2014.03.09 - Grounded: Apokolips NOW: In Through The Back Door

The breath is exhaled, the silence has ended, there is no more calm. Now is the storm.
Tony is up before dawn, despite his revelry the night before. Aside from anyone else might think of him, he is ice cold this morning. He's among the first to the Watchtower, and his armor is fresh. It's unknown if it's a new Mark or not, but he already has the Gemini spaceworthy configuration active. Those taking this route, arrive and make themselves ready as see fit. When the time reaches Zero Hour, Iron Man - working in conjunction with Channel for the missing Element X to access the energy unique to The Source to get them to where they need to go.
When Wonder Woman gives the order, and he activates /his/ method for accessing Apokolips. Knowing he would need to find an alternative to Boom Tube technology, Stark managed to invent and entirely new method of long distance space travel. Never let it be said that he is not a clever boy. Holding open a Tannhäuser gate suspending a Sagan-Tyson field, powered by Element X and drawing forth multiple conduits of The Source, Tony is able to open multiple, stable wormholes positioned at exact distances around the all-metal planet, allowing entry of many multiple inbound for a simultaneous operation against Darkseid and his Elite, Parademons, and other denizens of the antihesis of New Genesis.
Booster Gold is in his usual powersuit and looking the way he usually looks; that is to say, very shiny, well groomed, and vaguely perky. He has never been to Apokolips, because it is not what one might call a resort destination, but he has a lot of trans-dimensional travel experience. As he checks his on-board communications and scanners, he says to the people in his group, "If anyone ends up needing assistance or protection, say something or at least try to get near me. I can't split my forcefield up." Because, despite the insistence of some, he is not a Green Lantern.
The sight to greet the assembled heroes is truly one that fits it's name; A literally planet-sized structure of massive metal patchworked together, with great canyons within and dagger-like structures piercing the sky. Gargantuan furnaces bigger than any Earth mountain sends huge blasts of fire thousands of miles into the void, and the heat is suffocating even from this distance as smog and debris. There is no gravity, despite seeming to be so close, likely some mechanical marvel intended to not pull in unwanted items.
Yet it seems that there is a welcoming party of sort that stands before the heroes.
No sooner than the great portals break open, then a massive blue shield erupts in a hexagonal pattern, each perhaps a mile in size. The entire planet seems to be sealed by it, shimmering ominously. Such is impregnable to even the battleships of New Genesis, technology able to destroy planets and star systems. Brute force will not be a viable approach.
Within the sky are dozens and dozens of Parademons, twisted creatures of green and yellow with small wings and shrieking expressions. They wield plasma blasters and energy-sheathed blunt weapons. Countless men on Aero-Discs float as well, some holding high-tech weaponry, and others very heavily armored -- the Armored Infantry and Flight Corps. Much smaller in number is perhaps a dozen people wearing distinctly different outfits, some on Aero-Discs, others seeming to be flying of their own power; the Special Powers Force.
With a whirr, countless shutters shift away from the metal city. Cannons begin to appear of all sorts, as great waves of combat machines, battle probes, and larger ships begin to appear. Shrieking, insane-looking people on Aero-Discs have a distressingly large number of explosives on them as well, positioned far away from the main groups of people.
And directly in front is a massive opening, doubtlessly the primary entrance to Apokolips. No coincidence that Tony picked the one location able to be effectively breeched. Thick cables surround the round tunnel, hooking up to countless large orbs. These appear to be what powers each grid square for the shield. Deeper within the tunnels is a number of machinery upon the walls, humming and thrumming; doubtlessly the source of this front's shield hexagon.
Two figures are just outside the shield, standing tall. One is a monstrous twisted humanoid towering past seven feet, arms like bears and legs like much smaller bears. A wild mane of black hair goes down Kalibak's head, one hand gripping an imposing metal rod. "Shut up." he growls, in annoyance.
To his left is a man rather more imposing looking, arms crossed. Black spandex is worn beneath a golden outfit, great red ruby upon chest and belt. Dark, slate grey with black hair. "Silence. Because you are First Born does not mean you have any worth. Sniveling child."
For a moment Kalibak looks ready to take a swing at Grayven. "We'll see!! I'll crush more heroes beneath my heel then you could hope, and Father will see who is the greatest!!"
"I won't let a single person even touch the shield..." Grayven comments, looking up towards the shield before a sadistic smile creases his features.
Vorpal closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, clenching his fists for a second, feeling the reassuring presence of the armbands. His eyes open as the stable wormhole opens.
Well, there it was. The mouth of hell, and he looks at the motley crew assembled to storm its bowels. Most of them he knew, a few he had never spoken to--- and some he trusted with his life.
And then there was the Tick who, albeit seemingly indestructible, also either terrified him or amused him, and sometimes a little of column A, a little of B. This, ladies and gentlemen, were the heroes that were going to save the world...
"Mamma Mia, here we go again..." says the cat to himself. He gives Booster a smile that isn't nearly as confident as he wants it to be.
And then, the problem quickly becomes visible once they pass through.
"Quickly," the Cheshire hisses "... give me something pretty that goes 'boom' that I can set off on the other side. I can get through."
He's not entirely sure who has explosives, but he's betting on Lunair to have something that could be devastating, or at least to produce it. The woman was a walking Hammerspace of carnage.
Shrinking Violet fidgets nervously as she waits for things to get going. Currently, the shrinking wonder was roughly four inches tall, bracing herself against one of Booster's shoulder pads and watching the gathering with a growing sense of tension. Something about this felt dangerous, but.. she wasn't about to let her friends go alone! Well.. clearly not alone.
With a nervous gulp, she turns and projects her voice rather well for her small size, though somehow it still comes across timidly "I-I'll be doing my best t-to provide intel and s-support. I-if anyone is hurt..", she pauses, running her fingers over the emergency field kit she had in one of her belt pouches "I'll do my best.". That of course was before the gateway opened. The sight of a large force, the massive energy shield, and lord knows what else waiting deeper in has her gripping Booster's shoulder a little firmly.. or at least as firmly as she can at her size.
"E-uhm... Oh." Her eyes were darting across the gathered forces against the troop of heroes, and she turns to lean into Boosters ear, whispering <Can you get me closer to the force field?>
It had taken the Tick at least two days to find his helmet. He hadn't worn it since his deep sea adventure against the dastardly She-Shell and her Crime-staceans. Water, space, it was all liquid, right? When he arrives at the launch point, his helmet is firmly affixed, what appears to be a massive goldfish bowl affixed with entirely functionless antenna and a small vent on the side to allow him to speak (and breathe, although to be fair, ,he doesn't really know that). He also has a large, massive hand made out of metal strapped to the back of his wrist, its knuckles jutting outwards just above his own. Before they prepare to set off, Tick turns to the assembled to give an entirely unscheduled and largely superfluous pep talk.
"People of Justice! Wings of night and Loons of air, Cat Guys and Rainbow Girls, and, of course, cute little alien ghost orphans...ours is not to wonder why! Wondering why will only make you confused and asking questions that no one has time to answer because we're in the middle of a really big fight! And really big fights don't need a why. They need a who. They need an us. A just-us." he says, antenna a-quivering in his giant helm, his cheeks a little red as it's actually a little hard to breathe in that thing, "Tonight, we're going to a planet full of naughty. It's a giant monstrosity of wickedness that's smoking in the non-smoking section of the universe! And we're here to slap it on the wrist! Because once the second hand smoke of evil gets into your lungs, it infests you and makes you cough and gives you that phlegmy thing that always tickles at the back of your throat but never quite goes away, no matter how much milk you drink. IT DOES A BODY GOOD!"
"And today, somehow, someway, we're going to get to this giant mudball of polluted badness through the science efforts of smarty brained super heroes! Huzzah! And I come armed with my special space helmet and my Third Punch!" he says, holding up the arm with the second hand strapped to it, "Because I am going to fist those bad guys so hard! I'm going to DOUBLE FIST THEM until they're sore and begging for mercy! And I will give them mercy, because I'm a good guy and that's what good guys do! But they don't deserve it! And I'll tell them so as they're sent off to space jail. Now! Let's do it! For Earth! For Superman! For JUSTICE! SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!
