I Have Had It... [IC]

[Azuth65]

Catching her breath, Wisp readied herself for another sweep, she focused on the one who just hocked the acid/venom loogey at the guy in the helmet. She was a blur of elbows, fists, knees, and feet as her powers allowed her to quickly and rapidly deliver devastating blows to the reptilian terrorists.

[GranspearZX]

Standing at range seemed to be working so far, and the teenager and skinhead seemed to be doing a pretty good job of keeping the snake men suppressed. Still, he moved forward, though he was still at enough distance that he couldn't get to them--or vice versa.

"Whatever they eat," he chimed in, rearing back for another shield throw at the same two goons he'd targeted before, "they'd better hope Blackstone serves it."

[Avenger Assembled]

Citizen let his body phase out again, concentrating instead on just solidifying his fists. "You'll never know what I am," he predicted confidently to the battered bad guy. "Except that I'm here to stop you from hurting and scaring anyone else!" He punched the snakeman in the face. "Aliens aren't supposed to be monsters hiding in the subway!" He kicked the guy in the knee. "They're supposed to fly down in spaceships and save us from ourselves! Not plot against us to do evil!" He poked him in the eye.

[trollthumper]

The blow took the snake man full on; he hissed, then fell to the floor, just barely missing falling out of the gap between the cars. "Aliensssss?" hissed his warrior compatriot. "What issss the sssssmoke-form talking about?"

"Eh, just go with it," Cannonade said. He reached out for the snake man with a mighty fist, but the twisting of the car caught him off guard. "Damnit!" he said.

"We approach," said the warrior, with a distracted sense of reverence -- though he wasn't distracted enough not to drive the tip of his spear into Cannonade's shoulder. "Sssssoon the Coilsssss shall be looped, and Typhon shall risssse!"

"Typhon?" Cannonade yelled. "Who the hell is Typhon?"

"Your doom, warm one."

[Azuth65]

"Our doom? The fun fact about guardians like he sounds like is bringing them about tends to be slower than a massive beating," Wisp quipped, preparing for another assault on the remaining two reptilian combatants. "Or, to simplify, we're going to jump the gun on the Ides or March on your scaly asses," she punctuated this statement with a flurry of clumsy strikes at the duo. The movement of the train however worked to the snake's advantage and left her strikes wide and barely connecting when they even do.

[GranspearZX]

"Typhon, huh?"

Crusader charged forward, stowing the name in his memory. It didn't really ring any immediate bells... besides, he was too busy ringing the snake mens' bells to really think about it. To that end he shot across the car, managing to keep his balance pretty well; when he closed into range, he tried to bash his shield right into the serpent warrior's face.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Listen!" said Citizen, trying and failing to get the attention of the snakey warrior he was swinging at. "This is stupid! There are a lot more of us than there are of you, and you're just going to get yourself hurt if you keep this up!" He feinted left as the monster swiped at him, then swung a punch that turned glancing as it bounced off his armored jaw. "Even if I don't take you down, someone else will! And then you'll be in confinement, and what good will do yourself there?"

[trollthumper]

"You make take usssss," said the warrior. "But it doesss not matter. At the head lies our leader, and with him --"

"God, there's more of them?" Cannonade drove his fist right up under the scaly one's chin, with enough force to send him into the ceiling of the car. "I say we move up. That way --" He dodged out of the way of the last serpent man, who charged at him with his spear. "--we got a better chance of cutting whatever this is off before it's too late."

[Azuth65]

Wisp performed a series of flips and spins with her smokey teleporting strikes one the remaining reptile who had made the rather horrid mistake of attacking civilians in her town. "I agree completely," she replied to Cannonade.

[GranspearZX]

"Sounds like a plan to me!" He focused on the one serpent person remaining upright, trying to move past him to a more advanced position at the back of the car. He spun around and sent his shield spinning back at the last serpent person--it was easier than trying to keep up with Wisp's teleporting. It was making him a little bit dizzy just watching her. The car suddenly jerked and his swing went wide, bouncing against a pole and back at Crusader.

"Tch... damn it all..."

