Justice League: The New Wave (IC)

[Varshanka]

Renegade

--Tracer was back up in a second, hurling himself back at Braggock with claws pointed for the obsidian man's eyes, in his bestial fury making the mistake of ignoring Renegade...

With the attention off him, Ren moved. Pulling his weapon forwards he reloaded in a moment. And shoving the weapon into Tracers gut he aimed upwards. “Feel the burn,” he whispered as he unloaded the clip. Fragmentary incendiary rounds.

 

[Varshanka]

Danni and Xarathos - or is it.. Xarathiel

As the Rider reached for Havok, the armored mastermind sneered, unleashing blasts of that crackling hellice energy to deflect the spectre's grasp...

"How can you extract penance from someone whose intellect transcends morality?"

"But you, have you learned nothing?"

And he reignited his forcefield at maximum intensity and at point-blank range, aiming to repulse The Rider's physical form with the same protective energies that had deflected a world-breaking telekinetic blast... adding to the runic and sacred forces that repulsed The Rider's spirit...

"None may touch HAVOK!"

That which was the Rider flared and rippled. Holy and UnHoly energy battling on a titanic scale. And the Rider was gone, leaving Danni kneeling on the ground looking at Havok. “Learned a lot. Learned you talk to much.” She said, lifting the Riders shotgun from the ground and firing point blank. Not with hellfire or some other bizarre unworldly energy. But with a solid shot bear slug. Something that would punch a hole in a biker, or an engine block. Or an over confident talking monstrosity that needed to shut the fuck up once in a while.

“Doesn’t matter how much of smart guy, or a fucking lunatic you are. Your sins are marked by GOD!” She snarled, as the Rider flared to Power. They were both ready for the end to come. And pain beyond measure had already been felt. Havok’s feeble power was nothing anymore.

“I AM THE WORD OF JUDGMENT!! SO SAITH THE LORD!!” The Rider bellowed as white fire ripped from it’s eyes. Given the Word of JUDGEMENT when the First Murder occurred, it had never been taken back by either The Word of Truth, or it’s Son on Earth.

 

[Varshanka]

Wondergirl

Diehard threw on the brakes, both hands out to either side, panting as he hovered above the rooftops.
And then he curled those hands into fists, ripping steel beams out of buildings all around him, shattering storefronts and brownstones and construction sites... swirling girders around himself like electrons orbiting a nucleus... and then launched the whole array of them at Rebel and Wonder Girl...
...faster than speeding bullets.

The heat poured into Diehard's shields with pinpoint precision and nova intensity.
And-- just as he had with Gar's dragon-flame, just as he had with Karan's solar energy...
...he converted that heat into power.
Fed it into himself, restoring his strength...
...and turning it against the two women powerhouses, lashing out at both of them with massive bolts of lightning specifically tuned to their respective invulnerabilities--
--specifically calculated to disrupt and pierce the bioelectric fields that made their hides so damnably impenetrable, turning that very invulnerability against them.
"Sun Goddesses. Children of the stars. All your power is futile in the face of human evolution! I am a neo-human, Progeny of The Helix-- what are Women of Steel against The Elder of Electromagnetism?"

Spinning in place, Karan was a wonder of martial speed and prowess as she grabbed girders and beams, pounding them into the ground with fist and boot, turning flying debris into a wall for the ones that could be hurt by other flying shit. She was also thinking it could be used as a cage after they took these rather insane individuals down.

Thank the Goddess Atropos later, she thought as she whirled in midair, her hands together as the arc of power sizzled on crossed bracers. “Hey Pinkie, Are thinking what I’m thinking?” she asked no one in particular. Damn she was going to have frizzy hair for a month. And that SUCKED!

 

[ChasNicollette]

I'm wide awake. Yeah, I am born again. Out of the lion's den.

Time for the Evil powers to stop lying to each other, and to feel REAL PAIN!

She opened her mind to them, and made them look at their own NIGHTMARES.

The Sandman was surprised by the blackness that raced toward his mind. He wasn't sure what to expect trying to force the bond like he did, but it wasn't this.

As the blackness breached into his mind he focused more intently. Countering the assault of bleak images that flooded his perception.

The blackness falters as The Sandman repels the last of it's assaults. His mind racing. Barely clinging to his senses, The Sandman takes in the fallout, completely unaware of how long he was in the mental battle with the darkness within Suparna.

Raven turned nightmares against The Extremists, but The Extremists had already lost their whole world. Everything they'd built.

Diehard had once been a man of peace, imagine that. Building his schools towards the enlightenment of mankind, the elevation of their genetics and spirituality. He would have never raised his hand against another living being. But he'd watched his son, Jackrabbit, gunned down while resisting Metahuman Registration, watched the lightning flicker out of his eyes. He'd watched his daughter, Silver Sorceress, driven mad by the deaths of her neo-human breathren. And then his Fraternity of Zen Men had surrendered, and joined the registration side to become The G-Men. And then, even after they had escaped to Moonbase Ex, his last loyalist, Louise... she had sent her mind away to die with a man that had betrayed him.

