| 'Dam'nable Machines | |||||
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| What: AIM looses prototype Adaptoid machines on the New Hudson Dam. Seven heroes arrive to contain the situation. | |||||
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[IC-News] Molly Hayes says, "BREAKING NEWS: An attack on New Hudson Dam along the Hudson River outlying Westchester County has come under attack by unknown powered individuals! The terrorists appear to be attempting to destroy the Dam and all its personnel! Should the Dam give away, authorities say, outlying areas could be immediately flooded. More details as they arrive!"
New Hudson Dam -
It is late in the evening and a heavy rain is presently blanketing the area and there is no end in sight. Though this means that most civilians who would normally be in the area are either not present or are on their way home, dam and reserve personnel would be especially busy tonight. And tonight is a bad night to be anywhere near this dam in particular...
Explosions rock the exterior of the New Hudson Dam, enormous bursts of flames can be seen illuminating the night sky for miles and if one looks closely... they can almost make out a trail of flame blazing through the night air. Thus far, actual damage to the dam has been superficial... amounting to smashed surface concrete and one or two helpless lives. But it is debatable how long the damage will /stay/ superficial.
One thing is for certain, however... the descent of a flaming, ghoulish, figure from the skies upon the Dam heralded the beginning of it all. Touching down upon the concrete apex of the Dam... amidst the chaos and fear unleashed by his fury... a tall, skeletal, figure suffused with flames and seemingly devoid of living tissue stares with his boney jaw wide into the night air. Steam from the rain making contact with the intense flames that suffuse him billow out like a cloud. And from somewhere within, a voice comes, "...Khehehe... your weakness should have been extinct ages ago..."
And from somewhere behind, a group of shadowy figures emerge from the flames spewing forth from a destroyed ventilation system... humanoid figures encased in gleaming silver with glowing blue eyes tainted red from the nearby fire. ... Barreling up the highway somewhere nearby, a beat-up and rusted old chevy - the truck bed of which is filled with hay - appears to be headed toward the Dam area. From out of the pile of hay pops a small brunette girl's head, adorned by a stranged pink beanie, who immediately spits hay furiously! "Pttoiie!! Uuuugh..", her voice practically vibrates as the desperately in-need of service vehicle jars her all the way up the road, "...I feel like my dinner is turning into.... into..."
- High pitched girly sneeze! -
...and a ten to fiften minutes later, she appears to be climbing up the edge of the dam's siding in a rudimentary fashion (read: inserting her fists into the concrete siding) before stumbling into the chaos like the young, inexperienced, fool she is...
The rain had put a damper on their plans for the day. Eddie and a friend were up at Breakstone lake swimming and trying to cool off in the summer heat. And while they had most of the day to enjoy, the rain starting meant it was time to duck back and change out of swimsuits...or swim trunks and a t-shirt he refused to take off in Eddie's case...and into civvies. When chaos at the nearby damn is noticed, it's time for another change. This time into more...action oriented clothing.
And that's why right now Axiom is boosting and mimicking his teammate as they fly towards the damn. His costume a fusion of his own and his teammate's, Axiom's got his armor and staff with him today too. Sure he may have been a little paranoid but with war in Asgard, paranoid was smart. "Oh man, I c-called the others, hopefully we c-can handle this without them," he comments to his teammate.
TJ's been too cooped up in the big ol' city lately. Lots of cleaning, lots of hauling junk around, it gets boring. Fast. She needed a chance to get away for a while, and (at least in her timeline) Westchester's a nice place to be. Maybe she'll even catch a little something from Xavier's while she's passing through! Though the primary objectives for her day included relaxing and shopping. She's pretty good at doing both.
A late dinner was to be followed by catching a ride back to the city. That changed in a hurry when there's a giant fireball in the distance. Not..something that normally happens around Westchester (okay, maybe a little more frequently with Xavier's being nearby.) The reasons why she feels compelled to go back and check it out far outweigh the reasons to forget she ever saw it, thus she catches a ride back while stuck upon the top of a semi trailer. And a few other vehicles along the way. (Bleugh, rain...) Just ignore the blue, tailed gal on the roof, people!
When she arrives at the scene it's at street level, a straight shot across the top of the dam. Given the skeletal figure that's now hanging out up there she's kind of thinking that maybe it's not the best place for her to be.
"Yo, Bones! What gives, why ya trying to break the dam thing?"
It took a bit of work. To be honest, Hope still has a /LOT/ of doubts regarding what she was trying to do. Namely based on things that Nate, Doug, Rachel, and of course Jean have all said, she'd be welcome.
But there's still a horrible risk.
Or at least there would be if the redheaded mutant girl were actually able to make it to her intended destination. And yet as a Greyhound passes not too far from that damn, that explosion happens. And as flames shoot into the air, the bus comes to an abrupt and sudden stop.
That is before the door opens, and a teenaged girl in an odd green outfit wanders off the bus.
$"Don't stop! Just get everyone clear! If this is what it looks like..." the female power mimic starts to say before the bus up and takes off at full speed, "Then you don't want to be near here." she finally mutters under her breath, before rushing off towards the damn proper.
"So much for that 'family visit'." is also muttered as she gets close enough to see those flaming bones.
"Greeeeeeat."
Hulkling flies in after Axiom, his wings on full display along with his claws- that explosion merited speed. "It wouldn't be a day off without something like this going off, eh?" He says to Axiom, feeling the boost in his powers. "We'll handle it... but I'm sure that an explosion that big is probably going to attract others to the scene. Good thing we play well with others, right?" the green shapeshifter gives Axiom a grin as they move towards the sinister scene.
Two weeks ago, Doctor Fate took Amy Winston aside and told her that she was some kind of cosmic goddess destined to fight the amorphous and pervasive power of Chaos. This may have been an analogy. The man did live in an Escher sketch.
Last week, Amy Winston saw the Punisher slash a man's throat and hold another man's face to a fire until he stopped moving. She didn't stop him. The Punisher said he did bad things and Amy is familiar with the proper way to treat people who do bad things. It still gave her a nightmare or two, even after she read up on the story online.
