2013.08.04 - AIM for Metropolis!

(Molly Hayes was the npc emitter for this scene, but did not appear herself).

Downtown Metropolis, Financial District -

It was a typically uneventful day in Metropolis's Financial District. The sun was high at the 12 o'clock position in the azure sky overhead, and people of all kinds were beginning to depart from their places of work for their noon time lunch. This and the end of the day are often the most crowded and sometimes chaotic times of day for this bustling hub of business...

...was a typically uneventful day.

Now this little corner of Wall Street and Broad Street was being visited by a different kind of chaos. People are fleeing the streets, their cries intermingling with the sound of horns honking and car alarms going off, in sheer terror of an alien being who has descended from practically out of nowhere. The evidence of its presence is visible, small portions of Broad Street already bear the scars from its fury unleashed. It is a jade-colored demon hovering in the skies surrounded by a bubble of pure green energy. Though it bears the symbol of the Green Lantern upon its chest... it is clearly not.

"...Weakness...", the sleek, green, humanoid mechanical figure bearing a faux Lantern ring speaks with a droning voice."...these creatures should rightfully be annihilated. It is as though they were made for this very purpose. Flawed creations, one and all..." The being's glowing white eyes scan the area beneath it slowly as it speaks with an utterly emotionless tone.

Even in his old home-made costume, The Spider was regularly mistaken for Spider-man. Now, with his new costume, he really looks the part, except where Spider-man's costume is red and blue, his is red on black. Still no webs, though, which is why he appears on the ground, looking up at the figure as he lands on the roof of a damaged car. "I thought Green Lanterns were supposed to be good guys?"

157 happened to be in the area--or rather nearby, anyway--when the screaming and running and car alarms and threatening of humanity started. A police officer giving a ticket for a traffic violation was an observation target, and he'd been watching the proceedings for a minute or two. However, a large unknown entity threatening the lives of thousands is a /priority/ observation target...and so it is that shortly after the jade creature appears in the skies, a small portal opens on a nearby rooftop, and out the small lad steps, looking up at the creature. "Analysis: Aggressor appears to be member of galactic security forces 'Green Lantern Corps'. Insignia and equipment: potential match. Oddities detected in appearance. Moderate probability that subject is not legitimate member of 'Green Lantern Corps'. More data necessary for accurate analysis of situation. Observing." The kid's voice is quite emotionless as well, his speech slow and monotone.


 * ( "Unregistered power ring signature detected." )|

The more time he spends on Earth, the more Sinestro wonders how anyone could stand to life there; it just isn't very safe, what with the metaterrorism, mutant rebellions, and demonic incursions. Whatever frustrations he may feel over being unable to monitor things in Sector 1412 are mitigated somewhat by the apparently endless stream of work that seems to need doing here; he's hardly taken time off to do much more than pop back home once or twice at warp speed. When his ring alerts him to the rogue power ring, he's just outside of Earth's atmosphere, cocooned in a one-man monitoring station spun from solid emerald with broadcasts from around the planet trickling in to the screens dotting its insides--watching and waiting, rather than resting.

"Finally," he murmurs to himself as the monitor womb reconfigures itself into a spacecraft; soon, it's screaming through the atmosphere on a direct route to Metropolis. It'll be a little while before he's actually /in/ Metropolis, but the hurtling green construct approaching it will be visible well before his arrival.

The sound of a car being landed upon catches the mechanical humanoid's attentions, and it turns upon the air to stare down at the costumed being below. "...I am far superior to the being which you refer to as a Green Lantern." The vaguely human creature speaks, or rather emits a voice, from its immediate vicinity. It possesses no visible mouth, despite having glowing white eyes, so that voice must be coming from some place. "...What /are/ you? You are... different... from these... simple fleshbags."

The mechanical being appears to hover closer, but stops after moving a few inches. Turning its eyes to the sky, seemingly distracted by /something/. And its faux ring sounds, with the same mechanical voice as its original, "Power ring signature detected, entering Earth's atmosphere." "Yes... I can feel it. It draws near..."

For now, whatever this 'it' is... it seems to have conveniently left the thing distracted...'

