When It Rains It Snows (IC)

[Electra]

December 4, 11pm

It was a filthy night in Freedom City, the sort where anyone with a lick of sense would be inside hanging up their holiday decorations and keeping out of the mix of freezing rain and spitting snow that made traffic a hazard and chilled exposed skin to the bone in minutes. A cold wind had blown in off the bay and up the Wading River, howling mournfully around the old apartment buildings and office buildings that made up the neighborhoods of the North End. Only the desperate or predatory were out on the streets on a night like this, but both groups were prime clientele for the only other people about, the heroes of Freedom City.

High above the street, a figure flew between the roofs of two buildings, a momentary dark streak against the cloudy sky. She'd been out for hours already, taking care of what needed to be done, but the night was far from over. She'd made one concession to the weather, a dark purple hooded cloak that kept the worst of the rain off her face and back while not impeding her movement. As she crouched on the edge of a building like a gargoyle, a passing headlight momentarily caught the silver of her bat and made it shine like a beacon in the night. That bat was never easy to hide anymore, but luckily, even in Freedom City, few people ever thought to look up.

[KnightDisciple]

Corbin's patrols of late had been...erratic. Between putting the finishing touches on his forest headquarters and its high-security vault (which finally housed the Red Ring, and could always house the Orange Ring if necessary). The furnishings were still coming in, but that was a secondary concern in his mind. But between that work, his studies, and his now long-distance relationship with Quo-Dis (though between smartphones, psychic links, and hypersonic speeds, distance was somewhat relative to them...), he'd found himself doing less hero work. And some of that time was taken up doing the odd bit of mentoring here and there at Claremont...

So part of him was actually excited to get out and bust some crime, though with the weather being what it was, he wasn't even getting to do much of that. He was honestly a bit bored. He was considering going back to the house and watching a movie when he caught some movement on a roof. He started to drop altitude a bit, focusing in on the glint of silver...Before smiling as he recognized it.

Wander would see a blue flash above her, before a streak of blue light went through the air, marking the path of Cobalt Templar as he landed a roof in front of her. His armor was gleaming in the evening rain, his cape flapping in the wind, and bits of sleet melted as they struck his armor. He seemed unaffected by the cold, though his friend knew he wasn't actually wearing 50+ pounds of metal in freezing cold wet weather. He was clearly waiting for her to "catch up", a grin on his face as he crossed his arms over his chest, one leg propped up on the border of the rooftop he was on.

[Electra]

He saw the moment she made him, her entire posture snapping to alert, her bat twitching fractionally as she assessed the new presence. Wander was never one to take a threat for granted, and it was always better to give her a little time to recognize a friend. Once he'd landed, she rose to her feet and seemed to study him for a moment before her lips curled in a half smile. "Cobalt Templar," she greeted him, her voice only just carrying across the gap of roofs between them. "I don't believe this is your normal patrol route." She cocked her head thoughtfully. "Where's Ultiteen tonight?"

[KnightDisciple]

"I don't know if I've had a "normal" route since the summer."

He gave a shrug and a smile, his gaze turning to the streets for a moment before Wander's next question drew his attention again. He looked at no place in particular for a moment before reasserting his gaze and speaking.

"She's busy with other work out west."

Which Erin could interpret to mean "she's busy with hero work on her new team". While there was a slightly wistful tone to his answer, there was no bitterness; he was even smiling a bit as he said it. It seemed that for all the unique ups-and-downs offered by Quo-Dis's heritage and culture, the over-sized couple was still going strong.

"Anything interesting happen on your patrol tonight, or is it just a string of muggers and hoodlums?"

[Electra]

"I haven't fought anything more challenging than the weather so far," she admitted, twitching her cloak to shake some of the water off. "Stopped a drug transaction down by the university, caught a mugger with a utility knife, and that's really all. The traffic is bad, I've seen several accidents, but even the criminals seem to prefer to stay home tonight." She adjusted her hood, tucking her bat under one arm to do so. "How about you? Anything novel on the streets tonight?"