Was the Punisher chaos, or was he order? Is that what she should be doing? Doctor Fate--or Nabu, or Kent Nelson, or whoever he was--said that this was her duty. Real fate of the world type of thing. Amy beat up bullies (and worse) when she was still Amy, and now that she's Amethyst, well. Princess Amethyst slays dragons. Princess Amethyst magically binds fallen angels into diamonds.
Princess Amethyst rides a pegasus through the rain, a glittering magical sword in hand. There's absolutely no reason for her to be holding it right now, as high up as she is. Thinking how much she looks like an album cover is definitely a psychological boost, though.
"OK, girl, take us down," she says. Pegasi have excellent hearing. The winged horse tucks its legs, spreading its wings wide to soar in closer to the dam. Amethyst is already abusing a vial of magical water she snuck out of Gemworld to see more clearly through the rain. Still, she leans forward, close to her steed's neck, more concerned with what she should be doing than what she should be seeing.
[( Local police code 61938 - vandalism, metahuman-grade - in progress at the New Hudson Dam, )] Sinestro's power ring gently chirps.
He's been on Earth for all of five minutes; prior to delivering that alert, his ring was guiding him along the most efficient path distance from his landing site in Kent Falls to Hal Jordan's ring, so that the latter could debrief the former on the situation in Sector 2814.
"Ring," he sighs as he orients himself towards the disturbance, "be ready to draft a report of this incident; I'm sure that Jordan will be thrilled to hear of it."
[( Noted. )]
Soon, the green glowing, magenta-skinned peacekeeper is braking to a stop just outside of that cloud, arms crossed imperiously over the Green Lantern symbol on his chest. "Surrender now," he calls to the flaming vandal, his voice carrying all the way down to the dam with perfect clarity. "This doesn't end well for you otherwise, I'm afraid."
The ghoulish skeletal figures head turns eerily slow toward the - from his perspective - suddenly appearing Nocturne. His boney jaw, still hanging loose, serves only to make his empty, eyeless, stare seem that much more -dead-. But the shrill voice he emits from -somewhere- inside his frame is indication enough he's still somehow very much alive. "...Bones?! How insulting! I don't like being insulted by people who look weirder than me!" He's clearly delusional, obviously. "You lookin' to die?!"
The skeletal figure's aura then dramatically FLARES, emitting even thicker steam than before. But before he can make good on this threat, however, the presence of others arriving to the scene catches his attention... and his lifeless gaze sweeps the area. ... And an almost hysterical cackle follows. "HEHEHEHE! Like moths to a flame, all of you!!! I'm gonna earn my pay today!" And then he looks upward, eyeing the swiftly descending figures from on high, "... or night, whatever it is!"
...And those gleaming, silver-encased, humanoids are still marching steadily toward the fore... coming swiftly within range of that flaming, ghoulish, mutant. Their heads sweep around with a mechanical precision... taking in all of the approaching figures with their 'eyes'... but even now do not emit a single sound.
"HEHEHHE... you better be afraid, fool!" The skeletal figure replies to Sinestro as he appears... his dark, lifeless, eye sockets trained on the alien's face as his jaw moves in a manner that mimics human speech. It's just accurate enough to seem real, yet just flawed enough to possibly create something of an Uncanny Valley effect. "I'm not really your opponent, see..."
..And with that having been said, the group of mechanical-seeming humanoids wordlessly begin to shapeshift... their forms each and every one beginning to take on an uncanny resemblance to many of the heroes who have gathered here.
There's -just- a few moments perhaps to notice this anomaly before the vile ghoulish figure suddenly shrieks, "TIME TO DIE!!!" before erupting with flames that seem to burst outward from his person in a wide area like a bomb!
"Yeah," Axiom replies to Hulkling, flashing a smile. As he sees other heroes up ahead, Axiom grins. "Looks like we've already g-got company," he pauses, giving Sinestro a wary look. Shaking it off, he heads in for a landing. Wings shift and meld back into his currently green self and he frowns in the direction of the flaming skeleton. He lets the others handle the arguing/banter for now, taking mental stock of the assembled enemies. The shapeshifting silver figures have his eyes going wide. "Are th-whoa!" he yells, throwing himself backwards and shifting his skin thicker with powers borrowed from Hulkling to defend against the flames.
Solid, backlit yellow eyes blink once at the direct nature of the question being slung toward TJ. "Nnnno..can't say that I really am, be perfectly honest with ya. You see, I only just got here not that long--"
Once more she blinks, this time staring up at the sky. And grinning, with tiny fangs present. "Looks like you've got bigger problems, buddy. Here comes She-Ra."
Thumbing toward the incoming aerial pegasus she chuckles and looks around, seeing if there's anyone present to catch her sense of humor. "Am I right..? Am I--" Now there's some guy surrounded by a green glow demanding that the guy surrender. "..ooohkay, that's a no. Gees, it takes all kinds, doesn't it."
Wait..Big Baddie's got a robot army. Fun! And he's ..erupting. Yellow eyes snap wide open, then she's gone with a -Foomp!- and a dark puff of sulfurous air.
Not that she teleports far. She can't. She's just back a little ways and at slightly higher ground than before. And dizzy. With one hand to the side of her head she calls back "Dude..! Easy on the pyrotechnics, there's better ways to burn off those calories!"
Turning to look for the nearest person (looks like Hope's the lucky girl,) she asks "So do we do this..? 'Cause I'm thinking this is turning out to be a butt-kicking night."
"You have got to be kidding me." is muttered as Hope just reaches a certain point.
That is before TJ appears, and the redheaded girl... Grins?
"Definitely. Let's do this" is said before she rushes in. Although as she gets close enough to see those robots/duplicates, there is a scowl, before the time lost mutant tries to reach out and see if the robots are mutants with powers she can mimic. And if they aren't, just who or what she can grab from others power wise."
Hulkling runs in, smirking as he catches Nocturne's words "I guess we do it, ri---" and that's when the bad guy decides to go Independence Day on all of them. Trusting that Eddie knows how to use his powers, the Hulkling rapidly thickens his body, increasing density and hardness of skin to attempt to survive the blast. He runs ahead into the blast and turns quickly so that his back is facing it, head down, and tries to protect Nocturne- as she reappears- from the remnants of the blast. "Arrrgh!... so much for... talking this one out." The green teen, back smoldering from the impact, looks for something-- a sizable piece of dam debris, to grab. Muscles bulging, he turns around and attempts to toss it towards the skeletal figure, scowling at his double appearing. "Hey, that's coypright infringement, you know!"
