"Its from Animal Farm an allegorical novella about Marxism in which the pigs represent Marx, Stalin.... I will explain later, lets focus on the task at hand."
Isaiah/Inquiry quickly realizes what was going on. The Alliance had suspected they were being observed, and set a trap for their opposition's likely response. Clever. It also meant that he shouldn't bother with stealth.
"Alright, if we're being watched already, then forget about being sneaky. Going to active scanning and moving out!"
Inquiry abandoned the pretense of being anything other than what it was, reverting to its default shape and sprouting clusters of sensors apparatus. After waiting a few moments for anyone who wanted to board, they took off and went to full active scanning as they headed for their assigned area, snagging any laggards with quick tendrils, but leaving anyone who was keeping up under their own power alone.
Psyche quietly fumed. She'd been so worried about what Gothic or Imagerie would think about her listening in that she hadn't noticed illusions that transparent!
Just because they're playing games doesn't mean we have to. Kid's gloves are off.
Her skin seemed to split open along strange glowing shapes as she soared through the sky, her mind rocketing out ahead in search of the Chosen. I don't care what Shard thinks he's planned for, he's not ready for me.
with Elemental Awareness
Praetoria was extremely confused as to what was going on. Seeing the others stop the whole “Keep it Quiet” game, she flew up into the air and started looking around at the area for any signs of someone watching the groups. But mostly she was just trying to figure out what was going on...
__________
Good play. Holly says, smiling
Okay, lets move. If the mongrels are taken up, we're against the chosen. We can take them. Prae, can you take flight out of the ship, be ready to deal with anyone who goes for us. Gallow, can you get near the door. if we find them, you're Offense and interference. I'll play defense, interference. Isaiah, can I trust you to adapt to the sitch or do you wan t a designation as well Her power generates shards, some surrounding the ship (avoiding sensors, as best she can) others hovering above or below
As the small van suddenly transforms into the unmistakably alien form of Inquir, and Psyche wreathes herself in glowing bands of power and launches herself into the air, Scorch is caught in a moment of indecision. "What? Wait? No, we should stick together!" Frantic, she looks between her remaining team-mates and Psyche, pausing for a moment "Ok." she shouts at Frostbite, Horizon and Tenfold "You stay together and keep scanning. I'll go with her. She might need back-up." before flames spring from her arms and she launches herself into the sky, swiftly gaining pace on the telepath.
"What the hell? What're you doing? We need to stay together!"
Frostbite's recollection of the psych profile of Dusk is fairly spot-on; the long-lived hero had put up with a lot of discrimination and injustice during his time as a hero in the '40s and '50s. He later began to champion the civil rights causes in the '60s, until his frustration with his inability to enact real change began his gradual radicalization.
Psyche powers up and stretches out her senses. She suddenly directs the team away from the initial spot where Horizon had indicated. Veering far away from the rail yard into a spot within the region originally assigned to the Alliance, the Nova angles the team straight into a massive fabrication factory.
Psyche rips a hole into the side of the massive structure, exposing lines upon lines of machinery. Huge conveyor belts run the length of the building and heavy equipment hangs from the ceiling in the dim light filtering into the grimy windows and skylights.
As the team spreads out to be alert for dangers, a voice echoes through the cavernous factory. "Uh- uh- uh, you've had your chance," the voice says. Suddenly, several massive spears lance up from the ground and down from the sky and skewers Tenfold in numerous different places. The horror of the moment is slightly lessened when the copy of Tenfold throws up an obscene gesture with one hand right before his body fades in a discordant sound.
"Such vulgarity! I can't imagine him being a very good example," the echoing voice says. Then, stepping out from a side wing of the factory, is a large man in an imposing cloak and cowl. Next to him is a glowing violet-hued woman.
"I think it's about time we talked," Shard says.
Inquiry comes up on the spot where the tracker had faded, which is incidentally close to where one of the gamma radiation spikes Horizon detected was.
Gallowglass and Bear hop from the alien spacecraft and immediately begin inspecting the area. The Australian Shepherd picks up a track almost immediately and begins following the weaving pattern until he finds a maintenance access point to the underground subway.
As Praetoria flies higher and tries to get a better view of the whole situation, Tenfold hops out and jogs up to where Gallowglass is working. Mosaic lays out a pattern of shields and stays alert.
Gallowglass moves along the ground, staying close to Bear whose nose is guiding him deep into a massive but empty warehouse. She turns the corner and finds Bear sniffing at a spot where there looks to have been the spot where someone discarded some bandages in exchange for new ones.