[KnightDisciple]

"Yeah, I think the sleet's kind of driving down business, not that I really mind. Boring is good for everyone else, I guess. Just, you know, boring for us."

He gave an embarrassed cough and moved on.

"Mine was just about as exciting. Couple muggers, caught a pair of would-be carjackers, I think I spooked some folks who were going to make some sort of shady deal, and, uh, well, I kinda helped a little girl find her lost kitten, who was stuck in a tree."

The last bit was mumbled rather softly, but Wander's hearing was sharp enough to pick it out. Cobalt Templar had glanced away, unconsciously reaching up to rub the back of his neck as he said it.

[Electra]

She raised a brow at that, looking mildly amused at his discomfort. "She's lucky she didn't lose her kitty, having it out on a night like this one. Are you going to turn in for the evening, then? There doesn't seem to be much going on that requires attention from heroes. And you probably have homework?" she added with just a slight edge of uncertainty. Having eschewed college for the working world herself, Erin knew only secondhand of the world of higher education. "The holiday semester break will be coming soon."

[Avenger Assembled]

From down the street, Cobalt Templar and his masked companion heard a squeal of tires on the icy road below that quickly became a tremendous crash! Looking down, they saw that a big unmarked semi had skidded off the icy, rain-soaked street and smashed sidelong against a big power pole. The pole had fallen across the otherwise vacant street, the far end coming down in a vacant lot across the way as it nearly cut the truck's back in half. The near side of the street had gone dark from the broken lines, but the power outage was the least of their worries. The sparking lines had fallen across the body of the truck and were clearly still live, spitting fat sparks onto the caved-in trailer. There was no sign of a driver behind the tinted windows of the cab, opaque in this weather to people up on roof level even with enhanced senses.

[KnightDisciple]

"Yeah. Not sure why they were outside, but her folks were a mite perturbed at her. Not sure I'm going to bed yet. It's not that late, I'm not very tired, and the weather doesn't bother me. And I finished my essay a few hours ago. "

He shrugged and gestured vaguely at the sky.

"Shoot, if it stays quiet, I could just take a stroll and jog around in the Sea of Tranquility, see the sights. But I wouldn't be touching anything, you know me better than-"

From down the street, Cobalt Templar and his masked companion heard a squeal of tires on the icy road below that quickly became a tremendous crash! Looking down, they saw that a big unmarked semi had skidded off the icy, rain-soaked street and smashed sidelong against a big power pole. The pole had fallen across the otherwise vacant street, the far end coming down in a vacant lot across the way as it nearly cut the truck's back in half. The near side of the street had gone dark from the broken lines, but the power outage was the least of their worries. The sparking lines had fallen across the body of the truck and were clearly still live, spitting fat sparks onto the caved-in trailer. There was no sign of a driver behind the tinted windows of the cab, opaque in this weather to people up on roof level even with enhanced senses.

Almost before the lines had settled onto the ground, CT was airborne, almost instantly finding himself hovering over the pole itself. He seemed ready to grab the power pole, but hesitated.

"How do you want to handle this one, Wander?"

He was eyeing the area and finding no good spots to dump a collection of live wires.

[Electra]

If anything, the accident seemed to have caught her even more by surprise than it had Corbin; it took several moments for her to snap to attention, spinning her bat shut and putting it into its sheath on her belt. "Those wires pose an immediate threat," she told him, "but touching them now is too dangerous. I'll contact the authorities and have them cut the power to this area. You check on the driver, and make sure any other civilians stay back." Hopping down from the roof with her cloak fluttering behind her, she used her wrist communicator to get in touch with the police dispatcher.

