ic Never Was (IC)

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

Recovering from the intense effort required to project so much disintegration, Rot takes stock of the battlefield. Whoa! Parker just did something that seemed to smack most of the remaining drones at once. I guess accuracy is more important than power for swatting an insect . . . . 

 

A few more smacks from the teen heroes, and the mechanical bugs are all in retreat, really, really quickly! Everybody seems to be looking up, so Rot does too. Yikes, it's like, the imperial fleet!

 

Consuelo's roommate asks Lawrence some really good questions about what the heck is going on that she can't help but find herself sympathizing with. But, rather than collaborate on any plan, the time controlling teen makes a portal, apparently into one of the massive alien spacecrafts above, and pops in. "Um, what?!!?" Says Rot, but no one appears to take notice.

 

One after another, the rest of the teens jump in after him. Michael takes a moment to say a few things that make it sound like he's in charge, and then he's through too, leaving a stunned Consuelo starting at the portal in disbelief.

 

"Ya gotta be kidding me!"

 

She looks around the chaos on the street, seriously considers just going to a convenience store to get a slushy, shakes her head and groans.

 

"Okay, Suelo. Go help save your friends from whatever crazy thing they're doing now."

 

And she flies through the portal. 

[Thevshi]

Timeout

 

As the other teens followed after Lawrence and the teenage Velocity, they found that the portal was not into one of the descending spacecraft, but to the park at Centennial Circle in front of City Hall in the City Center and not far from Freedom Hall. The area had clearly been the center of a large fight, as a dozen of the needle like Communion craft were scattered about, imbedded in the ground or nearby buildings. Dozens of the silvery Communion drones could be seen on the ground throughout the park and nearby city streets.

 

And waiting for the teens were the initially tense members of the Freedom League, Captain Thunder, Daedalus, Lady Liberty, Dr. Metropolis, Johnny Rocket, Bowman, Raven, Pseudo, Siren and Star Knight. They appeared to relax slightly as they spotted Velocity among the group, Bowman reversing the draw he had begun on a nocked arrow. "Velocity, good to see you are alright. Who are your friends?" Asked Lady Liberty as she stepped forward slightly, looking from the teenage speedster toward the Claremont students.

 

"Oh, they are from the future, or a alternate future, that part is a bit unclear…apparently this one is my future son." Velocity began, indicating Lawrence. "We just dealt with some of these things over in the Theater District. Lawrence seems to have at least some idea of what these things are."

 

Daedalus and Captain Thunder moved up near Lady Liberty as Daedalus asked, "what can you tell us about these things?" He asked, looking to Lawrence.

"Well, much of what I know I learned from you." Lawrence replied. "They are called the Communion, a cybernetic hive mind, I am uncertain about their origins, you either did not know, or did not tell me. But, in our timeline, seven years from now they attack the Lor Republic, the Stellar Khanate and the Grue Unity, and came close to destroying all three."

 

"When they attack planets, they use nanites to convert every living creature on a world into more of these drones." He continued, indicating one of the silvery drones lying nearby. "They then have a process which terraforms the entire planet into Computronium, basically turning the planet into a server for the hive mind."

 

A look of horror came over Lady Liberty and Captain Thunder’s faces as they listened to Lawrence. "You're saying they destroy everything on the worlds they attack?" Captain Thunder asked.

 

"Yes, though in our timeline, they also had a weapon that allowed them to just obliterate a planet and create a wormhole in its place as well." The blond teen added.

 

As Captain Thunder and Lady Liberty exchanged worried looks, Daedalus spoke up again. "How where they stopped in your timeline?"

 

"I…don't know all the specifics, but basically a group of Earth and space heroes were able to locate the Communion’s mothership and introduce a code which destroyed the code for the hive mind, shutting down the Communion throughout the galaxy." Lawrence answered.

"Could one of those ships be that mothership?" Daedalus asked, gesturing up at the ships up in the sky.

