ic [Gorgon] Latchkey Kids (IC) (GM)

[Electra]

Koshiro, his hair slicked down into his face by the sudden downpour, was the first to step forward to take a look at the dead automaton. He was glad the fight had ended fast; his creations weren't worth a damn bit of good in the heavy rain. He leaned over and examined the sparking, stuttering stump of the neck, then gave Sharl a look that couldn't help but be a little impressed. "Nice shot," he said. "How'd you know he was a robot?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"...I..." Sharl looked down at the robotic body at his feet, thinking back wildly to the words he'd heard tumbling from the mechanism's mouth. He knew, he knew, oh dear God he knew. If the Crime League knew where Sharl was from, if they knew what he was, his parents, his sister, and fifty million people could be forfeit the moment the Crime League attacked the Sanctum again. Even with the Gorgon still closing in on Earth, the acute realization of just how vulnerable they all were had struck him like a bolt of lightning. So he'd struck back..."That wouldn't have killed a person. I mean, the real Stratos could have gotten out of the way, or deflected it with his powers!" Bending low, he picked up the pieces of the robot's head in Daedalus' suit's hand.

[KnightDisciple]

Templar had audibly growled when Stratos started disparaging his team, especially the "circus freak" comment about Sage. He'd taken a step toward the weather controller, blue flame swirling around him, rain sizzling on his armor...when Sharl blasted his head right off. He stood there in a bit of shock, unsure of what just happened. Then, a sudden thought came to him, and he flew to the edge of the roof, making a quick circle before touching down next to the others.

"Hiroshima Shadow ran. Coward's nowhere in sight."

He walked over to Sharl, gently laying a hand on the bulky suit's shoulders.

"It's okay, Sharl. The important thing is, we stopped the bad guys. We showed them we aren't just a bunch of kids. And they didn't get a hold of this thing."

He frowned.

"Though...Does Stratos normally use robots like that?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"No. No, he doesn't." Holding carefully between mechanical thumb and finger, Sharl picked up a curved piece of what looked like colored glass run through with nigh-invisible filaments of gold. "This is a neural transceiver chip. It's used for inputting high-speed motor and electrical commands, the kind you'd use to fool a mentant trying to scan a synthezoid's brain." He balled the suit's other hand into a fist. "It's far beyond human technology. This is..." The armor's head tilted up, its eyepieces looking up at the sky far overhead, before he seemed to shake himself out of it. "I need to get out of this suit and find Miss Americana," said Sharl, his voice tight even through the projection. "Can the rest of you try and reach the school? Maybe get some help?"

[Fox]

Wraith blinked her three black eyes, watching the scene play out in silence. She was pretty sure a robot's neck was stronger than a human's, but she'd never really been one for the inner workings of machines (they worked, and that was really all she ever needed to know), so she didn't press the point; instead she glanced at what was left of the Stratos-bot and then down at Blackstar, who she'd been rather unceremoniously dragging around, figuring it was best not to leave even an unconscious villain alone in the middle of the building.

"....help for what?" she asked, blinking again. She could tell Sharl was upset by something, but she felt like she was missing a critical piece to a jigsaw puzzle (or, at least, the Kinigosi equivalent to a jigsaw puzzle). "Hiroshima has fled, Stratos was...not here, it seems, but his impersonator was beheaded, and Rojan Lhar is unconscious. We were fortunate to not encounter all our enemies at once, but I do not think any are left?"

[April]

"How would you..." Sage started to ask before cutting herself off as well as raising a hand to forestall any answer. "Never mind, it's not relevant nor is it my place to ask." The teen telepath scrubbed a gloved hand through her short white hair and looked off in the direction of Claremont. "Phones have been tied up since news of the Gorgon hit, who did you have in mind at Claremont? It's in range, I could contact who you need directly."

She turned back to look at her teammates, casting a quick glance and thought in Corbin's direction. -I'm not happy with the thought of some piece of hardware lying to me, Corbin.- she thought somewhat sourly.