Barracuda had ruled a network of sunken continents and over two thirds of the surface of The Earth and all of their depths. Her servants, her cousins, her daughter, her citizens. To see those oceans bleed into the sky as gravity fractured and bent and shattered. What sense of honor and decency and regret she'd once had bled into cold space with the dissipating atmosphere. And now there was only the empress. Such as she was. Out cold on the dusty floor beneath a killer whale.

Gorgon had never gotten one shred of respect. From the scientists he worked with. From the woman he loved. Until he had become a freak. And then, then he took power hand over fist over tentacle. The subjects of The Experiment House had feared him, the soldiers of The Superior OCTOPUS had feared him. And that had been close enough to respect for his purposes. Now all of that was gone, too. Only Tracer was left to show for all of that work, all of that respect, all of that fear.

And Tracer didn't fear anything.

Dreamslayer was a being composed of Nightmare, so nightmares didn't, couldn't hurt him. But he had real world problems to deal with.

Shadow Suparṇa, well, Sandman was discovering what nightmares had made a tangleweb of her residual neuropresence.

And Havok... well. We'll get to that.

Like stepping into Narnia and out again, Sandman discovered that he had been gone only moments. He stepped back out of Louise Marino's Dreaming...

...to see Dreamslayer, clawing at the air as it screamed in soundless fury and contorted in impotent rage as it streeeeeetched and folded and spindled and mutilated and tumbled down down down down into the fire-opal Dreamstone upon Raven's Third Eye. And it was gone.

Just... gone.

Raven had defeated a being beyond gods. Crushed a facet of Dream into aught but a dark gleam in a murksome gem.

And as Dreamslayer, Nightmare of The Endless, fell down into Trigon's prison to be his cellmate for eternity, so finally snapped the tendrils of control he had on Shadow Suparṇa.

And Louise Marino crumpled catatonic to the dust before The Sandman.

She stared up at the sky, stared to nowhere for a moment, eyes sightlessly wide.

And then something flickered in her Dreaming, almost imperceptible but bright and blue enough for Sandman to detect.

"Hope," she murmured, like a myoclonic twitch.

And her face took on a gentle smile before her eyes sank closed and her body died in peace.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Hard Rock vs. Heavy Metal.

With the attention off him, Ren moved. Pulling his weapon forwards he reloaded in a moment. And shoving the weapon into Tracers gut he aimed upwards. “Feel the burn,” he whispered as he unloaded the clip. Fragmentary incendiary rounds.

The bullets shattered and burned like white phosphorous inside Tracer, his skin boiled and his heart ruptured and his left lung ignited from the inside out...

...blood welled up in his left eye socket and drained down his face in a red acrylic rivulet...

...his claws retracted with a SNAKT.

...he dropped to one knee...

...for all of a second before he shot back up, swiped at Ren's gun with his razor-sharp Indeliblium finger-talons, nails that could slice diamond, aiming to rake it (and Ren's hand) into shreds with a single slash, and on the way up in that same lunge...

...he made to sink his own teeth into Ren's airway, made to bite out the Adam's Apple that had morphed to prominence only moments ago...

...and then kick away from Ren as Ren recovered (or dodged), whirling to go after Braggock again, he hadn't forgotten.

Braggock was waiting for him, slamming a piledriver punch into the bestial man's solar plexus.

Tracer wheezed, grrrrrrowled, managed to stay standing, and Braggock moved in with the follow up, smacking Tracer across the face with a spinning backhand left followed up with an elbow strike on the return whirl... both connected.

Tracer grunted with each impact, skull reverberating... he spat blood between unbreakable teeth...

...and then he shot forward, faster than Braggock could even anticipate, sinking all ten finger-talons into Braggock's chest...

...Braggock made a noise of surprise...

SNIKT.

Then, using the finger-talons as anchor-pitons, Tracer launched all four claws from each hand into each of Braggock's rocky obsidian pectorals, punching them in deep and holding them there.

Braggock roared.

Tracer leered through bloodied metal teeth. "Hit like Jake Golemn, The Trog, but that won't keep me down. Nothing keeps me down!"

"You're so strong. But you're so mean."

Braggock clamped his hands around Tracer's wrists and applied his own great strength to twist Tracer's arms back and haul the nails and claws out of him. He was bleeding magma-- lava? --by the pint, but he ignored it.

"The best thing to do when you're strong is help people. That's what Superman would do."

And he hauled Tracer's arms out wide and smashed a headbutt into Tracer's face, gonging Tracer's skull again and sending Tracer skidding, reeling...

...Tracer was up again in a second, an animalistic crouch, claws dripping molten rock, a roar escaping bloodied lips...

