ic As it was. Will Bee (IC)

[Nerdzul]

Southside, Route 6. HoN&Y Research Facility. 11 AM. 

 

"It seems like the lab has been engulfed by wax-like structures. It's incredible Kent." The journalist stared at the camera, her voice almost drowned by the incessant buzzing that had engulfed the small private research facility.

 

"Freedom City PD had blocked the main road to the laboratory, but so far we don't have any information of what might have been transpiring inside."  The man continued, as the camera panned toward a small army of cops, that were trying to do their best to keep a crowd of people away from the chain link fence that blocked the road leading to the laboratory itself.  The structure, a simple tree story cement building, as the journalist had just described was almost encased in strange towers made of a wax-like substance and surrounded by what looked like swarms insects. 

 

"Hey! Are you seeing those?" Suddenly, four large objects emerged from the facility. "They are like? Robotic bees..." Indeed they were, pony-sized replicas of metallic bees, impressively detailed and surrounded by a small swarm of more traditionally sized drones. They flew at a speed that vastly surpassed the one of their natural counterpart. "They are headed toward us... They are... They are..."

 

The image of the reporter was replaced by buzzing static. Although, with some effort, one could almost hear a chorus of voices underneath all the droning. "What was. Will Bee."  

 

Edited January 20, 2022 by Nerdzul

[Exaccus]

Mirror Knight

 

It had been a quiet day up until that point for Jonathan, he'd made his rounds and attended to his day to day tasks, he'd just settled down to an early lunch when he'd flipped onto the news for something to listen into the background when everything had gone predictably crazy and robot bees had burst from a wax encrusted building.

 

"what was, will bee."  the robotic voices said in a droning, chorus 

 

"Well, thats ominous; better give it a looking into."

 

taking only so long as slipping into his black morphic molecule undersuit and clipping the various pieces of bright reflective silver armour into place he turned his attention to the body length mirror he kept in his home and with a brief moment of concentration opened the roads between reflections and stepped through, silver and glass rippling like water to accommodate his passage.

 

emerging from the mirror within the disrupted camera, pouring out of the front lense like a semi-solid, cape of clattering mirror segments flowing behind him.

 

it was time for his big debut!

[Tiffany Korta]

Bee

Melissa was happy working in the laboratory o Atom Towers, it had just about everything you could ever want or need to do the science she loved to do. But she still had an alert set up on her phone for any villain stuff going on in Freedom City. When the alert came up she did something that she rarely did, she swore!

 

“Oh heck! Erm I have to go check up something!”

 

She rushed out of the laboratory looking for a handy window to get into the air and towards where the trouble was. As she did she quickly dialled her uncle, right now she was worried that this was a family problem that she needed to sort out.

 

“Yes uncle I saw I’m on my way there now… no I’ll be fine… might be worth checking up on him!… Yes I’ll be careful, got to go you know how my powers are bad for electronics… Love you to!”

 

As she finished her call she shrunk down her teeny tiny form zipping through the air towards the source of the trouble.

[EternalPhoenix]

Queenie

 

The breakfast rush was ending at the Southern Queen, yet this did not mean Maybelle McQueen was taking a break. She’d merely slowed her pace. The lunch rush was feverish and she wanted the whole restaurant to be ready. So it was her business partner Chris who brought the news incident to her attention. The whole staff knew she was a superhero by this point, even if every customer wasn’t aware. Well. Maybe some of the transient dishwashers didn’t know, but they came and went so frequently. Maybelle wrapped up and handed off what she was doing, and less than five minutes later a silvery energy clad figure came rocketing out of the employee entrance. She picked up speed as she went, praying the news crew was all right and that she’d be in time.

[RocketLord]

   ROCKET   

 

The threadmill wasn't really giving the results that Jay had hoped for, a way to transfer his kinetic energy into, well, energy. Not something to solve any energy crisis or anything like that (at least not yet), but maybe enough to power some of his ideas at Atom Academy, make them a bit more energy independent. He came to a stop when Mel called out, before flying off.

 

Scanning the news faster than his internet connection could keep up made it pretty easy to figure out where she was going, at least.

