ic Future Freedom, Today!

[RocketLord]

GM

 

TOMORROW!

 

The mighty beast tore through the hallways, running after the young man clad in red, white, blue and gold armor. The mighty Aliengator ran its claws through the wall as the Freedom Eagle blasted at it. He had reached his goal, a swirling circular portal, large enough to bring an army. He held a hand out towards it, and it came to life, a swirling rainbow portal opening. 

 

The Freedom Eagle turned just in time to see the massive humanoid alien alligator come running at him, grasping him and pushing him into the portal, leaving the empty hallways behind.

 

The Sky Above the Millenium Mall

April 24th, 4PM, 2021

 

An otherwise nice and quiet day at the Millenium Mall was interrupted. The sky above the mall crackled with rainbow energies and multicolored lightning. A massive circular portal in all the swirling colors of the rainbow opened, releasing two falling figures. The portal closed immediately. The larger, a large humanoid alligator clad in a white armor that left its arms, tail and face free, was grappling the smaller, clad in red, white, blue and gold.

 

The smaller figure managed to kick himself free, spreading out golden wings to stop his fall, while the monster fell to the ground. Seemingly unharmed, aside from parts of its armor starting to break, the creature stood and roared to the sky.

 

Of course, the winged man was not the only hero at the scene! 

[RocketLord]

 FREEDOM EAGLE ∞ 

 

Oh, this was not good. This was so not good. James was falling, the giant Aliengator drone was holding on to him with one massive hand and was trying to bite him, even mid-fall. That was... that was really not ideal! How had he gotten into this situation in the first place? Fighting the Aliengator Swarm on his own? That was... that was bad! Like, really bad! 

 

"Bird! I need wings, right now!" he shouted, desperation clear in his voice.

 

Golden wings spread out from his star-spangled armor, cutting the Aliengator's hand and forcing him to let go.

 

Stopping his fall, he hovered for a second and watched the Aliengator crash into the ground. That... that was not going to be enough, was it? He paused for a moment, then dove towards the ground, coming in fast and skidding a few feet across the ground, his golden wings stretched out.

 

"Alright, come on then! I'm ready for you this time!" 

[Kaede Kimura]

Muirne ducked instinctively as the pair crashed to the ground, turning to look at the pair. She wanted to help, but wasn't willing to jump in without actually knowing who the bad guy is. She exhaled gently as she let the shadows and pain wash over her from her wellspring of power, quickly vanishing from sight. Quickly she made her way closer to the fight while pulling her gear out of her gate to the Shattenwelt and starting to put it on. She was glad that she had figured that out or else she would have to fight without equipment or let Aoife do it, and the situation was too potentially volatile for that.

 

I could do it! Aoife sounded earnest and eager for a fight.

 

Muirne snorted quietly at that but didn't reply, instead shaking her head. That same eagerness was the exact reason she wasn't transforming, Aoife would probably jump in to fight both of them. 

[Dr Archeville]

Artificer

 

One of Heroditus' classmates had suggested that going to one of Freedom's malls would be an ideal way to see both a broad sampling of consumer-grade Surfacer technology, and a wide assortment of foods.  He'd finally gotten around to doing so, and had been wandering around in the Millennium Mall for most of the day, flitting between the food court and various stores.  While clustered collections of merchants offering their wares were a familiar sight, the sheer number and variety of them had left the young Atlantean agog.  So many things!  And so many things of each thing!

 

He was about to try something called "tomato pie" when the two figures crashed into the building.  After muttering a curse in the bright click-pop language of his homeland, he ran towards the scene, assembling components form his belt pouches as he ran.  Is the reptilian one the aggressor?  That's what my instincts say, but how influenced are they by anti-Deep One prejudice?  No, no, best to see to the safety of the citizenry first, then I can sort out who they are.

 

He pointed his hastily-assembled device -- a miniature silver trident studded with pearls -- at the two, and a large wall of ice sprung up from his feet, reaching out to circle around them.  "Get out of here!," he called out to the few people standing and gawking, waving them away with his free hand, "it's not safe!  Go!"

 

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The Aliengator shook its head, blinking wildly. It seemed disoriented, though whether from the fall or the sudden appearance through the portal, who knew? 

