ic The Red Will Rise

[Tarrakhash]

Akhona's eyes flickered up and then she paused, looking at the woman her eyes narrowing and shaking her head,"She just palmed something, search her now...what are you trying to achieve?" Akhona's tone was hard and uncompromising but years of training made it more than a little convincing even with no real authority her voice just made people do what she wanted before she answered Nicole,"Contact toxin...delivered by touch...I'd imagine we'll find out how up this young ladies sleeve."

 

Back in the bathroom, now fully covered in the Mamba Battlesuit John emerged from the cubicle, ready to head out at the first sign of Akhona needing help, for now he was simply listening to what she was saying waiting for the call to action.

 

[Cubismo]

"Poisoned!" Astrid said way to loudly. "What kind of cowardly piece of garbage poisons a teenager at an art museum! I just, I can't even..."

 

Astrid started cursing in her native language. When she couldn't think of anymore curse words in Norwegian she moved on to German, Swedish and then Old Norse. All the while she wanted to bring out Porrkubba even through she knew that would be pointless and possibly make the whole situation even worse than it already was. Still, the urge was there and Astrid had to fight to suppress it. 

 

Fortunately the person working on Connie mentioned contact poison and that got Astrid to focus. "That means she was probably poisoned recently, right? Which means the poisoner is probably still here..." 

 

 

[TheAbsurdist]

GM

 

The Guard looked at Akhona and frowned at her words, before he started to moved towards the short hard brunette, holding up a hand, glancing between the two women, "The police are on their way, so we're just all gonna settle down, okay?"  His voice booming in the manner of a guy use to being able to use his mass, and volume, to control things.

The woman looked at him, her face suddenly hardening, "Ah... screw it.  NOW!"  She screamed out, grasping the guard's wrist, an spinning him into a hammerlock quickly, as her other hand rose up, with an oddly shaped gun in hand, and blasted a reddish gas in fact, making the guard drop down, gagging and sputtering.  She pulled a mask over her face, showing herself to be The Red Death!  "You bloodsuckers!  Draining the population dry for your wealth and excesses!"  

As that happened, someone came sprinting towards the group, and dove forward, rolling across the Corinne's inert form, and ending up neatly in a standing position with the teen across her shoulders, in a fireman's carry position, a gas mask on that person's face, and she started running away from the cluster of people, at a full sprint that was at least as fast as an Olympic level athlete.

Lastly, the door to the bathroom was kicked open, as a gas mask wearing person there, his coat thrown open, showing six robotic limbs, each ending in some sort of energy weapon, and all firing wildly into the bathroom, and at Black Mamba with a veritable shower of blind fire of crackling red energy.

[Zeitgeist Blue]

Nicole lowered her hand and inched her way backwards as the Red Death posturized for the world and as Corinne was carried away at record speeds. These were the most annoying kinds of villains, Nicole had come to realize in her time as Salvo. Bombastic villains with a cause.

 

But she hoped the Red Death's theatrics would let her slip away to where she could suit up. Corinne was getting farther away every second but she was confident she could find them if she had her sensors.

 

"Now's the time, guys." Nicole hissed under her breath. "Use your powers and blast them!"

 

Then she heard the sound of energy weapons and she tossed all sense of stealthiness and stepped on the gas, swinging her wheelchair around and away from the commotion.

 

"Thursday, get your bat and start swinging!" She called out.

 

If there was already shooting this early then the Red Death was looking for more than an audience. She was rearing to cause some damage and she and her schoolmates could stop them.

Edited December 19, 2018 by Zeitgeist Blue

[Tiffany Korta]

White Lioness

Quickly the situation seemed to turn violent with it all spiraling out of control, though a poisoning was a serious situation in of itself. Àjàṣorò was caught by surprise about the turn in the situation, even her sharpened senses failed to warn her in time. Rapidly trying to catch up she took a defensive stance, her suits claws forming around her hand at a thought.

 

“I am always one to listen to another's point of view!” feeling no need now to hide she use her rich Dakani accent “But violence is never the way to enact change, let us help this woman and no more need be said.”

The priority now was to make sure Corinne was sure and secure, they could worry about the others after that was dealt with.

