Justice League: The New Wave (IC)

[Varshanka]

Wondergirl

As he tangled with Wondergirl and Rebel--
And from that place inside his spherical shield, everything-- started-- to-- crumble--
--in--
--slow--
--motion--
"What. Did you. Do. To. ME?!"

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

"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.

She couldn’t move as Fast as the speedsters, but Karan didn’t walk at a crawl either. But she had more than speed on her side. Running forwards she dropped to her knees, stone ripping and sparking with the force of impact as bracers slammed together hard enough to force a shockwave of force, light, and sound, against her foe.

“Danger! Danger! Will Robinson Danger!!!. SNARFF!!!!” She screamed in his face as her eyes flared red, twin beams targeting his helmet. Can’t wear it if the damned thing was boiling.

 

[Varshanka]

The Rider

"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!"

“Then Penance is not for you,” The Rider intoned as soul chains ripped and snapped seeking to encircle him long enough for a transport straight to Lucifer's Gaze.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Wreaking Havok.

“Then Penance is not for you,” The Rider intoned as soul chains ripped and snapped seeking to encircle him long enough for a transport straight to Lucifer's Gaze.

"No. It certainly is not."

He engaged his flight systems, jetting away from the looping chains, evading The Rider's grasp...

...and used remote access to Moonbase Ex's transmatter systems-- the same teleportation systems that brought Moonbase Ex here in the first place, the same ones that teleported Raven miles out to sea --to create a molecular lock on his transdimensional signature. No matter what unAngorly plane The Rider or anyone else might manage to compel him to, the Moonbase could reroute him here immediately. He was not so easily dismissed.

To wit:

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.”

Havok gestured sharply, a somatic component, his hand forming what looked like I love you in ASL, and the beam curved sharply away from him, impacting on the surface of the Moonbase rather than Havok himself.

"HAVOK rejects your pity, sorceress."

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.”

Havok harrumphed from behind his helmet. "Your power is legitimate, but your theology and mysticism are obsolete. Magic is but a way to access the machine code of the universes, and like any program... it can be decoded. Souls are overrated. But I have a mind like no other!"

As if to demonstrate this fact, his armor began to shapeshift... rippling... the nanotechnology in its smartmetal plating restoring the original configuration of the runes embedded and engraved in its surface. "This armor is my finest creation, and Frank Future does not have sole dominion over metamorphosis!"

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.”

"I know not this Blackheart. Perhaps he is counterpart to the Darkcœur I have had dealings with in the past. But I have another lesson for you."

"Never turn your back on HAVOK."

And with that, he gestured again, his armor's ability to reproduce preprogrammed movements leading him through the somatic components for...

"THE SILVER SHACKLES OF SYCORAX!"

One of the go-to spells of Felix Fate, Magus Maximus, whose gestures Havok had recorded to recreate this conjuration--

--The Silver Shackles of Sycorax were nigh-unbreakable bindings both of body and of spirit, argent ribbons forged out of the very forces that held Universe-8 together, mystically derived from hyperstring quanta.

And Lord Havok directed it at both Raven and The Rider at once!

 

[ChasNicollette]

A Kiss Before Dying Hard.

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.

Roaring with fury, Diehard found himself flung ass over teakettle, managing to land on his feet but just... only... barely... hands out to his sides for balance, he tottered...

Running forwards she dropped to her knees, stone ripping and sparking with the force of impact as bracers slammed together hard enough to force a shockwave of force, light, and sound, against her foe.

...and he found himself blown headlong again with a scowling yowl, his helmet bouncing from his grasp as he skipped like a stone across the ocean of rubble he'd created.

In these hyper-elongated moments of clashing and crashing, he couldn't help but reflect, even in the indignity of it all, on his daughters-- Silver Sorceress and Dhruva. They had been powerful creatures, if, admittedly, unstable and fraught with shifting allegiances. But between their magic and their magnetism they had been potent forces for neo-human equality indeed. And Diehard found himself-- reluctantly-- admitting--

--that these three women reading him the riot act would be a match for those daughters. He felt almost... honored... not quite humbled...

