2013.05.20 - Thus Came Giganto - Part 2

RECAP FROM PART 1: A Giant Whale Monster was attacking Metropolis: Aquaman, Captain America, Black Widow, Lor-Zod, Channel and the Fantastic Four responded. With great difficulty the group managed to contain the damage and get the Horn of Glactus out of Namor's hands. The Whale monster is now falling a sleep as it heads back to it's ocean home but a new threat has emerged.

When Namor smashed into the side of the whale beast he unleashed some sort of large parasites that lived on the beasts skin. These spider-like beings are attacking civilians, causing a new set of problems. Namor however has just been caught in a force field by Aquaman as many of the heroes try to stop the parasites from killing civilians.

Namor himself is currently struggling against the force field but was laughing, Orin had suggested to him that King Thak-kor and King Trevis did not want war on the surface, "And thus your masquerade is revealed entirely, toe-headed false king. My grandfather, Thak-kor, sent me to the surface as a vanguard for war! When I first came among the people of this surface I was told to find their weaknesses and prepare us for an invasion!"

The force-field was beginning to buckle a bit but Namor was still captured, "They wanted nothing more than war! It was I who convinced them otherwise. It was I who told them to work with the Dry (an atlantean slur for surface dwellers)! No I wish I had told them to obliterate all of you!"

The force-field was beginning to buckle a bit but Namor was still captured, "They wanted nothing more than war! It was I who convinced them otherwise. It was I who told them to work with the Dry (an atlantean slur for surface dwellers)! No I wish I had told them to obliterate all of you!"'

When Namor smashed into the side of the whale beast he unleashed some sort of large parasites that lived on the beasts skin. These spider-like beings are attacking civilians, causing a new set of problems. Namor however has just been caught in a force field by Aquaman as many of the heroes try to stop the parasites from killing civilians.'

Aquaman, meanwhile, is focused on keeping Namor in the forcefield from the Trident of Neptune in his hands -- one of the symbols of the Monarch of Atlantis. The others seem to be well-equipped to dealing with the spidery creatures and at their destruction, he's stopped insisting on keeping them alive for the time being. "Call those creatures off!" They aren't ones he can talk with easily or he would, just as he did the Leviathan. "Thak-kor is long gone as is the animosity towards the Surface. If you truly convinced them, call off your attack."

She-Hulk was getting a bit overwhelmed by all of the bugs. Sure one at a time, they were relatively easy to beat. Relatively. Too bad things weren't like the movies where the villains all seemed to line up. Too bad comic books are never that easy.

"Might as well add to the property damage." She grabbed a bus and threw it towards a large group of the bugs.

"She-hulk Smash! Heh. Okay that's fun to say."

Superboy is routine in his ventures out of Halo Towers. It starts simple, food, patrol, gawk at something shiny (this also classifies girls in to it) more food, resume patrol, evade calls and return. Somewhere in there food again. Right now the Boy of Steel is arguing audibly on his cell phone and busy prying what looks like a crab-spider-monster thing off of a man's shoulder with his other hand.

"OKAY multitasking fail." The grumbling clone says apologetically to the bifocal wearing shrieking individual. "Geez man, any louder and I'll be screaming with you for the sake of my eardrums. Just stop. It's not hurting you... yet." So that didn't help the screams one bit as the man persists. Superboy proceeds to place the spider-creature off to the side and punt as hard as he can sending it between two tall buildings. "And the crowd goes wild!" While the civilian escapes and the person on the other end of the phone call hangs up.

He has just arrived so has only caught a part of this entire show and the very outskirts of the parastic swarm.

Even though there's no longer an order to keep the spider-creatures alive, Lor-Zod does anyway, setting himself between a group of them and some civilians and using his super-breath to blow them away whenever they approach, until those civilians are safely away.

Glancing around and seeing that Namor was contained, Channel looks over at Lor-Zod. "Pest control," Channel says as she pulls in some thermal energy. Captain America had said it impacted Namor before. Maybe it'll impact the bugs, too? Regardless, even if the extra heat doesn't do anything, the force should, and Channel starts flying at the spiders, firing heated thermal energy blasts at them, intending to heat them up as she tries to herd them back towards the sea.

