Threat to Society (IC)

[Supercape]

GM

Meanwhile...

"I don't like the sound of this" murmured Staff Sargent Davis as the alarm went out about the intruder on Alpha level.

"Someone else got in here?"

He gave Harrier a long hard look, trying to read the heroes face. Even disarmed (the Pike taken to armaments under armed guard), he had no doubt that his captive was extremely dangerous.

"This is top level security, you understand? I don't trust you...but on the other hand, I have to protect the Alpha Level..."

The man's gun didn't move, but he frowned, trying to make up his mind what to do.

Meanwhile, Harrier could feel the familiar pulse of Terminus Energy flare up once more, perhaps less strongly than he had first experienced it, but it was there, even so. Three rapid pulses, then a continuous level of energy.

[Ari]

With a grinding mutter of "Ah, robots, the genius of Man in physical form" to himself, the triton unslung the conch from his side, walked unconcernedly towards the squat metal bodies, and raising the eons-old shell to his lips let forth a blast that rattled through the air like a physical wave to match the red-streaked crash of water that erupted from the wall behind...and splashed harmlessly onto the floor next to it.

After a short moment of silence he said coolly "Spectacular. A grand start to this epic conflict" he watched the three things with care, tensing his muscles for a sudden leap away from..whatever it was they would do, he had no idea.

[Supercape]

GM

The three squat counter drones seemed devoid of intellect, but mindlessly followed Doctor Chambers instructions.

"Xeno detected! Initiate combat manuevers!" they squarked in unpleasant, tinny voices.

With that, the three drones levitated off the floor, using powerful thrusters on their short, flat feet. Their low centre of gravity and round shape looked distinctly un humanoid, but on the other hand, they were able to maneuver quite well in the air.

And flying was not all they were good for. A build up of energy crackled around their fists, Terminus Energy, and was then released as powerful blasts straight at Wave-Eye.

There aim was good, and they were not slow. As they beams crackled around him, smashing the machinery and artifacts, Wave-Eye was caught squarely by their blast!

"Xeno Detected! Eradicate Xeno!"

[Avenger Assembled]

"...there are Terminus weapons being fired aboard your ship." said Harrier in a voice like something from the grave. He put his hands on the wall, feeling the discharges from deep aboard the vessel, and looked accusingly at the Marines. "Listen to me, men, as you have never listened in your life. I came aboard your ship in order to defeat the power of the Terminus, and I intend to do just that. If you are under siege, I will stand by you in your defense, but what matters is that the Terminus will be defeated today." He looked from one to the other, his body tense as he waited for their response. "What do you say?"

[Supercape]

GM

Staff Seargent's Davis gun lowered a fraction of a centremeter. He pulled up one hand a scratche the back of his neck, his eyes full of doubt.

"I don't know...." he murmured, eyeing Harrier cautiously.

"I'll probably get the court martial for this...and I don't trust you...yet...but we do have an intruder, and you seem to know about it...so, follow us! and no funny business!"

He added the last few words with a snap, but he had been won over.

"Alright men! we have an intruder on board! lets do what we were trained to do!" he commanded, and with that, he rushed down the corridor straight towards Alpha Deck.

"Move! Move!!!" he shouted "This is not a drill!!!"

[Avenger Assembled]

Harrier ran alongside the troops, bare feet and bare-chested, choosing to keep his armor retracted, the better to avoid terrifying his potential allies. Privately, he worried that it was Wave-Eye. I sent him into danger without a chance to suss his potential. I may have endangered him and everyone aboard the ship. Who knew what sort of trouble the piscine humanoid had gotten himself into? In any event, when he did reach the scene of battle, Harrier knew what he had to do: defeat the Terminus! His steel-filled feet boomed against the deck as he ran, ready for anything.

[Ari]

He hadn't been expecting human tech to be so...fast. With a muffled grunt of pain, Wave-Eye collapsed to one knee, the shock and pain of the blistering attack radiating through him. He had managed to evade one of the shots by the simple act of jumping up, and another by ducking down. The third proved to him that they had basic pattern-recognition, at least. With a sharp hiss of expelled breath he gurgled out "Heh...heh..heh..urgh" he managed, unable to form a coherent sentence even he could understand. Through the mist of pain he suddenly felt something, a heavy pounding approaching rapidly, something FAR heavier than any human he had ever met...

Could it be...? he wondered, jaws gaping as he stared at the floor.

[Supercape]

GM

"You see?" gloated Doctor Chambers "you are no match for our counter-terminus technology! we will protect the Earth, no matter what it takes!"