“Danger! Danger! Will Robinson Danger!!!. SNARFF!!!!” She screamed in his face as her eyes flared red, twin beams targeting his helmet. Can’t wear it if the damned thing was boiling.

But then Wondergirl screamed that unintelligible nonsense and with a snarl he reconsidered his assessment. He would not be bested so easily by such harridans!

He pitched his helmet away before the heat could reach his fingers, and it boiled to slag under the punishment of Wondergirl's radiant regard.

Grimacing, then, Diehard shot to his feet, fists up in front of him, braced for the next wave of attack...

 

[ChasNicollette]

Tracer X.

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.

The gas embolism stopped Tracer's heart basically immediately, and he clutched at his chest, basically stabbing himself with all five nails of one hand as he hunched over-- the other five nails digging for purchase on the ground.

He could feel his brain cells struggling to regenerate with the oxygen deprivation... feel his heart desperately trying to repair the massive tears...

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.

Pain coursed through his muscles, his nerves, his whole skeleton like one big lightning rod.

But there was still plenty of fight left in this dog.

At blinding speed he whipped his hand away from his chest and he

SNIKT!

popped his claws aiming for Renegade's midsection...

...if she was going to pump his body full of high voltage then he was going to conduct it into her, see if she microwaved quicker than he did.

He was betting she would.

 

[ChasNicollette]

A Day in The Life, Part 3. (joint post with Varshanka's Raven.)

Nara.
Japan.
A Little Bit After 4 AM (Pacific/California Time).
Days After Kobra.
From Here.
********​

Popping her top hat onto her head as she stepped out of Raven's teleport effect, Domina stuck out her hands and turned slowly on the sidewalk, arms out to either side, gazing up at the sky, blinking up at the sky, shivering at the sudden jump in temperature to Japan from Cali. It wasn't unlike the drop between leaving the rave club and going back out into open air, though this was quite a bit colder, close to single digits Celsius.

"Of course it's dark out. It's like 9 PM here. At some point I'd like to feel some sunlight this trip, but no rush."

She turned and grinned at Raven. "It's too bad we couldn't come here Christmas Eve, that's like Valentine's Day here. Of course, then we might be having KFC instead of sushi, but that could be fun too!"

“We can do both, but first…” Leaning in Raven whispered words of power into Domina’s ears. “Open your ears that you may hear and part thine lips that they may speak.” And then she gave Domina a kiss that made her own heart skip a few beats and her left foot lifted slightly from the floor as a great deal of moisture consolidated in more intimate areas of her body.

Domina shivered at that kiss...

...but she also felt the rush of that spell's workings trickling down her back and through her brain.

She let out a happy little sigh, her eyelids fluttering.

"Oh. I knew you were magic before I met you, but your kisses are just..." she shook her head in delighted incredulity. "What was that?"

“Now we can both hear and speak Japanese, and um.. every language in Humankind. If the spell works. If not, well it will be interesting.” It was cold here, at least for Raven it was. Cold enough to make her nipples hard and press against the material of her dress. Or it could be because she was with the most beautiful girl in the universe.

Domina beamed at her.

"Well. I can tell you it feels... familiar. Knowing every language from human history, living and dead. I've got words in my head right now I haven't heard alive since The Obsidian Age. The First Camelot. The First Atlantis..."

She moved in closer, slipped her hands down to Raven's hips, and nudged her nose against Raven's in an "Eskimo kiss," pressing close enough that Domina's chest pressed firmly against Raven's.

"Let's go see if it can get us some nice bluefin, huh? Someplace warm? Maybe with a dessert menu. ...and an upstairs?"

Shivering in constrained want, Raven murmured, ”Yes, but if you eat any food off a naked body it had better be mine..”

"If I was going to do body-shots off of any other naked people," Domina chuckled sensibly, "wouldn't I have done that back at the actual strip club? I'm on the date with you, silly."

Fingers flashed as she cast a location spells and several blocks distant an arrow pointed at a building. “Bluefin, desserts, and rooms upstairs..” she whimpered, daring a kiss. “Languages and memories tie together on a subliminal level. In the realm of the mind, everyone thinks one language. Thought.”

