ic It's Gonna Be The Future Soon (IC)

[KnightDisciple]

Cobalt Templar's eyebrows rose at the sheer ferocity of Gal Vanic's attacks. Maybe they should visit Tronik more often if Kimber got this kind of energy from coming here! At her words about Sage's conditions, his eyes widened. She was right! He couldn't feel the mental link any more. His brow furrowed, and his larger self melted away as he crouched on the roof for a moment.

"I'll be back; we still need to disarm this thing. Give him a couple smacks to the mouth for me, would you?"

And then there was a scorched dent in the roof as he rocketed into the air, a trail of shining blue fire travelling in his wake. He flew through the air at top speed, thinking of nothing but getting to his team. His team that had at least one member down. He had to take a few precious moments to figure out where they were, but there'd been enough of a sense of direction that he didn't get too lost. The digital air seared in his wake as flames roiled around his body, his arms held straight forward, his translucent cape snapping behind him. Finally, he saw the tanker, which stood out due to the wisps of smoke and the flashes of the fight below. He angled down for his landing.

Those on the ship had a bit of warning as the sound of Templar's flames burning the very air reached their ears a few moments before he slammed into the deck, landing in a crouch, head facing down, his cape fluttering to stillness finally. Tiny tongues of blue flame flickered all over his body as he slowly raised his gaze and took in everything. Sharl's battered state, Sage's unconscious form, and the two enemies still standing hale and hearty in front of him. His face and voice were impassive as he took in the scene.

[Avenger Assembled]

Down below in the hold, the knifebodied monster continued to prowl among the trapped Tronik civilians, who had rallied from their fear now that their hero Citizen was there to see him. When room and paper walls allowed, Papercut and Wraith could both make out Sharl fighting through the wall of blue fire cast over the opening in the cargo hold by Xevon, and he was still on his feet for all that his situation was looking increasingly dire. Suddenly, Papercut looked up to see the animate blade-thing staring at him balefully, eyes burning with blue fire like two gas lanterns! The monster advanced on him, fast, and threw a spiky punch that whizzed by bare inches from his head!

-

Up above, Citizen looked up gratefully at the streak of blue fire in the sky that meant Cobalt Templar was coming to the rescue. Bad idea, as Armorcat moved fast and drove a powerful fist directly into his midsection. Sharl doubled up as he felt ribs crack, the stink of alien meat in his nostrils as the cat-creature leaned close to whisper, "Pretty boy," she hissed at him. "Rogue didn't let me play with any of the pretty boys here, but maybe she'll let me make an exception for you..." At the touch of a raspy tongue to his ear, Sharl snarled in return and jerked to his feet, grabbing the cat-monster by the throat and raising her over his head one-handed. She was strong, damnably strong, enough that she could hurt dozens, thousands of people in his city. No more.

"Playtime's over," he hissed in reply and he threw her at Rogue as hard as he could, the one-handed toss carrying all his strength behind it as Armorcat became a squealing blur of fur and metal as she rocketed helplessly towards her erstwhile boss. Rogue dodged, as fast as Sharl could have, but there was nothing to stop Armorcat from slamming into the nearest bulkhead at nearly supersonic speed. There was no crack, there was instead a BOOM as the monster hit the wall and simply fell apart; without the programming to mimic biological functions, Armorcat simply disappeared in a mass of collapsing code as her avatar imploded into nothingness.

Wobbling, but still on his feet, Citizen pulled back his lips into a fierce grin as he faced down Rogue. "You're all alone in this. You have to know that. Stand down now, and maybe you can tell Talos that Tronik's not as helpless as you think it is. We're strong, and we're free, and we're nothing like you!"

Her earlier calm gone, Rogue screamed and threw a wild punch at Citizen, her eyes red as Sharl just dodged a blow that might have taken even his head off. She let the punch carry her through and landed next to Sage, a look of murderous fury in her eyes as she stood near the badly-injured psychic. "Maybe you've stopped me today. But I can still hurt the enemies of our people more than you can protect them. Your little friend here might survive me overloading the rest of her suit, but I bet she won't like the memories of her body burning down to the bone!

