2013.04.29 - Pizza and Gog

Superman and Garth appear up in the air and begin heading north. Having met after years (to Superman, anyways) apart, they bonded quickly over a drink at the LEGION "headquarters" before deciding to hit up the Fortress of Solitude.

Truth be told, for a guy like Superman the meeting is a relief. Almost immediately he fell back into the teenage version of Clark as 'normal' humans are wont to do when they meet old friends from a bygone era. He's loosened up. He's happy.

But these sorts of things have a short shelf-life when you're a hero on this planet.

Superman turns back to Garth with a smile, "So, right. We head north from here. Big key, can't miss it. You'll just have to let me go in first to set the bo-" BZZZZZZZZZZZT!

Superman's words are cut off as he takes a wallop of black energy to the back, sucker punched out of the sky. As the Man of Steel falls from his place in the air and out of view, Garth will come face to face with a being who calls himself Gog.

Brilliant golden metal shines a thousand colors. Horns ride out of the 'man's' helmet, up and back around. Most importantly, this villain carries a large golden staff, the end of which is filled with a giant ball of energy.

"Superman! You have met your reckoning! I am Gog, and I have come to defeat you, Anti-Christ!" Behind him is Gog's own version of a Legion. A dozen followers float in the air, looking smug and wondering if this was all too easy after their trip here from another dimension.

As soon as Gog finishes, Superman crashes through the roof of a building below. Though wincing from the earlier shot, he's alert enough to hit the distress button on the JLA communicator apparatus in his belt.

When the Man of Steel calls for backup, you know it's bad. When he does so by hitting the distress button? It's very bad. J'onn J'onzz streaks through the air towards the scene at full speed, his mind already scanning ahead of him to assess the situation before his physical arrival...what kind of foes, how many, any other allies on the scene. He's still coming in hot, mind, not hesitating. When his friends need help? He's going to answer the call.

Right. About to go look for Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad skids to a stop. Hitting the equivalent of the Emergency Alarm, Garth shouts, "CALLING ALL LEGIONNAIRES". Though he wasn't sure -all- the Legionnaires would be able to answer... and anyway, there wasn't enough time to keep chasing them down.

"Grife, Supes! You okay down there?" Lightning Lad calls out, immediately challenging the golden minotaur-dude with large bolts of lightning, strong enough to knock a normal supervillain out for the loop.

KA-POW!

The display of HD flatscreen television squirreled away at one end of Oracle's lair atop Gotham's Clocktower, explodes in a crackle of light and energy, pixellate debris flying in all directions as a large fireball consumes the screen.

"Ha!" the former Batgirl crows, pumping a fist high in the air, enjoying a rare moment of guiltless recreation. "Fragged ya! 'S what happens when you don't look up, Yonkers."

"Aw, man! I had you! You know I had you!" The petulant whine of a vanquished gaming geek is tinny in her ear.

"Not a chance," Babs retorts. "You always leave yourself open."

"Bull! You cheated!"

"Like hell I d---" Her voice cuts off as a monitoring alarm on her central console starts beeping. "Suck it up, Yonkers. I gotta go. Rematch, later."

With that, she tosses the gaming set aside and spins her chair to zip back to the console. What she sees there causes her brows to lift. A JLA distress beacon? That doesn't happen often. A quick couple of keystrokes and... "Superman?" Babs can probably count on one hand the number of times she's seen the Man of Steel call for help like that. Less than one hand, actually.

Jamming her comset on her head, her fingers start flying over keyboards as she starts pulling scraps of intel together to find out just what the hell is going on over in Metropolis. As her camera feed focuses in on Gog and his flunkies, she breathes out a soft expletive and starts hijacking her way onto the JLA com frequencies while her intelligence bots scurry out into the cyberworld and start feeding her data on just what the hell's going down.

As Manhunter bursts forth, Gog reaches his head back and laughs heartily. "Good! More friend fodder to add to the failures of this Masochist of Steel!" He sends an arc-blast of energy, aimed straight at Manhunter and Garth!

Gog looks to be at Garth's mercy, but as the lightning bolt comes through, one of Gog's lemmings steps in front of the attack, taking it for his leader. The minion convulses as electricity sparks all around him. He too, falls from the sky, not that Gog seems to care.

Below, Superman is pulling himself out of the hole he made in that building. Some poor super is going to have a mess on his hands, and some lucky contractor is going to make bank. Superman, however, is still trying to get it all together.