"Oh, but thought is so much more complex than even an empath like you can imagine," Domina murmured, kissing Raven back sweetly, heatedly. "I spent one day a thousand centuries ago in The Obsidian Deeps of Sector 0911, where no light has shone for millions of years and all the species have evolved a fantastic sense of hearing but have no sight. They have no concept, no way to imagine the idea of light, of color, there's no way to explain it to them. Even a Green Lantern Ring couldn't translate the terminology. That's... that's my whole existence. I'm a concept that no-one else can even comprehend-- not even my own siblings."

She pressed her forehead to Raven's, ignoring the press of Rae's chakric gem against her brow, fingers tracing Raven's shoulders gingerly, eagerly. "But just this once. Just this once. Just one day out of thirty-six thousand five hundred. I get to be lucky. And I get to talk to someone who understands."[/QUOTE]

Being misunderstood. Being not understood. Being along. Yeah Raven understood. She had people, she worked with ‘allies’, she had people that were family. A mother that was dead and had never understood her. A father that wanted her to help him rule the universe, even when she just wanted to belong. Yeah, family that didn’t get it. People that wanted to be her friend, that just didn’t get it.

She’d gone to a dance once, back in junior high when she was still trying to fit in. She wanted to dance, to see what it was like. To be happy with people around her. To feel their happiness and joy and energy and be a part of it.

It had been a horrific failure. The whispers. The stares. The pitying glances at her. She’d left, alone, just like she’d entered. For weeks afterwards she’d been mocked and taunted for it. That stopped when gymnasium ripped itself apart and rearranged itself upside down – and inside out.

After that people moved to the walls – and avoided her like the shadow of evil and darkness.

Bad thing – she hadn’t tried to do anything. She’d been crying in the bathroom when it happened.

Didn’t matter. She was shunned.

Alone.

Yeah, Raven understood what Domina – Death – was going through. She’d just been dealing with it a lot longer than Raven.

But being here, with Domina, being around her made Raven heart beat faster. Her lips tremble. Her hands shake. She wanted to cry at moments, not because of what she had, but because she knew it would end. One day. That’s all they had. Less now.

With forehead touching forehead, and fingers trailing across her shoulders she quivered. But she didn’t say what she felt. What she desired. This was Domina’s special Day. Not Raven’s, and she’d sacrifice her wants and desires for Domina.

Death had never gotten to go to a school dance. Well, not this facet of her, anyway. The Death of Universe-24 had gotten to go to a lovely high school dance with the human host for that world's Ghost Rider in the early 21st Century.

This Death-- in her incarnation as Domina --was more reminded of a time long before human memory. Before life began to evolve on Earth. A conclave of astronomical phenomena, to which The Endless had been invited. Death had arrived as invited, but this had been long before she had begun spending one day a century as a mortal... she was colder, then, and arrogant, sure and confident in her inevitability, and the living stars and other immortal beings had-- recoiled somewhat from her approach.

She had noted their discomfort and departed more or less immediately for reasons of... politeness. But she had reminded them... reminded them that they would all see her soon. Or later. But they would see her. The timing of it was as one to her.

Death was glad that she had... relaxed since then. And Domina felt that relaxation all the more even now, in this moment with this beautiful woman.

She still had pangs and winces about being such a dreaded concept, so feared and rejected. But she had had time to grow, to understand how those mortals and immortals felt when she approached to gently unhook their tenuous grip on the only existence they had ever known.

She was an outsider. Like Raven.

Domina only hoped that she could... help Raven grow the way that Death had.

She drew back from Raven. Put her hand in hers.

And walked her towards that sushi place.

"C'mon. Let's go eat. Let's go live."

 

[Wyldfire]

But then Wondergirl screamed that unintelligible nonsense and with a snarl he reconsidered his assessment. He would not be bested so easily by such harridans!

He pitched his helmet away before the heat could reach his fingers, and it boiled to slag under the punishment of Wondergirl's radiant regard.

Grimacing, then, Diehard shot to his feet, fists up in front of him, braced for the next wave of attack...

