ic Overthrow of the Sea! (IC)

[TheAbsurdist]

There was a moment, quiet enough to hear the groan of the pressure of all that water, and a drip somewhere else.  Then Asad lunged, one hand grasping at Motley's throat, a hand that could punch through steel like it was tissue paper.  Force was coming off of him in palpable waves, enough to nudge people back, just a little.  His other hand was raised, and for a moment, just a moment, it looked like the billionaire was going to ram that hand through the man as he roared in Arabic,  "كنت أحمق!"  His hand shaking as he looked at Motley, unable to help that he was veritably bleeding energy off, that veins of power were showing through the suit he had on, extending up to his face.  Releasing Motley as roughly as he had grasped him, Asad spat out, "Damn you!"

 

He turned towards the one of the airlock doors.  "Every one out of the station.  This is going to get messy!"  And he pulled the suit's mask over his face as he accelerated sharply enough to great popping sound as air filled in his suddenly displaced location.  He stopped on the other side of the bulkhead sharply enough to destroy Newton's notions of physics and inertia.  Asad slammed the door closed and spun the handle to seal it with the finality of a gavel.  Places like this had to have doors that sealed, he knew that much.

 

Still this was a gamble.  Asad hated gambles.  Hated decisions made half-cocked and wild.  But options were limited where potent mutagenic compounds were concern.  Especially the prospect of sharks with laser vision or worse.  Having a flashback to the B-horror schlockfests, he was not going to have to that happen.  Even if he was making a play based on a half-conceived idea about how his powers functioned.

 

Doubt didn't have a place in the moment as that power he had absorbed previously was released, bursting through the hull of the station like paper.  The water rushed in hard enough throw him back, all it did was fuel his power.  A gasp into the breathing apparatus and he tore the hole open wider so he could push against the pressure and the fight out into the ocean itself.  He flicked on the lights to suit, given the depths lacked anything there.  The virulent colors of thick chemical were seen coming from the vents.  Now he had to bide time until the rest of his compatriots and the terrorists were out of the water.  Until then, he prayed.

Edited August 20, 2013 by TheAbsurdist

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel was stunned for a moment at the raw...power...bleeding off of Asad, displayed by him. Then, as the other hero was moving, he turned to the others.

 

"He's right. Let's go. Someone grab Motley, I'll move ahead and make sure everyone gets up top."

 

And with that the sound-flinging hero all but flew down the corridors, urging everyone, villain and hero alike, to move quickly to the top of the platform, as this place wasn't long for the world.

[Tiffany Korta]

Agnes held up a finger at a rapidly retreating Gabriel, a little too late in her reactions.

“Actually I’m a teleporter...â€

She gave a little shrug and a guilty little look, though inside she really wanted to just go resue that idiot Asad, and turned to those around her.

“Okay can manage about five of you as long as you’ve kept off the pies. SHould be able to get everyone out fairly quickly as long as we’re organised about this. I could even manage Freedom City in one shot if we really must.â€

 

Then she could go get Asad out of trouble.

[Ari]

GM

 

"I am sure he just wants those poor souls out of danger, Miss Britannia, not to mention the crew of the East. It would be a smirch on our escutcheon if we forget them!" Moving quickly, Protonik grabbed their quarry and slung the startled chemist over his shoulder, flying off after Gabriel and collecting a few of the defeated recipients of the mutagen. The small band, flying or teleporting, soon made their escape from the now ominously-shuddering undersea base, arriving on the surface in time to surprise the AEGIS agents bringing the submarine up for inspection.

 

It was obvious at a glance to see that the freighter had been secured, Silver Spider and Omen were on the deck making sure the large and sullen gang of the crew didn't try anything with the large barrels piled bow-ward.

 

The pilot emerged from the plane, looking in mingled disgust and amazement at Motley's latest victims as he asked nervously "So...I'm guessing there's nothing else down there? No Prote-?" Protonik tossed the chemist unceremoniously onto the ship's floor and pointed out to sea at a dull purple patch for answer. "That may need some containment" he said brightly, a confident smile on his weathered face. Turning to Starlight he added "You can create things from light, correct? Could you trap that much liquid and make sure it can't spread?"

 

---

 

Meanwhile, Asad's decision to wait payed off. The leaking super-mutagen was spreading, but the substance was sluggish in the salt water and thinned slowly. That and there was a blessed lack of sharks.

 

Just about the only immediate problem was his breathing apparatus. The air was starting to get a strange metallic taste to it, and while more than enough for most missions the kind of stress it was undergoing was obviously more than it could take for long...

Edited September 27, 2013 by Arichamus

[TheAbsurdist]

Choices were decidedly limited, and what decisions he had made was a snap judgement and not predicated on prior success. He assumed that he could do this, he didn't know, and the press of the depths, the cold, and the taste of this stuff was not a pleasant reminder that he had limited time.

 

Still he had to bide it longer, and he moved closer to the try and get to something resembling the center as he held his hands apart and in front of him, and he started to focus while the strange taste in his rebreather made him want to panic.  Instead he kept focusing and he started to pull at the world around him, hoping he could accomplish this.

