ic Study Group: Aquarium Excursion (IC)

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

Parker moves to the side, letting Consuelo pass him and move in to strike Draco. They got this. She's powerful, but they can take her down, they just... and then the big one, Taurus, is right there, in the middle of them, taking the hit. She takes it better than he thought someone would take a hit like that, but... she's weakened, but still, Draco blasts at him. Parker throws his arms up at the last moment, then pushes off to the side to redirect the blast away, to avoid taking the brunt of it.

 

He should hit Draco back, try to take her down, but...

 

"Too bad I'm not interested in you at all, Draco."

 

Working together is the way to go here.

 

Even before Golden Star calls out for him to do it, Spaceman is moving. He closes the distance between himself and Taurus that Rot is blocking, reappearing to the left of her, just a bit above. He is already lifting his right leg and comes down on her, smashing into her with all of his strength from above when he connects. The blow sends her flying, crashing along the floor, before he turns towards Draco and stares and... fails to grab hold of her.

 

Damn.

 

Too much happening, it's too difficult to grab hold and hold her.

[MoonSimply]

La Puma Negra

 

Puma couldn't dodge the strike from the one in green, getting stabbed in the back of the arm after hitting the one known as Orion hard. It was a good hit, but it seemed like the cursed power that coursed through Puma was far more than whatever magic these two girls were powered from, not even flinching after being stabbed by it and outright ignoring the magically infused venom. Instead, her claws slashed through material, shredding this magical unseen armor that Orion had like it was nothing more than butter.

 

"Going somewhere?!" Puma taunts as she strides over quickly without any sort of hesitation, bringing another slashing strike out to attack Orion with. Puma seemed like she was on a rampage essentially, unphased and ignoring or dodging any damage so far dealt to and towards her. She had used Scorpion girl, or whatever she was calling herself like a springboard to then attack Orion.

Edited February 1 by MoonSimply

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

The scouring blast from Rot had dismantled most of Taurus' magical protection. Enough that the twin hits from the bash brothers of Michael and Parker- though Spaceman carried the Lion's share-, sent the bulky pink girl into the grund with a thunderous crash and a spray of water.

 

What had once been a pink school-like uniform had disappeared, replaced by ripped jeans, a plaid sweater, and a band shirt for Bikini Kill from their 2022 reunion, unconcious and not moving at the moment. It was enough that Draco looked down at Zoe and let out a whistle.

 

"Thanks Zoe! That really would have messed me up!" she called before turning back to SpacemaneYou're not interested at all? Well, we can change that maybe." she grinned. "Come on, let's get back to the fun part, trying to hit me as hard as you can." She didn't even notice Spaceman's attempt to freeze her in space. For the others, their reactions were more severe.

 

"Zoe! Are you okay!?" The barely hanging on Scorpio yelled down, a nasty expression of horror and anger twisting her face as she stared down at her wounded girlfriend. When Puma launched off her, it didn't hurt her, but she swung her lash back around after the woman, even as she stumbled to the side and had to grab the destroyed railing to avoid falling over all together, but the lash went wide with no center of force. 

 

Orion was more silent as she watched Zoe fall, glaring at Rot, then Golden Star, then Spaceman in turn. It was enough that she didn't turn around in time to watch out for Puma, and she was rewarded with another new cut as she grabbed at her torn flesh. She almost looked like she wanted to say something but she bit her tongue, resteeling herself in the moment. 

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

"Alright, I've seen enough of these shenanigans! Time to shut it down before a dolphin gets hurt!"

 

Surveying the melee around her, Consuelo deepens her breathing and starts to slowly move her body in what pretty much looks like tai chi. A thick shadowy tendril billows out of her and starts seeking throughout the room, under her guidance. Like a serpent it twists and turns to envelope the remaining Starblights. Nimble Scorpion manages to leap away, but Orion and Draco are caught by the hungry darkness. 

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

The Scorpion once more hurled herself out of the way of an attack that could have quite easily made her lose her final grasp of conciousness- she was clearly quite agile even if she had been rather soundly trounced by Puma in the beginning of the fight-. But the others were not so lucky. The Orange one, Orion, the one whose name was still unknown, couldn't get out of the way, and the wave of darkness consumed her in an eruption of orange sparks that are quickly consumed. When it passes, she's been scoured, and the outfit she was wearing has been removed, to reveal the punk stylings that were underneath it. She wobbles on her feet with unclear eyes, and flicks her finger. A weak, pathetic spark of orange flashes from them as she collapses. It feebly seeks out Spaceman, but flickers and dies as soon as it hits him, and the girl goes unconcious.

 

Draco is once more consumed screaming in a wordless yowl as her flesh is burned once more, but as it washes over her, she's only added a handful of bruises to her flesh. She's eaten a truly incredible amount of punishment, and at first it seems like she's still fine, but as her eyes light up for another beam, they flicker instead, and her suit beeps.

