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Imagine's grinned grew wider, and now even her eyes were smiling. At least this proved one thing: He cared. If it didn't matter at all he wouldn't have bothered planting data...or eating the burger. (But to be fair, it -did- look like a really good burger.) There was hope yet. She giggled.
"You underestimate yourself, my good Captain. For what it would cost to secure this place against the likes of -you-, we could burn the whole place down and rebuild it. A hundred times. No, I think a free slab of angus every now-and-again is a wiser investment. Wouldn't you agree?
And speaking of wise investments, what if I offered you full control? Make whatever your nubile little brain would like. If you don't want to make weapons, we'll not make you. AND, since our patened process is more...shall we say, 'streamlined?' than WayneCorp, you can see your objects of benevolence put to use -far- more quickly. Wouldn't that be more helpful? How many children will die from disease and starvation in the time it takes a WayneCorp Nutri-Grow to go through the swamp-logged briar patch of government red tape, while our Intelicrops can hit the ground in half the time?
What's worse, dear Captain? To do evil...or to see the good left undone?"
Her smile never leaves her face.
She briefly checks her L-Phone X.
Outside the large windows of the restaurant, two armored Lex-Sec figures land, and appear to be talking to each other.
JUSTICE LEAGUE GENERATIONS Vol. 1 Issue 1
"Old soldiers never die, they just fade away...."
Things have been quiet for a few years now, since the big fight between Lethal Justice (led by Magog) and the Justice League (led by Superman and Wonder Woman). Luckily, everyone involved calmed down before anything disastrous happened. Since then, there have been no quests for world domination by a reformed Injustice Gang, no alien invasions.
Television news talking heads have been saying for a while now that we shouldn't grow complacent, that catastrophes had happened before and they would happen again. And who was going to defend us? Superman disappeared to who knows where for longer and longer periods of time. Earth's Green Lantern was a ten year old Tibetan kid who had had the ring for about ten minutes, and has been in somewhere in outer space for way too long. Martian Manhunter, who sort of creeps everyone out anyway, spends most of his time cooped up in the Hall. The day to day heroing of the Justice League is handled by Supergirl, who has grown into her own and is as tough as Superman ever was. The others though, Warhawk, Arrow, Knightingale, and occasionally Booster Gold. Remember when the league was mostly Fire, Booster Gold, and the Blue Beetle (and not even the cool outer space one, the chubby rich guy one). People had been saying for years that something was coming that the League couldn't handle.
Today was that day.
You are going about your business when a voice intrudes into your head
You have the feeling that something violent ended the contact, as if you just woke up from a nightmare where you were being choked.
Patrick awakens with a start and a cough, rubbing his throat.
"Jesus. I was afraid something like this was going to happen."
He moves downstairs, to the garage and workshop he lives above, and heads to the secret compartment behind his tool rack, retrieving his costume.
Forzare's outfit consists of a modified Air Force pilot's jumpsuit (bit less bulk around the chest) and a stripped down mask (sans the tubes).
A pair of gloves and combat boots round out the ensemble.
The flight suit is a brighter, cleaner shade of that same color, while the trim is a lighter steel gray. The helmet is dark gray with silver eyes, and the gloves and boots are black.
Quick as a flash, the suit flies out of the compartment seemingly of its own accord, wraps itself around Patrick, and he becomes Forzare!
Forzare closes the compartment, opens the garage, and runs out at top speed, lifting himself a few feet off the ground with invisible spider legs of air (think how Doctor Octopus gets around. Except invisible.). He manifests his forcefield to protect himself from the wind and G-forces, and races to the Hall of Justice.
looks up from his books, turns pale
says to his Shadow
"Looks like vacation time is over. Dad said this day would come."
puts on his Dad's old suit before he Shadow Walks to rooftop near Hall Of Justice in DC
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The two power-armored Lex-Sec guards in front of the window seem to finish their conversation and one of them, a captain by his rank insignia and Oaths of Moment fluttering on his pauldrons, steps into the restaurant. The wide aisles between the tables are -just- big enough for his bulky frame to pass by without upsetting soup and ladle.
"And, so, good Captain Robo," continues Imagine, "One must keep the Big Picture in mind. After all, the good of many--"
Her statement is cut short as the armored figure comes to rest at your table.
"Yes, yes," she says curtly, halting the man with a wave of her hand. I know how dearly you wish me to stay, Neil, but I must away. Time and Tide, and all that. Consider what I said."
With that the two head out of the restaurant. As soon as she steps foot outside, she flies up, out of sight. The two armored guards immediately follow suit.
