No Mutation Without Representation! (IC)

[Gizmo]

Jack managed to throw himself to the side as the speedster came roaring past, avoiding being clotheslined, but stiil taking a hit in the shoulder. Shrugging it off, he leapt at the hulking powerhouse while he was distracted by Phalanx's departure. Slipping in and around the brute's defenses, he struck precisely and often. "Jack think's Slammer's cliché speech impediment is getting on his nerves. I said get. Me. Knievel. I'm done with you lot."

[Taar]

With a soft whisper of displaced air, Sarah reappears crouched down on the roof of a building opposite the site of the attack. Concentrating on getting rid of the exhaustion from the jump she finally manages to slow down her breathing. Wiping the sweat from her face, she peered over edge of the roof, taking in the changes in the battlefield.

[angrydurf]

Phalanx didn't even watch as the telekinetic flew through the air. He wasn't going to be back anytime soon. With a grimace he turned to survey the battle below. As Jack of all Blades flaming sword slashed at the hulking enemy he descended at speed slamming his shoulder full force into the dazed villain hoping to put him down for the count.

[quotemyname]

The big blue Slammer had turned just in time to see Jack dance behind him. The flurry of Jack's blade covered every inch of his body. Bright red welts appeared everywhere from the fire. Slammer cried out in obvious pain, too surprised, or blinded, or hurt, or all three to do anything. All the big Academy student could do was cover his face to avoid losing any vitals.

It was that action that left him unable to see Phalanx's dive bomb attack coming. The teen hero swept in, and shoulder barged the big blue powerhouse. The force of the impact was only enough to send Slammer to one knee, but it was so destructive, he didn't rise back up again. Instead, he toppled forward to the ground, unconscious.

[Moira Morley]

Divine readied her best lines. As soon as the speedster rounded the corner she was going to stop him in his tracks. When she caught sight of him she whistled towards the running boy. "[divine]Hey,[/divine]" she waved at him with a coy voice, "[divine]Come over here.[/divine]" She smiled with at him, "[divine]I've got something for you,[/divine]" she said in a sing song voice while tugging at her new dress. "[divine]And I think you'll like it.[/divine]" She winked at him. Man was this too easy sometimes.

[quotemyname]

Hot Shoe barreled back towards the fight, planning on making another pass at the wily swordsman, when Knievel's voice echoed over the radio once more. "Alright, Maggots!" Their commander bellowed, "Phase two is complete. You've done good. Pick up the pieces and move out. Remember, it'll be a week in the electrified hamster wheel for anyone who gets caught and forces me to bail their asses out!"

"Right-o,yourawesomeness,sir!" Hot shoe spoke into the radio as he rounded the 14th block that second.

"I read you." Stellar called, pressing his hand to his ear.

---

The red streak that was Hot Shoe ran towards, up, and over the walls of the compound once more. The trail of flame that he generated followed him wherever he ran. He put on the breaks hard in the center of the compound near his fallen companion, Zealot. Hot Shoe screeched to a halt, a black streak on the pavement about five feet long betrayed both the speed at which he had been traveling, and the friction required for him to stop so quickly. That's when he heard Divine call to him.

"[divine]Hey,[/divine]" she waved at him with a coy voice, "[divine]Come over here.[/divine]" She smiled with at him, "[divine]I've got something for you,[/divine]" she said in a sing song voice while tugging at her new dress. "[divine]And I think you'll like it.[/divine]" She winked at him.

Hot Shoe's jaw dropped. "Ohyeababy.YouknowhowmuchIlikeolderwomen.Cougars,baby.Cougars."

"Damn it, Hot Shoe!" Stellar called out from behind him. The youth had appeared after a teleport, kneeling by his fallen friend, Slammer. "I know you work fast, but you're gonna have to keep it in you pants this time. You heard Knievel. He's gonna beat our asses if we don't get out of here!"

