning, seeking to "commendeer" the ships, appearing with Braveheart. At this moment, their own detection systems then picked up on the cloaked aliens right outside earth's own orbit.

Within the room Ruby, and Maya resided, they would hear several guns being raised towards someone who de-cloaked within the room, seemingly appearing from thin air around 12 feet away from the director. Some ebony-skinned man, who didn't pay attention to the weapons, only to the director to whom he spoke calmly.

"You called for aid, and so we have appeared. Who we are is currently, irrelevant." Nemaz says. "But you have something we need, and we do not need to fight eachother, we need to fight them. Now...we require one of your ships." "O'Conner. Go."

His eyes go over to barnes.

Good lord. That boy is plump...

World Breaker hanger bay

Siphon was forcing them into cover but it the army just kept flooding in, and they would all keep fighting.

Bradshaw kept his distance from the Talmuts so as to be able to unleash his firepower. Hosing the Talmuts down with missiles from his launcher spread out over a wide area. They blew hundreds of them apart and scorched the area with molten plasma. Bradshaw shot his grappling device towards the wall as he rappelled up and shot more missiles, each one having a radius of hundreds of feet.

"YOU CHOOSE THE WRONG F****ING PLANET YOU SLIMEY PIECES OF S***!!" He seemed to be doing a very a very good

There is a wall of fire a safe distance away from the team that held off some of their numbers, but there were still more, coming for the ship and one ship came towards.

He lands in the middle of the group and a shot of plasma come at the man and as his armor glows, he backhands it aside for it to hit another Talmut. Another actually gets close enough to Bradshaw, only to get jabbed by his Baton. His head promptly explodes in molten gore as it is literally microwaved by the baton the explosion tossing the Talmut's corpse back.

One troop tries to grab the man and try to rip him limb from limb, as Bradshaw drops a smoke bomb. Moments later, that very same Talmut falls with his throat and body cut by a knife that could cleave a bit into diamond.

However, he jumped for cover as they began to focus fire on him. Bradshaw's armor could be depleted of power for every hit it takes. He approximately 30 Megajoules left in it. He looks off to the side, as soon the calvelry arrives with several reinforcements to even the odds. Firing a wide variety of ridiculously high powered weapons. Metallic slugs ripped through the air at Mach 10. Invisible energy propegated about at Light speed and caused explosions plasma. They met strength, durability and advanced firepower with skill, their own advanced firepower. Seeking to clear the hangar now, it isn't long before they fire a small missile from a launcher across the hangar.

"GET DOWN NOW!!"

The warhead goes off across the hangar, and there is a bight shining light of a fission-less nuclear warhead, having a yield of ten tons of TNT. It vaporizes and reduces to ash most everything near, and send out a large blast wave everywhere else.

Few moments later, Bradshaw appears back where the bulk of the team is. "O'Conner you son of a b****! Didn't think we were getting backup, specially not from them....this changes a lot. Alright everyone, first thing is first. We need to get the hell out of this hangar. I'm getting word that they are sending reinforcements."

The ground trembles as something large approaches

"Seems they sent us a valet."

What looks to be some type of giant, mechanical war machine the size of a small building now appears in the hangar, walking through the smoke and ash.

All Bradshaw really needs to do is look at the Maverick soldiers and tell them. "Distraction. "

"On it."

"You got it Alpha."

"This should be fun."'

They used common sense, shooting at the eyes first. Others begin firing rockets on the thing filled with nanothermite to set it ablaze while the fire reacts to their.

He recieves a telepathic message from MAya, saying the ships will only get stronger, and it occurs to the man that they most likely applied this technology to their machines as well.

"Get on this thing. We need to take it out and get out of here. Anything that big, the weakness has gotta be the joints."

Bradshaw takes out the SABR Directed Energy Rifle as he fires blasts towards the thing to distract it, leaving the rest to the strike team to take out this thing while Maverick primarily kept the oncoming Talmuts away from them so they could focus on the war bot.

"Not scared,are you, Mcgrath?" He smirks at him.

"Let's get this party is just gettin' started..." He says to everyone.

The Talmut’s slight smirk stealthy transformed into a snarl, as the Exemplar retreated with the body of Madison Maynard cradled comfortably within his arms, The Talmut Emperor’s eyes began to flare with incensed nuclear energy. The Talmut Empire rest on the outer fringes of the Omega Nebula, but it was a collection of 24 systems in total, which he commanded. The OSA controlled 9 systems to include the 6 conquered by the Ninjans, even if the OSA managed to claim one system; it’d take years before the entire might of the Talmuts fell before them.

He was tasked with a heavy dilemma, return a portion of the fleet to defend the homeland; or proceed with a full invasion of Earth. “Retreat the Fleet that have engaged the Earthlings in space, return them to the empire.” He said reluctantly, feeling the pressures of having to wage a war on two fronts.

“Your highnesses the Earthlings have actually boarded one of our ships!” One of his fleet captains reported with a sense of urgency. “Good…bring them with you.” He commanded with a smirk permeating through his words.

STRIKE wanted to keep the massive Talmut fleet from reaching the solar system, they both succeeded and failed. As the 1^st fleet pulled back in an attempt to FTL jump back to the Talmut controlled Ninjan Empire, a move that would allow the Talmut’s to directly engage the OSA home world’s a one time, Another fleet landed on Earth and was in the midst of causing havoc.

The focus was none other than London England, it’d became the central point of the alien foot invasion; with hundreds of ships littered throughout the Atlantic ocean, actively engaging the HATV.

As the concussive fire from Ruby’s carrier through them about, it was pretty clear that the massive HATV was nothing but a slow moving target.

“Ma’am what do you suppose we do?” Agent Barnes said, trying his hardest not to be thrown to the floor. “All pilots to your vessels. I repeat all pilots to your vessels this facility is under attack” she commanded, watching as Barnes did his best to engage the cloaking device.

“Man…Norfleet makes this look so damn easy!” He said, hitting a bunch of switches. That made zero difference. Before rushing to help him, her eyes turned towards the plethora of troops that suddenly appeared within the conference room.

As much as she wanted to release a verbal barrage she had no time, “Take one” she commanded with her hands pressed hard over the desk.

“Uh…where are you going?” Barnes asked, watching as Ruby stepped into her personal armory retrieving her two pistols. “I’m going on ground, Commander Stacy is in charge until I return” She said placing both her weapons in the holsters.

“They are looking for something Barnes. This attack his concentrated on the United Kingdom…they’re looking for something and they’re passing it off as a simple takeover” She said, standing on the Eden teleporter before being shot to the Earth below.

“DIRECTOR WAIT!” Barnes screamed, to slow to stop her exit. “This is a shitstorm.” His eyes darted back to the main deck, Maya Liafador was looking out the hole that Turisas created earlier when he rescued the falling pilots.

“The World Still Needs Heroes” Maya whispered, before launching herself out the window to engage the fighters buzzing around the HATV.