 

"I doubt it." Lawrence responded. "I have been to the remains of the Communion mothership, it is the size of a small moon."

[Poncho]

Michael was expecting a pitched battle, violence and gunshots and terror.

 

Instead they were now facing the Freedom League after they successfully blunted an invasion force, apparently. 

 

In some respects this was worse. Joining a battle in progress? All you have to do is punch things. Joining a strategy meeting with massive heroes against an opponent you don't know? That's a totally different situation.

 

"Where was the ship in our timeline? Do you know? Maybe it's at the same place." He asked. "...though I'm going to assume you don't actually know what thisn program looked like." 

[Supercape]

Gamma Buzz

 

Baltazars head was spinning. 

 

For a moment, he wondered if it was literal. Perhaps, perhaps one of his amazing cockroach powers was to turn his head right around! Could cockroaches do that?

 

He decided to not try it. Not right now, anyway. 

 

"A space battle, huh? Like... umm... a battle in space? With space invaders, like that ancient arcade game?" he asked, stroking his chin. 

 

"Look, I have no idea whats going on here. But I trust the Freedom League. We all do. Whatever we can do to help save the universe, we are in!"

 

Saving the universe sounded pretty dang important. 

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

No battle, just... the Freedom League. The lineup from when Parker was a kid. He freezes, staring at them. Captain Thunder. Daedalus. The Raven, the previous one. Bowman. Johnny Rocket, Lady Liberty... so many of them, all together. Childhood heroes that Parker had watched growing up, and there they are, in their prime, actually listening to them. Or, well, listening to Lawrence and teen Velocity, at least.

 

Everyone is talking about how to stop them, finding a mothership that isn't there, something that should be impossible to find and defeat, but Parker is considering something else.

 

"Excuse me?" he asks, speaking up. The black specks of energy flowing from his body has lessened, even if he haven't fully let go. It takes effort to get to this. It is better to keep it up, in case they end up in battle soon. "I'm Spaceman," he starts off, addressing the Freedom League. It is better to introduce himself. "I agree that we need to deal with everything, but you said things were different than they were in our timeline, right, Timeout? Velocity was supposed to be fighting the mummy robot with other heroes, the Communion isn't supposed to be here yet, but otherwise, everything is the same. The heroes not being there is a small thing, but the Communion? There has to be something really different if they are here, right? So I'm curious what is different."

[The Sailor]

Torpedo Lass II

 

"Theory... what if whatever is up there is teleporting enemies known to be a challenge to the current standing Freedom League? Or perhaps as a group that KNOWS potential weaknesses?"

 

She straightens out her suit... "If I was whoever directed us into what is looking more an more like an isolated bubble of time, I'd make sure if there was something I was looking for, I'd have the tools needed to get my quarry."

 

"When hunting capes... send high grade threats to counter."

 

She adjusted the sailor collar of her costume. "I'm not one to claim any expertise on the situation, of course."

[Kaede Kimura]

Blue Bolt 

 

Blue Bolt was grimly silent as Lawrence explained what the Communion was, what they did, and how they were defeated. And how that wasn't applicable now. 

 

She grit her teeth, thinking fast as her tail thrashed. Countermeasures, there had to be. The wormhole, perhaps Parker could try to suppress it's effects, prevent the spacial portal from being formed. She doubted he had the power to protect the planet, but disrupting the formation may work. The nanites, heat tended to be a vulnerability for microscopic structures, but to deploy such a countermeasure globally would be just as destructive, denying the enemy victory rather than achieving one for themselves. Perhaps Consuelo and Baz's powers? Nanites didn't have redundant internal systems, so would be vulnerable to even minor issues resulting from them, but again, scale. Her eye twitched in frustration. 

 

Michael raised the possibility the mothership might still be in the location from their original timeline. Worth checking, even if it seemed a long shot, given the significant time between now and it's destruction. Baz simply agreeing to help however he could. Parker tries to ask how this timeline may have diverged, a good idea, backtracking the cause of the issue could present the solution. Mizuki presented an interesting theory, it could be that the Communion here was non-native to this timeline.

