ic Pavo's Response (IC)

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

In her gold-white sentry uniform, the woman pulled back her hood. About the same age as the Claremont teens, her dirty blonde hair was pulled into a messy ponytail, and her addition to her uniform was two shining bracers, clearly where the shining shield came from. Said shield slowly lowered as she lowered her hands, but it had eaten all the truck's momentum. 

 

Sentry Scutum took one look at Gamma Buzz and shrieked.

 

"GROSS! COCKROACH GUY! Get away get away get away!" She yelled before taking off running in the other direction, clearly distressed by Buzz's looks. 

[Supercape]

Gamma Buzz

 

"Whoa!"

 

Baltazar's worst fear was now manifest; it paralysed him. His jabbering jaw, so used to a stream of consciousness defence, was momentarily slack. His antenna trembled, his eyes blushed red. 

 

He placed hand on chest, turned his head and, in regal pose, pronounced -

 

"It is the Cockroad... KID, Madam! In fact... it is the AMAZING Cockroach kid... that is AMAZING!"
 

He clenched his fist and screamed. "AMAZING, D'ya hear!"

 

Full of impotent rage, he blasted the tarmac of the road. 

 

"GAMMA BUZZ, BABY!" he shouted, carving the words into the street with his laser vision. 

[Poncho]

(Golden Star)

 

"Wait, hang on! Don't." The girl was gone. "Wait, hang on, Buzz, don't..." Baz was carving up the road with laser beams.

 

Michael felt like a guy holding the leashes of two dogs running off in two different directions. Not that his friend or the Starbright were not worth of their anger, but he was caught and unsure what to do to keep both of them together.

 

"Buzz, it's okay. She uh..." he paused. He couldn't say 'she didn't mean it'. He needed a different way to say it. "she doesn't get that you're a cool guy, you know? I'm sure she'll get it." he offered. 

 

"Don't worry about it, okay? We can explain everything to her and get everything handled." he was confident about that part at least. "We get this done and give Zoe a hand and hey, she doesn't think you look half bad." he reminded Baz.

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

As Michael and Baz were trying to recover their momentum on the city streets, as the Starbright fled into the alleyways of the city, a heaviness came over the area.

 

Dark shadows played at the edges of one's eyes, the real shadows of people twisted and jerked, untethered from what the person was doing. A dark cloud seemed to form from nothing and roil and bubble into blocking out the formerly blue sky. A chill reached into the bones of those around and clenched, sending people shivering. Snow started to fall, slight at first, then heavier and heavier, chokingly cold. People ran for cover, but many started to fall, as if exhausted from the sheer cold that was appearing.

 

And from the shadows came creatures; red skinned and scaled, gorilla like in posture with huge arms and chest and tinier legs, their large hands and legs ending in razor sharp claws. 

 

A far more delicate being emerged from the shadow of the crushed truck; still red skinned and scaled, still with large, thick claws, but her frame was slender and thin, draped in a long ballgown that glimmered with crystals. Her jewelry was made of ice, and where she stepped pillars of ice rose from the ground to catch her.

 

"...You aren't a Sentry." she said, clearly confused. "...Where's the Sentry? Where's the crystal?" 

[Supercape]

Gamma Buzz

 

"Screw her!" shouted Baz, giving a Cockroach-plated finger to Scutum. The perceptive might have noted that Gamma Buzz's huge red eyes were coated with green radioactive tears. 

 

His fury was soon cooled, almost literally, by the darkness and snow. 

 

"Hey, this isn't any good, is it? It actually looks pretty bad..."

 

He quickly whipped the crystal behind his back. "What buzzing crystal? We don't have a buzzing crystal. We never seen one, and we never will. In fact, we don't even know what you are talking about. Crystal? Pfft! The very idea that we have a crystal which we don't have!"

 

He looked around at the encroaching darkness and snow. 

 

"This is a cold welcome. Obviously we need to lighten the place up with some good old fashioned harmless lethal radiation!" he said, as the ground beneath his feet started to glow green. 

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

"Ah! What is this!?" She recoiled from the glowing light and heat like it struck her. She was not a being of light and it showed, she literally stumbled back, holding her hands in front of her face as the light hit her. The darkness, it seemed, wasn't just to hide their darkness, but to protect them from the light, and she stumbled away, trying to get away from Bazz.

 

"You...You're a wizard! A Magister! You've taken a modified form to increase your powers as well! Are you using the Umbra Star to cast this spell!?" she yelled, trying to summon more of her own darkness and snow, attempting to crush Baz's radiation under a blizzard of draining cold.

[Supercape]

Gamma Buzz

 

"That's right, baby!" said Baz, still alive with lingering fury from the "gross" comment. "I'm Grand Wizard Gamma of the Awesome order of Buzz!"