SCENE: Namor has set the pose order.

Staying atop of the creature Scarlet breathes out a few times. "Any ideas on how I can hit this thing?" he says over his channels, both the Young Justice and Fantastic Four stations. Staring upward he does take in the sight of Namor and then adds, "Or should I go after the First Officer?" He's open to suggestions as to where he would be aptly place. How he even made it up the creature without being detected amazes him but that'll be marveled at later. Climbing up further he breathes out trying to avoid anything linger on the creatures back.

Namor stopped struggling for a moment against force-field and smiled. It was not the smile of a sane man, but one consumed by vengeance, "Give me one reason surface-dweller! False King! I've been lied to, manipulated since I first remembered who I was. My own -comrades!- My best friends! They have told me that I am not the last! Yet I have seen what you surface-scum have done. I have explored one of the most flourishing colonies of my dead homeland, destroyed... by atomic testing."

Namor actually couldn't control the parasites, they horn was no longer in his possession and he actually didn't know if it would work on them like they did on Giganto. Him knocking them off was a stratagem of mass destruction, they would destroy the city if Giganto could not. He was still no longer struggling, it was interesting that this surface-dweller seemed to be using a replica of the Trident of Poseidon than he had quested for so long ago.

Giganto was slowing, more and more, it had already been up for an hour on the surface and that was more than enough for it. Orin's command seemed to be enough to make it keep going that way. The parasites however were not stopping. They were in fact becoming more aggressive. The surface was not exactly where they felt the most at home and they were lashing out at everyone and everything they could.

The current King of Atlantis narrows his eyes, "I am no surface-dweller and I am Orin, True King of Atlantis, son of King Trevis and Queen Atlanna. You got a problem with that, you take it up with -me-. Not the Surface and it's people. You aren't the last Atlantean but I'll be damned if I let you near my people if this is how you behave." He glances about as the others work on the spider-creatures, hoping that no other civilians are being hurt by them.

"There are other colonies. There are other cities. There were refugees, I'm told, from that colony that yes, was destroyed by nuclear testing. That won't be happening again, I've made sure of that. Call. Them. Off."

She-Hulk pressed a hand to the side of her communications device to her ear, as she performed a lariat against an oncoming attacking a bug. "How about you just make it scream?!? Maybe they'll come back to it I don't know!"

She kicked the one bug that fell to the ground with the back of her heel, "Gotta try something hun!"

Superboy's not really in on any of the communications this crowd has going on but more here out of a sense of duty and obligation to the S. One after another of those spider-parasites is taken and launched in rapid succession after the first one. He's not really sure if they're just landing in the harbor or splatting against something. They're bad though right? He'll look in to that later. Right now his task is helping people who can't help themselves.

It's a few moments of this blowing repeatedly when Lor-Zod realizes he can't keep up at this pace. Seeing Channel open up on them, he finally starts to do the same, lashing out with heatvision and wading into the spiders to start copying Superboy and throwing them towards the water.

"I'd suggest we not do anything that might let the big, giant creature come back here," Channel suggests over communications. "Scarlet Spider, the beast is under control. You're probably the most mobile of us. Why don't you swing around the area near the battle and deal with any wayward spiders that have escaped us so far?" she suggests to her teammate.

Finally reaching down to her side, Channel draws a short sword from it's sheath. It wasn't something she pulled out often, but these things needed to just go away at this point, and she could think of nothing faster than accelerating quickly and slashing at them with the blade that was as hard as diamond she had acquired recently. It didn't require a lot of weaponry skill to just stab spiders, and between the speed of Channel's flight and the sharpness of the blade, spiders should begin to fall quickly.

Channel's idea makes a lot of sense. And it's better than his idea of create enough webbing to maybe create a bridle to ride the thing. Although, if he could ride this thing like a horse would be fun the idea just isn't practical. Thinking on his very first plan, anger and run to the shore line with the hope it would go after him. Everything on this creature is thicker than a Rhino's hide except one spot.