Oracle's readouts will inform her that it appears Gog has arrived from some sort of portal. At least that's what it appears like. There's a ton of crackling energy, and a replay from a conveniently placed timelapse camera, usually used in news television b-film, is helpful in showing that they almost appeared out of thin air. Gog, everyone is familiar with, but there are 12-no, make that 11-of his disciples. The other one is falling, twitching, and has bands of electricity spilling over his body.

"I'm here. . ." Superman says wearily. "Oracle, is that you?"

Darting below the energy attack, J'onn does something only a superhero would borrow with, slowing slightly as he moves to catch the falling minion before he goes splat. (Or lands on something important, maybe). He's not going to hold him a second longer than he has to, mind, with all of that electricity.

"Oh for... sprock!" The Legion's code against killing was in full force, which was why Garth was holding back enough to do a knockout blow, but...

"Fine, we're gonna play it this way?" the redheaded Legionnaire says, as he switches from narrow bolts to a wide arcing sweep of electricity, aiming to take out as many minions as possible. His scar around his right eye lights up as Lightning Lad lives up to his name.

Oracle plays back the timelapse, when she sees it, and refocuses every satellite she can access that's convenient to the area to grab as broad a spectrum of readings as she can. She also downloads the scans some of the research satellites up there and shoves the data through to an analyzer, to see if she can get a fix on the energy type and where that portal might come from. In the meantime...

"Yes, Superman, it's Oracle. I have eyes on the conflict and, I gotta tell you, there are some funky readings coming out of the portal Gog and his minions used. I count 11 remaining and, just a warning, that energy is playing havoc in the local area. I'm having to seriously amp to get through the electrical inteference." Of course, that may be Lightning Lad's fault as much as Gog's.

"Best I can do from here is keep you apprised of movements, though, until I get a better read on the portal he produced."

Martian Manhunter evades Gog's attack which makes the latter all feisty and angry, but allows the former to reach the falling minion with relative ease. He's deposited unceremoniously upon the nearest rooftop, knocked out cold, but not kersplat-which is the important thing.

Gog is about to take a potshot at the returning Manhunter, but is alerted to the crackling of Lightning Lad's electric volley before two more of his minions fall from the sky. 3 down before they even take a shot. Are these guys here to take a shot, or are they just fodder for Father Crazy?

Once the electricity gets to Gog, he "catches it" in his energy ball at the end of his staff, and flings it away to the, out over the ocean. "You fool! You dare oppose Gog?! The heavens shall bring your doom and your blood will soak the grounds of hell with flood!"

"I hear you, Oracle, any information would be helpful," says Superman. "I've never heard of this guy, but he seems to know all about me."

The energy readouts are filtered through the analysis programs and the information begins to spit back at Barbara. The source seems to be linked to the staff. And though it is not visible, the portal still seems to be open somehow.

Superman bumrushes Gog and hurtles through the air, intent on giving the knock out punch. Even as he does so, the beast is ready for him. In a move that is unlikely to be visible to the normal, unpowered eye, Gog swings his staff as a baseball player might and knocks a shocked and soon unconscious Man of Steel out over the ocean, kerplopping into the water a few miles away.

Arrogantly, Gog twirls his staff as he shoots a beam of energy out in a host of directions.

Two more falling guys...and J'onn will put them next to their buddy...and tie them up as best he can before returning to the fight. Superman? He reaches out a thought for the Man of Steel. "Superman's down," he says, entirely too calmly. Which means he's probably rather pissed.

"Sprock," Lightning Lad is now moving. Like a champion athlete, except thinking in three dimensions as he swoops up to take on Gog from an entirely different angle so that the bastard couldn't -look- up -and- down at the same time. Time for teamwork, uh... holy sprock, was that J'onn J'onzz? The fabled Manhunter from Mars? Dammmmmmn.

"Hit'em low, I'll hit them high, J'onn!" Lightning Lad exclaims, taking advantage of his new vantage point. Not that J'onn would know him -right- now, but...

"Aw, crap..." The video monitors show Oracle pretty clearly the after effects of Gog's hit, if not the actual point of contact. "Anyone other than Supes hearing me, out there?" she asks as starts pinpointing the Man of Steel's watery coordinates. "Stay in the fight. I'll message the coast guard to go after Superman."

Oracle thumbs a channel open to the nearest coast guard base and radios in the waterdrop, stressing the urgency of the retrieval. Fortunately, people like Superman. So, there's doubtlessly a mad scramble to respond.

