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... but it seems those damned drones have wrapped him tight as a grade-A burrito!
"Well, here comes plan B... which stands for 'Blast everything and pray it works'!" he says as his tesla cannon starts charging.
As the Zoom noise lingers, our hero looks down to check if he freed himself... and if he gets to keep all of his original toes!
The Captain floats toward Dr. Fate and his deep radio-enhanced voice extends salutations. "Greetings, sir. Your efforts are greatly appreciated. However it appears that your colleague needs some assistance." He points one gauntleted hand toward Gigabyte, who is assaulted by the drones' net.
Fate does not acknowledge the captain, directly. The aloof Nabu is currently in control. Instead, Fate notes the direction toward which the captain gestured, and floated effortlessly off that direction.
When Fate arrives, Gigabyte has seemingly freed himself, so Fate focuses on the drones nearby. Using his magnetic powers once again, he will attempt to redirect one of the drones so as to make unable to fire in the direction of an ally.
Grapple:
Seeing the drones, an idea comes up in his head. Perhaps he can try to goad the drones into striking him while he's up against the big robot, and make them attack it instead! This plan in mind, he does a close flyby near the drones before striking at the Big Robot!
A flight of Drones turns their attentions to Unhuman, following him, blasting away as he flies back toward the big robot. The blasts sail by the dodging Unhuman, melting pits into the metal torso of the Big Robot.
The head flies right off the Big Robot, the yellow maw blinking out.
Dr. Fate grabs hold of a drone with bands of magic, turning it away as it fires wildly into the air.
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Kara's eyes go wide as the pair of gorilla tanks march untouched into the Hall of J.
'Hey, uh, guys? We've got some things going into places that they're not supposed to go in to! And not in the good way!
Hey, Warhawk, can you h--oooo, looks like you can't do much right now....
Um, hey minions! Get over here and do some miniony things!'
Captain Attero rolls his eyes and orders the squad over to the Hall of Justice until they have overlapping fields of fire and the paid of gorilla tanks, and they pour in a cacophonous fire of plasma and bullets into the automatons.
Alas neither blast nor bullet leave much more than a scar on their thick hides.
Hey! You there! Robo-guy-dude! Get over an kick some tank!'
'Ugh. Looks like it's all up to me. Again.'
Imagine floats diagonally until she sees one of the ambulatory machines. Again a frag grenade floats out of her belt and launches itself suicidally toward the terrible foe!
The explosive hurled object hits, but barely.
The tank is dinged, and pauses for a moment as its companion continues on through the breach.
Once the tank disappears through the breach, the rest make it alter thir behavior. Each of the gorilla tanks seems to close in on itself, its arms and legs pulling close as it settles onto the ground, its shape resembles a 10 foot tall pod, pointed at the top. The low hum of the tanks motion begins to rise in pitch (in the style of a power core that is rving up to explode).
The Drones similarly change their behavior, but in a much more immediately destructive way. Each of them ceases to fire or evade, and simply turns itself toward the Hall of Justice and accelerates to top speed before crashing into the walls with a massive explosion.
If Fate has time to act, he'll throw up a magnetic shield in front of the hall; it won't affect stone debris, but at least it might keep metal shrapnel from flying outward.
William dosn't have long to revel in his triumph over the massive construct, as the destruction starts to kick off in full. With the assault on his own person lessened, he wills his genetic makeup to reformat and strengthen his kryptonian senses. This done, he scans the building and the battlefield, searching for downed heroes that are in need of rescuing.
Scanning through the rubble, Unhuman can see Knightingale trapped beneath a slab of wall that collapsed from the Hall. Of course there is still Supergirl lying out in the open.
The Shield has encapsulated the Tank closest to him and Warhawk in an energy field.
Arrow is nowhere to be seen.
Within the Hall, Unhuman sees a molten figure in some sort of harness, who you identify as the villainous Red Volcano. He stands within the partially melted round Digitable that resides in the center of the main room of the Hall. Long ago, this was where the League gathered to discuss matters of import, but it is mostly a museum piece now. On the floor in front of Red Volcano is a burned humanoid husk.
The tank that penetrated the Hall is tethered to the Hall's computer system with some sort of fiber optic data cable.
Almost everything in this post should probably have an exclamation point after it.
What he sees doesn't do much to bolster his hopes of pulling a victory out of this, and his worries spike when he notices the obvious corpse. From this distance he can't make out the fine details to know who it is, but he has a few guesses. Opening up a mental link with everyone besides Red Volcano, he rushes towards Knightngale first as he considers her to be in priority distress.
'Everyone! I've managed to see inside the building, and I've discovered the villain known as Red Volcano within the main room of the Hall. I need whoever's closest to the tank to get it disabled, it seems to be attached to the main computer system. Who knows what they could be pulling off of there. I'm on my way to rescue Knightngale, but Supergirl still needs protection.'