"Alright, fly away and wait--" Amethyst is interrupted by the superpowered explosion. Now that her pegasus is circling the dam more closely, the flames are near enough to force her to reel back. Her steed neighs, breaking her soar and flapping frantically to gain altitude.
"Calm down! I thought you were a freaking warhorse!" Amethyst shouts, feeling the adrenaline.
She forces herself to look into the blaze. The figures there, now ghostly and distorted, give her brief pause before she realizes what's going on. Those people there must be other heroes--it's strange to think of herself as a hero--and the flickery ones are the figures from earlier. Though the adaptoids have changed shape, water from the well of vision sees through more than just rain.
The flaming skeleton is not only the more apparent threat at the moment, it's also way more familiar to Amethyst. Flaming skeletons are surprisingly common on certain planes of reality. She takes stock of the situation like her mother taught her: heavy rain, guy's still on fire. The fire is generating steam, implying some kind of reaction. Water might work.
Amethyst's pegasus finds her courage, circling around once more. This time, she stops to hover at a distance where she could theoretically get out of the way of another blast. Pegasi are very smart.
The princess raises her hands, her sword fading away as she summons a different sort of eldritch energy (that's still pink and sparkly). Amethyst reaches out into the storm, and recoils when she remembers that Earth doesn't have nature spirits inhabiting every single little thing. Fine. She's watched enough water spirits to do this by herself.
With the appropriate gestures, the storm begins to bend to Amethyst's will. Wind rushes across the top of the dam, blowing away at the steam coming off of the skeletal firebrand. With it comes the rain, gathered into a twisting column of water that snakes through the fire, hunting the skeleton down.
It would be so much easier to just dump a flood on the top of everything, but she's positive her assumed allies wouldn't appreciate it.
Sinestro spends a few moments after making his demands just scanning the area as more people(and winged horses) arrive on the scene. The skeleton's dismissal soon pulls his attention from the flying steed, but before the Lantern can twist his features into a proper scowl, he catches his first glimpse at the machines emerging from the fire.
|( "Unknown mechanical entities approa--" )|
"Yes," he quietly hisses as he uncrosses his arms and loosens his hands. "I know; I have--"
In a flash, Sinestro's thoughts shift from annoyance to survival, and the unassuming green, talking on his finger transforms those thoughts into a protective emerald shell to weather the explosion.
"Choose your tar--" he begins to call to the other gathered heroes once the smoke clears... only to see that most of them are already engaging.
"Very well," he grunts, snapping off a green laser in the faux-Sinestro's general direction; it's more of a warning shot than anything else. "We'll see how big a waste of your maker's time you are," he sneers at--himself.
Molly Hayes, who to this point has simply been staring wide-eyed at the enemies and arriving heroes with her jaw slack, suddenly emits a -squeal- of highly inappropriate joy! "So cool! It's a REAL hero thing! OHMGOSH!" And she practically dances, holding her strange pink beanie - with sewn-on eyes - to her head! She doesn't seem much to care who hears her, least... not until that sudden violent EXPLOSION of flames comes ROARING toward her!
-SQUEAL!!!-
And, as the flames pass, she's still standing there with her eyes squeezed shut. The concrete all around is black, burnt from the flames, yet mysteriously she is not. And, when her eyes open again momentarily, they are no longer the emerald green they used to be. They glow with bright pink energy... "..." "..." "..."
"I almost got turned into pot roast!!!'
...Meanwhile, that ghoulish fiend suffused with chaotic flames is still standing at the epicenter of that enormous blast with his jaw slack again. And for all of about two seconds he doesn't move, as if the life had left him with that explosion. ... But then, he does. He BURSTS from the concrete with enormous speed, and a burst of flames, and takes off into the air... the thrown slab of concrete just -barely- missing him. "I thought I -said...!" he starts, before the unexpected water column from above SMASHES into him and sends him flying toward the ground screaming unintelligibly...
...and smashes him into the concrete near 'Sinestro Bot's feet. As the green beam of energy sails toward its person, the machine immediately responds with a duplication of his earlier maneuver - an emerald green barrier of energy about its frame - and follows it up with a retaliatory shot from within the barrier itself!
Hulkling's double, meanwhile, leaps into the air - with wings sprouting from its back side as soon as it does so - before attempting to barrel at him with all of the newfound strength and speed it is capable of! "Destroy!"
Amaya, meanwhile, would get no reprieve either... for no sooner does all of this chaos begin to unfold below... and her own double is plotting to destroy her. Unfortunately, replicating the flying steed was entirely out of its abilities being that it was another organism entirely. Thus, the imperfect duplicate is reduced to simply trying to fry its magically-capable other by firing a bolt of fire at her from the ground!
...And then there's Molly. Who, -apparently-, darts directly toward Nocturne at the other end of the dam, kicks off the ground, and attempts to... wordlessly attack her with a tactile-telekinesis powered fist?! It's an attack which might render most creatures flat as a pancake... if she doesn't dodge. OR...
Molly's 'double' doesn't get clocked in the backside by the real Molly with a thrown hunk of concrete! "...That's... not my sister! I'm pretty sure!"
Knocked down to one knee, Axiom's smoldering as well. "Ow," he mutters, getting back up. He takes in the sight of all the enemies and the changes in the bots. "These things are mimics," he murmurs, glancing around. Picking a target, he rushes at Amethyst's double and swings a super-strength punch at it to test it. He's trying to see if he can figure out how the bots work and devise a plan from there.
Whoever this redhead in green is, TJ's already liking her. One grin is met with another before the blue gal leaps back down and goes rushing toward the mass of machines right alongside Hope, though her approach is more of a hand and foot gallop. It's when she stops and holds her arms out at length that things start to change. Or..do nothing. At all. Her powers have gone offline.
"Um. Hello..? Hex-Bolts? Kinda..need you guys, here..!"
Crap! With any luck Hope can hold that line for the moment, the Wagnerette has a sudden change of plans and leaps sidelong for cover. Gotta figure something else out, come up with some other strategy--hey, Greenie! He's obviously got some strength to him! Another quick leap brings her to a three-point crouch at Hulkling's side, wide eyes focusing now upon him. "Help a lady out? I could really go for a roadsign or a piece of railing--Yikes!"
