ic Two Suns in the Sunset

[angrydurf]

The searing blast struck the Thing scorching the arms it flug up in defense leaving a mix of molten slag and fine ash lingering on the concrete floor where the superheated bolt bore through the protective layers that were flung up almost as fast as they were destroyed.  The damaged limbs slithered back and coalesced into the pool which visibly grew as the mass of hte ams was added back to it and bowed up slightly into a slightly throbbing roiling mas of liquid metal sill glowing where it shed the heat absorbed from Jovains blast.

 

They hadn't subdued it by they had bought time.  While it tried to recover the heroes could still seize the upper hand.

[RocketLord]

The blast worked and... it was metal? A robot?

 

Of course. They were in one of Talos' headquarters. Of course it would be a robot. Why had he expected anything else?

 

"Keep at it, I'll try something."

 

It was a puddle of metal, with arms growing out of it. Reforming, regrowing with every hit it took. It couldn't have unlimited resources or mass, could it? No, that wouldn't make any sense. He was the only one here that broke the laws of physics. 

 

Spaceman punched the air in front of him. The force of the blow came from above, directly at the puddle. If that was the source, then it would be best to hit it directly.

[Exaccus]

Her eyeball now uncomfortably warm made her want to stop but so far it had been the only effective form of attack on the creature and wounded as it seemed it was still kicking and seemingly winding itself up for something.

 

ah well, nobody said being a hero would be easy or comfortable did they?

 

allowing herself a Blinking session at hypersonic speeds to help disperse the heat that still hummed in her eyesocket she once again squared her fingers to her eyeballs to unleash another torrential bolt of heat towards the metalic monstrosity.

 

in her time she'd heard tales of things like it, the so called "grey goo." a terraforming experiment gone awry that devoured whole worlds in its corrupted directive to replicate itself for a task it would never get too untill it consumed all in the universe.

 

the archeological society was still out on if it was a fictional story for entertainment purposes or a historical documentary on a terrifying event before the fall.

 

better safe that sorry, melt it into slag before it can spread, eyedrops be damned.

Edited May 5, 2020 by Exaccus

[RocketLord]

Nothing? Not even a dent? Not punches, then. He had to hold it, had to grab it, somehow. Still, it was one big thing. One, big robot of some kind. It was easier to stop an entire thing that just parts of a thing. Focus, then. Catch the damn thing already. Stop it in its tracks.

 

Stop it in place, hold it all. Keep it there. 

 

At least it was focusing on them and leaving the scavengers alone. Otherwise, he would be ready.

 

"Keep it up. Try to focus your fire on the main puddle."

[angrydurf]

Spaceman could see, or feel rather, space close in on the amorphous mass, could feel it slow before the fluid form flowed free once more.  It was weakening, they just needed to keep the pressure up.  

 

The blackened scorched mass of slag where the Jovians blast had struck rolled along hte surface of the Thing as it tried to reconstitute itself.  Thin streaming tendrils seeped from the central mass latching onto rubble and structure alike.  Where the tendrils struck scintilating red light lit up along the material before it dissolved absorbed into the Things growing form.  The same light flared over the wound and the mass flexed and returned to the fluidity of the remaining blob of devouring nanites.

 

As the Thing healed it's damaged form limbs and faces emerged in it's surface some taking on the color and texture of skin before roiling back into the blob once more.  Almost as if some part of what it was remembered the forms it had absorbed.

[Exaccus]

"Im getting pretty steamed up here..." she half complained and half threatened the creature before her as her eyeball smouldered in its socket, but just a little more would surely see the thing reduced to slag....or so she'd thought till it had reconstructed itself.

 

"Aww dang it."

 

hmm perhaps the answer was then to try less intense and rapidly projected blasts of heat?

 

with her heightend physical and mental speed she let loose a blindingly fast but fine as a fillamet streak of red light right into the core of the main mass, now somewhat acclimated to the intense heat of her own energy blasts it was an an annoyance free proceedure that barely felt like an action at all.

 

"think im getting the hang of this laser vision now!"

[angrydurf]

The rapid fire bursts struck the Thing center mass just as it had reknit itself once more.  The searing blasts of heat scorching deep furrows in the roiling liquid metal blob nearly cleaving it in twain.  Each half whipping around nearly uncontrolled and two distinct faces formed near the top as if each half was trying to imitate something before collapsing in on themselves once more.

 

From behind him Spaceman heard, "Dino? but you got eaten by ..." as the scavengers pondered what seeing their former comrades in the blob meant now, "Are they still in there?  Get em out!"  He looked almost ready to run across the distance to help in this endeavor but cowardice thankfully won out and he continued to huddle in his nest of rubble.

[RocketLord]

"Keep it up! I'm trying to catch this thing, but its slippery!" It probably looked like he wasn't doing anything, but Parker couldn't care too much about what it looked like. This thing was difficult to catch and keep still, but at least his ally was making some progress.