Having found the spot where Terrier most likely swapped out the bandages for her arrow wound, Gallowglass looks up and sees a figure moving out of the shadows. Bear manages to growl once before the large, beefy figure of Haymaker is upon them. With a smirk, he pulls back his fist and throws a punch.
Movement and action explode all around the group. The metal structure groans as it bends and contorts. Suddenly metal cables and twisted bits of machinery animate and reach out for Inquiry, latching on and pulling.
A blast of heat and flame jets out from an amphibian-looking person, crawling down one of the sides of the building, and strikes the solid light shields of Mosaic and putting her mental toughness to the test. The flames are only partially dissipated by the light as they streak toward Inquiry
Then Fossil strides out of hiding. He manages to grab the copy of Tenfold and squeeze. Though Tenfold manages to keep from being completely discorporated, the petrifying touch of the Chosen causes the duplicate to freeze up and collapse.
Praetoria spots the mayhem going on below, and a flanged mace of golden energy forms in her hands. She dives down and tries to interpose herself between Haymaker and Gallowglass. She lands with a thunderous boom, and turns to face the villain. ”Nuh uh uh. That’s enough of that!”
__________
He's perhaps a little annoyed by Psyche rushing off like this, following her and Scorch with Rory on the ground. How much he wished he could fly. Running was not nearly as fun as flying with Psyche.
When he got to the factory, he's a little unnerved by how Psyche tore a new entrance into the building instead of just opening up on of the doors inside. Still he enters, looking around for few moments, only to find himself surprised again when Tenfold is suddenly eviscerated, tore apart until his clone body dissappeared.
Then he saw them both. Shard, his future protégé, and Hoshiko, his future grand daughter. He really hoped that she was taking his words to heart, because he didn't want to fight her. Neither did Shard it seemed, so he thought to Psyche.
I'm going to stall him to talk. You work with Scorch and Frostbite and come up with a plan to take them down. He was expecting us, so don't try and go at him yet.
Horizon steps forward, looking at Shard. "You know, I've been here less than a month, and already I can tell that villains tend to be all the same as they were in my time. You've got your lackeys, with power but no imagination, and you've got your masterminds, with skill and leadership and a clear cause and goals they work towards. So it comes to a surprise that you're just another lackey. When you worked for me, and while you've been working with Apotheosis," He says, wanting to keep his attention on him.
Scorch follows Psyche into the building, sweeping past the psychic and landing on a steel structure's high above the floor where she lands, perched and watching the situation develop.
"You really want to talk to the man who just dismembered someone? He might not be dead, but they I he still felt it! You think Shard didn't know that?" Psyche's eyes blazed, but she listened to Shin's plan.
"Talk fast, monster, Ballista already knows how the rematch would end."
Shin might want to talk, Mattie was already thinking about plans, but Psyche wasn't going to let her team end up like Tenfold. Her mind began to seep into the surroundings, feeling for any telltale spikes of aggressive thoughts, or any unexpected quivers of metal.
She'd be ready.
Too late, Ness tries to dodge out of the way. Despite rolling with the blow she still takes a brutal punch to the chest.
Her head spins and she finds it hard to breathe--and then she sees Praetoria arrive.
Ness cringes realizing she's about to take a massive blow, when Praetoria lands between them.
"Sweet Amelia Earhart, am I--wheeze--glad you're here."
Falling back (and emboldened by Praetoria's presence) she tries to fire a flash arrow right into Haymaker's face.
Isaiah/Inquiry was being assaulted in two different ways; they needed to quickly decide which was more threatening. Ultimately, it was Salamander against which they could directly fight; the ferro-kineticist or something like that was hiding out of sight. Isaiah passed one Varia-Bolter to Inquiry, quickly slotting in a Cryobolt crystal.
A continuous, rapid-fire burst of ice bolts spewed forth from the weapon that now projected from Inquiry's hull, cooling the flames enough that the ship could withstand the heat easily, and barraging Salamander, albeit rather wildly due to the thrashings of the ship and latching metal.
Also, are we entering battle as a team? If so, Team levels should be recalculated.
Praetoria gripped her mystic mace in her hands as she eyeballed the situation. She can only see Haymaker and Fossil, though there is someone else obviously arounddoing something at Inquiry. But that’s come later. She already knew how big of a threat Fossil was.
”Listen. This is the end of the road for The Chosen. Just give up now and no one else will have to get hurt,” Praetoria says boldly to Haymaker. Turning her head slightly, she mumbles to Gallowglass ”Think you can do that trick to Fossil again?”
Scorch, as you compare your powers to the radiation generator of Ballista and the geokinetic of Shard, you estimate that Shard likely has the least resistances to your heat and fire. Ending it quickly either involves getting the two to back down peacefully, or drawing out the interaction until the Heralds can show up.