Crawling around to Giganto's face Scarlet Spider pauses the pulls back a hand pointing a fist right at its eye. He stops thinking that's going a little too far. Not exactly the creature's fault that one Atlantean had identity issues. Giving the eye a generous amount of webbing thanks to a generous first layer to protect the eye followed by a something he does after leaping off the creature. A silver orb flies to the webbing then more of it spreads further covering the one eye. Now the thing would only be temporarily blinded in that eye. The jump is meant to avoid any large limbs and he is swinging off to the shore line again, "COME ON SHAMOO! COME CHASE THE SPIDER!"

Namor raised an eyebrow and stopped. Orin, the child born fair of hair, on the last day he ever set foot in Atlantis. Thak-kor was dying, Trevis's son was born with fair hair... it was an omen, the Logomancer said. It was an omen that Namor would never return to Atlantis. And so far that had come true, the man who he attacked... the memory loss. His irrational behavior now. He'd been away from the ocean for thirty five years... could this be his cousin Orin all grown up?

"NO!" Namor said, he pushed suddenly with both his arms and legs and the force-field broke. He was free, "I will not be taken in by the lies of surface! I saw Atlantean artifacts put on display like the baubles of whores! A culture that is worthless showing off the achievements of its betters."

He flew up a bit and said, "And now I am to believe they wouldn't use our own history against me?" It already has!

He looked at Orin and shouted, IMPERIOUS REX!

He soared down towards Aquaman, intenting to grab the man by his throat and knock that false trident out of his hand. He was done playing this game, he would kill them all if he had to. Then they would remember the name Namor, then they would remember the people of Atlantis. If he had to conquer the entire surface he would do it, their nations were so much smaller than his own.

The parasites continued their onslaught but there numbers were growing smaller as the heroes continued their assault on them. However one broke through the ranks of heroes and talked a civilian. It's mouth opened and a shoved an ovipositor down the throat of this civilian. Jumping away from it's prey it seemed not to care any further. Then the dead civilian stood back up and wandered around with no sense of direction or care.

Giganto however seemed not to be effected at all by the Scarlet Spider's attack... It just kept stomping towards the bay, happy to be returning to the ocean.

With the Trident freed of holding the forcefield, Orin is able to bring it up and try to blast Namor away in defense. "Atlantis and the Surface are at peace, you idiot! How better to teach them about us than to share some of our culture!" He's heard of Namor...stories only, as he was too young to have known the other. "It's called Education, you schmuck!" Not an Atlantean word. "Get some!"

Not that Yiddish slang is used off the coast of Maine either, but...sometimes it's what's needed. He looks around again, "If your issue is with me, stop attacking these innocents!"

She-Hulk took a few steps back, pushing the bugs away from her as she did so. A smirk spread across her face, "Well I never thought I'd be punching a whale. Sorry Willy."

And at that She-Hulk made a running jump (sadly one of the heroes present who can't fly, DAMN) towards the whale. As she descended in her arc she led with her fists and glass jawed the beast.

Rather chaotic what is going on behind him but Superboy really can't offer aid to either Aquaman or those assaulting Giganto - who seemed content on returning to the ocean anyways. Perhaps they knew something he didn't though. Never less he spies competition in the spider-crab toss in the likes of Lor-Zod and manages a grin and a thumbs up, picking up pace. "Lets see if you can keep up little man." He playfully teases, trying his best not to let any of them past himself or the others actually fending them off from the civilians.

Lor-Zod grins to Superboy and says, "Bet I can!" He works fast, though probably not quite as fast as Superboy. He does seem to be trying, for the most part, to focus on returning the spiders to the water than killing them, but that doesn't stop him from slicing apart any that seem about to get by him with a blast of heat-vision.

