| Echos Through Time Finale | |||||
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| What: The turning point has arrived. The heroes have been warned. The Villains are coming... | |||||
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There were warnings given. Pretty much every hero who was spirited away to any of the various futures got 'the note'. Thus they were told when. And where.
The when is more or less here and now. But people were given enough notice that they could and would not only be here for when things go down, but so that if they wanted they could set things up like traps for the villains who show up, when they show up. Or call in backup ahead of time if the heroes wanted to do that.
And the where? Times Square. Which is strangely empty. There's no pedestrians. No innocents. No bystanders. If one were to go a couple of blocks away, they may find various things, random things, keeping people away. A car accident. A 'sink hole' that opens into the subway. A bunch of 'Occupy' protesters that up and suddenly formed a camp in the middle of a busy road. All that and more. In ach case the damage, if there is any, is enough to make it so people can't get through easily, thus people are being rerouted around Times Square. But there are no injuries.
At least not yet.
And thus, as various heroes arrive, if they aren't already there, they may find things a bit quiet. Too quiet.
Heck, there isn't even a new chopper up in the sky right now. This instead of this being one of the busiest parts of the busiest cities in the world, it almost feels like a ghost town.
Hey, some people actually DON'T alert the media to their every move in a desperate attempt to recapture a little bit of the Public Heart Bubble. People like the Dazzler, Alison Blaire, recently mutant-outed and chased from Los Angeles only to be whisked into a horrible alterna-future she'd REALLY rather not discuss.
Of course, those people (like Alison) don't just discount creepy warnings that come from those sorts of 'why me' events, either. Which is why she totally showed up, on time, dressed to rock just in case. Because you never know. But God help them if they try to spirit her off anywhere a second time, oohhh no.
So, here is Channel. She's in costume now, having flown in. She wasn't sure exactly what she was going to find here (and was half expecting to just be teleported somewhere), so she was a little surprised to just see a very quiet area. The tall teen lands Times Square, but not in the center (because bad things always happened right in the center of these sorts of places, according to movies), and waited to see who else made it and had responded to the note.
Finding Times Square was the most difficult part for Lor-Zod. Still new to the planet, the local names didn't hold much meaning for him. Luckily, Superman gave him internet access so, with the help of online mapping software, he found his way. He arrived early but didn't spend time setting up traps. Outside those he met in the time jumps, his only allies and resources come from the Justice League, which the note was very specific about not having around, so he's come alone. He's waited on one of the nearby rooftops, watching the street below, and as it gets close to the time he finally jumps off, slowing his fall as he nears the ground to land gently on the sidewalk.
Anole had received the note, he'd snuck out of Xavier's like he had dozens of times before. Dressed in his young X-Men uniform, he sat invisible in front of one of the Time's Square's many gaudy neon signs. He watched the ground below and waited. The lights behind him seemed to shimmer, shift- all of it like reactive camouflage of the most technologically advanced type. Only, of course, not. He sat, crouched, and watched and waited for the enemies to appear. Anole was prepared.
Times Square is actually not a bad place for a Red Dragn to hide in. Between all the skyscrapers and the bright neon signs its not hard to find a building top to curl up ontwo hours or so ahead of time, hidden behind a billboard, with only his head peaking out to watch and see what's going on.
Axiom had been getting ready for some of those villains as soon as he started figuring things out during the first trip. Of course it wasn't easy to plan for all of them but he's got a few things in the backpack he's carrying. In costume, he's found a little hiding space in an alley and is just waiting. The quiet has him on edge, but he's been waiting patiently and he's going to keep waiting patiently. Just in case.
Nate did try to get in touch with a few super-powered friends, but they don't seem to be within reach. Probably they are not even on Earth. And no X-Men can come? He is not sure if that should be taken seriously, does he even count as an X-Men? Probably not, since he got the note.
He doesn't come early, he comes somewhat sceptically too, expecting maybe a trap, but the weird emptiness in Times Square is a good hint that something is very wrong. Hovering a hundred yards over the street, he watching how the others start arriving, recognizing Axion and Channel first. He flies down to greet them with a nod.
There is at least one pedestrian in Times Square, a dark haired teenager in a red hoodie and dark shades. After a very filling meal with good friends he made sure to show up a whole lot earlier than the note he found about the end of hte world told him and has been a bit buisy.
Despite the already exisitng near lack of people the teenager in the red hoodie set up a number of small spells, what he liked to reffer to as an SEP or Somebody Elses Problem field that would keep normal people away from the area just in case whatever was already effecting Times Square failed or was taken down by whomever put it up at a bad moment. He also spent a bit of time with a stick of chalk writting on the sidewalk, street, and a couple of doors some random looking symbols, mostly a mix of Norse Runes and some Hebrew letters. He saw one bad future, and heard about at least one other and the teen is determined to be prepaired for what ever is about to happen.
With everything he wanted in place the Red Hoodie wearing teen, has taken to litening to an iPod and sitting back in a buss stop to wait. He is ready to leap into action as soon as things get interesting, but even as other heroes appear he is staying incogneto. Not that his disguide would hide who he is from friends like Anole and Axiom who have doutlessly seen Billy Kaplan AKA Wiccan in it a few times or from Channel who could probably pick up his energy signature anywhere.
And while the various heroes arrive, and others prepare things, yet another 'hero' just takes things in.
Who is it?
It's Hawkeye. The female one. She's a few stories up. At a building where the entire window has been removed. Sure she sort of has her bow ready. And she has a quiver full of arrows she otherwise wouldn't ever consider using. She's even scanning for potential targets. But she hasn't exactly announced to anyone that she's there. Not even her own team mates, strangely enough.
But that silence doesn't last for much longer. Not as a bright yellow sphere descends from the heavens, landing smack dab in the middle of times square. Once it lands, it in turn fades away...
And what is revealed to be inside of it can only be described as 'trouble'.
There's a woman with dark skin and long wavy hair with a yellow lantern ring. To those that know their villains, they may recognize her as Fatality.
Not too far from her there's yet another woman, floating right next to her, with the word 'Obsession' written on her arms.