 

"...Out of energy..." she mumbles. "F...fine. You should know you're getting off easy!" she yells, a clear bit of bravado when everyone else is unconcious and she's clearly sporting wounds of her own; she wouldn't survive the oncoming assault of four heroes at once, no matter how strong she is.

 

"PARADOX, I WANT TO LEAVE NOW!" she screams into the air. There's a moment of silence before something actually happens.

 

"Yelling does not actually make me appear, Eclipse. My appearance is already determined. But it is already determined that you're going to yell every time." The voice comes from nowhere, but the sound does; a deep, thrumming echo. Two things happen at once; the Starblights disappear as if they were never there, and the ruined Aquarium- with it's demolished main tank, it's twisted and broken overhangs, it's fish desperately flopping and struggling for water to live- recovers.

 

In an instant, the Heroes are left standing in what had once been ruins and now is just....the aquarium. There's no problem with their memories, it's only the physical area that has reverted to how it was before the fight began. Their physical wounds aren't fixed either.

 

As the heroes reorient to their surroundings, Spaceman finds that the last bolt from Orion actually did leave a mark; a wadded up piece of paper is stuck in his collar, with a phone number scrawled on it.

[MoonSimply]

La Puma Negra

 

Puma was prepared to attack the Scorpion themed green girl to take her out since Orion, the orange huntress, had been taken out by Rot's power. Intimidatingly she'd step towards her, smirking as she was prepared to strike out a potentially knockout blow against her. Stalking her in plain sight, like a predatory animal ready to pounce at any second, as if to ready herself to attack. This would be it, ready to finish after fighting and winning a 2 to 1 battle.

 

"Surrender now and I'll be gentle," she says with a threatening glare just before magic swelled in the air all of the Starblights would disappear and Puma, whom was just about to leap into action, instead floundered wide eyed, flopping onto the hard ground that was free of water and struggling exotic fish. As she sat up on her knees, rubbing her head after missing, she'd look around, confused at what had just happened, as if there had been no fight at all. There scent was still there but it had become untraceable.

 

"Where'd they go?"

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

Cosuelo looks upward, spreads her arms, and calls out: "Thanks, Boomy Voice Guy! I was really starting to wonder how we were gonna explain this trashed aquarium and the four knocked out, normal-looking girls to the cops. So, yeah, you da best!"

 

Consuelo shrugs to her classmates. "Pays to be appreciative, I figure. So that went . . . . the way it did, I guess . . . .  Sure kicked their butts. Looks like we're all fighters."

 

I'm kinda thinking we only really needed to deal with that Ashley chick . . . Until Carmen went off. Better let her enjoy the victory for a bit before bringing that up with her, though . . . .

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

Parker is ready to strike again. Draco is obviously the most dangerous one here, not that the others are pushovers. Consuelo got them weakened, he just has to follow up and then they talk, there's the loud voice of someone named Paradox, they're gone and everything is fine. All the damage around them is undone. 

 

Carmen voices it first. Where did they go? Parker is about to ask the same thing when he feels something at his collar. Paper? He reaches for it and, there's a phone number. One of the Starblights?

 

"Paradox took them, whoever that is," he says to Carmen. He is stating the obvious, of course. "More than just a teleporter, from the looks of it." 

 

He looks at the piece of paper, then around at the others. "Do you have any idea who they were? I've never heard of them before."

[Poncho]

(Golden Star)

 

Michael floated upside down and spun around a bit after everything went back to normal, like he was still mulling something over, before descending to sit on the rail of the walkway near the rest of them.

 

"I would ask if everyone's okay, but I'm pretty sure Carmen was beating those two up by herself...and Parker's as tough as they come." But despite that, he looked over each of them from his perch to see how bad they looked; he was a responsible 'leader', so to speak. But his mind was elsewhere.

 

"I know that girl..." he said, rubbing his head like he was really having to ponder it. "...OH! I got it!" he snapped his fingers. "That was Meares! Zoe Meares, right!?" he looks at Consuelo. "She uh...She was a star football player at Knight High School last year; two way player, Offense and Defensive line. She sacked me three times in one game last year!" he paused again. "...Then over the summer uh...she realized she was Zoe. I don't know what happened after that, but you seemed to know them Consuelo." he seems uncertain. "What do you remember?"

 

 

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

"Yeah, sure. Just some chiquitas from Knight High School with a little bit of a bad reputation. Not as bad a mine, but, you know . . . Kitty was their ringleader. Somehow they got powers. Never heard how. I don't know who this Ashley chick is. But, she has, like, issues, obviously."

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

"Big issues," Parker agrees, shaking his head. "She was blasting at the whale. Seemed like she was missing on purpose, just trying to torture it. She put me through the wall when he told me to knock it off."

 

Parker doesn't look too bad, considering the hits that he took. A few scrapes and bruises, nothing worse. He is, to be honest, kind of surprised by that. He wasn't sure if he could take those kinds of hits, but apparently, he can.

 

He looks at the Paper in his hand and raises his hand. A few black orbs float from it, and then his phone is in his hand.