Channel pauses as She-Hulk charges the whale and punches it. Didn't Namor punching it release the spiders in the first place? Punching it again just seemed like a really bad idea to her. But, if She-Hulk had some other idea that worked, then more power to them, and hopefully it didn't create more spider creatures. Channel, in this case, favored the more direct approach, which was to continue cutting up spiders at high speed. It was simple and effective, but now she was focused on creating a perimeter to keep civilians and spiders from getting near each other, especially after what happened to that last one.

Scarlet sees She-Hulk punch the creature and he winces a little. Feelings wash over him that would have to be dealt with later. Seeing that the whale is leaving, the spiders are returning that leaves only one target. Swinging toward the dueling Atlanteans Scarlet tries to line up his shot. Maybe if Namor is ensared with webbing it would cause him to forget about another Atlantean. Web lines streak up toward Namor trying to bind various parts of him and to hopefully take his attention away from the King.

Schmuck! That word, Namor knew it. He remembered it. He heard it said to the Nazi's he was fighting when he liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau. He liberated Belzec. He liberated Cgelmno.

He looked at Orin and said, "I am Namor, Crown Prince of Atlantis, it's Avenging Son by the ancient words of our people.

He stopped his attack on Orin, the blast had only pushed him back, but seemed not to harm him.

He looked at the parasites, "I may have made a great mistake."

"I can not control these beasts. They will devour the surface world, unless."

Then Giganto cried out, it sounded like a record scratch done to a thousand. The parasites all looked. They were more vulnerable than ever now..

Namor looked at Orin and shook his head, "I can't control them, I thought... "

He trailed off not finishing that sentence.

"LEAVE THE DAMN LEVIATHAN ALONE!" is bellowed as Aquaman sees She-Hulk punching poor Giganto. "You all hit him one more time and I'll throw you so far into the sea that you'll be swimming for a week before you find land." He seems deadly serious about that, too. There's a brief look in his eyes that show him actually questioning if Namor might be right about some of these people.

There's a wince as Giganto cries out but he then turns back to see Scarlet Spider shooting webbing at Namor, nodding his approval to the kid. Not interrupting that webbing, he turns back to Namor, "Yes, you have. A -grave- mistake. Get them out of here."

She-Hulk lands in a fall that crushes the concrete. More property damage. She suddenly had the thought of a very large bill coming into her mail the next day. Fantastic. She looked up at Aquaman and shrugged and muttered to herself, "Seemed worth a try."

The bugs looked odd as the creature called out. She did a test punch, and it went down easily. She could handle a lecture if her fellow "surface dwellers" would live to see another day.

Not up to speeds like the Flash, Impulse or even Velocity, Superboy is still weaving around in a blur of high speed he's lost count of how many of these he has swept up, smashed, tossed or bludgeoned at this point. It's when She-Hulk punches Gignato that he feels kind of like he got the short end of this one but doesn't cease his movements. Man would it be fun to just punch something like that without holding back.

The grin on his features persists as he maintains his actions pausing only briefly to observe Lor-Zod and to some lesser extent the others. He has yet to meet the negative zone raised Kryptonian this is actually his first encounter and he has yet to really place two and two together. Then the window of opportunity hits and the whale lets out a sound that makes the back of Superboy's skull ache, "Like uh... ouch... " The grin on his features only stretching further as Aquaman shouts, "I have ever urge to go punch it again." He says to Lor-Zod before a burst of movement has him diving in to a grip of the para-spiders and unleashing in a whirl to finish off a large batch of them.

Lor-Zod looks up at the sound of Giganto in pain, but seeing the parasites more vulnerable he speeds into superspeeds once again to take out as many as he can, and quickly. His hearing is sensitive enough to pick up Namor and Orin's conversation, so he no longer holds back with the parasites, focusing on stopping every one. He's not going to let his new world get devoured.

Well, stunned targets made for excellent targets, and so Channel decided to forego the blade at this point and instead pull in some potent electrical energy. She then takes aim at the stunned spiders and lets loose blasts of electrical energy, attempting to fry the little buggers where they stand. Really, she should probably call Billy and ask him to swing by to help fix up the property damage once all this is over. He was good at that sort of thing. She also focuses on scanning the area using her energy sight to try and detect any spiders that have gotten away and need to be hunted down.