[Avenger Assembled]

"The whole train..." Citizen ignored the snakeman entirely, looking up and staring at the ceiling of the car intently. "It's all one big machine," he muttered aloud. "Primitive circuitry, no AI to speak of...but the train itself is still a machine, running on the same sorts of circuitry as anything else here. And that means it has mechanisms, and control circuits...and they've probably got safety systems...right?" He walked along, studying the machinery intently. "Is that right?" he asked again, trying to get the attention of the other heroes. Oh, man, if I mess this up, Gina's going to be so mad! Plus I might hurt myself...but I could stop us now!

[trollthumper]

"Yeah," Cannonade said. "They've been bringing the trains online over the past few months. More sophisticated computers, digital breaking systems --" The serpent man lunged at Cannonade; Cannonade managed to dodge out of the way and deliver a blow with his heel that sent the snake reeling. "Hell, you can get cell phone reception in the tunnels these days."

[Azuth65]

"A major change from the subways back home in Chicago," called over her shoulder, getting ready for another round low flying acrobatics to lead off her attack. Unfortunately her foot smacked one of the benches and threw her balance off. The only thing that kept her from falling face first or hurting herself is her quickly activating her powers and appearing behind the last snakeman standing, allowing herself to fall elbow first and carrying the rebound into another series of strikes.

[trollthumper]

The snake man hit the floor of the train with a scaly bump. "City of wonders," Cannonade said as he cast a glimpse down the train. The people in the next car were still mostly on the floor, but were starting to get up, now that it seemed the danger had passed. In the car after that, however, he couldn't see a thing. Everything was coated in shadow, and he could swore he saw a strange light gleaming every so often from within.

What the hell's going on in there?

He turned to Citizen. "Can you stop this train?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Me? Sharl gave the helmeted hero a slant-eyed look, eyes hidden behind his shades. Why me? But despite his momentary reaction, he couldn't deny that he'd been thinking along the same lines as Cannonade. "Yeah. Yeah, I think I can." Citizen crossed the car to the train's converter box, fixing it with a serious gaze. "Don't be mad," he was heard to mutter under his breath, before he rolled up his sleeve. "I have a feeling this is going to hurt..." And with that, he shoved his hand inside the box! "Aagh!" The teenager glowed brightly, the grid pattern under his skin flaring almost impossibly bright, as his hand vanished inside the metal, and suddenly the whole train jerked and began screaming to a halt, sparks flying from the wheels as every circuit on board slammed shut. As the train halted, Citizen pulled his hand away and staggered back, falling down so hard he actually clipped right through the car floor!

[GranspearZX]

Crusader tried to see into the next car, much the same way as he had done before. He narrowed his eyes a bit, almost hoping to make something out between the flashes of light, but he got absolutely nothing. He stepped back and looked towards Cannonade and Wisp--just in time to see the other teen drive his hand into and through the converter box. "What the--!!"

He didn't have time to finish his thought; the sudden jarring of the subway train threw him off balance and onto the subway floor. As the car came to a literal screeching halt, he rubbed at his arm and tried to sit upright. "Is everybody okay? Geez, that was... ah..." He blinked at Citizen. The kid looked literally stuck in the floor. He wasn't even sure how that was possible.

"...huh. You're somethin' else, son..."

He managed a faint grin before hauling himself back to his feet, looking towards the others to check their condition before his eyes went back to the darkened car ahead. "Think that slowed 'em down?"

[trollthumper]

Cannonade kept his hand firmly gripped to a pole, but when the train came to a stop, he was surprised he didn't wrench it from its moorings. "Hopefully," he said, "that stopped whatever they're planning. 'Course, given the way we did it --"

Something like a strangled scream erupted from the head of a train. After a second of eardrum-splitting clamor, it didn't sound like a scream so much as someone trying to both scream and hiss at the same time.

"... yeah, they're pissed."

Steel split like butcher's paper as a gigantic snake-man clad in fineries and robes burst from the car at the head of the train. "Interloperssssss!" he shrieked. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

Cannonade adjusted his helmet. "Well, if it got you this mad, I'd say it was a good thing."

