Tales of the Titans (IC)

Star just shook his head. "You guys really don't want to do this. It's gonna end badly." He tilted his head popping his spine. "But whatever." He lunged forward catching Greed with a kick to the back of the skull as the Greed stood up from the pile of zombies. before moving next to Beast Boy. "You can turn into any animal? Ever hear of a thing called the fastball special cus I think that sounds like fun."

Beast Boy

Sean Renaud said:

Star just shook his head. "You guys really don't want to do this. It's gonna end badly." He tilted his head popping his spine. "But whatever." He lunged forward catching Greed with a kick to the back of the skull before moving next to Beast Boy. "You can turn into any animal? Ever hear of a thing called the fastball special cus I think that sounds like fun."

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Gar's eyes lit up even in his current elephantine form and he nodded. "How'd you know? I love X-Men comics." He considered for a moment and then asked, "How's your pitching arm?" Gar stepped towards Star, shifting to his normal form and extending one hand.

If Star takes his hand, Gar shifts down into the form of a bright green armadillo, already curled up into a ball; otherwise, he'll do it right before Star, becoming a ball at the martial artist's feet.

"I didn't know you love comics. I do." He said taking Gar by the hand. "I think I love you." He said when the green man shifted forms into something he could pitch. Which he did, straight at Gluttony. "Eat up fat boy!" He shouted.

Nightwing pulled out his two batons, and with a downward thrust, their length extended to about three feet. He then snapped them together, making a six-foot-long staff. He then ran towards two of the zombies, dropping down and sliding on the floor between the two at the last second. He then spun his staff around, knocking them both off their feet as his flipped back up to stand over them. He then spun the staff over his head and brought it down hard on one zombie's head while the other one attempted to jump back up and got Nightwing's foot to the side of its head. A second later, a third zombie jumped onto Dick's shoulders from behind, to which he responded by jumping straight up into the air and slamming his back onto the floor, using the creature to break the fall. He then elbowed it in the neck over and over until it let go while kicking at the other two who had recovered from their earlier assault. He then grabbed three tiny devices from his belt and stuck one to each chest, activating them with his wrist com – all three zombies fell to the ground and convulsed as the devices shocked them and filled the air with an electric sound.

Nightwing gasped as two blades suddenly appeared on either side of his head and a third one just barely touching the back of his neck. “That wasn't nice at all.” came Lust's voice from behind him. “You hurt my friends.”

Without a word, he dropped down to the floor as quickly as he could, then spun around and threw several wingblades at the beautiful-yet-deadly woman. She was too quick, however, and sliced them all in half with her finger swords before they ever got near her. Dick immediately threw a few more, which she sliced again. He reached in his belt and pulled out three more.

“Stupid boy,” she laughed. “Don't you learn?” He threw them again. Lust smirked and sliced them in half once more, but what she didn't catch was the tiny dart he had thrown while she was distracted with the wingblades – the dart stuck into her neck and she shrieked as it suddenly shocked her body the same as the three zombies.

“You'll die for that!” screamed Envy, but he too received a shocker dart a second later. Nightwing then ran forward to knock them both out with his staff when a black tentacle suddenly grabbed him. It lifted him up and more arms wrapped around him. Binding his arms. Squeezing his neck. Cutting off his oxygen supply. He was beginning to get lightheaded as he stared down at the newest arrival. In the background, Lust and Envy were recovering from their shock treatments.

Nightwing's attacker appeared to be a small boy, but his eyes were pure evil.



A moment later, yet another arrived at the party – this one was larger than the rest, towering at least seven feet tall.



“Yay! Pride and Sloth are here!” exclaimed Gluttony after recovering from the Fastball Special. “As soon as Wrath wakes up, we'll all be together!”

Meanwhile, in the Security Control Room...

“I can't believe these brats got in here,” spat an older man in a military uniform as he looked at the security monitors (which they had managed to get back online very quickly after Steel had shut them down). He was Major General Wade Eiling, Commanding Officer of Project Cadmus.


(Pretend he has two stars instead of four, as a Major General seems more likely to run this type of facility than a four-star General. And also pretend this is an Air Force uniform and not an Army one, lol.)

“I don't want to release Wrath if we don't need to. Hopefully the six can handle them.”

“If they get out with any information, it will be troublesome for us,” said the General's Lead Scientist, Dr. Anthony Ivo.

“Don't worry,” replied Eiling. “They won't get out.”

Beast Boy

Sean Renaud said:

"I didn't know you love comics. I do." He said taking Gar by the hand. "I think I love you." He said when the green man shifted forms into something he could pitch. Which he did, straight at Gluttony. "Eat up fat boy!" He shouted.

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Gluttony seemed perfectly fine with answering to Star's insult. The big man turned and began advancing on the martial artist as Star flung the green armadillo at Gluttony's head like Gar was a really dense (and slightly larger) softball. "Don't mind if I do," Gluttony said as he opened his mouth wide and stopped to brace himself.

Star watched as the open mouth seemed to gape much wider than it really should have, and realized Gluttony had unhinged his jaw and was intending on actually catching the entire missile in his mouth, like a piece of tossed popcorn.

However, Gar was keeping tabs on where Gluttony was. Even if he rolled as he went through the air, all those ballet lessons Rita had made him take and the spatial awareness drills he'd work with Cliff and Larry helped him to know where Gluttony was and, more importantly, where he was in relation to him. Almost...almost...almost... The armadillo just passed Gluttony's lips and he began to close his mouth, when Gar's voice rang out and the armadillo unrolled and expanded.

"Gotcha!exclaimed Gar as he became a small t-rex and burst Gluttony's mouth asunder and practically broke his back and took his head right off. Gar stood over Gluttony's remains and smirked. "Hah! Whacha gonna do now?", he taunted.

Gluttony's head lurched and Gar and Star watched as his tongue righted the head and the jaw and broken cheeks reformed themselves with surprising speed (and fairly horrific bone-on-bone sounds) "Now?" Gluttony said with a leer once his mouth could work. "Now I'm going to eat you first." He reached up with his hands and held his head in place as the neck and shoulders repaired themselves. Gluttony then shrugged his shoulders and cracked his neck as he stood up.