...but Braggock had knocked Tracer over near Renegade again...

...it had seemed like the thing to do.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Eschatology.

That which was the Rider flared and rippled. Holy and UnHoly energy battling on a titanic scale. And the Rider was gone, leaving Danni kneeling on the ground looking at Havok. “Learned a lot. Learned you talk to much.” She said, lifting the Riders shotgun from the ground and firing point blank. Not with hellfire or some other bizarre unworldly energy. But with a solid shot bear slug. Something that would punch a hole in a biker, or an engine block. Or an over confident talking monstrosity that needed to shut the fuck up once in a while.

A mere mundane shotgun round wouldn't have been able to penetrate Lord Havok's armor even if he hadn't had his forcefield. And he did.

He didn't even waste the breath on a scoff as the slug rebounded away in a shower of sparks.

"Loquaciousness is the river that flows from a fertile mind. I speak one tenth of what I think. And I contain mutitudes!"

“Doesn’t matter how much of smart guy, or a fucking lunatic you are. Your sins are marked by GOD!” She snarled, as the Rider flared to Power. They were both ready for the end to come. And pain beyond measure had already been felt. Havok’s feeble power was nothing anymore.

“I AM THE WORD OF JUDGMENT!! SO SAITH THE LORD!!” The Rider bellowed as white fire ripped from it’s eyes. Given the Word of JUDGEMENT when the First Murder occurred, it had never been taken back by either The Word of Truth, or it’s Son on Earth.

Runes blazing, forcefield humming, Lord Havok stood unflinching, fearless of The Rider.

"Ah, again you grunt utterances that are so far from truth they might as well be light-years. Indeed I am marked by sin. But the sin is not mine! I am Frank Future's greatest creation, his greatest failure! I am his darkness, his secret sins and murders, the grievous crimes committed by him in his youth at Commonwealth College, excised by thanato-tech and Bon priests in the mountains of Tibet-- crafted into a living tulpa. All the while he told himself I was some psychic parasite from a heavy-gravity inverted universe, or a being from the myths of The Shryw'ûk, but he knew the truth. He was purging the sick madness that went along with his genius, so that he could have the power of ultimate knowledge without natural human consequence! And yet, as a living embodiment of all that was wretched about Doctor Frank Future, the worst of the callous thoughtlessness with which he doggedly pursued science to the neglect of those around him-- I was the one who cultivated a lost nation back to prosperity, filled with love for the suffering people of Slovekia!"

"I am born of sin. But the wages of sin is death, and Frank Future is already dead. You can take no penance from me, for the man whose soul you seek to sear with your nefarious stare is already gone to his eternity, worlds away!"

"I am as far beyond your reach, guttering spirit sconced in dullard flesh, as quantum computing would be beyond Australopithecus. Even the Devil Driver of my world could not exact vengeance on a man who did not, could not bear the stain of guilt for the darkness he carried!"

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

"Yeah, barrel of laughs, world of hurt, why can't we ever have the one without the other?" Ruby snorted.

"Look, I'll make this is as quick as I can. Diehard seems to be able to take anything we throw at him. Like an electromagnetic god. Now get this, hey? One time, decade and a half back, I Dialed an EM-kine while I was teamed up with Kid Flash, and I was able to tap into his speed lightning for a few seconds of hyperspeed strategizing. But here's the real kicker. While I was using speed lightning, I-- The Conductor --couldn't use regular electromagnetism. So if you hit him with your speed lightning, he'll get a massive burst of superspeed but until he burns through it he won't have shields, lightning, metalbending-- any of it."

"Barry Allen had a trick-- he could run in a tight circle and build up his power-- gather a bolt of speed lightning-- and throw it." She pantomimed throwing a baseball fastball.

"Can you do that? ...do you think you can?"

Velocity got the gist of Ruby's plan and it sounded brilliant. If it had worked on one master of magnetism it should work on another right?

Well the way he was taking out their big guns one after the other they really couldn't afford not to try.

the only problem was that she was about to attempt something she had never done before, with maybe the fate of the world resting on her shoulders.

She started to panic a little bit as she glanced back at where the so called Man of magnetism was battling the new girl Rebel, and looked like he was doing pretty damn good. Hell she seemed like she was on par with Wonder girl, although from what shee had seen it looked like all her powers weren't available to her at once. Still if he was taking on a powerhouse like that...

Then she laughed out loud. Since she had joined this team, everything she had done was world saving. What was one more time? Trying to picture just how Barry must have done it and why from Ruby's description she suddenly brightened. Of course friction and static electricity. Smiling she raced off.

The heat poured into Diehard's shields with pinpoint precision and nova intensity.

And-- just as he had with Gar's dragon-flame, just as he had with Karan's solar energy...

...he converted that heat into power.

Fed it into himself, restoring his strength...