@embargo: @addison_hopewell

Shadowland

The infuriated form of the Talmut Emperor was left in the wake as spacetime bent and what was assumed to a strategic retreat was in fact a strategic retrieval. Another potential key piece in this continuing conflict had been placed in his hands, even if those involved would have all but assumed its importance had been all but snuffed out right in front of their eyes, that of Madison Maynard herself. When the figure known as Armistice reappeared it was within the confines of a location whose existence was all but unknown except for a very select few, and even those confidants did not understand the true nature of its significance, so many hidden aspects left untold. The former headquarters of the team known as the Sovereigns.

Wilhelm - “The preparations were completed only a few minutes ago Ian, it seems as if circumstances have decided to be in our favor for once. The Emperor assumed her fate to be assured, her condition beyond the abilities of science and medicine to recover from such devastating injuries.”

Ian - “The Emperor showed only a very general knowledge of our organization, were he to have been properly prepared for our arrival I'm quite sure he would have thought twice before kicking the body of the Ninjan Queen to the Chief Medical Officer of the Exemplars themselves. Y-Intercept will not be pleased with the result of such an easily made assumption, even if the lack of preparation was an omission on her part, such a shame he will be made to pay for it anyways.”

As the partners continues their discussion, the tattered and bloodied remnants of Madison's clothes were swiftly cut away in preparation by numerous waldos, the savage extent of the violence placed upon her by her captors becoming readily apparent. Only when every last scrap was removed was her now unadorned form placed gently within a chamber of his own design, the motionless body set dead center as a clear gelatinous fluid began to flood the capsule. To the naked eye the procedure looked like nothing more than a crude method of embalment for reasons unknown, but one would have to look further, much further than the naked eye was capable of to understand the effort.

The gel itself was a complex substance that would allow for the stabilization and maintenance of her organic body through the use of an incredibly complex biodegradable macromer capable of sustaining tissue or bone until no longer necessary and dissolving away to make space for a properly fused solution. The raw materials such as proteins, oxygen, and such flowed through the gel and made the necessary substances readily available while cocooning Madison in a sterile environment while the far more difficult task took place within and even further beyond the human eye to notice.

To the medical standards of those involved in this conflict, Madison Maynard was certifiably brain dead for far too long to even attempt revival, requiring no less than a miracle just to be left to a future as an immobile vegetable until her body gave way to time. Luckily for her there was another doctor in the house, and his capabilities comprised knowledge gleaned from across thousands of realities, she was only a lost cause in lesser hands. Millions of specifically designed microscopic bioenhanciles flowed through her brain and began the painstaking procedure of reconstructing the damaged tissues in order to return her to a coherent and capable self upon completion. Her survival was no longer in question, only a matter of time in order to do such a monumental task to the most exacting of standards. The fruits of such labors had been proven quite some time earlier, as Madison was not the only person in this conflict to find herself risen from the supposed dead by these elaborate machinations.

With that pressing matter put to rest there were still other concerns which also could not wait, other lives on the line that needed to be addressed if casualties were to be minimized. For the next step contact with someone would need to be made, one he has not done so with since before these events had begun.

To: LooksHotInGrannies@STRIKE.org

From: REDACTED@ManInBlack.org

Main Talmut fleet in retreat, secondary fleet on Earth ordered to continue landfall invasion.

Multiple STRIKE operatives trapped on retreating ships, returning to Talmut controlled space

If plan to allow them to fend for themselves, ignore this message.

If plan is to attempt rescue, transport can be provided for small number of operatives.

(To save you the question, yes I can get them into a shielded starship traveling at FTL speeds, I'm awesome like that.)

REDACTED

@maverick_6: @embargo: @vocal: @doctor_burns: @haven_: @maya_liafador

When ships traveled faster than light there was a shift in their temporal line, a tiny change that no other beings alive would feel. To a Time Siphon though the tiny shift was obvious. "We've gone to FTL." She announced to those around her. "We need to destroy this ship quickly and get out of here."

Raeyn could not use her temporal abilities while she was constructing Plan C, so she had to help fight the large machine with her plasma cannons. The weapons fired at a steady rate as she moved backwards to keep her distance. Her armor could absorb anything being thrown at it currently but she had no desire to see what it could do up close and personal. The ancient Time Siphon was distracted enough by everything she was doing that she had no time to argue with herself or she would have had to fight the urge to engage her armor's own FTL technology to escape what was beginning to feel like a trap. Listening to Bradshaw she sent balls of raging plasma for the arm joints of the machine and hung back as far from it as she could.

The pieces of Plan C were already being woven into place. Barriers invisible to anything not specifically looking for them began to form around each Talmut ship in both fleets and around each individual as well. She considered abandoning her attempt with the fleet that had now retreated but she was determined to make a point in her defense of Earth. Extending her range so significantly was a further drain on her Temporal Reserves, reducing the chances of her survival even further. Time was an energy woven through the fabric of the universe, it had its own particles and its own presence within reality. As such it was manipulated like thread. She wove the very fabric of temporal reality and began to construct a prison the likes of which the Talmut had never seen. This was an ancient art perfected by Raeyn tens of thousands of years ago. She had used it before and at the sacrifice of significant temporal reserves. Back then her reserves had been greater and she had easily survived casting an entire Temporal Hunter fleet into a hellish never ending time loop. This time the fleets were larger, the distance greater and her temporal reserves dramatically reduced. Even so, the prisons were forming and the would be prisoners would never know it, not until it was far too late.

Raeyn was visibly weakening at this point, it took a great deal of effort to multi-task on this level and her temporal reserves were draining the entire time to build the prisons. Her face was visibly pale and she found herself leaning against a supply crate a little. It felt like she was starving and the temptation to feed instead of build the prisons grew with every passing second. Ten minutes into fighting the machine she was forced to slump to the ground and shut her eyes to try and keep from looking enviously at all the temporal energy around her.

@embargo: @thee_champion:

Much to the dismay of the elemental the iconic new god triggered the end of a dialogue. Not with bold statement or even a theatric assault but a daring sacrifice. Choosing to tank one of the most threatening of attacks to provide the other heroes with time.

Gazing toward the child of the heroic god she realized the time for discussion was over. "I'm not saying to spare their emperor. I'm not even saying to go easy on the enemy. I'm simply saying that not every soldier should be damned. They are not faceless figures they are people. There are better solutions then destroying everything. You should get to earth keep it safe and keep a good man in good health." Obviously commenting on the noble incapacitated father.

"I've world breaker to break." With that she ended the dialogue to converse with Star her personal A.I. "Do what you can to reach that craft" she proceeded to wait briefly before going forward.

"This is Seras Integra code name Haven of the Stargate Brigade. The creation of any weapon designated as world destroying is a clear violation of any desire for peace. Do to the threat such a weapon does possess I am obligated to decommission the vessel by any means necessary. This is your one warning evacuate now."

With that Seras raced through the air as swift as light itself and composed only of light. To the credit of the enemy many traced her by logical trajectory. Ships almost colided into her and some high powered weapons did technically hit her. Composed only of light alone however nothing slowed her progress. There simply was no given mass to be impacted.