When he reaches the trapped hero, he'll move to lift the slab off and away from her after changing his enhanced senses into superstrength. With Kara's physical boost, he should be more then capable of lifting it.
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As Kara is reminded of Supergirl's current state, she pauses. She exchanges a look with Captain Attero, who simply nods.
**Acknowledged. Objective 5-2-7 initiated.**
Squad members 9 and 10 break off from the tumult and land near supergirl's still form. Each take hold of the downed hero and jump off again, into Kara's waiting LexCorp Chinook helicopter.
The remainder of the Sec force hang back, unable to assist, waiting to pick up the pieces.
'I'll have my people revive S00perchiXorZ. But, yes, see to Nite'n'Gale. I'll toss another coconut. See how well he can teh haZZorz with an arrow in his gob.'
Seeing that physical damage seems to be valuable coin amongst the tanks, Imagine re-positions herself and another frag grenade makes a laser-like trajectory at the tethered tank.
Then she starts fuming that thing isn't blowing up properly!
Hearing Unhuman's mental message, Fate will teleport into the remains as soon as possible, with the intent of using his mystic blast on Red Volcano.
If that's a hit, it's a DC 27 Will Save.
Red Volcano is a sturdily build android who has the ability to generate fantastic heat, and fly. He is also super intelligent and super strong.
Red Volcano's technological toughness doesn't stand up well to Fate's mystic manipulations. Fate's magical energy slams into him and wraps around him, scrambling circuitry and causing him to pause.
Imagine's men manage to kidnap, er, recover Supergirl, while Unhuman recovers the broken body of Knightingale. The hero is still alive, but her legs have been crushed and some lumbar vertebrae are broken. She will need some serious recover time before she is back to heroing.
The Gorilla pods continue to cycle upward, not quite ready to explode.
Round 5
Go!
Unhuman gently scoops up the injured woman, flying her to the safety that is the LexCorp helicopter. Well, the safety of this is in question at the moment, but it's certainly better then her being out on the ground. With her being looked after as well as she can be, he races over to start taking down the gorilla pods!
One of them is taken down in an instant, it's internal engines ripped out and tossed aside. The pod itself veers off to the side before slamming into the ground. He steadies himself in the air, hardening his skin at the expense of increased strength.
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Squad member # 10, Sergeant Jack Powers, turns in his bulking Atlas-class mech-suit and receives Knightengale with all the tenderness that a metal-shrouded war-suit can convey.
"Gratitude, sir. We'll see that she gets taken care of."
After Unhuman has zoomed off, he sends out a message to Imagine and Aterro. **Update. Objective 3-9er-5 in progress.**
Jack gets her stabilized and immobile, strapped in next to the supine Supergirl, as far as hovering in a mega-sized helicopter above a warzone can allow.
Imagine, for her part, crosses her arms and frowns so hard it's -audible- as Unhuman smashes a gorilla tank where she is unable to phase the other one. 'Oh yeah? Well....well then how about THIS!'
With a repetition that portents insanity, another grenade shoots out of her belt as if it was shot from a howitzer at the remaining cycling gorilla tank.
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Gigabyte hasn't fully recovered from his previous stunned self and freed himself from the nets when all things go ka-boom.
As the soundwave wears off and his head stops spinning, the augmented man turns to see Red Volcano as off as he was, and with a grin dashes to attack him.
"Things like you are what happen when you forget to update the firmware!" says our hero as he throws a combination of jabs, corkscrew punches and crosses.
Gigabyte moves into the Hall, his senses penetrating the smoke and dust.
His attacks thudda-thudda-thwack against the hot volcanic body, landing blow after blow. The android body resists his blows.
Situation Report:
Imagine is near the ground, fighting Gorilla tanks.
Unhuman has departed from the Chopper, leaving Supergirl and Knightingale to the ministrations of Imagine's crew.
Dr. Fate and Gigabyte are in the central room of the Hall of Justice, engaged with Red Volcano, handling the android well. At the same time, one of the Gorilla tanks is plugged in to the central Hall terminal, up to something nefarious, no doubt.
The whine from the gorilla bots cycles up to a pitch that threatens to make your ears bleed, then seems to stop for a moment before the power core in each of them goes critical. Nearby buildings crumble and begin to collapse, glass breaks for miles in every direction.
The Chopper is lifted into the air, slammed by a compression wave.
That should put us back at the top of the order.
Yes.
Fate repeats his marginally successful mystic blast of the previous round.
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Gigabyte uses the opening made by Fate's attack to double down on Red Volcano.