Livewire in his Legionnaire uniform and transuit that can't be seen with a normal eyes looks into the worm whole thinking of what lies on the other side.He moves through the air with the use of his flight letting those that are in charge of taking out defenses go first with him following behind. He put up his electricity aura up to shield or charge odjects quickly incase someone needs him to help short out any devices if need be."Into the great beyond" He whispers as he enters the worm whole and take in the the two titans guarding a force field and further readies himself for a fight.
Prepping for battle included many things, raiding the vault, taking about seven volunteers from Team Luthor that truly believed as well that not only was this a chance to slow the alien beestard(comic censorship) down, but even if that failed to gather intel to help defeat him in the near future. There are heavy weapons and also a mobile control system that can be set up with a force field to deploy the robotics which can care and plant explosives for controlled damage, or work on hacking, but all have wireless relays to accept commands and send back information and footage as they explore. Some hover, others are on wheels, but all are meant to use camouflage and move about as quietly as possible. It isn't overkill on tech, but it is the best tech that was brought for the job.
Match A.K.A. Leo Luthor himself made sure to record a funny video to send to Fern to keep her spirits up as he took off with his team. He knows the risks, but he isn't going in this with a bad outlook. He also made sure his support staff had power armor to assist and protect them, the military grade that was created based on The Patriot. Of course, should it be captured, it is set to self-destruct.
Once meeting with the group, Match went to establish himself as not only willing to follow Booster Gold, but willing to actively support him and work in conjunction with him while using his support staff. However, seeing Scarlet Arsenal A.K.A. Lunair made Leo grin widely! "Hey girl! Think if Team Luthor runs out of ammo or their weapons get damaged, you can toss them some good supplies?" He sounds cheerful to see the young girl, and very happy to have her on his side. He has a rebreather on him in case of any space travel, and the power suits have at least limited environmental support.
Though when Tick starts talking, Match makes an icky expression. "You know the guy? Is he related to Deadpool?" Match ends up face palming, yes, face palming. His support staff have this wtf expression on their faces and just secure their helmets and pretend that isn't one of the heroes they have to entrust their lives to.
Lightspeed is not too fond of space - it is cold, silent and there is noair to breath when Jack is not around to create some kind of forcefield to keep air with them. Thankfully Tony had delivered some means to get breathable air to the group once they passed through the wormhole - or should one say Stargate, considering the look of the machine on the earth-side? - and so she gathered with her assigned squad. A pity Alex did not come either, and thus she was the only member of the Power family around, waiting in the area in front of the Gate. Of all the people.... she just knew Booster from the news and Vorpal, for she was a TA and student in the Academy of Tomorrow. Did Diana assign a leader? Nope, but the Power Pack never had one designated lead either, but then again they only had been four members, as opposed to the nine gathered in the squad. Trying to Inspire some confidence - despite the knot in her stomach - in the totally drawn together team, she tried it with a short speech, before she dashed for the event horizon. "Ok peeps, everyone has their cigar, lucky charms and guns? Then let's go and bust Darkseid!" And with that she sped up, a short rainbow trail pointing to the point at which she passed through the blue.
On the other side, Lightspeed arrived with a small shockwave of air carried with her, soon dispersed in the void of space as she lays eyes on Apokolips - and almost instantly wishes she didn't. "We have a General Ackbar situation here - They wait for us." So much for a warning and time to assemble on the other side. But Keith Idea kinda was good "When you get your explosives Vorpal, I can try to get you towards the shield as fast as I can, just give me a hand."
It's like one of those dystopian sci fi novels. This could be, maybe it is and it isn't. Lunair takes it all in. Every sight. How often does someone like her get to do this? All it would take to destroy her would be one ill timed Apokolipsian barbeque backfire. And that would just be awful. Concerned. Yes, she is concerned. Although, she might even be somewhat amused that apparently contests of who can beat more of what are not unique to her world.
Also, Lunair is - well, she's not going to argue with the Tick over her name. And how did she get space gear? She did. Probably loaned or stolen. Even if the Tick's speech confuses the heck out of her, she goes with it. Look at his sincerity! ... she's a bit impressionable. A lot impressionable. Also, she really needs to change her codename around British people or fans of Arsenal. But she, in her armor and space suit, is totally here! With an alarmingly large laser cannon slung over her back. It looks more at home on a Gundam or something. And she's lugging it around. Weird kid.
Lunair smiles to Leo. Wavewave. "Sure thing." She's very lucid today. Although, little cracks in her mannerisms show. But she's trying. "I'll do my best." It's all she can, really.
Also, Vorpal totally gets his explosive
Megan is simply hovering next to her Uncle Tick as he gives his heart-pounding speech for goodness and the fisting of badness. She hugs onto his neck as he cries out his favorite piece of cutlery--which also happens to be her favorite. "Oh, Uncle Tick. Just be careful, okay? We'll do our best, all of us," she says with a determined, sweet face. She looks out at the motley group of superheroes, and rubs her arms. She hopes Kara's okay. She hopes big brother's okay. She hopes everyone's going to come out of this in good shape--except for the bad guys. Down with evildoers!
Kalibak and Grayven glance up as the heroes begin to topple out of the shields, with some kind of plan. "Cute." Grayven states. "Des--" "I GET TO ORDER." Kalibak snarls. Graven turns towards him with a laugh. "You? I've conquered galaxies. What have you conquered, beyond that cake?" "You...!!" The sheer animosity between the two is pretty apparent, and rather heavily delays a more important order.
"FIRE!!" Both offer, before the countless static defenses begin to rain red energy beams of pain towards the group. Each is no small joke, but they are large -- intended to attack ships, not people. If one was struck, they would feel it for... probably the second it took to atomize. But avoiding them is less of an issue than the sheer number.
Parademons, Aero-Corps, Armored Corps, all begin to rush forward. More plasma begins to be fired, with the more potent Special Powers forces lingering behind and observing, waiting. They are the elites, after all...
Iron Man, predictably, is the last one through. It's no coincidence. He's making sure the wormholes continue to hold and remain stable. Also? Because he's one devious son of a bitch.
"Yeah, talk your smack, Darkseid. We'll see who's still standing when this is over. Protip: It's not gonna be you."
From the Watchtower, Tony takes a step back from the wormhole's controls, now slaving them to his suit, and back through JARVIS as a contingency in case he loses control of them here. He has his protocols in place. Just in case."
"JARVIS - You ready go, buddy"
"Yes, sir. We're on standby and ready to go on your order."
"Well then. Designate me Iron Man Prime and let's roll the Legion."
"Yes, sir. Iron Legion Protocol activated. Good Luck sir, I look forward to seeing you back at the tower."
"So do I, JARVIS. Just in case, you have your orders."
"Yes, sir."
Forty suits march in. Forty Suits. That's as many as four tens. And that's wonderful.
"Alpha unit is with me. The rest, issue evenly among the remaining wormholes. Let's play Oprah."
Around the planet, Iron Men start issuing through the wormholes. All of them have Tony's voice. One of them speaks, "We don't go to parties unless we have party favors. So today? Everyone gets an Iron Man."
Meanwhile, Iron Man Prime stands with his Alpha unit, tracking.
Waiting.
"..Ugh." Booster Gold gives his opinion of the situation upon seeing the massed ranks as they press the attack. Quietly, in Interlac, he says to Shrinking Violet, "<Just hold on tightly.>" In English, he says to the rest of the group, "Let's hit these hard and keep their attention. I'm going to run decoy to help get Vorpal and Violet to the shield, hopefully they can get through and take it down while we deal with things out here. Match, Tick, especially try to go for the big uglies, there..." He indicates Kalibak and Grayven.
Booster's forcefield, form-fitting around himself and the tiny Shrinking Violet, glows brightly with the kind of light that says, 'hey, aim at me, I'm a target!'. "Use me as cover, Lightspeed... let's go!" With that, he takes off like a comet, flying with his arms extended before him as he fires off blasts of golden light. For the most part he is trying to be evasive, but sometimes things just get in the way.
Vorpal smirks as he grabs the explosive from Lunair and gives Julie his hand. "Ok... I'm going to create multiple illusions of us, Julie. It'll take them a bit to target them because it's hard to tell them apart from the real thing at first..." the luck of creating illusions infused with Willpower. It was why they were so believable. His space gear was the one addition to his costume that he was not used to... he kept feeling trapped in a fishbowl of sorts. It took only a moment of concentration before the area was full of Julies and Vorpals soaring through space. The way the illusions appear is that they spread from the single point of origin, so that it is hard to tell exactly who was there first.