 

Giant bees? Yeah, alright. That would be interesting. A quick message to her phone, and he was off, a streak of blue, black and white rushing through the streets towards the wax covered research facility.

 

A message pinged on Mel's phone:"Meet @ bees"

[Heritage]

Crystal-Gazer

 

The Harrow Estate, North Bay

 

Lulu Beaumont was sprawled out on her bed wearing the pink Crimson Tide jersey her brother Bobby sent to her for Christmas, idly making travel plans for the spring on her smartphone. So far, her 'skip year' had been relatively light on heroics, but she didn't mind; travelling the world with her friends had been super rewarding. But then a news item popped up that caught her attention, something about a building covered in beeswax with people possibly trapped inside, something her telepathy and ESP were just perfect for!

 

- Hey Megan, there's an issue on the Southside where they could really use a telepath. I'm going to check it out; don't worry , l'll stay in touch! -

 

Quickly donning the pink and black costume her foster parents gave her during their holiday visit to the UK, Crystal-Gazer opened her bedroom window and took to the air, made invisible to any observers via telepathy.

 

"Wonder who else is already there," she pondered aloud to herself.

Edited February 17, 2022 by Heritage

[Nerdzul]

GM 

 

As the heroes arrived on the scene the buzzing from the robotic drones had become pretty much overwhelming, suffocating even the sound from the police sirens with its discordant noise.

 

A part from the sound however, the scene had a sort of eerie calm, both the journalists and the cops were unscathed, for now at least, but they were staring blankly in the void, slowly arranging themselves in two ordinate lines and getting ready to walk toward the research facility, seemingly entranced, as they kept repeating the bees'  mantra. "What was, will bee."  

 

They were not alone, a swarm of bee-sized drones flew around the scene, ignoring the enthralled civilians, engulfing the cars and other equipment instead and somehow consuming the plastic and metallic component of the vehicles, much likely as building blocks for more drones. 

 

Four larger constructs seemed to be the main source of the buzzing, pony sized robotic bees, scaled up mechanic replicas of the real deal, they were the first to register the presence of a disturbance on the scene, turning to stare menacingly at the heroes with their compound eyes.  "What was, will bee."

Edited January 23, 2022 by Nerdzul

[Exaccus]

Mirror Knight

 

"My my, there are a lot of you! but Mirror knight is never outnumbered!" he cries as he grasps the hem of his segmented mirror cape and with a flourish and a spin begins manifesting dozens of reflections from the individual mirrors that shift into the area around him like a maelstrom of silvery forms.

 

"Nor outgunned!"  with a wave of his hand a thin silvery substance spreads along the ground like a pool of mercury, seeping beneath the feet of the officers and dwelling in wait beneath the hovering drones and their robotic counterparts "be bound in silver! for as above so must be bellow!" several of his numerous duplicates moving on some unspoken impulse diving into the silvery surface  unhindered and grasping and grappling their targets reflections to restrain their bodies, for the two must always match, though usually it is the body that informed the mirror, today was the reflections revolution!

 

theatrics done, now was the time to focus on maintaining his grip on what he had grasped in his manifold reflected grasp.

 

"Strike my friends, strike whilst i stem the tide!"  he called out, unable to tear his gaze away from his focus, lest his grip slip and release what he had managed to catch.

[RocketLord]

   ROCKET   

 

Jay came to a stop for a second. Well, less than a second probably. It was all relative. Bees everywhere. Robot bees, at least. And people acting like they were zombies, doing what they were told. Why were they doing that? He'd need some more data, but the buzzing could be it... and the big bees seemed like they might be the source of that.

 

While Jay took the second to understand what was going on, the man in the reflective armor acted, and called out. 

 

Alright, yeah. Acting was a good idea. He should probably do that. What would Uncle Johnny do?

 

Run fast, hit things. 

 

Once again not much but a blue, black and white blur, Jay rocketed towards the near of the drones, throwing a few hundred super speed punches at it, before he rushed towards the next, repeating the performance, and again on the third of the drones, before rushing back, away from them, quickly putting in distance from them before he would get caught up in whatever the buzz from them were doing.