 

It grunted, exhaling loudly as it looked around the people that were starting to panic and run around it. It didn't even seem to care about its former prey standing ready, not with so many others running around. It growled and started to move towards a nearby woman... and ran face first into a wall of ice.

 

With another grunt of annoyance, the Aliengator swung its tail at the ice wall.

Edited May 18, 2021 by RocketLord

[Fox]

Well, that wasn't quite the entertainment Natalia had expected at the mall, but she wasn't going to turn down a show.

 

When the monster had appeared she'd leaned over the second-floor balcony, coffee cup dangling from one hand...but when it looked like there would be a proper fight she'd frowned, pulling the hood of her long cardigan up over her head - a terrible substitute for a proper costume, to be sure, but with her sunglasses it was better than nothing. If she was going to draw attention from feral creatures, it wouldn't hurt to be cautious.

 

Speaking of which.... "Temper, temper," she admonished from the walkway, gesturing lightly with one hand; something like black and gold dust swirled lightly around the ice-stymied creature, gravity pulling it in and down to try to bind it in place. "Let's test just how strong you are, hmm?"

 

 

[RocketLord]

 FREEDOM EAGLE ∞ 

 

An ice wall from out of nowhere? And a girl talking down to the Aliengator and trying to do something to it? 

 

James shook his head. He was clearly disoriented, trying to get his bearings.

 

That girl, and whoever made that ice wall, they didn't evne hesitate. Didn't they know how strong that Aliengator was supposed to be?

 

"Watch out! That's an Aliengator, they're crazy strong!" Pulling his wings forward, the Freedom Eagle soared towards the sky, quickly looping around and flying down over the Aliengator. Pushing his arms forward, he morphed both into a sort of long barelled high tech guns that sent lightning blasts flying all over the monster.

[Kaede Kimura]

Muirne watched as one of her schoolmates stepped in, as well as someone in a hood. Listening in she was pretty sure that the reasonable guess was the big monster being the bad guy. She took a deep breath before diving through her link into the Schattenwelt. The dark world was cold over her skin, like diving into cold water but not refreshing in the slightest. She pulled the power that surrounded her and ran forwards until she was past the ice wall and then returned to the normal world.

 

After a brief moment she reoriented herself to face the 'Aliengator' as the millionth flying person she'd seen said. Now we tear it apart! Muirne smirked at the enthusiasm in Aoife's voice before pushing the shadows into the world around her, her eyes producing a glow as the shadows ran through her. Quickly she shaped it into grasping hands, a carpet of claws that reached for the skies and started to wrap around the Aliengator.

[Dr Archeville]

Artificer

 

Artificer took a step back as the creature's tail lashed out at his ice wall, sending cracks racing through it.  To his relief, it held, though another few such blows would surely change that.  If I can pin it down, stop it from getting any leverage...

 

He touched the end of the ice wall closest to him with his tiny trident, and twisted it around in several complex patterns.  He saw two others -- one vaguely familiar, the other not at all -- race in, focusing their attacks on the "aliengator," as the Bird-Man had called it.  His shout did seem more like a warning, not a tactical instruction, which would indicate that he's not the threat.  I hope we're doing the right thing, he made one final motion with his trident, and the section of ice wall nearest the Gator-Man reshaped into a great shark maw which snapped down around him.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The Aliengator turned from the wall, just in time for the massive shark maw to appear from it and start to bite down on it!

 

With the massive fangs closing down on his body, the alien monster placed both hands and claws against it, starting to push back, to tear the shark jaws apart and free itself.

[Fox]

Nocturne had expected the fight to be brutally short once so many people jumped in on it; the creature was impressive. Person? Creature, until it talked. "Strong, fast," she mused, setting her cup down on the railing. "Durable?"

 

The broken shards of ice from the Aliengator's would-be cage didn't quite make it to the floor; they slowed, stopped, resting in mid-air on a faint collection of dust-like particles...and then reversed direction to slam into the reptilian menace from all sides. Not to much effect, unfortunately, and Nocturne made a sharp tch sound as she watched. "Sheared the ice," she admonished; too much of it had lost force falling apart. "Sloppy. Tough, though, aren't you? I don't suppose you'd consider just not, would you?" She was calling down now, leaning over the railing. "They're going to close the mall early at this rate. Some of us had plans."