And Jo was back in. This situation kind of reminded Jo of a time back home when she and a couple of her girls had done this to a bitch that had marked up Tina's face just because the bitch's man had flirted at Tina. Her brothers (who smartly stayed out of it), had said it was like watching some National Geographic show with lions fussin at a water buffalo. This was just like that 'cept worse. This time the girls had super speed and at least one with super strength while this fast.

Jo came at Diehard from behind, swinging the strut for the backs of his knees. Keep him down girl, keep him down. Easier ta kick his ass if he can't move......

 

[Varshanka]

Wondergirl

Leaping into his face Wondergirl swung a right cross even as her left came up for a jawbreaker, if her timing with Rebel was good. He was gonna be a hurting little bitch. And eating dirt for a while as well.

 

[Varshanka]

Renegade

At blinding speed he whipped his hand away from his chest and he SNIKT! popped his claws aiming for Renegade's midsection...

...if she was going to pump his body full of high voltage then he was going to conduct it into her, see if she microwaved quicker than he did.

He was betting she would.

She’d been hit by lightening before. Hell at one point she’d.. or rather he.. had had a relationship with Tesla. Now that was a kinky man. Sexy in bed as well. Small equipment, shit tones of enthusiasm and a willingness to ‘experiment’. So electricity could be fun, especially if delivered right.

With the taser playing hell with her nerves she taught her new friend a trick Tesla had taught her. She continued her courtesy reach around and grabbed his balls. And while electricity coursing through and made her twitch like a fish on a line, she squeezed those baby jam makers

 

[Varshanka]

Raven

...and used remote access to Moonbase Ex's transmatter systems-- the same teleportation systems that brought Moonbase Ex here in the first place, the same ones that teleported Raven miles out to sea --to create a molecular lock on his transdimensional signature. No matter what unAngorly plane The Rider or anyone else might manage to compel him to, the Moonbase could reroute him here immediately. He was not so easily dismissed.

Havok harrumphed from behind his helmet. "Your power is legitimate, but your theology and mysticism are obsolete. Magic is but a way to access the machine code of the universes, and like any program... it can be decoded. Souls are overrated. But I have a mind like no other!"

As if to demonstrate this fact, his armor began to shapeshift... rippling... the nanotechnology in its smartmetal plating restoring the original configuration of the runes embedded and engraved in its surface. "This armor is my finest creation, and Frank Future does not have sole dominion over metamorphosis!"

"THE SILVER SHACKLES OF SYCORAX!"And Lord Havok directed it at both Raven and The Rider at once!

“Rider, The installation is in need of infernal fire. Melt it to slag, Please.” Raven asked as she countered his spell with an inversion . “You are right about spells and codes. This thing is your wrong about gestures. When you have enough understanding of the universe you don’t need to speak or move your fingers and hands. Yes, it helps the focus. But mostly it’s a distracting effect. Magicians do it all the time. Look at my left hand while my assistant steals your wallet.”

Moving forwards she used Dark magic energy to redirect his Silver shackles at Diehard, help keep him down as the girls beat the tar out of him. “See, I don’t care about you anymore. You’re less of a bug than your allies. You’re big speeches and flashy sparks. But you’re just a thug that’s having a tantrum.”

She didn’t bother with verbalizing or pointing. She just started sending spears of darkness and pain at him. But not just from her area, from everywhere. Pincushion time.

 

[Varshanka]

The Rider

“Rider, The installation is in need of infernal fire. Melt it to slag, Please.” Raven asked.

With a snarl the Rider did as she asked, as with a singe leaped it crashed through a wall and began laying waste to everything around it. Material mattered not. Temperature rating mattered even less. Anything that could be made could be unmade. It didn’t hurt that Danni was helping. Stroking the fires of rage and hate. Until the full force of deamon hood exploded free. Ripping chunks of machinery free the Diabolical Duo melted everything. Glass, air, metal and stone. Even the Green Rager would be impressed by what they could do, when truly angry.

Arcane runes couldn’t hold cohesion when the material holding them melted. First rule of being summoned, fuck the circle up. Break the binding it whatever manner possible.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Names in Vain.

“You are right about spells and codes. This thing is your wrong about gestures. When you have enough understanding of the universe you don’t need to speak or move your fingers and hands. Yes, it helps the focus. But mostly it’s a distracting effect. Magicians do it all the time. Look at my left hand while my assistant steals your wallet.”