The Spider tilts his head, and says, "I'm a Spider. You know, arachnids. Known for scaring the crap out of beings a thousand times bigger than us." The instant the being is distracted, he rolls forward, grabbing hold of the hood of the car and, as he comes up from the roll on the ground in front of the car, throwing the hood at the creature.

"Alert: Additional subject approaching," 157 says, quietly, as he looks up as well, spotting the light of the approaching green construct. "Probable identification: Member of Green Lantern Corps. Legitimacy: unknown. Additional data necessary for complete analysis. Observing." And that's exactly what he's doing, for the moment--watching the supposed Green Lantern and the approaching supposed Green Lantern...even as the Spider makes his first assault. "Alert: Conflict has begun. Danger assessment: elevated. This one will defend itself if necessary," he says to no one in particular.

As the green ship gets close enough to be clearly visible as a ship, rather than a colorful blob of light, its speed quickly drops off until it finally comes to a stop a few dozen feet above the street.

"Not that I blame your builders for trying my ring again," Sinestro begins as the ship unfolds into a multitude of green panels that form into a glittering shoulder-mounted rocket launcher, "but surely, they must have known that this would be pointless, the moment I arrived." As the construct settles into place, he calls out, "It has a flawed copy of my ring, and none of the training to use it effectively--it's designed to borrow abilities and equipment, but not knowledge!" for the Spider's benefit, since Miles already seems to be engaging the thing. The advice is closely followed by a green missile that streaks from the launcher's barrel to home in on the maniacal machine.

"..." The creature's 'eyes' track back toward the costumed unknown, white glow affixed with inhuman emptiness to The Spider. He makes no quip, no comeback, and no sound. If it weren't for the fact that it was staring, it might be hard to tell it was even paying attention.

But then, "...Subject does not match designation 'spider' nor designation 'arachnid'. Subject does not match any gen..." But it's sentence is cut off by the agile movements of the costumed unknown, and the hood crashes into the creature's emerald green forcefield. It's blown back several feet by the collision, nearly smashing into another vehicle, before it manages to stop its own momentum.

And the mechanical hood clatters to the concrete below. "...Interesting."

For now, the observational unit 157 goes entirely unnoticed. He is blending in far too well at the moment, and The Spider is presenting a far more interesting challenge besides.

...That is, until that /voice/ gets its attention. Its eyes move toward the source of the voice, brightening by all appearances, as the thing's ring sounds once more, "...Power ring signature detected. Proximity is..."

...But it doesn't finish. That surprise missile strike is utterly effective and blows the creature back into the pavement, straight through the car, before an explosion of green energy seems to annihilate it utterly. ... At least, it should have.

...But soon, a green energy field is projected out of the cloud of debris within which the creature is apparently located. It quickly engulfs the car The Spider had been standing on moments prior and flings it airborne - straight toward Thaal Sinestro. "...We shall see how effectual I am..." And it emerges from the cloud once more, alive - with its mechanical body visibly charred and dented.

The Spider, luckily, is nowhere near the car anymore. Once the fight started, he's moving fast, getting away from his initial position. At Sinestro's arrival and explanation he says, "Oh, ok. He copies powers? So, don't punch him or what, so he doesn't copy mine?" He says this as he continues moving, landing by another piece of debris to throw once again.

"Analysis..." 157 is saying as Sinestro launches his missile. "Second possible Green Lantern Corps member legitimate. Neither side hostile to this one at this time. Moderate probability of benefit to mission from aiding Green Lantern Corps member." The explosion goes off, and the creature appears to fall...but then the car is hurtling through the air. "Assisting." Suddenly, he speaks rapidly--numbers, words in some alien tongue, and mathematics...and suddenly, with a flash and a sucking sound, there's a portal between Sinestro and the car, large enough to swallow the car whole. The exit portal is over the creature's head, aimed to dump the car out again aimed for its skull.

"It's a matter of proximity: it can choose to duplicate anything within fifteen feet of it," Sinestro tightly explains as he narrows his eyes on the incoming car and thrusts his ring-bearing fist towards it. The rocket launcher reshapes itself into an excavator arm fixed to his ring, which stretches up and snaps its heavy jaws open to wait for the flying vehicle.

And then space-time tears open before his eyes, and before he knows what's happening, the car is gone; the excavator hangs still for a brief moment as the confused Korugarian quickly scans around for what - or perhaps who - is responsible.