On the ground not too far from them is the explosive villain Nitro.
There's yet another villain, who stays still for only a moment or two, before he up and starts to run. Some may recognize him as Speed Demon.
And finally, there's a guy who appears to be rather plain looking, and either wearing, or made up of something entirely green and 'not right' looking. Those that /really/ know their villains could recognize it as not a man, but instead the robot known as The Super Adaptoid.
"New York City." The Adaptoid calls out. "Your age is at an end."
Then it looks at its allies, and says a few simple words.
"Destroy it all."
Totally needlessly, Dazzler slides her shades down from atop her head to over her eyes.
"Riiiiiight."
It's the B-Side Villain Roll Call! Dazzler has NO idea who any of them are, because... well, why? There isn't a lot of sound just yet, and oddly mercifully not a WHOLE lot of people around (lots of costumes, though, how New York!) The Bad Guy's Motivation is clear, though, and the first thing that comes to mind is...
FLASH!
Probably won't get /all/ of them with that first bright blast, but hopefully it's enough to catch at least of few of them off-guard as they 'disembark.'
Well, normally Channel considered her job to be damage control or blaster. She rather approves of Dazzler's initial attack, and pulls in a bunch of kinetic and magnetic energy. Nate, Wiccan, and the ones she already knows get simple nods. She then lets off a few kinetic bursts right in the center of the enemies. Pre-emptive strikes were usually good things, in Channel's opinion, and if they can knock one or two of them out immediately (fat chance!), she figures that would be rather helpful.
The teen then flies up into the air and starts preparing to start absorbing energy from any explosions that the bad guys might dish out, just to minimize property damage. She also charges herself up in the process, because she knew she'd need it.
When the one says to destroy the city, Lor-Zod calls back, "No!" And then he's flying forward in a quick attack, flying in and striking at the one villain he knows, Nitro, having helped rescue him in an alternate future. He doesn't punch as hard as he can, of course, not so sure of how tough Nitro is and not wanting to kill him.
Invisible is the way to go when one wants to take a big-fist-first dive towards a Yellow-Ringed Supervillian. Green skinned Anole falls from the sky, a rush of colors and barely visible 'shifting' light as he comes to bring a big green fist down on the top of her head. Hit, or not, he'll be quick to run off and scuttle quickly up a wall in hit-and-run style, a mirage-esque ghost in the glare of Times Square.
Dragon spreads his wings and drops from the roof. After a few flaps he closes the wings and arrows down at the plain looking man, extending a paw with the intention of simple batting him into the side of a building, hoping to take him out with one hit...
Axiom knows who the villains are even if he had to do extra research on them beforehand. Dazzler, Billy, and Channel's locations are noted as he sees them and Nate gets a quick nod before Axiom steps back a little deeper into the alley. Lor-Zod's arrival makes him jump but it's quickly shaken off. The arrival of the villains has Axiom crouching down and opening his backpack. He takes out a small bag and opens it before looking for Speed Demon. Trying to predict the villain's path, he lets the contents of the bag spell. A whole lot of slippery little ball bearings he hopes will trip the villain up.
Nate does not know his villains. He really should go read some reports now he has some access to Xavier databanks. But really, there are hundreds, if not thousands of them. And Nate has always been a fan of learning on the field, anyway. "Why do they want to destroy New York?" He asks idly. Because, seriously, what the hell? "I guess we will have to ask them after the beat up." Also, the others are attacking without much coordination, getting in his way. This is going to be fun. He charges Nitro, since Lor-Zod is a kid and he is not sure if he knows what he is doing. He has no idea the kid in question is a Kryptonian, of course.
Wiccan does not say the word that he is thinking when the villains appear. Actually, most of the villains he is not too worried about since he knows enough about them and has ideas on fighting them or those like them. It is only the green one that makes him want to curse. Plan number one, stay away from the Super Adaptoid because reality warping magic in his hands would make things a lot harder. Maybe it is a good thing that instead of his normal charge in and blast things mode of operation he has decided to be more subtle, and mine the battle field after a fashion.
He does however start chanting to himself now that the villains are here. "Iwantheroestohearme, Iwantheroestohearme, Iwantheroestohearme!" It is a spell he has had a lot of practice with lately, any of the heroes in the area as soon as it goes off will be able to speak, and be heard by each other as if they are standing right next to one another.
Once that is done he leans a little farther back into the little where was sitting and says, "Axiom, my geekness if failing me, I can't remember if the Super Adaptoid can copy powers from people that are already coping powers or not. Any idea?"
That asked Wiccan starts another spell, "Iwantanoilslick, Iwantanoilslick, Iwantanoilslick!" His intent, to create a puddle of super slippery oil that will start under the feet of the Speed Demon and spread a good five ten feet out from him in all directions. With any luck, he won't notice it is there till he tries to run.
And as the Villains arrive, Kate reaches for, and fires one of the special arrows. This arrow is not fired at the villains per se. But instead towards a spot on the ground in between them. Said arrow doesn't do anything. At least not until it hits the ground. But when it does...
There's a loud, sonic shriek.
Yes, that's right. This arrow is a screamer!
But by the time that burst of light from Dazzler, and the screamer arrow from Hawkeye 'hit', Speed Demon is already gone. On the other hand, Obsession and Nitro stumble as their senses are overloaded with the massive amount of light and sound. But they don't fall. Not yet anyways.
Then again as Lor charges in and punches Nitro, backed up by Nates TK, there's an explosion as that contact happens. It's almost as if a bunch of TNT goes off all at once, as the explosive villain goes flying backwards. Into a building. And no, he doesn't go through the wall. He just crashes into it, then slides down. And for the moment, he doesn't get back up.
Is he down for the fight already though?
All though as Channel tries to absorb energy, she may find herself dealing with a certain odd energy. A yellow energy. Something that is almost like distilled fear. Worse, it's almost as if the traces of the energy she absorbs is somehow fighting against her.
All though the person controlling that energy doesn't even have as much as a moment to even consider why her ring and its energy is acting strangely. Not as a green thing comes flying at her, and smacks right into her. At which point a giant glowing yellow axe like thing appears in her hand as she tries to slash at what ever hit her. But odds are by the time she turns that thing... Anole, is hiding again.