"Oh yeah...ninjaburgers and...you change shape, right? How about I eat you slowly, that way you can keep changing into new things for me to taste." He grinned and then licked his lips...his tongue extending as it did so to wipe a bit of dust, sweat, and debris from his forehead.

"You full of vinegar now but you 'bout through!"

Tight_n_ready said:

They all looked towards her as she entered and she blushed and waved awkwardly. Nervous she may be, but she was equally excited to meet new people, finally. She had been cooped up in her Uncle’s apartment for three months, stuck watching Earth TV, it was fun, but not what she’d come to Earth for.

“Hey, I’m Megan.”

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Natasha inclined her head and smiled at the new girl-- well, they were all new here, weren't they? "Hey, Meg. Can I call you Meg? Welcome aboard."

Tight_n_ready said:

The briefing seemed to go fairly smoothly, although the amount of pressure Nightwing seemed to be applying to her was a little intimidating. She listened carefully, nodding as he talked her through what he needed her to do. It was only a few human minds though.

“Sure I can do that, no problem.”

That garnered a few looks from the others. She face palmed, “hello Megan!”

Her skin shifted and shaded, a distinctive green shade creeping up from her feet and ankles, until her whole form was now tinted much the same as Beast Boy’s was, except for her clothes.

“I’m actually the Manhunter’s niece… So I can do everything he can… well not quite, he’s a bit more practised than I am, so I can’t shift through objects yet like he can, and turning into guys is… difficult…”

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Yeah, psychic shenanigans weren't Natasha's favorite powerset, reliability-wise, but we've already narrated about that-- the girl herself seemed an adorable bundle of earnest optimism, and in a world of dark and gruff antiheroes, that was refreshing. Of course, earnest optimism wasn't always your biggest asset in a firefight, either, but that just meant people would have to watch her back-- and you did that in a team anyway, right?

Ah, but that skin-hue, though, that was a surprise. And a synchronicitous one!

"Hey, we all got our hiccups to work out," Natasha grinned, cheerfully giving Star the side-eye now that he was faced with another green person in quick succession. "Me, I gotta work on my muay thai. A gal who wears The 'S' and doesn't know how to do the Superman punch is a sad state of affairs."

ChasNicollette said:

And she knocked Greed into Tigress and they plowed into the zombie drones like they were the bowling pins.

"Oh," her voice cracked, and even though it didn't sound quite as Orson Welles-as-Unicron, James Earl Jones-as-Darth Vader, Wrath-of-God scary as Uncle John's voice did, it still sounded weird when she said broken-little-girl things in those robotic dubstep tones, "Jesus."

Panic flared in Steel's brain--

--oh God I've killed her--

--some goddamn supergenius I turned out to be--

--fixitfixitfixit--

Initializing her armor's AI fire-control target-assist while simultaneously switching her HUD scanners to infrared so as to see through the smoke, Steel shunkshunkshunked Lucy's handle back down to mallet-length and aimed with her left arm as she held Lucy one-handed in her right-- firing precision targeted sonic concussion-pulses into Greed and the zombies to try and disrupt them, throw them off of Tigress.

Then, with a burst of her back-up electrograv flight system (she was at least smart enough not to fire off her jet boots in a close-tight corridor with all her teammates next to her), Steel flew at the knot of zombies and Greed, hoping to scoop Tigress out of there before she got eaten for breakfast.

That is-- if she wasn't dead already--

--Greed's invulnerability could have diffused some of the amplitude of the hit but still that was a lot of goddamn momentum to conserve into Tigress--

--don't think about it--

--she just swooped and reached and prayed and continued to hope to God that the team could hold off these scary fucking newcomers long enough for Steel to make up for her rookie foul-up.

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Her soundbursts battered the horde back, piggybacking on how rattled Greed was, pushing the advantage, forcing the Sin and the zombies to stagger away from Tigress' fallen form.

Swooping in low, Steel clapped Lucy to her back, freed up both hands, landing swiftly in a crouch beside Tigress. Using her electrogravitic field to provide a cushioned cradle for Tigress so that scooping her up wouldn't hurt her neck or exacerbate any internal injuries, Steel then fired off a quick burst of boot-jets to retreat back out of Dodge, knocking Greed and the zombies into a fresh heap without, unfortunately, doing them any real damage.

Sean Renaud said:

He lunged forward catching Greed with a kick to the back of the skull as the Greed stood up from the pile of zombies.

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The Jeffinator said:

Nightwing pulled out his two batons, and with a downward thrust, their length extended to about three feet. He then snapped them together, making a six-foot-long staff. He then ran towards two of the zombies, dropping down and sliding on the floor between the two at the last second. He then spun his staff around, knocking them both off their feet as his flipped back up to stand over them. He then spun the staff over his head and brought it down hard on one zombie's head while the other one attempted to jump back up and got Nightwing's foot to the side of its head. A second later, a third zombie jumped onto Dick's shoulders from behind, to which he responded by jumping straight up into the air and slamming his back onto the floor, using the creature to break the fall. He then elbowed it in the neck over and over until it let go while kicking at the other two who had recovered from their earlier assault. He then grabbed three tiny devices from his belt and stuck one to each chest, activating them with his wrist com – all three zombies fell to the ground and convulsed as the devices shocked them and filled the air with an electric sound.

Click to expand...

Shit was stacking deeper, and it was all right in front of the fan.

Steel wasn't liking this at all, as she sought out Megan in the fracas-- there she was--

Tight_n_ready said:

She swooped over, alighting gently beside her teammate.

“Need some help?”

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Steel, in turn, landed beside Miss Martian, gently but firmly cradling Tigress. "I think he's a little busy right now playing X-Men. Can you help us out, here? Do a psychic brainscan or whatever to make sure Tigress doesn't have traumatic brain injury that my bio-imaging isn't picking up?"

Steel hesitated, checking her HUD-- "She's already got a dislocated shoulder. I can set it real quick, the AI's got a first-aid autoguidance function for that but... it's gonna hurt."

She had to do this and she had to do this quick-- she had to get in the thick of it, get back into the fight, they were straight-up outnumbered here.

Again supporting Tigress by extending what she could of her electrogravitic field, she braced Tigress' shoulder, and tugged on the arm-- KRKPOP.