...and turning it against the two women powerhouses, lashing out at both of them with massive bolts of lightning specifically tuned to their respective invulnerabilities--

--specifically calculated to disrupt and pierce the bioelectric fields that made their hides so damnably impenetrable, turning that very invulnerability against them.

"Sun Goddesses. Children of the stars. All your power is futile in the face of human evolution! I am a neo-human, Progeny of The Helix-- what are Women of Steel against The Elder of Electromagnetism?"

Carin heard his gloating and smiled as she zoomed in and started to whirl around him faster and faster. She had to be quick before he could react and repulse her or get up a shield.

She collected all the energy she could handle and then ran a little bit towards him and threw her hand like throwing a ball.

Out of it a sizeable lightning bolt erupted heading straight for him as she hit the brakes. If this worked he wouldn't be entirely defenseless, in fact he would actually be pretty dangerous. For a little while he would have the powers of a speedster and who knew how fast he could go. Still with three of them around him and him not being used to them, she hoped to take him down before he even figured out what had happened to him.

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

As the two masked heroes stepped forward into the mirrored hall...

...the panes in the glass started moving, shifting, twisting around them...

...it was quickly like being inside a giant hollow disco ball, hundreds of panels of glass reflecting things at every angle, flashing lights almost to the point of epilepsy, dizzying and disorienting...

...and then some of the panes in the floor started shifting, oozing, figures forming out of viscous liquid glass, shapeshifting like glassy T-1000s into tall, bulky faceless figures, translucent and reflective...

A batarang snapped into Batman's hand and he hurled it without hesitation, with precision, his helmet automatically buffering his senses to prevent them from getting distorted...

...the batarang stuck quivering in the chest of one of the reflective gargantuas, the glass cracking around the entry wound, and Batman swung up his sonic emitter, unleashing a blast of high-decibel noise that exacerbated those jagged cracks-- forcing the figure to shatter in a catastrophic crash, fragments and splinters scattering over the swirling room's ever-moving floor.

One down, seven to go.

"Hope you're as good a shot as you were bragging you were earlier," Batman growled to Green Arrow.

Green just smiled. He had closed his eyes two minutes ago and had been moving by a combination of memory, touch and listening. He could feel the vibrations coming through the soles of the moccasins he wore, telling him what was moving and where and he could sense the change in air currents. It was how he shot so accurately. It might not allow him to actually "See" the space around him, but he had a very good idea where his enemies were without opening his eyes.

When he did however he was ready. He had three arrows on the string and they launched at once, hitting the three nearest enemies, the hardened tips burying in deep. He didn't even bother looking as he fired another arrow at a small cluster of four, hitting the centre one. A second later a small explosion went off and then there were none.

Meanwhile the three he had shot continued to advance but began to slow as cracks began to appear and then their torso's shattered and his arrows dropped to the floor.

Looking at Batman he smiled. "Promethium tipped. Works even better than sonic's as it can be used on all sorts of inorganic things."

He examined the glass shards he had created and then Batman's one pile. "So do I pass the audition boss?"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Panic! at The Disco.

Meanwhile the three he had shot continued to advance but began to slow as cracks began to appear and then their torso's shattered and his arrows dropped to the floor.

Looking at Batman he smiled. "Promethium tipped. Works even better than sonic's as it can be used on all sorts of inorganic things."

Batman grunted, a sound somewhere between reluctantly impressed and don't get cocky, kid. "Depleted promethium is expensive. Your supplier must have deep pockets. Not to mention, trace radioactivity can compromise stealth."

He examined the glass shards he had created and then Batman's one pile. "So do I pass the audition boss?"

But then the glassy shards started twitching, started shifting... started morphing...

...becoming liquid again, pooling together...

...rising up into one much larger creature, gnashing jagged glassy teeth...

Batman snapped his palms up and ready, priming the repulsors for force-blasts.

"A case could be made for 'understudy.'"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Flux.

As he tangled with Wondergirl and Rebel--

Diehard spared a glance at the buzzing annoyance that was the whirling speedster. Speed powers used with cunning and precision could indeed be a threat to many a target... but this pedestrian whirlwind attack that had had only negligible effect on Tracer? Trying that again?

This speedster might have greater speed than his own departed son Jackrabbit, but obviously she lacked ingenuity. Hardly worth his time.

As soon as he was done facing the Ognessonian-types he would clutch Velocity's hemoglobin in a vice grip and cause the inertia to rip her blood out of her body at a single step.

But first things first...

She collected all the energy she could handle and then ran a little bit towards him and threw her hand like throwing a ball.

Out of it a sizeable lightning bolt erupted heading straight for him as she hit the brakes. If this worked he wouldn't be entirely defenseless, in fact he would actually be pretty dangerous. For a little while he would have the powers of a speedster and who knew how fast he could go. Still with three of them around him and him not being used to them, she hoped to take him down before he even figured out what had happened to him.