As the dragon hits that 'plain man', The Super Adaptoid... Goes flying. Into a wall. Much like Nitro did. Only it doesn't stay down. Instead...
Instead, The Super Adaptoid starts to morph and change, becoming a /GREEN/ Dragon. One just as massive as the red one.
Of course between the ball bearings and the oil that suddenly appears...
Speed Demon goes flying. And sliding. And crashing. But after just a few moments, he is back up?!?
So much happens in the opening few seconds that while bleeding off the edges of the sound-waves from the screamer arrow that deliver themselves to her, all Dazzler can /really/ do is take a giant back-flip or two out of the way and try NOT to land on one of the suddenly omnipresent Hero Battle thing now happening. In fact, this pretty much calls for SHIELDS until she can get a bearing on what's going on where and who to laser in the face.
Channel isn't going to be hanging onto that energy, heck no! First of all, it was some seriously messed up energy. It was some seriously crazy mix. Secondly, she couldn't help but feel completely and utterly creeped out by it's entire presence in her system. So she points her hand at Fatality and launches a beam back at her. It's a solid yellow beam of energy, made up of the exact same type of energy she was absorbing, and she was basically giving Fatality a taste of her very own medicine. Effectively, Channel was living up to her name and acting as a channel for the energy to travel through.
"Woman has some seriously creepy energy. You don't want to mess with whatever it is," comes Channel's voice, spoken quietly and through gritted teeth through Wiccan's communication spell.
Channel then continues to take on the role of watching for explosions and pulling in the energy to prevent buildings from going up in flames or anything like that. Energy that is absorbed gets shot at her current target, which happens to be Fatality. At least the city planners might appreciate it!
And poor Lor is caught by the screamer as well, combined with the noise of the explosion as he hits Nitro. Even as he's being knocked back, his hands go to his ears, his powerful hearing not yet under his control. He looks unhurt from the explosion and the bouncy landing, but he seems dazed from the sensory overload as he picks himself back up. "Ow, that was loud," he says.
Anole is quick on his feet, dodging the yellow axe as he skitters up the building nearest him to lean back and watch what was happening below. He took a moment. His hands come up to cover his ears, with the screamers and explosions both. HE waits a few moments more for Fatality to turn- he'll attack from behind again, invisible until the moment he strikes. "Very loud." he agrees with Lor
Red Dragon sheers away from what is now another dragon, shaking his head in annoyed little jerks in reaction to the screamer arrow and heads towards the woman with Obsession written down her arms. As he flies he takes advantage of Wiccan's spell, "Green one is a robot and obviously a shapeshifter."
As he nears Obsession he reaches for her, intending to grab her with his paws pinning both her arms to her sides. "Let's see what this one has under then hood..."
Nate pulls up when Lor hits Nitro hard enough to send him flying. Good thing too, as he avoids most of the explosion. Turning to the villains, he sees they are mostly under control. Maybe. "It is fear," remarks Nate, addressing Channel. "I can feel it from here, some kind of... psychic channel of raw fear, through that ring."
Under control he thought? No, there is now a second dragon and it is green. Looks like the green man is a shape-shifter and just grew up enough to be a problem. A robot too? Then he doesn't have to pull his punches. The young psion flies over the green dragon, left eye glowing brighter and brighter. Then a powerful force blast surges down, a beam broad as a truck, hitting the dragon with the full force of his telekinesis.
Axiom grits his teeth. Speed Demon got up faster than he thought he would. He's glad he's not closer to the screamer arrow, the noise reaching even where he's hiding. "No, the green one is a power mimic, Dragon," Axiom calls out. "And be careful of the woman with the yellow energy. She's basically an evil Green Lantern," he adds for Channel, digging in his bag and taking out a metal cable. He ties it off and waits, waiting for Speed Demon to come by so he can try to trip him with it.
Wiccan watches from his semi-hidden and not totally suspicious at all spot as the Speed Demon goes down and then pops right back up, Nitro gets bounced against a wall, Fatality tries to fight off Anole's hit and run tactics as well as blasts from Channel, and the Super Adaptoid turns into a giant green dragon. Ok, most of the bad guys have someone on them and he can see Axiom getting the metal cable ready so he can guess what that is for. He takes a second to scan the area before deciding to make sure that Nitro is out of the fight and getting ready to step in if anyone starts to need help. "Ropesandfoam, Ropesandfoam, Ropesandfoam!" He chants while gesturing at Nitro and working to conjure ropes around him and surround him in fire retardant foam.
And as that magical oil slick appears, Hawkeye grins, and reaches for another arrow. One that she aims for another open spot on the ground, not too far from the green dragon. That way when the arrow hits...
There's a second oil slick?!?
But anyways...
As Dazzler raises her shields, Obsession regains her senses. That is before she charges at the other woman. He hand cocked back, much like one would expect from a woman with super strength.
"I'll crush you! That will earn the love of Superman!" Of course she might not even get a chance to land a blow. Not as she's grabbed by that Red Dragon. But despite the fact that she's grabbed, she might not be held for long. Because somehow this woman is almost insanely strong.
That yellow energy Channel throws at Fatality does come at her. And yet as it does, a glowing yellow energy shield appears, and deflects it. Only the beam, as luck would have it goes flying directly towards Anole?!? Well, if it hits, he may very well be down. Hopefully though not out. Not permanently anyways.
Oh well. As Channel continues to try to absorb energy, she may find she has a new problem. That being that Fatality has noticed who just tried to blast her, thus she turns and charges at the flying girl, swinging her giant yellow energy axe at her!
And while Lor reacts to that explosion and that noise, he'll have a new problem. That being the speedster has zeroed in on him. Yes, that's right, Speed Demon charges at Lor and tries to unleash a rapid series of blows. All though as he rushes towards Lor he just has to pass by Axiom. Thus he trips, and goes flying towards Lor. But his fists are still pumping like he's trying to punch, even if for the moment his feet aren't on the ground.