[Avenger Assembled]

Inside the truck, Cobalt Templar found a semi-conscious driver behind the wheel of the big truck. There was something familiar about the man's blue and white uniform, but it didn't click until Corbin made out the ASTRO Labs tag on the man's shirtfront. "Oh God," he said blearily, raising his head and peering at Cobalt Templar. "Are you on fire?" he asked blurrily. "No, wait, those must be superpowers...is everybody okay?" he asked, waking up as fear seemed to motivate him. "I didn't hit anybody, did I? Oh God, this damn weather...is the package still in the back?"

It was easy enough to get the power shut down to the area, emergency staff at the power plant having noticed the power break as soon as it happened. "We've shut down the power," said a voice on Erin's radio. "But our emergency crews are over in the Fens dealing with a roof collapse at the substation there. You're on your own for the next little while."

[KnightDisciple]

Templar glanced down at himself with a frown; his adrenaline had ramped up a bit as he'd approached the live (now dead) wires, and wisps of flame were coming off of him (mostly visible thanks to the rain). A twinge of thought meant he was simply clad in shining blue armor, with nary a flame to be seen. He moved closer and offered the man his hand to help him out of the truck.

"You hit a power line pole, but no other cars or people or anything. The pole didn't hit anything beside you, and the lines are dead now. Are you hurt? Let me help you out of there."

He glanced at the back of the truck, frowning.

"The trailer's banged up, smashed nearly in half by the pole. I don't see anything falling out of it, though."

[Electra]

"The utility crews are backed up, we're on our own to try and clear the debris." While Cobalt Templar had been dealing with the cab of the truck, his ally circled around the back, taking in the extent of the damage. "Seems to be pretty wrecked up," she called. "It's going to take both of us to get it off the street. If you need to call an ambulance, send it to the cross-street at Beacham and Vine, they aren't going to get through from the east." She began to peel back the crushed metal shell of the truck, peering in at the darkness to try and get a look at whatever was inside.

[Avenger Assembled]

She peered back into the darkened trailer for a moment before she realized that two giant red eyes were staring back at her. From within, a sonorous voice sounded: "...Voice module online. Audio functionality test initialized. Designation: America-Tron. Mission: the liberation of Freedom City." A massive automaton suddenly seemed to sit up inside the cab, ripping through the broken steel of the truck with its huge body. Even sitting, it towered above the heroes. Its massive silver body had once been polished and smooth, but now looked battered and scuffed by age, the red LED visor that was its "eyes" clearly had lights missing as it flashed on and off. "America-Tron signalling base. America-Tron signalling base. Respond." it spoke in that deep, booming base .

"Oh, Lord, it's active!" exclaimed the scientist as Cobalt Templar helped him out of the smashed-up cab. "It's a defense robot from the 1950s, one of the ones the government built when the supers were all in retirement! It got banged up pretty bad when Hades showed up, and its been in storage. All its systems think it's 1961 and there's a war on!"

[KnightDisciple]

Cobalt Templar's mind raced back through every scrap of history he'd read about that era in American history; it wasn't his area of passion, but it was a momentous, tumultuous time, and there were a lot of books about it anyways, and who could resist a good history book?

So it was with at least a sliver of confidence that he stepped forward, conveniently placing himself between the driver and the robot. He made sure his outfit's colors were a nice patriotic shade of blue and red, a subtle shift from his normal shades.

"America-Tron, Freedom City is safe. You and your metal brothers helped safeguard us against the legions of Hades. Between the leadership of The Patriot and SecDef McNamara, the day was saved. Some frequencies may have changed while you were inactive due to battle damage; perhaps try some of the general frequencies, including a couple of the AEGIS ones? At this time Freedom City is free and safe. We are friends and allies, who wish to see this great city, state, and nation Free."