Diehard saw that lightning bolt coming, and the look on his face-- derision and dismissiveness-- using lightning against him? Him?

He just let the strike impact uselessly onto his shield, absorbing its energy into his nigh-limitless well of electromagnetic power without a second thought.

And from that place inside his spherical shield, everything-- started-- to-- crumble--

--in--

--slow--

--motion--

--his shield faltered and shattered and fell away and he could no longer stay aloft--

--he fell from his place just above Seattle's rooftops and he crashlanded on his back in the rubble of one of the storefronts he'd just dismantled for its metal supports--

--tangled in his cape--

--a fall like that should have badly hurt him without EM protection, and yet--

--and yet he was okay? --felt half his age?

Rattled, not unhurt, but--

--he sat up--

--looked at his hand--

--saw lightning crackle between his fingers of the color kicked up by Carin as she ran--

--but no metal came when he called--

--no thunder cracked at his command--

"What. Did you. Do. To. ME?!"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Hotline Bling.

As Ruby watched Carin streak off to face Diehard, she sank to her knees in the moondust.

"Oh, Christ, I'm knackered."

"I'm just... I'm just gonna find some cover for a mo'..."

But then her phone bleeped.

Timeout over.

Back online.

Ruby took a breath, closed her eyes. "Too right, I suppose. No rest for the wickity wickity whack."

And punched in the numbers.

4. 3. 7. 6.

H-E-R-O.

SssshhCLICK!

 

[Wyldfire]

.......................................

 

[Wyldfire]

The heat poured into Diehard's shields with pinpoint precision and nova intensity.

And-- just as he had with Gar's dragon-flame, just as he had with Karan's solar energy...

...he converted that heat into power.

Fed it into himself, restoring his strength...

...and turning it against the two women powerhouses, lashing out at both of them with massive bolts of lightning specifically tuned to their respective invulnerabilities--

--specifically calculated to disrupt and pierce the bioelectric fields that made their hides so damnably impenetrable, turning that very invulnerability against them.

"Sun Goddesses. Children of the stars. All your power is futile in the face of human evolution! I am a neo-human, Progeny of The Helix-- what are Women of Steel against The Elder of Electromagnetism?"

Jo saw the build up happening and shifted. Speed. She saw the blast coming and was away. Her hair frizzed up again from the near miss. Sprock it all, she was starting to look like Jan back when he'd let that curly mess grow out some. If nothing else mister Magnet was guilty of crimes against hair.

Diehard saw that lightning bolt coming, and the look on his face-- derision and dismissiveness-- using lightning against him? Him?

He just let the strike impact uselessly onto his shield, absorbing its energy into his nigh-limitless well of electromagnetic power without a second thought.

And from that place inside his spherical shield, everything-- started-- to-- crumble--

--in--

--slow--

--motion--

--his shield faltered and shattered and fell away and he could no longer stay aloft--

--he fell from his place just above Seattle's rooftops and he crashlanded on his back in the rubble of one of the storefronts he'd just dismantled for its metal supports--

--tangled in his cape--

--a fall like that should have badly hurt him without EM protection, and yet--

--and yet he was okay? --felt half his age?

Rattled, not unhurt, but--

--he sat up--

--looked at his hand--

--saw lightning crackle between his fingers of the color kicked up by Carin as she ran--

--but no metal came when he called--

--no thunder cracked at his command--

"What. Did you. Do. To. ME?!"

At her accelerated perception Jo saw this and almost cheered. But instead she blurred over to where Wonder girl had dealt with her debris and grabbed a metal strut out of it. About the size of a baseball bat. Then she was there and on him. She swung at him many times, the last in an upper swing trying to knock the bucket off of his head. She wanted to see who she was going to beat the shit out of.

 

[Wyldfire]

Gorgon scuttled and bounded away from Wildcat up the surface of the wall with frenzied desperation, nerves and muscles still twitching from the Wave Beam hit. "No, no, not like American CrUSAder-- like Neko Noir, like PerditionPuss, like Jade Jaguar-- Lynxette! But I am a scientist, little feline-- and I shall use you to find yet another way to skin a cat!"

The pincers on the ends of two of his tentacles clacked viciously as they then lunged for Wildcat, aiming to flay her alive...

Thea twisted and contorted avoiding the worst of the tentacles, but one did give her a nasty slash down a thigh. She howled, growled, and kept right after the bug. Her fangs showed from pulled back lips. Her eyes seemed almost completely feline. "Run little bug, run. I can taste your fear. I can smell your panic. Time for you to bleed some more."

And Thea was after him again, clawing and biting any flesh that she got close to. Not looking to kill, just hurt. Just to make the bug run more.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Straight Outta 2099.

4. 3. 7. 6.

H-E-R-O.

SssshhCLICK!

Hypertime exploded around Ruby one more time.

And when it shattered away from her...