A moment later a voice echos in your head, still full of sweetness and light: "Be seeing you.... ;-)"
How she manages to telepathically send a wink is beyond you.
Imagine is in a meeting. She sits at the head of a table surrounded by dark business suits, high-profile business leaders all, each with large amounts of money to spend and looking at LexCorp to spend it.
The message forces her out of the chair, onto the floor, eyes locked tight and head held in hands.
"Everyone out," she manages after a moment. The phrase is met by delay as everyone stares at everyone else, wondering what is going. What could interrupt -them-?
she screamed, giving the command just a wee bit of Force. It was enough. The room cleared.
"Judy, clear my afternoon," she communicated to her secretary. "Then get the chopper lifted up, I'll meet it in the air. Alert Captain Aterro, they'll need to follow in their own bird."
Imagine stood up and headed for her office. With the door firmly shut and locked she engaged the -true- lock, an iron bar that could not be manipulated from the outside, it could only be moved from the inside...or moved by Telekinesis, of course.
She changed into her gear quickly, energized just long enough to fly through the wall, then raced off to meet the chopper.
'Time to play!'
Sinter is sitting around his special apartment watching the tridi.
His living arrangements are a bit odd as everything normal he touches melts or burns. However Metropolis power company, feeling both some guilt for his condition, and gratitude that he kept their plant from being a crater decided to keep him on a salary and create a safe place for him to live. His apartment is mostly bare, covered floor to ceiling in heat proof ceramic tiles. He has a magnetic hammock to sleep on, and a tridi dominates the center of the room. There is a central management computer which controls everything, the doors, the tridi, the windows and the lights, and it responds to voice commands. Keyboards and Sinter don't get on so well.
He had been watching a football game, when a news bulletin had broken in with something about a disturbance in D.C., then he got the message in his head.
News is pretty current, and it must be worse than that said if they are calling for me.
Trying to think back to J'on on purpose On my way.
then to his room computer
"Open Window. Close it after I leave. "
from a wall "Acknowledge"
and a large window opens.
Sinter flies out in a rush, arcing upwards from Metropolis to keep the sonic boom high enough to reduce damage and heads towards DC at full speed.
He had to give it to her. Like her father, Kara was a very persistent person. She wanted him back. Badly. She knew the right words to push his buttons, and it worked.
"No, Kara. No. WayneTech is sufficient. They support me 100% and it was I who chose them." It didn't matter what he told her, she'd ask again next month any way. She excused herself, another phone call. Typical. He ordered drink. A Perfect Manhattan, partially because he'd rather be back at his home in Manhattan right now, but also because he needed something strong to clean the bitter taste Kara had left. As she takes to the skies, Neil retorts
"A pleasure as always, K."
After a rather brief lunch, most of Dr. Raval's day is spent in meetings with various divisions of WayneCorp. Growing up in Gotham had given him a soft spot for everything Wayne. He looked up to Bruce and considered him something of a mentor.
He was in-between a meeting with Wayne Construction and Wayne Medical when he received J'onn's message. Alien Technology?
He excused himself for the day and gave his deepest apologies. Priorities he thought to himself. It's not every day that The Justice League calls.
Neil is of indian-american background. Tan-skin, shoulder length black hair, in his early-to-mid 30's.
His SCEPTER armor resembles a sleek, seamless, less militaristic Arkham Knight without the bat motif but in more heroic colors (Gold trim, white gauntlets, etc).
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In-flight, Kara discussed tactics with her Lex-Sec escorts. After all, these men were professionals, trained to handle any crises (that she may, or may not, have caused). It wasn't that she -couldn't- handle this...but all data was good data.
'That's all I know, Captain Aterro? Do you have any ideas?' She felt like she could've phrased that better. But it had been so long since there'd been an honest-to-goodness extinction-level crises that she felt like a little girl mind-twisting her first mugger.
'The A-TAC lists a 55% probability of a single large-scale assault, 25% multiple-front threat.' Even though it was on her mind-wave, his voice still came through metallic and cold. 'We'll try to set up a perimeter along a rooftop, and neutralize low-scale threats or foot-soldiers. We'll try and carve a safe spot for you if you feel the need to fall-back.'
She rankled at the idea of needing to fall back. Still, if something could take out the MM....
'Acknowledge, Captain. Keep my back clear, and we'll hold 'em by the nose and kick 'em in the butt.'
'Patton would be proud, ma'am.'
She wondered if Neil would be there? For an Alpha-level threat like this surely he'd be on the wavelength?
She thought about calling him, but didn't want to look desperate.