Star watched the results of the fast ball special. Man, that works so much better with a shape shifter than it does with silly Wolverine. We have got to work on more team work moves. I wonder if he'd let me ride him as a rhino. His mind wandered.

Up till that moment he hadn't even really noticed that Tigress was down. Sure he'd seen her get hit, and get hit pretty hard but she looked like she was armored enough to take a solid hit or two. "Fuck."

Star paused there for a moment surveying the room. He was conflicted on Tigress for a split second. It was his fault she was hurt, he could have snatched her out of the way, or ended the fight sooner, or anything. But if she was on the team she should be able to handle herself and that hammer, someone should aim better, and I can't be everywhere at once.

Actually you can. his subconscious reminded him forcing a frown across his lips. It was true, as far as he knew he was probably in the top say ten, maybe twenty beings on the planet. He was no Flash or Superman, but. . .

Sloth's shadow was the only warning Star got before a fist came down aimed at his skull. Star dashed to one side narrowly avoiding the blow. Not the time to think. He noted. There was no excuse for seven feet of mouth breathing muscle to sneak up on him in his sleep. In that moment he decided the best thing he could do was end this fight as quickly as possible.

Star popped the bones in his neck and beckoned Sloth forward and nearly froze when the giant charged. "They call this one Sloth? The fuck is wrong with these people?" He shouted dancing around the blows until he saw an opening grabbing Sloth by the wrist and slamming the giant flat on it's back. In a series of practiced moves Star broke the wrist with a turn, then a knee to the elbow inverted it, and finally a stomp and yank dislocated the shoulder. Finally Star brought his heel down hard on the back of it's neck hearing a satisfying snap.

He wasn't normally a killer, actually this was the first time he'd taken a life. Nightwing can bitch me out later. He thought turning his back and seeking out a new target.

"Let's hurry up and finish, this is a lot of work." A voice came from behind Star before a massive hand wrapped around his leg slamming him against the floor then hurling him across the room.

Star barely managed to flip so he hit it feet first and ran up to the ceiling. "These guys! They don't die!"

Eyes closed, Tigress was only vaguely aware of her surroundings. She knew she was hurt. That was familiar. The strong arms that lifted her up, and the warm tingling that spread over her were not.

She enjoyed the new sensation in spite of the pain. That was until she heard a dull pop and a new wave of searing pain forced her back to consciousness.

She rolled into to a crouch, even as her eyes opened scanning for threats. Seeing that she wasn't in immediate danger, her shoulders sagged and she had a moment to take stock.

The self diagnostic her father had drilled into her started with checking her major joints and bones then moving to muscles, ending with a gear check, and takes 15 seconds if everything is fine.

"You reset my shoulder?" She asked Steel, whose arms she'd apparently rolled out of. "Thanks."

Nothing major was broken, but she was going to need a moment before she was combat ready.

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In the deserted war razed streets of Star City, a battle unlike any other was unfolding going into the late afternoon . In the span of an hour or so, several heroes had fallen to a mystery combatant bearing unique liquid-based weaponry. A lone individual was responsible for much of the carnage. Cyborg was among the latest of responders sent to neutralize the threat. Taking down the iron giant proved more trouble than he initially bargained for.

"I can read your heat signature. Hiding from me is futile."

He ran out from his position of two squadron cars, the ground beneath him was blasted by a sudden shockwave , and he was sent hurdling 30 or so feet until he broke some store windows on the way in, he seemed rattled by the beams disorientating effect but overall in control.

"So, tell me something borg. Seeing all your comrades already deceased at my hands. How does that make you feel?"

"I turned off my human empathy, so I can deal with you."

"You can turn something like that off? Like a switch? I'm impressed."

He improvised a feint with a moment's notice, managing to draw his fire into an opposite path that he could avoid. He used his bearers as a chain to take him out at his feet. He descended ontop of the downed cyborg. Grabbing hold of Cyborg's arm canon and applyng an armbar, he ripped the damn thing off at its joint or at least rendered it beyond use.

He stood over the man-machine and delivered the moral blow driving his fist his chest plate, tearing at scrap metal until his hand seized something precious "Your emotional paths may by A.I. , but your heart isn't. So, who's next?" Kaldur barked.


In a single bound, a man came down with enough force to break the ground beneath him, it had to be one person. Well, two.

Standing before him was his father's arch nemesis. The King of Atlantis himself.

"You're a disgrace to Atlantis. I'll handle you personally."

"Long live the king"

He solidified his bearers into the shape of butterfly knives, charging at and clashing with Arthur who was wielding some type of trident. They seemed locked in back and forth. until Arthur gained the upper hand, knocking him to the ground.

Kaldur was pinned by King Orin , who was holding the trident to his face while crouching. Kaldur brought his foot up to the back of Aquaman's head before he had a chance at successful skewering him. Kaldur rising to his feet.

"I've been developing some techniques to add to my arsenal. Allow me to show you the true depth of my genetic mapping. I call it lightning sheath. "

His water construct was coated with an electric charge. Somewhat akin to a lightsaber in appearance. Once again, their blades crossed, though this time Kaldur managing to get the upperhand , countering then locking Arthur's trident in place, disarming the man quitely literally. The lightning sheath managing to slice around Arthur's hands like buttered toast.

Grabbing hold of the fallen trident, he lodged the blade deep into his gut and finished him off with a few swipes of his blades.

At this point he was showing fatigue but he needed to see it through to the end. From the looks of it, his next opponent would be hell. He hadn't gotten this far before.

"Fucking Mera"

Kaldur'ahm cursed underneath his breath. He was hit by a sudden tidal wive, which swept him aside, until he was pinned against a brick wall, the wave descended into a fleet of bloodthirsty sharks, honing in on him until he was ultimately subdued, he couldn't move an inch without the sharks baring down on him, the liquid sharks began to tear into him in unyielding succession.


With that, the simulator finally came to end. He gradually came to. The battle was over but the experience was not lost on him. Some mechanics needed to be adjusted and such to reflect some recent changes. He'd gotten farther than he ever had before in survival mode, but that fact alone didn't mean anything if the data he'd been using was outdated, he'd fare well with some field testing. 16 stages in all with varying degrees of challenge and customization, he still needed to code more open-ended experiences to make his simulator really come to life.