The green dragon meanwhile takes to the air. Or it starts to, as that telekinetic blast slams it back to the ground. But as it crashes, it may very well end up crashing into Dazzler or her forcefield if she doesn't move, and move /quickly/!
Nitro on the other hand ends up bound by Wiccans spell. And foamed. So even if he wakes back up, he's definitely out of the fight.
Shields vs. Someone being held back, and only barely, by a dragon... yeeeeeeaaaah, Dazzler's not gonna take a risk on having absorbed quite enough noise to handle that impact. "Lady, I've never even MET Superman, but I'm pretty sure he frowns on things like /crushing/ people!" As Ali drops her shields, she flips forward - hopefully making enough lift to jump OVER Obsession and onto the back of the grappling red dragon and maybe pretty please avoid the falling green dragon.
"Dazzler. Hi. Nice to meet you. Could you, I dunno, roar or something? I could use a boost." Because, of course, insanity abounds.
Well. That was just peachy, now wasn't it? If only there was a Blue Lantern Ring handy, Channel would have a much easier time of this. With the woman flying towards her, Channel takes a new approach to this fight, one that might be a little bit unconventional to most, but seeing as Carol has been training her to think out of the box, she figures it is time to try it out. Doing the expected is just a really good way to be predictable.
Channel charges straight towards Fatality, and the two women are seemingly heading for a crash. The woman then just focuses on her energy absorption as she uses her long reach to attempt a punch straight at Fatality's face even as she briefly cuts out her flying ability at the same time, dropping her down. The woman is hoping that by focusing her energy absorption on the punch that she can get through the forcefield and actually hurt Fatality.
Channel isn't quite quick enough, however, and that axe does manage to strike her left shoulder as she cuts her flying and starts to tumble downwards. There is a rather unladylike snarl that comes from the woman's lips, along with a wince of pain, and she hesitates for a very brief moment before she remembers Anole getting taken out by the reflected blast. Biting her lip, she pulls in some gravimetric energy to restart her flying and launches herself upwards again in a flying uppercut, also focused on draining any forcefield energy the woman might employ, attempting to strike the woman from below.
Channel was never one who was afraid of the cheap shot, and now Fatality just had her angry. Scared out of her mind, but also angrier than she'd been in a long time.
Luckily, Lor is fast too. Had Speed Demon not tripped, he'd probably have been too slow, but seeing the figure flying through the air towards him he has that extra split second to react. He twists off to the side at super-speed, getting caught by a handful of punches in the process, but then tries to grab Speed Demon from the air, spinning and throwing him at the one Channel is fighting. "Channel, duck."
As soon as Red Dragon has his paws around Obsession's arms he squuezes as hard as he can. And he can tell he's not going to be able to hold her for long like that so he curls up into a ball and wraps his back paws around her legs and his tail around her waist then just drops to the ground making doing his best imitation of a constrictor while roaring as loud as possible right in Dazzler's face... Ewww... Dragon breath...
A two or three seconds go by and Obsession has her legs free, a few more more and she has her arms free but the tail wrapped around her waist keeps Red in contact with her just long enough. Right as she manages to disentangle herself and uses said tail to start swinging the dragon around like a big wrecking ball she suddenly has nothing to hold on to. The dragon's mass has turned into a ball of red-gold jelly that continues on its flight path and crashes into the side of the building breaking a hole into it and raising a cloud of dust, rubble, and broken glass!
Axiom grunts when Speed Demon trips on the wire, his arms jerked by the impact. He lets the cable go once Speed Demon goes flying, tossing the cable back towards the alley. He starts to say something when he sees Anole get sent flying and his eyes go wide. He restrains himself from calling out, instead heading for the lizard mutant so he can check his vitals and drag him to somewhere safe and out of the way of the fight. He looks up at the battle going on and frowns, trying to plan his next move. Eventually his eyes settle on the Adaptoid-Dragon and he gets an idea.
Nate is not used to see robots, or anyone, still moving after he has hit them full force. But he had never met the Super-Adaptoid either. Since the green lizard seems to be digging itself out of the ground, he drops on it, hitting its back like a wrecking back. On the good side, this is a thundering noise, good for Dazzler.
On the other hand chances are good the Adapoid is now an omega level psion. With a bit of luck getting that kind of telepathy in the middle of New York will melt its robot brain. Hey, one can hope.
Wiccan 's breath catches just a second as he spots both the Adaptoid and Obsession aiming to crush Dazzler, he is already getting ready for a spell to try and save one of the greatest musicians in history when she does the flip thing and ends up on top of Red Dragon. "That...was just awesome to see Dazzler." He says knowing that the magic communications thing will let her hear it.
Hearing Dazzler ask for sound and seeing the Obsession free herself from Red Dragon gives Wiccan an idea. "How about a little thunder?" He asks before, "Smiteherwithlightning, Smiteherwithlightning, Smiteherwithlightning!" He chants aiming to cause the area to fill with a loud clap of thunder and a bolt of lightning to fall out of the sky aimed at Obsession.
Okay. Now Hawkeye switches things up a bit. Because as Lor throws Speed Demon, she grabs a plain old arrow, and fires it at the flying speedster. And while trying to give him 'an arrow to the knee', she's more likely to hit the speedster in the leg than the knee if she hits him.
The Green Dragon, as it falls, manages to brush up against Dazzler for a little bit. And that may very well be all it needs. Because as soon as it touches, it... Starts to sparkle?!?
Yeap. It sparkles. And it even turns its head and tries to 'breath' a large bright burst of light at Channel! Worse, as Nate touches it, it becomes more. More in a way that can't be seen with the naked eye. And yet... For some reason... Once Nate touches it, it's motions become jerky. And somewhat erratic.
"Tooo... Too much... Too many voices..." The 'Green Dragon' starts to roar.
Of course considering that Channel is busy with Fatality though, the weilder of the yellow energy ring actually is punched! Through her force field. A feat that amazes her. That is before Fatality tries to return the punch with one of her own!
As Obsession finally gets free. For a moment anyways. Then she's struck by lightning...