Upon getting closer her A.I confirmed the materials of any energy shielding. This allowed the elemental to augment her figure to those very properties rather then any form of impact she'd move through the shield with ease. Her body melding with the energy like water simply striking water. This would proceed to allow her to continue down the large barrel with likely no interruption.

The plan was simple venture into the weapon and become the very energy used to shatter worlds. She would then trigger it to go off from the inside resulting in an implosion. It would likely incapacitate Haven if successful. However it would also spell the end of the enemies deadliest craft. Or at least one of them, the other had the members of STRIKE and was heading to the empire itself. How many more heroes be they cosmic beings gods mutants or average men would have to go down before the conflict came to a close?

@_retrofire_: @dreadpool10: @maverick_6: @embargo: @timesiphon:

"Nor you'd probably be best staying in the ship, cover fire only." Cadence spoke in modest suggestion. The acoustic assassin was clearly not pleased with taking up guard duty but just as obvious was the fact she wasn't going to take the job lightly. "I'm planning to move the debris and scraps try and block off as many entrances as possible. Way I see it if we can funnel them to just come from two doors the better the odds of us surviving this." Tightening one of her bandages the Inhuman began to cast rifts of sound to push about crates ship parts and so on infront of doors. She'd gotten some amusement by making the sounds be that of guitars and drums. Having turned the mundane act of moving into a brief rock concert, such actions helped keep her mind off the pain her wounds brought or dread the situation triggered.

When she was finished there was at least for her only one passage way to guard. And just in time to as she could hear foot steps aplenty drawing near. News made worse as the comms just chimed with Raeyn's voice. "Excuse me did I just hear we moved into ftl? You know I'm not in the best shape to help fight an entire alien army." Her comment was in jest but all the while honest. She wasn't of godly tier fighting countless foes wasn't something she could do. But with a good choke point right now Vocal wasn't concerned with the limited numbers of Talmut reinforcements.

Drawing her blade and letting it sing as it carved into the flooring the violet vixen awaited the unwelcome company. She'd have to restrain herself wounds weren't completely healed theatric motion wasn't wise. Simple motions she reminded herself before she shot down the hall. The hiss of charging plasma alerted Vocal of pending gunfire gave crude understanding of the trajectory and fire pattern. She bobbed and weaved and plasma cooked the air as it shot past her. They missed but the blade of hers didn't dark blue innards spilling onto the floor as her foes slumped to the ground. Two more forces followed soon after as throats were torn. Similar motion continued untill reaching a midpoint. Heavier sounds violet eyes looked to see also a larger barrel. Rocket launcher of some kind. Closing her eyes she focussed souly on sound.

A whir of rotating metal and hiss of energy. Plasma charge but projectile based. It'd be heavier move slower, thruster humming though said when it took off it would still be fast. Conclusion treat it as a bullet not a rocket. Thud thud thud came from around the corner of the hall more troops. Tight formation light in armor soon to round the corner. Bang the rockets going off she can hear the reverberating walls see it as if within her minds eye. The thuds stop the click and clack of weapons rising they see her. The roar is almost drowning out all sound now it's the time. Her stance drops she feels her hair flow as the large projectile passes over head. And then it comes impact a surplus of aliens incinerated within a furious detonation. A spherical shape bounces slightly using various bursts of sounds Vocal reflects the sphere toward her. A nice red glyph made it clear, a grenade easy to throw down the opposite hall blowing apart the other small pack of foes.

But that was just the start there was bound to be more.

@embargo: @haven_:

Thee Champion's sacrifice, it was made not only with the weight of his world pressing down, hard, on his shoulders, but that of the entire universe. The result? The scorched frame of a New God, drifting in the cold blackness of space. His flesh had been burned through, severely, and his bones? The matter that comprised them was superheated at the surface. His cape, red in shade, was no more, reduced to dust, ionized particles that came together in a cloud of vivid color. Drifting in and out of consciousness, far from dead but not entirely close to life either, Alexis believed himself fortunate that in space, shock-waves did not exist. That what is a shock-wave on planets, is a collection of gases easily dispersed by a frame as extraordinary durable as his.

Leonel was immediate in his reaction, darting away from the field of floating debris, expression earnest, but his heart racing as he did too, towards his father. He couldn't lose someone else. Not after everything that he lost in Reality-M. Not after Catalina and Madison. He accelerated, high-energy photons propelling him forward, and in what seemed like an instant, his father was secured, held by his strong arms as he left the remainder of the bout in the hands of the cosmic entity who once opposed them. Now? He needed Maya, he needed to return to his homeworld, Earth, if there was to be any chance of saving it. The Talmut Fleet was powerful. Enormously so. Its ability to engage him, his father, and S.T.R.I.K.E. spoke of the magnitude of its firepower. There was Solarius, a being with the power of an entire star to wield.

Raeyn, the Time Siphon, a temporal devourer of galaxies. Flash Fire, a speedster whose flesh rivaled the fortitude of adamantium. Dr. Burns, a towering Goliath of a cyborg with the power to crush mountains. Thee Champion, who held within him the power to collapse entire stars, and then Leonel, whose power was a threat to entire star systems. Their combined might? It achieved only partial success. And now depleted in energy and with his father in no condition to continue, the Azure Son had only one remaining option. Descending into Earth's atmosphere, the air compressing before him, heating itself red and burning the ozone without mercy as he sped, Leonel accelerated and accelerated, reaching London, and eventually, locating Maya who did battle against the attacking vessels currently engaging the S.T.R.I.K.E. carrier.

"Maya, dad's been hit!", his voice was raised, alarm hanging in the air and on his golden boy features. "Do you remember how to do that thing you did back on Cardinal Island with mom? That fusion thing? Because in order to fight this... the three of us may need to combine our powers. Or at least you and dad".

@vocal: @_retrofire_: @maverick_6: @embargo: @timesiphon:

World Breaker

"Alright, here goes..."

At last, it was time. The fair amount of dread that he had been feeling appeared to fill the Alchemist with a considerable amount of adrenaline. His stoic expression, oddly enough, had become something of a haughty grin. Clearly, he was ready to unleash heck upon the enemy forces, somewhat literally.

As to not get affected by the burning assault he was preparing to unleash upon the Talmuts, Jason positioned himself a fair distance away from them. In a swift instance, he had clashed his thumb and middle finger together, as though to snap. Indeed, distinctive snapping noise could be heard as he performed this gesture, but what followed was drastically different then what the gesture was generally used for.

"You know, I actually haven't had to do this in a while, now that I think about it..." Jason remarked, absentmindedly.

Almost in an instant, a sudden blast sounded amongst a substantial number of alien troops, as a large, fiery explosion erupted in the middle of them. Numerous times, McGrath had repeated this action. And again and again, as the oxygen surrounding his desired targets was heated to hazardous levels, yet another ingenuous blast occurred, bringing about the demise of more Talmuts. However, it would be unwise to remain in this position for too long. Thus, with exceptional swiftness, Jason had darted from his position, towards another formation.