Now, a long cold shower was in order.

Megan was distracted as the metal suited Steel appeared beside her. She was cradling an apparently injured Tigress in her arms, Megan hadn’t even seen her get hurt and her face clouded over with sudden concern.

“Oh no! Is she ok? What happened?”

She listened to Steel with some difficulty amidst the chaos, but nodded eagerly, “yeah I think so, at least I can check that everything seems to be working, although medicine isn’t really my area of expertise, ummm…”

She focused for a moment, and her eyes almost seemed to glow, she reached into Tigress’ mind with her senses, trying to establish that everything was working. It seemed the case, but she knew that many things could be wrong that she simply couldn’t check. Tigress could be paralysed for life and M’gann would have no way of knowing, until she woke up.

And then she did. She moved and stretched, apparently checking that everything was still intact. The relief in M’gann was palpable, she spoke hesitantly to Steel, “I think she’s ok, I mean, I couldn’t see anything wrong…”

She looked around, wanting to help someone, to do something other than simply floating above the fight. And she spotted Nightwing, he seemed to be choking, why was he…? Shadows?

There was a small boy, a child even, Shadows were pooling out from his body, and one set of them were wrapped around the heroes throat, slowly throttling the life out of him. M’gann took off, soaring towards him, reaching out with her mind and pulling one of the prone white creatures from the floor, flinging it forcefully towards the boy. He caught it…

And flung it back…

M’gann barely even had time to react, and it clipped her shoulder, sending her tumbling, but the childlike creature had already turned his attention away and she crashed into him. Knocking both of them flying, his shadows retracting from Nightwing as he attempted to turn them onto M’gann.

Suddenly Nightwing's airways were open again as Megan went crashing into Pride. He fell to the floor, gasping and coughing. He was dizzy and weak, but pushed himself back to his feet and stared at the evil boy, who was now preoccupied with Megan. Dick waited for a moment to regain his composure, then directed his thoughts toward Miss Martian, hoping she could hear him.

Megan... Can you hear me? Okay, good. Can you link me with the rest of the team? He could see the looks of discomfort from the others as their minds were connected through a psychic link. Okay guys, we need to make a plan that these mutants or whatever they are can't hear. Electricity seems to slow them down some, but we need more juice than what my darts have. If we all try to get them into close proximity, we may be able to at least stun them for a few minutes. Steel, you said your suit is able to absorb electricity, right? Is it possible to use your power core to do the reverse and emit an electric charge? If she can do that, can you guide the electricity with your telekinesis, Megan, to assault the mutants if we get them close together? If we can make this work, we can probably stun them all at the same time for at least a few minutes. Long enough for us to get out of here.

Dick sighed. I know we don't have as much intel as we wanted, but none of us expected these freaks to be down here. I had no idea they were making... whatever these are... down here. At this point, your safety is the most important thing. We are aborting the mission and getting out of here as fast as possible.

"It's fine." Star thought back not accustomed at all to telepathy so he was still half talking half not. "I can wrangle mine, just pick a spot. And do it quick.

Star ran along the ceiling and dropped down on Sloth with a kick then grabbed on arm and slid behind him into a wrist lock. Star didn't botheer holding back instead broke the wrist and then shoved him forward.

Beast Boy

Gar's eyes widened at the way Gluttony recovered from the fastball special's aftermath. He hesitantly took a step back as the fat man advanced, and another after hearing his new threats towards Star and himself. He stopped, however, on being linked by Megan to Nightwing and the rest of the team.

Having worked with Mento, Gar wasn't new to a telepathic touch, but it always seemed to make his spine tingle and raise hairs on various points of his body (even when his body was non-mammalian).

Sure thing, I think I can this guy to chase me pretty much anywhere. Man, that's not a thing I thought I'd ever say. But, y'know, I can do electric in a kind of big way, should we need a little additional spark. Your typical electric eel can stun an adult human--more than stun with the proper conducting agent--and I can get much larger than typical.

"And take that hammer, It'll do anything you tell it to."

Tight_n_ready said:

Megan was distracted as the metal suited Steel appeared beside her. She was cradling an apparently injured Tigress in her arms, Megan hadn’t even seen her get hurt and her face clouded over with sudden concern.

“Oh no! Is she ok? What happened?”

Click to expand...

"Friendly fire," Steel replied, the ache resonating even in her cybernetic tones. "I swear she wasn't behind the guy when I started swinging-- she's quick as a cat--"

ChasNicollette said:

"Can you help us out, here? Do a psychic brainscan or whatever to make sure Tigress doesn't have traumatic brain injury that my bio-imaging isn't picking up?"

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Tight_n_ready said:

She listened to Steel with some difficulty amidst the chaos, but nodded eagerly, “yeah I think so, at least I can check that everything seems to be working, although medicine isn’t really my area of expertise, ummm…”

She focused for a moment, and her eyes almost seemed to glow, she reached into Tigress’ mind with her senses, trying to establish that everything was working. It seemed the case, but she knew that many things could be wrong that she simply couldn’t check. Tigress could be paralysed for life and M’gann would have no way of knowing, until she woke up.

Click to expand...

ChasNicollette said:

Again supporting Tigress by extending what she could of her electrogravitic field, she braced Tigress' shoulder, and tugged on the arm-- KRKPOP.

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Lily_Wight said:

Eyes closed, Tigress was only vaguely aware of her surroundings. She knew she was hurt. That was familiar. The strong arms that lifted her up, and the warm tingling that spread over her were not.

She enjoyed the new sensation in spite of the pain. That was until she heard a dull pop and a new wave of searing pain forced her back to consciousness.

She rolled into to a crouch, even as her eyes opened scanning for threats. Seeing that she wasn't in immediate danger, her shoulders sagged and she had a moment to take stock.

The self diagnostic her father had drilled into her started with checking her major joints and bones then moving to muscles, ending with a gear check, and takes 15 seconds if everything is fine.

"You reset my shoulder?" She asked Steel, whose arms she'd apparently rolled out of. "Thanks."

Click to expand...

"My bad for knocking it out of joint in the first place," Steel confessed. "Seemed like the thing to do. Just make sure to ice that thing, and, uh, don't bear any grudges with it."