There's a giant fist coming right for her! The temptation to teleport is great but her head's still not happy from the last one. Instead she leaps back to the nearby railing she had pointed out to Hulkling, crouching upon the top bar with seemingly perfect balance.
"These guys mean business... Ah--possibly from another timeline..! I'm not really sure!" she yells back to the real Molly.
Wait. Waaaait a minute. There's another TJ running around. "Is that..is that me? Hey, I look pretty good!"
Can Hope Hold the line? Possibly. Hopefully.
- FWOOOSH!*
Does Hope bursting into flame much like the skeleton guy help? Hopefully it does! If only because as a bot comes towards the girl, the mutant power mimic up and fires a rather large, strong jet of flames towards it.
"I think I can! But this guy is a /LOT/ stronger than I thought he was. And I doubt I can go all phoenix with these flames considering he's just a skeleton!"
"Railing? Sure---" Hulkling says, smoke rising from his body as he reaches over and -yanks- hard at the railing, loosening it up from the concrete just as---
Tackle. The green teen lets go of the railing just as his double impacts with him and they both go rolling and clawing at each other. He has a slight edge, since Axiom is boosting him, but when two masses of green muscle collide, it's not going to be easy. He wishes he had spent more time on the wrestling team instead of going full tilt for basketball. He tries to give the Fauxling a good kick to put some distance between them, and get those claws up. He knew how tough his defenses could be, so getting through them was a problem. He didn't dare lower his density to gain agility just yet.
Amethyst leans forward in her saddle, glowing hands raised high. The animated torrent of water is unrelenting and, in fact, growing more furious as the princess gathers the storm's power. That the skeleton landed near one of the shadowy, impersonating machines only makes turning things up a better idea.
The column thickens even as another spout forms. Splitting her attention between two of these things isn't difficult when one is already "in place." Splitting her attention while she's being shot at is another thing.
Amethyst's pegasus, free as she is to watch for danger, dives at the first sign of trouble. It may be the fastest way to gain speed, but it also brings Amethyst below sight of the dam's top even as it saves her from her double's blast. The second spout collapses, and the princess can't be sure that her fiery foe won't free himself without her seeing and responding to his movements.
With a grunt of effort, Amethyst freezes the water solid before disappearing.
"Ohmigod that's IT! Take us up and let me off!"
The winged horse whinnies, but begins to gain altitude. They crest the top of the dam quickly enough, but it's still given the flaming skeleton precious seconds to deal with the ice laid on top of him. Amethyst slides free of the saddle, landing on the edge of dam. The pegasus continues on her way, quickly gaining distance.
Amethyst gestures a sparkling sword into her free hand, crouched and ready. After sparing a glance at her icy work, she takes stock of the rest of the battle. Her double is already being taken care of--the weirdness of watching some guy throw a punch at her is muted by her magical double-vision.
Panting, from excitement rather than exhaustion, the princess stalks carefully forward through the superpowered melee. This isn't her first time in a massive brawl. She knows how to avoid the debris of combat.
If the skeleton isn't getting free, she's going to end this right now.
Sinestro's lips curl into a thin smile and swings his left, ring-bearing fist around to meet Sinestrobot's retaliatory blast. The barrier around /his/ body contracts until it's just a disk slightly larger than - and hovering in front of - his fist; just before contact, the modified shield shifts one more time, becoming a perfect - if glowing - duplicate of the Green Lantern emblem on his chest.
"Nngh," he grunts through clenched teeth when the beam smacks into his shield and sends waves of pain travelling up his arm from its sheer force. Rather than wait around for more such attacks, he twists into a wide orbit around his duplicate in search of a good angle of attack.
"Fantastic," he hisses, voice practically dripping with distaste as he scrutinizes his foe's defenses, "It can manage /beams/, and /shields/." More glowing duplicates of his Lantern crest flicker into existence around him as he calls out, "Keep this engagement /contained/!" to the other heroes. Hulkling the concrete-thrower, Hope the pyrokinetic, and Amethyst the--
--well, /something/ get lingering looks from the mustachioed space cop before he refocuses his attention on his counterpart, sucks in a breath to try and block out the dull ache between his eyes from weathering the explosion and the beam back to back, and focuses his attention on his counterpart once more.
His attention, and a laser rifle constructed from solid green light; it's covered in a dizzying array of wires, buttons and bouncing gauges. Once armed, his orbit transforms into a strafing run, the Korugarian Lantern peppering the machine with beam after scintillating beam in the hopes of keeping it pinned down and distracted.
Molly's double is smashed out of the air by the thrown slab of concrete, going rolling with the force of the blow across the concrete dam. It then pushes itself up, wordlessly, and turns to face the individual it replicated. Then it looks toward the nearby Hope. It stands there, simply staring indecisively, for a whole of about five seconds... before charging at Hope across the way. Mid-dart it latches onto a large, busted, hunk of ventilation system and -rips- it up out of the concrete with super human strength before hurling it as hard as it will go!
Nocturne, meanwhile, wouldn't get too terribly long to admire her duplicate from a distance. For, after spending several moments crouched low to the concrete doing naught but watching the combat ensue, it finally decides to do something. And it turns, yellow eyes staring lifelessly and unblinkingly at her, before it teleports with a bursting of sulphur and reappears nearer. This was a -horrible- miscalculation however as the maneuver leaves it as dazed, and briefly somewhat stunned, as its original would be. Staggering back, briefly, it seems to hesitate... before raising a three fingered hand and loosing a bolt of energy that... looks like it just might miss. Regardless of the outcome, it then attempts to leap away from its present position toward another on the surface of a nearby steel wall of a storage shed... tail whipping angrily in frustration.
Fever Pitch, that ghoulish skeleton, is somewhere amidst all of this chaos... buried beneath a thick layer of ice by Amethyst's dynamic water spout turned flash freeze. Those angry crimson flames have died momentarily, and he's rendered just a less frightening-looking undead -thing-. But, it will take considerably more than water spouts and freezes overs to keep him down apparently. Just -seconds- after she dips beneath the dam's edge, his body ERUPTS with violent hellfire again. The ice encasing him almost immediately turns to mist when exposed to the white hot heat of his focused flames. "...Hguuuaagh.." a groan comes from somewhere inside it, "...I'm gonna kill you...", this is said to no one in particular before he begins to rise toward his feet again. And he turns, boldly attempting to stare down the much more powerful spellcaster. "...Bugger off, fairy wench!", he shouts before a violent bursting of flame ensues and a superheated ball of plasma is shot in the girl's direction!