He was careful to speak general truths; he wasn't sure quite how intelligent the robot was, but it would do them no favors if he insulted it by thinking it too dumb. He was nervous; he felt they could take the thing, but it'd cause damage. If Trevor were here he'd rattle off a code phrase before tossing a microchip at its face and disabling it, but Corbin wasn't that prepared. Thankfully, Erin was probably more level-headed than he himself was, so he didn't have to worry about her panicking.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Supernatural invasion no longer detected. America-Tron moving to active mode." One of the glowing lights on the robot's visor seemed to fixate directly on Cobalt Templar. "Secondary protocols: Communist invasion. Security protocols active. Interrogative: Who won the 1957 World Series, citizen?" It was not a threatening question, really, nor a friendly one: simply a machine making a mechanical inquiry of a person.

"The America-Tron units got a little...jumpy at times," murmured the scientist, who was keeping a discreet distance from the giant robot. "This is the only intact model left! Every vacuum tube and wire is from the original model, preserved in our archives since 1961! It's absolutely priceless, assuming it doesn't try to melt us..."

[Electra]

"The Milwaukee Braves won the 1957 World Series four games to three against the Yankees," came the answer with surprising alacrity. Erin wasn't much a student of history, but she did like sports, especially baseball. And back in 1957, her timeline and Prime had still been running in perfect harmony. "It was the first time in about ten years that a New York team didn't win." She climbed through the hole into the trailer itself, taking a nonthreatening posture that nonetheless kept her close enough to take out the robot if necessary. "You're damaged and in need of repair, America-Tron," she told it. "We need to take you to base to restore you to full functionality."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Security protocol detected. America-Tron thanks you for your citizenship, young man and young lady," the giant robot spoke to Cobalt Templar and his companion before settling down onto the street. "Awaiting further instructions." All but one of the red lights faded, one right in the middle of the visor seeming to stare off into space.

"Okay, good, that's good," said the scientist, rubbing the now-dried wound on the side of his head, shivering a little against the renewed rain, which had begun pouring down, pounding on the street, robot, and all those who stood beneath it. "He'll be in his inactive state until we can retrieve him, as long as nobody does anything...well, you know, irrational while we're here. It'll be fine. Thank you so much, you've saved a priceless artifact of our nation's giant robot history!"

[KnightDisciple]

"You're welcome, America-Tron."

It didn't hurt to be polite to the robot, after all. Cobalt Templar eyed the drive for a moment, before handing him a bright blue poncho that he'd seemingly pulled from nowhere. He gave the man a friendly smile then turned to his fellow hero.

"Here, it's a bit chilly out. As for the truck and you two...Hm. Wander, I can get the pole over into that lot, though I might need to fold it up a bit. Then the two of us can get the truck over that way."

He turned back to the driver.

"Now, Mister...um, I didn't actually catch your name. Heh. Anyways, once that's done, if there's nothing else in there we'd need to worry about, I think Wander and I could actually help you and America-Tron reach your destination, rather than sitting out here in the rain."

[Electra]

"I can move the truck myself," she assured him with careless confidence. "Just get the wires out of my way and keep out of the way of my push." That last seemed to be mostly directed at the driver, who she'd barely had a chance to glance at while she'd been involved with the robot in the cargo compartment. Now she looked the truck up and down, even as the rain continued to pelt steadily on all of them. "We'll get this done fast and be out before that robot starts rusting or something. Whenever you're ready," she said with a nod to Corbin.

[KnightDisciple]

"Right, sounds like a plan."

He knew better than to press the matter; there was the matter of professional pride, after all. He floated over to the power line pole, assessing its condition for a moment. He talked to himself a bit as he appraised it.

"Hm hm hm....yeah, there we go."

He moved to the middle of the metal pole and wrapped both arms around it; slowly, carefully, the blue-clad young man lifted himself, and the pole, into the air. When he'd gained some altitude, a small blue hand manifested and began grabbing the wires and gathering them together. Meanwhile, CT himself started slowly rotating the pole. The effect was like watching a giant fork slowly roll up a few strands of spaghetti. Once it was mostly wrapped up, Templar flew it over to the lot where the end had struck originally, laying it down diagonally so it didn't touch any other buildings or intrude on the road or sidewalk. The task completed, he floated up a bit and dusted his hands off.