As that operation goes forth, she glances up to her screen and the information flashing by there. "Okay, I don't know who's reading me," she says, green eyes flicking over the salient points. "But, heads up, gents. Your target needs to be his staff. From what my readings are telling me, that's both the source of his power -- or at least a large portion of it -- and the source of the portal he came through. Which, by the way, is still humming along tickety-boo in the background there. So, watch where you're flying, or you could find yourself in different skies altogether."

Superman raises out of the sea just as the Coast Guard is mobilizing and getting out to see if he's okay. Water drips down from his suit, his hair is mussed, there's a large purple bruise on his left cheek, and his eyes are glowing red.

"I'm here, Oracle. I need you to tell everyone involved not to attack this guy through normal means. He's fast-faster than me. And stronger too. We need to be smart and use his arrogance against him. We need to trick him back into the portal he came through."

Meanwhile, Gog is laughing as both the Manhunter and Garth approach. He doesn't seem to be worried about this sort of thing at all. And why should he be? Each day he's in a different dimension, trying to defeat Earth's heroes. Most of the time he's very successful.

Ah, good. Superman is up. Superman is pissed off. "Roger that, Superman." He was about to zap the guy's staff. Instead? Hrm. What kind of mental defenses does this guy have? He's going to check...carefully, of course, as he doesn't want to end up mind controlled himself. (Not that that would be easy to achieve.

That's when a man in black and purple approaches like a cannonball over the Atlantic. Over the Legion's flight ring comm, which is also audible to super-hearing, his voice comes in first; genial tone. <> He slows down on the approach only to halt in midair, hands out, above and behind where Gog is currently facing, and tries to hold the guy still. Even if the one-two punch doesn't work, maybe it'll slow the dude down enough that everyone else can get some more punches in.

With Superman rising from the sea, pissed off and hurt.. The clouds part and a certain electromagnetic man burst through, descending quickly on a ball of purple electricity. Or so it looks from sea level. "Dun duh duh!!! Charge!!" He yells, though it's likely only Superman can hear him. His hands blaze with colorful purple lightning the same as his disc, and he lets loose a blast of power from each hand. It's not an attack however.. and it's not aimed at Gog. No.. Garth is his target. He could see from far off, Garth zapping the badguy. Electric powers.. stands to reason he could use a charge. And Static gives him a big one, amping the other electric hero up big time, though any attacks Garth makes will be laced with that particular shade of purple.

"Grife, it -figures-," Lightning Lad mutters, as it seems like he's alone right now in keeping Gog occupied, throwing lightning bolts. It wasn't that he couldn't -add- more power to the bolts, but that there wasn't a -plan-...

And then Rokk -finally- answers the call, and Garth flashes a grin. Oh good, a -plan-.

And then Garth -absorbs- the charge from Static. "What the sprock..."

He seems almost ready to -zap- the person who was trying to zap him, only to be sidetracked by a <> from Rokk.

<>

The magnetic funnel set in place, Garth pours in an enormous electric discharge, aided by Static's boosted up electricity, the air crackling with heavy doses of ozone..

"Superman!" Oh, thank God... Babs lets out a sigh of relief. "You got it." She goes to pass on the message, but Martian Manhunter is already responding to it. So, that's handled. Her work here is done?

Well. Not really. Still, with the increase in electrical charge in the area, atmospheric interference starts to become a problem for her satellites. And, let's face it, most ground and apartment cams don't point up.

She starts bouncing signals through secondary relays to try and boost them, but it's quickly becoming touch-and-go.

"Okay. Who're the yahoos messing up my view?" she quips irritably -- being somewhat unfamiliar with the Legionnaires as she is.

Martian Manhunter broaches the defenses of Gog's mind. He'll find that breaking through his supernatural protection is going to be a trick to a trick and a half. It's not impossible, but it'll take some work.

Garth, Static, and Rokk all work together to bring some havoc Gog's way. The attack does a fair bit of damage and staggers the Pitiful Prophet. As it does so, Manhunter will notice that the protection against the mental attacks flickers like an old light. Whatever they're doing, they need to do more of it.

Babs is the only one to notice, though her feed is popping in and out, that about half a dozen lemmings are making their way around the fray and coming up to get a shot from behind.