Havok flexed his hands, shapeshifting his claws down to proper fingers to that he could more dexterously engage in the finger-tutting that such gestural magic required. "It seems there are many schools of sorcery. New ones that my universe had scarcely contemplated. I will be intrigued to learn of them, to assimilate their arcane knowledge as we conquer your world. Each one a crown jewel for your new oligarchs."

“See, I don’t care about you anymore. You’re less of a bug than your allies. You’re big speeches and flashy sparks. But you’re just a thug that’s having a tantrum.”

Havok scoffed. "Your inability to comprehend how beneath me you are is irrelevant. As Dreamslayer itself was so fond of saying, 'It has always been the perogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.'"

She didn’t bother with verbalizing or pointing. She just started sending spears of darkness and pain at him. But not just from her area, from everywhere. Pincushion time.

He flung his arms out, fingers blurring as they rapidly enunciated silent spellcasting speech, and he roared: "THE OPULENCE OF THE OMNISCIENT ORB OF OGGOMEMNON!"

And the a rune on his chest ignited into a massive burst of golden light, designed to disperse shadows and dispel attack magic-- and Raven's darksome javelins were both.

 

[ChasNicollette]

"Justice the founder of my fabric moved."

Arcane runes couldn’t hold cohesion when the material holding them melted. First rule of being summoned, fuck the circle up. Break the binding it whatever manner possible.

The trouble with casting a binding spell derived from the structure of a universe is that it became a lot less binding when dealing with beings from outside that universe. The Rider's fire roared, and The Silver Shackles of Sycorax... shattered.

“Rider, The installation is in need of infernal fire. Melt it to slag, Please.” Raven asked.

With a snarl the Rider did as she asked, as with a singe leaped it crashed through a wall and began laying waste to everything around it. Material mattered not. Temperature rating mattered even less. Anything that could be made could be unmade. It didn’t hurt that Danni was helping. Stroking the fires of rage and hate. Until the full force of deamon hood exploded free. Ripping chunks of machinery free the Diabolical Duo melted everything. Glass, air, metal and stone. Even the Green Rager would be impressed by what they could do, when truly angry.

The Savage Hulks of The Marvel Universes were indeed forces of destruction incarnate.

As had been The Behemoth, The Big Baby of The Major Universe.

And right now the fire of The Rider was the only candle that could be held to either.

And as it/she/they rampaged through the structures of Moonbase Ex, they first came to The Experiment House Annex, the lunar laboratories of Gorgon. And as they shredded its structure... the things in it burned.

Great and terrible mad scientist things.

Chemicals burned and their horrifically poisonous fumes belched into the skies over Seattle. Genetic catalysts. Metametals created in attempts to mass-produce Indeliblium at will blew to ash, and those ashes blew out and up, scattering over the city, perhaps to seed into the first clouds they found.

The problem with wanton, unhinged destruction is... once you start it, you never know where it's going to stop. And in the process... maybe innocent people get hurt?

 

[ChasNicollette]

Every Man Dies. Not Every Man Really Dies Hard.

Jo came at Diehard from behind, swinging the strut for the backs of his knees. Keep him down girl, keep him down. Easier ta kick his ass if he can't move......

Diehard whirled, whipping his hand about in a karate chop... slicing the metal pole off near Rebel's hand before it caught him behind the legs and then snagging the pole itself out of the air...

Leaping into his face Wondergirl swung a right cross even as her left came up for a jawbreaker, if her timing with Rebel was good. He was gonna be a hurting little bitch. And eating dirt for a while as well.

Wondergirl's right cross slammed into Diehard's face like a runaway SR71 and only his nascent Speed Force aura helped him stay barely conscious, he lashed out on instinct with the metal pole he'd just snagged from Rebel, whipping it about with hypersonic force, just barely able to graze that follow-up jawbreaker aside...

Moving forwards she used Dark magic energy to redirect his Silver shackles at Diehard, help keep him down as the girls beat the tar out of him.

...and then The Silver Shackles of Sycorax descended upon him, wrapping him up, forcing him to the ground, the metal pole bouncing away...