Psyche, you can feel the thrum of power through the structure. Shard has a particularly powerful and deadly ability, but it isn't as versatile as your general telekinesis. You're not sure if you can match him strength-for-strength, but at the moment, nothing aggressive is happening.
Shard bares his teeth in response to Horizon's mentioning of Apotheosis. "You know of him? Interesting." He steps forward, and Ballista moves a few steps as well, staying just behind him.
"You're young and so out of your element, Mr. Akebono. You never told me how much of an idealist you used to be." He tsks and shakes his head. His attitude shifts quickly and he gets deadly serious. "We've little time, I'm afraid, but I'd like to extend you the invitation that I extended to your colleague, Praetoria. Join us. I don't want to rule just because I grasp at power, but because nothing else will work for humanity. They have always exploited exceptional people, then resented them for their gifts. Well, I say, no more! We are exceptional, are we not? Then why not use these gifts for the betterment of all? And ignore the plebeian murmurings about fairness and equality? Because we all know that we are not all created equal."
Isaiah loads some cryo-bolts into his cannons and blasts at Salamander, drastically diminishing the heat being generated by the member of the Chosen
Then Inquiry is hit by a full magnetic pulse of considerable strength. A metal-clad woman floats down from the ceiling, brimming with power. Several chunks of metal orbit her form like electrons. "Leave froggy alone," she says menacingly.
Haymaker smacks aside the flare arrow casually. He grins at Praetoria. "Nah. I got some payback for your daddy, but seeing as how he's up and gone missing, you'll have to do."
Kayla, in the short time you've been Praetoria, you've taken some hits. You've been battered by a gigantic robot crab. You've even been turned to stone. So a guy called Haymaker shouldn't be that impressive.
And then you suddenly realize you're two factories over and seeing stars.
Mosaic, you try to interpose a shield against Fossil, who is striding purposefully toward Gallowglass. "I owe you, girl!" he shouts as he starts hammering against the solid light.
Then through one of the busted skylights, Airfoil flies in with his heavy machine guns blazing. The plumes of dust bursting up from the bullets striking the concrete floor race in the direction of Gallowglass.
What do you do???
"Auuuaannnggghhh!" Praetoria grunts as she takes the hit and goes flying through walls and rolling across the floor of an entirely different factory! She rises up onto her hands and knees, checking her jaw out of reflex more than any fear of being injured. It had been so long since she had had any actual visible signs of damage to herself that she stopped worrying about that long ago.
She turned her eyes back towards the fight, which was a clear path of busted equipment and holes in walls she had just made as she came crashing through them, and clenched her teeth as she dove towards it and flew directly back towards the villains! She is back on the scene in a matter of seconds, and immediately begins swinging her mace at Haymaker! However, her temper has gotten the better of her now, and her swings are not so practiced as they are wild. The villain is able to avoid the blows, while with every miss Praetoria is obliterating a machine or demolishing a chunk of the factory floor!
"We've gotta keep them talking so the Herald's have time to get here" Scorch sends to her team-mates through the psychic link created by Psyche. "We need to argue with him,... don't just say no. Make it seem like you're considering it."
Out loud she speaks up from her position in the rafters. "The betterment of all? Is that what really what you're trying to sell? Seems strange then that you always seem to end up hurting people! How will you being in charge help anyone?"
Isaiah/Inquiry reeled as they were struck by the EMP. Isaiah was hardened against such attacks in order to blend in; it would be a dead giveaway if the 'human' were to suddenly keel over in the face of interference. And Inquiry's critical systems, particularly its AI core, communications systems, and basic cohesion maintenance runeware, were similarly hardened against such assault. But exposed devices were not so lucky; it would take time for the vessel to get to full operational status again... though it would be more careful to shield itself against this foe in the future.
For now, the ship lurched in the air as its drives abruptly went to 10% output, and ceased its assault for a time. But it was recovering, engines slowly coming back, useless sensory apparatus gradually retracting to be rebuilt. Isaiah would have to handle things on his own for now. But he still had his other bolter, and a few ideas.
"I'm going to see about dealing with rock-face over there. Try to hold off the others, maybe knock one down if you can. Magnetism won't do any good against your force-shards, I bet. Hopefully Salamander will need a moment to reheat."
Isaiah lept from Inquiry, and launched himself toward Fossil; he would have to see how well the petrifier's powers worked on him, but the fact that the metal floor here wasn't turning to stone seemed to bode well for his chances. Getting punched would probably hurt, but he likely wouldn't petrify. He slid a mining beam crystal into his other bolter. Usually not really a weapon, but against a foe made out of stone...