 

She wasn't getting anywhere, she growled as she pulled at her ever twitching ears. She had to think of something, she couldn't let them just drop nanites and win... wait. 

"If they were going to just bomb the planet, why did they land? They could have just entered orbit and dropped nanites everywhere." She stopped tugging at her ears as her mind raced, "What if they're vulnerable when firing, either to physical or computer attack. If we keep them from destroying the world we but time to find the mothership and stop it, right?"

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

Consuelo breaths a sigh of relief as she realizes she hasn't portalled onto one of those dang spaceships. "Gracias a Dios - It's just the Freedom League! Uh, . . . Timeout, I thought you were taking us to one of those things." and she waves a hand towards one of the huge alien craft hovering ominously above the city. "Although . . . I guess the day is young . . . "

 

The skeptical teen listens to theories run wild from her classmates. "Yeah, I think I'm most with Torpedo Lass. This place is all fake. You're saying it's fake, right TL?"  Consuelo checks in with Mizuki, just to make sure.

 

"I mean, like, what do you know about these cultists that are trying to kidnap you, Timeout? Like, if this whole thing was some elaborate trap they had set up, what could they be up to?"

[Thevshi]

Timeout

 

Lawrence looked over to his friends as they all started interjecting and asking questions, Daedalus, Captain Thunder and Lady Liberty looking at the teens as well. "Of course I know where it is, I have been there several times." Lawrence replied to Michael. "It was in Kesteven 79 in our timeline, but I understand it moved around and was not there earlier during the Incursion, so it could be anywhere now. And yeah, I am afraid I have no idea about the code used in our timeline."

 

The blond teen looked over to Parker as he asked his questions, but before he could answer, Mizuki spoke up with something that drew Lawrence’s attention. He glanced over at Consuelo as she spoke up, but did not respond to her questions, instead focusing back on Mizuki. "An isolated time bubble? That….would explain a lot, including what is different here." He added, glancing back to Parker. "But to do that to this scale would take a tremendous amount of power….like what you could theoretically get from harnessing a singularity." He then continued, his expression becoming more concerned as he spoke.

 

"A singularity? What are you talking about?" Daedalus asked, given Lawrence a questioning look.

"Fake? What do you mean fake? I don't feel fake." The teenage version of Velocity asked, looking over at Consuelo.

 

Lawrence glanced over to Vueriz as she asked her questions, shaking his head. "I am afraid I don't know the details of either of those things. Either Daedalus did not know, or more likely, he simply never told me."

 

As the blond teen spoke, a massive star cruiser seemed to settled into position above the City Center as several smaller spacecraft took up higher positions above Freedom City. Amidst the rubble of the downed needle like ships, holographic projectors whirred to life, orienting themselves upward before spinning to life and generating the image of a figure hundreds of stories tall above the heart of Freedom City. "Salutations Daedalus, my bitter enemy." 

 

The armored League member looked up at the image above. "Star Khan." There was a hint of shock in the immortal inventor’s voice.

 

The figure had gaunt, grey-blue skin topped with a flowing mane of white hair and tapered ears, his coldly intelligent black eyes set above high cheekbones. He was dressed in a black sheathe and asymmetrical, chitinous armor that covered his torso and right shoulder. Partially translucent cables sloshing with a thick silver fluid sprouted form his throat, wrists and the base of his spine like parasitic growths. Pale yellow lines like circuit board patterns traced his pallid flesh, even stretching over the surface of his black eyes. His voice as deep and resonant, but with each word there was an almost imperceptible hesitation, as though he were somehow unused to such vocalizations. Michael could see a resemblance to the young Star Khan he had met only days earlier, although clearly much older and more gaunt.