Well, this was it- the death rush. He had better make his teleportation and invisibility powers worth everybody's while, because they were not going to get a second chance at fooling those Parademons. "Up Up and away!"
And then Everybody Gets An Iron Man. Vorpal makes a big note to remember this on October 16th, alright.
Livewire's eyes open wide as he take in quickly what his happening using his training he begins constantly moving as his instinks take hold dodging enemy fire by inches. With each dodge he fires an electro blasts at the approaching forces. His ears perk up at the sound of the approaching Iron man forces come up the worm whole a smile coming across Livewires face." Here comes the Cavalry" he yells for everyone in his area can hear. This reminds him that he must keep an eye for his fellow teammates to work together through this fight.
Tick squeezes M'gann SO TIGHT, her invulnerable squishiness squished against his cheek, "OH LITTLE GHOST ORPHAN! I am only sad that you have to see such a naughty place with your innocent little eyes! Try to avert them whenever you can, so that that badness doesn't stick to your brain like boiled spaghetti on the wall of your gentle nature! KEEP IT BOILING!" he snuggles, "Now, Uncle Tick's going to mash a lot of naughty demon faces today, but don't you worry. Nothing can hurt me, for I stand for Truth, Justice, The American Way, Apple Pie, Mom, Big Macs, Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches, Pop Tarts....man, i should've eaten before I came here, nothing gets me famished like a hankering for justice, lemme see if I've got something here...OH, PORK RINDS!" he says, offering the back to M'gann as Match suddenly snatches him by the nape of the neck and hurls him, crisp bits of pig skin trailing in his wake.
"BE CAREFUL, MY LITTLE SWEET BROCCOLI SHOOT! DON'T WORRY, I'M JUST BELLY FLOPPING FOR JUSTICE! COME, WICKED FIREFLIES OF THE ETERNAL NIGHT, TAKE A QUICK TRIP INTO THE ABYSS OF MY BELLY BUTTON! EAT MY LINT, DARKSEID!"
Lightspeed smiles a little, seeing that Vorpal gets his requested device of mass destruction, just waiting for him to give her a sign to play the taxi. Not that she would mind - she had played taxi for her team before, especially Katie. Taking Vorpal's hands she nods "Make sure to remember the rainbow trail, Pal." she responded, before grinning widely on the up up away. "to the end of the Universe, and beyond!" she echoed and then she followed up on Booster, doing her best to not only evade the dense fire from the planet but also fly in a quite erratic course to make it harder to aim for where she will be in a second. The rainbow trail zigzagged down in a rough spiral, trying to zoom in on a junction of the hexagon-pentagon pattern, accompanied by dozens of other trails in similar fashion. While the grip of Julie was tight and the lack of air friction made it easier to keep Vorpal with her, it still would be not too nice on his stomach. But there was no time to worry about that now - The target lay ahead, and it was to deliver the Velvet Violet to one of the machines keeping the field going. "Try to make it a Domino- Effect!"
Match salutes Booster proper military style and he double checks his rebreather. He knew going into this he wouldn't get to hold back, but he is still going to hold some tricks up his sleeve until they are absolutely necessary. Right now, protecting the others is key. "Alright, Tick right?" He thinks he threw up in the back of his throat a little bit at his mushiness with M'gann, "Can you fly? No?" And Match being every so helpful says, "Think of those arcade ping pong games," and picks poor Tick up and TOSSES him right at the enemy, HARD! Alright, so maybe he took some sadistic pleasure in that.
Match on the other hand for himself states, "Engaging the energy fire to reroute to targets." He can't take the energy fire full-on; it could potentially even just burn right through him. However he can use his TTK to deflect, and some of the shots he works to aim them whenever possible to Kalibak, Grayven, or the things they shots are originally coming from (since he can't do a full 180 degree defect, he aims to try and get a neighboring shooter obviously in that case). He moves with in-human speed and accuracy as he works on counteracting those energy shots. He hisses in pain, as even deflecting them, he can feel his skin blistering, and burn marks appearing in his leather jacket sleeves, and this is friggin space! You aren't supposed to burn in space!
Team Luthor is trying to speak through their masks with Lunair, verifying who she is, and nodding as they know about her powers and how useful they would be. They work with her to try and solidify some logistics as there isn't much they can do right this second, and don't want to think about the energy beam battle.
Shrinking Violet takes a deep breath, but for now forces herself to stay attentive. There was a lot going on, and from the moment of arrival the sheer mass of the forces against them. Booster gets a timid nod as she braces herself against his shoulder, and off they go! From the start she was examining the shields, and more specifically, what the shields were containing. Rare was it that the enemy was polite enough to put the generators on the outside.
Already she was trying to work out how best to disrupt the shields operation, which was quite hard enough without the threat of incineration! Still, one works with what one has. Speaking into her comm ring, "Live Wire, focus fire on the disks and arsenal... s-see if we can do something about their firepower. I'll...", but her train of thought breaks there. An occupational hazard of your 'ride' suddenly shooting through the atmosphere into battle. One hand bracing the golden shoulderpad, the other starting to tap at her belt pockets, a habit when she was working out what she had on hand to work with.
Her plan for now consisted of one thing... lets see whats going on inside those generators...
Things are more then a little chaotic at the moment. Within the massive tunnel, Grayven is in the midst of toying with Vorpal, amused rather then threatened. But this caused him to forget the energy signature of a certain Miss Martian; she manages to manifest and then suddenly destroy the second generator, making the massive mile-wide shield collapse suddenly with a CRACK of energy. With a roar, Grayven lets loose a blast on the hero, striking her before she can go back invisible or intangible, driving her into the wall with a catastrophic explosion. She's out of it now, but the damage was done. Tick is floating away helplessly in space with the Beta Club, before suddenly Kalibak diverts uncontrollably. "What...?! Stop, you stupid thing!!" He stomps on his glider, but he's launched instead towards the side of the metal planet. He crouches and leaps, however, abandoning the glider to fly off to... wherever. He manages to land at the opening of the massive tunnel, snarling as he brings out a small gray box. "What is this, Grayven...? You said none would reach the shield!!" He points his Mother Box at the Tick. There's a flash, and the Beta Club vanishes from his hand. It then appears in Kalibak's. To be more spiteful, he also freezes the annoying hero in a block of ice with the powerful machine before pocketing it. "Father will be furious!!" Booster and the Rainbow Girl are still outside... but he has every intent to make sure they do not get past him!!
Father? Grayven? Ahahaa....
"You are a disappointment, Grayven!" That's Darkseid's enormous head floating in space, before Grayven. "Clearly you are only fit for one thing and one role alone..." A flash of those Omega Beams envelops Grayven and...
The son of Darkseid is dressed from head to toe like Glinda the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz, complete with wavy ginger locks. The illusion hex is a high-grade one, only the best for the Dear Son.
When the shield wall collapses, Booster loses the extra energy source he was channeling, which is a pity; it was useful for hosing down the grunts with his wrist blasters. However, he did get a complete recharge, and then some--his eyes are literally glowing with the excess energy, and he really needs to vent it before he loses control of it and explodes. Over his communicator, he says, "We have people down. Do we have anyone who can evac them..." His message sounds like it is accompanied by loudly frying bacon, due to the extra energy seething in and around him.
Fortunately, here comes Kalibak, looking angry--Booster turns and extends his arms towards the incoming figure and unleashes the excess power he has absorbed, like a geyser of golden energy.
Miss Martian enters from: Global Anywhere Rooms.
Garth Ranzz Cheers in silence giving a quick fist raise in celebration as the force field goes down. He quickly gathers him self knowing he does not have long before the enemy come back in full swing. He starts flying as quickly as he can to the other his other fellow teamates and Grayven who is blocking their path. His arms pulse with electricity charging with power as moves forward setting a plan for the obstacle blocking their way.
Booster Gold says, "You are a disappointment, Grayven!" That's Darkseid's enormous head floating in space, before Grayven. "Clearly you are only fit for one thing and one role alone..." A flash of those Omega Beams envelops Grayven and...
The son of Darkseid is dressed from head to toe like Glinda the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz, complete with wavy ginger locks. The illusion hex is a high-grade one, only the best for the Dear Son.
Vorpal floats lazily in space, arms behind his head and legs crossed. "Gee, what a maroon!" he says, the very image of Bugs Bunny.