"You do and I will tan your hide, kid," is murmured towards Superboy before scowls at She-Hulk. "Even after I told you to leave him alone? Clean our your ears and learn to listen to your Betters."

"TOUCH A HAIR ON HER GREEN HEAD I'LL USE ONE OF DR. RICHARDS DEVICES TO SEND YOU TO A PLANET WITH A HOT SUN AND NO WATER! I DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE THE KING OF ATLANTIS, NO ONE THREATENS A TEAMMATE!!" Scarlet is quick to fire back at the Atlantean even after the approving nod with his own serious tone. Only having lived for three years leaves the list of trusted people, friends and family on a seriously short list. Every person on that list Scarlet is fiercely protective over. Three of those people are here today doing their best and one just get threatened by a king. The other two, if they are threatened, would get their honor defended just as viciously.

"WHAT'S THE PLAN, YOUR HEINOUS!?" and there is the Scarlet quips. Being an Atlantean gives Orin the advantage of knowing how to handle Giganto. He may not like it, but Ben knows listening to the Sea king is the best plan for now. "And I'd the same to anyone listening to this feed," Scarlet calls back into both com channels then switches to the FF only channel, "You alright Sensational One?"

Namor looked at Orin and asked, "Who am I?" If Orin couldn't answer that then, things were going to get much worse, "Who are these people, these... mutants, these aliens... Kryptoians? Tell me the Orin? Or as the surface calls you, Aquaman? Why?"

Namor wasn't attacking anymore, he was just asking, "Why?"

He looked at the parasites and said, "I cannot control them, I could never control them. They give deference to me, but never listen to my commands."

Giganto's roar was calling these parasites back. They were still trying to kill everything in their path, but their path know know meant Giganto.

Please page Mend if interested. [Mon May 20 22:15:32 2013]

"You do and I will tan your hide, kid," is murmured towards Superboy before Aquaman scowls at She-Hulk. "Even after I told you to leave him alone? Clean our your ears and learn to listen to your Betters." Blue eyes narrow at Scarlet Spider, "It's 'Majesty'." Kids. There's a reason he's single.

As the parasites head back to Giganto he looks at the others and orders, "Unless they're attacking something, let them go." He then looks to Namor, "They're friends. Mostly. At least, they're trying, right now, to stop the damage -you- brought here. The evil -you- brought."

She-Hulk was more than willing to give this blonde from Atlantis a lecture. But time wouldn't permit, so instead she pointed a finger at him "I couldn't hear you jerkface, how could I? And you are /not/ my better. So you can take your pride and shove it."

She-Hulk watched as the bugs went back to the creature and threw a middle finger to him.

"I'd like to see you try, old man." Replies Superboy.

"Sheesh, these Atlanteans got some serious sticks wedged up their blowholes don't they?" To no one in particular but from their reactions it's pretty obvious he isn't alone in this conclusion.

With no parasites in his immediate vicinity the Kryptonian sets to flipping an SUV that was on it's side back on all four then proceeds to peeling a shouting man out from underneath a toppled magazine booth.

"There you, pal."

Lor-Zod retreats from the parasites as they start to retreat, flying up and over to make sure their paths are clear of civilians. He shrugs to Superboy and he says, "I don't know." He goes back to watching the parasites retreat, watching from above until he's sure they're not hurting anybody else.

Namor could put it together. Giganto was walking back, the parasites where haeading back to Giganto.

He looked at Orin and said, "And thus, I mean nothing!?"

"I am Namor, Avenging Son or Atlantis."

He had his eyes on others: Lor-Zod, Superboy, and the She-Hulk. They were making it end. They were making sure that this was enough.

She-Hulk's hit was enough, Giganto was yelling, and now the parasites were following.

They did not know where they were going, but they would following Giganto and reattach. They would find their way onto Giganto's body again.