[Cubismo]

Astrid didn't need to be told twice to spring into action. Her blood was already pumping after finding out that some cowardly creep had poisoned one of her classmates and she was more than ready to hit someone for it. "Scheißkerl!" She yelled, as she bought Porrklubba from her backpack. 

 

She knew that bringing out Porrklubba in a packed art museum would almost certainly led to questions, and some part her recognized that using the weapon in such a confided space could well likely trash every exhibit there, but Astrid couldn't help but not care about any of that right now. Instead, she immediately charged at the gas mask wearing kidnapper holding Connie. The guy or gal sprinting with Connie was fast but with Porrklubba in her hands Astrid could fly and try to cut them off.  

[olopi]

Things went south … very quickly. Monica had just about been able to follow the situation when everything was still just frantic, but that had apparently only been the first stage of this all. The guard went down pretty close to her, and just like that she’d been placed in the middle of … a political kidnapping?

 

She didn’t really know how to react beyond taking another careful step backwards, trying to figure out her next move. And then, yet another person showed up, and whatever calm had remained got, somewhat literally, blasted out the window.

 

For now, Monica was happy to not draw any attention to herself, pulling her arm in front of her face just in case. Both to deal with the gas, and to not get identified as Lady Liberty, the entire thing was already political enough. Yet, with that decision came doubt, because this wasn’t just a situation she could sit out.

[Tarrakhash]

The Black Mamba was many things strong, powerful, immune to bullets but nimble was not one of them and John could do nothing but stand there as the red energy beams slammed into the black and gold suit, but it was very, very unlikely that it was going to get through the armor. Sparks flew and he tried to figure out what was going on, scanning with his radar to see what else was happening beyond this guy.

 

Akhona, was stunned by the speed at which they moved, her shield was already up and invisible but she also knew what she was and it was not a combatant. She drew back even as she got to watch at least a few super heroes reveal who they were, and she knew already what she needed to be doing while they were fighting...someone would have to doctor the computers and cameras recording things to keep their identities safe....

[Tiffany Korta]

 

White Lioness

When Àjàṣorò saw her fellow classmate being snatched away she didn’t hesitate to rush into action, despite wanting to be treated as normal whilst on the states, it was nothing compared to keeping people safe.

 

“I’m afraid I can’t let you get away with this!”

 

Closing with the opponent she went down low and swept out a leg, with the desire to trip over her enemy, she’d worry about Corinne one they were safely down. Besides she was a dancer, she was made of sterner stuff than most.

[TheAbsurdist]

The woman in the hoodie staggered, and fell as Aja kicked out her leg, dropping to the ground, and dumping Corinne to the ground.  Aja's classmate was under a paralytic, as evidence by how she was a veritable ragdoll as she fell to the ground and hit.  The woman, however, did not just remain in place, she pushed herself up, and moved to scoop up Corinne again, and continue in moving towards the exit.

"Get her out of here, we will take care of the rest!" Red Death cried out, and with that she pulled out her dual gas guns, and flipping a selector, she unleashed a heavy dark cloud that filled the contained room, which an HVAC system that was not intended to deal with chemical weapons, or the equivalent of a smoke bomb.  It filled and flooded the air around them, while not choking it made normal visual senses new impossible.

The other baddy, had all of the gun arms focus into the room, with the blaster pods there glowing for a second before unleashing a combined and focused blast.  This resulted in a collapsing burst right next to Black Mamba, the small explosion seeking to stun him, before the trench coated baddy turned to hightail it out of the room and into the dense cloud.

[Tarrakhash]

Black Mamba was hit by the explosion, rocking the black and gold suit into the toilet stall's smashing down the walls and cracking at least one cistern as water started to flood everywhere, but the suit kept him safe and coherent while years of experience let him act even though his head was pounding from the explosion.

 

The radio tracking built into his suit let him know exactly where Six Shooter was. Kicking his way up from the smashed tile floor, golden circles of energy thrummed out from the suits feet sending him hurtling towards the six armed thug. Bits of toilet, stall and water slid off of the suit as he flew through the door, fists leading, directly at Six Shooter, intent on laying a seriously stunning blow on the trench coat wearing villain but at the last moment he shifted out of the way and Mamba missed with his swipe.

 

Targeting reticules lit up his Head's up display as he correlated friend from foe, battle was joined and Black Mamba was in his element and the Six armed criminal would soon be laying sprawled at Black Mamba's feet.