This time, however, it appeared that the superior savant was in melee range. It certainly wasn't ideal to release to big of an explosion at this range. Whipping out his bladed weapons, he had made great haste to begin hacking and slashing through troops closest to him, his eyes now wide with exhilaration. Electricity appeared to crackle around the hilt of the swords has blades made contact with Talmut flesh, as burning ichor leaked from the slash wounds. As one of the creatures manages to avoid his assault, Jason had sprung at it like a tiger to its prey, displaying exceptional grace in his form. In an instant, he had thrust his swords directly through the throat of his target...

In his assault, however, he hadn't seen one of the troops rush behind him, plasma firearm aimed directly at him. As a searing round whizzed past his head, the superior savant had instinctively whirled around, temporarily leaving his swords embedded in the throat of the previous fallen Talmut. However, as the Talmut unleashed additional gunfire upon him, a few of the rounds had singed the cobalt overcoat he had been wearing, thankfully not breaking any skin do to the extra protective weave beneath it.

Quickly placing his hand upon the alien's chest, crimson colored electricity appeared to crackle around Jason's hand. Before the talmut knew it, silvery pieces of metallic armoring had begun flying off of him, as Jason decomposed the molecular structure of the alien's armoring. To complete this attack, Jason took his hand from the talmut, as though burned. With his other hand, he performed the same snapping gesture that he had done before, once again creating that distinctive snapping noise.

This time, however, the flames erupted over the creature weren't quite as explosive as the previous flames had been, more then likely having to do with his' close proximity to the creature. However, it was enough to blacken it's skin, sending it to a fiery death.

"Petrified..." Jason stated, returning Bradshaw's smirk with one of his own.

Special Warfare Command Installation, Fort Bragg

As an elite fighting force tasked to take on superhuman threats, the United States Army Special Warfare Command was one of the first military forces to respond to the threat, as their detection systems detected the aliens just outside of Earth's orbit. Their purpose here, and if they were going to attempt to make their way inside the planet was not known. Therefore, the military branch acted quick. From their main headquarters in Fort Bragg, thousands of Special Warfare Commandos in teams of armored cavalry regiments, equipped with VTOL gunships, Abrams Battle Tanks, rocket artillery, armored personnel carriers, among other equipment, were deployed throughout many parts of the globe. There was very much movement on Earth after the warning was given concerning the presence of outer-world beings outside the planet's orbit. Both a member of the military branch and an operative of S.T.R.I.K.E, O'Connor was transported from his military base in Fort Bragg to S.T.R.I.K.E.'s carrier, where he gained access to one of the ships that would take him to space.

The fact he was heading to space along with the Mavericks not only meant another mission to him, but it was one such he had never been in before, a new experience, and yet a mission he could not fail. Serving his country was an honor for him, but now, it was time for him to protect the Earth, along with the rest of the heroes. Although he did not demonstrate any signs of it, O'Connor indeed felt some fear deep inside, for he had never fought in outer space, specially against an enemy he did not know. Even then, helping to keep the Earth from being invaded was what augmented his will. A man once said"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear". As an honorable combat soldier, day by day, O'Connor lived by this code. Settling inside the spacecraft, with rage in his eyes and honor in his heart, the commander revved the ship up to top speed and headed straight to space, along with 12 gunships, heavily armed, operated by Maverick troopers.

The Outside

An intense galactic battle between the arriving forces and the aliens followed as the Commander entered the battlefield along with Maverick reinforcements. The men had to storm their way through the enemy ships before eventually reaching the spacecraft where Captain Bradshaw and the others were boarding. Many of the alien ships were fitted with anti-fighter and ship-to-ship defensive weaponry, ranging from heavy ion cannons to turbo laser turrets. O'Connor's ship was attacked by an enemy Star Cruiser and the ship's engines strained to keep it equally maneuverable as the 2 rounds slugged the side of the armor plating. The entire ship shook and rattled as warning lights sprung up around the ship. The alien ship fired again, but the commander was able to dodge the attack and took the chance to turn his ship in a swift maneuver, facing his enemy in order to retaliate. Grabbing hold on the trigger, O'Connor opened fire, and the turret volleyed off as it sent 4 rounds towards the Star Cruiser, and the enemy ship exploded, flashing brilliant white before falling black and empty again.

However, before he would continue his voyage, O'Connor was attacked by another Spacecraft from behind. He was able to dodge the attacks, but then found himself persecuted, as the alien ship followed in close pursuit of O'Connor, dodging incoming laser beams and proton torpedoes. Although fighting in space was a completely different level for the man, thanks to his skills in flying military aircraft, he was able to drive the ship good enough to elude the attacks and even attack in response. O'Connor flew through a tunnel within an incoming asteroid trying to lose the enemy in track, but the alien ship continued to follow.

Somehow managing to get the drop on the alien ship during the chase, O'Connor was now in pursuit and fired blasters continuously, until the alien ship was badly damaged. Intending to finish it, O'Connor fired a homing missile, and destroyed the Starship. After having destroyed two alien spacecrafts, the commander reunited with his allied forces, and using the spacecraft's detection radar, he followed Bradshaw's signal all the way to where his ship was located. The men soon made it to the ship and upon the arrival, once entering the ship, O'Connor leaped out of his spacecraft and immediately joined the team in combat, equipped with some of the United States military's best weaponry, and his shield in hand. "Sorry I'm late people. What's going on?"

@thee_champion@maverick_6: @embargo: @vocal: @timesiphon@haven_: @maya_liafador@armistice@solarius

"My objective is hardly to destroy...."

Burns said over the telepathic line of communication as people critisize his action.

"Even I could no wipe out a fleet such as this. Fun as that was, it was all for the sake of distraction, to draw enemy fighters towards myself. To allow them to destroy disposable drones. Even as they adapt, I would assume they could simply build stronger materials in the first place....

And even then, I simply require materials"

Burns was in a cloaked ship of his own, one of immense size. But he remained both hidden, and blind. It blocked all electromagnetic frequencies used to perceive matter. However, psionic waves permeated through indifferently, allowing for a means of communication through spaces vacuum that is not as traceable. However, Burns then sought to pier into the outside, in all directions, and what he saw, though he wouldn't admit it, horrified him.

He saw as the alien's worldbreaker ship unleashed a mighty blast, one that Burns himself was fortunate to not be in the path of, one that had unleashed. It lived up to it's name, unleashing a blast of energy that had sufficient to destroy a world. At least 10^32 Joules of energy, or the energy equivalent to 22 Sextillion tons of TNT.Not accounting to actually converting the tons of TNT to actual force, it was definitely known that he had been hit hard, extremely hard. He actually saw something that he would never had thought he'd seen, a wounded god. With many of the ship's having retreated, and the weapon apparently recharging.

He sought to aid the team now, as was his role as a Doctor, manifesting himself now before the Leonel and the injured champion of earth.