Unfortunately, he nearly fumbled the crystal. He caught it and popped it in properly, but not in time to do any good. Instead Isaiah merely landed in between Fossil and Gallowglass, willing to put his nanoweaver-armored body on the line to protect his more fragile teammate.
"Flyboy incoming from your rear Gallowglass. See if you can shut down his engines or guns if you can. I'll handle rocky here."
Oh, Haymaker and Salamander and Airfoil and Fossil... crud. Gonna have to do something, but what, kepe the shield up between fossil and Gallow... The Brute might actually kill her. but... do i target Salamander while he's weakened, or go for Airfoil... Target Haymaker because he's the strongest physically
"...That's it? That's your big pitch for us to join you? 'We are better than anyone else, so we should rule?' By whose metric do you measure yourself worthy of being anything but a construction worker with your powers?" Shin bluntly throws back Shard's words.
"Or maybe this the 'might makes right' argument, yeah? Your power lets you wield it as a weapon, so obviously you have the biggest stick - no, wait, hold on, if that's true, then why haven't you beaten the Heralds and the Alliance yet? Right...because you're actually so weak that you couldn't beat me as I am now, let alone when I was mentoring you."
He gestures wide, getting his full attention on him. "You can pretend all you want, Shard, but the truth is that you've got an inferiority complex that compels you to try and prove that you're right even when it's obvious you've got it dead wrong. You've obviously got zero plans of how you would actually manage even this city if you were allowed to rule over it! Tell me I'm wrong, tell me who gets to manage the civil service, or logistics for food or producton of economic growth. All you've gathered to your cause and people who can't see that you'd burn your empire to the ground before the first year was out! You're a thug pretending to be an emperor. At least Dusk has a noble cause, even if his methods were twisted."
Shin's thoughts reach out to Psyche. He'll come after me first. Let him. I need you to link his mind with Hoshiko and let her know what he really thinks, without letting him realize it.
"Fine. But I'm not letting him take you. Any of you."
Don't need to break down his mental walls, just need to set up a sort of aqueduct. Easy does it.... Easy does it...
Frostbite picks up a chair and dusts it off, then flips it around sitting down backwards on it. "Oh boy, more talking that will likely leave us with more questions than answers. But since we're talking, what was it like being this dudes stundent,'cause I can't imagine how awful that would be."
Shard takes the bait, and continues to talk. "Okay, maybe the betterment of all is more ambitious than truly feasible. But the idea is sound."
His eyes bore into Horizon's. "Your older self had to endure nearly a century of the worst that humankind could offer. Have you started researching what you've missed? What you'll see firsthand eventually, if you follow your destiny? He taught me -- you taught me that equality is a myth, and the powerful have no interest in helping others.
"But where you and I differ, is what to do about it. All Dusk is interested in is making the powerful suffer for their hubris. I, however, know that the reality is this: we are the new powerful. The powerful have always ruled. Now it is our turn."
Psyche, you feel confident that Ballista is getting a good read of Shard's thoughts right now.
Frostbite, you're sure he's got something up his sleeve. It's obvious that he's hoping to persuade one or more of you to join him, but you're reasonably sure he's also got another objective that he's not sharing.
He reaches out a hand. "Let's create a new world. A benevolent dictatorship, ruled by the ones best suited to. I can destroy, sure. But there are Chosen who can create. Who can persuade. Who can lead. My job is to tear down the old. You, all of you, can create the new. And make it better than it's ever been. Sure, you'll be called villains for a while, by those who fear change. Are you so worried about what the old generations think, that you'll keep the old broken system intact? Really?"
Holly, you estimate that your shards can affect Airfoil the most, both by shielding people from his guns and forcing him to dodge and weave by throwing shields into his way.
Fossil's attention is drawn to Isaiah who drops in between him and Gallowglass. The rocky being looks amused at the plain-looking kid who wants to risk getting turned to stone. "Okay, you think your tough? Let's go." He reaches out and grapples Isaiah, trying to engage his ossifying touch.
Isaiah, your internal sensors detect a strange effect trying to encroach upon your artificial tissues. Not being composed of flesh, you know you're not at danger of becoming stone, but there's still a calcifying effect that internal repair systems are fighting.
Gallowglass dives out of the way as the bullets blaze away from Airfoil's guns, but she lands hard on the concrete floor.
Haymaker's trained fighting style has him bobbing and weaving while Praetoria causes collateral damage. He grins defiantly. "Come on, Praetoria! I thought your daddy would have trained you at least a little bit! I guess he was too busy being a hero to be bothered with his little girl, is that it?"