He twisted and squirmed in their embrace but with his limited skill at vibration he could not break free... "This is pointless! This is futile! As soon as my magnetism returns I will be able to juggle the bonds of my home universe like building blocks and I will be free! I am Doctor Diehard, and no prison can hold me!"

 

[ChasNicollette]

In Like Errol Flynn.

She’d been hit by lightening before. Hell at one point she’d.. or rather he.. had had a relationship with Tesla. Now that was a kinky man. Sexy in bed as well. Small equipment, shit tones of enthusiasm and a willingness to ‘experiment’. So electricity could be fun, especially if delivered right.

With the taser playing hell with her nerves she taught her new friend a trick Tesla had taught her. She continued her courtesy reach around and grabbed his balls. And while electricity coursing through and made her twitch like a fish on a line, she squeezed those baby jam makers

Tracer outright screamed, shrill and animalistic, the yowl of an alleycat...

...agony pulsed through his entire body, and muscles locked and spasmed, sparks arcing from his top and bottom teeth.

But then his other, quivering arm came up, a movement that should have been impossible, and yet he forced himself against the flow of electricity... lifting his other hand up towards the back of his neck and

SNIKT!

popped a single claw, slashing across his vertebra, punching the embedded prongs of the taser out of his neck and away.

In an instant he shoved away from Renegade, his body already healing but he wasn't waiting, he was already moving already whirling to fight...

BOOM!

Braddock staggered in, holding his injuries where Tracer had gashed him, and slammed Tracer aside with an ear-splittingly powerful backhand that belted Tracer clean away.

"Leave her alone."

Tracer bounced, rebounded, swore in fury, almost fell off the side of Moonbase Ex except he dug in with his fingernail-talons and scrrrrraaaaaaaaaaped down the side, carving ten jagged fissures down the face of the moonrock until he came to a stop partway down.

Then.

SNIKT.

He began using his claws to climb back up, snarling and gritting his teeth the whole way. He was coming back. He wasn't out of it yet.

Up top, Braggock bled magma profusely but ignored it as he held out his uninjured hand to Renegade.

"You okay?"

 

[Wyldfire]

Diehard whirled, whipping his hand about in a karate chop... slicing the metal pole off near Rebel's hand before it caught him behind the legs and then snagging the pole itself out of the air...



Wondergirl's right cross slammed into Diehard's face like a runaway SR71 and only his nascent Speed Force aura helped him stay barely conscious, he lashed out on instinct with the metal pole he'd just snagged from Rebel, whipping it about with hypersonic force, just barely able to graze that follow-up jawbreaker aside...



...and then The Silver Shackles of Sycorax descended upon him, wrapping him up, forcing him to the ground, the metal pole bouncing away...

He twisted and squirmed in their embrace but with his limited skill at vibration he could not break free... "This is pointless! This is futile! As soon as my magnetism returns I will be able to juggle the bonds of my home universe like building blocks and I will be free! I am Doctor Diehard, and no prison can hold me!"

Jo blurred in front of Diehard. "Oh, this is just perfect. Guess what Sparky, we'll see how long we c'n hold ya. Ya might wake up by th end a yer life sentence."

Strength. Jo cocked back and hit Diehard. Not full strength, she didn't wanna kill him. But she did hit him harder than she would have a normal human. "Did th girl hit ya hard enough?"

 

[Lunaramblings]

It took The Sandman a moment to pull himself together. As he came back to the world around him he watched Braggock go toe to toe with Tracer. He watched the claws tear and rend the obsidian body, the magma pouring out like tar thick blood. The Sandman reached out again with his powers, this time his Geo-kinesis. He reached out and ensnared Braggock's very being in a soft grasp. Not hindering him, but feeling out the strange obsidian anatomy.

Trusting the power granted him by his liege, The Sandman calls to the living stone. Much like the sandstorms he had kicked up early he calls to the earthen flesh, beseeching it to bend to his whim and heal the savage gashes. With a gesture, he reverses the flow of he magma, staunching the bleeding, knitting the obsidian flesh closed like a surgeon stitching together flesh.