"Crap,yourright!" Hot Shoe turned to look at Stellar, the motion was just a blur. Like when you skip frames in a movie and suddenly the characters are in a whole different position. "YoutakeSlammer,I'llgettheothertwo." His head wrapped back to Divine. "Sorry,baby.Nothertime,maybe?" In an instant he was standing next to Divine, scribbling on a piece of paper. It didn't take him long to jot down a few numbers and cram it into her hand. He rushed back to Zealot, "There'smynumber.Gottago!" and hoisted the other teen over his shoulder. He dashed to where Emperor lay, and looked back at Divine. He made the "call me." gesture with his left hand before he quickly scooped Emperor up, dashed over the wall, and was out of sight.

"Good job, Hot Shoe. Stellar! Enact Phase 3, then get the @#$% out!" Knievel radioed.

"You want Knievel?" Stellar spoke as he hunched over his big blue friend. The frail looking teen was dwarfed by the size of his companion, even when he was prone. Stellar was visibly sweating from the simple act of teleporting back to the compound. "Fine. He's in there." he gave a jerk of his head, keeping his hands on Slammer to steady himself. With one hand, he removed the earpiece he was wearing. He flicked the switch and tossed it a few feet to the side. "But if I were you? I'd cut your losses." He fixed the collective group of heroes with an even stare. All except for Sarah, whom he could not turn to see. "Yea, I'm in the academy and all. But my reasons are different from the rest. So take this to heart, because I'm probably going to get an ass whooping on top of the one you gave me just because of that stunt." He pointed to his deactivated communicator. "You go in there? Don't expect to come out. At least not in one piece." He grunted, and forced himself into a crouched position. He placed a hand on Slammers back and his eyes began to glow silver. A strange silvery glowing circle decorated with glyphs and designs appeared around the two of them, slowly rotating. "Now, we're going to take our friends and get the hell out of here. And you're going to let us go. Because unless I miss my guess," He glanced sideways back at the building, "You've got bigger fish to fry." Suddenly, the blue robed mystic, and his large blue friend were no longer in the compound.

[angrydurf]

Phalanx kept himself between the speedster and Jack of All Blades and delayed just long enough that he was unable to get to Stellar in time to stop him and slammer from escaping. As they vanished he looked to the other heroes and seeing that those nearby seemed not badly injured let out a sigh of relief.

He turned to the building in question and willed his sight to pierce the walls as he began to look for knieval and whatever trap the villain likely had laid for them. "I'll try and find Knieval." He explained as he gazed through the walls.

[Taar]

Seeing the attackers turn tail and run, Sarah stood up and warped next to Divine.

"Okay, I'm pretty sure that's Dr. Archeville himself with the ray gun, and I sort of recognize the guy with the fire sword, though I can't remember his name at the moment. Do you know who the big guy is?" Pausing for a moment to think, she then continued, "Knieval's that nutjob athlete guy, right?"

While waiting for the guy in the cape to find Knieval, Sarah absently held a hand, glowing with a faint blue light, to her cheek and began regrowing her lost tooth.

[Dr Archeville]

NOOO!

Focus, man, we have wounded to tend to!

Yeah, but the wounded ones I want to 'tend' to just got away!

Yes, they just confirmed Knievel is here, so we need to prepare accordingly. And that means getting our men into top form.

Archeville shut off the Magnetic Nullifier and tucked it under one arm as he zipped down to Jack.

"You are injured, ja?," the Doktor asked as he began to manipulate the controls of his techno-wand again. "I should have a setting here dat can help you; ve vill need every edge ve can against Knievel."

[quotemyname]

Captain Knievel paced the floor of the large room at the bottom of the subterranean structure underneath the Archtech facility.