 * ( "Localized spacetime distortion detected; scanning for potential sources..." )|

While the ring works, its wearer points his fist at the machine and reshapes the excavator one last time, compressing it into a green laser that lances out to strike it as the car and debris do.

The agile Spider proves a rather distracting nuisance for the mechanical creature, its 'eyes' leaving the /other/ Lantern to try and keep tabs on their location. "...Come to me you weak organic construct, I will...", the thing starts before he's forced to shut up again and attempt to deflect another chunk of debris with a small field of green energy matching the size it. This time, he manages enough strength to fling it back in the direction it came.

"...You...", it starts, before quickly taking stock of the darkness that seems to have taken it. Turning its 'eyes' upwards, it gets sight of the car just in time to see it less an inch or so from its face.

The car falls on top of the creature, nearly crushing it to the pavement, but stops just a little ways off the ground. And it is quickly pushed back upwards, held aloft in the air by a visible field of energy projected from beneath. The force of the near impact had driven the thing to its knees, and once again stolen its focus. "...Another...?" It starts again, but fails to get out before that green laser comes flying through the air at it...

-CRASH!-

The car smashes into the pavement, its windshields shatter both from the impact and the explosion from that green laser. The machine seems to have vanished beneath the car's heft. ... But shortly afterward, it seems to rise up from the ground again like a green phantasm before quickly becoming entirely corporeal once more.

"Begone!" It declares, loudly, before returning fire at both Sinestro AND 157 with a spray of green energy beams from its ring that seem to fly out in a machine-gun fashion.

Moving incredibly fast, Spider jumps out of the way of the reflected debris, missed by less than an inch. "Ok, so stay outside fifteen feet, and don't expect it to get a joke, got it." He lands on the side of a building and rebounds off, further away from the robot but still in the damaged area. Now he starts throwing anything he can get his hands on and successfully lift, be it newspaper boxes or pieces of concrete or whatever else. He lands, throws, flips aside, throws again, jumps to another spot, throws again, and so on. "Hey! Over here!"

157 is quite a distance away from the big guy...but against something that travels as fast as energy, that's just enough to save him, nothing more. He has just enough time to rapidly speak, creating a portal right in front of himself to absorb the lasers...but he doesn't have quite enough time to calculate for the exit portal appropriately, so when the lasers come back out, his aim's off. Instead of heading back for their creator, the beams that enter the portal blow apart a lamppost, bench, and nearby newspaper box. On the bright side, plenty of debris is now available for the Spider to chuck.


 * ( "Localized spacetime distortion detected," )| Sinestro's ring informs him as he weaves through the scintillating shower, his lithe frame bending around beams with little more than inches to spare. As he comes out of a barrel roll, he catches a glimpse of the portal yawning open in front of the unassuming blonde alien and the corners of his mouth turn down in a slight frown; at least the ring's AI won't be burdened with tracking down the source, now.

Curving around to try and work towards the machine's flank without being fried, he pulls his ring hand back and thinks dangerous, green thoughts--which are promptly interrupted when the street below begins exploding thanks to the redirected laser fire. He can't do anything about the bench or lamp post, but a protective shell springs up around the newspaper box just in time to absorb the brunt of the incoming laser fire; if more random bits of the environment end up being threatened by the Observer's defensive efforts, Sinestro will construct shields around them, too.

"There are people here!" he harshly snaps. "Be c--aagh!"

Distracted as he is by reprimands and property damage prevention, Sinestro isn't giving his evasive maneuvers the attention they deserved, and the laser that slams into his back is a sharp - and painful - reminder of the importance of proper focus. The green field around his body protects him from the worst of it - he's alive and listing towards the ground, rather than plummeting with a hole through his chest - but it'll take him a few seconds to recover his bearings.

One limitation of this thing is abundantly clear in how it attempts to find The Spider when his voice calls: its eyes are quick to try and locate him again - thus drawing the focus from the other two. ... And the first thing that's thrown catches the humanoid machine right in the chest, finally knocking the creature off of its feet and sending it sprawling to the ground with a shiny new dent in its frame!

