With the cannon fodder taken out, Captain Connor moves through the massive doors and into the fray. He keeps his shield in a defensive position and fires the hacking bullets at the Sentinel that netted Sentry.
The Sentinel makes a few odd head movements as it fights off the intrusion, but its programming maintains control.
The standard issue Sentinel extends its hands (still hovering about 30 feet off the ground) and blasts The Sentry with repulsor blasts.
The advanced Sentinel's head swivels quickly to Captain Connor's entry onto the battlefield. JOHN CONNOR IDENTIFIED, ALTERING MISSION PARAMETERS. TERMINATE JOHN CONNOR.
The giant nanotech skinned robot charges at the star spangled soldier, its left arm sharpening into a long pointed blade, its right hand flaring with a fiery nimbus.
Connor catches the blade on his shield, but the force of the blow drops him to one knee, the shield held over him, the blade pushing down.
As the Sentry struggles with the net like a cat wearing a shoes, the repulsar blasts catch the Sentry in a tender spot. But, he grows completely still when the giant nanotech skinned robot identifies John Connor and charges.
While entangled, the Sentry flies between the robot and Captain Connor to take the blade, which deflects against his chest slicing through the net. He floats into a standing position between the robot and the captain looking menacingly at the robot. "Not today, robot."
Ted tries to help John Connor by fires twice at the Sentinel that is trying to terminate him.
BB Gun Attack
Techno Hack
BB Gun Attack
Techno Hack
Maggie squints, trying to assess the Advanced Sentinel's capabilities a little better.
As she observes the mechanical monster, she pulls the paper "strings" on her hands to control the giant.
The paper giant's arms grow as its claw-like appendages reach for the Advanced Sentinel. The giant is unlikely to be a lengthy match for the sentinel, but the point is to give it something to divide its attention.
Those who are paying attention to Captain Connor might sense something shift in his fighting stance as Sentry intercepts the attack the would otherwise have smashed him to the cracked earth. The grizzled super soldier shifts away from where The Sentry is engaged. He throws the striped shield.
The shield slams into both remaining Sentinel's and then back to the Captain's arm.
The Advanced Sentinel's outer layer shifts and roils. It's arms extend outward in an attempt to grasp The Sentry.
The Sentinel's extended arms wrap around The Sentry like the massive coils of an anaconda. Then the murderous robot fires its boot jets, launching it and The Sentry 7 miles into toward space.
The less advanced Sentinel launches a repulsor blast at the Paper Giant.
The Sentry is a bit surprised when the advanced sentinel rockets them to an altitude of over 35,000 feet. He tries to get a grip around the robot's neck and rip it off.
Ted will scan the battlefield and look for another target to attack with his "shoot and reboot" bullet.
Paper making up half of the giant's body scorches and flakes away before it collapses. Bits of paper float through the air on the breeze amid ash and smoke.
Maggie gasps as the advanced sentinel takes off with Sentry like a rocket, but she figures if anyone can handle the thing, a Superman clone can.
She keeps eyes on Ted as she promised, ready to protect him as he continues to test his tech.
Sentry grabs at the Sentinel, but finds that its shifting outer covering shrugs off damage and his grasp...
Maggie draws more paper from her reserves and brings up the giant snake.
The giant snake barrels into the ground and pops up through a hole next to the normal sentinel. It arcs over and tries to engulf the robot's head with its giant paper fangs.
Ted will fire his BB Gun at the sentinel that is attacking the paper golem.
BB Gun Attack
Tech Hack
The giant Sentinel seizes up as Ted's shoot and reboot bullets. It crashes to the ground. Not controlled, but clearly its programming is in a big conflict.
Far above, above the heavy grey clouds that hang over everything, the sun glints on the shiny surface of the Advanced Sentinel as it wrestles with The Sentry.
The Sentry grasps at the robot's neck, but the neck bends and flows around his hands.
The Sentinel's skin ripples again, and it backs away from Sentry. It extends its hands. Moisture from the atmosphere crystalizes around Sentry, blasting him with extreme cold.
New round.
The Sentry grabs at the Advanced Sentinel sacrificing power for accuracy, but still cannot get a hold of it.
If the Sentinel grabs the Sentry again, he would continue to fly to orbit.
The Advanced Sentinel's outer skin ripples again, and it takes on a new form. It's skin begins to glow fiercely as it projects solar radiation at The Sentry.
On the ground, Captain Connor runs to the downed Sentinel and fires again with his pistol. The bullets hit easily, but whatever protections the robot has against being hacked hold strong.
The Sentry bathes in the solar radiation and fails to not show on his face how wonderful it feels. When the display is finished, he cocks his head at the advanced sentinel wondering why it would choose to do that.
Then, he reaches out to grab it. His hand digging into the rippling metal skin. With a grip of the robot, he flies thirty miles further into orbit.
Sentry sinks his hands into the almost liquid shell of the Sentinel, grabbing at its endoskeleton. Boosted by the tactical mistake of bathing him in solar radiation, he accelerates toward the center of the solar system, releasing the robot at sufficient velocity that he thinks it will not be able to correct its fall into the sun.