Divide their attention, get this one to focus on you for as long as you can while the others take the big guy out. Then they can deal with him... c'mon, boy, let me see your eyes....~
The Cheshire isn't going to give away his ace just yet- but first he needs to see if Grayven's eyes have a 'tell' glow right before he fires those beams.
When the shield wall collapses, Booster loses the extra energy source he was channeling, which is a pity; it was useful for hosing down the grunts with his wrist blasters. However, he did get a complete recharge, and then some--his eyes are literally glowing with the excess energy, and he really needs to vent it before he loses control of it and explodes. Over his communicator, he says, "We have people down. Do we have anyone who can evac them..." His message sounds like it is accompanied by loudly frying bacon, due to the extra energy seething in and around him.
Fortunately, here comes Kalibak, looking angry--Booster turns and extends his arms towards the incoming figure and unleashes the excess power he has absorbed, like a geyser of golden energy.
Lightspeed glances at the suddenly frozen Tick, then tries her best to scoot after the ice block to divert it towards their point of origin before dealing with the angry Kalibeck - Never leave a man on the field, right? The Rainbow zooms away... and after a short while it returns with the transonic speed, the ice block slowly drifting towards the gate. "Covered our floating ice cube and gave it a nudge at the glass, just add some gin Booster." Julie remarked to the golden-and-blue hero as she tried to get back into the action, once more dancing the 'don't get hit' dance between the blaster fire of the parademons.
Lunair was helping Team Luthor. Although, she, like so many others, live in blissful ignorance of what Luthor really gets up to some days. He probably totally polishes his head in the shine-o ball-o. That's - wait, no. There is definitely relief as the barrier falls down. For now, she's helping the grunts deal with the random flying things. And people are getting swatted down as if Grayven and Kalibak had electric fly swatters and were swatting flies.
Seeing Booster go all super glow was pretty cool, but her and her alarmingly large laser cannon are out on the field again. She'll probably try to bother anything flying around or pull someone out of the way who might be out of it.
Kalibek's former craft seems to have developed a mind all its own! After spiraling off out of control, lightly sparking, it suddenly wheels around at top speed and streaks towards the combatants. Often times aiming for the head, it suicidally charges about in kamikaze runs aiming to unseat as many enemy fliers as it can, seeming to prefer other riders over anyone flying freely or on the ground.
So it is that Violet puts her plan into motion, waiting for an oppertune moment to abandon ship so to speak, and slip her way into another flight disk, ready to repeat the cycle and see about turning some of Apokolips' tech against itself.
Okay, that illusion worked. Grayven goes still, eyes wide as he takes a step back from the floating head. Apparently, Darkseid manifesting in that manner is not something impossible. Maybe not even unusual. "Father, no--They--I will still extinguish them--NO!!" He brings up his forearms to shield from the blast, only for it to do... something else entirely. Grayven just stands there, looking at his hands. Realizing the utter blasphemy Vorpal has just done. "You... unforgivable...!!" His eyes don't glow crimson. Grayven's entire body does, as he channels the force through his form instead. "UNFORGIVABLE!!" A hand raises, and instantly a massive blast, a few meters broad, roars towards the floating Vorpal. Careening into the distance before detonating on a far wall hard enough to shake the planet where the heroes gather. Okay, maybe making him really angry wasn't a positive in the end.
Kalibak looks up towards Booster just in time to be struck dead on with a massive fountain of gold energy. He's slammed down, blown backwards skidding on his back, and crashing into another heavy metal wall. The front of his armor is almost entirely disintegrated, revealing angry man-muscles beneath as he begins to pull to his feet. "Insects!! Insects, every one of you!!" He starts firing a few intense concussive blasts towards Booster then. They would hit like a truck, but are not sufficient to get past Booster's shield... although each might stress it in a way no other attack outside Grayven's eyebeams managed!!
The enemies on the outside are currently mostly occupied with the Lex Squad and it's leader, along with the multiple Iron Men. The planetary cannons suddenly unleash a focused blast, and a number strike the Titan Iron Man. He's obliterated in short order... which leaves only Lunair and the Lex backups outside. Uh oh. She and the group either need to try to get inside Apokolips, or decide discretion is the better part of valor and head back through the open portals. Multiple vehicles, parademons, and others are starting to flock up to surround her and her posse, although the Iron Men are doing much to blast them down; some are starting to succumb from accumulated damage, hissing and sparking before exploding. They won't win the battle alone! Although Violet's surprising onslaught with her stolen glider is effective, ramming into a number of other aero-corps and parademons. They blast at it, but apparently the device is quite durable, as the strikes of plasma ounce off or singe it. DeSaad has built this transportation for the First Heir, after all...
Megan, having taken the blast from Grayven's Omega Beam, full-to-the-face, takes some time to pull herself together---almost literally! She groans as she finally coalesces and shake-a-shake-a-shake-a-shakes her head to gather her wits. Success! Then, WHAMMO---right in the kisser! But, thankfully, she's back in the game and raring to go! She leaps into the air and quickly assesses the situation. She sees yet another huge, nasty, crackling-evil Omega beam heading for Vorpal and, having just taken one of those to the face, she knows JUST how unpleasant it is. So, she verysuperduperspeedyweedies her way over and gently hug-tackles Vorpal out of the way, hugging him close to her as she zooms him to a safer position, "So sorry to be all, like, grabby hands and no hellos!" She giggles and releases Vorpal when he's in a safer place. "HI! I'm Megan Morse-Kent!" she offers him her hand to shake, even though this is probably not the best time for that.
"I am ever so pleased to meet you, M!" Vorpal chuckles, shaking her hand. "But if I were you..." he whispers to her "...I'd go zoom away just a bit. I have a plan ... it's not going to be pretty, and it's probably going to be rather dangerous. I owe you my life, though... thank you!"
"You were always a mama's boy, Grayven!" Darkseid re-materializes again. "Is that all you can do? Come in like a wreeeeecking baaaaaaaaaallllllllll~"
And God save the eyes of everyone around. Because there is a large, naked Darkseid swinging from a wrecking ball attached to goodness-knows-what.
(Don't worry, though. Keith made the chain large enough to cover any traumatizing bits, because even his brain is against its own self-destruction)
"You heard him, Mama's boy..." The Cheshire cat says, standing in space like a cowboy with his hands over nonexistent six-shooters. "... what are ya gonna do about it, punk?"
This is by far the riskiest plan he's ever had. Now that he knows Grayven's 'tell', he is going to exploit it... and his rage. The moment that body glows, the Cheshire is going to try encasing it in one of his constructs, a sphere fifteen feet thick, in the hopes that the omega beam causes an explosion with Grayven at the center.
"Make. My. Day."
Here's hoping that if it happens, he can teleport out of it fast enough.
Garth Ranzz watches the conflict between Grayven and his comrads Vorpal and Booster knowing he can't go toe to toe with the titan he can wait for an opening in his defences. Just as Vorpal is saved by Megan and Grayven is sending attacks Booster's way he set down cover fire down on the titan Grayven with all the charged power he saved up on his way to this point.he hope to help Booster out in the best way he can.
It gets pretty tough out here, so Julie tries her best to zoom down to the planet and try to evade the angry Kalibek on the way down and possibl get clos to his saucer again. "Booster, tell me what we search for!" she speaks into the comm, then quickly adds "Taxi is back, make your jump while you have the option tiny Violet." The last was obviously for the shrinking one, because her next aim would be... well, to either deliver Vi to one of the planetary guns to hijack, one of Darkseids ships or zoom to the surface alone to try and get whatever they were about to gather here.
"Thank you, Lightspeed." Booster Gold seems a little happier with having the frozen Tick out of harm's way, and even more pleased when Megan is able to rouse herself. Once Kalibak goes crashing down, he gets a glimpse of what Keith is up to. A few thoughts bob up -- 'Are you nuts?' and, 'Are you sure you know what you're doing?' but he only voices one. "Take him down, Vorp. Ugh--" this last grunt happens as one of Kalibak's blasts slams into him. His form-fitting forcefield ripples like the surface of a pond disturbed by a pebble, and sends him tumbling through the air. Without the extra energy surging through him, he is pretty certain his blasters are not up to the task of clobbering Kalibak again.
"We need to take these guys down or we'll never make planet-fall," Booster manages to say, as he regains control of his flight, just in time to get pummelled by another blast. "...hold that thought," he replies to Julie, and he takes off as fast as he can fly, arrowing towards Kalibak. From his point of view, targeting loci show up courtesy of his goggles, allowing him to turn himself into a smart missile. There is a sonic boom as he pushes his flightspeed to its limit.