[Gizmo]

While Cobalt Templar sped off into the sky, Gal Vanic privately hoped her suggestion hadn't been a big mistake. Even if she wasn't quite as sure about her ability to handle the antagonistic AI as she'd tried to sound, she knew her friends were in real danger. It was that thought that made the paragon square her digital jaw as she flew backward several meters, circling around in a broad arc and forcing the disoriented Keres to stumble about to keep her in sight. "Y'know, I don't even get what the matter with you is! You can't just go around planting bombs and being a huge jerk! How can you even think that's okay?!" Hovering well out of reach, she balled her hands into fists and shouted, "Why don't you just go away!"

Her infuriated gaze abruptly sparked with electrical energy, throwing off wild arcs of power even as twin lightning bolts shot from her eyes and slammed into Keres indignant face. Gal Vanic continued to pour on the pour for several seconds more, the intensity of the light from the wave of raw power forcing many of the onlookers to shield their eyes. When she finally stopped, the hulking brute had simply faded from existence altogether, disconnected from Tronik's computers, she supposed. "Haha! Did you see that?!" she whooped exuberantly, flying low to grin broadly at the assembled guards. "Out of my eyes! Out of my eyes! Woo! Who da Gal? I'm da Gal!"

[KnightDisciple]

Her earlier calm gone, Rogue screamed and threw a wild punch at Citizen, her eyes red as Sharl just dodged a blow that might have taken even his head off. She let the punch carry her through and landed next to Sage, a look of murderous fury in her eyes as she stood near the badly-injured psychic. "Maybe you've stopped me today. But I can still hurt the enemies of our people more than you can protect them. Your little friend here might survive me overloading the rest of her suit, but I bet she won't like the memories of her body burning down to the bone!

"NO."

Rogue's madness had clearly made her forget Cobalt Templar for a moment. He was still standing where he'd landed, his eyes laser-focused on the rebel Tronik native. The one who had threatened part of his team. One of his friends. Not just any threat; one of pain and agony, somehow more visceral than most of the threats they got from various two-bit supervillians.

"You won't hurt her anymore. You won't even touch her."

And suddenly there was a flare of blue light and Cobalt Templar was right there in Rogue's face, his hands grasping a sword that glowed like a miniature sun, nothing but compressed fire, compressed power. His broad shoulders turned smoothly, and it seemed he put his whole upper body into the swing that struck true on the red-eyed villain.

"We're going to stop your plan. All of us. But me?"

He took another swing, landing a blow in the opposite direction, the heat from the blade searing the air even as his towering musculature, enhanced by the surging fiery energy of his ring, drove it home with incredible force.

"You've made it personal. You get to hurt. You should feel honored, perhaps."

A third strike slashed at an upwards diagonal angle.

"You made me so mad I used a construct reserved for someone who was actually scary. You're just a pathetic waste of storage wishing she had flesh again. Jealous. Petty. Afraid. Weak. So lay down you red-eyed pasty-skinned Trinity-wannabe נקבה כלב!"

The whole time, except for his initial exclamation, Corbin's voice hadn't raised in volume, and the tone was like someone presenting something at a business meeting. Cold, clipped, precise tones issues from his mouth; it was almost like he was trying to imitate the mannerisms of his friend Trevor when he was in "business clothes".

Only the flames pouring from his cold eyes gave a hint at the fury that was roaring inside his very being.

[Electra]

Far below, Papercut flinched as the monster made of knives attempted to punch his lights out, but he'd been in way too many fights to let it throw him too badly. He had to concentrate on protecting Wraith and the bomb, and that meant not only keeping his cool, but keeping the guy's attention on him. But first things first. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a sheet of paper and wrapped it around his forearm like a cuff. Immediately it began to grow, unfolding itself until it covered his body and head like paper scale mail. "Hey ugly," he taunted. "Is that really the best you've got? My grandmother has a blender that cuts better than that, and she got it at the Wal-Mart for nine-ninety-nine!" He made himself laugh derisively. "Maybe you're really safety scissors, like they give kindergarteners. Let's see."