"So wait, let me get this straight." He had his hand on his ear, and was speaking into the radio. "You actually handed her a phone number? You dog!" Knievel smiled, and his teeth gleamed a pearly white. *SHEEN*

He listened intently to the voice at the other end of the line before saying, "Yea, that's great. I don't really care about them. I'm sure they'll be fine. But tell me. What number did you give her?" More mumbles came from the other end of the radio. "The rejection hot line? Classic!" Knievel stopped pacing for a moment to examine his face in the reflective side of the boot of a large combat ready mech. Picking a piece of spinach from his teeth he watched them sparkle for a moment before saying, "Hot Shoe, my boy. I think a reward is in order. You did such an awesome job, I think this calls for a trip on my yacht!" *HONKHONK*

The conversation continued, for another few moments, before wrapping up. "Okay, now put Stellar on." Knievel waited while the exchange was made. "Stellar...That's right...You all made it?...Good, good. Now please tell me you remembered to hit the self destruct switch on your radio?...Good...Yes, yes, I...No damn it! You will ride on the yacht when I SAY you can ride on the yacht!" *CAP* *RULZ*

[angrydurf]

Phalanx frowned slightly as his vision was blocked by the Doctors panic rooms but the power was new to him and hadn't seen extensive testing good to know it could be blocked he supposed. As his gaze drifted down his frown deepened unable to make out much of the lower levels at all.

"Looks like defenses are active inside, I would guess all the employees are in the secure rooms I can't see into." He explained after a moment he continued, "Little trashcan looking bots running around in the building and stronger defenses lower down, combat robots and stuff guarding against assault from up here."

He looked to the group, "If Knieval is in there he's either in one of those secure rooms or way down in the substructure. The elevator to the lower levels looks to be in order still though."

He flits his gaze to Archeville, "Normal lock down I assume?"

[Gizmo]

Jack cracked his neck stiffly as Archeville arrived. "Eh, just banged up a little," he grimaced. "Freakin' superspeed; s'cheat, is what it is." The swordsman eyed the scientist's device warily. "That, uh, is the same thing you just fried that kid with, right?" Since his magically induced trip down Acheville family memory lane, the Doctor's amusing quirks had seemed a lot less benign.

When the hefty youth spoke, Jack cocked an eyebrow. "Lockdown, shmockdown. Doc probably designed the place himself. He can lead us right though. I wanna see Knievel try to do his gleaming smile bit with a mouthful of chicklets." The swashbuckler was fuming, his pride clearly hurt more than his body. His annoyance was momentarily sidetracked by a sudden thought. "Why'd the flying punk toss away his earpiece? I kinda tuned out his 'rue the day' speech."

[Moira Morley]

Moira nodded to what Sarah was saying.Everything she said was right. Nutjob athlete guy. She sighed and remembered when he was just crazy. She smiled and pointed out everyone as she whent along, "[divine]Doctor Archeville, yes. Jack of all Blades with the fiery sword. Phalanx is the big guy. Captain Knievel is the nutjob. And if he's anywhere around, Malice will be too. And now you know everyone. Now that you know everyone, mix and mingle.[/divine]" She snickered.

[Dr Archeville]

"Ja, it is," the Doktor replied to Jack's concern about his Gadget, "but dat vas den, und dis is now. Dark Star's radiations can heal or harm, as can de lights of Lady Liberty; dis vorks de same vay."

Phalanx's report concerned him.

If Knievel set off those sentry-bots, he wouldn't have let them keep going, he would've just smashed them.

Do not forget, he does possess a frightfully keen tactical mind. Setting traps like this would-

Bah! Like he could hack into our systems! He- oh!

Exactly!

"I did design de place, und de robots und other defenses," Archeville replied, "but Knievel vouldn't be able to get dose all to obey him. Dat vould take someone mit more technical know-how... vhich makes it qvite likely dat Malice is down dere, too. Und if he is, he is probably going to activate all manner of prototypes und other untested measures in dere, so de usually non-lethal deterrents could be turned into qvite a nasty gauntlet for us."