[EternalPhoenix]

Queenie

 

Oh, boy. This was serious. What was, will be? How ominous. Maybelle had never been the quickest on the draw compared to regular people, let alone speedsters and…mirror…light…whatever this guy’s deal was. She’d ask later, but in the meantime… “Nice work, Mirror Knight. You saved me the trouble. Now let me use my stiner on these bee droids." The buzzing was annoying, but she had plenty of practice screening out distractions. She pointed her left hand like a gun, thumb in the air and everything. “Now buzz off, you hear? Bang.” She fired her finger gun, and her silvery energy leapt from it. It smashed through the one the speedster had damaged. She blew non existence smoke off of her finger. “Nothing to worry about, citizens. Because we are here!” She flashed a gorgeous smile to anyone who wasn’t a hero or drone. “Evacuate the area and you can’t don’t worry we’ll help you in no time.”

[Heritage]

Crystal-Gazer

 

Finally arriving at the scene, Lulu floated high over the scene, mouth open in shock at the extent of the robotic bee takeover of the area. 

 

"Oh dear Lord, this is bad!"

 

Dropping out of the sky, she landed next to the most obviously heroic person present (at least by her standards), the woman without a uniform shooting energy from her hands. Lulu moved quickly to Queenie, her rural Alabama accent very pronounced as she spoke.

 

"Excuse me, ma'am, but has anyone made contact with the folks inside? Ah'm a bit of a telepath, and ah could have a look 'round with mah mind."

 

She pointed a gloved finger at the side of her head, then looked bacl at the building covered in wax.

 

"Know what, ah'm just goin' to go ahead and have a lil' peek."

 

And with that she closed her eyes, arms at her sides and fists clenched, and sent her sense within the structure, looking to see the status of those trapped within.

[Nerdzul]

While the robotic drones tried unsuccessfully to retaliate against the intervening heroes with beams of energy from their stingers the entangled policemen struggled against their bindings, but they could not escaped Mirror Knight prison of reflections. One burst came dangerously close to Rocket, but the hero was just too fast, easily evading the attack.

 

---

 

Meanwhile, as Lulu senses flowed into the facility she found herself struggling against the powerful buzzing inside, her mind, attuned to psychic patterns, quickly realized that the frequency was somehow designed to affect the minds of those who listened to it.  The place was  barely recognizable as a laboratory anymore as the wax-like substance had covered much of the architecture, while a strange golden gel formed complex honeycomb circuit patterns that had seemingly merged with the electrical grid of the building as the scientific equipment within for some unknown purpose. 

 

More robotic drones patrolled the facility, their striped carapaces sporting lines of different colors, much likely signifiers of the type of model, or role among the swarm. Normal-sized metallic bees infested the place as well. The personnel of the laboratory, roughly fifty people as far as she could see, seemed unharmed, mostly inhabiting the innermost rooms of the complex, all enthralled, not unlike the policemen outside, their stares empty, as if in wait for a command from their robotic masters.

 

Given more time, she could probably dig even deeper within the facility, however, not without the risk of being affected by the mental effect of the buzzing.

Edited February 17, 2022 by Nerdzul

[Nerdzul]

The swarm continued to react to the invasion of Freedom's heroes in its territory.

 

The army of bee-sized drones distracted itself from its work and turned to Queenie and Lulu, focusing the technology they were using to disassemble the vehicles against them, much likely planning to turn the two heroes into building materials for more mechanic insects. 

 

Meanwhile, the remaining drone finally entered the fray and aims a blast of energy toward Mirror Knight while the trapped journalists enthralled by the buzzing kept struggling against their prison, but with little success.

[Exaccus]

Unable to hear the approaching drone over the sounds of battle as he struggled to keep his calm and focus he had just barely noticed the shadow of the looming robot bee hovering over him and turned to look at it when the bolt of energy strikes him, being fairly new to the whole hero thing Jonathan was largely unaccustomed to the pain of such injuries and though he managed to keep from crying out his vision swam as his flesh writhed against its own molecular bonds under the scouring bolt, his legs shaking for the briefest of moments he span around and clumsily launched a glob of silvery semi-solid matter towards his assailant, though the shot went wide.