He wasn't totally sure how his powers worked here in this world, but everything had worked so far, so one more trick might work. Taking out a crane he'd folded on the plane, Papercut set the little bird on his outstretched hand and gave it a gentle blow. It took off, and as it went, it was joined by more, many more, of its fellows, appearing as out of nowhere. Something was wrong, though. Even as the cranes flew, they seemed to slow, and so did everything around them. Abruptly Koshiro felt as though the air were thickening around him, like he was trying to move through a wall of gelatin. It was a disconcerting feeling.

[Avenger Assembled]

With the hulking monster actually defeated, one of the guards, the commander who Gal Vanic had seen talking to Cobalt Templar earlier, actually pulled off his full-face mask: the man underneath the blocky helmet bore a slight resemblance to an older Sharl, though his dark hair was cut in a short, military style and his eyepieces looked more like pilot's goggles than Sharl's mirror. At his move, the other militia officers did too, and as one they snapped off a perfect military salute to Gal Vanic: pounding their fists on their chests and extending it in the air. "Gal! Gal! Gal!" came the chant! "Four cheers for Citizen Gal!"

[Gizmo]

"Er, it's actually 'Gal Vanic', y'know, 'cause of the zap? See?" Kimber attempted to correct the soldiers through stifled giggles of bashful glee at the warm response. "Citizen is the-- well, actually, I guess I am wearing his coat, so... Close enough!" She decided, flying in a quick loop with a laugh. Hovering just off of the ground in front of the first soldier who had taken off his mask, she indicated the bomb with a more serious expression. "Okay, I think I'm going to have to come back for that, 'cause my friends might be in really big trouble, okay? You probably shouldn't let anyone get too close to it unless they're really sure they know what they're doing." Quickly getting rough directions to the docks where Corbin was hopefully already joining their teammates, she lifted off, offering the locals a wave and a broad smile that wrinkled the freckles over her nose. "Thanks for the cheering, guy, you're sweethearts! Stay safe!"

[Fox]

Wraith's three black eyes were all that distinguished her from a normal metal box, almost looking painted on the surface that was facing Papercut and the big, pointy...thing. Person. She narrowed her eyes as it advanced on her teammate, and if she'd had any at the moment she would have set her shoulders in determination.

Her mass shifted, her magnetic field staying strong even as her paper-coating body thinned and sprouted a single long, thin tendril with a wicked curved blade at the end. 'Long' being the operative word: it stretched and grew until it was over twenty feet long, coiling and snaking through the air over her rather fixed position like a great boneless stinger, carefully poised to strike as its owner waited for an opening.

[Avenger Assembled]

Cobalt Templar's blows savaged the Tronik-born villain, smashing Rogue against the same bulkhead where Citizen had destroyed Armorcat's avatar, her ribs cracking and sunglasses breaking as he pounded her with his blade again and again, screaming in fury as she was stolen away from her last petty triumph.

"You made me so mad I used a construct reserved for someone who was actually scary. You're just a pathetic waste of storage wishing she had flesh again. Jealous. Petty. Afraid. Weak. So lay down you red-eyed pasty-skinned Trinity-wannabe נקבה כלב!"

Snarling with fury, she batted away a fourth stroke, then went straight for Cobalt Templar! Before she could reach him, though, Citizen threw himself between them. Acting on sheer instinct, he pointed at her with his fingers and fired a blast of energy to match hers: not the searing red she'd used to incinerate Sage, but a bizarrely all-American red, white, and blue like shining patriotic lasers instantly recognizable as Miss Americana's lasers.

"No!" Citizen yelled; the beams driving Rogue back without actually hurting her. Not that Sharl wasn't trying..."No one else gets hurt for standing up to you today! No more!"

Rogue stared at the two boys for a moment, eyes wild, before suddenly the deck began to vibrate beneath their feet, a low, eerie warping that made the two Tronikians look at each other in alarm before suddenly Rogue took off, the air cracking around her as she broke the sound barrier in an instant. Citizen straightened his shades and grabbed Cobalt Templar before he could pursue.

"No, she's mine! Find a way to cut through that firewall and get the bomb out of here! Papercut and Wraith are fighting one of her minions alone, and unlike them, he's not pulling his punches!"