Mosaic, a huge chunk of metal suddenly peels off of a nearby machine and flies at you! It wraps around your head like a scarf, completely blinding you! You hear the voice of Attraction as she twists the metal tighter around you. "Don't struggle, little starlet. You wouldn't want me to mess up that pretty face, now, would you?"
Praetoria pauses briefly before turning her eyes to Haymaker. She clenches her teeth, and her blue eyes glaze over and begin to glow with golden energy as she growls ”Don’t you DARE talk about them ever again!” as she talks, the mace changes to a pair of smaller fighting batons.
She launches into a series of quick, powerful, but precise strikes against the villain! Each one impacting with a heavy thud into the man’s ribs, back, and arms. Intermingled with the weapon strikes are thunderous martial arts kicks aimed at the larger man’s joints, paired with some aerial maneuvers that keeps him off balance!
"You know, he makes some good points, even if he does look like cowled trash can..."
Seeing the trail of bullets racing toward her, Gallowglass dives over some rubble. Mid leap, she takes a shot back up at Airflow, attempting to jam up his guns with a glue arrow.
She hits the concrete hard, but her parkour instincts kick in, and she manages to roll outside.
The first thing she sees out there is Fossil coming at Isaiah. Immediately, she remembers the horror of Praetoria being turned to stone. I don't really know what he can do to Isaiah...but I sure don't want to find out!
With Bear barking loudly to get Fossil to look her way, she fires another glue arrow at him, hoping to again blind him--or at least distract him long enough for Isaiah to break loose.
Helping a friend is enough to give her a measure of peace from the guilt she still feels about hurting Terrier.
Holly goes to maneuver shards to stop airfoil, when The metal wraps around her face. holly panics more than a little, she hasn't ever liked being unable to see, and strangulation is also on her list of rational fears.
She lashes out, her shards going toward where she last saw Attraction, spread out enough, and coming from enough directions that She was unlikely to escape, the sharp points forward, enough to scratch and cut.
"I don't like this, he's stalling too."
"You're right, we do have the power and the right to make this world better. And I've got a pretty good idea of where to start!"
A part of Psyche really wanted to just go toe to toe with Shard, pit her full strength against his. If her team weren't there maybe she would have just nestled herself in an impenetrable cocoon and torn the world apart. It was Shard after all, no one could really blame her for not holding back.
Instead, she split her focus. Psyche followed the flows of her thoughts up with a thin layer of force; she'd feel anything he tore free, and she'd be able to harden a forcefield around it. Even if he really was stronger, she'd be able to slow him to uselessness. Meanwhile, Psyche sent the rest of her mind smashing into his. A towering ego could be very difficult to batter through, but undermining his confidence like a team of sappers could send the whole hubristic edifice toppling down.
"Psyche! What are you doing? OK then, I guess we're doing this!" Scorch mentally yells as the psychic launches her attack. Pausing for just a moment, she dives from the metal structure towards their two opponents, flame leaping from her hands and enveloping Shard. Balanced atop the jets of flame, Scorch circles in the air above, out of reach. "Everyone, focus on Shard - we need to end this fast!"
Shin's face was passive during Shard's turn to speak, to give his plan more detail and definition. The more he heard, the further he felt that cold fury. One that had been sparked last night reading and seeing the horrors that dictatorships enacted on the world before.
"You're contradicting yourself, Shard. 'The powerful have no interest in helping others', 'We are the new powerful'. Straight from the mouths of dictators. Your plans just perpetuate a cycle of violence and war. One I saw start in my time. One I've just learned about how it ended." He curled up his bandaged hands into fists, looking at Hoshiko. She'd been so quiet during this exchange. Could he possibly save her from Shard's influence?
He started speak again, when Psyche cut through with her link and he realized she was about to jump the gun. Not yet! Not before I reach her! Pressed for time now, he leapt to his gambit, turning to his granddaughter.
"What do you want, Hoshiko?" He addresses her, putting the spotlight on her now. "Because I believe that you just want to be accepted by someone for who you are. Not the Granddaughter of Dusk, or a member of the Chosen, but Hoshiko Akebono, who can be someone to be trusted! I trust that you can see who here is in the right! Please, do the right thing!"
"Oh we're going now..."
Frostbite jumps from his seated position kicking the chair sending it flying at Shard and follows it with a sliding leg scissors which upends this foe, unfortunately Frostbite could get back to a defensive stance.
As Frostbite slides in, Scorch changes the angle of her jets of fire so that her brother isn't caught in the flames, flying backwards to put some distance between their opponent and ready for her next attack.