"...", wordlessly, the creature lifts the bench with its faux ring energy and attempts to deflect - or at least shield itself - from the impacts of the other hucked debris. But after a strike or two, the mostly wooden bench and the green aura it is sheathed in give way... and the Adaptoid is beaned upside the head with a thrown chunk of concrete debris just seconds before the street surrounding where he lays begins to explode from the redirected energy spray...

...and from out of that storm of flying urban debris, the Adaptoid bursts through the air again encased in yet another sphere colored emerald green. Battered, dented, and charred, the furious sentient machine lands upon a nearby light post before deactivating its shield once more. It then levels its ring at the boy, giving him a small warning before attempting to conjure a spectral green construct shaped like a bubble about him. If he does not thwart the attempt somehow - the Adaptoid will then try to fling him airborne for momentarily becoming a higher priority target than the other two! "...Die!"

The Spider laughs as the Adaptoid falls, and says, "Hey, this isn't too...hey, careful," he calls as he too notices the deflected beams going everywhere, dodging one. This, though, puts him in a position to be caught by the Adaptoid as it encases him in the green field. "Not good," he comments, sounding suddenly very nervous, but quickly touches the green field with a finger and applies his 'venom sting' before he's thrown. Yeah, it's highly unlikely to conduct electricity, but worth a try. Once airborne, of course, his thoughts are on trying to survive than anything else.

As the Spider is flung into the air, 157 looks over, watching his trajectory. "Analysis: Subject currently ally of this one. Low probability of survival without aid. Assisting." He speaks rapidly again, and /just/ as the Spider reaches the apex of his trajectory and slows down (en route to falling again), a portal flashes into existence right below him, with an exit portal just above the ground, behind the adaptoid and fairly distant. Falling through it, he won't have time to gather much speed at all.

Sinestro arrests his descent a few feet above the ground, and the sudden braking sends a ring of dust spreading out along the street beneath him. His ring hand twitches in the Spider's direction, but 157's portal takes care of the falling arachnid--and seems to have positioned him perfectly, to boot.

"Well," he exhales, taking flight again as bands of green energy curl out from the ring to coil around his hands. "I do believe you still have something to prove, don't you?" As the green bands solidify into slim, curved swords in the Korugarian's hands, he turns his ascent into a sharp dive towards the Adaptoid he's addressing. When he's within striking distance, he'll swing both blades in wide arcs that are intended to drive it into the machine's arms as much as anything else; the Adaptoid certainly has plenty of warning that the attack is coming.

Fortunately, for the Super Adaptoid, the electrical charge is merely quickly absorbed by the field and fails to do any visible harm to the ring bearer. It is for this reason that the Adaptoid merely stares at him in deathly silence through his emerald green prison before flinging him airborne with cold, emotionless, efficiency. It then chooses to simply -stand there- watching the skies, as if to make absolutely certain this attempt on The Spider's life is seen to its conclusion.

...And much to its chagrin, it is not. A gaping hole suddenly opens in space, swallowing him before once more depositing him on the ground nearby audibly. The machine has seen this trick one too many times tonight, and it is beginning to catch on. Turning, slowly, on the crest of the inactive light post it stands upon - it levels its deathly silent gaze at the odd-looking boy in the dark gray fedora.

...But it has not the time to plot vengeance for disrupting its attempt on The Spider's life. Sinestro's words catch its attention, forcing it to direct its gaze at him again. As the green blur bearing dangerous-looking swords leaps at the Adaptoid, it attempts to conjure an energy field about the size of the back of its right hand. Using the curved field as a makeshift bracer, it attempts to fend off both sword swipes with two simple deft movements. But it only succeeds in blocking the first cleanly, the second skims the energy field and carves a chunk out of the arm... exposing raw circuitry and delicate metal components to the air.

"...Weak...?! ...How can /I/ be struggling against lesser creatures! I am a superior design!" Its tone seems almost to manifest fury now, and it swings its one good arm toward Sinestro in a jab aimed for his face!

Letting out his breath in relief as he lands safely, Spider waves to 157 in thanks and then stands up. Time for a new tactic. While the adaptoid is distracted, Spider seems to vanish as he blends in with the background. Carefully, he approaches, then leaps up to a nearby wall. He reappears as he launches himself fists-first at the Adaptoid's back.

