ic Reptile Brain IC

[Dr Archeville]

Artificer

 

Heroditus seized the device that Veronica had telekinetically grabbed, and quickly looked it over.  "OKAY, I... NO, THAT'S... HOW IS IT... WHERE ARE... ARGH!"  Frustration at the chaos around him, his inability to decipher the workings of this Surfacer device, Astrid's blaring metal, and now seeing Micah in danger boiled up in the Atlantean teen, which he vented by crushing the device with his mighty Atlantean hands.

 

There was no change in the terror and panic around him, or at least none he could discern.  Fear effect still lingering, but possibly no longer being reinforced?  So maybe now...  He dropped the few bits of destroyed device still in his hands, crouched down and set to reactivating his device.  After resetting the tuning forks and crystals, he sent another pulse of his own arcane energies into it, and the device spun to life, sending out calming waves throughout the zoo.  "PLEASE WORK."

 

[Thevshi]

Veronica Danger

 

Once again mystical energy reverberated from the tuning forks and crystals Heroditus had hastily assembled. This time there was no countering subsonics from the now destroyed device to conflict with them, so the energy washed over those gathered around the Atlantean teen. The massive rhinoceros that was still lying on its side by Chelone seemed to become even more relaxed than before, taking a deep breath and seeming now at peace.

 

However, the hulking lizardlike supervillain who currently had one massive arm wrapped around Thunderbird seemed unaffected by the Atlantean magic, his red eyes still peering at Octoman and the other gathered teens. Veronica also felt the mystical energy wash over her, being able to see it as it spread outward, but kept herself from being lulled into a sense of easiness, given the current threat facing her and her teammates.

 

With all the escaped animals seemingly dealt with, the teenage Danger took the moment to begin reworking the magical spell she had previously crafted, opting for something of a bit more offensive nature as she swapped out some of the small silver symbols for others. But even as she did this, she kept her focus on Goanna.

 

"How do we know you will release our friend if Octoman does as you ask?" She called out, looking over toward the villain, and wondering who it was Octoman had captured and why the other villain wanted them free.

 

"You do not." Goanna growled. "But it is your friend's life that is in jeopardy if you do not."

[Cubismo]

Astrid shot angry daggers at Goanna as the lizard man held Micah in his talons. Her vivid rage was so great that Danica's calming aura utterly failed to bring her any calm in that frenzied moment. She wanted to go all-out. Mash Goanna down with all her might and free her friend. It would have been so satisfying. But a part of her knew that could very well mean Micah's immediate death if she made a move that was just a second to slow. Those two instincts fought for dominance in Astrid's head for what felt like an agonizing eternity. Eventually, one bested the other. For now at least...

 

"Drop him you overgrown newt," Astrid barked through gritted teeth. She hefted her war club up in a wide arc before pointing it straight at Goanna. "Or I swear to all the Gods that you won't so much as slither out of here." She was deadly serious. 

[Thevshi]

GM

 

Perhaps there was something about how the demigoddess carried herself, or the venom and power of her words. Or perhaps it was all of that, combined with the two calming effects being generated by Chelone and Artificer. Whatever the case, As Astrid issued her threat, Goanna seemed taken aback, tensing slightly and hesitating.

Then, unexpectedly, he released his grip on Thunderbird, who dropped down to the ground at the towering villain's feet.

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

The Loudmouth Leviathan watched an entire rhinocerous basically bounce off of Goanna, barely inconveniencing the giant lizard-man, and he gulped. Welp, that's it, we're all gonna die. Then the calming wave from "Squaddy"'s device washed over him like an incoming tide. He stood taller and grinned. Nahhh, we got this! His tentacles surged forward at Goanna, sidewinding through the air like yellow sine waves. A couple of them held Goanna's ally in their grasp. "You want 'em? YOU WANT 'EM?!" Still waving his tentacles in the lizard-man's face, he dropped the man at Goanna's feet. "I mean, sure, you let Johnny Cash Junior go, so it's only fair. One co-conspirator, lightly strangled, with a complimentary side of FRESH INK!" Octoman dropped his palms open, exposing open orifices in his hands, and with the flex of a few new muscles they sprayed jets of black ink directly at Goanna's face.