 

[Aussie_Wolf]

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."

"Yeah but depleted promethium doesn't give off radiation Bats," Connor said looking over at him. Now he was sure he was not dealing with the real one. There was no way HE would have made that mistake.

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.'"

Green Arrow looked at the reforming monstrosity and sighed. Just once he would like something to be easy. You know, shoot it, it stayed down and you moved on to the next thing. He looked at his arrows on the ground and knew they wouldn't do this time anyway. This thing was just too big. No, he needed something bigger.

Grabbing two arrows he took aim and launched. One soared out towards the things left leg, the other it's right. Between them was a strong but thin cable. It would normally be enough to wrap around an entire persons body, trapping them, but he hoped it would be enough to at least trip this thing and maybe shatter it, or at least allow them to get close and place explosives on it.

As he moved to cover, he heard explosions and felt the ground rumble beneath his feet. Sounded like the rest of the team was having fun.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Chariots of Fire.

The Savage Hulks of The Marvel Universes were indeed forces of destruction incarnate.

As had been The Behemoth, The Big Baby of The Major Universe.

And right now the fire of The Rider was the only candle that could be held to either.

Shadow Suparṇa was down, thanks to Raven's defeat of Dreamslayer. And thanks in no small part to The Sandman, Martian Manhuntress had been able to weather the storms of her fiery, tempestuous attacks.

Rose picked herself up off the ground, where she'd been straining against the heat and light of Suparṇa to stave off the telekinesis that raged amongst the pyrokinetic conflagration.

She dusted ash off of her pale skin, blinked it out of her eyes... her skin had still burned and crisped under the stress of the firebird's regard, but she had not fully ignited...

...for months even the merest candleflame could have felled her, but now... everything was different all over again.

And yet. And yet there was no time to marvel at this paradigm shift.

Because fire of a different kind was raging on the Moonbase.

The Ghost Rider had refused her counsel when she had raged back in Keystone-Central-- but Rose, despite everything, was an optimist at heart. (Literally, her heart was an optimist, but more on that later.)

Rose nodded gratefully to The Sandman for his help, even as he cast his healing geomancy on Braggock.

Then she cast her mind out for Karan...

...Karan was kicking ass down below. Gorgeous as ever.

And then, with blue cape and crimson hair billowing behind her, Rose blasted up from the dust of the Moonbase and swooped low past The Ghost Rider as she raged.

"Rider! Be careful where you direct your flame! We're not sure what's keeping this thing in the air-- if you hit some kind of fuel tank, this whole place could go up!"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Every wolf suffers fleas. 'Tis easy enough to scratch!

Grabbing two arrows he took aim and launched. One soared out towards the things left leg, the other it's right. Between them was a strong but thin cable. It would normally be enough to wrap around an entire persons body, trapping them, but he hoped it would be enough to at least trip this thing and maybe shatter it, or at least allow them to get close and place explosives on it.

The glassy creature lumbered forward...

...but then Connor's cable ensnared its feet like an Imperial Walker, and it tottered, didn't quite topple...

...but Batman was there, he was ready, palms up like he was ready to raise the Hell out of the roof...

...he repulsors ignited, bursting fire at precisely-- calculated-- stress points--

The glass beast twisted and sheared away from itself as it fully tripped over that tripwire, pushed to the limit...

...it crashed and shattered on the whirling, dizzying floor, and immediately the jagged fragments began to pool and melt and swirl...

Batarangs snapped out into Batman's hands, and he hurled them all with a snap of both wrists...

...cryogenics hissed, freezing the molten glass solidly in place.

"The idea that glass is an amorphous solid is pseudoscience. He's rewriting physics to perpetuate pseudoscience. That offends me."

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Carny's echoing laughter split the air in the room.

And he stepped out of... somewhere, hands in his trouser pockets, grinning madly, almost too wide a grin to still be human. "Oh, we wouldn't want to offend anyone. Let's have some good, inoffensive fun, instead!"

Batman whirled to aim a repulsor blast at Carny...

...but Carny took a hand out of a pocket and snapped his fingers and

gravity

inverted

The floor they stood on became the ceiling and all of a sudden they were falling towards the ceiling that had become the floor far far below them--

--too far below them.