And stumbles. But she stumbles in the direction of Axiom?!?
And in the sky up above? A pair of new helicopters and a police chopper can be seen arriving above the chaos.
"Thank you!" Dazzler chirps in response, even as the brush of the green dragon in passing shakes her grip a bit on Wiccan's magic dragon. Wether it's a thanks for the lightning or a thanks for the compliment is really neither here nor there. Nearly turning upside down from where she hangs onto the construct for dear life. With her legs.
Aiming with her fingers, Dazzler tries to figure out, while upside-down, where she should be shooting. Fatality and The Super-Adaptoid, by nature of their shininess, make it easy - and the boost from all the booming lightning should give enough oomph to her shots that the two heavy-hitters hopefully at least feel them.
"HEADS UP!"
Well, the punching worked. This has Channel very briefly pleased. As Fatality attempts to strike her, Channel yanks a little bit of the magical energy that is floating around. Oh, and there is psionic too, with the fact that Nate is around, leaking like a faucet? Awesome. First things first, however.
There's a blast of light coming at Channel from the suddenly sparkly dragon. Channel just lets her absorption powers deal with that, and while a fair bit of it gets gobbled up, the woman finds the force of the blast pushing her forward. Still, it didn't hurt that badly, with her absorption taking the blunt of the blow.
Pulling the same trick with her absorption abilities, Channel instead rushes forward to, instead of blocking the punch, the woman darts forward herself, lacing her punch with a beam of magic energy. She follows this with an elbow laced with psionic energy.
In the process, Channel gets smacked right in the gut, and while her augmented toughness absorbs a lot of the impact, it sends her flying backwards, regardless of if the woman strikes true. The fortunate part is that this is going to send her out of range of Dazzler's attack.
Lor-Zod doesn't follow up after Speed Demon, not even paying attention to note the arrow to the guy's leg, as his attention is brought to the ground as he sees Obsession stumbling towards Axiom. Once again, he flies forward, launching a punch at her.
The dust and glass barely have enough time to settle before they go flying in all directions again as out of the pile of rubble an exact copy of Obsession flies out. Taking a quick moment to take stock of the situation she notices that the green dragon seems to be having problems and aims herself at it in the classic Superman pose, one fist held in front of her like the tip of a lance, the other next to her ribs, one leg ent and the other straight. And as she picks up speed it becomes clear she's not pulling any of her new found power when she hits the dragon. After all, its a robot, nothing to kill there.
Seeing Nate on top of it she speaks to him through their mystical, Wiccan provided comm system, "HEads up Golden Eye! At the rate I'm picking up speed you won't rant to be on that lizard when I hit'im!"
Axiom starts towards the green dragon but stops as he sees Dazzler and Nate attacking it. He blinks a few times, looking for a new target since it looks like he won't need his plan. Obsession stumbling his way provides one. He does a quick mental inventory of the people around and nods. "Hey, Lor-Zod. One b-boost coming your way," he speaks up via the mysti-com. His eyes light up bright blue as he boosts Lor-Zod's powers. Moments later, he mimics him. Costume shifting into a combo of his own and Lor's, Axiom tries to join in on punching Obsession.
Nate curses loud and long when he feels the Adaptoid getting a telepathic psychic signature. But then chuckles when the robot discovers the disadvantages it brings. "Yeah, it is a headache, isn't it?" He jumps off the dragon's back, but not far. When the shapeshifting ex-dragon, now superwoman, hits the Adaptoid, Nate also aims a telekinetically charged punch to the dragon's head. More headaches for the robot.
After smiting Obsession with electricity Wiccan spots the fight with the Super Adaptoid and...is not sure what to think. The fact that Nate's powers actaully seem to be overloading it a bit is both great and a little scary. Axiom is off to check on Anole and the fight is going really well, something else that worries him, but now would be a good time to step things up a notch. To do that though, Wiccan is going to have to come out of hiding.
Stepping out of where he was hidden he gives a simple hallow sounding, "Costume." causing a blue light to ripple over his body changing his hoodie and jeans into his costume and summoning his staff into his hand. "Springthetraps, Springthetraps, Springthetraps!" He chants, and he finishes Wiccan taps his staff on the ground, the runes covering it shimmer with blue light, and all over the area those little places where he drew runes and little diagrams glow briefly with the same color. Any of Wiccan's traps that have not been scuffed up or ruined so far in the fight if one of the bad guys gets within five feet of it something interesting will happen. Those on the ground will mostly spring up with magic ropes and chains to try and tie people up, and those on walls will try and drain energy from them.
And even as Kate grabs yet another arrow, she watches Speed Demon crash into a wall...
And he doesn't get back up this time either.
All though Dazzlers blast does impact The Super Adaptoid, and Speed Demon as he hits the ground, and Obsession, who stumbles yet again, and Fatality. And well... Speed Demon as was said is down. And the green dragon that is the adaptoid stumbles a bit more due to that blast. But it unfortunately doesn't do that much to Fatality.
Or at least it doesn't look like that much. Then again she is a bit busy with Channel. After all, when that massive energy blast made up of so many different kinds of energies hits her, Fatality is blasted not only backwards, but towards the ground!
Of course Obsession just then has to get smacked by Lor with his enhanced punch, and by Axiom with his duplicated punch... Thus what happens...?
Well, up in a chopper above...
"This is Miranda Veracruz de la Hoya Cardinal, live above Times Square! Where a massive Superhuman fight is raging!" In the background, Obession can be seen flying off, and crashing into the East River. "Where things are really taking off, just like I wish my career was."
Of course while the real Obsession learns a whole new way to fly, and gets swim lessons to boot as well, there's a fake one down below. That one charges at the green dragon. And the strike from that fake, as it lands causes the dragon to stumble yet again. And then there's a loud cry as Nate lashes out with his telekinetic attack! But otherwise, it just cries out, "Too much!!! TOO MUCH!"
And as Wiccan checks Anole, he'll find out that more than likely the green muntant is all right. Hopefully. But given his healing factor...