[RocketLord]

 FREEDOM EAGLE ∞ 

 

Oh. The Aliengator shattered the ice. That was... that was more than James had hoped. He knew Aliengators were crazy strong, but with everyone around him attacking it like this, shouldn't it be starting to slow down?

 

"I need something to hold it." 

 

He flew over Nocturne as he spoke, even if it didn't sound like he was talking to her. In response, the armor on his hands began to morph and shift, the armor of both arms joining together into a large disk.

 

Alright, he could do this. A light blue beam shot out from the disk, straight at the monster. As the beam bombarded the creature, light blue beams of energy began to connect it to the floor, pulling it down to stop the Aliengator in its tracks.

[Kaede Kimura]

Muirne saw her chance to stop this 'Aliengator' as the stranger tied the creature down. She sprinted forwards, phasing slightly into the ice wall as she climbed up it as easily as a shadow on a wall, her transformed hand's claws finding easy purchase as she pulled herself up. She felt vicious glee from Aoife as she leapt off the wall, reaching her other hand up to hold the spear double handed as the shadows around it phased it slightly to ignore any armour in it's path.

With a cry of exertion she landed, driving the spear into the creature, feeling the shadow's sap the Aliengator's strength to keep it down even as her relatively tiny spear drove into the creature. Feeling both the shadows and monster writhe as she tried to control the former, she held on until the beast's struggles ceased. With a heavy breath out she pulled her spear from it's form with a grunt of effort, dropping down to the ground through the creature and walking out of it's body.

[Dr Archeville]

Artificer

 

"Good work!," he called out to Muirne, whom he (vaguely) recognized from Claremont.  As he walked towards her and the Aliengator, he traced a few sigils in the air with his tiny trident, and the great ice wall rapidly sublimated back into water vapor.  "Shadowbourne, yes?"  He held out his free hand to her, "I am called Artificer."

 

I know her, or rather, of her.  I do not know the other two.  Well, three, counting the creature.  My people would say strangers bring danger, but that is not necessarily the case.

 

He looked up, first to Nocturne (though he did not realize it was her), and gave her a quick salute, then up higher to the Man-Bird.  "You there!  You and this Aliengator both arrived here at the same time.  I take it that you and...," he glanced down at the felled creature, "it are not allies, but did you come from the same place?  And do you intend to return?  And to take that creature with you?"

[Fox]

"More importantly, should we be expecting any more large, violent beasts?" Nocturne had deemed the nearest escalator too far away, and flying too much effort; a dramatic entrance post-combat was hardly fitting, regardless. Instead, she'd simply moved to the nearest column and casually walked straight down its length. It was, at the very least, expedient - and she liked the sound of low heels on its surface.

 

"Not that this one accomplished much, but this is a fairly target-rich environment," she pointed out, gesturing her mostly-empty drink at the greater mall as she reached the floor and re-oriented to vertical. "One was pretty easy to contain; three would be more of a challenge. Five would probably kill us. Thoughts?"

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The spear was driven into the Aliengator. The creature stopped, mid-roar, and looked down at Shadowborne and her weapon, now embedded in it. It looked almost like it couldn't believe what had just happened, like it couldn't understand the fact that it had been defeated.

 

It reached weakly to the sky, towards the Freedom Eagle, then it fell heavily on the ground.

[RocketLord]

 FREEDOM EAGLE ∞ 

 

Freedom Eagle soared above, watching in awe as the woman struck down the Aliengator. Raising his wings he descended, while the weapons on his arms morphed back into hands.

 

His feet touched the ground and his wings retracted into the suit, while he held up both hands, trying to show that he wasn't a threat.

 

"Uh, hi. I'm the Freedom Eagle, I guess. And... Yeah. I really don't think I'm from around here." He paused briefly, looking around, before turning his attention to the Aliengator. "Ah, yeah. That's not my friend. Not at all. That's an Aliengator, and honestly, I got lucky that it's just one, there's usually a whole swarm of them." 

 

"I... Wait, what?" Freedom Eagle paused, like he was listening to a voice. "No, that won't work." He turned back to the others. "Sorry. Uh, yeah. I don't think I'm from here. I'm not even sure how we got here, but that thing was chasing me and the portal was only way to get it away from people, so... Yeah. Sorry about that. Everything here looks... Uh, what year is this? Earth year, I mean. And what universe?"