 

[Electra]

With the rhino pacified for the moment, Chelone turned back to the rest of the fighting. She winced as Thunderbird hit the ground, looking terribly vulnerable there at Goanna's feet. Pushing her Segway as fast as it would go, she raced up and crouched next to her teammate, touching him on the back and mumbling a few words under her breath. Instantly a shell formed over him, black and gold patterned just like Chelone's own, only large enough to cover him completely. With the way Goanna hit, a shell like that wouldn't last long, but it was better that the villain hit a shell instead of hitting Thunderbird! She tucked her own head down into her shell to protect herself as much as she could as well. 

[KnightDisciple]

Thunderbird had started to have trouble taking in a full breath as Goana's grip squeezed tighter. His own mouth was curled into a snarl, and sparks were dancing inside the goggles of his costume. Then Astrid threatened the lizard-man, and Thunderbird's freedom was restored, though his dignity remained cruelly taken from him. Chelone's shell construct manifested just as he stood to his feet. He glanced down, then looked back to the tortoise-themed heroine and gave her a solemn nod. His gaze turned back to Goana, and now there were not sparks behind his goggles.

 

There were burning green stars. Wings of crackling lightning and ethereal not-quite-flame roared to life from his back, and Thunderbird soared into the sky. From on high, he looked down at Goana. The villain who was about to grab, probably hurt, one of Thunderbird's friends. A good guy.

 

"STAY AWAY FROM HIM!"

 

His left arm reared back, and the hand curled around a lightning bolt that was suddenly just there, and it was flung to the ground, striking Goana.

"This ends here! You're not threatening ANYONE ELSE!"

 

His right arm repeated the action, and by this point the ears of everyone likely rung a little, what with the shouting and the thunder-claps. 

[Thevshi]

GM

 

Goanna had just managed to side step the ink that Octoman shot at him, snarling as he did so. But before the large lizard-man could do anything else, Thunderbird had rose back up into the air and hit the villain with two powerful lightning bolts.

 

The first one Goanna seemed to weather will no real ill effects. But when struck by the second he let out a grunt of pain, hunching over slightly as smoke rose from his scaly hide. But that lasted only a moment as he stood back fully upright, letting out a loud roar that echoed across the zoo grounds.

 

Glancing down at the man Octoman had released, the lizard-man snarled, "Get your worthless self up off the ground and do something!"

 

With that he then leapt forward towards Octoman. But as he landed near the teen, Goanna did not try to grab him or claw him, instead his powerful jaws stretched wide and he delivered a powerful bite to the teenage.

[Dr Archeville]

Artificer

 

Heroditus gasped when he saw Micah's potent display of power, and felt a sinking feeling when he saw the reptilian behemoth from Ben's nightmares largely shrugged it off.  Reptile, ectothermic, so use cold against... 

 

He yanked components off his Cone of Calming and fished out more from his pockets, and started combining them into a blaster.  But partway through, he paused briefly.  Wait, no, nothing I have comes close to Thunderbird's level of power, so even my cold blast would have little effect.  Think smarter, control the battlefield.

 

He resumed his work, moving closer to the monster and his squadmate, and soon held a rod of twisted white and blue metals studded with tiny clear gemstones.  He pointed it between the two and sent a pulse of arcane energy into it.  A beam of blue-white light lanced out between them, and a great wall of ice sprung up, stretching from the Atlantean and separating Octolad from his assailant.

 

"YES!  DIVIDE AND CONQUER!"

 

[Thevshi]

GM

 

The wall of ice created by Artificer sprang up just at the right angle to force Goanna backward from Octoman after delivering his powerful bite. The massive lizard-man again hissed in anger as the ice wall now separated him from Octoman.

 

Back where he had been dropped moments earlier, Fearmaster coughed a few times as he regained his breath before pulling something out from inside his long coat and bringing it up to cover his face. He then rouse to his feet, the white hockey mask now in place as he fixed his gazed on Artificer.

 

"Let us see how well you fare against Fearmaster!" He extended both arms out in front of him and Artificer felt a wave of sub-sonic vibrations wash over him similar to what was being emitted by the device he and Veronica had dealt with. But unlike the other which had sought to instill fear in those it contacted, Artificer felt this attack tingle through his nervous system.