You arrive on the scene at the Hall of Justice, a large building surrounded by a landscaped park, similar in many ways to the National Mall. The landscape is pockmarked with small craters, smoking landscaping, and other signs of recent violence. The right hand wall of the Hall (when facing it) is caved in, a gaping hole of steel, concrete and smoke.
Zipping through the air you see man sized flying drones.
Crossing the ground are tank sized three legged robots? Drones? Vehicles? You aren't sure.
And, topping the whole cake, there is a Giant Robot of Doom (TM).
You can see Supergirl and Warhawk fighting the fliers, Knightingale and Arrow acrobatically combating the ground walkers, and a patriotic hero you know as The Shield fighting the Giant Robot of Doom. There are so many fliers and walkers you aren't even sure where to start.
Shadow Star appears on the roof-top and takes it all in.
Wrapping his Shadow around himself, he flies above the melee and puts a 500 ft radius stationary field of Darkness around himself and several of the flyers. He begins blasting one with shadow-bolts.
Patrick tears into the area and stops dead, seeing the chaos around.
He has a moment of startlement and hesitates, but soon recovers.
Giant robot first. Definitely need to take care of the giant robot.
He whips some telekinetic tendrils around him, ripping up pieces of concrete. He starts with a mass the size of his torso, and applies 250 tons of crushing force to it from all directions, all at once, turning it into a single heavy, dense, diamond-hard ball about the size of a large marble.
He spins it around him for acceleration, and then lets fly!
The biggest target being the biggest target, Sinter decides to focus on that.
He tosses his strongest plasma bold. power attack for 5
DC 32 toughness save
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As the pair of helicopters come within sight of the battle, Imagine and her escorts agree on the plan of 'kill things' and then leave their rides. The Lex-Sec guards jump out in the air, engaging their jump-packs and landing as one on a rooftop. Each man finds some cover along the edge then sights down range to find targets.
Half of them of Alpha squad zero in on the flyers. They let the motion-trackers compensate for the drones' quick motion, then lined up the cross-hairs of the finest WHM-6R Warhammer plasma rifles available to the race of man and pulled the trigger.
The other five of Ultra squad peered over at the ground drones and unleashed their super-heated rounds downward.
Imagine herself glided out of her personal helicopter and engaged her defenses; Turned on the Z-Belt, went invisible, and became energy. That done, her thoughts turned away from defense and focused on her irritation at the robots. 'Boo-who. Robots. Not a juicy mind to play with to be found. Well, except for Supergirl. Hmmm, that WOULD be an interesting day! And daddy would be -so- proud. Meh. Maybe later.'
With that she focused on one of the tri-walker tanks. Using Telekinesis she idly tries to through it. Straight up. And let her good friend gravity do the rest.
If it weighs 800 lbs, 800 hvy load = str 25. 50 - 25 = 25. 25/5 = 5. 5 * 25 = 125 ft up.
Captain Robo arrives in a (literal) golden blaze of (high-speed) glory as he puts his hands together and fires off his disassembly ray at a tank-sized drone. The attack is accented by a sonic boom that seemed to catch up with him at just the right time.
Shadow Star blast vs Flier
The blast connects with the flier (these things need better names, don't we have a hero full of quips here?) but bounces off of its tough alien armor.
Patrick concrete vs Big Robot
Patrick's ball of mass slams into the massive construct, penetrating the force field and slamming into the robot's body (-1 Toughness gives Big Robot a tougness of +19).
Sinter follows up with a blast, which is absorbed by the force field. .
Air Drone Toughness saves
Ground Drone Tougness saves
The air drones seem to be pretty lightweight, basically big blasters and batteries mounted on engines. Five hits from Luthor plasma rifles send four of them spinning and spiraling into the grounds.
A flight of the air drones turns toward the new threat.
The ground drones are tougher, shrugging off all of the plasma blasts.
Captain Robo:
Everything but the really big robot is a minion, so all of the air/ground drones are destroyed if they fail a toughness save.
As Shudder arrives at the battle a voices echoes in his head.
+ How many will die this day you can't save them all +
With that he blast the giant robot
(DC 25)
The yellow energy slams into the robot's force field, which ripples and sparks as it absorbs the manifestation of Shudder's fear.
The group of drones shrouded in Shadow Star's darkness stop, hovering in the air effortlessly. Each of them emits a variety of lasers visible and invisible, along with tweets and shrieks rising through pitches rumbling up into a shrill whistle and beyond. Shadow Star feels a deep vibration and then is slammed with a burst of hard subsonic waves. His armor takes most of the blow, his natural toughness absorbing the rest.