Then again, Speed Demon, despite being out of it gets wrapped in chains by a trap. Nitro gets trapped in something else, something possibly almost gel like. Fatality gets zapped by yet another sort of energy, but who knows if that will keep her down. And the Super Adaptoid? It actually falls for the moment, buts almost as soon as it does down, it tries to push itself back up onto its feet.
Patting the Red Dragon on the neck, Dazzler thanks it and then - drops! As soon as she lets go, she angles a pair of hard light bursts to propel her TOWARDS the Super Adaptoid! Once falling with style in the right direction, Ali lays the light blast on thick, hoping to pound the thing back down while preparing herself for a rough landing that she just might walk away from.
"GERONIBUNGA!"
I don't recognize "red dragon".
She was a stubborn one, Channel would give that to Fatality. The woman rushes downward after her. She needed to be disabled, and there was a very logical way for Channel to do that. Attempting to absorb past any forcefields, Channel attempts to grapple Fatality's wrists in a vice-like grip and attempt to crush her bones. After all, if the woman's powers came from the ring, then if Channel prevented her from using that ring, that might just put Fatality out of this fight (and with all her other injuries, perhaps keep her down instead of her keeping on with the attacks".
However, for good measure, Channel attempts to strike the woman's head with a couple of fast punches. The intent is to jar Fatality's head around with the punches more than cause damage, which, if her strikes are true and Channel is able to penetrate Fatality's defenses, the rapid head movement will hopefully knock Fatality out. Channel had no desire to let Fatality get back into this fight, especially given the woman had some serious supernatural toughness (and, if she was a Lantern of some type, regeneration).
Lor-Zod grins to Axiom and says, "Thanks." He looks up a moment after the flying Obsession, and then he looks around, hovering in the air. His attention moves to the green dragon, but this time he hesitates in attacking. Instead of getting too close to the dragon, he looks around quickly. He ends up picking up a newspaper stand, ripping it from the ground, to throw as hard as he can at the green dragon.
Duo-Obsession grins as an idea sparks to mind. Leaving the green dragon for Nate to entertain for a little bit she flies up behind Fatality trying to bear hug her so that Channel has an easier time of pummeling the woman. "The mimic, its overloading, too many powers at once if I don't miss my guess. I'll be right back."
If she manages to grab Fatality in the intended bear-hug she'll squeeze just hard enough to make it hard, if not impossible to breath.
Axiom winces as Obsession goes flying. "That really had t-t-to hurt," he murmurs. "No problem," he offers to Lor-Zod. Nodding as Lor-Zod throws the newspaper stand, he looks over at Gabe and grins. "Then let's overload it a little m-m-more. Get r-ready people!" he calls out, flying closer. "Hey! Adaptoid!" he tries to get the dragons attention and starts to boost and mimic the various people in the area...Lor-Zod to Wiccan to Channel to Gabe to Dazzler and so on, hoping to overload the Adaptoid with the rapid cycling through powers.
Wiccan surveys the area, Nitro and Speed Demon are down, Obsession has been knocked out of the park like a fly ball into the parking area, and Fatality and the Super Adaptoid are getting kicked around like a pair of soccer balls. With Gabe moving to help with the yellow lantern Wiccan turns more attention to the Aadaptoid. "Everyone directly above the Adaptoid clear." He says waiting for a clean shot before calling down more lightning on the green robot while Axiom works on over loading it with the quickly shifting powers.
Nate is trying to keep the Adaptoid busy, indeed. His attacks do not seem to do enough damage to disable the robot, amazingly tough critter, he is almost impressed. He is also somewhat worried the robot manages to raise some mind-shielding or just decides to discard the telepathy from his arsenal. Or maybe it can't do it. "I am going to be sorry tomorrow, but can you boost my telepathy, Axiom? If he is human-like enough to be a telepath, I can hit him, and he has no mental shields yet."
Up above Hawkeye starts to reach for another arrow. That is before she notices something else incoming. A /MILITARY/ chopper.
Now if Wiccans spell from earlier is still active, and people can hear each other, they probably can hear her as well.
"Guys, this is Hawkeye. Been playing sniper for you. I'd hurry it up if I were you. We have The Military inbound for some reason!"
The thing about Fatility is that to this woman the ring is a weapon. She herself is a warrior by training, inclination, and an oath of vengeance. Thus she will not be beaten by some mere child!
Then again, she also does have a bit of an anger issue. Thus she can, and does fight back as Channel once again attacks her. At least enough so that she can get free.
"There are no Green Lanterns here..." is said even as one of her arms is crushed, even as she twists free, and lashes out with a kick. If only to try and get a little room between herself and Channel.
Of course as she does that, she's /ALMOST/ grabbed by the copy of Obsession. But instead...
Instead there's a massive burst of yellow energy that lashes out. As if trying to force everything back. Fatality then says, "You are not Green Lanterns. You do not need to die today. Tell the Lanterns that I will be back for them." before she takes off. Towards the sky. Moving faster with every heartbeat until she's out of sight.
The Super adaptoid yet again manages to let out, "Tooooooo MUUUUUUCH!" as both that blast of light and the news stand hit it. But it doesn't lash out at either Dazzeler or Lor. Not even as Axiom boosts their powers among others.
All though if Nate gets boosted as well and attacks, then the green dragon will be in even more trouble, won't it?
Then again, something happens as Wiccan lashes out with that last round of lightning. The 'green dragon' is a sudden blur as it rises up, and grabs /WICCAN/.
Yeah. he grabbed someone with that kind of power. The ability to alter reality.
Then again...
"TOOOOOOO MUUUUUUUCH!" is screamed, before the Adaptoid.... Falls. And reverts back to its plain green, featurless human shape.
And it stops moving.
Which is the point where Dazzler stops whatever else the hell she thought she was doing; taking stock of unconscious and fleeing villains, and any other heroes also still standing, she pushes her shades back up on top of her head. "Did we just win?"
Channel blocks the kick by crossing her arms, but the force drives her back a few feet. The woman then discharges all the yellow energy she absorbs, the nasty stuff just fizzling out of her. She glares at the woman as she flies off and briefly debates giving chace, but there wasn't any way she was going to catch Fatality. Her eyes narrow in her mask as the one she'd been fighting gets away. The one who hurt her friend.