[Thevshi]

Veronica Danger

 

Veronica had been about to callout to Danica when the girl guided her Segway towards Goanna and Thunderbird. But the other teen had managed to maneuver her way into the thick of things, provide Thunderbird extra protection against the massive lizard-man, and then speed her way back out.

 

It was just moments later that the teenage Danger had partially shielded her eyes as Thunderbird had unleashed a powerful barrage of lightening onto Goanna. Like Artificer, she was a bit unnerved that the villain again all but shrugged off the barrage.

 

But there was no time to dwell on that as events continued to unfold in rapped secession, from Goanna leaping forward to bite Octoman to Artificer creating the wall of ice to separate the two and the attack on Artificer by Fearmaster. Having previously taken a moment to rework her magical spell, Veronica decided it was time to get back into the fight.

Rushing forward the teen quickly sprinted around the wall Artificer had created, moving so she was over behind him and had a clear view of Fearmaster, her hands glowing with arcane energy as she went. Once she had him in sight, Veronica quickly brought up her right hand and a bolt of golden arcane energy shot forth to strike the villain. But much like his much larger and tougher accomplice, Fearmaster managed to take the hit with little more than a grunt.

[Cubismo]

Astrid had to shallow an open sigh of relief when she saw that Goanna had actually let Micah go when threatened. Of course, even with giving up his hostage, it didn't seem like the giant lizard was still unwilling to stop being an idiot and simply surrender. That was worked just fine for Astrid. For better or worse, the Asgardian's angry had been piqued into a righteous tempest that was in desperate need for an outlet. Goanna's serpentine head seemed like just the one she needed.

 

As a liberated Micah called forth his own bolts of lighting and Heroditus summoned a wall of ice, Astrid had been concentrating and chanting in Old Norse to prepare herself for her next attack. When she was finally done, Porrklubba had become alive with charged and snapping electricity.  

 

her weapon ready, Astrid immediately blasted off the ground and flew towards her foe. By the time the lizard instinctively turned to see what had made all that noise, Porrklubba was already in position above his head.

 

"Hey ugly! Remember what I said about not even slithering out here?" Less than a second later the lighting wreathed came crashing down on Goanna's head with a thunderous slap that boomed across the zoo. If the madman could see, let alone stand, after taking the hit he would have seen Astrid somehow several hundred feet away and making a very rude gesture with her fingers. 

Edited March 19, 2020 by Cubismo

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

When Goanna's mighty jaws snapped closed around Octoman's shoulder, thick purple blood shot out in all directions, like firehoses spraying pancake syrup. When Artificer's ice wall went up between them, the boy staggered for a few steps in random directions, clutching his wound with his other hand. "OW." Then he peeked around the wall, seeing The Raven's old foe giving his squaddy an earful, saw his squaddy stumble under the sonic onslaught. Oh HELL no. Squaddy had your back. Time to return the favor. Time for the SECRET WEAPON. "Hey Death Cab For Ugly! FREEZE!" he shouted as he ran up the side of the wall and then dropped down between Fear-Master and Artificer. His throat bulged. He opened his mouth, lifted his original tongue, and sent his second telescoping tongue shooting out toward Fear-Master's neck. The horizontal beak at the end of the tongue snapped closed into the man's flesh, injecting him with paralytic venom. Man, that is SO GROSS.

 

Edited March 24, 2020 by Grumblefloof

[KnightDisciple]

Thunderbird hovered in the air for several moments, watching the flow of battle. It took him a second, but he saw Fear-Master. He saw Octoman hit him with a paralyzing attack, but the sound-slinging nightmare-inducing villain was still standing, albeit only just. It seemed like a good time to correct that oversight.

 

"Do you fear the storm, you slasher movie reject?"

 

The weather-wielder reached up, and yet another bolt of lightning appeared in his hand. He reared back, the semi-solid bolt of atmospheric plasma glowing even brighter, and then he let loose just a few moments after he yelled out a warning.

 

"Octoman, down!"

[Thevshi]

GM

 

Fearmaster was unable to respond to Thunderbird's question, as he stood firmly in place as a result of Octoman's paralyzing venom. When the airborne hero let lose his powerful lightning bolt, it passed just over Octoman's head, who had been unable to hear the shouted warning to duck.