---

Actually, down below, Xevon did seem to be pulling his punches, throwing wild, slow blows that missed both Wraith and Papercut by a mile. Muttering in frustration, the metal-bodied monster instead turned his attention towards the trapped civilians, advancing on one man with glacial intent. "Fiiiiixxxxx tiiiimmmmeee oooorrrr III smmmmmmaassssshhhh!" he called like someone talking through a tape set to its slowest speed, reaching out slowly and terribly towards a frantically (albeit slowly) thrashing man almost within his reach.

[KnightDisciple]

By the time Rogue swatted his blow away, Cobalt Templar was starting to breathe a little ragged. He wasn't out of the fight entirely, but a small part of him liked catching his breath. When Citizen told him to stay behind and try to help the others, he just nodded. It was only after the Tronik paragon had taken off that he started moving somewhat slowly.

First he gently took Sage from her current resting place, and moved her somewhere a bit more sheltered. He frowned at the virtual wounds she bore. Someone would pay for them, and pay dearly. Then he turned, his face resolute, his sword-construct dragging slightly on the deck as he marched toward the hole leading to the others. As he walked, he gained a bit of strength.

When he arrived at that spot, he began wordlessly hacking away at it, alternating powerful slices with bone-jarring jabs, trying to slowly but surely wear his way down to the hold. It promised to take a while. But he had plenty of free time at the moment...

[Electra]

It took Papercut a moment to realize what was happening. He'd played enough computer games to know what happened when you overloaded the engine by cheating in a whole bunch of new objects, but he'd sort of forgotten that principle, what with being in the "game" for real this time. Getting rid of the cranes would probably fix the time slowing, but given the way the knife guy was going after the civilians, that seemed like a bad idea right now. Instead, he sent the cranes around again for another attack, but it was impossible to aim properly when by the time the cranes arrived, the damn villain was six inches further away than he'd estimated! Papercut watched helplessly as Wraith stretched out for an attack, hoping the shapeshifter would be more successful.

[Avenger Assembled]

Papercut's attack did get the monster away from the civilian, though perhaps not the way Koshiro might have preferred. "Haaawww haaaawww haaaww!" The knife monster laughed, its voice turned deep and booming by the slow-motion bubble that had encased everyone. "Noooottt ssooo touuugh afffteeerrr alll!" Leaving behind the civilian, the knife monster advanced on Wraith and Papercut, his slowed movements meaning he could reach them but couldn't quite catch them yet. "Smmmmasssssshhh yooooouuuu fiiiirrsssstttt, heeeerrooooosssss!"

[Fox]

Wraith-the-Box narrowed her eyes, stinger-like tendril waving through the air as she watched the creature move. The slow motion was disconcerting, and certainly didn't make finding an opportune moment any easier, but it was certainly doing a good job of keeping the thing away from the civilians. If only it--

She struck, the scythe-like blade whipping down out of the air with surprising speed for how slow the world was moving. It struck its target square in the back - not as solid a hit as the alien heroine would have liked, but solid enough. Hopefully.

[Avenger Assembled]

In the sky overhead, Citizen and Rogue had their final confrontation thousands of feet above the city. There were no words now, just deadly intent as the two badly-wounded paragons slugged away at each other with punches that resounded like explosions. Rogue fought hard; head-butting Citizen hard enough to leave his head ringing, slamming her fist against his jaw hard enough nearly to knock him out of the sky, but Citizen would not be denied: he threw two big swings, both of which found their mark.

"I have had ENOUGH!" They punched each other at once, and though Citizen fell backwards, Rogue fell out of the sky, unconscious as she plummeted towards the still, flat ocean thousands of feet beneath, with only the rapidly oncoming Ghost Girl to stop her from a high-speed collision with the ground below! Citizen took a moment to gather himself before flying down after his fallen foe, but it was clear he just wasn't going to be fast enough.

Down below, Xevon seemed to sense his boss's defeat. His glowing eyes widening in sudden fear, the knife-monster put up his hands in the middle of the fight and knelt before Wraith and Papercut, looking for all the world like the thug caught out by the authorities that he was. "IIII surreeeeennnddeeeeerrr!" he called out, looking battered from the bombardment he's gotten from the two heroes. "Jjjjuuussstttt fiiiixxxx ssimmm tiiimmeeee!" he shouted as the glowing firewall overhead faded, leaving Cobalt Templar free to join them.