A quick thought to the electricity types, << Whatever you are doing, keep it up. >> Then he's going to go into full concentration mode. His goal, if he can get through those shields, is to confuse Gog into thinking he's going the wrong way and the enemies are right through his own portal. It's a simple trick...but getting INTO his mind to do it is going to be tough.

Static hits the 'brakes' on his disc, hovering about 20 feet off the ground. He hears the purple kid crack but only shakes his head, dreds slapping his temples. "The name.. Is Static." He calls back. But if they want it all.. they get it.. He pauses, hands coming together. Those sensitive to electromagnetic forces can feel something powerful building.. to everyone else.. thier hair will stand up on the back of thier arms and necks, the satellite coverage in the area will grey out for a few seconds here and there, Bab's gone digitally blind.. Enough power to fuel the city of New York for a few minutes amps up and rips free from his gloves hands, a torrent of purple power arcing from him and directly into Garth, hitting him with all he's got.

Unfortunately, this heavy hitter comes with a heavy price. Giving Garth his reserves, the young black man falls out of the sky, and lands heavily, his disc rolling a few feet away, the masked man breathing hard.

Oh for grife's sake. No time to think right now, just take that energy, pour it into the funnel, and set up for what might be the biggest bloody EMP ball ever.

And adding to his own resources, electricity crackles through the air, becoming larger and larger... and then -amplifies- faster, as, using the magnetic funnel, Garth moves the electricity along -so- much faster that -thunder- is added to the effects, as the vacuum left in the lightning's wake practically -rolls- through it...

Through the static, Oracle tracks the six moving blips moving to flank and surround the Electro-Shock Therapy Trio and the rest of the heroes in the sky. "Heads-up!" she snaps into her mic, her voice a little staticky but still intelligible through the interference. "Six bogies moving to flank. You guys are going to get backshot if you don't keep an eye out three-sixty."

It's moments like these she wishes she were still hale and whole enough to help physically with the fight. Except, of course, even if she were still Batgirl, she'd be of little help to the Sky Patrol. They'd have to drop a few hundred feet, at least. And sniping isn't her bag. So... Well, who'd a thunk it. Being Oracle actually does trump wearing a bat on your chest, once in a while.

(Which, actually, is an ironically humorous thought, given Babs is wearing her bat-symbol tank top, today. But, never mind. Back to the fight.)

As the satellites start blipping, however, because of the atmospheric charge built up, she mutters a few choice expletives... just before her feeds cut out entirely in time with the discharge.

Garth, Static, and Rokk all combine to unleash an epic torrent of electric blast upon Gog who screams in agony. Gog crackles with electricity and as he does, the supernatural mental blocks that protect him from Manhunter weaken.

As J'onn gets inside his mind, he'll realize that this being's mental capacity is far stronger than a normal human's. A tussle ensues, even as Gog gets closer and closer to the invisible portal.

But the portal is not invisible to everyone. With a whoosh of air and a flutter of his cape, Superman arrives, angry as all get out. Still, his words are measured. "Need a hand?" His open hand becomes a closed fist as his face takes on an furious look. BOOOOM!

Superman finishes what the others started and gives Gog the final shove, via a closed fist to the face, into the dimension from where he came. Perhaps he's killed superheroes of a thousand dimensions. But not this dimension. Not today.

"Master! NOOOOOOOO!"

The disciples all scream in horror as their master has been defeated. They all make b-lines for where he disappeared.

J'onn's rather inclined to let them keep running. He drifts back a little. Although it doesn't seem like he did anything much, that was hard work. (Sometimes the mentalists' challenge is to convince his teammates he actually took part in the battle!)

And there's a bellowed whoop of delight from above, as Rokk watches the events unfold and then Superman goes and-- "THE OLD PLANET-SMASHER! AW YEAH!!"

Then he's dropping like a stone to check on Static, because that can't have been a nice fall.

Static looks up, a few crackles of electricity sparking from his fingertips.. but that's all he has. He pushes himself to his feet, and wipes his mouth off. spitting out a bit of dirt that wound up there somehow. Waving off Supes, he snaps his fingers, and gets only a tiny spark. He's dry. "Damn.." He mutters. Then he's on his butt.. his head spinning with sudden dizzyness.

Cutting off the lightning bolts as Superman arrives, Garth lets loose a whoop.