The Giant Robot of Doom seems briefly confused by the additional opponents, now including The Shield, Sinter, Patrick, and Shudder.
The yellow glow of its mouth grows slightly brighter, and you wonder if that is the weapon that cut a hole in the Hall. Maybe it is recharging?
Meanwhile, flaps on the monster's back flip open, launching missiles the size of poster tubes at the four targets flying around it. The missiles zip by each of you, easily dodged, but as they fly away they begin turning as if returning to attack again...
Two Tri-Tanks move to respond to Captain Robo, apparently failing to see Imagine. Their mouths fire some sort of red energy weapon into the air, missing the captain completely.
The Shield flies toward the Giant Robot, fists outstretched, and the force field buckles slightly.
Supergirl pirouettes in the air, blasting a disc of heat vision around her and taking out 25 or so flying drones, several reciprocal blasts missing her.
Warhawk dives on a Tri-Tank, cracking its shell with his mace. As he flies away, the tank explodes in a powerful blast.
Edit:
Guarding the collapsed wall of the Hall, Nightingale slices a tank in half with a shout while Arrow shoots down fliers with explosive arrows.
Chaos reigns.
The Silver minivan maneuvered its way through traffic just a smidge above the speed limit, its driver frantically juggling a cellphone, the wheel and a much needed double shot Cappuccino.
"I'm serious Siobhan. Don't give him any dessert. He's still on parole for all the holes in the backyard."
The blonde driver winced slightly at the shrill voice on the other end and almost missed her exit towards the party supply store.
" I have no idea WHY he did it, but its the last time Bill shows ANY of the kids how to use his tools. "
The exasperated mother turned the volume down on the radio in an attempt to not only hear here sister better but also ignore yet another "Breaking News" regarding some super powered tussle. She bit her lip with jealousy over the freedom of her tight wearing counterpoints. She had far bigger issues to deal with, like a sleepover birthday for her fickle preteen son.
"No, it wasn't a shovel! It was a post hole digger. Why would you assume Bill Jr. didn't know how to use a shovel? I mean he's on a new generic medication for his A.D.H.-Hey, WATCH IT!" Some teenage Shi-er...Poophead just standing in the middle of the road!
Unfortunately, Debbie had been concentrating on one two many things and was nearly run off the road by a kid around Lilah's age, who appeared preoccupied with staring towards something on the horizon toward the inner ciry.. Debbie was thankful her eldest wasn't here to throw her many lectures back in her face.
"Yes I am fully aware of how silly I sound but you'd try to cut down too if one of yours called you the B-word. AGAIN. Sometimes I just-what?
No! I wasn't implying you need to have any kids! And I do NOT sound like Dad. Cheese and crackers. Look-I don't have time for this. I still need groceries for tonight, and I have to pick up sequins for Mary Beth's dragon costume. You can make her recital next week, right?"
Debbie was seconds from just cutting off her over talkative sister when a large dark blue shape flew into her line of sight. Her train of thought was lost as a four door sedan tumbled end over end through the air towards her. Before swerving out of the way she noted that the arc of the airborne vehicle suggested it had been launched from the direction that kid in the road, had been watching A massive splintering of glass followed the crunching metallic thud behind her as the automobile slammed into the pavement. She came to a screeching halt and took a moment to her self to hyperventilate over the nearly disastrous end to her day. Slowly looking behind her, she saw that no one had been in the car and it had thankfully hit nothing but the ground.
However, the incident had caused a small pileup of cars a couple yards on the road behind her. She was too far too see if anyone was injured. She quickly unbuckled her seatbelt and was halfway out of the car when her senses were assaulted by the mental message of the Martian Manhunter.
When it vanished as abruptly as it had came, she realized that she had landed on the ground, sprawled out in her coffee stained clothes, clutching her throat. After coughing and shaking off the jarring vision, Debbie took a minute to consider the pyschic heroes plea.
This. Is insane! I can't do something like this. I-I-I need to prepare for tonight and its laundry day and-and...They must be in some really deep shi-er-poop to need MY help.
Looking towards the city where the vehicle been catapulted, Debbie could almost make out the faint trails of smoke from the Halls of Justice. Despite her overwhelming apprehension, Debbie swallowed hard and pulled herself to her feet. Almost comically, she tore her socks and shoes off while balancing on one leg, before cracking her neck and shaking the tingling adrenaline from her fingers.
Confidence filled her as as the soles of her feet made contact with the ground and she couldn't help but smirk at the opportunity to let loose. Her fists balled suddenly and she launched forward toward the Halls of Justice a mix of nervous excitement spurring her onward.