...he was puffy, with hair all Jello'ed up in spikes ridiculously high, and with a sparkly-and-blue uniform.

Sparkly bubbles floated around him everytime he moved, and he grinned with the sheer joy of being alive.

"I am... BOUNCING BALL!"

 

[ChasNicollette]

58 Minutes.

At her accelerated perception Jo saw this and almost cheered. But instead she blurred over to where Wonder girl had dealt with her debris and grabbed a metal strut out of it. About the size of a baseball bat. Then she was there and on him. She swung at him many times, the last in an upper swing trying to knock the bucket off of his head. She wanted to see who she was going to beat the shit out of.

Diehard was a student of human evolution.

An expert on the genotype mutation-- the "G-Quotient" that distinguished neo-humans from baseline humans and other metahumans.

He had trained his neo-human superhero teams-- his Fraternity of Zen Men --at his Academies for Advanced Children in Massachusetts and West Germany for years now. All sorts of different powersets.

And while he had never had superspeed himself before, his beloved son Jack Lekter-- Jackrabbit-- had been one of his most devoted students.

Hans "Diehard" Lekter knew how to adapt a lesson plan.

The first few hits struck him, and he cried out in indignation rather than pain.

Then he managed to start dodging, rolling aside, bounding to his feet, juking left and right, unable to get a fist in past this speeding gleaming steely bludgeon...

...and that last hit batted his helmet off, and he sneered...

Blond-haired, eyes sparking with speed-lightning, and unimpressed.

"All beserker fury and only a modicum of talent. Like Quickhatch when I first dug him out of the ruins of The Experiment House's first Armament G Program."

"You need a better teacher!"

...he roared on that last word, scooping up a handful of brick and metal shrapnel from the rubble of the building on which they stood and whipping it all at Rebel's face, her eyes, at maximum velocity...

...fast enough to drive a drinking straw into a tree-trunk.

If she switched powers-- flash-vision or invulnerability --to defeat this attack, he would be able to outrun her in that instant. If she dodged, he would have slightly less time to regroup, but he would make do!

 

[ChasNicollette]

Prime.

Thea twisted and contorted avoiding the worst of the tentacles, but one did give her a nasty slash down a thigh. She howled, growled, and kept right after the bug. Her fangs showed from pulled back lips. Her eyes seemed almost completely feline. "Run little bug, run. I can taste your fear. I can smell your panic. Time for you to bleed some more."

And Thea was after him again, clawing and biting any flesh that she got close to. Not looking to kill, just hurt. Just to make the bug run more.

Gorgon scuttled and bounded and rebounded, hauling ass to keep ahead of the clawed hotblooded predator that was Thea "Wildcat" Grant-- using web and tentacles alike to just-- barely-- keep out of her lunge radius--

--all up and down the glassy wall of the pavilion they raced, cricks and jags following them where claws and tentacle-pincers punctured for purchase.

"I am not afraid of you! I'm not afraid of anything!" he screamed with ferocity-- though there was a telltale squeak in his cry that betrayed his trepidation, the fight-or-flight red alert that was screaming maximum Danger Zone in his ears at the relentless pursuit of the cat.

"I am the Dreaded Gorgon! The Petrifying Gorgon! No mere Bug! I AM NOT INFERIOR!"

...picking himself up from the dust, shaking his rattled, helmeted head, G.R.I.D. managed to recover with a super-soldier's resilience.

Milton. If you are ready to be serious?

"Okay, yeah, ow," he mumbled.

Utilize your Scan Visor again, she prompted. Specifically on this opponent.

Tapping the side of his helmet, Milton did so, his HUD zeroing in on Gorgon even as he scrambled to keep out of Wildcat's clutches.

The bionic implants regulating data-flow between his cerebral cortex and his tentacular manipulators are located at the base of his skull. A direct hit with the Wave Beam at that location should short out those implants, causing a massive neural cascade-- a temporary brainstorm that will no doubt incapacitate him, danger-sense and all, long enough to subdue him.

But even a locked-on charged Wave Beam shot will require a steadier target.

"Got it," Milton nodded with a murmur, and then spoke up louder, helmet speaker cranked high: "HEY! PIN HIM IF YOU CAN! I NEED A CLEAR HEADSHOT!"

 

[Wyldfire]

Diehard was a student of human evolution.

An expert on the genotype mutation-- the "G-Quotient" that distinguished neo-humans from baseline humans and other metahumans.

He had trained his neo-human superhero teams-- his Fraternity of Zen Men --at his Academies for Advanced Children in Massachusetts and West Germany for years now. All sorts of different powersets.

And while he had never had superspeed himself before, his beloved son Jack Lekter-- Jackrabbit-- had been one of his most devoted students.

Hans "Diehard" Lekter knew how to adapt a lesson plan.

The first few hits struck him, and he cried out in indignation rather than pain.