"Analysis: Subject machine has been damaged. Moderate probability of vulnerability to water," 157 says slowly. A few words, and a portal opens next to the boy...the exit by an abandoned cart of a hot dog vendor. He steps through, and as he speaks once more the portal closes. Looking over at the battle, he then turns his gaze on the soda fountain, and steps up to it, poking the switch for the water to let it start pouring out. Another few words, and with that distinctive flash, a small portal opens beneath the flowing water, exiting above the mechanical man so that the water is aimed for his damaged arm.

Sinestro crosses both swords in front of himself to catch the incoming blow; he is not, himself, a particularly accomplished swordsman, but the ring's ability translate his will to protect himself into action means that he doesn't precisely need to be, today.

"Perhaps you were," the Green Lantern allows, springing back a few steps to give Miles a little more room to work in, "But that only makes the reality of your inferiority that much more disappointing, mm?"

When water starts pouring down, he acts quickly to try and aid 157 by trading the swords for a new construct: an aquarium large enough for the Adaptoid, complete with a little green castle and a little green diver; if the machine is quick enough to avoid the soda shower, the aquarium won't do much more than contain the Adaptoid, though.

Due to the elevated threat concern Sinestro becomes after carving out a chunk of it, the Adaptoid fails to register the Spider kicking off the wall behind it. And the costumed boy collides with the back of the machine, not only warping its hull from the unprotected impact, but also shoving it right down into the green aquarium construct face first! The machine smashes its head against the castle top, tumbles down back first over the diver, and finally hits the floor of the aquarium and splashes down into the growing puddle of soda. There it emits some dangerous-sounding mechanical whines, popping sounds, and an audible hum from somewhere within its hull whilst twitching momentarily...

Unwilling to give up, it attempts to push itself up again... but this last act of defiance is quickly thwarted by the sugary soda water continually spilling from the sky onto its open circuitry. The white lights of its eyes dull, mometarily, before the damaged arm begins to twitch violently - followed by the rest of its body spasming - and then it simply... collapses to the floor of the tank with a crash and its 'eyes' begin to dim. "...N-n-n-n...not not not... ha.... ha......."

The Spider, using his incredible reflexes, catches the lamp-post that the Adaptoid was standing on when it falls, doing an acrobatic flip around it to halt his momentum and 'crouches' sideways on the post as he looks down at the failing robot. Laughing, he says, "Awesome idea!"

As the mechanical man falls, seemingly not to rise again, 157 releases the fountain and closes his portals. He looks over at the group, takes a step towards them, then pauses, looking back at the soda fountain. He takes a cup from the cart, fills it partway with ice, and fills himself a cup of soda, and then pops a lid on and a straw in, and then slowly walks over towards the fallen robot and his temporary allies. "Confirmation required: Threat eliminated."

"Of course it has been," Sinestro matter-of-factly replies as he lifts about a foot off the ground. His tone suggests that the threat was clearly eliminated because of his presence, even if he doesn't actually say it. The aquarium rapidly contracts until it's /exactly/ large enough to contain the Adaptoid; if it were active, or programmed to experience claustrophobia, its sugar water prison would be a cruel and unusual punishment indeed.

"Humans live here," he continues as the boxed Adaptoid rises just off the ground, narrowing his eyes on 157. "If you are going to carry yourself as their protector, then you will need to put more care into protecting them; you won't always have someone around to clean your messes for you."

157 looks up at Sinestro, quietly studying him for a few moments while he sips his soda. Finally, he speaks. "Clarification: This one's objective is not protection of group 'humanity' or planet 'Earth'. This one's objective is observation. This one assisted to initiate contact with Green Lantern Corps member as possible future information source." A pause, and he sips again, and then he starts that rapid speech again. After a few moments of this, a portal appears behind him (through which is visible a rooftop somewhere), and he steps back through it. "Notification: This one will make contact if this one requires information." Another quick word or two, and the portal disappears with a flash, and 157 is gone.

The Spider watches 157 as he answers and leaves, and comments, "Yeah, he's weird." He waves and says, "Cool meeting you," and then he leaps towards a building and starts crawling up, camouflaging again as he makes his own exit.

And thus, Sinestro is left behind to handle the police and clean-up duties. Luckily, his power ring makes the latter manageable; all he has to do is hope that the former doesn't prove too big a distraction.