The sound of her lightly calloused feet slapping the pavement shifted into heavy thuds then concrete cracking stomps as Debbie Cleaver began to grow. The ground shook with each landing of her pillar sized legs, a small earthquake of activity preceding her arrival. Higher and higher she ascended, dwarfing telephone poles, trees and even buildings finally arriving at her penultimate height of 64 feet. Pushing aside fears about her identity being discovered or whether her family was okay, Debbie launched into the city.
Debbie received her first glimpse of the melee from over the top of a five story bank building. She couldn't help but briefly watch in awe at not only the destruction,(which she had witnessed plenty of times from her living room flat screen) but also the sheer number of capes flying, running, and blasting their way through swarms of robots. She figured the only reason she hadn't been noticed by now was the warzone that was raging before her.Debbie's eyes widened at the sight of the colossal robot dominating the scene.
"Holy Moley..."
Despite the valiant efforts of The ShieldThat's actually HIM, a Yellow Lantern of all things and what appeared to be a vaguely human shaped sun, the giant droid's rampage appeared uncontrollable. As its Charybdis like maw appeared to light up and missiles poured from its frame, Debbie knew she had stop him. Or at least try.
You can do this. You can do this. You can do this.
A multitude of tremors preceded Debbie's emergence from behind a stretch of buildings as her stride picked up speed, her mental mantra keeping uncertainty at bay. Swinging with reckless abandon, Debbie surprised herself by actually leaping before smashing her pulled back fist into the mechanical menace and landed with an enormous crash.
Patrick blinks as an 130 foot tall woman appears out of nowhere.
At least she seems to be on our side. Though why is she dressed like a soccer mom? Lots of weird ones here.
I'll think about it later.
Patrick refocuses and tosses another super-hard concrete ball at the giant robot of doom.
Parts fly wildly as Captain Robo continues to disable the minor drones. His Evasive Maneuvers Programming kicks in at just the right time to dodge two tri-blasts, which manage to take down more drones.
Neil shifts his attention towards the giant robot, which is now surging with power.
"Focus on the Mech! Give it all you've got! It's prepping for another death beam!"
With that, he takes in ambient energy around him. A sudden bright flow of energy floods into his hands and a crackling orb of power forms in front of him. He pulls his arms back, swelling more energy into the purple and blue orb before sharply jutting them out. The orb, now a sharp beam travels towards the giant robot at baffling speeds.
The massive beam hits square on.
"Give 'em hell!"
"What the heck is that thing?!? My blasts melt everything!" he yells in a general comment.
He tries tossing the same blast as before at the same huge robot.
power attack 5
DC 32 toughness save.
Captain Robo stabs through the force field with his energy lance, leaving an opening for Sinter to get a blast in, melting a bit of its body.
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The Lex-Corp armored troops sweep their fire around as a flight of buzz-bots come down at them. Again the laser-sights of the rifles scan across at the swiftly flying targets as vanguard to the heat of a thousand suns that follow.
The flier bots are built for logistical support, not tactical superiority. The Lex-Sec guards are sniper-qualified to a man, and none of their shots fail to find a mark.
3 bots manage to stay in flight, shaking off the plasma rounds. But 7 of their brethren fall to the ground.
Imagine sighs. Destroying a mindless drone tank was fun, but -obviously- the party is with the big hunk-a-hunk-a robo over there. Hmmm. Oh, and is that Neil over there?! Well there is NO WAY he's gonna have all the fun!
She mind-finds a Buzzbot flying relatively close to the Big Robo, and reaches out to the flier.
Like the fist of an angry god, her mind wraps around the buzzbot and holds it firm.
Then she slings it forward like a bizarre stone from an unearthly trebuchet, aiming at the large robot.
The unnatural shot could hardly miss the cyclopean target. The air is rent with the sound of screeching metal-on-metal as the thrown buzzbutt strikes with a massive force.
The Big Robot teeters as the buzzbot crashes into it, taking a chunk out of it, leaving a gaping hole in the torso leaking yellow energy and sparks.
"Keep hammering it, I think it's going down!"
"Yeah, I seem to finally be getting through."
big robot power attack
Inspired by Supergirl's action and having lured a group of the Buzz-bots into getting close, Shadow Star hovered in the center of his field of darkness, focused for a moment, and then released a measure of his constant control over the connection between the Plane of Shadows and his physical presence.
"Let the remnants of these reivers fall like rain from the sky!" shouts Shadow Star, as the world momentarily dims around him.
I did it for you above. You should be in the second initiative group, but I haven't done a very good job communicating all of that and things are a little muddled.