Alarmingly, he however detected as the worldbreaker and the aliens had decided to leave. For one with literal lightspeed thinking, it did not take long for him to put this all together. They had been played. To engage their fleet and to what? Only be ultimately outwitted by the extra-terrestrial enemies who still slipped past his perception and made their way over towards earth. He was utterly at a loss now, retreating into his own virtual mind to gather himself.

"This is impossible. Their weapons endlessly dwarf mine in yield, and most likely if I pursue them, they will find a means of detecting me. Not only this, but I'll likely be going alone. But what use am I on earth...? Here these people are, casual spouting out yields in the sextillions of tons of TNT. Shooting nonillions of joules of energy. While I am still spitting megatons. Mere Yottajoules."

His eyes flashed as his avatar looked up in this blank, white room, where he could "predict" and see things that could occur. Millions of contingencies at a time. Of occurance. In many of these, he sees himself being destroyed along with many of the others based off what data he had gathered from observation and reasonable speculation into the unknown and theoretical. His chances of ever surviving this were low indeed. The best outcome for survival would be to simply, leave the planet. Perhaps go explore the vast stars as he had always dreamnt to do, but never could because he couldn't ever develop technology to bypass the lightspeed barrier, not until now.But, Burns was still a man, on the inside, even with a completely restructured and near entirely replaced brain, and he still had his own faults and imperfection.

But it is said the only perfection is imperfection. Thusly, to overcome his fear, he had reached into the inner insanity he had seldom let out. The side of him that had laid waste to a small portion of the aliens fleet, hardly perceiving the lives of the aliens as anything of worth. The part of him that developed when such a formerly weak aging man was able to turn himself into a transhuman cyborg.

And thus, he opted to do the unreasonable. "I am going to pursue the worldbreaker. Any allies who wish to join me...may do so. Or join forces with those on earth."He was unaware if anyone was even listening or if the telepathic line was even up. If given no reply, he'd wait merely two minutes, which seemed liked ages to him, as he searched their data banks for the coordinates of their defenses. Even quantum encryption, something typically unbreakable, would have to yield when Burns actually physically changed the device itself, before he would engage the Talmut's stolen FTL drive and pursue the fleet in his own ship. Alone or otherwise.

@thee_champion@maverick_6: @embargo: @vocal: @haven_: @maya_liafador@armistice

Temporal Armor, begin recording and prepare to send out a broadband message to all possible points in the universe. Time Siphon remained slumped against a crate with her eyes closed. She pulled herself into a bit of a more comfortable position as her body began to consume its own life essence.

She opened a com channel to all members of STRIKE first, including those back on earth. Her Temporal Armor had the range to broadcast through the universe by breaching the barrier between realities and warping a message through time so that it arrived at all locations simultaneously. Only the Time Siphons could master such technology, so great was their mastery of Time when at the height of even their individual powers that they could bend time to their will, make it do what they required of it. Using the temporal fabric of reality a Time Siphon could essentially ignore barriers such as speed or even physics, usually at great cost. Fortunately the Temporal Armor had its own temporal energies to tap into for activities such as communications.

"Plan C is in place. Just tell me when." Her voice reached the ears of everyone in STRIKE, it was weak and destabilized, it sounded as if she were speaking at three different rates of speed at once as her body began to lose its temporal cohesion. As she burned Temporal Reserves to entrap the entire Talmut fleet and invasion force at great distances from one another her essence lost its ability to maintain the physical form it had chosen last time she regenerated from death. The physical body was dying, nothing could reverse that process now. It took a certain level of reserves, a base line, to keep her physical body alive. Each cell in her body was designed to consume, contain and manipulate Temporal Energy, when that energy was low it had the same effect as draining the blood from a Human...eventually their physical body just shut itself down and died. The question now was if she would have enough energy left to regenerate. That took a certain base level as well, one that was fortunately lower than the base level required to maintain a never aging physical body stolen from a previous victim.

Certain she would not have the energy or ability to speak much if given the command to initiate Plan C, Raeyn began a recording intended for the universe.

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Raeyn. Some of you may know me as Lord of Cocytus, Master of the Temporal Conflux, Guardian of the Key of Time., Parasite of Stralavex, Murderer of the Grazarians, Slaughterer of the Morias Galaxy, Butcher of the Catrellian Cluster, First Eternal of the Infinite Council, Second Seer of the Temporal Conclave, Elder Siphon of the Circle of Nine, Infinite Mistress of the Thousand Worlds of Rytorus, Slave Master of the Kortarians, Heir Designate of the Caldean Vortex, Shadow Fiend of Altoria or a hundred thousand other names I have been given during my life time. I am adopting a new title, Defender of Earth. Earth is my chosen world now, I am done running from you Universe. I will no longer allow myself to be persecuted or pushed out of planet after planet by species intent on destroying me. If you want to come at me, you can find me on Earth..."

She paused a moment, a slow smile creeping across her now pale face. "Before you do, there's something you should know. I am Raeyn, I have consumed whole galaxies at a whim, destroyed entire races to feed my never ending hunger. If you come for me, if you come for Earth, you will face a fate worse than death. You will notice that the Talmut fleet and its Invasion force have vanished from the Universe. They are locked in a never ending temporal loop from which there is no escape. They did nothing to me personally, but they did attack my world. Earth is defended, I will protect it to the end of my life and so will a hundred others. This fleet, these forces, they were fought to a stand still by less than a quarter of the population of Earth. Never push Humanity onto the thin ice...I have learned in my time on Earth that it is unique. Even now as I record this message the bravest individuals I have ever met are fighting for their world. Some of them have powers, others have technology...few of them agree with one another, but they have set aside every difference because the Talmut threaten their home, their lives and their way of life. Humanity is what my species never could be, they are brave. Maybe one day someone will attack Earth that they cannot defeat, but I know the members of STRIKE will make them suffer a thousand times over for every inch of ground they take or destroy."

She took a deep breath to calm her dying nerves before she continued. "As the Infinite Mistress of the Thousand Worlds of Rytorus, I hear by claim Earth as a Protectorate of Rytorus, the Thousand Worlds will come to its aide if ever another invasion force determines to assault the planet. The Talmut Empire has breached Universal Law in assaulting a world with ships meant to destroy it. I hope there are still judges out there. There are good people here and some of them are suffering now in the defense of others and they deserve help."

End recording, send at the moment I time lock the fleets. For now the message waited, just as Time Siphon waited to be brave, for once.

oc: Just to be extra clear, she has not done this yet, everyone is still fine and she won't do it until the command is given and everyone is safely away.

Earth, Maverick forces

@embargo

"In the time of monsters and gods, of what worth are men?"

Nemaz hears, as he then paces off, going to the outside of the H.A.T.V. He looks over the edge, then steps off as into a freefall

He then abruptly demands a wide array of communication so as to garner the communication of his men, the army and in general media, having this message relayed worldwide to as many sources possible. TV, media, Radio, social media, streams, the whole nine.