Then he managed to start dodging, rolling aside, bounding to his feet, juking left and right, unable to get a fist in past this speeding gleaming steely bludgeon...

...and that last hit batted his helmet off, and he sneered...

Blond-haired, eyes sparking with speed-lightning, and unimpressed.

"All beserker fury and only a modicum of talent. Like Quickhatch when I first dug him out of the ruins of The Experiment House's first Armament G Program."

"You need a better teacher!"

...he roared on that last word, scooping up a handful of brick and metal shrapnel from the rubble of the building on which they stood and whipping it all at Rebel's face, her eyes, at maximum velocity...

...fast enough to drive a drinking straw into a tree-trunk.

If she switched powers-- flash-vision or invulnerability --to defeat this attack, he would be able to outrun her in that instant. If she dodged, he would have slightly less time to regroup, but he would make do!

Diehard? Shoulda named hisself Blowhard with th way he liked ta hear his own voice. Jo might not remember it but her skills had been honed on th 'Bor. This would definitely not be the first time someone threw gravel at her face. She noted trajectory an kicked low and to the side letting it blow over her head, and she returned the favor with her club and kicked up a spray right back at Diehard. As much as she wanted to be the one to put this asshole's lights out she had one thing these extremists didn't seem to. She had a team. As she knocked up her own wave of gravel at him she bellowed "Knock his ass down ladies!" She further reacted by letting her speed go in lieu of a blast of Ultra breath, in an attempt to slow him down with the cold so the other two could knock his ass out.

 

[Wyldfire]

Gorgon scuttled and bounded and rebounded, hauling ass to keep ahead of the clawed hotblooded predator that was Thea "Wildcat" Grant-- using web and tentacles alike to just-- barely-- keep out of her lunge radius--

--all up and down the glassy wall of the pavilion they raced, cricks and jags following them where claws and tentacle-pincers punctured for purchase.

"I am not afraid of you! I'm not afraid of anything!" he screamed with ferocity-- though there was a telltale squeak in his cry that betrayed his trepidation, the fight-or-flight red alert that was screaming maximum Danger Zone in his ears at the relentless pursuit of the cat.

"I am the Dreaded Gorgon! The Petrifying Gorgon! No mere Bug! I AM NOT INFERIOR!"

...picking himself up from the dust, shaking his rattled, helmeted head, G.R.I.D. managed to recover with a super-soldier's resilience.

Milton. If you are ready to be serious?

"Okay, yeah, ow," he mumbled.

Utilize your Scan Visor again, she prompted. Specifically on this opponent.

Tapping the side of his helmet, Milton did so, his HUD zeroing in on Gorgon even as he scrambled to keep out of Wildcat's clutches.

The bionic implants regulating data-flow between his cerebral cortex and his tentacular manipulators are located at the base of his skull. A direct hit with the Wave Beam at that location should short out those implants, causing a massive neural cascade-- a temporary brainstorm that will no doubt incapacitate him, danger-sense and all, long enough to subdue him.

But even a locked-on charged Wave Beam shot will require a steadier target.

"Got it," Milton nodded with a murmur, and then spoke up louder, helmet speaker cranked high: "HEY! PIN HIM IF YOU CAN! I NEED A CLEAR HEADSHOT!"

"Bug's getting awful squeaky," Thea sneered as she kept the offense up. Then she heard GRID. He needed a clear shot at Gorgon. She resumed control, tightening down on instinct. Hell she put a choke hold on the feline part of her. She stopped dead. gripping into the wall with her toe claws she threw her arms wide and bellowed "Want some of this you big chicken shit, come get it." This was going to hurt like hell. Better be worth the payout.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Simon Says.

Diehard? Shoulda named hisself Blowhard with th way he liked ta hear his own voice. Jo might not remember it but her skills had been honed on th 'Bor. This would definitely not be the first time someone threw gravel at her face. She noted trajectory an kicked low and to the side letting it blow over her head, and she returned the favor with her club and kicked up a spray right back at Diehard. As much as she wanted to be the one to put this asshole's lights out she had one thing these extremists didn't seem to. She had a team. As she knocked up her own wave of gravel at him she bellowed "Knock his ass down ladies!" She further reacted by letting her speed go in lieu of a blast of Ultra breath, in an attempt to slow him down with the cold so the other two could knock his ass out.

As Rebel kicked away and smacked up shrapnel back into Diehard's face, he was already moving...

...diving for the helmet she had knocked away.

He scooped it up, rolled back up to one knee, held it backwards in front of his face like a shield... Rebel's gravel-toss rattled noisily against the helmet's surface.

Before he could think of a counterattack-- even with his neural structure super-accelerated --Rebel attempted to unleash a gale of super-cooled wind...

...which he bitterly attempted to parry by whirling his hand to create a mini-tornado, dispersing the deep-freeze exhalation just before it reached him...

 

[ChasNicollette]

Getting Cuddly with The Cuttlefish.

