ic Incursion: Stop-Thrust (IC)

[Fox]

"I hate all of you," Tiamat growled as she crouched by the fallen doors. "I hate all of you so much. You, especially, ghoul," she added, digging glove-clad hands under the twisted remains of the metal portal. She hauled it up, muscles bulging, with complete disregard for the man still stuck to the other side - and, heavy though they might be, propped the metal plates as high as she could manage with only a human's leverage. "But greater than you have asked, so be grateful. You will never feel my fire, but thanks to the knight you my at least feel the heat!"

There was more rumble and volume in that last word than a mortal human's voice box could ever produce, and for good reason: that word hit the air in tangible form, a continuous stream of dragon's fire that tore and splashed against the doors, seeking to consume everything in touched...including the cold and ice of Frost's own handiwork, warmth radiating through the metal and to where the Russian was stuck on the opposite face.

[Avenger Assembled]

For a moment, in the heat of battle, there was dead silence - and then on the other side of the door came a sudden, malignant hiss of joy like the escaping of steam. "Yesssss!" Comrade Frost didn't so much emerge from the door as he erupted around it, coiling in smoky white tendrils before forming up in the gauzy shape of a red-eyed man. His icy body seemed briefly super-charged by the stolen heat, flowing and whipping around itself like it had been left to boil on a stove. "HOW DELICIOUS!" He laughed manically as he poured into the reactor room, heedlessly passing the others before he raised his hands to the antibodies and declared, "COME! LET ME TASTE YOU!" as an icy wave of pure cold seemed to erupt in front of him, freezing machines to a shattering stop with barely a pause. 

Edited May 25, 2015 by Avenger Assembled

[Thevshi]

Velocity felt the stinging pain across her back as one of the antibodies managed to hit her and draw some blood.  The yellow clad speedster took a brief moment to glance back at the antibody before she once again became a blur of yellow.  

*CRACK*

The antibody that had hit her was the first to have the side of its metallic head caved in by a hypersonic punch. 

More miniature sonic booms echoed through the reactor room, one after each other as Velocity was everywhere in factions of a second.  The two antibodies that had come after Fluer were both knocked away so quickly it seemed almost simultaneous with the two on Gabriel going down. 

A mere second later Velocity skidded to a halt back by Fleur as nineteen antibodies crashed to the floor or slammed into walls.  Only one of the ones Velocity had managed to reach was still standing, somehow standing up to the speedster’s powerful hit. 

But Velocity was focused on other things at the moment.  "Umm Frost, I am not sure we want to takeout the reactor.  Assuming we could even do so safely, it is pretty clear the Communion want it for some reason.  If we no longer have what they want, then they can just blow us out of the sky and kill everyone aboard." 

"Clearly we cannot let them have it, but…what if this portal is the way to that ship sitting a short ways off from us?"  The speedster stated, pointing to the portal that Fleur's was currently blocking.  Other than the initial group of antibodies that had tried to come through, no others had tried.  "While the Communion wants to use it to come to the reactor, we can use the portal to go over there and take the fight to them."

[Electra]

"I'm not so sure about that," Fleur replied dubiously, "the last time we went through a portal into an enemy territory, everything ended up really weird. Even if we did all live to tell the tale." Nevertheless, she obiligingly collapsed her portal, the vines falling from their places and instead moving to snake around the remaining Antibodies in the room. A few of them were starting to wise up and got away, but within a few seconds she had eight neat packages of captured antibody waiting to be dealt with. "If we go, are we gonna be able to come back easily? Or at all?" 

[Fox]

The escaping antibodies didn't go far. Gaian Knight had worked alongside Fleur de Joie often enough to be perfectly happy playing clean-up: as soon as her vines started to snake around the room the geokinetic hero maneuvered his storm of shards together into ceiling of hovering doom at the top of the room...and even once the more spry of their enemies had ducked Fleur's vines, they found they had nowhere to go when he clenched his fist and sent parts of it crashing down onto their heads.

"Between the two of us, probably," he pointed out, already gathering his arsenal back together into a suspiciously compact platform. "I can set up another anchor here, just in case we need to hit the reactor quickly - and you can get us all over, since I doubt they were smart enough to kill everything green on the station. I'm game if you all are, but if this was just the assault party we're going to need to be ready for a fight."

[Thevshi]

GM 

As the last of the antibodies went down, a quiet fell over the reactor room.  Although Fleur's portal was gone, for the moment the Communion was no longer sending more of its foot soldiers through its own portal, although the portal was still clearly active. 