[Gizmo]

Gal Vanic née Ghost Girl zipped in a downward arc trailing neon blue lightning in her wake, catching the unconscious Rogue by the collar of her outfit and circling around to meet up with the others. "You're lucky I've actually got hand right now," she told the villainess in a frosty tone more in keeping with her usual chilling powerset. "And that I'm one of the good guys." Pulling up where Citizen and Cobalt Templar were recovering, the electrified paragon was comparatively bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. "Hey, you guys! I zapped Keres but good! Are you already done here? Did you figure out what to do with those bomb things?"

[Electra]

With a wave of his hand, Koshiro dismissed the flock of cranes, speeding up the server time to something approaching normal. Whatever Wraith was doing with her... scorpion tentacle or whatever it was, it was creepy as hell and very effective as a deterrent. "Just stay where you are," he instructed the knife-monster, "Or things are going to get real slow, real fast." He craned his neck, trying to see how the others were doing, but couldn't tell much of anything from where he was. "You okay in there?" he asked Wraith. "Anything happening with the bomb?"

[KnightDisciple]

Cobalt Templar gave Gal Vanic a tired but genuine smile.

"Good job, he had it coming. Seems like I did more good over here, anyways. As for the bombs, Leroj said the two of us can defuse them. We have to combine our energies, but it has to be in sync. Otherwise, I'm thinking very very bad things. Guess we take care of this one first, then hurry over to the other one? I think I still have it in me for that, at least."

He glanced down into the hold, eyeing the situation.

"We should probably go help them, shouldn't we?"

With that, sword unconsciously still in hand, he floated down slowly into the hold next to Papercut, giving the situation a once-over before giving his teammate a grin.

"Nice work, Papercut. Very nice."

[Fox]

"It is fine as far as I know," Wraith confirmed, keeping her blade trained on their metal enemy, surrendered or not. "I have not felt anything, anyway. There is a limit to how many eyes I can make, however - I do not have any inside your box, because they are all on the outside, and I did not want to put any of myself too close to the orb while I am magnetized. Um, speaking of which...."

Said eyes rotated along the outside of her body, shifting across her surface until she could get a good look at Cobalt Templar. "Do we know how to make it...less dangerous, perhaps? I cannot hold magnetism forever, and this tendril is very, very tiring."

[Avenger Assembled]

Citizen hit the deck near Sage, hard; the electronic paragon having taken the beating of a lifetime in the sky with Rogue. Not as badly as Eve, though. He limped over and dropped next to her broken body, reaching down to check her vitals and make sure she was at least still living. I didn't want this! He had no way of knowing how badly she'd been hurt in her flesh-and-blood body, not without taking precious time out to leave Tronik behind when his city needed him. Just because Rogue was down didn't mean the crisis was over. "Good work, Citizen Martel," he finally murmured. "You stood up for the people, and that's what counts." Even if he wasn't sure Eve thought of them as people, which somehow made this a little more meaningful.

He carefully moved to where Rogue lay and began the work of restraining her, bending metal and ramming it through the deck to pin her there. She could still leave the simulation if she put her mind to it, but this would hopefully slow her down. "Not going...to let you...get away with this..." he hissed around broken ribs, the taste of his own blood coppery in his mouth.

[Electra]

Papercut looked a little surprised at the compliment from Cobalt Templar, but he cleared his throat and tried to pass it off. "Wraith did most of the work," he said, "she's the one who's wrapped around the bomb, and who slapped that guy down. We gotta deal with the bomb, though, before anything bad happens." He looked up towards where the other fight had been taking place, largely obscured from their view. "Everybody else okay? I lost touch with everybody in my head, figured Sage was probably too busy with other stuff to keep it going."

[April]

Eve's senses reasserted themselves piecemeal as she clawed her way back to consciousness, her mind pushing through the fog of pain to paint a picture of the world around her. The scent on the wind was curious, a mixture of charred meat and the acid tang of Tronik's oceans, and it made the telepath want to vomit. Her eyes, a hue not many shades different from the sky above, regained their clarity and focus.