 

"One of them left me a number." 

 

The joys of parents with all kinds of tech and money. Hiding his number, he sends a text to the number left behind.

 

I'm sorry that this had to end up in a fight.

Could we try to talk instead of hitting each other?

[Poncho]

(Counting this as a Golden Star Post)

 

Michael quickly went to grab his backpack and some bandages he squirreled away to offer them to Parker, even if he probably didn't really need them. "I've started bringing these everywhere ever since that lady made of rock cut me up that one day; it's easier to explain away a bandage then a wound...Honestly you don't even look that bad, with all the lights you'd figure she'd have hurt more, but I guess you're just that tough, huh. You're crazy Parker." he laughed. "Might as well be invincible." He said as he looked over the others too. "And everyone else is okay? So all things considered, not too bad for our first 'outing'."

 

While Michael is talking, Parker gets his reply. It is quick, short, and to the point.

 

Call me in two days. With you and your friends nearby.

 

There's a pause.

 

Including the other three?

 

The question mark says almost as much as the actual sentence there.

[MoonSimply]

La Puma Negra

 

"There scent is gone, I can't track them," she says as she sniffs the air. There was nothing to grab on to, not a single thing to work with, much to her annoyance, "Give me a few more minutes and I could have had the rest of em knocked out. No scent though, that's got to be magical. "¡Maldita sea, no puedo trabajar con esto! (Damn it,  can't work with this!)"

 

Carmen would then stretch out for a bit, looking for her backpack and putting on her shoulders. It wasn't like changing would matter to much for her at least. There wasn't much hiding exactly what she was for people to see and was now uncaring of what the casual onlooker regularly thought, "Unless what you got is some sort of clue, I can't do anything to find em. Might as well be blind here."

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

"Well I don't have, like, cat-smelling, but I have watched, you know, enough TV to know that with the right resources, we might be able to find the location of the phone that's texting you, Parker. Didn't you say that you're, like, really rich?"

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

The other three? 

 

Parker types back a response to the STarblight. Has some of the other students fought the Starblights? There's a lot of people at Claremont, but he'll be surprised if Baz isn't one of them. 

 

He waits for a moment, before looking up at the others. "It would have hurt Consuelo worse than me," he offers as the only explanation to Michael. He doesn't feel like he has to elaborate on that, instead looking at Carmen and Consuelo. "It is a clue. It's one of the Starblights, and she wants me to call her in two days with all of you around, including three others. Trying to figure out who she means." He winces before responding to Consuelo. "My parents are rich, there's a difference, but they might want to help with that. Two days should be enough time to prepare, anyway, but can we please try to avoid a fight unless its necessary? I really appreciate you coming to my help like that, Carmen, but I might have been able to talk them down. Well, probably not Draco, but the rest of them."

[Poncho]

(Counting as Golden Star Post)

 

"Oh, that's true. I'm not saying it's crazy that you did it or you're crazy. It's something I should be more willing to do. It's just how well you ate it that makes me impressed." Michael smiled, then changed the subject. "And that too. Still on their side- in a good way- even after a fight. That's the kind of stuff people can't really teach, you know? It's the kinda stuff you have to have in your heart already." he never did pass up a chance to compliment someone else.

"But Carmen didn't do anything wrong either. We could have been in a lot of danger had she not acted so decisively to basically give us a numbers advantage right away, I mean it took you and Consuelo together to keep Draco pinned down, so that was a little concerning." he wasn't playing both sides; that would indicate he was wish-washy. Rather, he was simply supporting both sides as he saw it; that each had taken impressive, needed actions at the time according to their views. "And it seems that you made an impression on someone." Then he stretched.

 

"I guess we should change and leave before people show up and start asking us questions...I'm kind of upset I didn't get to finish playing with that otter though..."

The phone beeps back

 

The Bug, the Brit, and the girl in the life vest. After school, two days from now. Don't forget.

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

"I mean, if my parents were rich, I'd see if they could trace the phone. But they're not. So I think I might have just enough to buy a hoodie at the gift shop. Ooh! Maybe I can find something with an octopus!"

 

Consuelo zips down the hallway to return a few minutes later, properly attired. "Whew! That was a close one! But don't worry - secret identity preserved!"

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

"We should probably leave," Parker agrees with Michael, but doesn't comment on the rest. Something you just do, that's in your heart but can't teach? He's not sure. He doesn't agree with Carmen just attacking, but he has said what he want to on the subject. No need to leave.

 

He focuses, searches for his bag... and then it is in his left hand, while he checks his phone with the right. "Sounds like they want Buzz, Timeout and Torpedo Lass around too, when I make the call." Someone might still be listening here. He can't say their real names just yet.

 

Quickly getting dressed, pulling his clothes over his uniform, he answers Consuelo when he is ready. "I'll try to set it up, but no promises. They know about me and Claremont, but its not like I've told you who all of you are, and its not like they just have things like that lying around, but let's see what they can do."