"If they were coming through it, we should be able to return as well."  Gabriel stated as he rested his spear on one shoulder.  "Although we still have to do something about the reactor.  I can stay behind to be sure no more of the Communion gets in here."

[Fox]

There was an awful clang as Tiamat dropped the doors she'd hauled up, and she had a face to match the noise - fire still licked its way out the sides of her mouth, and her eyes - angry even behind her domino mask - were noticeably reptilian. "I, for one, am in favor of taking the fight to them," she growled, in a voice that wasn't entirely human...and had dropped all posturing and pretense, revealing her rarely-heard accent. "If there is space on their ship, I will tear them apart by tooth and claw. And if there isn't, I'll do it by hand and make up the volume with inventive cruelty."

[Avenger Assembled]

"On the contrary - damaging reactor is exactly what we must do!" Frost walked up to the reactor control panels, half-rimed over from his heat drain, and began tapping away at the keys with his long, blue-white fingers. "Reactor overload in progress. Wait, no..." He peered at an iced-over display, pausing to take out a pair of spectacles and put them on the end of his nose. "Reactor overload is being redirected! Communion, you clever sons of whores!" He slapped the panel and turned to the others. "It is magnificent plan! They overcharge our reactor, transform microwave transmitter into overloaded blaster, and incinerate who-knows-what on planet below. Is just like on Mir, where we, heh-heh-heh, never mind that!" He clapped his hands together. "I can redirect beam and ensure station and surface survive, albeit with some little damage to former..." He began tapping keys again, a look of concentration on his face. "You can go through portal if you wish. Will be some time. Best to brace yourselves." 

[Thevshi]

Velocity was glad that the others appeared willing to go along with her idea, even if Fleur seemed to feel it might not be the best plan.  The speedster thought the plan made sense, but she had to acknowledge that there was plenty that could go wrong. 

"Okay, here I go"  Velocity stated, before she started forward in a blur of yellow, passing through the portal even as her words were just reaching the others.  The yellow clad speedster felt a strange sensation as reality warped around her, then, what seemed a long few moments from her point of view, she appeared in a large open chamber.  The space seemed like it had once been some sort of hanger facility, but now it was just a vast empty chamber.   

Well, not really empty, there was the other side of the portal toward one end of the space, and spread out through the rest of the chamber were ranks upon ranks of the antibodies, seemingly divided up into some sort of groups.   

Even as she took her first few steps past the portal, Velocity found herself face to face with several dozen antibodies who appeared to have been moving toward the portal.  The speedster wasted no time, moving straight forward as she began sending punches in all directions, almost faster than the human eye could really track.  Miniature sonic booms echoed through the chamber as she delivered her hypersonic punches. 

When Velocity skidded back to a halt a few dozen yards out in front of the portal, almost fifty of the antibodies closest to the portal had been knocked flat.  Of all the ones the speedster had managed to hit, only five withstood the attacks. 

"I appear to have come out in some sort of hanger.  There are a lot of these Communion here, but I have cleared out the area immediately in front of the portal."  She called back over her League communicators.  "And there is plenty of space in here for you Tiamat."  The speedster then added.

[Electra]

"Great," Fleur muttered, staring at the portal with a sort of weary dismay. Her body was already aching, her mind and her powers tired from forcing plants into this most unnatural of environments. Without sunlight, she'd need food and sleep soon, neither of which seemed likely to be forthcoming. "This is such a bad idea. I miss beautifying parks." With a wave of her hand, she commanded her plants to swallow up their captives, securing them with the other Antibodies in her dimensional otherspace. She'd decide what to do with them later. She gathered up the now-unencumbered vines and runners around herself like a living carpet, then walked through the portal with as much dignity and bravery as she could muster while trying to duck at the same time. 

[Fox]

"I miss stopping landslides," Gaian Knight agreed, though Fleur was already gone. He frowned, squared his shoulders, and stepped through after her.

His ever-present array of broken earth was only a few steps behind him, and as soon as he could see well enough to attack he sent them flying - streaming across the hangar like a whirlwind, a circular storm taking out anything it could touch. Which, given the sheer number advantage their enemies had, was unlikely to be enough. But if he could clear some room.... "Might want to step back a little," he called out, hands outstretched to sweep his storm sideways. "I think Tiamat's going to want to have some words, and I bet she's mad enough to not be too gentle about it."