Tight_n_ready said:

The relief in M’gann was palpable, she spoke hesitantly to Steel, “I think she’s ok, I mean, I couldn’t see anything wrong…”

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Steel slung Lucy back off of her back, flexing her hand around the mallet-length handle, sweeping the battlefield with her gaze as she replied to M'gann: "Between my scans and yours, she's probably good. Still should see a doctor maybe. Just not one of the ones they've got working here."

Lily_Wight said:

Nothing major was broken, but she was going to need a moment before she was combat ready.

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Steel was itching to mix things up and make amends for her idiocy, but she also wanted to provide cover for Tigress while she got her bearings.

Fortunately, having a number of ranged options at her disposal meant that Steel could do both.

Remec said:

"Oh yeah...ninjaburgers and...you change shape, right? How about I eat you slowly, that way you can keep changing into new things for me to taste." He grinned and then licked his lips...his tongue extending as it did so to wipe a bit of dust, sweat, and debris from his forehead.

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Remec said:

Gar's eyes widened at the way Gluttony recovered from the fastball special's aftermath. He hesitantly took a step back as the fat man advanced, and another after hearing his new threats towards Star and himself.

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Steel's lip curled inside her helmet. "Insert tired joke about that guy needing more iron in his diet."

And rearing back, taking an instant to synch with a firing solution provided by her targeting HUD, she threw Lucy at Gluttony as hard as she could.

"Of course, in this case 'iron' is steel alloyed with depleted promethium, but who's counting?"

Gluttony, of course, caught Lucy just as effortlessly in his wide wide open mouth as he'd already caught Beast Boy's projectile mode.

"Well, that's an unusual taste sensation that's sweeping the nation," Gluttony mumbled with his mouth full.

"Yeah," Steel harrumphed. "It's really making a comeback."

Then, holding out her hand, she barked: "Return."

And Lucy hurtled back to Steel's waiting gauntlet, ripping her way right out through Gluttony in the process. Of course, Gluttony would just regenerate-- but maybe having to do so twice in quick succession would be something he'd not hurry to have a third serving of.

As this happened, M'gann managed to take enough wind out of of Pride's sails that Nightwing could get some back into his lungs.

The Jeffinator said:

He fell to the floor, gasping and coughing. He was dizzy and weak, but pushed himself back to his feet and stared at the evil boy, who was now preoccupied with Megan. Dick waited for a moment to regain his composure, then directed his thoughts toward Miss Martian, hoping she could hear him.

Megan... Can you hear me? Okay, good. Can you link me with the rest of the team? He could see the looks of discomfort from the others as their minds were connected through a psychic link.

Click to expand...

The mask that Steel's helmet made of her face wasn't exactly expressive, but Steel wasn't exactly comfortable, either. More voices in a head already subject to the hissing distant whispers of every computerized device nearby and the steady-but-companionable "voice" of the Steel Mark IV's onboard A.I.-- this was getting mighty crowded.

And she griped to herself before joining the flow of conversation: Note to self: mind-control safeguards no longer sufficient, might need psychic firewall, maybe something based on Brainwave technology? ...no offense, Meg, if you can hear this.

The Jeffinator said:

Okay guys, we need to make a plan that these mutants or whatever they are can't hear. Electricity seems to slow them down some, but we need more juice than what my darts have. If we all try to get them into close proximity, we may be able to at least stun them for a few minutes. Steel, you said your suit is able to absorb electricity, right? Is it possible to use your power core to do the reverse and emit an electric charge? If she can do that, can you guide the electricity with your telekinesis, Megan, to assault the mutants if we get them close together? If we can make this work, we can probably stun them all at the same time for at least a few minutes. Long enough for us to get out of here.

Dick sighed. I know we don't have as much intel as we wanted, but none of us expected these freaks to be down here. I had no idea they were making... whatever these are... down here. At this point, your safety is the most important thing. We are aborting the mission and getting out of here as fast as possible.

Click to expand...

Sean Renaud said:

"It's fine." Star thought back not accustomed at all to telepathy so he was still half talking half not. "I can wrangle mine, just pick a spot. And do it quick.

Click to expand...

Remec said:

Having worked with Mento, Gar wasn't new to a telepathic touch, but it always seemed to make his spine tingle and raise hairs on various points of his body (even when his body was non-mammalian).

Sure thing, I think I can this guy to chase me pretty much anywhere. Man, that's not a thing I thought I'd ever say. But, y'know, I can do electric in a kind of big way, should we need a little additional spark. Your typical electric eel can stun an adult human--more than stun with the proper conducting agent--and I can get much larger than typical.

Click to expand...

My suit can plug into a wide variety of power sources to recharge when solar energy's not available, Steel explained with a mental wince, that's not the same as being able to soak it up like a sponge like Rudy the Purple People-Eater, and definitely not the same as being able to kick it back out like a bad case of electromagnetic heartburn.

She hesitated, then, and glanced at Lucy in her hand.

My hammer-- she can emit electromagnetic energy for EMPs and the like, I can use that to do your taser-sweep. I mean, she's no Mjolnir, but she'll do.

As the team worked to get the Sins and the living dead into a closer knot, Steel held Lucy aloft, and hurriedly worked with her A.I. to reconfigure Lucy's firmware and create a directed-electrical bolt rather than a widespread scrambling pulse--

Everybody--

CLEAR!

wheeeeeeeeeeen

TZZZZZZZZZZZZAT!

The Jeffinator said:

Suddenly Nightwing's airways were open again as Megan went crashing into Pride. He fell to the floor, gasping and coughing. He was dizzy and weak, but pushed himself back to his feet and stared at the evil boy, who was now preoccupied with Megan. Dick waited for a moment to regain his composure, then directed his thoughts toward Miss Martian, hoping she could hear him.

Megan... Can you hear me? Okay, good. Can you link me with the rest of the team? He could see the looks of discomfort from the others as their minds were connected through a psychic link. Okay guys, we need to make a plan that these mutants or whatever they are can't hear. Electricity seems to slow them down some, but we need more juice than what my darts have. If we all try to get them into close proximity, we may be able to at least stun them for a few minutes. Steel, you said your suit is able to absorb electricity, right? Is it possible to use your power core to do the reverse and emit an electric charge? If she can do that, can you guide the electricity with your telekinesis, Megan, to assault the mutants if we get them close together? If we can make this work, we can probably stun them all at the same time for at least a few minutes. Long enough for us to get out of here.