"Allies, friends, vigilantes and general residents of earth. We are under attack, and it is not for the intent of takeover as many of us so originally thought. It has come to my attention that we my friends, are being played." Nemaz lands on an alien fight craft, looking at the pilot of the craft as he plants a charge and jumps off.

"Evidence seems to indicate they are here for something. We do not know what, but we do know they have focused their forces towards coming to London." He detonates the charge midair, and it sets off a Hafnium Bomb that detonates away the HATV and eviscerates all objects for roughly 200 feet, atomizing craft near by and blowing others to crash careening around him as he grapples to another ship taking out a strange

"Deter them at all costs." The rifle shoots a focused sound at the resonant frequency of the target's internals. In essence, it bypasses the ship's durability completely, the sound traveling harmlessly through it and liquifying the pilot inside. As the man jumps and repeats the process.

Eventually, Nemaz glides down repeating the process stealthily to attempt to get as many craft off his fights as possible. He frowned upon seeing such advanced crafts that Maverick had created get shot out the sky as they also retaliated with missiles meant to hit with force in the thousands of tons and kill metahumans. They were outnumbered by the fighters of the alien forces.

Nemaz glided over the city with his wingsuit and collided with a Talmut footsoldier, literally kicking into him at several hundred miles as he stands on him, surfing on it's body for some time before jumping off and landing behind a car, and communicating with satellites above.

"This director of S.T.R.I.K.E seems to have vital information. More then we do. Heavily outgunned without their metahumans they appear to be, we need them. Protect them and their flying aircraft carrier at all costs. And most of all. Find me this director."

He looks up briefly at an approaching Talmut, who crushed by a falling craft. Several more fall from the sky and crash to the ground that Nemaz downed.

Worldbreaker, Hangar Bay

@timesiphon:@thee_champion@timesiphon@haven_: @maya_liafador@armistice@solarius@dreadpool10

"Little late to the party." He replied to Braveheart. "We're about to make our next move. I have this almost completely planned. Just need to know exactly where to hit. How's it coming along?"

He poses the question to the squad of technically trained shadow company troops sent with O'Connor. Using their abilities of echolocation, they'd already began to map out the ship while the team managed to easily hold off the entire army of enemy forces, with Siphon quickly taking out the mech.

He paused listening to Raeyn's message. "Hm. I guess I guess I can say I don't dislike you as much. And that I can respect you for that. But you might not need to do that. Since that see here, I came up with an actual plan. Guess nobody really mentioned when I strapped that missile up onto the plane, didja?"

(Flashback)

Bradshaw thought as Ruby explained the plan to them. It was pretty good idea, but the only thing he was wondering was how to go about taking out a world-wrecking ship. He knew it'd have to be from the inside out but where exactly do they go is the question. Maverick Reinforcing in extensive number was a bit out of the question, they had no spacecraft to offer, not like S.T.R.I.K.E did. However what the did have were weapons. Just as Retrofire left, so did Bradshaw, making one call.

He had a few agents bring in something on the deck, something that fell from somewhere in orbit, reaching the base in quick time due to it's height. It looked like a sidewinder air-to-air missile, but was instead all black in color. By the time Ruby was done with the brief, it was already installed on the Jet, and now his attention now turned towards his two specified teammtes, Retrofire and Vocal.

(End flashback)

Bradshaw walks over over to Raeyn, slinging her arm over his shoulder

At times, Bradshaw questioned the director's own competence, but she seemed to do so as well, and in the end it might work out. He'd conversed mentally with a few of the members.

Hell. Maybe she planned this all along. That b****...

"Well, I'm not exactly stupid enough to try to fly up to some ship the size of the moon and expect us to blow it up with some teeny tiny laser as if this were star wars or some crap. So, I brought us a little something to try to actually put a teeny, tiny dent in the worldbreaker's interior. A nuclear bomb."

"So, uh, what kinda yield we talkin'? 25 megatons? 50 Megatons? A hundred? Like the largest bomb we could build back in the day."

"10 Gigatons."

Que a few gawking stares. "Jesus christ! Did you just say 10 Gigatons?!!!"

"Did I f***ing studder? Ten Gigatons. Or teen thousand. There was a scaled up plan of this back in the day. The called it a "backyard bomb" because it would wipe most life on earth if someone ever detonated it. In essence. Now, enough history. Even ten gigatons isn't nearly enough to blow up a moon. But based on what a few of my guys tell me, there are a few places we can hit. The core of the ship, we speculate, wouldn't be phased by a bomb like this. It was made to rip a planet into peaces. And so..."

Bradshaw was not exactly a scientist, and he only had so much capacity for learning. The group of genetically engineered echo locating special forces who drew up a rough schematic of the ship in a few minutes, by sensing the ship's vibrations and gaining it's layout in their perfect memoried minds, were a completely different story.

He motioned one of them o continue

"Waste heat, sir. There is no waste heat. Most all of the technology on this ship is well beyond our understanding. However, based on what a few of our scouts are telling us.....the reactor' core seems to have something of a heat sink that dumps heat into another dimension to keep this entire array from melting itself or blowing up. It is the size of a moon, and has the energy of at least a small star inside of it. If we destroy that or disrupt it, we might cause the whole ship to melt and with any luck go critical and potentially detonate..."

"Most reactor's do not go critical so easily. But with this thing's mass being so small for something that releases such yield, it seems definitely plausible." Another shadow company troop adds.

Bradshaw's smile grow wider. "Best part as a matter a fact is that we are headed straight for their homeworld. If we have someone like Champ or LEO push this thing into the planet, I'm pretty sure if this thing does off it will a pretty huge. A world wrecking ship would probably give a worldwrecking explosion, and just crashing the damn thing would level the surface of the planet. Meanwhile, at the end of this, we can escape. We don't need something faster then light to escape an explosion in space, because the vaccuum is just going to take care of most of that. I know it sounds insane, but I'd rather do that then just let siphon here keep eating herself alive."

Bradshaw motioned to Raeyn, nodding towards her as he continues. "This place is the size of a moon. Not much point in traversing on foot. They do have areas where we can fly, and I have charges set to blow a whole over so we can fly over to the core and launch the thing. But,if one of you has a better way to transport it or any way at all to make this go by smoother, I wanna hear it. Sooner we get off here, the better. If the Nuke fails, it has more then enough energy to raze the ship and likely wreck the entire crew and some of it's electronics."

"So..." One of Bradshaw's men begin.

"You want us to transport a Lifewiping level nuke, detonate it on this ship to try and destabilize it's power source or whatever, use the ship to blow up one of their planets and then just run away?"

"Yup. Objections? Concerns?"

"What about other aliens? They....might not all be bad?"

"Them or us. I for one don't want them f***ing with earth again. And if some galactic council shows up or whatever, so f***ing be it."

Bradshaw takes out a detonator.

*Click*

A gaping 50 ft wide hole is blown into the wall, accompanied by some craft near it being flipped and those near bradshaw simply feeling a rough wind. It seems to lead to a travel tunnel through which craft may fly.