Amethyst's duplicate seems to be having far more trouble than its original with its own battles however. Caught almost completely unawares, the replicant barely has enough time to turn and begin to conjure a partial shield before Axiom's super-powered punch sends it sailing away and tumbling across the concrete pavement. It then struggles to its feet, eyes glowing momentarily their original bluish hue as it experiences a bout of momentary weakness. But, it doesn't yield yet. Instead, it conjures a mass of magical energy over Axiom's head before turning all of the airborne moisture into a massive block of ice and attempting to drop it on him!
Hulkling's double is sent tumbling backward from the clean blow he manages to strike its hardened exterior with. Despite this, and perhaps despite whatever wounds his claws may have opened, it growls inhumanly before leaping into the air once more. This time it is not to immediately charge him, however. It is to fly toward a nearby steel bunker and attempt to tear the steel and concrete roof off of it before hurling the mass of junk in his direction!
Sinestro Bot, for all of its inherited power, is a touch overwhelmed by both the agile and dexterous maneuverings of the original as well as his sheer skill. Which it lacks. It is because of this it does /not/ fare as well he when it comes to deflecting retaliatory fire. It manages, perhaps through sheer luck, to deflect the first couple of shots with the same manner of concentrated barrier energy as he had used moments prior. But, some of the fire gets through... and sends the incomplete copy flying backward before smashing into the concrete and creating spider cracks. The sinister Replica grits its teeth, wordlessly, before attempting to push itself back up off the ground. Visibly weakened, but not yet defeated, it counters immediately in a rather unorthodox manner. It manifests a comically MASSIVE hammer - likely a great waste of energy - with the power of its ring. It then swings it wide, attempting to smash Sinestro into the dam with it!
The /real/ Molly Hayes is standing by... watching all of this with a touch of confusion in her features. Who exactly should she attack given the circumstances...? ... The question is a difficult one, but it ends with a simple answer. If all else fails, beat on the other Molly. And that is exactly what she attempts to do, charging her double as hard as her legs will carry before hurling herself through the air at her duplicate. "...I'm gonna beat you so hard...!"
"Guys!" Axiom calls out to the others. "They're mimics but not d-dynamic. I think they're stuck with who they copied!" he's guessing since his opponent didn't switch to copying him...or copying Hulkling like he's doing. Watching the fake-Amethyst he tenses at the magic cast and glances up. "Whoa!" he yelps. Still boosting Hulkling, Axiom stops mimicking him. Returning to his original appearance, he takes advantage of his smaller form's agility and speed to leap out of the way. Landing and rolling, he draws his staff from where it's clipped to his belt and darts forward. The weapon is extended to full length with a flick of Axiom's wrist and he uses it to vault himself up and into the air, launching himself at the fake Amethyst and trying to kick it.
TJ's soon to have herself a weapon. Or..maybe not. When Hulkling gets rammed into by his clone she immediately recoils, hands darting closer up to her face as she winces. "Oh..ouch..that's not good..."
She might be able to port down there and catch the guy. Maybe. Kurt's done it before, doesn't it stand to reason that she could as well? Except that she's never tried, and her head is screaming at her that it's a very bad idea to use this moment for a field test.
The others seem to be holding their own. More or less. Still, she's gotta do something, powers or no powers. That glowy guy's pulling green glowy things out of thin air. That's awesome! Maybe she can try there, instead. (Oh sure, Axiom's got a staff...) Or..maybe she can focus on not getting blasted off of the railing by the other her.
When the copy teleports in and feels the same disorientation, TJ just has to grin. "Yeah. There's that." Already she's starting to close the gap between the two, running hell-bent for her copy. "I'm on myself!" Like a xenomorph ducking incoming pulse rifle fire TJ snaps low and weaves away from the incoming Hex Bolt, though not without blurting out "That's my schtick! Give me back my powers, you ..ah..crap, I don't have a ready insult to use on myself. Hey--get back here!"
She could teleport. Land right on top of her copy and give her/it the ol' what-for. Instead she gives her primary trick another go, rewarded with a concussive -Skrak!- of Brimstone energy tearing across the dam towards her copy.
"YES! Nocturne, back in the game!"
And of course as Hope is charged at, the mutant mimic doesn't hold back. She just glares at the debris create, and hurled by the oncoming duplicate as she lashes out with her flames in one epic *FWOOOSH!*, hopefully vaporizing it. All though, for the moment she does not realize just what one of the side effects of this power is. Especially as her hair is almost completely burnt away by this point, and on some parts of her exposed skin, there are other signs of trouble...
On the other hand as a second form appears to be charging at, and hopefully pummeling the duplicate. The redhead (or at least she was back when she had hair) blinks as she realizes it's the same girl as the thing that threw the debris at her. hence why as Hope rushes forward her flames go out... And she tries to join in on the pummeling as she up and copies Molly's super strength!?!
That debris was going to cause a problem- for everybody. If he ducked out of the way, it was likely the debris would hit the other heroes by rebound, so Hulkling doesn't have any other option but to stand in the way. The impact is bone-jarring, even for someone as tough as he is, and he gains wounds that quickly start to close up. The chunk of roof and concrete actually drags him several feet, and it takes him a few seconds to punch himself out, but when he does he looks furious. Thanks to Eddie's boost, the healing happens faster than his already commendable regeneration allows. He runs to one of the light posts nearby and, with a groan and a lift he uproots it, swinging it towards his double with as much strength as he can muster.
Amethyst's cautious advance is cut short when she realizes that her foe is free and merely on his back. She's emboldened by his show of weakness and confident in her own ability. While he can call upon flame, she has a wealth of elemental magic to respond with.
Still, there's the battle. Amethyst hesitates, holding her place while she attempts to watch for incoming threats. Concrete flying, some crazy looking guy yelling at her, energy flying this way and that--the energy is the easiest to process, with how close it is to the low-level magic practiced by even the least adept of Gemworld's soldiers.