Dick sighed. I know we don't have as much intel as we wanted, but none of us expected these freaks to be down here. I had no idea they were making... whatever these are... down here. At this point, your safety is the most important thing. We are aborting the mission and getting out of here as fast as possible.

Click to expand...

A chill went down Tigress' spine at hearing their voices in her head. She was going to have a talk about consensual psychic intrusions in the future.

Shaking her head to get back in gear, she pulled three standard head arrows and aimed them at the length of sprinkler pipe above the knot of monsters. A quick look at Steel told her, the armored girl had something planned.

A quick intake of breath, eyes focused, she loosed.

Three breaches in the line showered Steel's targets.

ChasNicollette said:

My suit can plug into a wide variety of power sources to recharge when solar energy's not available, Steel explained with a mental wince, that's not the same as being able to soak it up like a sponge like Rudy the Purple People-Eater, and definitely not the same as being able to kick it back out like a bad case of electromagnetic heartburn.

She hesitated, then, and glanced at Lucy in her hand.

My hammer-- she can emit electromagnetic energy for EMPs and the like, I can use that to do your taser-sweep. I mean, she's no Mjolnir, but she'll do.

As the team worked to get the Sins and the living dead into a closer knot, Steel held Lucy aloft, and hurriedly worked with her A.I. to reconfigure Lucy's firmware and create a directed-electrical bolt rather than a widespread scrambling pulse--

Everybody--

CLEAR!

wheeeeeeeeeeen

TZZZZZZZZZZZZAT!

Click to expand...

Beast Boy

Steel's lip curled inside her helmet. "Insert tired joke about that guy needing more iron in his diet."

And rearing back, taking an instant to synch with a firing solution provided by her targeting HUD, she threw Lucy at Gluttony as hard as she could.

"Of course, in this case 'iron' is steel alloyed with depleted promethium, but who's counting?"

Gluttony, of course, caught Lucy just as effortlessly in his wide wide open mouth as he'd already caught Beast Boy's projectile mode.

"Well, that's an unusual taste sensation that's sweeping the nation," Gluttony mumbled with his mouth full.

"Yeah," Steel harrumphed. "It's really making a comeback."

Then, holding out her hand, she barked: "Return."

Click to expand...

Gar found himself holding his breath and then relaxing his whole body as Steel recalled her weapon and it burst Gluttony's mouth, head, and portions of his upper chest asunder in its journey back to her hand. Even as Gar moved back and began surveying the rest of the fight, he could see the Sin beginning to reform and recover.

Not having had a response to his suggestion for joining the electric option, Gar just waited for a signal from Steel. Then Tigress loosed a flight of arrows that shattered some of the piping and he saw Steel taking aim.

"Looks like a cue to me," he said as he rose up into the air and shrank down into a hummingbird and flittered about Steel's helmeted head. "Looks like it's working, are we heading out then? Which way is out?"

Star hadn't been paying quite as much attention to the situation as he could have, he was getting something that resembled the upper hand when Steel gave the command to clear out. "Shit, shit, shit." Fortunately instinct took over and he leapt up grabbing Sloth by the face and launching him further into his comrades while Star landed clear watching with some satisfaction as the Sins were shocked.

"Well that's going well." He said aloud having already forgotten about the telepathic link, either that or intentionally ignoring it. It was a bit weird at this point, a green guy turning into animals. A green chick who he thought was the one linking minds. Another woman, quite attractive but dressed up a Ironman's monochrome cousin. Some woman dressed as a tiger firing arrows seemed normal by comparison and then there was the Nightwing.

He looked around wondering which direction they planned to escape. His first instinct was of course back the way they came. Star was aware that he was in a lab creating freaks. What if Sins weren't the names of individuals but instead was a model? What if this place was filled with units just like this. What if there was something worse? What if giant firebreathing flying chimera?. . .

Star forcibly stopped himself from going any farther down that particular road. It wouldn't do him any good to get himself twisted up over it and it might hurt him and the team. So while he was aiming towards a door that lead deeper into the facility he was mostly boucing on his heels waiting for someone to speak up. He wasn't certain if Nightwing was still in charge or if this Steel was but he knew it wasn't him.

Nightwing helped herd the mutants together as Tigress busted open the sprinkler pipe overhead, then backflipped out of the way as Steel's electric bolt shot at the assembled group of enemies. They all screamed out and convulsed violently as the shock surged through their bodies, thanks to the conductive water that covered them. A moment later, they were all on the ground, unconscious and twitching.

"We have maybe a couple of minutes before they recover -- we need to get out of here as quickly as possible," he explained. "Back the way we came, I'd say. Everyone alright? Okay, let's move!" He urged them forward, taking the rear as they sped through the halls. He kept looking over his shoulder to see if any of the mutants were following them. So far, the coast was clear.

Meanwhile, in the Security Control Room...

"Damn it!" cried General Eiling as he slammed his fist down on the desk, staring intently at the central monitor. "Son of a bitch!"

"I assume I don't need to remind you what Agent Waller will do to us if they escape with knowledge of what they've seen?" asked Dr. Ivo with a loud sigh of disappointment.

"Shut up!" Eiling commanded as he turned and pointed at Ivo. "Unless you're going to help, just keep your damn mouth shut!"

"I told you organic was not the way to go," he replied as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "I told you we should have applied our resources to robotics engineering and cybernetic enhancements. That is the future of the Super Soldier Project -- not clones and mutants. But Waller ordered me to follow your lead, Eiling, so I did my best."

"Well it's too late now," replied Eiling, throwing his arms up in frustration. He sighed, then grabbed his radio. "Eiling to Desmond. It's time to awaken Wrath. We have no alternatives -- release it at once."

Back with the Titans...

"We're almost there," Nightwing said to the team in front of him as they ran through the hall. "Just around this corner and" -- suddenly something smashed it's way through a wall just a few feet in front of them. It looked like a teenage male wearing a white bodysuit and... was that Superman's shield?

"Where do you think you're going?!" the new arrival yelled at the team, his fists balled and his face contorted in rage. "My masters say you have been very bad, and you need to be punished!"