 

The radiation faded and contracted, but Baltazar had different plans. This lady didn't like light, it seemed - and he was going to shine. 

 

He jumped in the air, flipping, landing into a cartwheel by her feet, and stood up - all in one fast, fluid movement. Reaching out into his radioactive core, Baltazar let loose the inferno. 

 

For one second, the street lit up with a dazzling burst of green light. 

[Poncho]

(Golden Star Post)

 

"Wait, what?" Michael was pretty blindsided by this. Trust Baz to go in half cocked. He had no idea what was going on, but he wasn't sure Baz did either; he was just getting his anger out. He couldn't fault him for that, Michael had anger problems of his own, but he was definitely confused. Shadow creatures were everywhere now, and it seemed like everything was going to heck in a hand basket. But he was on Baz's side all the way, so he grit his teeth and prepared for a fight

 

Radiation sparked up, then snow, and it was very dark, then very bright as Baz and the lady started exchanging blows.

 

"You got her buddy!? She's all yours!" he yelled before lashing out at some of the shadowy creatures around. He was a bolt of lightning dashing between them with devastating elbow and knee strikes, sending them sprawling and knocking them out in seconds, where they turned back into shadows and disappeared.

 

"What the..."

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

Snowfall and her Shadow Warriors were not creatures of light, and Buzz erupting into a bright green light directly in-front of Snowfall made her scream in pain, grabbing at her eyes as she stumbled away. Her soldiers were even more affected, their eyes hissing with bright light as they stumbled around blindly.

"No! No! The light burns! Damn you you...you....you disgusting bug!" she screamed. Through blistered eyes and ice cold fury she aimed a clawed hand at Buzz, attempting to drain his strength from him; not to her, but...away. Into a pulsing orb attached to her hip.

 

Meanwhile, the Shadow Soldiers all jumped at him, though only one could see through his eyes, and his attack struck true, while the others all swung wildly and blindly.

[Supercape]

Gamma Buzz

 

"Oof!" said bazz as he got clonked by one of the soldiers, right in the jaw. "Is that all you got, hombre? I think you forgot about my amazing Cockroach armour! It would take the force of a very hard punch to break through my unbreakable armour plates!"

 

He jumped again, fast, accurate, landing on the side of a nearby building. 

 

"Why don't you... lighten up!"

 

His eyes glowed a moment, before a beam of green radiation swept through the street, mowing down the shadow squad. 

 

"Get that, Mi... I mean Golden... I mean Golden star! Lighten up! Eh? Eh? Get it?"

[Poncho]

(Count as Golden Star Post)

 

The fight was in full swing now as Baz swept over not just the Shadow soldiers- sending most of the remaining group back to the shadows where they began. But as the burning beam hit towards the shadow commander Snowfall, there was a thunderous bang as someone interjected, knocking Buzz's beam away with his hand and protecting Snowfall.

 

"Fellwrought..." Snowfall mumbled.

 

The new person was as corrupted as Snowfall and the shadow soldiers; red skin and a hulking frame with big claws. But he was covered in heavy armor, and held a polearm and a shield. He adjusted his helmet as he faced down Baz, his eyes the color of emeralds.

 

On the chest of his armor was a constellation, a roaring Lion, the constellation of Leo. But it didn't seem 'correct'; the stars twinkled an evil red on his pitch black armor, as if it was sealed into the metal.

 

"Snowfall. Lord Pavo has asked me to assist you."

"You mean steal my own Sentry power. I found it, the Bug has it." she snarled.

 

"No, Snowfall. The power is yours, Pavo was clear. I am simply here to help you reclaim it while he reclaims the Scutum." the armored man responded in a flat statement. "Do not worry."

 

"...Well...Good." Snowfall said. "Then let's take these two out!" she declared as she directed a flurry of snow and Ice at Baz, trying to pin him to the building and freeze him solid. "We'll pin this bug down, then deal with whatever this hanger-on of his is." She said, noting to Michael, who had just finished taking out the only Shadow soldier that Baz hadn't obliterated with his sweeping beam.

 

"...Buzz, what do you think they meant about the Scutum?" Michael called as he faced down the snow creature and the new arrival.

[Supercape]

Gamma Buzz

 

"What are you looking at me for? I don't know!" said Baz. "But I can tell you one thing, they aren't getting it!"
 

The Ice tickled his feet, but before it extended over his body he jumped free, landing on the opposite side of the street, on another wall. 

 

"And they are going to have to be faster than that to beat me amazing cockroach reflexes!"

 

He looked back at the armoured man and Snowfall. "And as for you two - not only have I all the amazing powers of a cockroach, but the amazing powers of a radioactive cockroach, too! So, you better tell us everything about your evil plan in a slow, careful, and explicit monologue!"

 

"And here's some encouragement! Atomic breath, baby! Yeah!"