"Eliminate Xeno! Eliminate Xeno!" squarked the tinny voices of the Counter-drones, in that high pitched and annoying tone that was already beginning to grate.

On theior high powered mico-jets they flew over to administer a hefty pummeling to Wave-Eye, with surprisingly powerful short arms. Papers and documents blew from desks, one or two setting on fire, as they passed over some workstation.

"We will not surrender this technology!" added Chambers, backing away slightly.

[Avenger Assembled]

Harrier burst into the room, the counter-drones turning to scan the new threat, stopping as he took in the scene with mounting horror. His jaw set, the barely-dressed cyborg advanced on the robots surrounding Wave-Eye, ignoring the cold of the deck beneath his feet. "Who has done this?" He cast his gaze around the human scientists in the room, before his vision fell on the corpse of the Omegadrone on the table. He advanced slowly on a model too like his own; seeing the rotten flesh against the Terminus-steel bones, the sick knowledge that he could be lying there like that. "Who has dared to build Omegadrones from the bodies of the dead?"

[Supercape]

GM

As Harrier Burst in, with Staff Seargent Davies with the six squaddies, Doctor Chambers looked up in shock and surprise.

"Who the hell do you think you..." she started, with a livid voice, before recognising Harrier.

"Harrier! an OMEGADRONE! in here, of all places!" she screamed.

"Soldiers! Arrest him, no, kill him!" she continued, face apoplectic with rage and hate.

"Hold on doc..." retorted Davies "...I need to know what's going..."

"NEVER MIND!" interrupted Doctor Chambers.

"Activate protocol CT1" she commanded the counter-drones, who spun around from their mauling of Wave-Eye, and targetted Harrier.

"OVERRIDE-OVERRIDE" they squarked "TERMINUS ENTITY DETECTED! PRIORITY PROTOCOL! ERADICATE TERMINUS! ERADICATE TERMINUS!"

[Avenger Assembled]

Blasts scorched against Harrier's bare flesh, one sizzling along the big muscle of his upper arm, but the unarmored cyborg gave no sign of damage. His comrades were not so lucky: the counter-drones had all the reasoning power of their Terminus counterparts, opening fire on their target heedless of all those around them. One of his squadmates, a soldier Harrier hadn't exchanged a word with, was blasted back against the wall behind them from a direct blow to the chest, while even Sergeant Davies was nearly hit by chest-level fire. "Look" shouted Harrier, heedless of ducking as the all-too-human men around him took cover. "You shoot your own people to shoot me!"

[Supercape]

GM

"Take cover men!" shouted Davies as his squad was hit by the stray shots.

He pulled one injured man behind some storage, looking concernedly at his comrade.

He gave an angry grimace to Harrier.

"I don't know what the hell is happening here..." he shouted "...but I won't let my men get cut to pieces..." he cocked his rifle, and gave a cursory burst at the counter drones.

"Get them away from us! you are drawing there fire! Or I'll shoot you myself!"

Davies' face was a picture of confusion, and anger. Somehow Harrier felt that it was not he whom Davies was angry at. All the man knew was that he had to protect his men...

[Avenger Assembled]

Harrier couldn't argue with Davies; frankly, he felt the man's attitude no more than what he deserved for what he was and what his presence had nearly inflicted on these people. Wordlessly, he threw himself into battle, driving his cybernetic fists through steel and circuitry as he tore his way through the remaining drones. It hurt; his unarmored skin tearing as he punched through cold steel, but he ignored the pain as he usually did, tearing his way through the central processors of each unit as he went. He didn't speak; there was no time for that, and no purpose to it amidst all the gunfire. When the robots were stopped, then he could demand the true secrets of these people.

[Supercape]

GM

The Counter-Drones were well made, more than a match for a normal, regular Terminus Drone. They had, in fact, been designed exactly for that purpose. But Harrier was more than the average Terminus Drone, much more.

His fists flew through the counter drones, knocking them sideways, slamming them into the sides of the vessel, with crunching dents. One...Two...they fell, bleeping and sparking as they did so. The third one, taking a hammer blow to his head, which dutifully crunched up and belched smoke, spun on its axis straight into wave-eye.

"Overwhelming force...Overwhelming force...Initiate Emergency Procedures....Protocol Lazarus...." it belched in a tinny, distorted voice, crackling even more than usual.