 

"Long has Kinan Khan waited to see your arrogance cause your home world to fall to ruin," the hologram continued, spreading his hands as if surveying the plums of fire and smoke at his feet, "but I speak to you this day not as conqueror, but as herald for my new- -" the veins in Star Khan's neck stood out like cords and his eyes bulged but more fluid pumped through the tubes in his neck and the expression fade. "My new master. Know that the Communion has returned to claim is place as the dominant and only intelligence in creation. Your homes, your works, your bodies will be but raw materials for the Communion and in this you shall finally know purpose. Rebellion is meaningless. Surrender is unnecessary. You will commune."

 

As Star Khan finished, the assembled space craft began firing down on the city and dozens upon dozens of the needle like craft launched from the hovering starships, streaking down towards the city below.

[Poncho]

"Hey! That's Kinarr! The Elf guy!" he pointed directly at the Star Khan. "I remember him from a few days ago, he helped with those aliens and that explodey guy." he paused after that. "...Wait. No it's not. I guess that's his dad? ...And all those cables are...oh." 

 

He went a bit pale as he watched the machines move in the alien ruler's neck.

 

"I get it."  he finally said. He looked back at Lawrence again, because it really seemed like Lawrence was the only person who could get them out of this right now. 

 

"So what, are you saying if we figure out who trapped us here we can stop this invasion? Where would someone get that much power? I mean, you said we're trapped in this city, right? Where could someone find a singularity in this city? Is that even how it works, that they're using something inside the city to keep us locked in? Or am I completely misunderstanding everything you've said so far?"

 

He barely acknowledged the missiles coming down, though he was ready to fight again. He was pretty sure he knew what Lawrence was going to say regarding stopping the invasion, and he was pretty sure he knew what was going to happen to this Earth no matter what they did. But he wasn't going to say it. For now, he was just worried about his friends.

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

"Really? You don't feel fake, like at all? I mean you seem kinda fake.  ..." Consuelo drifts off in thought for a moment.

 

"Sometimes, like everything feels fake, you know? Like my alarm is about to go off, and I'm going to wake up in a small puddle of my own saliva. And I'll look around confused for a moment, then I'll recognize my cubical, and I'll remember that my name is Karen, and that I work in accounting. And that, like, my bag of crunchy, cheesy snack food is the best part of my day."

 

"You get that too right? No?"

 

Consuelo squints up at the colossal monologuing hologram. Not wanting to be rude and interrupt, Consuelo whispers over to Vueriz. "They have things like this back in your galaxy? Do you think there's really some dude called Communion that's controlling this guy? I feel like he's just using it as an excuse to accessorize with those silver neck tubes. Oo la la!"

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

Parker's mind is racing. If someone brought them all here, then it would make sense that they would bring in new enemies, get their attention whenever they were getting into a next situation, and, right on cue, as they're discussing things, trying to figure things out, and then, the next threat. 

 

The Star Khan looks horrible, to say it bluntly. Half machine, his body mangled. If Michael knows him, or his son, then this probably isn't what he is supposed to look like, either. 

 

"It seems like we're right, TL," he says, crossing his arms as the hologram speaks. It was right on cue and everything. "Someone's manipulating things. Whenever we talk and try to figure out what is going on, the next threat appears, and when I reached out, it felt like everything outside the bubble just... stopped." He frowns. "Doesn't mean this is fake. We get hurt, and so do people here." 

 

Spaceships begin to fly in. They can't just stay there. They have to save people. But that's exactly what whoever has brought them here expects of them, isn't it? And endless battle, with no means to end it. To not think things through, to put them up against the next challenge and the next and so on.

 

"If someone could use the power of a singularity to do... this? Then they could probably do it somewhere else and just use the power to set it all up. And make changes on the fly." He is not the big thinker here, not some kind of genius, he can just change distances. He looks up at the spaceships as they come flying in. "Could we try to breach the barrier?"

[Kaede Kimura]

Blue Bolt

 

Vueriz knew where things were going when Lawrence mentioned a singularity. The entity he had mentioned had trapped them.