[KnightDisciple]

"The only thing I can think of we really need help with is making sure Blackstar's secure. And maybe getting power back up here."

He frowned and nodded his head toward the robo-Stratos.

"I get that Miss Americana's good with tech, but maybe we should stow that here and, oh, maybe work on keeping this place secure? There's mroe than 3 people in the Crime League, you know. We can't just all split off now. Can't you call her, maybe have her swing by here to pick it up?"

It was clear Corbin wasn't fond of the idea of splitting up.

-I'm in a generally sour mood myself, Eve. Let's not be too hasty, though. I think right now we need to stick together. Then later we can pin Sharl down and make him give us the whole truth. Because I don't appreciate a teammate lying to me.-

He sighed and shook his head.

"Look, if I can't convince you to stay, fine. Leave with the sample. But we had better get some sort of report on that when she's had a chance to look at it. Something's going on here. My gut says we're gonna have further difficulties by the time this is done."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Look, once you get the computers back up, you can call me. I'll can be here in a second from anywhere on the planet." Citizen was genuinely torn between his teammates and the situation at hand. Wasn't the threat they were already facing from the Gorgon enough? Did everything have to happen at once here? "Difficulties?...You don't understand. None of you understand." He held up the broken circuit, imprisoned in his electronic body and the steel shell around him. "Nobody but people at the Lab and the Freedom League recognize me, and we stopped Stratos _before_ he hacked their systems. He knew us. He knew who I am. He must be watching Earth to see if we fight off the Gorgon, to see if we're worthy to collect." The sunlight gleamed off the alien metal in his hand. "This isn't from Dr. Stratos, and this isn't from any science on Earth. This is from the " he added, speaking a word that was the same in his archaic Galstandard as it was in Wraith's, after all, it was the same thing. And with that, the battlesuit with the program inside stepped off the roof and flew away on noisy boot jets towards the West End.

[Electra]

Koshiro shaded his eyes and watched as Sharl flew away with the broken robot. Something important had obviously just happened, but damned if he understood the first thing about it. He looked over to the others, gauged their expressions, and wasn't much enlightened. Something bad, something to do with the Gorgon and knowing who Sharl was, as though one teenager's secret identity was so important. "So what's a ?" he asked. mangling the pronunciation of the alien word.

[Fox]

Wraith's eyes weren't so much eyes anymore as they were saucers, three wide near-circles on her face as the rest of her just...slumped for a minute, deflated and staring up at the stars she couldn't really see through the atmosphere and the starlight-drowning civilization. She dropped Blackstar's leg, her cockiness all but robbed by Sharl's revelation. Beating the Star Knight traitor had been an awfully big thing a few minutes ago....

"T...the is coming here? It...Earth has its atten...."

She shook her head, drawing herself back up and forcing her eyes back to a more normal size. Her voice was a little more controlled, but still colored with the sort of caution one usually saves for incoming storms. ". It is the Lor's name -" - she still had to ask Sharl about that - "- it is....I do not remember your word. I think the translation is something like...Archiver? No...it is less documents and more...specimens and curiosities, like a museum. You would say...Curator, I think? I believe that was in the briefing when we came here, I did not really pay attention. If he is turning his gaze to Earth, we will need a great deal of help."

[Gizmo]

The downpour didn't have much direct effect on Ghost Girl, passing right through her ethereal form, but it certainly made it difficult to see what was going on and she was glad for the reprieve. She bobbed a little higher into the air in surprise when Stratos' head abruptly came loose and spent the next several moments looking between her new teammates trying to follow just what was going on. "Gosh, robo-duplicate... who'da thought?" she murmured to herself, shaking her hooded head in bemusement. "Oh, well, a curator doesn't sound so bad," Kimber replied to Indira's explanation. "Or... or is it like how the big head thing says 'preserve' and that sounds okay but it's really not? Is that like a space slang thing to do? Like so bad it's good?!"