 

Laser vision? Fast, strong? She could go far. So, once more, Spaceman reached out with his senses, all around the thing that they were fighting. Grab hold of it, trap it. Keep it from moving and give his ally a clear shot to finish it.

[Exaccus]

in the moments she allowed herself to cool down after her previous blast she saw the faces and forms begining to emerge upon its surface, so it seemed that the more wounded it was the less ability to constrain those it had captured within its mass?

 

The path seemed clear then, again heat built in her eye and another dart of crimson light twisted through the air like an arrow striking it in a new area, away from the mass of already damaged metal in the hopes that it would not be wasted on on slag but melt away at what was still active and functional of the liquid machine.

 

"I'm doing my best but jeeeze its making my eye sting."

[angrydurf]

Ripples of heat wavered in the air where Jovians scorching blast melted more of the mass of liquid metal sending it roiling in on itself once more as it tried to dispense the excess heat and shed the damaged slag floating in it's form.  An entire torso and arms erupted from the ball the metallic sheen of the liquid metal gleaming in the faint light of the flares before slowly giving way as the surface took on a matte flesh tone as the mouth let out a howl of pain and string of curses in  spanish before loosing cohesion once more and collapsing back into the central mass.  The scavengers it had absorbed were gone, but it seemed some, figment or memory of them remained imprinted upon whatever this strange material was.  

[RocketLord]

So, what was this? The things that erupted, took on form and screamed, then fell back into the puddle? Had it absorbed them somehow? Made them part of itself? It was weird, but the thing just wasn't stopping, even with everything Parker's ally threw at it.

 

He really needed something to call her.

 

It was slippery. Evading every attempt at trapping it and keeping it trapped. Break free at every chance it had, but if his punches couldn't hurt it, he would have to stop it in other ways. So, focus. Close down all distances around it. Make every single move it makes unending, double the distance, then double that and so on.

 

Maybe those memories could be saved somehow.

[angrydurf]

The mass wasn't easy to contain, it morphed and elongated shifting into myriad forms as it evaded the twisting of space itself trying to contain it.  But finally Spaceman was able to close the loop and the writhing mass flowed through the redirected flow of space probing for weakness and finding none as it branched and reformed trying to desperately to evade the tightening control of its movement.

 

But it was done.  The entity pulsed and surged against it's confinement finding no weakness to exploit.  It's focus on escape the faces rotated through it's form, an arm, a hand clothing even.  Everything it had absorbed was memorized at a molecular level and recreated for moments at a time before collapsing with too little control to be maintained.  But something of the people absorbed remained.  If it could be saved, even separated was another question.

 

A question it appeared would need to wait for another day as the damage caused by the battle and the nanite swarms absorption of raw materials had weakened the substructure of hte basement base further and it groaned threatening to collapse.  Quick actions by the heroes might yet save the streets and buildings above, but someone needed to get both the remaining scavengers and thier foe out of the basement as well.

[RocketLord]

The people were in there, somehow. Or something of them, at least. Focusing his powers around it, Parker pushed the form together, molding it, holding it, without touching it. Keeping it in place, moving it with them.

 

Everything was shaking, crumbling down. The scavengers, for a lack of better word, was still there... and the damage to above would be catastrophic. The support was gone, it had to be rebuilt, but could it be done in time?

 

"I got this. I hope." 

 

Focus, again. Push back against it. Keep everything locked in place, unmoving. Do not allow it to fall, keep it at the exact distance it had now... maybe even push it back to where it was.

[Exaccus]

For her part jovial speeded over towards the nearest crumbling pillar and wrapped her arms around it, lifting with her legs and attentpting to support the falling cement by realigning what little hadn't yet succumbed and crumbled.

 

It was however only a temporary fix,  that much was clear to her.

 

Space man called out that he had it under control and perhaps he did, or maybe he was being a typical man and taking on too much at once.

 

"Don't split your attention, if that thing gets free we'll loose it down here....I got something I can do...though it's gonna be weird and gross so don't judge."

 

and with that she opened her fanged mouth wide and in a single motion crunched a falling piece of reinforced cement into pulpy mass and combined it with her own genetically modified and evolved saliva enzymes to expelled it as a mist of black adhesive carried by her super human lung capacity to fill the cracks and bind the broken building back together.

 

"Blerrgh I hate doing that... "she complained "gonna be scrubbing my tongue with steel wool for hours."

 

[RocketLord]

Black spit, that hardened to stabilize the cracks, at least while he held it up. Parker had to admit that his ally was right. It was gross, but it was useful, and he had seen worse. Hopefully it would hold, at least until someone could get down here to properly stabilize everything. His own powers might work, but only temporarily.

 

"Nice job." She sounded like she doubted herself. Hopefully Parker could help with that a bit.

 

But with that out of the way, he needed to get the thing that attacked them and scavengers out of here. "Alright, you guys are out of time." He crossed his arms in front of his chest, looking down at the scavengers. The inert robot floated behind him. "Move out while you got the chance. Don't even bother trying to run away, got it?"