 

And then the Hologram started, and horror ran like ice in her veins. She stared at the tubes, pumping the stranger full of chemicals, rendering him compliant. Her ear twitched as Rot leaned down to whisper to her, and her voice was quiet as she thought of the reeducation that she narrowly avoided in her home galaxy. "Some similar things, but nothing... nothing quite like this..."

 

She ripped her eyes away as the invasion began in ernest, swallowing thickly as she felt her stomach twisting itself into knots. All these people. They were all going to die. Even if they escaped, what about this timeline? Her eyes ran over the League, lingering for a moment on Psuedo as she thought. "We have to try get everyone out, we can't leave everyone to die in here." She was surprised at how steady her voice sounded, but chalked it up to her Translator not managing tone properly.

 

Considering how they might evacuate everyone, she had arrived at the same conclusions as Parker regarding the singularity, so that left breaching. "What about the planet cracker that Lawrence mentioned? Modify it to punch a hole into the barrier and we might be able to get everyone out through the wormhole."

[Thunder King]

Sever

 

There was in over his head, and then there was this. Sever, who came through the portal last, just stood in silence as he listened to them talk about an alien invasion. He clutched the hilt of his sword in a near panic, and just stood there staring.

 

He was aware, dimly, how superheroing worked. You fought bad guys, you got hurt, you might even die. But you fought, and you knew who you were fighting and understood the threat.

 

This was all advanced physics and alien civilizations and idea well beyond and above his pay grade. Only he wasn't getting paid.

 

He took a deep breath, and calmed his nerves. His grip relaxed on his sword. If he was stuck here, he was going to fight and help. That was how it was going to be. He never expected to grow old anyway.

[Thevshi]

Timeout

 

As the alien fleet opened fire and the needle like fighter craft filled the sky, the Freedom League went into action. Dr. Metropolis and Star Knight combined to create a barrier above the plaza, partially of concrete and stone, partially of yellow glowing energy. The barrier managed to withstand several blasts from the cruisers, although holes were blown out of the concrete barrier.

 

Explosions could be heard from the nearby area as energy blasts struck numerous buildings. The first of the needle fighters plunged down into the street around City Center, some out of sight, while a half a dozen impacted into the ground spread out around the barrier protecting the center of the plaza.

 

Captain Thunder looked over to Deadalus. "See if you can figure out a plan, the rest of us will try to keep things contained."

With that, he, Lady Liberty, Star Knight, Siren and Dr. Metropolis all took to the air and began trying to intercept some of the needle fighters as the temporary dome vanished, the concrete and stone moving back into the streets and other areas Dr. Metropolis had drawn it from.

 

Raven glanced over to the group of teens. "Unless you have information about these things or can otherwise add to any plan, pair up and keep each other safe" She then started off towards one of the needle ships and the four Communion drones that had emerged. Bowman followed quickly after her.

 

Johnny Rocket zipped over near the teens. "Velocity, let's try to clear some of the areas a bit further out."

"No problem." The teen speedster replied with a smile before the two speedsters were gone with a *WOOSH* of air.

 

Before any of the Claremont teens departed the area, Lawence sent out another temporal healing burst, eliminating the last lingering injuries from the earlier encounter.

 

He then turned to Daedalus and Vueriz and any others that were remaining to possible come up with a plan. "I doubt the singularity is anywhere within the city. As for the wormhole weapon…the images I recall seeing at the Lor-Van memorial were of something really big, far bigger than any of those ships above the city. If it even exists in this timeline, it could be up further in orbit, elsewhere in the solar system or not here at all."

 

Daedalus paused a moment, then asked a question. "You all have mentioned someone manipulating this timeline, what are you talking about?"

Lawerence looked over to the League inventor. "There is a cosmic entity that once tried to kidnap me. We have reason to believe that it is possible that entity could be behind this, using a singularity as a power source. It is possible that this entity used that to create this timeline."