 

The electrical blast hit Fearmaster, who was unable to try to dodge aside, the force of the impact knocking him off his feet. The villain was sent flying backward to where he slammed into the wall of a building and then fell to the ground in a smoking heap.

 

Goanna watched with frustration as his ally continued to prove of minimal use. When the sonic wielding villain was completely removed from the fight, the massive reptilian villain’s eyes locked onto Octoman. "Time to get what I came for." He snarled, before rushing forward towards Octoman.

 

The hulking villain lashed out with a powerful clawed hand, but Octoman managed to duck under the swipe. Failing to connect with his target caused Goanna to let out another roar of frustration as he now found himself alone and surrounded by superpowered teens.

[Thevshi]

Veronica Danger

 

As frustrated as Veronica was that Fearmaster had seemed unaffected by her attack, that frustration quickly passed as first Octoman paralyzed the sonic using villain and then Thunderbird lashed out with another powerful lightning bolt. But whatever elation she might have felt as the tied seemed to be turning further in their favor was dampened when the massive reptilian form of Goanna charged towards Octoman, trying to slash him with sharp, deadly claws.

 

Luckily Octoman was able to dodge aside as the villain let out his frustration. But the teenage Danger knew it would only take one misstep before one of them got seriously injured by this deadly foe, so she raised her hands up in front of her, with her right hand slightly forward, as mystical energy surrounded them.

"Hands off!" She shouted as she sent a blast of mystical energy at the massive reptile. Despite Octoman weaving to the side in front of her target, Veronica managed to hit the villain. But similar to Fearmaster earlier, Goanna seemed to shrug off the blast with little more than a snarl of irritation.

[Cubismo]

Astrid scowled when she saw that her fake-out attack had failed to do much more than annoy Goanna but cheered when she that Micah was able to at least zap the lizard man's partner out of the fight for good.

 

"That's one down for you, newt! Thinking it might be time to call it quits?"

 

It was a rhetorical question, of course. After all this chaos the Asgardian wasn't exactly in the mood to just let Goanna walk away so he could do this all over again. With that in mind, Astrid started to prep Porrklubba for another attack. Seeing how effective Ben's paralyzation effect was when combined with Micah's follow up attack, she thought up a new spell that would hopefully slow down Goanna just enough to finally drop him later.

 

Using Porrklubba to get back into air and closer to Goanna, Astrid called upon the frosty winds of faraway Niflheim and concentrated that power through Porrklubba to lash Goanna with icy bonds. 

Edited March 29, 2020 by Cubismo

[Amelia]

Octoman

 

Quote

"Octoman, down!"

 

Octoman had turned away from Thunderbird just in time to miss the boy's warning, but fortunately, he smelled the ozone in the air and caught the flash in the corner of his eye just in time to duck and let the lightning bolt pass over him and slam into Fear-Master. He laughed and held a "thumbs-up" gesture at Thunderbird. "YEAH! TEAMWORK! I LINE 'EM UP, YOU KNOCK 'EM DOWN!"

 

His joy was short-lived, however, as

 

Quote

The massive reptilian villain’s eyes locked onto Octoman. "Time to get what I came for." He snarled, before rushing forward. The hulking villain lashed out with a powerful clawed hand.

 

The Sensational Cephalopod bobbed and weaved, narrowly avoiding each swing of the lizard-man's mighty claws. "WHOA! HELLO! Don't suppose! We can! Talk this over? I know a! Great! Anger management class! At the community center! Free coffee! I bet you take it black, right? I like mine with INK TO THE FACE!" He dropped his palms open and launched another pair of ink globules at the lizard-man's eyes.

 

[Electra]

Chelone was nearly bowled over when the giant reptilian charged towards Octoman, but she kept her feet and turned her body to follow the villain's movements. "You are giving reptiles a bad reputation!" she scolded him. "And in a zoo? Really? There are endangered species here!" With Thunderbird up and fully back in the fight, she let his protective shell dissolve and gathered her power back to herself. Extending her clasped hands, she opened them to release a spectral tortoise, which moved improbably fast towards Goanna and gave him a fierce bite in the back of the leg. 