The Sentry bathes in the delicious, unfiltered sunlight from the closer distance after releasing the robot on its trajectory toward the sun for a half second, before turning around and returning to his new companions at almost top speed. He does slow down a bit before making a hero landing near them, in order to minimize environmental and collateral damage.
"Should I look for Sentry?" Maggie asks the others.
Cap tries to make eye contact with each of you, checking to see how you are handling the emotions of the fight. "Sentry seems like he is tough enough to hand himself. Let's just give him a moment to get back to us. As for this thing, how do we want to finish it? Do we have the data we need, Blue Beetle?"
Ted helps John and fires again at the sentinel trying to override its programming and add it to their growing collection.
BB Gun Attack
Tech Hack
Ted fires his bullets again, watching with his goggles as the nanites attempt to manipulate the complex computer core that controls this murderous robot. In the augmented reality of the goggles, the Sentinel is outlined in red, labeled as an enemy target. The red outline shifts and flickers between red and green as it comes under your control.
Then the Sentinel speaks: COMMAND CENTERS COMPROMISED. INITIATE INTRUSION DENIAL. INITIATE SELF DESTRUCT.
There is a hissing noise as the Sentinel's shoulders and hips expel jets of steam. Then a mechanical pop as the four limbs detach from the torso.
At the same time, there is a whine from the torso as its micro-nuclear power cell goes critical.
Maggie inhales sharply as the robot separates, and she intuits the meaning of the whine. She reflexively directs the giant snake to leap toward it and engulf the torso and then, carrying the torso, reenter the hole it popped out of, and then burrow down as far as it can go into the earth in hopes the ground can absorb the bulk of the explosion.
Ted responds with a surprise and says "Yes. We have our data." He looks at how the Sentinel responded to his reboot and shoot bullets and has a pretty good idea of what needs to happen in Version 2.
Maggie's paper snake (dragon?) pulls the torso deep into the ground before it explodes, sending dirt flying skyward and leaving a smoking crater behind.
Ted will suggest that they head back to the Bug, and he will command the Sentinels under his control to follow. He has an idea on what to do with them.
Maggie tries to collect as much spare paper as she can as they prepare to leave.
The Sentry approaches the group and asks, "how did the plan work?"
If asked about the advanced sentinel who attacked him, he nonchalantly replies, "I threw him into the sun."
"I'm glad you're okay," Maggie says to Sentry, because even invulnerable demigods need someone to worry about them.
Connor sling his shield onto his back and nods. "Good work. Let's get out of here before reinforcements show up."
He moves toward The Bug.
From there, you make your way with two cyborgs and some Sentinel appendages back to the Mountain installation.
You fly through the holographic illusion concealing the hangar, finding Abner waiting for you.
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MEANWHILE
Herakles realizes that this is no adventure, but a Labor more challenging than any other he has faced. Years ago, he put down his weapons and tools, for the adventures he was having did not require them. He was at peace with Hera, Ares had been banished at the end of what they were calling World War 2, and things were well in his massive and massively strong hands.
He turns to Jason, "Take me to the Temple of Herakles in Agrigento, I must needs retrieve some treasures that I left there. Mayhap they might exist in this world."
Jason searches within, connecting with the Power of Hermes, the messenger of the gods. He infuses himself and Herakles with the speed of Hermes, and the two of them seem to vanish, only to reappear on a dry plateau in Italy.
In Herakles memory, there were 7 Greek style temples here, all in different levels of ruin. Columns, Pediments, Meanders, platforms. What he finds here is that everything has been toppled by a massive blast. The crepidoma, the three stepped platform upon which his own temple was built, has melted and fused into a single stone block. In this place and time, it has been 70 years and a worldwide nuclear war since he placed his accoutrement beneath the temple. Grim faced, Herakles shakes off his fury. He shakes his massive arms, spits in each hand and presses his hands together. He walks solemnly to the steps of the temple and places his calloused hands against the center step. The platform is 200 feet long and 75 feet wide. Tons upon tons of stone. Herakles grunts and digs his feet into the blasted ground. For a moment, all is still as he presses against the stone. And then...it begins to move. Stone grates on stone as the entire temple is shifted. Herakles pushes the stone corpse of the temple. What remains of its columns tumble and roll away as the massive stone platform shifts and slides away, revealing a small stone chamber in which are housed the panoply of Herakles. Rattles, a club, etc.
Seeing the destruction, Jason is disturbed. The young hero has never seen devastation quite like this. Using the speed of Hermes, he runs across the Mediterranean, what the Greeks called simply "he thalassa," the sea, to where Themyscira should be. He finds an island, and ancient ruins, but no one has lived here for at least 700 years. There are skeletons of Amazon warriors, the rusted remains of swords and shields preserved by the relative dryness of the climate, but nothing that he really recognizes.