"Done!"

[Electra]

Cobalt Templar had worked with Wander long enough to know she wasn't the sort to waste time during a mission. Indeed, as soon as he'd gotten the wires clear of the truck she was in motion, shoving a shoulder against the rear axle and pushing the entire mass of the thing off the road and into a parking lot. It wasn't a move with a lot of finesse, and the shrieking and scraping of metal was enough to bring some of the neighbors out even in this weather, but it was both effective and fast in getting the truck out of the street. With the truck moved, some of the backed up traffic was finally able to flow again, which at least reduced the chances of a second accident on this street. A few of the cars honked appreciatively as they passed, but she ignored them in favor of checking in on the vintage robot in the truck.

[Avenger Assembled]

The ancient robot stared back impassively, the single glowing red eye betraying no secrets. She was just about to leave it to its rest when there came a particularly loud crack of thunder from overhead, and a flash of lightning produced by no artificial storm. Looking up, she and Cobalt Templar saw two flying figures in the air: one powersuit in red and gold that looked vaguely like one of Daedalus's models from a decade earlier, and a woman in a skimpy costume of black and red, her cape fluttering in the air behind her. She didn't look bothered by the cold weather, far from it. "You, down there!" she called down to the heroes. "We've come for the robot! Surrender now, and my colleague and I won't be forced to slake our thirst for battle with your lives!" she added with a truly wicked laugh. "Or perhaps you'd like to see what the full power of a storm can do to you AND this entire neighborhood!"

[KnightDisciple]

The ancient robot stared back impassively, the single glowing red eye betraying no secrets. She was just about to leave it to its rest when there came a particularly loud crack of thunder from overhead, and a flash of lightning produced by no artificial storm. Looking up, she and Cobalt Templar saw two flying figures in the air: one powersuit in red and gold that looked vaguely like one of Daedalus's models from a decade earlier, and a woman in a skimpy costume of black and red, her cape fluttering in the air behind her. She didn't look bothered by the cold weather, far from it. "You, down there!" she called down to the heroes. "We've come for the robot! Surrender now, and my colleague and I won't be forced to slake our thirst for battle with your lives!" she added with a truly wicked laugh. "Or perhaps you'd like to see what the full power of a storm can do to you AND this entire neighborhood!"

Corbin was just dusting his hands off when the crazy lady made her threat. His face tightened into a deep scowl as he moved next to Wander for a moment.

"Gonna try to talk them down. Probably won't work. Jump in when you feel like it."

Meaning "when the fighting starts or they try something shady". Cobalt Templar was airborne in a flash of blue, and quickly floated just a few feet away from the duo in the air. His arms were crossed over his chest, his gaze was as sharp as any of the swords he summoned, and his tone betrayed his tightly-leashed anger.

"Counter-offer, Miss Elvira-Wannabe. You and the man in the tin can turn around, and we call things even. No muss, no fuss. No harm, no foul. And I ignore the fact you just threatened an entire block of civilians. Because my friend and I do not take well to such threats. And I'm really wanting to get home and read a good book."

He shrugged his large metal-clad shoulders.

"Your call."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Oh, so you want to play?" sneered the witch, and witch she was at close range. "Then let me show you our true power! Lord Hades will pay well for the likes of you along with the other trophy! Bloodstorm and Steel Sentinel, together!" As winds whipped the air around her, she fired a blast of lightning from her hands that seared past Corbin close enough to make his hairs stand on end. "Steel Sentinel, take the girl! If you think you can handle such a 'weighty' task." she called with a contemptuous wave down below as she focused on Cobalt Templar, lightning playing along her body as her long black hair stood on end. "Come, boy, and play the games of Bloodstorm! If you can handle a...change in the weather!" she laughed as lightning crackled all around her.