Kalibeck's cruiser does a nice pinball impression, bouncing about the battlefield, but her ride just showed up. So it was that she prepared a final surprise aboard the cruiser, and becomes visible atop the riding platform. A quick hop to Julie's offered hand, and she leaves the cruiser to continue on its last course, straight towards Kalibeck! Already power should be building up inside, threatening an overload. Her final trick, rigging the thing to overload and... if she did it right... HOPEFULLY explode in Kalibeck's face, is quite a gambit considering the odds of it reaching him, but at the very least it shouldn't be usable anymore.
"T-thanks." Already she was scanning around only now noticing Booster rocketing towards the goliath below. In Interlac, she shouts into her ring <Boost, watch yourself. I sent his cruiser incoming, see if you can keep him from getting out of the way! Its rigged to blow... I-I hope...>. Afterwards, turning to Julie, she continues in a more understandable tongue "Okay... lets see what else we can sabotage here."
Oh dear. Poor Megan. There's not much time to think about it. She and the Lex Band are going to get over towards the planet itself, now that the shield is down. They'll help the Iron Men, but no one is sacrificing themselves over it. Either way, Lunair will borrow one of their recorder doodads (no selfies - that would just be obnoxious and she would TOTALLY deserve a laser to the face for it), and go on while the troops push back towards the portals/keep the portals safe. Whichever they can handle. Probably shooting out of the portal faster than a greased ferret in a treat bag. Yes.
Lunair steels herself, and moves past and around the Iron Men to get towards (relatively) safer ground. Although, that's like saying being on fire is safer than being dunked into a vat of acid. Neither is terribly awesome. Nevertheless, she does her best to flail over, mindful to take a potshot if the opportunity presents itself or something gets too close. To the Apokolips! Mwah!
Making Grayven mad is not especially difficult. He already was, to be honest. Although horribly disgracing his father doesn't really bother him particularly. He's the good son, in that he's carefully plotting to usurp and destroy Darkseid ultimately. What made him angry was that his image evoked fear... that, and that alone. Crimson eyes begin to close above clenched teeth, but Garth's sudden blast takes his attention. He twists, both forearms brought up and catching the intensive strike dead on. He's sent skidding backwards a few meters, armor broken and arms smoking where he hit. "Grrrr...!!" Continuing to focus his Omega beams, he intends to send a huge blast towards Garth!!
Kalibak is being hassled rather well, at the moment. His attention is entirely upon Booster Gold, and the massive impact strikes him dead. He's driven back multiple meters, but a massive hand is grasping the futuristic fighter. It winded the giant, but it wasn't sufficient. "Die!!" He rears back his Beta Club, strength on par with the likes of Supergirl herself prepared to hit. But then he's struck right in the face with his own glider, sent skidding backwards before a giant explosion floors him. "OOF...!!"
But something new just happened. A great alarm roars through the planet, and things begin to shift. Whole skyscrapers shift aside, baring the barrels of cannons the size of mountains. Huge battleships a hundred stories long begin to rise, and thousands, tens of thousands of parademons, aero-corps, and others start to poor out.
ARMAGEDDON MODE INITIATED. ARMAGEDDON MODE INITIATED.
This begins to boom into the surroundings. Outside Apokolips, huge plates peel back, revealing planetary cannons that made what was seen before a toy. And slowly, they begin to build up energy... preparing to vaporize everything that is not upon the planet's surface!!
"What... Father is serious..." Kalibak grunts, sitting up.
Being a living missile is jarring, especially so when your target can get up and grab you. Fortunately, Kalibak gets a face full of glider, and the resultant collision and explosion allows Booster to get free. He is sitting for a moment, however, and instead of just flying he staggers to his feet. The morphing of the planet gives him pause and he gets on his communicator to check in with the other team for a status update, before he tells his own, "We're pressing on." After a pause, he adds, "Anyone who's injured, should return to the portal." He clearly does not like this situation, but calling a full retreat would be worse. With that, he grabs up the biggest chunk of debris he can find nearby and spins in the air to build up some momentum before flinging it hard at Kalibak's head.
Megan's smile is bright, sweet, and dimpled when she gives the awesome-looking cat-man-cat a hearty handshake, her expression all apple-pie, blue-skies, and sunbeams-on-fertile-land. "Sure is nice to meet you, though I don't know your name, exactly! No matter! You have a Plan, and I won't get in your way. Just be suuuuuuper careful! These bad guys are AWFULLY BAD," she nods firmly and kicks off, again, moving away from the area while Vorpal goes to town with...a naked Darkseid. AIEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeee! WHY CAN'T SHE UNSEE IT?!
She rubs vigorously at her eyes and tries to refocus on the mission. When she looks around and sees things stalling---not changing much for the better, she decides she's got to do more than just ruin machines... But, how to do it safely, without killing? She has no idea about these bad dudes' physiology, but she does some quick scans of their bodies, attempting to determine their weak spots, from a biological stand-point. Without thinking too hard about it, she revs up a powerful mind blast, her eyes glowing bright red, as she stares down Kalibak and aims her mental attack in his direction, as intense as she can make it, even as the debris is flung at him.
Trust Garth to up the ante. The Cheshire grins genuinely for the first time during this whole debacle when he sees Darkseid Lite get even more ticked off at the attack. Then there's that telltale body glow aaaaand....
"YOU get a bubble and YOU get a bubble and...." the construct appears as Vorpal goes positively Oprah and gives Darkseid's son enough rope to hang himself. Or enough of a contained space to blow himself up. He's not picky.
There's a brief moment of cheer from Violet when her one-two with Booster works better than expected truth be told! At least... until he gets back up. "Grife! What does it take?!" Climbing out of Julie's hand, returning to, well not full height but a few feet tall, Violet pauses to fly of her own accord. "Thanks for the lift, but I better heeeee~....".
Whatever she was saying gets cut off at the sight of the planet... shifting. Massive cannons lifting out of the ground, another few armada's lifting off... streaks of worry were flashing over her face. "I-aah... w-wh.. Oh dear....".
Julie grunt on the command to press on, doing her best to scoot in to Mister special K. "Tiny, go for his club or other gadget..." she said as she tried to make a good old fashioned knee to the groin from behind - which might even hurt a new god, considering that her knee moved upwards with 405 m/s and transmitted an energy of 30375 Newton, all centered on the area of her knee. It might hurt her, but likely could do so for Kalibek too. "You fight dirty? I can do that too.... ouch..." With the later she scooted away a bit, pressing a hand on the body part she had used to force Kalibeck to the knee.
Kalibak is being thoroughly hassled right now, as the planet continues to rain down alarms on the current state of affairs. Grayven's eyebeams suddenly strike a hard enough force to detonate them point-blank, and a roar of Omega force rushes out for meters all around. When it finishes, Grayven has collapsed to his knees, holding his face as smoke sizzles around his broken armor. "...You... damn...." Kalibak swings his club to and fro, striking away the pieces of debris hurled by Booster Gold. Not expecting the psychic assault, he's hit full-force, roaring and grasping his head. ...This leaves him completely open to the blow from behind, striking him right in the groin. Considering the level of opponents everyone present is fighting, things are going tentatively well.
But suddenly, two white balls of energy erupt into being. One behind Grayven, and one behind Kalibak. "...Father needs us!!" Kalibak growls, staggering backwards into the portal. Probably in no condition to fight well at all, though. Grayven as well is too out of it to do anything beyond be sucked into the Boom Tube, leveling curses at Vorpal all the while.
Although the finishing blow will not be done by those present, they have thoroughly softened up some of Darkseid's greatest fighting forces for the important battle on the front. And now they can no longer stand in the way!!
"What's going on here?" comes a deep, sweet voice. Further ahead is a tall, matronly old woman with gray hair, a load of wrinkles, and scale-armor like clothes. She wears large gauntlets, one hand holding a coiled whip. Behind her are a half-dozen females; one of them huge, others slender, dressed in wild and alien garb. The Female Furies, headed by Granny Goodness herself.
"Don't worry. Granny will take over your fun here for you..."
Right. Team Luthor (No relation to Team Jacob or Team Edward, or they'd have been incinerated on principle. We have some standards here) has scrambled to and into the portals at this point. Lunair has made it to Apokolips. And she's going to need a bigger cannon. Which she pulls into existence, her laser cannon away. Plasma rail gun, yay! She's made it a little late, but harassing minions so others can get away totally counts.