Her attention snaps back as Fever Pitch rises and speaks. It's not like anyone is shooting at her, anyway.
"Fairy wench?" Amethyst repeats, a sparkling shield forming in front of her after a gesture from her free hand. "You're a talking skeleton on fire and that's the most hardcore thing you have to say?"
The blast that both of them knew was coming washes over Amethyst's prepared defenses. She can't move fast enough to even think about dodging the fiery tantrums, but walking through fire is a surprisingly easy trick. The princess puts one foot in front of the other, parting the burst of flame with the flickering purple bubble surrounding her.
Determination turns to pain as the superheated plasma physically stops her advance. Amethyst digs her feet in, hunching over slightly as the breath leaves her. The fire before, that's just fire. She was ready for that. Something as hot as the outright plasma flung her way is new--it spiritually burns her, pain racing up her arms and invading her head. The shield holds, at a cost.
It hurt enough to make her abandon caution. Amethyst breaks into a run, closing the distance as quickly as she can. Her blade is slender and quick, her form is brutal and assertive. She probes for an opening in the unarmed skeleton's defenses, wary of any attempt to direct his flames. As he is a skeleton, Amethyst's uses her magical sword more as a saber, using wide cuts to try to sheer off an arm or at least prevent him from pointing anything else in her direction.
"They are also," Sinestro adds as his duplicate picks itself off of the ground, "thoroughly inferior." Despite this, he doesn't take his eyes off Sinestrobot for a moment, now that the battle is well and truly on; the rifle does, however, scatter into a sparkling green cloud as the Korugarian breaks his orbit to fly nearer to - and above - his opposite number. He also makes a mental note to inspect whatever damage that thing's flying frame did to the dam once the fight over; he isn't any more eager to needlessly wreck a foreign sector than he is to see its natives do so themselves.
Much like Fauxling's debris-flinging, the enormous hammer threatening to swat him from the sky represents a potential threat to everyone and everything near Sinestro, not just Sinestro himself, and so, like the Skrull, he focuses on interception rather than evasion--albeit with another construct, rather than, say, his body. Turning his left palm to the weapon, he creates a duplicate of his hand - no larger, no smaller, just green and glowing - which rushes several feet forward before coming to a hard stop when it smacks against the hammer's head. Rather than dissipate on contact, the hand just braces itself, and with Sinestro's will behind it, the diminutive extremity works to gradually put the brakes on the oversized hammer before it can threaten him or(slightly less importantly) anything or anyone else.
"There's nothing behind this one's powers," he notes, voice ringing through the air over the dam as sweat beads across its forehead. "No training. No will; yours, I imagine, are not so dissimilar!"
And with that, Sinestro's construct hand curls into a fist and tries to power straight through the hammer and sock the robotic ring-slinger that conjured it.
After a beat, he mutters, "Ring: leave that little detail out of our report to Jordan."
Amethyst's clone seems caught off-guard its by more adaptive, dynamic, opponent's swift power shifting and maneuvering. The swift, agile, vaulting maneuver sees Axiom swinging in close for a kick that looks like it might hit cleanly. But, despite the replica's surprise, it musters a minimal defense against the attack... forging a temporarily 'shield' of ice from the ambient water which it attempts to use to deflect the kick. It's not entiely without consequences, however, as the ice shatters almost instantly afterward due to the force of the attack. This visibly opens wounds on the replica's right arm, and sends it staggering. It is quick to respond, even midst stagger, however with an attack of its own: a rumbling from the clouds comes from overhead, leaving a space of rough three seconds of silence, before a bolt of electricity lights of the sky as it speeds toward the dam surface - and Axiom - with a violent -Krakkooom!- sounding kin to a cannon shot!
Nocturne's copy who is still disoriented, and somewhat angry judging by the lashing of its tail at the air, barely has time to react to its swiftly moving original. It leaps, in a defensive maneuver, backward and away from the wall with a flip before kicking off the concrete again and attempting to charge Nocturne with a fiercely focused yellow glare. Unfortunately, it fails to factor the original attacking again so swiftly into the equation and because of this it is sent flying away again with the force of the concussive blast! It flies back a safe distance (for Nocturne) away, before tumbling across the concrete and then leaping to its feet again. This time, it's sporting some rather nasty-looking cuts and scrapes. ... Either for lack of experience, or out of desperation, it doesn't bother crossing the distance on foot again. Instead, it teleports once more and - finding itself even more disoriented than it was prior - does the only logical thing it can rightly do in its present state: fling itself at her wildly in some manner of clumsy headbutt!
Hulkling's double snarls wordlessly at the original, as he darts into its territory, hands morphing into deadly claws and teeth elongating into vicious fangs as it awaits his arrival. Leaping, just when he is about to swing that light post, it hopes to sieze him first and wrench that light post from his grip so it can attempt to disembowel him with its claws! ... Rather anticlimactically, however, it underestimates the speed of the boosted Hulkling and instead takes light post solidly to its midsection before -sailing- backward across the dam and smashing through a metal shed! ... From which it does not seem to emerge.
Fever Pitch, meanwhile, is just /pissed/. "Don't talk to me like I am $#@#133ing halloween prop!!! I'll BURN your face off...!", he shouts, even as she pushes her way through a wall of flame few of his past enemies have lived to tell about. "....Kaaak....", he starts unintelligibly as he attempts to respond to the encroaching 'fairy wench' wielding a dangerous-looking magical sword by flying backward and away. It's not enough, however, he had let her get too close before responding and he pays for it by losing an arm! "...AAAAAAAAAAA...", a shrill, almost inhuman, scream is emitted from the skeletal figure suffused with crimson flames. The moment the arm comes off, a violent burst of flame shoots out erratically from where it had been attached. Realizing the danger he's gotten himself into, the mutant decides to take the coward's route and fly away with that. But not before firing off -one more- burst of flame in Amethyst's direction! "#$@! mission over....!"