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

Consuelo looks in stunned silence at the old Greek guy talking to Lawrence. "Georgio? Like from the deli? What are you doing here? If you're a superhero, why didn't you help help me 'n Starshine against Auntie Freeze? Well, whatever. You're here now, and you're actually asking pretty good questions."

 

Consuelo sweeps her hands out at everything happening around them. "Ya see - this whole thing is like this really elaborate trap to catch 'Timeout' laid out by these evil pan-dimensional beings that are part of this cult he grew up in. Seeing as that's the case, it seems pretty obvious what we should do is go up and teleport to that Star Khan character. He seemed pretty conflicted about that whole "submit to the Communion" thing. We get up there and rip those freaky tubes outta his neck and back. Then, with, like, his dying breath, he can tell us where the single-Larry-tea is so we can, like, ruin this Communion character's schemes. We get over to single-Larry-tea - and here's the really important part that you're probably just gonna ignore - it turns out this was all just, like, a ruse to get 'Timeout' next to it. His crazy cousins from the cult, you know, spring their trap on him, and a scuffle ensues. But like, regardless of the outcome, nothing really changes, and all the people from the cult keep on going with their crazy beliefs."

 

Consuelo finishes with a satisfied nod. "Well, anyway, I should probably go disintegrate some fake aliens now. You science guys should figure out how to like, trace the frequency or whatever it is you do, to find which ship Star Khan is on, so we can teleport there. Later."

 

And she flies off to go do violence. 

[Supercape]

Gamma Buzz

 

"Heads up! There are heads up!" yelled Baz, looking up and scanning all the drones. 

 

What could he do? Punch them? There would a lot of punching to do. Maybe release his atomic breath, but would that really work on drones? Were the organic, or robotic, or a bit of both?

 

Time was precious, and he didn't have time for a long debate with himself. 

 

"Insect heads, that is. I hope they have insect eyes! Fireworks time!"

 

He leapt straight up, several dozen feet, spread his arms out, tilted his head back, and lit up the sky with a radiation flare. A burst of lurid green light!

[Kaede Kimura]

Blue Bolt

 

Vueriz was on one hand relieved to hear that the planet cracker wasn't currently hanging over the city, on the other, that meant they couldn't use it to get out. She didn't have time to come up with an alternative solution with Baz and Consuelo taking off to combat the Communion. She had to help them. Our else...

 

Her brain supplied the image of Baz's blood glowing on the concrete. 

 

She pushed that aside as she looked up at her classmate glowing like a star, high wavelength light lashing across the invaders. It was truly a thing of beauty, and would absolutely draw more blades to meet his flesh.

 

She was riding her Skyboard to meet his landing spot while throwing her Aurora Roarer ahead, set to respond to enemy motion, while yelling up to the alien menace above. "Oh sure, I'll commune alright! I'll commune a packet of high energy particles right into your ugly face! I'm glad you want to be the only Intelligence, or else whoever else was around would have to talk with your stupid expletive!"

 

When the drones approached, the Aurora Roarer let out a loud zBEEP before spraying alpha particles into the air, shredding molecules, generating heat and charge as the Aurora for which it was named flashed into life of Freedom City's streets, bright lashing lights writhing through the air to blind the enemy.

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

Go or stay? There's people in trouble, but would he be better use in trying to make a plan?

 

It's not really any choice when people are in danger, is it?

 

"Timeout, you know what I can do. Once you figure something out, get to me if you need me."

 

"Star?" Parker asks, looking towards Michael. "I'm gonna lose what I got going if I move too fast. Can you get me into the middle of a group of the invaders?"

Edited March 31 by RocketLord

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

Making good on her commitment to go disintegrate things, Rot scans the sky for dragonfly drones. Spotting a cluster of a dozen or so, she makes a black streak right for them.

 

Okay, Suelo, don't push so hard. Quick little flicks of disintegration, so these guys don't have time to buzz out of the way.