"As for de earpiece," he went on, tentatively nudging it with his boot, "it could be dat von of us is to vear it, und Knievel vill give us a guided tour through de building, pointing out all de traps he und Malice haff set und taunting us with all de horrible dings dey vill do, und dat ve are powerless to stop dem. Dere are, of course, several people inside, und vhile dey are probably safe in de panic rooms, dey are nonedeless hostages. It is possible I could use it to backtrack deir communications signal und use it to pinpoint de location of anyvon else vearing von of dese... but Malice vould surely have dought of dat, und rigged it to lead us on false trails. But surely dere is... hrrmmm...."

[angrydurf]

Phalanx looked at the small device on the ground and stepped quickly over to it plucking it from the ground. "If he left it behind it was on purpose, playing to what they want us to do isn't going to get us anywhere." He said as one big hand closed around the earpiece. Turning back to the others he paused thoughtfully for a moment, "When your enemy has a plan its usually best not to follow it."

[Gizmo]

"Unless!" Jack declared, holding up a finger and pacing dramatically, "They know that we know they have a plan, and they want us to not follow the plan we think they have, 'cause they've really got a different plan than the plan we know about. Or maybe they know that we know they know, and they're counting on us to know their plan is a double bluff when really it's a triple bluff... with a twist!"

He turned to Phalanx with a smirk. "Of course, it's a trap, kid, but you're invulnerable and I'm much too pretty to die, so let's get going! Knievel's face isn't going to cave itself in."

[Taar]

Giving Moira a quick smile in thanks for names, she listened in to the discussion. After thinking for a moment, she stepped forward.

"Um, hello everyone. My name's Sarah, I'm here with Divine. Doctor, I don't know how useful it might be in this situation, but I'm able to teleport and I don't need anything more than a general description of where I'm going to do it. I can't directly bring anyone with me, but I can put someone in a sort of extra-dimensional pocket. If there's somewhere inside that you want to get to and it's not blocked off from me, I could take you there."

[Geez3r]

"Well that was over fast." muttered Malice. "However at least we can properly gauge the potential of their group more accurately. And I'm ripping the video surveillance for use in our next training simulations. They are going to need more discipline after this little fiasco here. Still, they at least all managed to get out of there alive. That's something. Wished they would have at least slowed the heroes down a bit. They've gotten quite a bit better in our absence. Have all the other preparations been made?"

[quotemyname]

"You're damn right about that, Malice." Knievel said as he stared at the video screen. He watched as Slammer clocked Sarah halfway across the city. "That kid's got a mean right hook. But we've got to teach him to play to his strengths. He's good at trouncing those that are smaller and weaker than him, and what does he do? He attacks Phalanx." Knievel said with a frown.

"Still, the ambush went off without a hitch." He reasoned. "It was a good plan to have only half of our forces guarding the place and to have the more mobile members of the team rush in at the last second. Testing that attack pattern being one of our main goals, I'd say today has been successful so far." He smiled, suddenly the light shining off of his teeth. "And damned if I won't get to kick that @#$% out of that nerd Archeville. It's been too long!"

"Have all the other preparations been made?"

"Yea, everything is in order." Knievel replied to his friend and partner. "In addition to the security protocols that were already in place, we should be all set. They might have gotten stronger, but I don't see how this can't work." A devilish smile played across Knievel's face. "No matter what they do, they're screwed. But I do so hope they @#$% up." He said thoughtfully as he surveyed their handiwork from across the room. "I want to see it go 'BOOM'!"

[angrydurf]

Phalanx nodded to Jack and crushed the device in his hand, "Good enough for me." He said and moved towards the main door preparing to get them an entrance. Doc could direct the teleporter better than him anyway and the rest of them still needed a way in. He tested the door in the likely futile hope that it would not be locked down fully.

[Dr Archeville]

Jack's got the right idea.

Yes, the fact he is so appealing on multiple levels is why he was first pick for Projekt: Interceptor.

And another teleporter -- quite useful. And quite alluring, too.

Focus! Invaders! Knievel is messing with your stuff!