Edited February 4, 2019 by Tarrakhash

[olopi]

This was bad. Really bad. Monica could just about see Aja sprinting by towards Corinne. The latter of which hit the ground in a way that was, at the very least, not pleasant, and would likely have some consequences.

 

Not that Monica could tell, because just as that happened, smoke filled the room. She could just about see her hands before her face but not much else, and certainly not the various people moving around the room. Just hitting one of them would be risky, chances were pretty high she'd hit somebody that was on her side.

 

Her powers, meanwhile, were just as useful in this situation, ie. not at all. Light didn't really help inside smoke, unless she wanted to paint a target on her back, which she most certainly didn't. At this point, she was entirely useless, in a situation where she really couldn't afford to be. She couldn't wait for the smoke to clear either, that would take too long.

 

The one thing she could do, perhaps, was move towards where Corinne had been. Whoever was trying to kidnap her would be close, after all. She couldn't jump it – too risky without seeing the wall or anything in the way – but she could push forwards. She had a pretty good idea of where everybody was, so she walked forward at a nice pace, before noticing a silhouette in front of her. It was pretty easy to tell that this was one of the kidnappers, considering the person was currently holding Corinne and didn't fit Aja's profile.

 

This was about the right moment to spring into action then, Monica had managed to delay doing so until she had an opportunity to strike properly. She brought her elbow up, and seizing the moment, smashing it directly into the side of the person she'd just come across.

[Tarrakhash]

Akhona was not worried about the smoke, a set of circuits hidden in her necklace slid a heads up display in front of her face with a map of the room and everyone tagged on it by the radio sensors built into it. As the battle unfolded she realized that the girl was being abducted, after being dropped hard on the floor.

 

She didn't know why but that girl was no older than Nkosozana her daughter, and she couldn't stand by. Moving through the smoke, hoping it gave her some cover from the people who had deployed it she reached out with her telekinetic grip trying to wrest the girl away from her kidnapper and hold her away from them.....but her lack of combat training, something John had been harping on for years, showed and at the last moment the woman holding her captive jumped back moving out of the way and leaving Akhona empty handed..

Edited February 6, 2019 by Tarrakhash

[Cubismo]

Things had gone from bad to worse since Astrid took up Porrklubba and started pursing Corinne's would-be kidnapper. Smoke had suddenly filled most of the gallery and Astrid could an explosion coming from somewhere through all the craziness around her. She wanted to turn around a deal with the smoke, whoever was making that noise, and help civilians get out of here in one piece. She wanted to deal with everything going wrong right now but she was only one person after and she had to believe that her friends would do what came naturally to help. Also, she was mad. Really, really mad, which made it difficult to focus on anything else but the kidnapping asshole that was going after.

 

The asshole in question had managed to get a headstart on her but with Porrklubba letting her fly above the crowd of people, Astrid was able to finally catch and drop right in front of her as she was still trying to escape.

 

"You have exactly one chance to hand her over nicely you jævel. If not I swear I'm going to-" Astrid was cut off before she could finish. The kidnapper tried to simply push past her but Astrid wasn't about to be accommodating. She stood her ground and swung with her right. Her opponent tried to catch the blow with  her free hand but Astrid had the strength of an Asgardian and was to overpower. Caught off guard, the kidnapper opponent lost her grip on Corinne.

 

Instinct and training told Astrid she should just keep going to town on her enemy, but a better part of her wasn't going to let Corinne hit the ground. She slammed the kidnapper out of the way and dove for Corinne and managed to catch her before she hit her head on the hard gallery floor. 

[Tiffany Korta]

 

White Lioness

Àjàṣorò was still getting used to her powers, so it took a second to remember that she didn’t need to rely on her eyes when all her other senses had been enhanced by bonding with the Lion Spirit. Concentration she listened to the sounds of those around her until she had a good idea of where her target was.

 

It wasn’t anything fancy, just a swift kick to her foe, she’d been taught to achieve results overlooking fancy. It didn’t matter as she could feel that it was a solid blow, backed up with the sounds the target made.