Suddenly his eyes fell upon the "S" logo on Steel's suit. He roared in rage and immediately ran towards her, ready to attack.

"I see you brought your own hammer boy but, what all can them muscles do?"

The Jeffinator said:

Back with the Titans...

"We're almost there," Nightwing said to the team in front of him as they ran through the hall. "Just around this corner and" -- suddenly something smashed it's way through a wall just a few feet in front of them. It looked like a teenage male wearing a white bodysuit and... was that Superman's shield?

"Where do you think you're going?!" the new arrival yelled at the team, his fists balled and his face contorted in rage. "My masters say you have been very bad, and you need to be punished!"

Suddenly his eyes fell upon the "S" logo on Steel's suit. He roared in rage and immediately ran towards her, ready to attack.

Click to expand...

Tactical genius that Nightwing was, the team worked neatly to bring their attackers down a notch-- if only a temporary one-- and then they beat a tactical genius retreat.

But then a boy in white blew through a wall like Kool-Aid Man or some old George Reeves TV show--

--Steel's HUD lit up six ways from Sunday. Facial recognition, bio-signature, the crest on his chest, all of it had enough points for comparison that in the suddenness of the moment, Steel momentarily wondered if the cavalry hadn't arrived.

But.

Wait. No.

And then The Boy in White took one look at her matching symbol, the "S" crest on her chest, The Symbol of The House of El, the greatest honor of her life that The Man of Steel had dubbed her worthy to carry on wearing it from her Uncle John--

--and he steamrolled at her like a runaway demigod.

She didn't have time to--

--anything--

--holy shit he was fast--

--she swung up mallet-mode Lucy in front of her face, instinctively rose up onto her tip-toes half out of training half out of apprehension--

"GEOMAGNETIC LOCK!"

Lucy had the ability to anchor herself in place relative to the Earth's geomagnetic field. Again, it wasn't as foolproof as the legendary Mjolnir, only Thor or those that were Worthy-- or those of Thor's bloodline-- could move that Uru war-hammer-- but it made Lucy very, very hard to budge.

The Boy in White's left fist slammed into the blocking hammer and instantly half a dozen gauges on Steel's HUD went into redline, the armor's servos screamed, and her boots slammed down so hard into the metal floor that the tiles deformed into craters up to her ankles. The hammer barely moved, but the geomagnetic lock still faltered.

"Ow."

Everything hurt. She had absorbed that hit, but only barely.

The Boy in White scoffed.

And smashed her sideways into the corridor wall with a backhand right.

Okay, now everything hurt. Her skull felt like The Liberty Bell, cracked and tolling, and her shoulder felt like it had just about dislocated-- almost, but not quite, wouldn't that just be karmic--?

But Goddammit she was given this "S" for a reason and there was no way in Hell she was letting this testosterone-powered dickwad prove it wrong.

Bracing herself in the massive dent her impact had made in the wall, she dove at The Boy in White with retribution aforethought-- she had only been down for a moment but for her that was a moment too long.

"HAMMER ON MAXIMUM!" she roared as she swung Lucy hard one-handed for The Boy in White's face.

But he slipped neatly under the arc of the hammerblow, punched her square in the stomach, her HUD blacked out for a flicker, everything went dark inside her helmet and then lit up again all red alert-- Lucy flew out of her hand and punched another hole through the wall--

--he grabbed her by her forearms and started to squeeze but if he managed to crush her wrist-mounted arsenal she was done for, the plasma cannons and the sonic blasters and the photonic emitters--

--with a roar of absolute effort, Steel tucked up, planted her soles on the "S" of his chest, and fired her bootjets in a maximum-thrust split-second burst.

--she managed to blow him ass-over-teakettle, skidding backwards, carving troughs in the floor with his feet and fingernails to drag himself to a halt and then surge back to his feet--

--even as she clanged to the floor among The Titans, down on her back, her beautiful armor pockmarked and hissing.

Self-repair protocols were already initializing, but there were limits to what they could accomplish.

"I can-- I can--"

Her Uncle John was one of the foremost experts on Earth on The Science of Superman, and he had confided in her some of that knowledge. And if this little shit's biology was anything like Superman's--

"--I can do a thing. Just-- just keep him off me for like two seconds."

She coughed and it hurt like seven Hells, how much of her ribcage was cracked? Broken? Could... could she taste blood, did she just cough up blood?

"--five seconds."

Star's first instinct was to go back the other direction. The six Sins hadn't displayed this deadly combination of speed and strength but Steel had already engaged in the fight.

Holy fuck. His jaw nearly dropped as the armored woman was nearly smashed through the wall, and the boy in white was more than fast enough to dodge her counter attack. But it was sloppy, she was getting angry not scared. Which if he had to pick an emotion anger was definitely the more useful.

Then the Boy in White had her and he was about to kill her, crush her and her armor like a tin can and Star rushed in. It was just dumb luck that he was low enough and her high enough that she didn't take his head off during the escape.

ChasNicollette said:

"--I can do a thing. Just-- just keep him off me for like two seconds."

She coughed and it hurt like seven Hells, how much of her ribcage was cracked? Broken? Could... could she taste blood, did she just cough up blood?

"--five seconds."

Click to expand...

"Just five seconds?" He really hoped she had a watch and knew what a second was. Star's mind had already wandered to an anime and. . .if her idea of five seconds was similar to a certain alien's idea of five minutes. . .well they'd have a long talk later.

If he was alive.

He slammed his fist directly into the 'S' on the Boy's chest and definitely hurt himself more than the Boy. In fact the Boy looked merely amused. He returned the favor only Star easily slipped inside the Boy's guard using his own momentum to flip him over. The Boy was strong. The Boy was fast. The boy was absolutely graceless.

Instead of stalling like he might have been able to when the Boy returned again attempting tackle Star like a football player he stayed. Take the blow, roll with it, break, an elbow, then pin him with a hammer lock. It hurt, it hurt like hell but the roll with it part did work and he was on top. He grabbed The Boy for an armbar and managed to get it nearly locked in when The Boy merely flexed. Star's grip faltered, but it didn't break. Which just meant instead of flying face first into the wall alone, he went back first dragging an angry target with him. One that was now poised to crush his skull with his free hand.