"Bug's getting awful squeaky," Thea sneered as she kept the offense up. Then she heard GRID. He needed a clear shot at Gorgon. She resumed control, tightening down on instinct. Hell she put a choke hold on the feline part of her. She stopped dead. gripping into the wall with her toe claws she threw her arms wide and bellowed "Want some of this you big chicken shit, come get it." This was going to hurt like hell. Better be worth the payout.

"Nobody. Calls me. CHICKEN!" Gorgon seethed--

--and then exploded in a forty-foot leap down diagonally across the pavilion's windowed face, ready to fall on Wildcat with all his proportional Bug-strength, fingers curled like claws--

--tentacles writhing around behind him in the air as he sailed, as though they truly were a mythic gorgon's serpentine dreadlocks...

 

[Wyldfire]

"Nobody. Calls me. CHICKEN!" Gorgon seethed--

--and then exploded in a forty-foot leap down diagonally across the pavilion's windowed face, ready to fall on Wildcat with all his proportional Bug-strength, fingers curled like claws--

--tentacles writhing around behind him in the air as he sailed, as though they truly were a mythic gorgon's serpentine dreadlocks...

He'd blown a gasket. Who knew it would be that easy. Then he slammed into her. Thea wrapped her hands around Gorgon's torso fending those clawing hands away from anything vital. She leaned upwards as they tore through the wall sliding down it. Thea was strong but she knew that Gorgon was going to break her soon so she tried her best to keep control of the situation. He was stronger but Thea was a fighter through and through. She licked Gorgon's cheek. "Scaredie bug's kinda tasty," she said and threw her head forward for a headbutt to Gorgon's nose. Then she popped her hips and threw them both free from the wall using a professional wrestling belly to belly suplex to put herself on top as the two hurtled for the ground. This was going to sting but Thea prayed for back up to be down at the bottom to bat clean up for her.

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

As Rebel kicked away and smacked up shrapnel back into Diehard's face, he was already moving...

...diving for the helmet she had knocked away.

He scooped it up, rolled back up to one knee, held it backwards in front of his face like a shield... Rebel's gravel-toss rattled noisily against the helmet's surface.

Before he could think of a counterattack-- even with his neural structure super-accelerated --Rebel attempted to unleash a gale of super-cooled wind...

...which he bitterly attempted to parry by whirling his hand to create a mini-tornado, dispersing the deep-freeze exhalation just before it reached him...

It had taken Velocity a moment to recover from hurling that lightning at Diehard and in that time she had seen Rebel take the initiative and attack him, yet she was impressed with how quickly he had adapted to his new power set. Still there was adapting and then there was being born with it. He might have observed people with it, hell he might have even trained them, but he had not had it for years.

She zoomed in behind him, aiming to launch a fast attack on his legs. Speedster fighting 101. Take out your opponents legs first and hamper their speed. They would recover, but in a fight that would take seconds, every nano second counted.

 

[Varshanka]

RAven

The prison closed, sealed once more as the last vestige trace of Nightmares vanished within. At least those two wouldn’t be lonely anymore.

Turning her gaze she locked eyes on the Rider and Havok. She could still feel the trace nightmares of vile spells caressing the edges of her mind. Sorcerers and mages alike had died to Nightmares touch, and within their Nightmares had been bad spells indeed.

A eyelid twitched as she summoned energy, calling it forth and releasing it into a dark beam of nastiness. Havok thought he was the shit? Time to teach manners to the man. “I’m sorry for you.” She whispered as she changed reality, altering the runes and sigils of his armour into meaningless gibberish. A symbol here and there at first. Minor runes of power until a cascade effect took place, and the changes shimmered across the armor and weapons.

“You may be a worldly intellectual man. But by your ability to use the runes and sigils of darkness and light.. you have to believe in them. And that takes a soul.”

Shifting her attention to the Mirror hall she began drifting away, Havok a distraction best left for the Rider. “Blackheart learned that unfortunate lesson, a long time ago.”

 

[Varshanka]

Renegade

...but Braggock had knocked Tracer over near Renegade again...

...it had seemed like the thing to do.

One does not become the most elite assassin in the world without a few tricks and skills. Blending into your surroundings was one of them. As soon as Tracer had started dancing with Braggock he’d shifted again. Smaller and more lithe. Faster punching speed without the power.

Slipping up like she was gonna give him a courtesy reach around she punched him in the kidney’s like a frenzied dervish. But this blade had been modified. She anticipated needing to stab a few things that didn’t want excessive gaseous sources in their bodies. So she’d outfitted with a few different compressed gas cyclinders.

Carbon monoxide was deadly to humans, and she didn’t know what concentration was needed to bring down needle dick, but it’s not like she’d ever been accused of overkill before. And just for added measure, Renegade jabbed a Taser against the base of his skull hard enough to leave it imbedded and lodged between the bones of Tracers spine.