 

He filled his cockroach lungs with cockroach air, ignited the nuclear furnace in his chest, and breathed out a stream of glowing green radiation!

[Poncho]

(Golden Star Post)

 

As Buzz washed over the pair of shadow creatures from another dimension with a blast of terrible radiation, Michael dove fearlessly in after it- but only after it was fully out of the way- to try and punch through the armored creature's shell. He struck the shield at full force with his glowing fist, but it barely budged; he wasn't able to piece through the armor, backed by the strength of the Leo.

 

"Woah, this guy's tough as heck..." Michael mumbled to himself. "These shadow people aren't fooling around." He winced, making sure he could feel all his fingers. But when a lance of Ice threatened to stab Buzz, he flew up to meet it, catching it on his arm and drawing a gash that immediately froze over as he deflected the spear away from buzz. "Well if he's going to sit there blocking for her, I'm going to keep you safe too, Buzz." he declared to his classmate, his face set in a serious manner as he flew back down into the fray.

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

"This bug is really annoying!" Snowfall complained as the wave washed over them. It had clearly affected her, but even she wasn't one hundred percent sure how. She summoned up a spear of ice to try and hurl it at Buzz, but the other shiny boy deflected it- though not without damage-, and she became even more incensed. "Argh! Both of these two are annoying! They're just as bad as the Sentries! She yelled at her compatriot, who was busy eating a punch from Michael before he swung back with his polearm, but went wide. The armored warrior adjusted his spear and shield as he stared down Michael and Bazz.

 

"Bug, if you aren't already aware of why we're here, then you've stepped into the wrong engagement and I would suggest you leave. We are here to reclaim the powers of the Umbra Star for Queen Sola, that were stolen from her by her traitorous advisor, Enoch, and he ran with them. Across a hundred dimensions he traveled, and across a hundred dimensions she chased him; in each he gave up part of the Umbra Star's power to fight her, and in each Sola stole back a little more. Now that the Umbra Star is releasing so much power, we finally have the chance to obtain all of it, and return our world to it's rightful place." he said. He was stone-faced and serious, even as he explained all of this.

 

"The Scutum, as you called it, is but one of the powers of the Umbra Star. And Lord Pavo is currently obtaining it from the Sentry that we felt when we arrived. Which leaves us to obtain the power of the Taurus that we also found on our scanners, which was promised to Snowfall."

[Supercape]

Gamma Buzz

 

"Bug?" said Gamma Buzz. "I am no mere bug, lady! I am the amazing Gamma Buzz who is amazing. Amazingly amazing, actually. With a side salad of amazing lightly seasoned with amazing sauce. Just like your mother never made you!"

 

He started glowing green, ready for action. 

 

Intergalactic politics and diplomacy were not really his strong suit. 

 

"So you say, about this and blah blah and etcetera," he said. "But how do we know you aren't lying? And don't say you are telling the truth, because you might be lying when you say it!"

 

He was very pleased with that logic. 

 

"So if you are serious call the intergalactic star force alpha police, or something like that. For all we know, you are Lords of Evil hell bent on Universal domination! You certainly are all cold and dark and stuff. Not really want we want out of a universe. Although come to think of it, the universe is pretty good and being cold and dark. What I meant was we dont really want that out of the planets in the universe!"

 

"So bring it on! Unless you start beating us, in which case run away!"

 

He flipped into the air and swung a fist at the lady. 

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

"Why did you ask if you weren't even going to believe us!?" Snowfall yelled at him in anger. "If you didn't want us to answer your question, you shouldn't have asked it!" She said with clear frustration, as emotional as Bazz was but in the opposite direction, getting furious at the Radioactive Cockroach Kid who she was finding more and more confusing.

 

In a rage she lashed out at Golden Star, who was currently attempting to punch through Fellwrought and failing, and summoned an Ice Dagger, stabbing him directly in the side. "We'll just take our your friend, and then once you're incapacitated we'll make you talk in normal words!" She declared to Buzz, clenching her fist and shaking it at him.

 

Fellwrought gave no such words, he just slammed his polearm into Michael and sent the golden boy crashing into the ground in a crater, dazing him on the backswing.

 

"Just kill them both and take the gem." he said to Snowfall.

[Supercape]

Gamma Buzz

 

"That's a good point, and well made," said Gamma Buzz. "The reason is also very good, but for tactical reasons I cannot tell you it right now, because that might reveal our amazing master plan that is both masterful and planful, so there."

 

He flipped into the air, landed, spun, and whipped out a glowing foot in a clumsy fashion. For all his kung fu film buff expertise, he didn't actually know any martial arts (except in his head, of course)

 

"But if you tell me your master plan, we might tell you ours! Deal?"