 

gritting his teeth and forcibly focusing his attention he shifted his attention to the field of energy around his body, through it had saved him from the worst of the attack at its resting level it could be pushed further to aid his defense, his duplicates shattering or shimmering away into nothingness like light on the surface of water as his shield flared with renewed strength.

 

"Those good folk won't stay bound forever, my grip on their reflections weakens with every second!" he grunted out, best not to let that last part be a suprise he figured, should the next attack lay him out.

[RocketLord]

   ROCKET   

 

Jay pulled to the side, out of the way of the blast just in time, stumbling a few steps before catching himself and rushing off in a burst of black, white and blue again. 

 

The big bees seemed to be the ones that was in control of the whole situation, controlling the smaller ones, keeping people in thrall.

 

So, taking them out would hopefully work. It couldn't hurt at least.

 

The streak of blue, black and white zoomed through the area, straight towards one of the drones. Rocket started raining blows down at it at incredible speed, doing his best to hit every potential weak spot he could see, before rushing off again, moving around the area before it could strike at him again.

[Nerdzul]

GM 

 

Disoriented by Rocket's sudden burst of speed the drone was unable to get out of the way of his offensive. Sparks flew on its robotic shell as it seemed that the assault has managed to disrupt its internal mechanism. The discordant harmony of the buzzing seemed to weaken as a response as the creature systems tried to realign to the new situation.

 

While the heroes could see that a few among the crowd of policemen and journalists have began to shake off its influence, two constructs still remained, perhaps not sufficient to establish control over a mass of people, but still having enough to keep them most of them dazed and quiescent.

 

Lulu's senses, still projected through the facility, allowed her to realize however, that controlling intelligence of the swarm must have realized that it was under attack and had began to feel threatened as the activity of all the machine intensified and the enthralled scientists started to chant in unison.

 

"AGGRESSION  AGGRESSION - RECONFIGURATION PROCEDURES INITIATED"

 

 

Edited March 6, 2022 by Nerdzul

[Tiffany Korta]

Bee

Melissa zipped through the battle ignoring everything going on around her, she was confident that the other has the situation in hand. Or she would be if she was giving it any thought, instead she was still trying to determine if this was a family thing.

 

The changes in designs didn’t mean anything, she was from a family of tinkers, neither did the lack of gloating, though that was a little unusual. She supposed it might be a distraction, but you’d figured that he’d have recorded a message at least!

 

Finally getting close to one of the larger Drones she decided the best way to sort this out either way was to take a closer look, so she dived down towards the machine looking for a way to get inside and look at it mechanical construction.

[Nerdzul]

GM

Outside of the complex the drones continued their onslaught, however, the energy blast from the robotic bee stinger proved to have little effect on Mirror Knight's shield, for now at least.

The third remaining drone could do nothing, but recalibrate its sensor and renewing its effort to keep the buzzing and assist its companions in keeping the humans under their control enthralled, although, clearly, a few among the policemen were now struggling against the swarm's influence and some even aimed their guns at robots, the bullets however, bounce against the reinforced carapaces harmlessly. 

 

In the confusion Melissa easily manage to sneak past the Bee drone defenses, while outwardly, the shell of the robot had the familiar appearance of a Bee, underneath, its construction felt almost alien in nature, an assortment of circuitry that had been designed by an intelligence whose logic did not align with the one a human engineer would have used, while still being efficient and effective in its implementation. While it would take some effort on her part, Melissa could probably reach the drone power source, a battery of some kind stored deep underneath its armor, she could not however, identify the central processing unit that was guiding the robot's actions. As she moved inside, she also found a strange substance, a golden nanomachine gel of some sort that flowed among the cracks in the machinery created by heroes offensive, intent in repairing the damages and although, she could not be sure, it almost felt like the substance was becoming aware of her intrusion.   

[Tiffany Korta]

Bee

Looking around Melissa felt a little more confident that it wasn’t a family issue, which was both a good and bad thing. With whatever defenses systems this bee bot looming down on her she didn’t have long to deal with this threat. Maybe after this she could get a sample to analyze for potential other uses, she did have the resources of the Atom’s to play with after all!

 

But for now she flew through the guts of the machine, towards the power source first she would shut the bee down then she’d try and work out exactly what was going on here.