And then suddenly, a grandma! Lunair looks confused. Grandmas are not often high on her things to kill list. She is going to find some cover and sort this noise out.
Julie Power goes to: Global Anywhere Rooms.
Garth Ranzz Make himself look terrified as Grayven begin to charge his omega bean all the while watching the bubbles of vorpal gather around the son of Darkseid. Garth is not one for leaving loose ends so while he keeping up his face he charges a ball of electricity into a different form then normal and with some quick moves throws it down at Grayven. This ball is set up as full out solar flair of light combined with a flash bang effect hoping to take out any super-senses Grayven may have.
Vorpal narrows his eyes and summons a springboard underneath him. He jumps from it and activates his levitation. In space, he discovers, his ability to levitate is no longer hampered by gravity and functions like full, directed flight. He's flying!
Except, of course, it lacks in the complete rush that flying in an atmosphere, with the wind lapping at you and the earth rolling away beneath you. But he's not going to begrudge the mobility, especially after the unveiling of the massive cannons and the reinforcements appear.
"Great. Edna Turnblatt and the Misfits..."
The Cheshire quickly vanishes from apparent existence, becoming invisible and retreating a healthy distance to observe what these new foes were capable of. It was clear to him that strength-wise, he was out of his league, and his advantage relied solely on being tricky.
Shrinking Violet's expression hardens a little in resolve, but before she can take any action, the two prime threats suddenly vanish off, presumably to join the frontal assault. There isn't much time for gawking whoever, as another voice, a little further away, drifts over the battlefield along with a new group of fighters. Well.. there was nothing else for it.
"Uhm.. M-Miss..." she says, returning to about six inches tall now and floating in front of Julie's face. "I.. I need you to throw me. Pick the target you think is the biggest threat." She looked nervous... this game was pretty high level for the Legionnaire, but damned if she wasn't going to do everything she could!"
WHAT! MORE!? The two baddies retreat just when they had the stinkers on the ropes, and now they're fresh bad...people, old lady... Megan finds herself feeling rather ill-tempered. She doesn't wait. She simply begins sending PULSE after PULSE after PULSE of telepathic attacks at Granny Goodness and the others around her, being random with her pattern, seeing who's best affected by it and who isn't. Who's she gonna have to really beat up, huh?!
Booster Gold actually knows who this new group is; they were actually touched on in his history books, when he was taking classes focused on the Heroic Age of the 20th and 21st century. This may be why he is not looking pleased when Kalibak and Grayven go away. "Granny Goodness and her Female Furies," he says. He has no way of knowing if the things he learned about them were accurate, but he is not taking chances. "Don't hold back, they're nastier than the gruesome twosome we were dealing with."
Rearing back for a moment, Booster flies at Granny and her Furies, doing that 'living missile' trick again. Except, this time, his forcefield balloons out around him like a golden hamster ball, as if he were aiming to literally bowl them over.
Julie ponders, looking at Vi "Toss you at someone? You sure you want to do a Fastball?" Then she glared at Booster "which one is the lead? Tiny wants to do a suicidal dunking attack, and I am intent to make it worth the risk!" Which means she is going to accelerate fully before hauling the tiny Vi forward, likely bringing her to something like 405 meters per second as she lets go of her just 900 meters (1000 yards) away from the furies, giving her a bit more than 2 seconds before impact. Hopefully she was immune to friction, because Julie was - and tried to plant the fist she had tossed the shrinking Violet from right onto the nose of one of the furies - another transmission of 30 Kilonewtons on an area of similar size, but this time with knuckles and bones as the knee was still a bit hurting. "Furies are beings of Revenge, and I avenge Superman!"
Granny Goodness continues to stride forward, whirling her whip slowly. When Miss Martian strikes her in the head, she winces and stops, rubbing at her temples like an old woman with a migraine. Behind however, a number of the Female Furies are not so lucky, shrieking in pain and staggering. Only one peculiar looking woman floating slightly seems to endure it with effort, reaching into her outfit and flicking out a dozen knives. Each one floats into the air, whirling to surround her, points facing outwards.
"Oop. Stompa?" Granny offers, before the most brutish-looking of the Furies shifts in front of the pack and stamps her feet down. Booster impacts her dead on, skidding the girl backwards all the way to a wall fifty meters away, which she crashes into with a heavy grunt of pain. She's staggered, unable to immediately retaliate against Booster, but his history books would tell him... yes, this girl has ALSO brawled Superman and Big Barda. Definitely a high priority.
Lashina's long whip snaps out, telekinetically dancing in the air as she grasps her head. "Tch..."
"Oh?" Granny suddenly snaps to the side in a flash of speed, and whips out her hand. Aiming to catch Julie right before she goes up the nose of a psychic-damaged Fury. "Are you throwing tiny people at me?" This does let Julie rush forward and slam her fist into one of them, sending them bouncing away to skid to a stop, twitching.
Lashina reacts a heartbeat later, whip swishing out to try and catch Julie Powers by the neck before stomping down and bracing herself, with intent to whirl her around and try to slam her into the adjacent wall!!
Garth's assault rushes forward, but a young girl who looks quite out of place nibbles on a pinkie. "Cheshie?" Suddenly shadows erupt from the ground, twisted crimson eyes and a grinning mouth apparent. It opens wide and roars forward, devouring the electricity before impacting the ground and vanishing in a wisp...
"WHO DARES BRING THIS IMPOSTOR?" the voice comes out of everywhere and nowhere- it is a phantom sound with the screeching quality of claws on a chalkboard and the basso rumblings of an alpha predator. Up above them, an enormous mouth with sharp fangs opens out of nowhere, followed by two equally enormous green eyes that glow like suns. "Cheshire? IN-deed!" the Cheshire mouth opens and out of it... comes a veritable rain of purple anvils, aimed towards the furies and Granny Goodness.
Now here's the rub: only SOME of them are real anvils, the rest are illusion. Some fade in mid-air before falling all the way, and some appear in mid-air and start falling. But they all look exactly the same.
The real Cheshire cat hovers high in the air, invisible to get a better view of the battlefield and who might need help. Right now he's just doing his opening salvo after Booster's to increase confusion.
The friction of the air alone strips of her of transuit relatively quickly, but she also downsizes rapidly. By the time Granny Goodness' hand closes around her, it may seem for all the world like the tiny girl evaporated from the friction, because there was nothing left to see. Violet didn't need orfices to attack a persons body from the inside, it just made things easier.
Having to slip between the cells makes the invasion slower work, but she could have wound up with worse targets. "Okay you old hag...." she mutters, as she begins to pull a few small components from her pouches. A few fusion batteries, some contact diodes and casings from some old electronics all come together as she rushes through Granny's body as best she can, heading for the brain.
Okay, then. Suddenly it just got real. Bowling for Furies and a Granny who apparently isn't one of the friendly, kindly variety. Lunair prefers not to draw attention to herself. But she's gotta pick a target and help out. Grandma might've gotten run over by a reindeer, but Lunair's putting her in the sights of a plasma railgun.
And like an angry weasel, she pops out to take a potshot at Stompa. Since there's anvils happening, it seems safer. It looks like something ripped out of one of those action movies, except Lunair's in sensible gear and really doesn't have a big chest or awesome dialogue. "Um. Have at you." Pause. "This is why I was banned from doing dialogue." By Deadpool. That's terrible. That's really terrible. Lunair's more a pop out and shoot quietly, then go home and watch Archer kinda gal, really.
Since it worked so well the first time around, Megan decides to pop invisible and intangible, then dart around at random intervals, in the air, and keep the Furies crippled with her psychic attacks. If she can keep them incapacitated, the others can focus on the foes that are less psychically sensitive. She blasts wave after wave of psychic attack at the Furies, making sure to hit ones that are starting to recover almost as soon as they're on their feet, again.
Booster Gold is not the kind of guy who would underestimate a woman, especially since the greatest warrior he knows is Diana. He is also aware that Stompa is a better and far more brutal fighter than he is, so there is simply no way he is going to pull his punches with her. Not letting the Fury regain her equilibrium, Booster flies up to get himself out of the wall wreckage and grabs at the armor around Stompa's middle, trying to lift her up and over his head with the goal of flinging her down at the ground again, as hard as he can. "Sorry, miss," he adds, just because he knows this is a rude way to fight.