Isaiah was briefly struggling against Fossil's petrifying powers, but Gallowglass' distraction gave him the opportunity to break free with a midair twist that would have broken a normal human's arm. His 'flesh' quickly reverted to its normal state, transmutative qualities well able to handle such a task with the source of the effect broken.
"I'm pretty tough, I recover fast, and I've got friends who've seen how to deal with you."
Free of Fossil's grasp, Isaiah has a moment to prepare and aim. He didn't really want to kill... but Fossil had shown no such compunctions, and would be hard to stop without at least severely injuring him. He aimed for the stony brute's legs, hoping to hobble.
"Oh, and one more thing; I've got some weaponized mining equipment. Great for breaking rocks, you know." Isaiah squeezed the trigger. A barely-visible beam lanced out... or at least it was barely visible right up until it struck Fossil and started rapidly siphoning off stone from him, pulverized rock flowing back to the bolter in a steady stream, before flying out the back of the adapted weapon in a trio of streams; for normal mining purposes these would normally be hooked up to collection tubes, but for right now were simply being vented.
Inquiry, meanwhile, was finishing its reboot process. The vessel once again hovered smoothly, and its hull no longer looked on the verge of dripping. Tendrils began to bud, and it re-hardened its armor. Very soon the vessel would be ready to return to the fray, and it was ready for EMP attacks now. It could not truly negate its weakness against such, but it would be prepared to recover faster next time.
The attack is furious, and it is all Shard can do to keep himself from being obliterated. Psyche's power keeps most of his his geokinesis at bay, and only a small segment of the concrete floor is converted into shrapnel and fragments for offense and defense. Scorch's fire blast engulfs him as Frostbite's attack takes his legs out from under him. He rolls, a few paltry spears of metal from a machine he rends manage to keep the fire deflected enough from cooking him. He flings some glowing hot scrap back, trying to gain some distance, though Psyche's shield deflects and Scorch weaves around the shrapnel going toward them. Frostbite, however, gets some of those red-hot shards right at him.
Ballista stares wide-eyed at the brutal assault on Shard and steps back. Her head whips between her leader and her time-displaced grandfather. "I don't know! There is no right or wrong! Is there? Ojiisan, if you could change reality, what would you do?"
Shard pushes himself up, looking the worse for wear, and glaring at Ballista. "You're letting the cat out of the bag, my dear!"
"I don't care! Changing reality? That's too much!" she shouts at Shard.
"Apotheosis will achieve it, and then we're either on the design committee or not. Stay here and be swept away with the others, if you like." He taps the side of his cowl as massive spears of concrete and metal surround him. "Trapdoor, it's time."
Gallowglass's glue arrow goes off perfectly and jams up the machine guns on Airfoils back. "Hey! Oh, you're going to pay for that!" He loops around and flies overhead, dropping a grenade. It bounces on the ground and rolls toward her.
Praetoria funnels her rage kindled by Haymaker's taunts into a renewed combat prowess. She pummels him with an array of attacks that forces him to his knees. "Okay okay okay! I'm sorry, geez!" he shouts.
Mosaic blindly fills the air with her shards of light, angling in every direction. She hears a pained shout as she senses her light strike something solid. But then the metal surrounding her head is yanked off to the side and her whole body is slammed hard against something solid.
That something solid is Praetoria. Outside the woman in the iron mask's perception, Attraction reels from the light show, but holds it enough together to throw Mosaic at the Legacy's back while she's distracted with beating on Haymaker. The strongman takes advantage of the distraction to slip away from Praetoria's assault.
Fossil's grip on Isaiah is lost as he overreacts to the glue arrow. He spins at the last second and though some of the glue gets on him, he's able to keep it from his face this time. He recovers his stance, only to get blasted by Isaiah's mining tool. He screams in pain as his stony protection becomes a liability.
Suddenly, a wave of heat melts Isaiah's weapon to slag, and does a fair bit of damage to the external casing of his arm as well. Salamander steps forward, heat shimmering off his body in waves. "And I've got the heat-- great for melting aliens into puddles of goo."
Holly shakes herself, still unable to see, but with a decent idea of where everyone is... or was.
then Salamander talks, in his gravelly, creepy voice. something about melting aliens... not on her watch. she puts barriers around Salamander, not a cage, she'd need to see for that, but hopefully something to deny him a clear shot.
Praetoria wheels around to see what hit her, and quickly steadies Mosaic as best she can. She glances back to see Haymaker running off, and mutters ”Damnit,” under her breath. ”Hang on right here, Mosaic!” she adds before launching into the air at Attraction! On the way, the batons in her hands shift into a pair of brass knuckles, and Praetoria proceeds to deliver a series of blows, to the side of her head and then to her ribs.