[TheAbsurdist]

GM

 

Hell broke loose, as the crowd was running towards the exit.  Only to round to seeing the multi-limbed Six-Shooter arranging them to fire a focused blast into the bathroom.  This made them scattered even further, and try to go back to the glowing exit sign in the smoke darkened room, filled with the scent of rotten eggs.  Hitting Black Mamba, the blast had a cascading shockwave that blew back from the armored hero and out  of the door to that bathroom.  The trench coat wearing villain turned and ran into the thick smoke that filled with the gallery.

"She is down, and someone has her, there are heroes here!  Take them out, and get the rich little b****!" Red Death yelled through her mask, as she flicked a selector switch on her gas guns, and sprayed a noxious, and sickeningly smelling cloud ever over the room at a high volume spray.

[Tarrakhash]

Billowing smoke filled the room, various toxins registering on his battle suit, enough to shut down the air flow from outside. A red tag flickered across his HUD and then it struck, near panic.

 

Akhona!

 

She was in that poisonous smoke, she hadn't responded over the radio for some time! The smoke didn't stop him from locating her with his radio and when he did he acted decisively. It was, in fact, a great way for the AR sponsored super hero to react, saving the owner of the company before all other things but there was no such rational thought in John's mind as golden circles of energy blasted out of the bottom of his suits feet hurling him through the air to where Akhona was, by no means harmed or injured she was taken by surprise when the gold and black of the suit she had designed suddenly filled her face and knocked the air out of her as John scooped her up in his arms.

 

With barely a pause the extreme maneuverability in the Black Mamba suit was put on fine display as it rocketed upward, a single fist extended to smash through the skylight, taking his wife to safety, clear air and thankful that she always wore her force-field projecting device on her person. A device that flickered back to forcefield just in time to deflect the shards of glass as the pair smashed through. As Black Mamba looked for a safe place to put his wife, before returning to the battle.

[olopi]

As it turned out, the breathing that accompanied Monica's relative panic in this situation – it was not something she was used to at all, after all – had it's direct negative effects. Namely that whatever was in the smoke now got into her lungs, and thus her system, pretty damn quickly, as she felt incredibly nauseous one moment to the next.

 

The situation right in front of her seemed to be under control at least, so that was something she didn't have to worry about.  Which was good, because inside this smoke Monica could just about tell up from down.

 

She steeled herself and then began to move towards the exit of the room. People were still fleeing, and there was a chance she'd have to protect them. Not that she could do much of that in her current state, as she essentially half walked, half crawled, her way forward.

[Zeitgeist Blue]

Salvo

 

By the time Salvo stepped out from behind a gallery the situation had already reached a fever pitch. Gas permeated the room and obscured her vision, but her radar allowed her to bypass that obstacle. Civilians stampeded for the exits and her schoolmates were busy decking the floor with the Red Death's goons. Six Shooter had fled into the gas and she watched as Black Mamba leaped through the skylight, the woman doctor in his arms.

 

Yet she couldn't let Black Mamba's exit be the window the criminals needed to escape and she leaped to the air, thrusters firing carefully behind her so she could hover where the gas cloud was thinner. As expected it failed to penetrate her filtration system.

 

The situation was laid bare for her. There were too many civilians that she could harm, too many things to break that could sour Dakanan relations. It irked her to be so hemmed in but criminals rarely considered her feelings in their crimes.

 

She took her time to search for Six Shooter, scanning with her radar, going back and forth through the crowd. She ignored the fighting around Corinne and the Red Death, trusting that the Ajasoro and Astrid could handle her. It was so annoying how a man with six robotic arms could easily hide when things were chaotic.

 

There.

 

Still wearing his gas mask and coat, it did not quite obscure his robotic limbs. Salvo reached out an arm, a single barrel extending from it and sent out a stream of white foam in his direction.

 

"Liberty!" She yelled as she sprayed even more of the foam, speakers on full volume to carry her voice above the crowd's screaming. "Gunman behind you, to your left!"

Edited March 16, 2019 by Zeitgeist Blue

[Cubismo]

Corinne was draped less than gracefully over Astrid's shoulder. The awkwardness didn't come from the weight, Corinne had to be at best 160 pounds soaking wet by Astrid's rough assessment, but from the fact that Astrid only had two arms and was finding it more than a little difficult to steady Corinne on her shoulder while also keeping Porrklubba in a effective weapon position. 