Archeville nodded along with Jack's they-know-we-know-they-know bit. When Sarah introduced herself, he place a hand on her shoulder. "Dat is useful, certainly, und if Malice is in dere, he has probably set up teleport denial areas dat I cannot just teleport in to. He may haff a vide-spectrum teleport denial system in place, dough, so your ability may not vork, either. I vould propose ve test it first, but I do not vish you to go into an unknown und potentially very hazardous situation."

The Doktor manipulated the controls on his ultra-tech wand again, and a holographic image of the building's schematics appeared. "Phalanx, can you-" he asked before seeing that the teen titan was already on the main door.

Ha! You cannot break down my door, your pubescent punk!

And if he does? We are studying him for a reason.

... yes, the Terminus energies that affected him. This could work out well, give me a fist-hand look at him in action.

... but Knievel and Malice are here, and doing who knows what to the people inside! And to your stuff!

He turned back to the hologram, and motioned the others over to look on, "some of dem are probably held up in de second sub-basement, dere. Dat is vhere much of de heavy-duty testing occurs, as vell as housing for de servers mit data on various projekts. De tech dey could use against us, or simply steal to sell it -- und my research -- on de black market for other villains to use und abuse. If ve are lucky some of mein override codes vill still vork to get us through de corridors, but I am not counting on dat. Moira," he glanced up to her, "I believe it vould be vest if you serve as point, drawing fire -- und attention -- from our foes. Jack, your senses vill be vital, pinpointing any power surges dat vould give avay deir position; you haff faced Knievel before, so you should recognize de energy signature of his veapons system. Sarah... "

Archeville looked at her for a moment.

"I know nutzing of you, aside from vhat you just told us. I assume you are proficient mit de use of dat blade, vhat else can you bring?"

[angrydurf]

Phalanx wasn't surprised by the door being sealed, after all the place was on lock-down, but he wasn't a fan of dealing with things in this fashion either. He paused and sized up the door before planting his hands at opposite edges and carefully planting his feet. He strained against the heavy door his arms bulging with the strain. Moments later he heard the tell tale cracking all around the door and pulled back with a mighty heave ripping the heavy blast door from its moorings with a screech of rending metal.

[quotemyname]

"WOOP WOOP WOOP! Intruder! Intruder! Intruder!"

With the door hefted above his head, Phalanx could see straight down the entrance hallway. About halfway down the 60ft hall hovered a pint sized robot. It looked more like a trash can than a security device, but it was sounding an alarm all the same.

"Multiple threats identified. Phalanx - Threat. Divine - Threat. Dr. Archeville - Threat. No File On Record - Threat. Jack of all Blades - Threat. Estimated threat level - Maximum!"

Whoever had taken over the building had obviously reprogrammed the security protocols to identify and reject anyone that entered the building, at least judging by the way it reacted to the presence of Dr. Archeville. Another noteworthy piece of information was that no matter who had broken in and mucked about with Archetech, if they hadn't known the heroes were on scene, they sure did now.

"Enacting security protocols Alpha, Beta, Tau, Epsilon, and Gamma!" The little robot beeped, "WOOP WOOP WOOP!"

[Gizmo]

Jack grinned as the diminutive robots appeared. There was one thing that all superheroes had in common, even if they rarely spoke of it. No matter how serious or indisposed towards violence, they all loved to smash mechanical drones into little pieces .

"Well then, Miss Sarah," he tossed off with a wink, "let's see what you can do with that thing." Without waiting for a response, he charged past the other heroes, straight down the hallway in front of them. As he neared the robot standing guard, he lunged to the left, but spun to kick off of the wall and deliver a flurry of jabs from the right. "Ya damn right, 'threat level: maximum', Artoo!"

[Taar]

Smirking after the Jack, Sarah leaned through the entrance and scan the halls to either side. With a soft tearing sound, she appeared behind the machine down the right-hand passage and slammed her sword down through a joint in the metal shell. Immediately the robot sagged and went dead as every drop of electricity in its power supply surged into the blade and was absorbed.

Just as suddenly, she was back with the others, the bruising on her face already gone.