Garth Ranzz Grits his teeth as he watches his blinding charge be eaten by the young looking furie dark beast. He back offs off and tries firing at multiple targets with his blast hoping to make the girl work for another meal if she tries again. Garth talks into his ear peace hoping to get so ideas."I'm drawing a blank on these ladys anyone got some ideas. I'm not looking to be an all you can eay meal if they like electricity"
Some make it rain anvils... and others seem to hit like the anvils that started to rain. Lightspeed seemed to be of the later sort - even if the punch with the equivalent power of a truck full of TNT to the face did hurt the knuckles really. The thing was, such an assault needed acceleration area, but she could do an even great er impact... should she really stop after the move. But that would bring her into the direct fight, so Julie pulled out and flew a bigger circle to get back to the Mach 1.2 and do another assault, again trying to hit a fury right into the face to keep them out as long as possible "Booster, how many Furies equal one Superman? Are four and two princes enough enough?" she joked with a light winch on the face as she zoomed by for a third strike, for which she used the left hand,as she didn't trusted her right to withstand another kiloton punch into a fury-head - ordinary Human, Skrull or Snark bones would have shattered to dust under similar usage, and this third assault was aiming to try and get two more furies out of the buisiness...
Making a full-stop after a hit proved to be a bad idea, as the attack of Lashina showed, gripping the whip around the right arm of Julie. As the tug on the string threatened to move her into a wall, Lightspeed pulled all acceleration powers she had, going from the relatively slow toss to almost half a mach into the opposite direction in an instant. While the movement itself was fast as long as the whip allowed, the force it created once this was up might be enough to change the speed of the combined couple of both of them to 'just' about 150 miles per hour - or 64 meters per second. It was not without danger really, but as the change of direction went upwards, it might orbit the poor fury - and turn her into a falling hazard for her comrades - or force her to let loose and allow Julie to change her tactic to flyby attacks.
Granny Goodness opens her palm, finding it empty. "...?" That surprises her a little. She pulls out a small grey box, which lets out a 'Ping!' into the air. "Mother. Do a scan for that tiny thing." There's a brief wash of light blue energy that whirls for hundreds of meters in all directions, and within the New Goddess, Shrinking Violet would it pass over her as well, something likely unexpected when hiding in a bloodstream. Ping ping. "Oh? Remove it." A moment later, Violet would find herself suddenly gripped by an intense cosmic force, with the intent to rip her out of Granny with surprising force and attempt to force her back to true size. Picking the only person here with an omnipotent reality-bending magic box of goodness to invade may have backfired.
But there's a number of anvils starting to be thrown out, and it quickly becomes apparent who here is capable of fighting force. The floating girl with multiple knives whirls them, striking through illusionary anvils heading in her direction, and when they find a real one, she flicks it aside with telekinesis to evade. "...Where is he?" she wonders, before a broad swathe of air in front of Vorpal fills with blades, beginning to dance and whirl like a blender. He had best be careful. A nick would cause him to begin self-combusting from the inside.
Stompa finds herself hefted up by Booster and then slammed into the ground, grunting as the breath is knocked out of her. She's not as strong as Kalibak, Booster would be happy to know, nor as durable. But stronger then his suit...? She suddenly moves to PUNCH the ground, hard enough to create an abrupt shockwave to drive Booster back. "Don't worry... I like it rough."
Lashina is not that weak. She is the official leader of the Furies, and 150 miles per hour is nothing special to her. The whip is kept hold of, teeth grit, before Lashina snaps out her other hand. A second whip rushes out, and then grasps a piece of very solid metal. What might happen when Julie Power hits the end of a tether with a material comparable to Vibranium? That's the real question here.
Miss Martian is currently not being given any notice. Right now, only five Furies seem up and about and fighting back, the rest kept suppressed by her psychic powers!! But Booster Gold definitely looks like the one in most trouble... Stompa is no lightweight, after all!
A barrage of blasts do streak out however, impacting Stompa dead on and causing her to grunt in pain. But the little girl smiles, wriggling her fingers at Lunair. "Hi." And then, behind the woman, a great dark presence shifts up. A cheshire grin and red eyes, before it snaps teeth down towards the girl!!
Garth's onslaught of orbs, however, cause the little girl to gasp in surprise. She's forced to leap away, barely avoiding them; the attempt to swallow Lunair stops dead and the creature dissipates... just in case she wasn't able to escape it of her own free will!
Those who have fought alongside Booster Gold in the past would be used to him emerging from rough situations looking shiny, hair still perfect. There is still some shine there, but at this point in the battle his suit has a scuffed look, torn in spots with blue sparks crackling along the fine net of micro-circuitry. Some of the skin of his chest and shoulders can be seen through the more severe tears, and worst of all, his hair is extremely tousled. It still looks good, of course, just untidy.
When Stompa punches the ground, Booster stumbles back and ends up hovering again, although the shockwave still staggers him in the air. "Look, this is nothing personal..." He is less inclined to fly at her again while she is ready to grapple him, and instead brings up his fists, firing golden stun-blasts at the burly Fury. "This would be a lot easier if you ladies would just step aside, please!"
Megan figures... Why fix what isn't broken? Until the Furies she's attacking are fully incapacitated---that is to say, not getting back up, and in fact, passed out---Megan's psi blasts continue, WRACKING their brains with PAINFUL PSYCHIC WOE! She is only getting started!! When she runs out of Furies to attack, she begins focusing actual EYEBALL BLASTS OF DOOM at the chick with the knives!
These ladies were definitely serious trouble. Vorpal gets the urge to help his friend Booster, who seemed to be in the direst of needs. But right now, there were crazy knives coming in his direction! The Cheshire cat teleports away and behind Granny Grossness. He becomes visible then at that juncture, summoning an enormous purple, glowing bat (tastefully shaped like a flamingo, because remaining thematically consistent is important for branding) to bat away the Mother box. And ideally break or injure her hand. He's not picky.
Tussling with white blood cells? Violet's done that. Evading nanomachines? Tricky but possible. Being forcefully ejected by the mighty powers of the universe itself... that is a new one. Indeed, she was just moving along past the heart, getting ready to drop a nasty surprise in the matron's ticker when suddenly everything becomes nauseatingly violent.
Her shriek starts inaudible due to her small size, but as she steadily grows back to normal, moving with some velocity, it becomes a good deal easier to hear. The poor girl tumbles painfully along the ground, ripped from Granny Goodness' body with such force, finally landing with her head against the ground and a sickening 'CRACK'. She was moving, but sluggishly, a pained groan all she can manage to muster at the moment.
Lunair is happy she hit Stompa and all, but then suddenly. It gets kinda creepy. She blinks. "Hi!"
And then suddenly, it gets demonic faster than a Loli-Metal Concert. "Ohgod, it's that Japanese anime website all over again." FLEE. Fleeeeeeeee! It never ends well! No it does not! And she thinks Garth has lovely orbs, as while Lunair is pretty much free, she was about to get ankle chomped. She scrambles. "Thank you!" Hey, always be grateful for not dying horribly. But now she's going to help Garth and takes aim at the little girl.
Tick leaps back through the portal with a mighty "Huzzah!", landing his booted feet back on the surface of Apokolips anew. His big white eyes are bulging, his antenna twitching, his teeth gnashing as he just starts to march across the battlefield, each step making a booming crack as he stomps. If there were a soundtrack going through his head it would surely be a thrumming operatic valkyrie ride, albeit probably with a touch of Souza thrown in and a soupcon of Yakkety Sax. Anything that gets in his way gets fisted, knuckle sandwiches blowing into any features. Furies, drones, droogies, demons, thugs, pugs, zips, flips, perps, twerps, losers, boozers, freaks, geeks, zeroes, jerks, clerks, and every form of riff raff and hullaballoo known to man are tasting the full fury of Tick's wrath. And he's aimed like an arrow, a big, fat muscular arrow with a jutting jaw, all Katniss-y and heroic. Spoon, sucker. It's not hard to follow his direction, though, as he's going straight towards Granny.