Not only had gravity inverted, but the dimensions of the room had shifted again and the mirrored ceiling (floor?) suddenly dropped away and the two men loomed over what seemed a bottomless pit...

...and all the while, Carny stood unaffected upside-down on the floor (ceiling?), laughing fit to pop a vein at their predicament.

"NOW YOU'RE NOT OFFENDED, YOU'RE UP-ENDED!"

 

[ChasNicollette]

Diehard Another Day.

Jo blurred in front of Diehard. "Oh, this is just perfect. Guess what Sparky, we'll see how long we c'n hold ya. Ya might wake up by th end a yer life sentence."

Strength. Jo cocked back and hit Diehard. Not full strength, she didn't wanna kill him. But she did hit him harder than she would have a normal human. "Did th girl hit ya hard enough?"

Rebel's fist descended on Diehard like a thunderbolt upon The Rock of Eternity.

And as it fell, time seemed to stutter again around him.

He could feel it, his speed wearing off-- the powerful electromagnetokinetic rivers that ran through him itching again to thaw and start flowing--

--if-- he-- could just--

--awaken--

--get his shield up--

--burst his bonds with the electromagnetic force of an Ultimate Neo-Human--

KREK.

But Rebel's fist slammed into his face with resounding, triumphant amplitude-- right in that turning-point moment when his speed had elapsed and before his magnetism again took hold. The Elder of Electromagnetism, this genodivergent god...

...took Rebel's ultra-haymaker like a mere human.

And he was out. And he was down.

"A snarky one-liner and a knockout punch!" Bouncing Ball crowed with delight as he swooped down on the power of his Legion Antigrav Ring. "Shocking Grife! Just like Universe Boy!"

The rotund, spiky-haired lad bobbed in the air before the three ladies, kicking off globules of shimmering energy with every wiggle and shimmy.

"Great job, everyone! Like my girlfriend Multiple Maid says, 'many hands make light work!' But we still have a fight going on up top, and there's a real Speed Demon ripping up the enemy camp-- I must have missed the mission briefing, my memories are a mess-- are they on our side?"

 

[Varshanka]

Renegade

Up top, Braggock bled magma profusely but ignored it as he held out his uninjured hand to Renegade.

"You okay?"

Taking the offered hand, Renegade climbed to his feet and rolled his neck as wounds sealed closed from multiple hits. “Damn this is fun,” he whispered. “But daddy has things to do. And bitches to fuck up.”

Running forwards, he used Braggock as a wall/bouncing board and swiveled as he came down on top of Trancer. One hand sliced and the other punched. “Since you like fire so much.. have a dose. On the house.” He added as he rolled away.

Holding up a hand he twirled the lock/release pin for a grenade on his finger. Yellow and red striped even. Incendiary.

 

[Varshanka]

The Rider

"Rider! Be careful where you direct your flame! We're not sure what's keeping this thing in the air-- if you hit some kind of fuel tank, this whole place could go up!"

Turning it’s head the Flaming Deamon snarled. “Targets..” As it focused on her. The red haired one that oozed that foul emotion. A mortal emotion that had no place in the realm of Truth.

 

[Varshanka]

Raven

Havok scoffed. "Your inability to comprehend how beneath me you are is irrelevant. As Dreamslayer itself was so fond of saying, 'It has always been the perogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.'"

“And your still just a thug, wishing it was an Emperor.” Raven replied, opening and portal between here and there and summoning forth swarms of insects from the darkest jungles of the Amazons and the deserts. Swarms that only had a desire to itch and scratch and bite.

 

[Varshanka]

Wondergirl tries new phrases..

Casting her gaze around the battle Wondergirl raised an eyebrow at her missing girlfriend. If she’d gotten into trouble again…

Realizing she herself was down on Terra firma she looked up, and spotted her M&M up on the moonbase. Taking a run she bounced off Diehards skull as she leaped upwards and into the clouds. Landing on the ground, using the classic hero landing, she stood as the dust settled. “That’s kinda hard on the knees and wrist.. did you know that?” she asked Rose as she walked over. “So, who’s next for the Smurfing..”