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

"What are you talking about!?" Snowfall yells, clearly becoming even more confused and frustrated. "I JUST TOLD YOU WHAT WE WERE DOING YOU STUPID BUG!" She screamed right before Buzz kicked her in the face and she grabbed at her nose, yelping. "Ah! You...You stupid bug!" she squealed in frustration, turning around and swinging wildly at Buzz with an ice knife. "You! You! I hate you! We tell you what you're doing and all you do is ramble stupidly! You're so stupid! I told you what we're doing! We're taking the powers of the Umbra Star to return them to Queen Sola! Pay attention when you ask us questions!!!!" she screamed, her knife lashing out wildly and violently.

 

Fellwrought had decided he wasn't getting caught up in any of that, and instead was focused on continuing to strike at Michael, his axe being deftly dodged now that the golden boy had gotten his feet back under him.

[Supercape]

Gamma Buzz

 

"I don't ramble stupidly!" said Gamma Buzz, spinning away like a ballerina. "I ramble very intelligently, because I am intelligent and not stupid. Furthermore, to whit, and to woo, I am clever and eloquent and insert another adjective here. So take that. My rambling is of the highest calibre. In fact, I have the proportional rambleness of a cockroach. Cockroach-rambling is just one of my many incredible cockroach-powers!"

 

"Yeah!"

 

He vaulted into the air again, spun, twisted, and smashed both glowing fists in Snowfall's face!

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

"I hate this, I hate this, I HATE THI-"

 

Then Snowfall got hit hard by Baz, and she went down, flying into the back of the truck and trailer and curling into a ball. She covered her mouth with her hands but spewed up a rainbow colored liquid as she shuddered and moved to the side, crawling around. She was far too distracted and injured to even mount a counterattack.

 

Meanwhile, Michael was trying to get a grip on the armored man, but nothing was happening, the two were just ineffectually swinging at each other and making no progress. It was a pretty sad display from Michael, all things considered.

[Supercape]

Gamma Buzz

 

"Hate is such an UGLY word!"

 

With a hop, a skip, and a cockroach-bounce, Gamma Buzz was once again next to Snowfell, his arms shrugging apologetically. "Now, you may have noticed - you are glowing green. That's because not only do I have amazing cockroach powers, but amazing gamma powers, too. Is there not limit to my limitless power?"

 

With a sudden slice of his arms, he scooped her up and held her aloft. 

 

"And I have just invented an amazing new cockroach-tactic! Its called... err.... the DOMINO GLOW! What I do, you see, is throw you into the face of your terrible sidekick, over there..."

 

He pointed with a foot at the armoured man. 

 

"And infect him with radiation poisoning too! then you all go down like a line, well... two, domino's! And you glow at the same time! Hurray!"

 

With his cockroach-plan clear, he proceeded to throw the woman into the face of the man...

[Poncho]

(Golden Star)

 

Michael was cursing himself internally for his weakness again. While Baz was having the time of his life and easily clowning on these two, Michael couldn't even scratch them; worse than that, he was getting the snot beat out of himself, losing to these two. Was he that much weaker than Baz? Baz was good, he always knew that, but was he still that much farther behind his classmates? It didn't seem to matter what he did, he was always just so...late. There was Baz, easily knocking the snow lady around, picking her up like she weighed nothing, hurling her into the armorred guy. Why couldn't he do that? He was supposed to be strong, wasn't he?

 

Michael started to glow even hotter, an orb of red and yellow, his eyes two miniture suns and a vein in his head pulsing as he ground his teeth in frustration. He faced down the burly, red skinned creature, and held out his hand. He wasn't even sure what he was doing, exactly, but he was sick of being so pathetic. The creature turned to him and raised his spear again, intending to drive it through Michael.

 

"Stop." he didn't so much say as command, and the red skinned warrior with the spear and shield stopped all movements. It was like Michael was holding him in his clenched hand.

 

"Buzz. Hit him now." He called to the other teen.

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

Snowfall groaned as Baz picked her up and hurled her into Fellwrought, clutching at her stomach.

 

"Why...didn't you...move?" she whined, unable to get up from the ground. But her complaints fell on, if not deaf ears, then a mute mouth as Michael had the other Asterim denizen trapped in his own body. "...Stupid..." she groaned and then wretched, spilling her guts onto the snow as Buzz's radiation sickness took full hold of her. She was turning from a bloody, bright red to a pale blue, her skin breaking out into bubbles or starting to shed. She groaned again and then toppled over into the snow in a ball. 

 

"I can't...keep going..." she said, all of her energy fully sapped in just a few moments, and as she lay there, she shifted, turning less and less physical, more and more into a ball of barley moving shadows. Eventually it was like an entire cocoon of shadowy darkness had enveloped her, and then collapsed inward as she disappeared, drawn back to her home dimension in defeat. 

 

With her gone, the snow and ice slowly started to clear up above the ground and the sun started to break through the clouds.