“Looks hot in grannies? Who the hell is that?” Agent Barnes asked, still trying to decipher all the information Norfleet left him to fend with. “Wha? Why do you ask Agent Barnes?” Ruby’s inquiry booming through his intercom.

“I just got a man from a REDACTED; he says the fleet en route to Earth has retreated deeper into Talmut Controlled space.” Barnes couldn’t see Ruby’s facial expression, but based off the almost animalistic growl pushing through his ear piece, he could tell she was hot enough to fry and egg on her forehead. “Ok…we’re just going to circle back to this one” he said, with a chubby chin gracing his face.

Truthfully Ruby didn’t expect a star conquering fleet to retreat, more than likely intervention on his end. “He says he can get them to a shielded Starship.” Barnes relayed. “Good as soon as Norfleet, Bradshaw and Retrofire complete the mission. We’ll need him on standby to warp them back here.” Ruby said turning her attention to a horde of Talmut’s descending from the looming ships. The recoil of her two pistols jerked her body back, but proved to be completely useless against the kinetic barriers of the invading force.

“Got damn it Solar Hawk was right” Ruby lamented, feeling the pressures of her ineffective weapons. Throwing herself on the ground in an evasive roll, Ruby dodged a plasma shot that incinerated a small vehicle behind her. “FCK!” She screamed, realizing how deep she was actually in. Despite the multitude of STRIKE agents actively engaged in the fight, it still seemed their numbers were still growing exponentially.

As she stood cornered in between a horde of Talmut’s and a shop, she pushed her pistols upward to fight until her last breath—her philosophy. Human was not done until the last human died. Just as the Talmut began charging his weapon, a heavy barrage of gunfire put them down, ripping through the kinetic barriers with ease.

“Director Ruby…” a man said, helping her off the building. “We’re with Maverick, our commander needs to speak with you” He said, not really giving her the option. Shaking her head in compliance she moved in sync with them surrounded by security on all sides; that is until a Talmut fighter ship plowed into the city preparing to fire on them.

“Scatter!” One of them screamed, once again dodge rolling to the right; Ruby tumbled but was never able to see the powerful plasma energy rip through the Mav grunts without too much effort. “Jesus!” She screamed, sprinting down the street evasively dodging the Talmut attempts to grapple her. A STRIKE fighter boomed overhead, but it, like the Maverick soldiers was also taken down by the Talmut fighter.

The plan spiraled out of control streamlining towards Ruby, her eyes closed, teeth clenched shut; however the impact never came. “You can thank me later” a young blonde woman screamed, her golden features hinted she was a hero, but she was unlike anyone she’d ever seen before.

Maya Summers, the adopted daughter of Andy Summers, with her reality warping abilities siphoned; she could focus her energy on her photon skill. This allowed her to trek the stars in seeming no time.

Spiraling high above the streets Maya released several volleys of photon energy, energy that proved to be far too potent for the kinetic barriers.

H.A.T.V.

Maya flew tactically around the carrier using her hexing abilities to repel the harsh fire power of the Talmut’s. It was because of her efforts that the carrier remained untouched for the most part, even with little battle witt, Maya could tell this air battle was directed to keep the majority of STRIKE assets off the surface. “What now!” she whined watching as the skies above her parted with a sonic boom trailing not far behind the UFO.

It was only once the figure was flush upon her, did she realize that it was Leonel. His voice earnest, the wages of battle wearing heavy on his usually tough visage. “Leonel” she gasped, clutching his burly frame with her usual tenderness.

“Papi…” she whispered, shaking her head, overwhelmed by the events. “Mom transformed herself into potent energy. If dad can do that, I can absorb him. Or…” She said. Turning back to completely destroy a progressing fighter. “I can turn myself to energy and dad can absorb me. But things are bad here I can’t afford to leave”

Her ears perked at the scream of a child, she would never make it in time. “Leonel!” she screamed, pointing in the direction of the child.

The Planet Xiox (Talmut controlled Ninjan Empire)

On the planet Xiox the assistance from the OSA allowed the Ninjans to mount a proper defensive, pushing the Talmut’s back into space; where they battle around Xiox would be determined by the Talabetian’s ability to fight the Talmut’s. Though the Ninjans boasted the best fleet in the OSA, it was actually the Talabeths that earned that honor. Known as Time Keepers, the Talabeths were proficient in manipulating time, a principle they incorporated into their fleets; and other wartime vessels.

Pushing off the surface of Xiox, Addison pushed directly into space, the battle between the Talmuts and the OSA was fierce here. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.” She commented. The war was vast; it stretched two nebulas and spans seven systems. Though Earth was also involved, the planet represents a microcosm of the total destruction that many of the OSA systems experienced.

As she prepared to jump back to the Solar System, a massive Talmut Vessel appeared with its FTL disengaged as if Xiox were its final destination. “Those fools made it all the way out here?!” Addison actually screamed impressed.

“They still haven’t turned off the IFF” She grunted, the IFF was a program the Talmut’s used to auto target enemies, it also prevented them from being harmed by their own technology; on top of allowing the ships to adapt to the specific fire taken.

Addy’s eyes soon turned toward the battle surrounding herself, the OSA fleet began to dock back at the Omega Space Station. “What’s going on here?” she asked watching as the Talmut Fleet began moving to pursuit.

A blue light split the fabrics of reality, a woman with a cerulean blue hue entered Ninjan airspace, as her body adjusted to the new setting she very slowly began to regain her color. “No way…” Addison gasp as one of the legendary former members of her order appeared.

“I have been silent in this conflict long enough” the woman said, throwing her hands up, an erratic display of Solar flares lashed from her hands destroying a great deal of the Talmut fighters. “No no no!” Addison screamed, stopping the woman from attacking a ship that contained an ally. “The cyborg is with us.” Addison explained, still trying to come to terms with how the Sha of Infinite Forevers was physically present in this universe.

Before SOIF could do anything else, the world breaker that entered the Ninjan airspace exploded sending a myriad of Talmut’s to their deaths. The blast was so massive, so expansive that it incinerated anything within close proximinity.

“Your friends aboard the World Breaker must make haste, Earth is under siege. I hope you don’t mind but I brought few friend of my own” SOIF said; turning her attention to Xiox.

“Where are they?” Addison asked puzzled. “She’s doing what she does best. Now, I know this is Ian’s directorate, but I sense now the Talmut is heading for Earth. We need to stop him before he obtains the heart of the universe.”

"How do you plan on stopping the Talmut?" Addison wondered.

"Your Time Siphon..she is key."