[Thevshi]

GM 

Sending out his storm of rocks, Gaian Knight managed to catch twenty five more of the closest antibodies with his attack, ripping them to shreds.  Although another twenty five of the antibodies managed to avoid the attack.

Still, the antibodies were too far away to quickly reach any of the heroes, so they began rushing forward, many letting out the electronic screeching they emitted.  The mass of Communion began to close ranks as they moved forward, the different groups merging and melding together, forming even larger mobs of metallic silver figures.   

Back over on the Lighthouse, Gabriel moved over to a position near Frost were he could keep eye on the entrance to the room and the portal at the same time.  "Be safe my friends."  He said over the team communicator.

[Fox]

"Wooooooooorms," growled the fang-filled jaws that came through the portal - however Tiamat's human form worked, it had apparently started to fall apart under the strain of the hurt she'd taken and the anger burning a fire in her belly. Potentially a literal fire - her mouth was leaking flame like she was keeping a small furnace in there, and it only got worse as she shed her disguise to unveil her true glory to everyone assembled, tail lashing through the air as she stretched.

"IIIN-sects," she intoned, snaking her head down to antibody-eye-level. 

"BUUUUURN," she invoked, putting such fire in the word that it melted the floor...alongside a sizable portion of the remaining antibodies.

Edited June 3, 2015 by Fox

[Thevshi]

Velocity took a few brief moments to taken in the situation inside the former hanger (and for those few moments were a long time indeed).  Between herself, Gaian and Tiamat (now in her impressive dragon form), they had cleared the immediate area near the portal, and the speedster had little doubt they could continue to keep it clear given they were together and fighting in the Communion in a large open area where they did not really care about causing collateral damage. 

But even then it would just be a matter of holding off a tide, while not doing anything about the Communion ship in general.  So, she decided that she could probably afford to move beyond the hanger and see about causing some damage.  Of course, she would help clear out some more antibodies along the way.

"I am going to move further in and see about causing some damage to the ship."  Velocity said to the others.  "Just let me know if you need me back here or we have to get back through." 

With that, she was moving, another blur of yellow.  Weaving through the groups of antibodies, the speedster came to the center of a mass that was rushing toward the portal, and her teammates.  Suddenly the blur of yellow seemed to be nearly everywhere at once in a large area in the center of the antibodies.  Over a hundred mini-sonic booms echoed almost one on top of another as Velocity delivered hypersonic punch after punch.  In moments, over a hundred antibodies were smashed, flying outward through the hanger, many slamming into other antibodies beyond where Velocity had delivered her attacks, though only a few of those additional antibodies were taken out.

But the speedster was already gone, having exited the hanger as she sped through the hallways and further into the massive ship, looking for a good place to start causing some significant damage. 

Over on the Lighthouse. 

The technicians up in the command center were fervently working try to get as many systems as they could back online now that power had been resorted.  Of course, they were monitoring the power build up in the reactor.  The supervisor activated the internal comm.  "Comrade Frost, we are monitoring the situation as best we can from up here.  Is there anything we can do to assist you?"

[Fox]

With a little extra breathing room and the whole gang present, Gaian Knight took a moment to cast his goggled gaze around the room and frowned. "Who wants to bet this whole ship is just crawling with reinforcements?"

He spread his glowing hands out, directing his earthen storm out along the outside of the room - and as it reached each door, it left behind a rapidly-growing plug, stone growing and digging into the archways and door frames - minus what he could vaguely gauge to be a primary entrance or two - to seal off most of the Communion's points of ingress. And, for that matter, of egress. "What's the phrase?" he asked, conducting the earth sideways to continue its task. "We're not trapped in here with them - they're trapped in here with us? But hopefully we'll be awfully hard to surround or flank, while still keeping heat off of Velocity."

[Electra]

"Well, at the very least we can distract them," Fleur agreed, her face grim. She threw a carelessly large handful of seeds into the encroaching army, the noise like a soft fall of hail against their armor. The antibodies totally ignored it until every one of those seeds suddenly sprouted and began growing, catching feet and legs and bodies in unbreakable vegetable bonds. Antibodies began falling, singly and in groups, some taking their neighbors down with them, and each one that fell was quickly mummified like insects caught in spiderwebs. "Where do you think those little arrow-shaped ships are coming from? Is there anything we can do to try and stop more of them from shooting over onto the station?"

[Fox]

Tiamat had completely disregarded the antibodies throwing themselves at her scales until her fire was momentarily spent. Only then did she move, far faster than a creature her size had any right to.