[Ari]

Wave-Eye watched with a look of deep surprise and admiration as Harrier smashed his way through the drones that had all but shot and pummeled him into the ground. By the time the freed 'Drone was done, two had been bashed to pieces and the last was buzzing and crackling right in front of him. Taking heart at this turn of events he raised the conch to his lips again. With any luck, this will do better than the last he thought dourly as he sent a roaring blast through it that shook the walls and floor, sending a gushing column of red-streaked sea water smashing into the hovering artificial animal. The fingers of water slid through its armor, tearing it asunder in an explosion of metal, wiring and chips that scattered across the now-slick floor of the...laboratory? Whatever this place is, I never understood it.

Turning to Harrier with a grave bow he gurgled "Thank you for your help, Harrier. My apologies for being so...inept, it is quite unusual, my reputation as Wave-Eye was not founded on nothing" he said with a wry smile. Looking over at the assembled humans he raised his rasping voice to say "Have you found anything to help find this prisoner they're holding? That poor unfortunate I am sure they will want to tell us all about now?" he had the odd feeling he had somehow forgotten to introduce himself earlier.

[Supercape]

GM

Doctor Chambers was halfway up the wrecked staircase when the last counter-drone was crushed by Harrier. She turned around in alarm.

"You...You..." she spluttered, momentarily lost for words.

She stuck her finger at a camera in the room.

"You see that? destroying top secret government property? attacking a military installation? at least now the people will see what a threat you are Harrier! an Omegadrone!!!" she spat.

Harrier could recognised the voice - it was the same female voice, a bit less tinny and distorted - that had contacted him when he was outside the ship, begging for rescue!

"Activate Protocol Lazarus!" came the voice from the intercom, the voice of Admiral Chambers.

"Harrier, damn you...I like this not at all...but you have forced my hand...." said Chambers over the speaker, followed by a different mumbling sound, a mixture of latin and ancient languages.

Wave-Eye couldn't understand the arcane nature of the chant, but he could understand the language - the most predominant of which was his own native tounge, the tounge of the Aztecs...

Over the mumbling chant, Chambers once again spoke.

"Omega technology was not the only thing we found down in the depths of the ocean...we found something else. Something I dread to use, something I have spoken to and tried to ignore. But something that I now find I am forced to listen to...."

[Avenger Assembled]

Harrier stared after the retreating scientist, dawning realization turning to coldly burning contempt in his eyes. Loud enough for the speakers, and the cameras no doubt there to hear, he called out, "You summoned me to your ship under the pretense of a false distress signal, assaulted another superhero with your drones in order to lure me into a fight, endangering the humans aboard in the process, then recorded everything as a means of discrediting me and showcasing the power of your technology. You exploited my desire to aid in order to further your own power. I compliment you on your strategy," he said flatly, and added in the most vile oath he could imagine, "it was a strategy worthy of an Annihilist."

He turned and headed for the door, speaking aloud for the benefit of the soldiers, "I am going below to retrieve my pike and then engage whatever creature is being summoned before it can threaten the lives of the humans aboard this ship. I encourage you to aid me in my task."

[Supercape]

GM

"What?" replied Doctor Chambers, genuinely shocked.

"What are you talking about? I didn't contact you at all! you came here and attacked us!" she yelled back, face full of fury.

The mumbling incantation over the speaker stopped abruptly and a deathly silence hit the laboratory.

"Activate Project Lazarus!" came a voice from nowhere. And whilst it had clearly not come from the livid scientist, it was unquestionably the voice of Doctor Chambers!

"Who is that? No! We aren't ready...we don't understand...." she yelled, but it was too late!

On the central slab of the laboratory, the dead heavy weapons Omegadrone stirred, then sat upright in a bolt, sparks flying and its eyes full of dead blackness.

[Avenger Assembled]

Harrier turned and looked at Wave-Eye, his flat, lined eyes burning with certain intent. "That drone is powerful enough to kill every human being on this ship, and most likely send the vessel itself to the bottom. Go below and get my pike. Run." And with that intent, the man Wave-Eye had met transformed himself back into an Omegadrone, Terminus steel erupting from his flesh as his body bent and warped inward into the grimly spiked, darkly metallic form of an Omegadrone nearly identical to the steel monster risen from the table. His face expressionless and gone, his identity invisible beneath his armor, Harrier faced down what might have been him had things been just a little different.

"Are you capable of communication?" he inquired in a metallic voice like something from the grave.

[Supercape]

GM

"Oh no you don't!" came the voice from the speaker - Doctor Chambers voice once again, but clearly not coming from her. It was an almost perfect mimic.

"SEAL CHAMBER! EMERGENCY EJECTION AND FLOODING PROTOCOL GAMMA ZERO!" the voice barked, as steel barriers slammed shut on both exits.