Yeah, Channel had a bit of a grudge now, but she didn't have time to deal with it. "Thanks Hawkeye. Us mutants are cutting out. I'll be back if things heat up again. Nice work everyone". Because X-Students just didn't do military or press interviews. But, she could stay out of sight until she was sure everything was clear. She then darts over to where Anole is resting, scoops her friend up, and flies away with him to get them somewhere safe, unless otherwise prevented.
Lor-Zod smiles as the Adaptoid is stopped, and then looks around at the mention of military. "Maybe they're here to try to help?" He looks towards Axiom and adds, "That was a good idea," referring of course to the power-overloading.
Duo-Obsession is caught completely by surprise when the burst of yellow energy blasts out of Fatality. She's pushed back and down to crash into the street below and by the time she recoveres from the surprise of the impact Fatality is out of sight and Super-Adaptoid has passed out. And then something someone just said sinks in, "military? And I look like one of the bad guys? Bad juju..."
A moments focus and Duo-Obsession turns into a wobbly mass of proto-gel which occupies that spaces for only a second before Gabriel is laying there, dressed in plain old jeans and a dark green aran sweater. After getting up he looks down at himself, frowns, and mutters, "I need to stop watching old chic-flicks..." Then he realizes he's still on misti-com and clears his throat loudly, "Yes, it does look like we won."
Axiom glances to Nate mid-way through shifting from boosting and mimicking Channel to doing so for Lor-Zod again. He nods quickly, boosting and mimicking Nate. When the Adaptoid reaches for Wiccan, Axiom gasps and starts to lash out with telekinesis only to watch the Adapt-dragon fall. Letting the telekinetic attack turn into a light breeze, Axiom blinks. "You okay, Wiccan?" he asks, concerned for his friend. "Military?" Axiom jumps. "Nate? Can you find out wh-what their orders are? After the whole Metalok thing we saw, we should be c-c-careful about trusting them..." he trails off, scowling in the direction of the chopers. "And Channel, can you wait n-nearby? I want to come with you..." he trails off over the comm. Yes, it's pretty obvious he's worried about Victor.
Nate has little to hide to the army, he is a registered 'hero' that rarely bothers with a codename. Right now he is trying to keep his powers under control, though. Having them increased was great to help disable the Adaptoid, but not good for his mental health. Right now just need to get out of the city. He does try to chase Fatality. But the woman loses him just by flying too high. Nate is not space-capable. Axiom request... well, he has telepathy now. He can find out!
Wiccan is already lashing out with electricity from every part of his body the instant he realizes that the Adaptoid is trying to grab him, and that there is no way he is getting away before it does. Once he is grabbed though, it proves that he does not need to go all human tazer. After a second he blinks, and then blinks again. "Ha! Ha again! Did anyone know that rule number one for fighting power absorbers worked on the Super Adaptoid to? Anyone?" Wiccan asks looking around despite the fact that at most one, maybe two, people would know exactly what he is talking about.
Now that the fighting seems to be done Wiccan looks around and checks out who is left that is tied up and what damage might have been done so far. "Iwanthimboundsohecan'ttouchanyone, Iwanthimboundsohecan'ttouchanyone, Iwanthimboundsohecan'ttouchanyone!" He chants while pointing his staff at the Adaptoid working to seal it in a nice strong see through box. "The military? Fifty fifty chance they are here to help or going to be all rar you can't leave we are taking you into custody. Just depends on who is in charge when they land. Anyone that wants to be gone when they land nows the time." Wiccan though is not plannign on leaving, he is going to be responsible and stuff. Besides, if things go bad he can teleport away.
As that military chopper gets closer, the police chopper and the media choppers all just up and pull off.
Yeah, they're not sticking around for some reason. especially not as that chopper starts to lower itself towards Times Square.
Yes, that's right. It's coming in for a landing.
And no, this isn't a small chopper either. Instead it's one of those ones that's used to transport entire groups of people, or material. It's one of those bigger deals with two full sized rotors on top and a large compartment with doors on both sides.
And as the people onboard the chopper are scanned, it'd be revealed that they're here to 'secure' the prisoners, and any tech they may have with them, and possibly to transport it.
"Yeah. It looks like we won. But... Allies..." Hawkeye says, silently agreeing with Channel. "I'd suggest we cut out as well."
Then she grabs her bow and arrows and slinks further in the building she's been in, presumably to find an exit and then get clear.
As for the Adaptoid? It's bound, at least for now in some sort of metallic looking chains. But if it really is deactivated, is that really needed?
Police chopper. Not so good. But media! Media is good. Everyone else is bugging out it seems, but ... Dazzler decides to stay, saying out loud, "Dammit, I didn't register for nothing, right?" Of course, she starts to grope her pockets for her reg card just in case it comes up. SOMEONE should stay and answer questions, not that Ali will be super-great at it or anything.
Gabriel rolls around on the ground for a quick moment to make sure he's got grime and dust on him then gets up and walks over to stand next to Axiom, "What happened? I was in the theater getting ready for tonight and suddenly this lady comes flying through the wall, making a mess everywhere, and I decided I'd better hide, so I went into the bathroom, and stayed there until everything was quiet... And... And.. OMG Why'd I ever move to New York!?" When did Gabriel suddenly become so... flamboyant?
As Nate flies off, Axiom holds onto the powers as long as he can. The brief scan has him scowling more moments before Nate gets too far away to be boosted or mimicked. "Wiccan, can you t-t-teleport these guys somewhere else? We shouldn't let the military get their hands on them. We can leave a message for SHIELD or the cops to find them," he says, starting to boost and mimic Wiccan. "Lor, you should g-get going back to wherever you're staying," he says as his costume shifts to a fusion of his own and Wiccan's. He just blinks when Gabriel comes over. "Uhhh...h-how about you c-come with us?" he asks, wondering why Gabe is acting so strange.