"Keep it up, Blind Bling Wizard! This robot is about to get hacked the hard way!" he says to the other hero as he charges the thrusters on his cyborg arm.
The punch connects hard, with all the strength that you can assume a high tech garage project made by a nerd genius can gather. Which in truth is a damn lot of strength.
So that stuns Volcano and reduces his Toughness save to +16.
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The massive chinook-class flying machine is battered and buffered and bruised from the massive blast. A warning flaxxon pierces the air and the hull has a few more holes than it had before.
More deadly than that, the resultant wind from the blast wave threatens to knock the thing from the sky, and the craft's well-paid pilot struggles mightily with the control!
By luck or providence, the helmeted sky-driver manages to keep the helicopter airborne, and all its passengers in one relative piece!
Squad #2 again loses strength as two Atlas suits are unable to keep up with the level of destruction and the squaddies are blown a block away, both landing in the middle of a public park.
Imagine's force-field flickers quickly like a pond in a hailstorm as the energy screen draws on its powerful capacitors to keep Luthor's heir safe.
"Hey!" Imagine shouts after the blast wave passes. "Nobody blows up buildings around here except me!" she nonsensically yells out as another grenade launches missile-fast at the mechanical gorilla that is still plugged in.
In the battered Hall of Justice, the massive wall of electronics flairs to life, sending a high voltage shock through the final gorilla tank, the one that is attempting to hack the Hall mainframe. A wavery hologram appears in the Hall
Dr. Fate and Gigabyte, the threat other than Red Volcano appears to have blown itself out for now. Let's finish Red Volcano and regroup. ARGUS has been notified and emergency support is inbound to handle civilian casualties.
Yeah. Go ahead and roll out the big punching.
Mystic Blast...
Burn a Hero Point to reroll and add +10 if it's under 10(think I have that rule right?)
DC 27 Will Save.
Unhuman, unwilling to confront the charred corpse of a man he might know, focuses on finding and rescuing civilians in the area.
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Imagine makes a gun with her thumb and forefinger and points it cutely at Red Volcano. She makes a little "Pew!" noise and a bullet from her gunbelt launches itself at him with the force an Earth-cracking hammer.
"Yeah I totally shot him!"
Someone once tried to explain to her that she's not "shooting" anyone, since the brass casing and gunpowder are still connected to the bullet, and those things are normally consumed in the exothermic explosion that propels the actually 'bullet' toward the target.
She just stared at him for half an hour until he left.
Somehow, none of our heroes can hit the stunned android in their midst. Will our heroes ever learn to work together?!?
The android's complex self repair routines go into high gear, stabilizing its internal operations. Its head swivels, taking in the battlefield. The cyborg seems dangerous, the magician confusing, and the strange woman. Faster than the speed of thought, threat assessments flit through its thoughts, and it decides that it has nothing more to gain here.
He directs his hands toward the floor, and fire flies from his hands, propelling him into the air and through the gaping hole in the wall at high speeds.
Overcome by eldritch energies rippling over it's circuits, the android's mental processes shut down completely and it topples over.
"Red Volcano is able to recover from damage with alacrity" comes the voice of VICTOR over your comms. You will need to restrain him until ARGUS forces arrive.
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'On it!' states Kara as she telekinetically slams the malfunctioning android onto his back.
At an unheard signal, the remaining LexSec troops come stomping in. Each places a set of handcuffs on some combination of Red Volcano's limbs, then stands back.
Their Captain, Attero, turns to Gigabyte, the words booming out of his inbuilt vox.
Once the verbal request for help is given, Imagine carries on the conversation in her own way; her lips remain motionless, but the words are still conveyed.
'So, um, hi everyone! I'm Kara Luthor, and I save planets for a living. *teehee* But I'm sure you all knew that already.
So, what are you guys doing here? William? Would you like to start the introductions?'
Unhuman steps up, having flown and rescued as many of the civilians he could. "Please... allow me." He reaches for the android's mechanical arms, and twists them together like a pretzel. The handcuffs unfortunately snap during the process, and he looks appropriately abashed by it. He proceeds to do the same procedure to it's legs.
"Last I knew, this thing was seen descending into an active volcano... twenty years ago. If it can survive that, then it will likely escape this as well. But, it should hold him longer then cuffs will."
With a sigh, he turns to look over the gathered heroes. "My name is... Well, she's already given away half my secret identity. But J'ohn had always taught me to trust my comrades. I would prefer you to however refer to me as su..." The words trail off, and he shifts uncomfortably. "Unhuman. You can call me Unhuman. I was already on my way here when I received the- the-"
William suddenly breaks away, rushing past them and approaching the scorched corpse. He can't hold it off any longer. "J'ohn, no, please don't- don' let it be you," The rookie hero mutters, focusing on obtaining his Kryptonian sight.