 

Moving around with someone heaped over your shoulder was a hassle. Moving while panicking people were running around screaming with thick, toxic smoke covering the whole room was damn near impossible. Oh, and she needed to avoid the bastards who just tried grab Corinne while all that was going on around her. 

 

Astrid would have started cursing again if it won't be aforementioned toxic smoke. Her body had managed to tank the noxious gas when it was first unleashed by the villain in red but Astrid wasn't sure that Corinne would be able to do the same. The smoke had to go. For Corinne's sake and everyone's else in the exhibit.

 

She wracked her brain on how she could deal with that the problem. She preferred just beating the Hel of the red lady but with the smoke everywhere it was impossible to know where she was to begin with, which just brought her back to her first problem. 

 

That's when she heard the skylight break. Moving her head up on instinct, Astrid saw a mess of broken glass where the skylight once was. An idea immediately came to her  and she couldn't help but crack a smile. She had never done something like this before and a small part her feared that her plan could well just make everything worse. Still, she had to do something and running around in the dark wasn't looking any smarter of a plan.

 

Astrid moved back to a corner of the exhibit, away from anyone who could block her way and from the smoke cloud itself. Steadying herself, she took in a massive breath that would have been possible for a mortal. Another perk of being half a god. When she expelled it a rush of cool breath came into existence. Aiming the rush to just the right angle that it would hit the cloud and push it out towards the skylight wasn't exactly easy, but Astrid managed to do just that, sweeping the gas out of the exhibit.  

[Tiffany Korta]

 

White Lioness

With the smoke clearing Àjàṣorò took a moment to check if her other senses had done her right, and was happy to see that everything was more or less where she thought it was. All her tutors and teacher would be very happy to see her progress in using her powers.

 

But now was not the time for such things, there were still people in danger that needed helping. With a jump and a roll she came up in front of Red Death showing her claws to the villain

 

“It’s not too late to surrender to us, you know we’re not going to let you get what you want right?”

[TheAbsurdist]

The Red Death just lifted her gas gun at Aja, and pulled the trigger.  "You rich little b####!  Her father is a evil, upper class scum who has you all fooled!"  It missed Aja, and it was clear that things were turning very, very badly for her, and her team and it was getting to her, as she sprayed the noxious fumes wildly, her expression wild, even as she is clawed across one of her arms.

While this happened the inert partner rolled onto her back and then kicked up and lunged with a kick at Ms. Thursday, only to miss her as well.  As this happened the villain with the multiple gun arms was blasting at the bonds that had formed on him intent on getting out of what was holding him. 

[Tarrakhash]

With his wife safe the Black Mamba combat system dove through the broken skylight, his gold and black armor glistening in the sunlight as he slammed feet first into the floor near the Red Death, he had quiet enough of her monologues, gas gun and attempts to escape it was time she was brought to justice! His black and gold gauntlet rose towards her and a single barrelled weapon, crafted by AR Industries, popped up out of the middle of his forearm the business end glowing an erie golden green before firing off what looked like some kind of green constrictor snake that attempted to wrap itself around the Red Death.

 

It's tail stayed connected to the Black Mamba combat suit and with a curl of his forearm he prepared himself to drag her into his arms if the gold and green snake wrapped itself around her. Soon she'd be suffering a crushing defeat!

[olopi]

All around Monica, people were feeling. All of them were running towards the entrance – if one could call it that – and she did her best to keep an eye out, to make sure that none of them got attacked. It gave her a good opportunity to catch a breath, too, she could already feel the gas' effects getting weaker.

 

She just about heard Salvo's warning, and when, immediately afterwards, the room cleared, she could see why. Right now the gunman was busy, but who knew how long that lasted. Sure, she could wait around here to make sure everybody got out safely.

 

Or she could seize the moment and actually get rid of the threat, not just wait for it to happen. That seemed like the much better opportunity. "On it!" Empowered by the Spirit, her voice could really carry itself across a room. Her body could too, as she soared through the air, her entire body shining with the Light of Liberty.

 

She landed only a few feet away from Six-Shooter, sizing up her opponent. This was the guy that had just unloaded, the one who had caused most of the destruction here. Something, buried somewhere in Monica's brain, told her that she'd enjoy this.

 

"Idiots!"

 

And with that, she brought her knee upwards, aiming for the held down villain's side.