 

She takes a deep breath and then lets her subconscious direct her power, lashing out a tendril of disintegration whenever one of the bug drones comes into view, trying not to think about it too hard.

 

Whap! Slap! Zot! Like a fly swatter from hell, shadowy strands whip out and disable one after another drone.

 

Okay. Not bad.

Edited April 1 by Huckleberry

[Poncho]

"You got it, Spaceman!" Michael said, getting his shoulders under Parker's arm and supporting him with his arm on the other side.

 

"Timeout, like he said; you and the others get an idea what you need done, let me know and I'll organize the groups and get the play run. Until then we're gonna keep these drones at bay."

 

That said, he took off, trailing a line of golden light as he went soaring through the sky.

 

"Alright Spaceman here's the plan; I'm gonna hurl you into the biggest pile of drones I can get you to, then I'm gonna swing back around after you knock them down and move you to a new pile until we get another job to do." With that  said, he put his effort in and chucked Spaceman into a big pile of drones, then kept moving, hitting a drone on his own as he took a wide, sweeping turn to try and draw the drone's attention as he did so; keep them focused on him so they won't go after others.

[The Sailor]

Torpedo Lass II

Mizuki sees the rest of her team head off into the fight, and something clicked in her head... something she remembered from a tactics seminar at Claremont...

 

"Just as they wanted... defenders distracted." She thought.

 

She turned to Lawrence. "I got your back. They try to get sneaky to try to get you I'll give 'em hell. Where you go, I go."

[Thevshi]

GM

 

As many of the small insect like drones are knocked out of the sky by the teen heroes, or confused by the blinding light from Gamma Buzz and Blue Blot, more of the needle fighters dove down towards the park. Half a dozen crashed into the ground, two in the street to the east, each releasing a swarm of a dozen of the flying insect drones. The other four landed in the grass of the park, spaced out around where Timeout, Torpedo Lass 2, Sever and Daedalus were standing. As the sides peeled back on the vessels, each released four of the humanoid drones, who landed on the grass, turning to face towards the four heroes.

 

Up in the sky, other needle fighters veered away from the ground, chasing after some of the flying heroes in pairs. Two went after Rot, their tips crackling with green energy as they fired blasts of energy at the heroine, one of the blasts striking her.

 

Both Spaceman and Golden Star had a pair of the agile fighters speed towards them and open fire. Golden Star managed to dodge both of the blasts aimed at him, while Spaceman managed to avoid one of the blasts. However, as he did so, he moved right into the path of the other attack, which struck him squarely in the chest.

 

Back over the center of the park, two of the needle fighters chased after Blue Bolt, but the small alien managed to weave and dodge, avoiding the crackling green energy, at least for now.

[Thunder King]

Everything was beyond his understanding, but he did know there were bad guys to stop. Ryan took off running as fast as he could to the first group of drones he spotted. He jumped into the air and sliced cleanly through one of the drones before landing and thrusting the tip of his sword through the chest of another. He dragged down as he pulled it out, damaging the drone irreversibly.

 

He saw how much more his friends were doing, and felt like he needed to make some improvements to keep up. He wasn't fast enough and he couldn't teleport far enough to really make a different.

 

He was constantly training and practicing, but he needed to work on his powers specifically.

[Supercape]

Gamma Buzz

 

"Too many.. too many..." muttered Gamma Buzz, his insect eyes darting around, trying to keep track of all of the enemy. He could punch them out, one by one, but that would take too long. They were a swarm, a swarm of horrible insects. And everyone hated insects, didn't they. 

 

He gulped. 

 

Well, he needed to see what these monsters were made of!

 

He jumped onto a tree, perching on a thick branch, looked up, and inhaled. 

 

VWHOOOOOMMMM! Came the singing burst of radiation - a mighty exhalation of supercharged Gamma Buzz particles, sparkling green, enveloping as many of the drones as he could manage!

Edited April 6 by Supercape