She slaps away any bands of metal the villainess uses to try and thwart her attack, maneuvers herself to grab the other woman’s hair behind her head. She brings her knee up quickly while pulling her head down, delivering a heavy blow to the woman’s forehead! She then grabs her and slings her to the floor of the factory, sending the villainess rolling across the ground near her teammates on the floor so they can strike out at her as well!
__________
Trapdoor? No!
A clattering noise sounded throughout the room as the multitude of metal implements that Psyche had kept still began to groan and shake from the ferocity of their battle.
If Shin's right, and this Apotheosis thing is serious, I can't let him get away. Can't hold back. Can't play it safe.
She stopped pushing back against Shard's powers; she stopped trying to carefully undermine his mental defenses. The looming tower of his ego filled her mind's eye. And she smashed right into it.
Frostbite blocks the shrapnel with forearms, the glowing metal hisses as it collides with his frigid skin then clangs to the ground. Rolling back to his feet, "You ain't going nowhere!"
Frostbite take a few quick steps and launches himself at Shard.
"SCORCH NOW!" Scorch blasts away Shard's protective shell allowing Frostbite to land a knee to Shard's chest driving him to the floor.
Changing reality. It's something that seems absurd considering what they'd stolen only yesterday that they could achieve such a godlike task. The others were dedicating themselves towards taking Shard down right now, preventing him from accomplishing his goals. He'd shown his true feelings about Hoshiko to her as well, the spell he had on her weakened if not broken. She didn't want to be complicit in his plans. So for that part, it was a success.
Then Shard called out for Trapdoor and alarm bells rang out in his head.
Save Psyche.
BRACE YOURSELF! THEY'RE COMING FOR YOU! He practically screamed at her from the link, mind whirling over what he knew about Trapdoor. He could open up portals people could walk through drop down in midair. But he obviously needed someway to know where those people were. So there was one way to keep Psyche from getting caught and flying into one of them.
He pulled in all the radiant energy he could, all the infrared heat and light and ionizing radiation. Power at his fingertips that he could understand beyond their scientific terms.
And then he hurled it all at Psyche. Controlling it to envelop her in a vantablack cocoon of deadly radiation, just wide enough that she could move - but for her and for anything that would try to get her, they'd suffer some severe burns attempting to penetrate it. He's amazed that he's able to push his control this far.
But he's desperate. Because this has to be the last time. He told himself that.
"I've changed reality, changed time, just by ending up here, Hoshiko! There's no magic fix to solve all the world's problems - all you'll make is one with a whole new set of problems for other people! We have to accept our reality, and solve our problems without resorting to shortcuts or resetting the board!" He shouts over the din of his power, one hand maintaining Psyche's protective cocoon. The other is vantablack itself, ready to blast at any portal that opened up in sight.
At Frostbite's words, Scorch lets her flames die for a moment and drops to the floor, reigniting them as she lands and directing them at Shard, focusing her anger that their foe might get away into a sudden, short blast directed into his face and which blinds him just as Frostbite launches himself forward.
Isaiah took a moment to notice the state of his weapon and arm. Well, that was inconvenient. Arm functionality wasn't impaired, but a close look right now would be more revealing of his nature than he really wanted these folks to know, and he was unarmed against Salamander. His eavesdropping on the other team's communicators also let him know that something serious was going down over there. Something involving Apotheosis. They didn't have time to play around. But it was better not to let them know he knew.
And then Airfoil's grenade clinked against the ground nearby. Maybe he wasn't unarmed after all...
"Not bad. If you lot weren't a bunch of small-time murderous thugs, I could tell you a few actually useful applications for that kind of heat. As it is, I think some rain might help you cool off."
Isaiah suddenly launched himself at the grenade, rolled, slapped a hydro-transmuter patch on it, and lobbed it at Salamander. Hopefully they were too busy to notice his other arm struck sparks off the floor as the metal sub-structure scraped against the concrete.
Inquiry, meanwhile, used the fuss as cover for its abrupt departure, as the ship streaked through the air towards Psyche's beacon-like psychic signature. Hopefully it could arrive in time to help.
Gallowglass's eyes go wide as Airfoil's grenade comes rolling toward her. She sighs visibly when Isaiah intercepts it...and looks around to consider how she can best help.
Realizing Praetoria has got Attraction off guard--and not wanting to let it go to waste--she shoots a concussion arrow, aiming right for her back as she rolls to a stop on the floor.
Psyche unleashes a full psychic attack, eschewing all defense for a brutal offense. Shard's will is strong, however, and his own strength forms a reflexive counterattack against the barrage.