[Ari]

GM
 

With a sudden whirl, the dark mass overcame him. The air he breathed stank and clung to his throat, burning as Asad felt the mutagen particles try and burrow into him, to spread through through the man's body and invade his every cell, striving blindly to obey its carefully-machinated edict. A stray strand of hair swung before his eyes, and suddenly turned a loathsome, luminous white before twisting off his head and squirming away into the depths.

 

At last Amir reached the innermost point of the purplish cloud. The pain was receding, but in its place was a worrying deadness and calm. His super-tough body was probably absorbing the agent's energy and thus any power it had, but things being what they were this was hardly a surety. Everything was darkness, roiling emptiness.

 

Nothing remained but to do what he was set on. And see if this miasma was everything he had been told.

[TheAbsurdist]

Screw it.

 

Unable to breath or see and he knew this was going to end badly.  It was just a matter of mitigating the problems arising with a little bit of blue-sky thinking.  So he just let it all in.  Throwing off any pretense of a leash on his power and as he dropped the energy point to zero.  Or as close to Zero as he could muster.

 

Then he just pushed harder as he hit the wall he had gotten to earlier.  This officially sucked.  Especially once the water started to freeze, as they were below the themocline and there was no ambient solar energy reaching their surroundings.  And in middle of purple cloud of the mutagen he took everything, as he started to thrum with the stored energy.

[Ari]

GM

 

Asad felt the water change, slowly at first but with increasing speed as the paltry warmth of the ocean coursed into him, creating a quickly-expanding ball of frigidity that ground the widening cloud to a halt.

 

But even as the smell and taste dulled, the Many-Moneyed Myrmidon could feel it escaping the cold entrapment. Slipping his energy-absorbing grasp. The way the cloud was thinning almost seemed like a taunt, jeering at the best the consumer could do, daring him to go just one more step.

 

On the AEGIS jetboat

 

"It's stopping!" exclaimed the agent keeping an eye on the monitors "Temperature's dropping and making that stuff denser, we can nab it for sure!", her voice such a surprise her comrade almost dropped one of the Proteus mutates, glaring at her as he hooked the twisted wretch up to a mini-dialysis machine specially modified for purging the bloodstream of concentrated mutagens, which would continue the work started by the small syringes carefully jabbed into the victims' necks. Already the light-warpers were dimming and getting more discernable, the froglike man was losing the green and warped limbs. Humanity was returning but it was clear they would need a lot more to truly recover from this.

[Raveled]

Fluid was a good way to escape. Fluid could get through tiny gaps, and it was hard to find a way to stop all of a fluid from escaping. Fortunately, Starlight knew exactly how to stop a fluid from escaping. The alien stepped forward, energy gathering around her light a bright yellow-white shawl. She reached out with one hand and clenched it into a fist; at the same time a visible glow appeared around the puddle, quickly solidifying into a coherent sphere of solid energy that trapped the fluid, cutting through deck and metal plating to do so.

[Ari]

GM

 

The mutagen was at last contained, and after Starlight hauled the water surrounding it and Asad to the storage tanks mounted on the AEGIS boatplane, the rest of the mission was downright breezy by comparison.

 

The crew of the East that had been rounded up were kept on the ship by Protonik to await the Russian Navy, who escorted them home so iron-faced men could find out how they had gotten involved with the superhuman terrorist.

 

After the exchange of pleasantries and a cursory search of the base followed by its demolition, the boatplane soared back to America, sliding into the hidden hanger bay near Lonely Point and depositing the heroes and agents before a very stern looking Director Powers. It was almost twelve hours since they had departed.

 

"Not bad." he said tersely, watching as the storage tanks were removed with considerable care by hazmat-suited technicians, and wheeled away through a well-armored door "as always, consider how you can prevent-ah" the man's demeanor softened and he almost(not quite) smiled "forgot you weren't one of my own. Anyway, I'm sure you'll have a lot of questions, but I'm afraid I can't answer any of them right now. Got to get 'Mister Motley' here to a holding cell pending his trial, and make sure that stuff gets destroyed to the last drop. There are enough ways of getting powers in this world without keeping that wildcard of a formula around, and the antidotes can be modified for almost any variant as it is. It's a poisoned sword."

 

He offered a hand with a sudden, lightning-quick movement, shaking theirs rapidly with a steely grip that even the super-strong felt "Thanks for your help. AEGIS doesn't work with supers much, and I've heard there are some hard words said, especially about our founder. Now then" he outright grinned "I have a...premonition the press will want to hear about this tomorrow. Get some rest, you've earned it. You too agents," he added with a sharp glare from his one eye at the crew watching the display from nearby with undisguised amusement "to the Iceberg! You're still on-duty, and we've got to figure out how this ties in with the rest of this year's moves! Dismissed!"

 

With that and a nod, the Director vanished into the complex, followed by a mute Mallory and two guards.

 

The trip back into the city and to their respective homes was a relief. Everything had worked out resoundingly well, Mister Motley was no longer at large, every known liter of Proteus would soon be gone from the Earth, and their part in it would be known. A rare thing.

 

Not everyone would be happy, but at least today that included Overthrow.

 

THE END.

Edited November 29, 2013 by Arichamus