Namor looked at Orin, "We will meet again!"

Aquaman points at She-Hulk...they're going to have a little talk later. Superboy gets another glance as the emblem on his shirt is noted...someone's going to get tattled on. At least the other kids aren't giving any more lip. Back to Namor, he offers, "Look. We can discuss this. I'm sure...things are different than you remember them..." mostly because he only ever heard of 'Namor' and he was well before his time. Well before it. "An apology to these kids who risked themselves to help out would be a good start. Just saying."

as all of the bugs are going back to the creature she rolled her eyes at Aquaman and turned to what actually matterd. The people. She helped someone up who was about to get attacked by a bug who was now safe. Lectures didn't matter. She was a Hulk, she was never going to fit in. She knew it. She had her new team, and people to defend. Screw the rest of it.

She looked up to Namor and thought to herself, "Is it just me, or does this Namor guy look sad? I'll chip into the therapy bill."

"Looks like we did it?" Superboy queries aloud. A moment longer and he slaps his hands together. "Good job randomly assembled team of awesome." Canting his head to look off towards Orin and Namor he lingers just long enough to see how this plays out.

Lor-Zod flies up to Superboy after things seem to be over, and introduces himself, "I'm Lor-Zod. Or... Zenith." Seems like he's a little new to the whole codename thing. He does look back, too, to Orin and Namor to listen. "If you want to be the person you were during the War, you would be out there protecting the people like you did decades ago. What would the past you do to the you of today? He would probably strike you down for going against the people and your friends. Remember what you did to Cap before all of this? If anything the Hitler today is someone that says he's 'The Avenging Son.'" Scarlet comments looking up at Namor. Creating a webline he swings off toward the Fantasticar, "Shall we go beautiful? Victory dinner on me?" he asks She-Hulk looking toward the teammate he came with. His gaze goes to zod, "Tomorrow pizzas, my treat," he says over the Young Allies channel.

Namor looked at Orin, what he would do for Cap... was save everything. He looked Orin in the eyes and asked, "Are you really, the child... the one who I was warned about. Can this true?"

Namor looked at the Scarlet Spider and that was what he need to hear. He never considered that his memory was wrong. He looked at Orin, "I cannot tell them to stop, but I will stop them now."

He looked at the parasites. He looked Orin and asked, "Imperious Rex?

Namor looked at the retreating parsistes and asked a single question to Qorin, "Imperious Rex?"

The parasites were already retreating towards Giganto, he was actually asking if he had permisssion as a fellow prince. Could he change his own fate and save the surface dwellers now?

Orin can't help but give a sigh, "That's a long story but I guess I am. Atlantis hasn't fallen." Prophecy broken. He also looks at the others "Thank you for your help...even if there were listening issues." But he'll let that go this time. The parasites are retreating and he's willing to let them go...although he's going to keep an eye on Giganto. But first there's Namor. "Let them go. You've got a lot to apologize for, but...if you can try to start setting things right..." he nods his approval.

Listening issues? She-Hulk was many things but she didn't posess Wolverine hearing and ya know what? Priorities. Whatever.

She could feel this sudden...rage within her. Something she hadn't felt in quite some time. It wasn't about a greater purpose, just rage. She ate it for the moment, and left it as further fuel for her therapist. She gathered any other normal civilians nearby and ushered them to safety.

"Looks like monster attack averted and no Atlantean rage party is commencing so I think I'll be off." Prying his eyes away from the Princely duo he curiously looks at Lor-Zod. "I've heard something about you. Zenith, huh? I like it. I'm sure we'll catch up soon I've got a date I can't miss." Offering out a quick fist bump to the /younger/ Kryptonian he makes like the super pedestrian he is and races off pausing as he zooms by She-Hulk to get a quick snap shot of her with his cell phone before he is completely gone.

"Hot." Can be heard before he is out of sight.

Lor-Zod waves to Superboy and then turns back, looking back to watch Orin and Namor a moment longer. Sure, now, that things are ok, he then flies off to help with the civilians.