Lor-Zod lifts up in the air again, starting to move out of the way as the chopper comes in. He looks to Axiom and then back to the military craft. This is the first time he's been in a battle that he wasn't pulled through time to get away from, so he seems unsure just what he should be doing now. At Axiom's instructions he starts to argue, "But..." Then he says, giving in, "Ok. I'm staying at the Hall of Justice, for now," he adds, so at least those he's been fighting with know how to find him. He starts to fly off then.
Wiccan glances at Axiom and might argue but he knows his friend well enough to realize that if he is making the request there is good reason for it. Before the soldiers start getting out of the helicopter he is chanting. "MakethemSHIELDsproblem, MakethemSHIELDsproblem, MakethemSHIELDsproblem!" He chants eyes and staff glowing as he floats off the ground for a second and then teleports all of the caught bad guys off some place where the people of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division can lock them away properly. With the teleport there is going to be a nice little note, /Villains that attacked New York, please don't let them escape./ "There, and could you boost me one bit more Axiom so I can clean up their mess?" Wiccan asks and waits for just the right moment to chant, "Fixeverythingbroken, Fixeverythingbroken, Fixeverythingbroken!" Wiccan's timing, is set to make sure that all the battle damage from the fight ceases to exist at the moment that whomever is in charge steps out of that helicopter.
Fortunately Wiccans magic does fix all the damage. All of it. In fact there's a few spots that even look better than new.
Unfortunately...
Here's where the military chopper actually lands. Only as the doors on the side open up, not only do soldiers come out. In fact there's two people in black suits and sunglasses. And they manage to look directly at Wiccan, as if they somehow heard his spell.
"You do know that SHIELD by law has to just turn them over to us anyways. They can not interfere with the internal issues of any country unless that country /specifically asks/ for their help with that issue." one says. That is before the other just glances at the soldiers, before motioning at the remaining 'heroes'.
"In fact, what you did technically is illegal. Thus you all will have to come with us for questioning. Resistance is futile."
"Excuse me, but it was /not/," Dazzler says right off without even THINKING about maybe it being a bad idea to sass the military. "I am a registered hero and those villains attacked the city and there's nothing illegal about anything we did! Nobody died, nothing got destroyed, and I'm not going anywhere without a lawyer!" Insert angry thrust of Registered Hero Card here. "See! Registered! Real name and all!"
Lor-Zod stops before flying very far at all, as he hears what's going on behind him. He flies back closer to the others, and asks, "Why is it illegal to defend those who can't defend themselves?" He looks towards each of the others who haven't already evacuated the area before looking back to the soldiers.
Wiccan smiles at the military personnel and says, "Actually, you taking them into custody would be illegal. They did not commit crimes on Military property or against military personnel which means they can be arrested by the New York City Police department but not by military personnel. Since the New York City PD hands over all its super criminals to SHIELD anyway I sped up the process for the sake of holding and preservation of their civil rights and liberties against possible illegal arrest or detention by military personnel. Now, if you want to make the claim I committed a crime again once the police make it here I would be willing to allow them to charge and arrest me if they so choose but I am not going with you. Especially since you have yet to identify yourself, which branch of the military your with, or what youre doing here interfering unasked in what should be the jurisdiction of civil authorities." Wiccan manages to get all of that out in a single breath, which would be more impressive if he was not regularly speeding through spamming his spells. "Now, unless you are going to stop trying to illegally abduct heroes that not only saved lived but fixed the damage done to the city, I have important things to deal with that would give you grey hairs."
And the first guy just looks at Dazzelers ID, then shrugs, "That is true. And /THAT/ is not the issue. The fact that they turned over a bunch of people who were legally prisoners in the United States, thus technically under the authority of The United States, to an /INTERNATIONAL/ organization that has no legal right to hold them since S.H.I.E.L.D. was not asked to do anything to help in this case /YET/ by the proper authorities. /THAT/ is the issue here."
Then the second guy nods.
"According to /International Law/, those individuals may very well have to be released /RIGHT NOW/ because of that. They will not be going to prison. Nor will they get a trial. Instead they may very well just turn up /tomorrow/ to do that all over again, simply because you did not do things the proper way. So next time, just teleport them directly into jail if you don't want us involved. An American jail that is. And considering who was involved in that fight, we have jurisdiction over who goes where."
Meanwhile, inside the chopper, someone else, obscured by the shadows moves slightly, and frowns. That is as the two suits turn and start to walk back towards the chopper. As the get back onboard, one even mutters a faint 'Sorry' to the man in the shadows as the door closes, and the vehicle starts to take back off.
"Don't worry. There are other weapons lying about." is said as he tosses a folder onto the ground. One that has a red omega symbol on the front of it. "We'll just have to hope one of them will be able to do what we need as well as that one would of. That is, once we would of been done making it a suitable weapon."
And not too far away, on a rooftop, a familiar form just stands and watches. The form of a bug eyed man in purple coveralls.
"The turning point has gone..." The Space Phantom mutters to no one at all. "but did we turn towards a future for the better, or one that's worse?"
And then without even a flash of light or a sound, he's gone.
Gabriel just watches all this happening. And since the public heroes have things well in hand he just stays in his scared civilian character until the chopper is gone again.
Dazzler makes a very good chastened 'Oh man' face when the military guys finish explaining, but then of course they wing it right back to accusatory tone and it's all she can do to keep herself from making a rude gesture as they leave. Because they're leaving, and that's totally the good part. She looks almost hopeful -- is there still a News Copter here? Publicity would be friggin' sweet for all the hassle. If not; "TAXI!"
"How about you show us some ID?" Axiom adds onto Dazzler's speech. "For all we know, you're AIM in disguise," he adds, crossing his arms. Wiccan's words make Axiom smile and he stays close to his best friend. "It sounds a lot like you're making that up," Axiom mutters as the men leave. "SendHawkeyeherarrows, SendHawkeyeherarrows, SendHawkeyeherarrows, SendHawkeyeherarrows..." he chats a small spell to send Hawkeye back the trick arrows she fired. Nope, Axiom trusts none of the government guys. He waits before heading off with Wiccan when it's all done.
Lor-Zod watches the chopper fly off, and then gives a last wave to those who are left and once again flies off.