Sinestro's invalid copy seems to be doing about as well as the others at this point, struggling wordlessly with all of its might against Sinestro's will. But, it lacks true will of its own, and thus finds itself hopelessly outmatched due to its inability to wield the powers of the Green Lantern properly. This fact, and this fact alone, sees Sinestro's own construct - though seemingly smaller - stopping the massive mallet cold before eventually tearing it through entirely. The strike to the duplicate's face is not only successful, but it is unshielded... leaving the duplicate helpless to be thrown over the dam wall by the enormous force. ... Likely never to be seen again
...And Molly is still busying trying to pound her own duplicate into the pavement repeatedly. Having grabbed her duplicate by the shirt collar moments prior, she has begun to attempt slam its head against the concrete surface of the dam. And it's a mighty struggle, she managed to once - as evidenced by the skull imprint beneath the adaptoid copy - but now it was fighting back. It has seized her own wrists, struggling to push back against her in a stalemate that just -may- soon see them both dropping asleep in a heap from exhaustion...
That is, until Hope darts in and syphons Molly's power only to sock the clone with a surprise attack! As the clone was intently focused on overpowering Molly, at the time, this left little energy for defense. And it's because of this, that the clone is -bashed- into the concrete with a crack and then... falls unconscious.
Aha..! TJ's own copy is lacking some things, as well. Such as years of being drilled by an almost militaristically minded father. Charging an opponent is one thing, but charging one when you know what she's capable of? Talia is grinning as the other her, disoriented from the teleport, comes rushing at her. Arms come out to the sides, her stance lowering, awaiting the tackle...
Grab!
-Blamf!-
"Alley-oop!"
The robotic copy gets caught, twisted backward, then flung over the edge of the dam with two broad feet sent into its hips and a pair of Hex Bolts aimed square at its chest. In the same motion the real TJ rolls around and is back to a crouch, watching the combined momentum do its trick with a sarcastic salute being cast from her forehead.
"That was fun."
And as the duplicate crashes into the concrete, Hope sort of stops, and breaths a bit deeply, before she sort of glances at Molly, asking a single obvious question.
"Are you okay...?"
Then though she blinks, glancing around, trying to find TJ, and the others.
"Heck... Is everyone all right?"
Yeah. She's fighting the potential downside of Mollys powers, but she isn't exactly willing to let go of them until /everyone/ makes it clear that they're clear.
Hulkling pants, looking around and assessing the state of the duplicates... nobody seemed to need his help immediately. He kneels for a second, trying to catch his breath. Having to fight himself hadn't been fun. Thank goodness for Axiom's boost-- but hey, at least he wasn't going to be bruised. At least he wouldn't be in a few hours. Some of the damage he had taken would have stopped someone whose internal organs didn't shift out of the way of fatal damage.
Axiom makes a little pained noise as he hits and shatters the ice, gaining wounds on his legs. He'll mimic Teddy later to fix that. Landing from the attack, he pushes back to his feet and holds his weapon defensively. Sinestro's comment gets a slightly annoyed look out of the teen. "H-hey," he mutters. "Hulkling, heads up," he warns, dropping his boosting after checking to make sure his friend is okay. He then focuses on Sinestro, boosting the Green Lantern's abilities and even recharging his ring. Eyes flare green as he mimics the lantern, his costume shifting into a fusion of his own and a GLC uniform. His skin even goes magenta as a mimicked ring forms on his finger. Then there's lighting coming his way. Axiom just smiles a little, forming a shield-construct shaped in a way to deflect the bolt back at the bot. "My adopted father is the God of Thunder, there's no way you're stopping me with lightning!"
Amethyst almost flies forward when Fever Pitch begins to fly away, so eager is she to capitalize on her advantage. Though her wound goaded her into action, her skeletal foe was similarly caught up in banter.
That brief moment is all she needs. With a mighty "HYAA!", Amethyst neatly severs a bone that she doesn't know the name of.
She barely has time to laugh in triumph before the stump begins spraying fire. Amethyst's smile disappears as she looks from the flailing arm to the skeleton's face, which is somehow emoting extreme anger. The princess backpedals, unsure of her ability to withstand the hellish lifeblood Fever Pitch is spilling.
Then again, she doesn't have a choice. Fever Pitch's flight and pyrotechnic abilities allow him to carpet bomb anywhere Amethyst is standing. The princess raises both of her hands, losing her sword to channel everything she has into preventing her face from being burnt off.
Fever Pitch's fiery deluge engulfs her completely. There's nothing stopping him from flying off on her end. As he does so, the frantic flame fades, revealing a dome of purple crystal. It's cracked rather than showing any signs of melting, because magic is strange.
The crystal formation begins to sink back into the ground, becoming the cement it was formed out of. Amethyst has already made it back to her feet. No one had to see her half-collapsed, almost crying in pain. It's very unbecoming for a princess.
Amethyst looks toward the sky, then back to the arm on the ground. She nudges it with her boot. "Trick or treat," she mutters.
"I'm alright," Amethyst calls out, realizing that the din of battle has died to a point where she can clearly hear people talk. She feels a sudden camaraderie as she realizes the other people did just as well.
They saved a dam. A really big dam. "You guys?"
|( "Power levels: 79 percent" )| Sinestro's ring flatly chirps as the Lantern's aura briefly and blindingly intensifies. |( "84 percent... 89 percent... 95 percent... 100 percent... 100 percent.. 100 percent..." )|
"How--" he snaps, peering down at his brightly glowing ring briefly before shaking his head to clear it of his displeasure at the (admittedly fortuitous) surprise. Instead of worrying about that, he quickly pans his eyes across the dam to see how everyone else is faring, and is somewhat more pleasantly surprised to find that they seem to all be winning their skirmishes--albeit with more property damage.
Rather than let Sinestrobot drift and/or swim to safety, the Lantern begins dotting the water it fell into with an array emerald boats, each of which casts nets into the water to try and fish the Adaptoid up in the name of justice.
"See to the stragglers," he calls down to Amethyst, "and the damage we've done to the area, and /then/ we can worry about--whatever it is that's on your mind."
|( "Power levels: 100 percent..." )|
As he says the word 'stragglers', incidentally, he shifts his gaze to study Axiom, who seemed to inexplicably go from green-skinned to Green Lantern while he wasn't looking. The lack of silver armor keeps him from firing a ring beam at the teen on GP, but he doesn't /stop/ scrutinizing him either, not even as he finishes making his point to Amethyst, or continues his bothunt.