"Protocol be damned! We are still in here!" shouted back Staff Seargent Davis, although quite who he was talking to was anybodies guess.

The zombie Omegadrone looked at Harrier with blank, black eyes, and raised its arm, its weapon systems flashing and blinking...

Meanwhile, a dropping sensation was felt by all and the chamber started to fill with water from every corner...

[Supercape]

GM

the Zombie Drone's right arm was a mish mash of steel, alloys, and tubing, with no hand, but an impressive looking barrel at the end.

With a dark black-red flash, a whip of horrible energy lanced out at Harrier, who was just fast enough. The energy was, without question, Terminus in origin, but Harrier could feel an awful coldness to it too, as if it was something more. This animated drone looked at him with endless black eyes as it marched up to him. It was a hole, sucking life and energy out of the universe.

[Ari]

Taking one look at the slow, methodical monster bearing down on them, Wave-Eye nodded to Harrier and ran for one of the barriers, the taste of raw decay and the smell of the end of everything hanging in the air lending speed to his limbs as his heavy feet slammed into the slippery metal floor still slick from his recent attacks.

Seeing a small porthole lying open and pouring water into the ship, he hurriedly changed course from the sealed doorway, instead diving with all speed and power he could muster at the narrow gap, praying that he could squeeze through and get outside. His arms and head went in loosely enough, and he was beginning to eagerly strain further through when he found his hips and legs proved utterly incapable of following. He twisted and pulled, bent his limbs as hard as he could, and still his lower half stubbornly refused to pass on into the cool grey ocean outside. With a muttered curse he retreated from his abortive escape attempt like a crab, glancing apologetically to the others as he hurled himself towards the nearby metal slab, conch already moving towards his lips.

[Avenger Assembled]

Harrier thought fast as he faced down the oncoming drone, having neatly shunted aside sympathy for the creature now that he knew it was no more than what it appeared to be. What I might have been. What I was. In another life. The creature seemed to lack his own staff weapon, rather to have its devices integrated directly into its modified armor. Armed, as I am disarmed. I can survive underwater and eventually break out of this hold, but the humans here cannot. If I can't break out...it can! Harrier balanced on the balls of his armored feet and waited, waited as the creature bore down on him with its weapon aimed high and jerked aside with impossible speed at the last moment, the all-too-familiar icy kiss of a Terminus weapon blasting a hole in the bulkhead big enough for the humans still trapped inside to flee. "Run. Run!" Harrier called to the humans as he faced down the drone again.

[Supercape]

GM

The power of the Zombie Drone was immense, wave after wave of energy ripping apart the wall behind Harrier.

"Thank's Harrier!" yelled Staff Seargent Davies, as he ordered his men out of the room, firing a few futile shots that rebounded off the armored Drone's body.

The water, which had been a foot deep and more from the flooding, seeped out into the rest of the ship, lowering the level. The pumps continued there mindless churning of seawater in the ship.

"Wave-Eye! Murderer again! Always the Murderer! See the destruction you cause! Blood on your hands and in your eyes! Everywhere you go, every time, every place! It is time for your reckoning, slayer!" yelled a voice from nowhere and everywhere, a voice that Wave-Eye could instantly recognize. A voice that had taunted him in the past in just such a manner.

The words of Admiral Chambers has spoken resounded all the more...

Omega technology was not the only thing we found down in the depths of the ocean...we found something else. Something I dread to use, something I have spoken to and tried to ignore. But something that I now find I am forced to listen to....

[Ari]

Aha! A cunning ploy, Harrier! thought Wave-Eye gleefully as he charged towards the exit, the slapping noises of his feet dulled slightly as the water rushed over them and cushioned his steps somewhat, teeth slightly bared as he focused on getting to the stairs and reaching their only hope's staff as quickly as possible.

He was almost at the threshold of the door when the very familiar voice of Skull-Face, the decapitated victim of his savage past who had recently begun trying to bring about his end, rang out over the loudspeaker. As the furious words boomed into his ears, the shock of both hearing that hated voice again and realization at what was going on struck him like a hammer-blow. He stopped dead, staring into space as surprise and anger turned in an instant to bitter guilt. He usually put little stock in what the crazed skull said, but this time he had managed to go for weeks without wondering even once if his bloody days would be a hindrance to serving humans, and that lack of remembrance was soon changed into a failure on his part to remember the fallen.

He had stopped just in front of the doorway with his arms loose and head bowed, and after a few seconds mumbled almost inaudibly "My hands are clean...I have killed none for centuries."