Star hoped like hell that had been ten seconds and Steel had just been waiting for him to get out of the way.

Time flies though when you're getting wrecked, it had been just over a second and he was going to die.

Tigress had trained in combat her whole life. She could read movement better than English, but watching these guys fight scared her. They were fast. She could barely follow it with her eyes. The idea of this berserker coming after her terrified her, but she couldn't watch Star die.

It was like watching a tiger maul a ballet dancer. As quick and as graceful as Star was, he couldn't stay ahead of the ferocious boy/monster.

She could tell Star was done when he started to go for the joint lock. That boy's arm would be too strong to break for sure. Even seeing it coming, Tigress didn't have enough time.

Her trained hands are fast, but she felt like she was in slow motion as she pulled a trick arrow. It was meant to disable a car with a one time electric shock.

She loosed, aimed between the boy's white clad, broad shoulders as he rolled, mounting Star.

The boy roared as he wound up for the killing blow, and the arrow made contact. He growled as powerful current arced through his body, spasming his super strong muscles.

Tigress hoped she hadn't electrocuted Star, but she didn't have time to worry. She was out of tricks, and the boy had turned his wrathful gaze on her.

Wrath was gradually becoming clouded by rage, and as he ran at Tigress, he failed to notice that Nightwing had shot his grappling line across the hall just a few inches off the floor, and then rolled backwards while pulling the line hard, causing the Boy to trip and smack face-first on the ground. Dick used the opening to fling himself at their enemy, using his staff like a baseball bat to strike Wrath's back and neck over and over.

"GET OFF ME!" he screamed, throwing his arm back and elbowing Dick hard into the wall. A second later Wrath was holding the Teen Wonder's throat with one hand and punching him in the gut several times with the other. He dropped Nightwing to the floor for a moment and watched as he clutched his stomach and vomited a puddle of blood. Wrath then put his fists together and prepared to bring them down and crush Dick's neck.

Beast Boy

Gar's eyes flitted to the figure as it came through the wall. They darted after it as it attacked Steel. He spun about in the hall as the two of them sparred back and forth, and dropped into a mongoose to be low and out of the way as Star and Tigress tried to give Steel the time she said she needed.

It wasn't until Nightwing got into the fray; or, rather, got pummeled into being out of the fray, that Gar sprung into action himself. He chimney swifted down the hall to get some room, then sprung back towards the Boy as a cheetah. Just as he reached his target, and saw those bulging muscles coming down on their leader's neck, Beat Boy shifted into an enormous green rhino and slammed the Boy away from Nightwing.

He watched the Boy tumble head over heels for a moment or two and declared loudly, "Oh no you don't! There's an entire roster of bad guys in Gotham and Bludhaven who have prior claim on snapping that neck! Who do you think you are jumping in line like that?"

The Boy caught himself sooner than Gar hoped he would and hovered in the air...his eyes unamused and glowering in Beast Boy's direction.

The Sins were down, twitching and unconscious in a pile. Judicious application of her abilities ensured that none of the water contacted her team mates and M’gann smiled broadly.

Looks like that worked out ok then. Good job team!

She was oblivious to the discomfort of her teammates, telepathy comes naturally to a Martian, and she had no idea of the unfamiliarity of the experience of a voice entering the head without bothering to go through the ears first. It was a relief though. Uncle J’onn had warned her not to use her telepathy, but everyone here seemed fine with it.

Her exuberance dimmed a little as Nightwing ordered a retreat, but already it seemed that the Sins were beginning to recover, as charred flesh began to slowly change colour. She turned to follow, floating after the team as they began their withdrawal. She kept an eye out, hoping to give the team advance warning of the Sins coming after them again.

That was probably why she didn’t see the new arrival until he bulldozed his way through the wall in front of them.

Hey guys, it’s Superman, that is sooo cool!

Her beliefs were immediately reversed as the heavily armoured Steel was slapped out of the way as if she were the tin man. Her mouth dropped and she took a step forward, but was still too shocked to make any effort to soften her teammates landing as she clattered down amidst the team.

She stared in panic as Star hurtled into combat with the boy in white, only for the two to blur into combat almost too fast to follow. Somehow, impossibly, the boy in white came out on top, and she cried out as his fist came down.

Electric current crackled over his torso and he roared in rage, turning to find the source of the pain, Tigress, and hurtling across the corridor like a steam train.

As the team charged one at a time at the juggernaut he had become M’gann felt herself beginning to panic. She was watching heroes, some of them experienced heroes being systematically demolished by this strange, wrathful being.

Nightwing was on his knees, half choked and vomiting blood. Steel was flat on her back, the armour, once gleaming and polished, now buckled and fizzing. Star had narrowly avoided death and Gar was now facing down the boy who had done it, without even breaking a sweat.

It was terrifying.

She wasn’t going to watch another teammate go down like that and she flung out a hand as their opponent charged at Beast Boy. He appeared to rebound from thin air, air that rippled and gave out a half second after the boy had hit it.

M’gann cried out and staggered, sinking to one knee. She’d stopped him, but it had cost her. Simply halting his charge had felt like stopping the fist of God. Her breathing was heavy, and one hand held her head. The rest of the team seemed to be having little luck in stopping him. Steel had been their heaviest hitter, and she’d been laid out in the first few seconds of the confrontation.

The first few seconds of the confrontation…

He’d seen the logo on Steel’s suit, the logo emblazoned upon his own chest. Superman’s emblem…

His strength was a clear indicator, but the presence of that emblem meant this had to have something to do with Superman, and he had referred to his ‘masters’.

She reached out.

Not physically, her eyes glazed over as she reached out with her mind to the rage filled machine of destruction that was systematically destroying the team. The mind link she had established dropped, as she focused everything on the enemy before them.

The anger was white hot, it almost burned her mind, and it filled his. She’d spent months watching TV in her Uncle’s apartment, and the TV was always filled with images of the Man of Steel. She pushed those images now, placing them in his head. Superman extinguishing a burning building. A blur of blue and red snatching a woman from in front of an out of control car. Feelings of admiration, of loyalty and bravery and nobility, they all poured through her and into the mind of the boy with the S on his chest.