Earth

"Uh, Director Ruby...we're picking up another being entering the atmosphere...fast"

@embargo:

The walls were cold. And the carrier empty. Little light was allowed to enter, to illuminate. The Kenjutsu King made it so. He couldn't bring himself to gaze upon it. It was her mark. Of Y-Intercept. It tugged at his mind, clawed at his soul, and burned into his flesh. A tattoo of supernatural permanence, on the right side of his neck it read 'Y=Mx+b'. He sighed, shook his head, and his edge of suave cool was returned to him. Adorned in Gucci white, Sosuke emerged, leaving behind the solemn world of his cursed spirit and focusing himself on the matter at hand. The Cataclysm. With it came an invasion, vicious yet tactical in execution, that threatened humanity's potential to one day become a race with a posture among the stars.

Gloved fingers coiling around the hilt of his sword, his blade, onyx in color, beautiful in design, was drawn, his motion sprinkled with flair, with style. And for the first time in what seemed like eternity, Sosuke harnessed his power, his command over fire, pyrokinesis. His aura, blue in color, enveloped his frame in a flame that left the air hot and scorched. Streams, concentrated and of boundless energy, jetted from the soles of his footwear, propelling him across the open sky as he glided. With no means of truly sustainable flight or levitation, he spoke his words, certain that the cool, charming timbre of his voice would, with perfect clarity, be heard by the Liafador-Pettis siblings' extraordinary auditory perception. "No, help your sister, Leo. The child will be safe. I will make sure of it".

Soft and exotic, his Japanese inflection hung in the air, alongside the primal roar of fire as he, the Kenjutsu King glided past the Power Princess and the Azure Son, propelling himself towards the child. "Alright, forget the amalgamation plan for now", Leonel dismissed, "I'll leave dad in the carrier to recover. And then I'll come back to help you with some support fire". Doing as promised, the New God, having left his father in the care of those who remained in the carrier, emerged and without an ounce of hesitation, accelerated beam after beam of charged, high-energy particles at 99.9% the speed of light in response to the Talmut enemy force. While Maya repelled their attacks, bolstering their defenses, Leonel offered an offensive alternative, creating a balanced blend of defense and offense.

Meanwhile, Sosuke, flames dissipating as he landed, cut through as many of the Talmut ground forces as possible. It was violent but necessary. He held their attention, enough for domestic law enforcement to arrive and transport the child along with the other defenseless bystanders to a more secure setting.

@maverick_6:

Raeyn spoke quietly as they walked through the destroyed wall section, speaking into Bradshaw's ear. "This is very important. You need to find something with a long life span, uranium, special metal alloy, it doesn't matter what it is. Make sure it's placed with my body when this is over." Her voice sounded unstable, as if it was no longer anchored in one time or place. "I can't stress how important it is that you do this." She had grown very weak and activated her anti-gravity systems to help Bradshaw move her since she no longer had the strength to walk. Her breaths were beginning to become strained, like a dying person gasping for their last few breaths. "This body is beginning to wear a bit thin." She managed.

Raeyn had the traps ready, the prisoners were ready to be constructed. All she needed now was word from their Director, or anyone, really. "You know I've never died this way before." She said softly. "I don't really know what happens next, or how long it will take...if it even happens at all. If it doesn't...you need to destroy my body and my armor. There is a key in my right pocket, use it to summon the Temporal Hound and give him the Key of Time, the cube you saw me use earlier. IF I don't come back from this. It's funny, I've been shot, thrown off of a building, thrown through a building, incinerated, cast into space, crushed, stepped on, split in half and worse...and this is the only one I've ever feared...I guess because it's the only one I don't know I can come back from. There's almost nothing left of my Temporal Reserve, I've never tried dying before with so little left."

Raeyn was quiet for several minutes before she spoke up again. "At least if this kills me off, I will have died doing something good. Gods know I've done enough in my life to deserve dying."

Blue energized particles began to sporadically combust in the open air, soon after they manifest in the form of a lilac tinted titan. The Talmut Emperor had landed on Earth. He had one goal obtain the heart of the universe from its earthly slumber. The intricate string of orchestrated events quickly faltered under direct response from STRIKE and other corresponding heroes; the true turning point came with the Exemplar Armistice’s ability to persuade the Omega Systems Alliance to intervene in the Ninjan Conflict.

This move pushed back Talmut forces deep in the Solar System, and cause the Talmuts to return to their own lands to defend against a powerful Talabethian Fleet . Now it became pertinent that he grasp the heart of the universe, with it this conflict could become one sided regardless of STRIKE effort. “There!” He commanded his troops towards the massive clock tower positioned in the heart of the city.

Though vast the combined efforts of the Power Princess, Maya Liafador and the Herald of Hope, Leonel Pettis kept a vast majority of Talmut ships from reaching the Earth. With the Maverick forces fiercely engaging the Talmut ground forces, doubt slowly began to crawl across his thoughts.

With little effort his hulking frame rose from the ground and slowly, began to push towards the clock tower. His massive presence caught the attention of not one, but two blonde champions. One Was Maya Summers; in her time period she was the president and leader of one of the biggest empires and most effective units of her time. The other Ziccarra Liafador was a woman whose ambitions cause her to do far worse things than anyone could accuse the Talmut.

The two blondes here not by accident, but as an example of the powers the former Exemplar had at her disposal. They stood firmly in front of him, ready to defend a foreign world from Talmut control.

He took one step towards the blonde duo before curling his sinister lips in the form of a smirk. “You’ve allowed me to enter the perfect range” He gloated, gradually raising both hands into the air. They couldn’t see because they were turned in the opposite direction; however the rim around “Big Ben” slowly began to shine with a vibrant cerulean tint. “The heart of the universe is responding!”

--

Ruby continued to act with an assortment of STRIKE and Maverick Forces together. Together they worked to clear the entire area of civilians which freed them up to tackle the Talmut’s alone. “What the fck is that?” one of the Agents called out, drawing Ruby’s attention to the clock tower.

“Agent Barnes, I need an energy scan on big ben. I need to know what the hell is going on in that thing.” Ruby sent, hoping in the back of an armored vehicle en route to the foot of the clock tower.

“Yes ma’am, but I’m a little busy now” Barnes lamented, using his own assault rifle to ward off the now boarding Talmuts. “Maya, we can use a bit of help over here!”

“On the way!”

As the power princess landed on the vessel, Barnes pushed back through the H.A.T.V to the command deck. “Running energy scan now. Will have it for you shortly.”

“Whoa…this can’t be right. My readings are coming back inconclusive.” Barnes reported a bit flabbergasted.

“What’s wrong?”

“This energy source doesn’t match anything we’ve ever discovered. It’s almost like new. We could be looking at an entirely new energy source!” He screamed sort of overwhelmed.

“Or so old we’ve forgotten about it, anyways. Keep it together; we need to figure out a way to keep it out of the hands of the Aliens. What’s the status of the space team?”

“We’ve got nothing yet, won’t be able to pick them up until they enter orbit. IF they enter orbit. I’m picking up a massive congregation of energy at the foot of the tower.”

“It’s the Talmut Emperor.” Maya chimed in, having quickly dispatched the hordes mounting at the foot of the tower. “Just from the energy he has, I think killing him is a no go.”

“So now what?”

“Let’s hope the others get back in time…”