"Hell -yeah-, show that nasshead what's good for him, Supes!" Lightning Lad crows as he clenches his prosthetic arm, looking back towards Rokk. Following him down to Static, Garth peers. "Hell... you need a charge?" Lightning Lad says, as he reaches out, lightning crackling about his fingers. He's pretty fresh as a daisy, but that had a lot to do with Static's own contributions, and Garth's not unmindful of that...

"C'monc'monc'monc'monc'monc'monc'monc'mon..." Babs taps her fingers impatiently on her console, waiting for a useful satellite feed to come back online. Because the static she's currently getting is frickin' annoying.

"Yeah!" The feeds light up and she scans the video to see just what happened during her 60 seconds of outage.

Apparently, a lot happened. Because there appears to be a bit of a party in the sky and no trace of the false prophet and his not-so-mighty minions. "Superman? Can you hear me? Are we good? Is he gone?" She scans her readouts. "My feeds indicate the portal is closed..."

Superman holds a finger to his ear and nods, "I'm not seeing it with my vision either, Oracle. The force must have folded the portal in around itself. I'm not sure where they went, but I'm sure it's not here."

Kal gives a nod to Manhunter and reaches down to help Static up to his feet. "Just like old times, Cos," Superman says with a smile. "Catching up with Lightning Bug a bit earlier. Wish we'd have gotten together on better terms."

He looks down to Static and smoothes out the young mans wrinkled shoulder on his garment. "That's a heck of an assist, son. Appreciate your help."

J'onn touches down. "He had some significant defenses. I am glad the rest of you were here." On his own, he might well not have been able to take that guy...in fact, he would likely have got his butt handed to him.

"Teamwork is the best ever," Cos agrees with Manhunter, then *grins* and punches Kal's arm. Not, like, hard. Because that would break his hand. He's significantly older than Garth-- hell, he's older than Kal. But he's still Cos. "We kind of have a crap headquarters, but that's temporary. You still got your flight ring, drop by whenever! You can find us." He does a quick glance-around; everything's in order and Garth and Clark have seen to Static, and lights are coming back on. "Nice. We didn't completely kill the power grid."

Static offers the big man a smile. "It's what I do. Just glad to see no one as hurt. No one was were they?" He asks, looking around. But hearing Garth's offer, he turns back to the other lightning rod. "Don't mind if I do.." He says and lifts a hand toward Garth. A myriad colored arc of power jumps from Garth to Static, Virgil pulling it back as much as Garth is giving it.

Standing straight again, Statics eyes crackle with his purple power again. While he's still not full strength.. he's more than ready to roll again. That hand outstretched toward Garth swings wide, his hand blazing purple. The disc lying on the ground a few feet to the side glows similarly and snaps up into the air, Static guiding it quick and low around peoples feet, before stepping onto it. "So who WAS that guy?" He asks aloud.

Looking a bit winded -now- that he's given a jumpstart to Static, Lightning Lad relies on his flight wing to keep him steady, glancing back up at Rokk. "Yeah, who -was- that guy, Cos?" he asks... before glancing back up at Superman.

And as if he'd never lost any energy, Lightning Lad flew up, towards Superman, letting out a loud WHOOP! as he thumps Superman on the back. "Hell of a job, Supes! The PLANET-SMASHER!" For Lightning Lad, it's only like last week they were beating up on Imperix, and he can't help but grab Superman around the neck, giving him a NOOGIE unbashedly, uncaring of the Kryptonian's dignity.

Babs sits back with a sigh at Supes' reassurance. "Awesome. That's what I want to hear." She does another quick sweep to confirm her earlier readings and see the situation on the ground. Aside from the Superman-sized hole in the one building, and the first responders that are already there to make sure no one was hurt, everything else looks pretty good.

"Looks like we're in the clear," she decides, giving a smile owed to a job well done. (Not, mind, that she did all that much, in the grand scheme of things.)

"Have a good day, gentlemen," she says across the JLA channel. "Oracle, out."

Superman nods to Manhunter and Rokk, unable to find words to put it better himself.

"Well," he says to Static, "I think the only person who got hurt was me and my pride. But everyone else looks to be safe, thanks to all of you. In regards to who he was, I can't be sure. I have a feeling we'll be seeing him again."

Speaking of Superman's dignity and pride, it's completely gone as Garth noogies him. It's gotta be the first time that's happened. Ever.

"Thank you, Oracle. We'll be in touch," he responds to her in a similar way as the last time they 'met'. He's still confounded as to who or what that man is. Quite the enigma.

"You guys hungry for pizza and wings? I could really go for some pizza and wings."