Her own attackers she simply swatted, one great crimson arm crushing into them and sending broken bodies flying back into the crowds.

Gaian Knight made a startled noise as teeth that were still trailing flame snapped closed much too close for comfort, leaving behind significantly less of the antibodies than had been there a moment ago.

And the antibodies attempting an assault on Fleur de Joie received a quick but effective lesson in why all ends of a dragon are dangerous: her tail descended on them from above with a thunderous crack.

She craned her head back around, eyes glowing like mad rubies as her tail flicked what was left of Fleur's attackers off to the side. Things best left unconsidered fell from her jaws as she flared her wings, bellowing a challenge that was felt in the bones as much as heard. She was, as in the tales, a dragon standing against an army's tide - and it was not a good day to be an army.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Doop-a-doop-a-doo..." When everyone was through the portal, Frost put his hands in his pockets and studied the machine he'd volunteered to operate. "All right, my fine fat fellow, let me see..." Frost did his best to recall the technical schematics of the station. "If I do this, I will channel energy through hull and incinerate antibodies devouring station, but maybe it blows up and I die. Ah well, such a story to tell Lady Hel when I see her!" He began typing away at the keyboard, hands on the home row just as he had learned in typewriting classes in a high school gone eighty years in the past. "Have all evacuated from station? Hmm, no way to find out. Let us hope so!" He kept on typing, not entirely sure what all the flashing lights and rearranging station blueprints on screen meant, but reasonably sure he was doing the right thing. "Don't want their righteous shades to eat my soul, hah-hah-hah! Listen to you, Comrade Frost, talking to yourself like crazy old man!" 

[Thevshi]

GM

As Comrade Frost was busy at work planning to deal with the power surge and hopefully deal with as many of the Communion antibodies as well, Gabriel had moved over near the entrance to the reactor room.  Seeing a pair of antibodies rushing down the hall toward the room, the white clad hero raised his spear and sent a forked sonic blast at the pair, knocking them both off their feet.

"I hope you can hurry Frost!"  He called back into the room.  "Some of the Communion have gotten inside and are on their way here."

Finishing his work, Frost opened the power relays of the reactor as much as he could, allowing all the power that had been building up inside the reactor to suddenly rush out into the station's systems.  Sparks flashed throughout the room as several lights exploded from the surge, but the power continued on throughout the station, causing damage to various systems.

But as much damage as the released power caused to the inside of the station, the effect was even greater along the exterior, as lightening arched from the open power relays the numerous antibodies had been working to alter.  The blast of lightening tore through many of the gathered antibodies, causing them to collapse before they began to float away.

Down in the reactor room, the remaining lights dimmed, as the reactor returned to normal power levels.  Although many of the station's systems were damaged, for the moment they were no longer in danger of the reactor overloading and the station being turned into a weapon.

[Thevshi]

Velocity sped through the hallways of the massive Communion spaceship, finding them mostly deserted as she went.  What few antibodies there were in the halls, with more seeming to emerge from other areas as she moved further in, had little chance of coming anywhere close to catching the speedster as she moved at speeds many times the speed of sound. 

The yellow clad speedster ran toward the back of the spaceship, looking for anything that looked like a reactor or power core.  Finally she found a large chamber with a tall glowing column within a forcefield that was over three stories tall.  Over a dozen antibodies were in the room, overseeing the power core's operation. 

They had barely registered that Velocity had entered the room when the speedster was in the middle of the room, accelerating her speed just a fraction and hitting up against the sound barrier in such a way that she would trigger a powerful sonic boom. 

BOOM!

The shockwave of the sonic boom washed out from the center of the room in all directions, but Velocity was already gone and back in another hallway.  Antibodies were blasted apart by the shockwave, as control counsels and other more fragile systems were destroyed as well.  The walls of the room took some damage, but held, as did the forcefield and the power core, although both were clearly suffering damage as well.

[Electra]

Despite Fleur's best efforts to get the antibodies under control, a lucky blow to the face from one of them sent her to the ground for a minute, dazed and aching. This new attack, piled on top of the injuries she'd already incurred, was enough to have her longing for a quick teleport home to cuddle up with a few aspirin and a bright sunny room for awhile. She missed the sun. She missed the earth. And there wasn't going to be any earth if they didn't finish this job. Fleur staggered to her feet and wiped away a smear of blood from her lip, then grabbed another handful of seeds and threw it. Surely there could only be a finite amount of antibodies on one Communion ship!