Nocturne's clone fails in its last ditch attempt to assail the more experiencd original, and fails in a manner worthy of a Darwin Award. If that even applies to machines, really! ... Nocturne's snatch and go is utterly successful, seeing the helpless replica soon teleported away and then /kicked/ over the edge followed by a pair of kinetic bolts that leave it with absolutely zero chance to recover. It falls, spiraling helplessly, and wordlessly into the abyss of night below the dam... and probably hitting a few trees on the way down!
"...Hrrmmffnn..." Molly replies, dazed, and slowly slipping into the abyss of sleep despite her best attempts to fight it. Unlike Hope, who had merely just acquired Molly's powers, Molly has all but spent every last drop of her energy struggling to restrain her duplicate and batter it about. And for that, she is now paying. It's rare for the inexperienced brunette titan to encounter another being capable of matching her raw strength. Last person to do that to her was... Thor Odinson maybe? "...Hrrmm... I... I'm hungry... gramma..." She mutters the nickname of the elderly woman that tends to her at the foster care center, before lurching forward... falling toward Hope's nearby shoulder...and then ultimately rolling to the ground on her back. Asleep... and blowing a comically large snot bubble with an accompanying whistle of air...
The 'last clone standing' literally frown faces majorly as Axiom subverts her futile attempts to attack him once more. The lightning strike collides with the emerald green barrier of pure energy, sparking a bit before its energy is redirected violently back in her general direction. She dives head-first to the concrete, attempting to dodge, but while this saves her from possibly being burnt to a crisp it doesn't stop her from taking yet more damage as the surface of the dam explodes behind her. It sends her tumbling to the ground a ways away, dress torn up in the process, before she is pelted with concrete debris from the explosion. Some of it is heavy enough, and massive enough, to render her effectively unconscious...
And with the last of the Adaptoid's defeated, it would seem that the heroes have indeed won their valiant fight and succeeded in stopping the dam from suffering catastrophic damage. The silence of the night air is broken overhead by the sound of approaching helicopters. Likely police and news helicopters. ... And it's also soon broken by the sound of something else...
Explosions. The remaining Adaptoids, just moments after being defeated, explode in a modestly sized burst of intense heat that sees most - if not all - of their critical components rendered unrecognizeable if not obliterated. ... T'would seem their creators were a cautious lot indeed.
When the bot goes down, Axiom lets out a sigh of relief. The explosions make him jump, looking around for their sources and then sighing. "Well at least it w-w-was easier to clean them up than the other robots..." he mutters. Floating over to Hulkling, Eddie offers his friend a smile. "You okay?" he asks, making sure. "We better get to work making sure this place is okay and trying to fix the damage," he says to everyone even if he is still checking over Hulkling.
"Insert triumphant raised fist here!" TJ calls out while following her own advice. As soon as that passes she's got one arm tucked around herself and the other held in close, delicately massaging her temple. She's cold, completely saturated from the rain, still has a pounding headache, and she's got a long trek home to figure out!
Maybe she'll just give Kurt or Amanda a call. Free long-distance teleportation services, nothing else like it in the world.
"Yeah, I'm okay. Everyone else okay?" Crud--helicopters. "Hey, uh. I think I hear my parents calling," she says to no one in particular (and not very loudly.)
Out here in the rain and evening hours, vanishing into the darkness is downright trivial. She'd rather not wind up on the evening news if it can be helped. Crisis averted! Time to bail. It was the way of the Exiles, after all.
And as Molly falls, Hope moves over to catch the younger girl. That is before she eyes Axiom, Amethyst, Sinestro, TJ, the other heroes, and the 'remains' of the vanquished robots.
"I'm good. Anyone want to help me and the girl here back to town though?"
Hulkling slowly stands up, giving Eddie a reassuring smile. He's beaten up, but his regenerative powers meant that he was getting better all the time. As Hope asks her question, he nods, "I'll help..." he says, moving over to her to provide support. "How badly are you hurt?"
Amethyst looks upward to Sinestro. Normally her response to that kind of command would be a sullen glare, but she doesn't know what to make of the alien and is honestly unsure of how to act in the role of superhero. Helping clean up is definitely the right thing to do, but hell if she's looking forward to it. The thump thump of helicopters makes her nervous, but she pushes it to the back of her head.
"OK, OK. I'll stay and help. They count as stragglers, right?" she contests the orders, gesturing toward Hope and Molly. A brief sparkle lights the sky, though even that can't illuminate TJ's escape. Amethyst doesn't really process that she's missing.
The princess is soon by the others' side. She remains standing as someone's already doing the physical supporting. Despite the rain, Amethyst's clothes are not wet at all. The same can't be said for her hair. "Don't worry, I've got a magic horse. She'll take you where you need to go if you ask."
Above, the pegasus breaks through the clouds, circling as it finds a place to land. "She's smarter than she looks."
Cracks race along the surfaces of Sinestro's ships, thanks to the explosions rattling his concentration. A couple of the vessels are close enough to ground zero of Sinestrobot's detonation that the resulting waterspout shoots them several feet into the air; rather than splash back down, they just flicker out of existence. Given that the other robots aren't going to be going anywhere any time soon, the rest of the boats also begin disappearing.
"Well," he mutters, descending until he's hovering a foot or so above one of the scrap heaps. A green bubble closes itself around the wreckage, scooping up dirt and robot parts for later study by--someone.
He'll have to doublecheck with Jordan and/or the ring later to work out the finer points of Earth's hostile mechanical entity policies.
"Just the damage, then, I suppose." He glances towards Hope, but Hulkling and Amethyst seem to have that taken care of. He does glance towards the Skrull to remark, "In the future, you should 'really consider not making an even larger mess of the place you're trying to protect," and then tips his chin towards the foundation of the lightpole Hulkling wrenched from the ground. Amethyst's questioning earns her a scowl, but he gives the girl a dismissive wave of the hand rather than argue the point; /someone/ has to get the sleeping teen home to her parents, after all.
Once the remnants are all collected, a flick of his wrist sends them hurtling up, up, up into the sky to wait for Sinestro while he begins working on the damage--which, for now, seems to mean staring at the cracks his duplicate left in the dam really, really hard until green light begins to leak from them. Given a minute or so, it'll be as though they were never there at all.