The serpent priest spat venom on the floor of the train, and charged forward.

[GranspearZX]

"...yeah, we just ruined his day. Nice."

Crusader was at the front of the car, the smug grin on his face fading as the priest came into view. His first instinct was to rush right back at the robe-wearing serpent man, shield first to slam right into the charging figure. It seemed like a rather impulsive thing to do, but it hardly seemed heroic just to let the guy blow past him.

[trollthumper]

The blow knocked the priest to the floor of the train. "Huh," Cannonade said. "Long fangs, glass jaw, I guess. Then again, seems a bit too easy..."

The priest's eyes flashed open as he rose from the floor, his head brushing against the roof of the train as he lets loose a hissing shriek that could break glass.

"...yeah, there it is."

"The ritual can be rebuilt," the acolyte hissed. "And when Typhon rissssesssss, you will be the first to feed hisss hunger!" The priest threw his staff to the floor of the train, where it exploded into a cloud of splinters. Before Cannonade's very eyes, the splinters began to reform into a mass of gray snakes. The snakes hissed, and darted towards the legs of the heroes, seeking to bind them with their coils. Cannonade, however, was faster, leaping over the darting snake and stepping aside from it on its return journey.

"Nice trick," he said as he drove his fist into the snake-man's nose. "What's Moses think of you stealing his material?"

"Hisss was jusssst parlor tricks, warm-blood," the snake-man said. "Mine issss the true benediction."

[Azuth65]

"Jeeze, they just don't stop," Wisp muttered as she jump and launched herself into a flip after kicking herself forward by way of a support pole. Her hand spring was followed by a series of smokey strikes.

"Where's Mace Windu when we need him?"

[Avenger Assembled]

Citizen sat up, having fallen much too close to the electrified third rail for his own comfort. Holy! That could have hurt me really, really badly...or worse! He opted not to mention that close call to Miss Americana or Gina, the last thing he needed was either of his mentors corralling his nighttime activities and keeping him from adventures like this. Even incredibly dangerous ones. With just his upper torso sticking up through the car floor, he advanced on the Serpent priest. "I am really, really getting tired of dealing with you freaks!" He threw a clumsy punch and said what sounded like a bad word. "Somebody take this guy out already!"

[GranspearZX]

The Crusader seemed like an older guy in his speech and manner, but he was surprisingly nimble for a stocky guy, hopping backward and then up onto a seat when the snakes came slithering his way. He scowled and his eyes narrowed, rearing his shield back and turning his body like a coiled spring before launching the large metal disc at the Serpent Man's head.

[trollthumper]

The disc caught the priest right between the eyes. As the serpent man's hold on his power wavered, the snakes on the floor dissolved into mist.

"Some power," Cannonade said. "You'd think with all that mojo, they'd find a way to stay upright." He brought his fist down on the priest's head -- only for the priest's tail to flick upwards and knock it aside.

"My power goessss down to my very bonessss, mammal," the priest spat. "I have heard the whissspersss of the depthsss for sssssoooo long. The ssssecret sssssongs of darkness, the heartbeat of lava... the dreamssss of the Unsssspeakable One... and the will of Typhon, Father of Monssssterssss. And there isssss no power on Earth that will keep me from my goal!"

"I dunno about that." Cannonade jerked a thumb to Citizen. "He seemed to do a fine enough job of it."

[Azuth65]

Turning to look at their oversized opponent Wisp balled her fists. "Hey Tiny! I think if there are giant humanoid mongooses around they'd keep you from your goal. Well, until let's play a game. I'll be Rikki Tikki, you can be Nagaina."

With the taunting words Wisp launched herself in to a series of jumps from the various surfaces of the car and into the reptile's 'gut'.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Maybe you are," said Citizen, glaring up at the lizard man, "but there's something you should know." The leather-clad teenager jumped in the air, coat billowing behind him like a cape, and landed on the subway car floor with a clang. "I'm not _from_ Earth." He drew back his fist and hurled a devastating left hook that sent the serpent priest sprawling backwards, taking the archvillain completely off-guard with his powerful blow. "I'm a free citizen of the Internet," he added belatedly.