ic Midnight Meeting (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

Wander didn't just knock Gamma down, she knocked him off his feet and away from the plane! Smashing face first into a nearby building, Gamma staggered back, hand on the back of his neck. "Owww! That hurt!" Obviously hurt, he turned and faced the two teens as he declared, "I'm going to punish all of you for that! You too, no-face!" He fired a blast of radiation at the teens who'd hurt him so badly, the shrieking green beam seeming to scorch the very air as it rocketed towards Midnight.

[Gizmo]

The radioactive blast caught Midnight full on as he dropped to the ground, but the lining in his costume allowed him to shrug it off with no ill effects. Here's to preparation, Trevor mused as he made a beeline for the downed Atomcar. He trusted Erin could keep Gamma busy, and in the meantime, he needed to get the people inside to safety. It's like a giant video game, he reminded himself, stopping Gamma's just one way to achieve the primary goal.

Looking at the door to the sealed vehicle, he momentarily stymied by the apparent lack of locking mechanism. Wracking his brain, the answer came to him: a magnetic lock wouldn't be visible from the outside and might be strong enough to have kept the colossal villain out. Acting quickly, he pulled a long, flat rectangular device from one of several zippered pockets inside his jacket. He laid it along side the door where it latched on and proceeded to make whirring and humming noises as it worked to unseal the door. As it went about its business, Midnight shot a furrowed glace over to the continuing battle.

[Avenger Assembled]

The door snapped open, just as Trevor hoped, disgorging a hard-eyed Tess Atom and a frightened civilian, a young man with short dreads and a Comets jersey on. "We were on our way to a game when Gamma jumped us," said the simulated Atom sibling. "What's the situation?" she asked brusquely.

[Electra]

"Keep an eye on the sky!" Erin called as she bounded after Gamma, leaving the passengers to Trevor. "I don't think we're done here!" When she reached Gamma, she didn't bother with any fancy tricks or posturing, just drove the butt end of her bat into his midsection as hard as she could.

[Gizmo]

"Under control," Midnight brusquely responded automatically, not bothering to take more than a split second to ponder the proper etiquette when interrupting a computer generated double of a celebrity's date while in the process of rescuing her. "Gamma is being dealt with." The level of detail in the simulation surprised him; he hadn't been expecting the brawl to include backstory. He didn't have time to appreciate it, however, while Erin was keeping their radioactive chum busy by herself. Narrowed red eyes looked from Tesla Atom to the civilian. "Is he injured? Can you fight?"

[Avenger Assembled]

With one mighty blow, Wander set the gamma-powered goon to his knees, smashing the Atom-Smasher over the head and sending him collapsing into an unconscious, still-faintly glowing heap. He wasn't hot to the touch anymore, but he was still pretty darn radioactive, and it was a good thing Wander was so very tough to be standing this close to him.

Over across the way, Tesla Atom and her date looked unhurt. "We're fine," she said, shaking her head, and she reached out to take her boyfriend's hand. "I've got to get back to the Nucleus. There's something really big brewing, and I was trying to get Tim out of the way." She shot a look at Midnight, a curious look on her face. "Do you know anything about Grue?"

[Gizmo]

"I know all about monsters in the dark," Midnight responded in a perfect deadpan, eliciting a confused look. "Aliens. Shapeshifters." His tone was terse but respectful. He tilted he chin upward, revealing a sliver more of his glowing red eyes from under his fedora's brim, and asked, "Why?"

[Electra]

Erin gave the downed supervillain a poke with the end of her stick, to make sure he wasn't about to get back up. From the look of it, he would probably be sleeping it off till the computer erased him. With a quick nod of satisfaction, she loped back towards the others, keeping a very wary eye on the slivers of sky visible between all the buildings.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Good. Because Tesla Atom didn't." And with those words, she suddenly drew back her fist and hurled it at Midnight, the limb, suddenly a razor-spiked, ominously dripping tentacle erupting past his face with blinding speed. She gave a malignant, terrible hiss at that, huge teeth erupting in her lovely face. Behind her, her 'boyfriend' turned bright red and began to grow and grow, suddenly reaching a height of nearly thirty feet as he revealed his true terrible alien nature!