Further disquieted by these differences from what he expects, Jason reaches into his unexplored power and shifts himself to where he expects Olympus to be. The home of the Greek gods should be resplendent. Clouds, 12 marble thrones, and columns, cups of ambrosia, a model of Earth in all of its complexities that the gods can manipulate and interact with. Pegasi circling above.
He finds only a smoking devastation. The clouds are turned to thick black smoke that smells of chemicals and glows with strange radiation. The thrones are lumps of slag. The columns toppled and melted into nightmare shapes. The model of Earth is dark, a simple pit filled with char and ash.
A lone figure sits on what was once a throne, now a lump of melted stone, iron, gold, platinum. He has long hair, steel grey and in patches. His eyes are haunted. His beard is long, frizzy, curly and not in a good way. He wears the armor of a hoplite, but the leather is cracked and dry. His armor suggests that he was once a muscular specimen, but now he is shriveled like a man left to starve.
The wizened figure speaks, "Brother! I suppose that in full truth I should say 'half brother.' I think that I don't remember meeting you, but I can smell in your blood that you are a son of Zeus. There is nothing here for you. The other gods are gone. They did not survive the bomb. As the god of war, I had some small advantage there. But there is no power to be gained here by the god of war. There is no chaos, no anger, no rage, in the movements of the machines. And the humans have no respect for Ares. No prayers, no sacrifices are given."
The wizened figure speaks, "Brother! I suppose that in full truth I should say 'half brother.' I think that I don't remember meeting you, but I can smell in your blood that you are a son of Zeus. There is nothing here for you. The other gods are gone. They did not survive the bomb. As the god of war, I had some small advantage there. But there is no power to be gained here by the god of war. There is no chaos, no anger, no rage, in the movements of the machines. And the humans have no respect for Ares. No prayers, no sacrifices are given."
"The gods had no respect for you either, and with good cause it seems: you cannot even blame humanity for your hubris and idiocy can you? Can you imagine the world if you had simply set aside all of your insipid rage & anger and celebrated the art of wafare instead of the act? You and our sister Athena would have ruled the cosmos!"
The godling seems almost to sneer ...
"and yet, here you sit, still a moron. No, there is nothing here for me, I have everything already. You though, have next to nothing, so get to work. You could claim much of what I have, and while I inherited by right, the claim could still be yours; who would oppose you? I, with all certainty, would not. I will leave this wretched earth as soon as my teammates say we are done here."
Now the young heir seems to smile, and having recently wrapped himself in the Power of Hermes, there is an air of mischief to the smile.
"Well ... I'll leave after you serve my needs I mean. I am the lord of the gods here too now; you are naught compared to what our father gave me and you will service me as I command. We will go now to treat with our brother "from another multiversal mother" --- and you will bequeath the divinity of this realm's Herekles to my compatriot."
"Given that you are relativly powerless, I will also help you. I will help you go whereever thou wouldst AND will pray with you for anything you might want to claim after Herk is restored. The sky here has no ruler, it could be yours. The sea here has no god, it could be yours. How very very many must be clamoring in Hades, they could be yours as well. Think on this as we travel ..."
"YOU THINK TO COMMAND ME, GODLING?" For a moment, it looks like he might rise to fight, but he thinks better of it.
"There is no divinity here to be taken or given. The immortals are dead, their power gone. Go back to your mortals and leave me in Peace. Ha, peace..."
Indeed, should Jason shift his senses to detect the divine powers that should permeate much of reality, he finds that energy missing from this universe.
ELSEWHERE, BACK AT THUNDERBOLT MOUNTAIN:
After another quick meal or snack, Captain John Connor calls a council of war. You find yourselves in a high tech meeting room, aluminum walls, nice chairs, a big conference table, a display screen and holograms as needed.
John paces between the screen and the table. On the screen appears a massive flying installation, a Helicarrier held up by four massive repulsors. A massive window on the front housing the bridge/command deck. The ship is covered in weapons blisters. Cannons, machine guns, missile launchers, laser cannons, microwave cannons, all manner of offences and defenses.
"This is Target 1. It is a much upgraded SHIELD helicarrier. It was built before the nuclear exchange in 96, but every system has been upgrade since then. It was already resistant to a nuclear exchange and EMP. We believe that these days it is hardened against most technology based attacks. That won't prevent Sentry and Herakles from tearing it apart. We believe that this is the home of the Skullnet Core. The mainframe from which the AI runs the drones, Sentinels, and Terminator units. It is also home of The Traitor to humanity, Tony Stark. Stark was the original Iron Man. He was kidnapped during the Vietnam war and injured. He created a powered armor that prevented shrapnel from penetrating his heart. After Judgement Day, Stark hunted down most of the technology based heroes and killed them, often incorporating their tech into his own. Since those days he has called himself Iron Man, Iron Sentinel, Iron Ant, Black Ant. These days he tends to go by the moniker Red Ant. He fights with his own Iron Man tech and Pym Particles, and many other weapons and technologies. Ted should be able to level the field there. We need to get past the many drones and autonomous units supporting the helicarrier, get onto the bridge, and shut down Skullnet once and for all."