As that is going on, Scorch and Frostbite team up to send Rory as an icy battering ram through the physical defensive cage Shard had erected around himself. Rory slams hard into the Chosen leader, sending him crashing through the remains of the factory. The two come to a stop fifteen feet away, chunks of ice, concrete and twisted steel encasing Shard.
As Horizon predicted, a wide circle of dimensional energy opens up beneath Psyche. Shin's energy cocoon envelops the Nova and disrupts the teleportation circle. Shard, woozy but still conscious, sees his plan being thwarted. "NOOO! How could you have known! Do you know what this means?!?"
Then, the wide circle explodes outward in a massive show of light and force. When it subsides, Shard is unconscious and the factory is quiet except for the groaning stress of the structure and the distant sounds of superhuman combat elsewhere in Rustside.
Mosaic's struggles with the metal around her head only get worse as Attraction uses it to toss her around. She doesn't give up, however, and tries to lend her powers blindly to protecting Isaiah, but her light shields end up in an unhelpful place.
Her situation seems to improve as she's grabbed and flown into the air, but it turns out not to be Praetoria, but Airfoil! He tells her, "Don't struggle; I'll only keep you for a hostage as long as necessary." Airfoil then angles his flight toward the hole in the ceiling ripped by Attraction.
Praetoria, meanwhile, put her considerable strength into tossing about the aforementioned Chosen, flinging the metal-clad magnetic controller to the ground after a brutal pummeling. If it weren't for the metal coating Attraction, no doubt she'd be down for the count.
However, Attraction manages to keep enough of a defense that she's not entirely out of the fight. She screams in defiance and her magnetic powers spike. The steel rebar of the concrete below her rips upward from the ground just as the entirety of the steel structure around everyone buckles and breaks.
Isaiah uses his magitech gizmo to convert the grenade and toss it at Salamander, who dives away from the grenade out of reflex. When it goes off and sends a cascade of liquid water, however, it hits the amphibian's heat aura and is immediately converted to steam. The cloud rolls out and through the factory battlefield, making Salamander impossible to see.
Gallowglass's arrow explodes against Attraction's back, but her metal coating again protects her from the worst of the effect. She shakes her head and begins to rise back up into the air through her powers, even as the structure itself begins to collapse and chunks of debris begin to fall. Seeing that the other members of her team were removing themselves from the fight, Attraction gestures and the building's roof and walls immediately come crashing down on the team!
What do you do??
”Mosaic!” Praetoria cries out when she sees Airfoil attempt to abduct her friend. She immediately surges after them! She is to them in a flash, slowing just enough to grab Mosaic away and turn her away from the villains. She quickly looks for Inquiry and yells out ”Isaiah! Get them to safety!” as she tosses Mosaic to a nearby catwalk.
Unfortunately, the time it takes to do so safely leaves her surrounded by Airfoil and Attraction at the very least, and more focused on protecting her friend than herself at the moment...
__________
He'd been right about Shard's intentions. He'd somehow managed to get Ballista to if not totally switch sides then not help Shard with his plans. The explosion from the sudden teleportation circle disrupted him enough to make his cocoon around Psyche dissolve into heat and light (And possibly giving her enough UV to temporarily tan her) as he switched focus. Now that things here were foiled, he became very aware that there was probably another battle going on with the other half of the team.
"Scorch, Psyche, sounds like they need help. You can get there faster than us, we'll clean up here," He says, looking over at Hoshiko. He's not worried that she's going to take Shard to safety. He thinks that he's finally gotten through to her. "Frostbite, make sure Shard won't go anywhere soon," He tells the ice user as he grabs his communicator and speaks up.
"Heralds, Shard is down and KOed. Ballista is no longer a threat. We need back up right away, others appear to be engaging the rest of the Chosen," He said as he looked at Psyche and felt triumph. He'd saved her, protected her from whatever was being planned.
Because of Dusk.
Dusk knew the future. Dusk had known to send his past to see his future and prevent a bad outcome here. It irked him and scared him to think of that. But he had to focus on the present. One which involved Hoshiko, floating in her violet energy. He stepped over to her.
"I wish I had more time to tell you how glad I am you decided to step back," He praises her. "But the rest of my friends are in trouble and we have to help them. I understand if you don't want to fight them, but I don't want anyone else to end up seriously hurt today," He tells her.
As the dust settles, Scorch lifts into the air. "You three stay here and make sure Shard doesn't get picked up by anyone - we need to take him in. I'm the fastest so I'll see if I can't help the others but we need to make sure neither of these two gets away!"
With that, the jest emanating from her hands raise in intensity and she disappears through a hole in the building's roof, streaking towards the other team's position. Over the com-link she messages them. "Hold on Mosaic, I'm on my way."