[Electra]

Erin stared up at the two aliens, blinking. "No wonder I didn't get full credit for the scenario last time, I never opened the capsule and found these guys. Huh." Without further rumination, she ducked under "Tesla's" tentacle, spun on her heel, and drove the bat upwards into that maw full of teeth.

[Avenger Assembled]

Wander's staff drove itself deep into "Tesla's" mouth, breaking teeth and sending a shower of blood everywhere as the foul-faced fiend collapsed, landing in a welter of broken teeth and fangs, wiggling and hissing as it collapsed back to a single formless mass. With his 'partner' down, the giant Grue gave a terrible roar of rage!

[Gizmo]

If the simulated Grue hadn't stopped to quip at him, she might have taken off Midnight's head. As it was, he was given just enough warning to throw himself out of the way. There's a lesson in that, he supposed dispassionately. Don't talk so much.

As Erin disposed of the first alien, Midnight tumbled forward, rolling under the roaring giants view and swiftly coming up behind him with a swift kick to what would have been a pressure point... on a regular sized human, anyway. Trevor had to admit to himself that it wasn't much of a plan, but he wasn't exactly in his element. Time to broaden my horizons.

[Avenger Assembled]

The Grue gave an agonized roar as Midnight struck it a painful blow, staggering the huge giant. It looked down at Midnight and gave a terrible, angry hiss. "Your bones will feed the hives of our young!" he spat with murderous intent before hurling a massive bony fist the size of Midnight's entire body directly at the dark-clad teen, shattering the pavement beneath him.

[Electra]

Before the giant fist could connect, there was a flash of blue and gold as Erin leapt in front of Trevor and took the hit, the sound of it resonating in the dark street. The force of it knocked her to the ground and she looked a bit pained for a moment, but quickly got up again. "Let me throw you," she suggested to Trevor, with a nod to the giant thing's head. "It won't be able to hit you without hitting itself."

[Gizmo]

For all the stories his grandfather had told him, and all the times over the past months he'd willingly put himself in harm's way, Trevor had never been saved himself. One second he was about to be a greasy smear on the giant's fist, and the next an auburn haired amazon was taking the hit meant for him and getting back to her feet like it had been nothing at all. He felt as though the breath had been knocked out him despite the punch's deflection. In that moment, simulation or not, he would have followed Erin to the Terminus and back.

"You call the play," Midnight agreed with a curt nod.

[Electra]

For all the training she'd done, Erin hadn't done a lot of teammate-lauching, mostly because it was usually her that Mike was throwing or dropping onto opponents. But she knew the theory well enough. Trevor had done damage to that thing's leg, surely if he could get to a vital area, he could do more. She crouched and made a stirrup of her hands for him to put his foot in, then flexed her arms and straightened her body, sending him flying.

It wasn't a bad throw, really, for a first-timer, but her aim needed some work. Trevor didn't get quite as high as the head, but he landed on the huge chest and clung like a squirrel. It worked, Erin guessed.

[Gizmo]

In retrospect, maybe not a flawless plan... Trevor decided as he scrambled up the tower of angry alien, doing his best to keep moving while simultaneously holding on for dear life. Miraculously, he made it to the thing's head, where he viciously latched onto whatever fleshy bits he could lay hands on and began to smoke. Inky black fumes poured first from his sleeves, than out from his entire jacket and finally from his every pore, rapidly covering both himself and the Grue's head in utter darkness.

[Avenger Assembled]

Roaring helplessly, the blinded Grue went staggering around, waving its giant armored fists. "Crush you! I crush you!" It pulled back a giant fist and brought it up to smash it into Midnight, a blow that had the unfortunate side-effect of striking his own face full on. He staggered, and nearly fell, his blood running freely even as he walloped Midnight.