She drew in a ragged breath when her mind started to process pain again. Too much, she thought before she shut down her pain receptors, a method she used before on Papercut.

"Good work, Citizen Martel," he finally murmured. "You stood up for the people, and that's what counts."

"We stand between," Sage simply, and quietly, replied, sitting up. Her left arm was useless now that her collarbone was shattered she noted with detached calm as she surveyed the damage, and some parts of her uniform were fused to the flesh below.

The telepath rose on shaky legs and then approached Sharl and Rogue. "The House of Carolus," she said, her voice barely above a whisper as she looked down at the captured and unconscious supervillain. "Is more than 'Lords' and 'Ladies'. We were Kings, Queens and Emperors. We understood duty and obligation, and knew when it was time for us to step aside, let others take our place and choose their own path. I hope you one day act as enlightened as you claim to be and follow suit."

[Gizmo]

"Ohmigosh, Eve!" Kimber cried out upon finally catching sight of the telepath and nearly rocketing back up into the sky in horrified shock. "Living people aren't supposed to look like that!" Shaking her hands about in distress, the currently solid poltergeist floated around the injured Frenchwoman, bobbing up and down in a manner that sent her electric blue hair bouncing about. "Should you be walking around when you're that hurt?! Oh, oh oh! I'm really super strong right now, I can carry you, okay? Or are you not supposed to move at all? Ooh...!" Expression etched with worry, she finally stopped in front of Eve, hands balled into fists and placed tightly against her chin.

[Avenger Assembled]

Citizen dropped down into the cargo hold to help release the hostages, Sharl using his great strength and cyberkinetic abilities to part the bonds that had held the trapped dockworkers around the bomb. "It's all right," he told the men and women down in the hold, "you're safe now. We stopped the Rogue, and we're going to save the city." He smiled, and he wasn't the angry teenager who looked down on human civilization; this was the invincible defender of Tronik's skies. Albeit one who'd taken a hell of a beating on their behalf. "These are my friends from another dimension. We'll take care of this. Get to the elevators, get off the docks and get home to your families."

When the crew was on the move enough for him to address his allies for what they were, Sharl turned to the others and said shortly, "Sage is badly hurt. Rogue said something about overloading her suit when they were fighting, so her body's got to be pretty badly off too. She's up there arguing with her about her family even now, and Rogue's knocked out...If one of you can get out of the system and get her into one of the healing pods, we can make sure she doesn't get any worse."

[KnightDisciple]

"Gal Vanic has to stay. Like I said, she and I are the ones who can disable the bombs. If you have to stay, perhaps Papercut and Wraith can take her out for the moment? Between the three of us, we should be set to go. But we should hurry and take care of the bombs."

Cobalt Templar walked over to where Wraith was still keeping the reality-bomb-thing secured. He gave her a nod.

"Nice work. I'll put up a box for a sec once Gal gets over here, and you can slip out. We'll take care of this one, then get moving to the second bomb."

He patiently waited for his excitable teammate to come over before he extended a small blue force-field around the box, with a good-sized opening in it to allow Wraith to exit. Then it was time for the light show...

[Fox]

Wraith waited for the box to be nearly complete before sliding away from the bomb, little bits of leftover electricity arcing across her surface as she reeled in her bladed tendril and escaped through the hole in her teammate's creation.

She took to two feet again, flexing her mass in a way that was very reminiscent of someone flexing after spending time in a cramped space. "I will help Sage however I can, but I am not sure how one removes one's self from the simulation. Is it as simple as thinking-"

And then she was out, blinking from inside the suit in the real world. "Ah," she said, largely to herself, as she oozed out of the suit and carefully made her way to Sage. She didn't so much pick the telepath up as let her arms flow down between the young woman and her chair, lifting her as gently as possible. "Umm...I believe it was...yes. It is a good thing that you made the trip taking Ms. Harcourt to get help," she mused as she set off - flowed off, really, to avoid jostling her friend. "I can probably follow your scent the whole way. Is that karma, do you think?"