[KnightDisciple]

Thunderbird's eyes widened in shock and surprise as Goanna charged at Octoman. The villain wasn't just trying to attack the young hero, he was trying to take him! This seemed to spark a well of anger inside of the weather-controlling teenager. His lips pulled back in a snarl, and his voice rang out clearly in the sky.

 

"NO!"

 

In the blink of an eye and a clap of thunder, he was suddenly on top of Goanna. His hands reached down and his wings flexed up toward the cloudy sky. A bolt of lightning struck each wingtip, crackled along his body, and flowed over his hands directly into Goanna's skin, his face. 

 

"YIELD!"

[Thevshi]

GM

 

Although Goanna had managed to shrug off Veronica's attack, the hulking lizardman quickly found himself under a continuing onslaught of attacks from the other superpowered teens. In a moment he was partially trapped in the ice summoned by Ms. Thursday. And although he again managed to avoid the ink from Octoman, Chelone used the distraction to move up and conjure the spectral tortoise that bit him in the leg, causing another roar of pain.

 

And then Thunderbird flew down to touch Goanna's face as lightning arched from the teen's fingertips and across the villain’s body. Goanna instinctively pulled away from Thunderbrid's touch, and though smoke again rose from this scaly hide, he seemed mostly no worse for wear. The lizardman took a moment to glance about at each of the teenage heroes that were now all gathered around him, as well as towards his now downed ally.

 

"RRRAAAAGGHHH" Goanna screamed as he strained against the ice that had partially trapped him. Suddenly the ice exploded, sending pieces flying in every direction, causing the assembled teens to momentarily shield their eyes. When they looked back up, Goanna was no longer standing where he had been trapped by the ice…..

[Dr Archeville]

Artificer

 

"WHAT?!  DID ANYONE SEE WHERE HE WENT?," he called out, still with Astrid's headphones on blaring music at him.  "BE-- OCTOMAN!  ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"

 

He quickly surveyed the scenes, saw Fear-Master was out cold and his squadmates seemed unharmed.  "IS EVERYONE ALRIGHT?  IS-" a hand went up to his ears, "AH, YES.  ONE MOMENT, PLEASE."  He removed the headphones and let them dangle around his neck, "is everyone alright?  Do you know who that great beast was, or," he gestured to the unconscious Fear-Master, "who he is?  I do believe he is the one who set up that device," he pointed to the smashed remains, "some manner of akoustik device that instilled fear in all who heard it."

[Thevshi]

Veronica Danger

 

When the ice had exploded in all direction, Veronica had managed to turn aside and shield her head with one of her arms. But the teenager just so happened to be generally facing in the direction Goanna had leapt once free, so she saw the massive reptilian villain as he arched up into the air and the direction he was heading, but lost him after he passed over a nearby building and beyond her line of sight.

 

Standing back upright, the teenage Danger looked back towards her teammates to ensure no one was injured, relieved to see that Ben was still there given Goanna's obvious interest in him. When Heroditus asked if everyone was okay, Veronica gave a small nod. "I am fine, I caught sight of him leaping away in that direction," she pointed in the direction Goanna had gone, "but after passing over that building I lost sight of him."

[Cubismo]

"I'm fine up here!" Astrid yelled down below to a concerned Heroditius once the shower of cracked ice finally clears. Hovering a couple feet above the ground with Porrklubba in hand Astrid looked towards the direction Veronica had pointed out with determined eyes. She was angry, somehow more so than she already was. Her ice had inadvertently allowed Goanna to make his escape and Astrid had a mind to make things right for it. "Right, I'm going to try and find this drittsekk from up here. Octo if you or Danger can try to track him on land that would be super." With that said, Astrid promptly blasted off to where Veronica last saw Goanna. Once there she tried to scan the area for the giant lizard, figuring and hoping it wouldn't be to hard to track the monster.  

[Thevshi]

GM

 

Astrid took to the air and flew up over the building that Veronica had pointed towards as the direction Goanna had leapt. Getting up higher in the air and not being focused on just what was going on in a narrow section of the zoo, the teen now had a better view of things, and it was not good. There were a number of people still running in panic all around the parts of the zoo Astrid could now see. And even with the added elevation, she still caught no sight of the massive lizardman.