Disco Inferno (IC)

[Quinn]

"Likely." came the response from behind Tsunami - the black-coated Crow walking around her. His hands were in his pockets, though judging by the wisps of steam floating up from them, whatever he'd done downbelow had left it's mark. The palms of his gloves were blackened and scorched - to speak nothing of how his vision wasn't exactly in the finest of conditions right now. His fault for staring at a plasma bomb with the runic equivalent of thermal vision - it'd wear off eventually.

As for the bomb, it was contained. The fires, lacking oxygen, would gutter out quickly enough once the portal to the hamsterball of doom was closed up - granted, the Grue would be a bit cooked in there for a little bit longer, but the amount of concern Crow had for that could be held in a very small thimble.

The Grue got a clear look through the diamond at the small figure who walked up; mask staring up at him - almost blatantly appraising through that mask. A shapeshifting agent who wasn't playing the game of their enemy? Well - that was a lucky find, wasn't it? Morgan called to let him out for questioning. Crow debated the point for a bit.

"We've shortened the list by one now." was his sole, flat, response to the complaint regarding enemies at the tail end. "You have information. We need it. You give it, maybe you walk." And not a word on what would happen if he didn't. Crow liked avoiding saying that. Morgan appreciated the gesture. Both for different reasons.

[Avenger Assembled]

With a smirk that looked like a reverse of the one Darren saw in the mirror every morning, the Grue said, "You're the alien, homo sapiens. You think your little backward show here matters in the grand scheme of things, you've got another thing coming." He lost some of the attitude at Crow's approach and threw up his hands. "Look, I don't know! I just know this has happened in some Unity planets before. The Curator comes in, replaces some of our members with robots, then sets them against each other. And it's usually really terrible!" He waved around at the scene on campus for emphasis. "Like I said, I was hiding out on campus, and I heard one of your females talk about how handsome Darren was, so I decided to take his shape so everyone would trust me. And it worked really well, too!"

Fighting the urge to facepalm by sheer force of will, Mark interrupted the Grue and turned to the others. "Be right back. Our friend and I are taking a little trip to Switzerland, where I know a xeno holding facility with his name on it..." And with that, Edge, the Grue, the diamonds and the water, just disappeared from the face of Freedom City with a faint shimmer of black light.

"Thanks for the help, son," said Mr. Archer, appearing with a little zip behind Crow. "And you, Tsunami, and you, Adamas." If he was surprised at the latter, he gave no sign of it. "I'm glad you were here. You may well have saved our school." He looked around at the still-sizzling administration building, the injured students and teachers being tended by their peers, and added, "Let's go help our people together..."

[Russoboo]

“Ugh!â€

Darren's face scrunched together, at least as much as it could as multi-faceted crystal, and he seemed truly lost for words. He opened and closed his mouth a few times in rapid succession, each time with an aborted move to point at the Grue, but the reprimand couldn't quite make it out. Once Edge and the alien had both vanished, teleported off to Europe, Darren hopped off his flying disc with a stomp and a grumble.

“Smug shapeshifting jerk!†He stamped his feet and grit his translucent teeth. After a couple seconds of rage, he straightened out, exhaled, and relaxed. Darren went to brush a hand through his hair, but rebounded off the solid crystal with a tiny clink. “I'm over it. Whatever. Everything turned out, like, totally fine.â€

He turned to Mr. Archer and shrugged. “If by saved you mean, like, only partially destroyed, then sure. And we still don't know where Summers is.†Darren worried his lip and looked between Morgan and Giang. “But we should probably deal with this emergency before, like, jumping after that one, right?â€

[Thevshi]

Tsunami listened as the Grue, after coaxing by Crow, told what it knew about the individual or entity behind the robots that were apparently all over the city. She had never heard of this "Curator," but what the Grue described was very similar to what had taken place on campus. Then Edge stepped forward to take the Grue away to a holding facility.

The Asian teen was quite as Adamas let some of his frustration show, after all it had been him the Grue had been impersonating. When Archer arrived to commend them on their efforts in keeping the school safe, Tsunami gave a little nod and a brief, tight smile. "We did what we could Mr. Archer." She replied before she also looked over at the students and teachers that had been injured when the roof of the shelter had collapsed. While she was not sure specifically what she could do with helping the injured, she nodded as Archer indicated helping with them, before starting towards the groups gathered up on the grounds.

[Quinn]

Crow didn't actually say anything. Just nodded at Archer. The black-clad teen looked somewhat worse for wear; his mask cracked slightly, his coat badly singed and smoking, and the whole shebang slightly off-balance; one leg seemingly longer than the other. It gave him an odd sort of posture as he stood there; almost like he was hunched. Simply looking around with an impassive expression on his face.

In his head, he simply catalogued the situation. Proper protocol. Situation report. Infiltrator removed. Campus building blown to smithereens. Secondary infiltrator exposed. Bomb safely activated and contained. Secondary infiltrator locked down/imprisoned. Personal report. Minor bruises to torso and arms. Burn marks on palms. Think muscle pulled in right shoulder. Headache. Boot missing. Still mission-capable.

Taking a leaf from Myrmidon's book, hmm? It won't help, you know. Shut. Up.

There was a small nod of respect towards Archer. Of course there was, what else could there be? Followed by a different nod to the other two; maybe a turn to the side of his mouth that bespoke approval. "...Adamas. Tsunami." A beat. Maybe a softer tone. Maybe. "...thanks."

And then he just turned - the missing boot giving him an odd gait as he stumped back towards the ruined administration building. The Next-Gen headquarters still had a communications array and computer system - and contacting the others had shown the city was still dealing with nine shades of hell. Morgan and Crow weren't entirely sure who was really calling the shots right now, but they did both agree on one thing.

There was still work to do.