[Electra]

Erin watched from far below as black fog covered Trevor and the giant Grue. She hoped that was Trevor's doing, and thus why he'd asked about her ability to fight blind. In any case, it seemed to really bother the Grue, from all the yelling. She sort of lost track of what was happening up there, but the solid thump and the cry of pain from the Grue boded well. When the alien had staggered its way out of the cloud, she leapt into the air and straight for its head, leaping over it and smashing him in the forehead with her bat while she went. A quick mid-air sommersault turned her again as she headed downwards, landing with a soft thud behind the Grue. She quickly turned to watch what would happen.

[Avenger Assembled]

Wander's devastating blow, aimed at the area that Midnight had already cunningly tricked the Grue into striking, finished the huge shapeshifter with a single mighty strike. Giving a low, terrible moan, it collapsed beneath Midnight like a bowl of jelly, slowly collapsing down into a wet, sticky puddle as unconsciousness took from it all vestiges of shape.

[Gizmo]

Midnight managed to ride the collapsing monster to the street, sliding into the slick puddle in dissolved into. He glanced over at Erin. Aaand she can jump thirty feet straight up. Hoo boy.

Outwardly, he lifted a slime covered boot. "This will come out, right?" In theory this would all disappear when the simulation was turned off, but it sure felt real. And disgusting.

[Electra]

"Mmm, probably," Erin said noncommittally, looking at the mess. "There's some soap they keep down in the laundry room that's good for getting out stains on costumes. At least your costume's dark," she joked. The simulation began to clear, most of the slime, though not all of it, disappearing as the buildings faded into black walls that glowed with faint patterns of energy. Erin brushed a little excess slime off herself and looked over at him. "That was good work," she said. "Especially if you haven't done any group training before. Are you going to try and join a team while you're here?"

[Gizmo]

Midnight looked about as the city around them faded away. Even having know intellectually all along that it was a simulation, it was still something to behold. The sophistication of the technology amazed him. Shaking his head ever so slightly, he turned of Erin. "Not sure. Should I?" Trevor still wasn't entirely clear what that joining one of Claremont's 'teams' entailed. On the other hand, as much as his grandfather had always preferred to work on his own, he'd never spoken poorly of his time with the Liberty League. On the contrary, he still counted those years as the best of his life before marrying Trevor's grandmother.

[Electra]

Erin collapsed her bat, visibly relaxing as the simulation ended and a set of statistics appeared in glowing letters on the wall, grading her performance. They didn't really mean anything to Trevor, but Erin seemed satisfied enough. She tucked the bat back into her belt holster. "You can if you want to," she told him, "it's not required or anything. Most students want to be on one," she explained, "not everybody gets to be. It's a lot of extra work, extra training and stuff. Summers won't let anyone go out in the field without being sure that they're ready. But I think if you want to do hero work, it's a lot better to have a team than to be on your own."

She opened the door, letting in the scanty light from the long corridor. "The easiest way to get in is to have the people on a team decide they want you, and then they can ask to have you on the team. If you wanted, I'd um, I'd put in a good word for you with Young Freedom. The team's getting kind of big already, but I think you have some skills we could use."

[Gizmo]

Wiping some of the remaining sludge off his boots before venturing back out into the hall, Trevor reflected that there must have been some physical components to the simulation as well. He didn't have much of a head for electronics and computers, but the idea of the mechanical engineering involved set gears in motion in his head. Taking a last look into the Doom Room, he wistfully wished he had the opportunity to take some of it apart to see how it worked. Nothing critical, of course, just a panel or two. Maybe the door mechanism and the ceiling tiles. Plus whatever had dispensed the faux-Grue remains, of course...

Following after Erin, Trevor removed his hat and mask, replacing the fedora atop his dark hair. "Well, already owe you one for showing me the Doom Room," he told the statuesque girl. "If you guys need me for something, I'm there. See how it goes from there." The lanky youth wasn't looking to impose on anyone, but he had to admit that if he'd been running that simulation by himself, he would have simply been out of luck. If he was serious about living up to his grandfather's legacy, he was going to need help.