"That's it! No more Mr. Nice Arachnid! I've had it up to my broad, heroic shoulders with your bull stuff, Darkseid - if that is your REAL name - not to mention this weird old lady man. Granny Goodness! That's just an insult to goodness and grannies at the same time. NOT ON MY WATCH, GOLDEN GHOUL! So, you send all your furies and your dames at me. I'm turning my chivalry knob off, lady! That's right! I'm an equal opportunity face smoosher! Down with your patriarchal norms! Up with punching ladies in the baby eggs! And Granny, you're gonna be the first to get scrambled. So strap on your Depends and pull up your support hose, 'cause we's about to rumble, daddy!"
Getting turned into a human jojo, the only option for Lightspeed was to follow the pull - and turn the aggressor into her weapon by starting to accelerate on a circular track. The lines between her and the bar might become hazards to the other furies and even if the acceleration back to the speed of sound and beyond was much slower than without the need to pull the heavy weight of the fury with her, the centrifugal force would grow with every turn. But instead of waiting for the Whip to break it was a pull down to the level of the fight, using an other piece of metal rod that protruded from the ground as a new center of rotation - and wrapping the whip that latched on Julie's arm around it, possibly hanging up the Fury in the middle like a tanned hide while Julie slowed down to undo the Whip and then try to dash up.
Livewire yells in anger as he watches and can do nothing to help Shrinking Voilet as she is pulled out of Granny by force. He launches himself down to the ground throwing small flash bombs of lightning as he decends to hopefully cover his form as he tries to save his comrade in the midst of his self made cover."I'm coming " he whispers with dread.
Twitch. Twitch. Miss Martian manages to disable those Furies that are not already down. Granny Goodness, however, might be a far greater threat than she expected. The moment that Vorpal appears behind her, she whirls and snaps out her whip, intending for it to catch the Cheshire by the throat. She's fast; much faster than Kalibak and Grayven, and with a perception and technique they could never hope to achieve. "I need this, you bad boy... NGH!!" Suddenly Violet is ripped from her heart, causing her to stagger. In that moment, Vorpal manages to smack the Mother Box free from her hand, clattering away. "I'm going to--" And then Granny is struck by Lashina, with incredible force. The whips release, and both Lashina and Granny are sent flying, impacting head over heels and skidding to a stop.
When Tick continues to talk and talk, the little girl just stares. "Trade with me." Malice states, skipping to the side. A moment later, the floating Bernadeth whirls her daggers, each striking into beams of plasma and moving to deflect them, eyes narrowed in intense focus barely able to keep up the pace.
And then blackness pools beneath Tick while he's busy talking, a huge mouth opens broad, and Cheshire snaps upwards, trying to swallow him. Probably not pleasant. Most living things would be disintegrated by it, after all.
Stompa shifts, preparing to punch Booster when he tries for melee combat. Only for her to get a face full of a golden shower. She reels, grasping her face and staggering a moment blinded.
And then, pleasant words are heard in the air as sirens wail louder.
"Genocide in progress. All organic beings please proceed to isolation rooms. Genocide in process. All organic beings please proceed to isolation rooms. You have 25 seconds."
The ground begins to vibrate, and a feeling of great energy and heat starts to build up within the core of the planet...!!
Was Violet alive? Yes... would she stay that way? That was becoming less and less clear. Rather the problem with cracking one's skull off a metallic ground. She wasn't exactly conscious... and only stirred weakly as the alarms began to sound, still full sized and not in a position to help extracting her from the increasingly hostile planets surface by shrinking, she was in need of some help rather quickly.
Genocide? That sounds bad. Booster Gold says through his communicator, "Everyone, get close to me if you can. I'll do what I can to shield us. If you can't get to me, tell me so I can get to you." He flies at Stompa while she is temporarily blinded and grabs at her again. She is far too dangerous when she has contact with the ground, so this time he attempts to grab, whirl, and fling her--but not downwards. Up, up and away is the goal, just trying to throw her into orbit. This is generally a sound tactic on Earth, and he can only hope it will get her out of the way so he can protect his team.
Lightspeed had seen enough - a dislocated arm from gyrating Lashina into Granny, a hurting fist from truning a Fury-head into pulp and a blue knee from trying to crush prince K's crown jewels was enough. Just two things to do before zooming out - Snatch that thing the Granny had dropped for the Avengers or JLA Trophy room and then offer Vorpal a ride... "Keith, Time to go home!" Washer comment as she zoomed to the box nd tried to lift it with the left, only taking it with her if it would be not too heavy, and then trying to scoot over to Vorpal "Feel free to get clingy."
Genocide DOES sound bad. She'll go towards the Booster, despite the whole golden showers thing (his naughty-times are not hers, after all, etc). Lunair has no intention of dying horribly. And then Bernadeth is totally deflecting whatever shots she's being shot at because apparently attacks are like Pokemon here. She's only going to shoot to harass or slow. the time for GTFO is now, it seems.
Garth Ranzz Lands besides Violet and quickly surrounds her in a electronic field as well as himself. Checking her vitals with his omni-com he does his best to levitate her with the field around her into the air and away from the crowd of furies to safer ground." Come Vi stay with me here I do my best to get you help" He mumbles as they take flight.
Megan can see all of the craziness happening on the ground below---especially when her Uncle Tick comes booming out of the portal, to whom she yells, "YAY, UNCLE TICK!" And, then, she's focusing all her grumpiest attentions on Bernadeth---she of the whirly blades of badness and wrong! She narrows her eyes and begins sending pounding wave after bashing pummeling into Bernadeth's brains. When she senses Bernadeth's weakened enough, Megan attempts to sink her little white Martian psychic tentacles into the bad-doer's brain, so she can control her actions.
It's been one of those days for Keith O'Neil. Getting whipped by psychotic hags has just made it even weirder. "What... okay. I'm cool with that." He says as Granny Goodness and... Leasha? Lashondra? Lashumotrtia? Whatever her name was impact each other and take themselves out after he swings the motherboxing box away. If only all villains could be this considerate...
"Sorry, Teach, but I can't. This is a matter of Cheshire honor..." the purple cat says, leaping away and towards the imperiled Tick. He was a friend. You didn't let friends get swallowed, that was just bad etiquette.
He extends his arm and summons the trusty Flamingo Croquet Club, which appears in his hand in all of its purple, glowing splendor as the chaos magic coalesces into a construct. "Spit. Him. Out you counterfeit Cheshire!"
And there's the swing. Of course, Keith's so concerned about the Tick getting a trip down Chessire throatland that he hasn't realize that hitting the shadow creature with the flamingo club will also mean hitting the Tick as well. This is why he's better at hanging back and doing 'strategy' than he is at making snap decisions during combat. "FOOOOOOORK!"
Megan can see all of the craziness happening on the ground below---especially when her Uncle Tick comes booming out of the portal, to whom she yells, "YAY, UNCLE TICK!" And, then, she's focusing all her grumpiest attentions on Bernadeth---she of the whirly blades of badness and wrong! She narrows her eyes and begins DIVING verysuperduperfast at Bernadeth, still invisible and intangible... But, JUST as she nears the evil chick, she lets her fist become solid (though, still invisible), so all of the driving force of her speed....SMASHES Bernadeth in the nose. RIGHT ON THE NOSE. BAM! WHAMMO! TAKE THAT, BAD LADY WITH KNIVES!
The Tick is masticated by one weird cat creature and promptly pummeled by another, good intentions notwithstanding. He has his arms and legs out all Da Vinci man style, forcing the mouth wide open and at least giving him a little distance from Vorpal's impacting blows, almost using the creature as a shield as he stretches it out around his massive body, "EGAD! I'VE BEEN TASTED! But that won't stop me, you gulping galoot!" And with one mighty twist of his hips, he leaps out, the distracted creature letting his slobbery self go, Tick landing and springing back to give that thing one nice, hard wallop in the chin-ish area, "That's what you get for chewing with your mouth open!"
Bernadeath might be a psion of powerful telekinetics and meaningful shields, but Miss Martian isn't such a one-trick pony. There's barely a moment to register her presence before the Fury is struck, knocked clean out and slamming face-first upon the warming metal of Apokolips. Stompa is lifted up, her boots kicking feebly before she's hurled into the distance and thumps down, removed from the fight for hopefully long enough. Granny Goodness kicks Lashina away, pushing to her feet and brushing herself off. "Tch... how many thousands of years since this protocol?" No move is made to follow after the fleeing heroes. "Leave the ones who cannot get up on their own. We're leaving." Lashina rubs her chin, beginning to walk away with Goodness as Stompa moves to quickly follow, rubbing at her eyes. Cheshire is beaten multiple times, before Tick hulks his way out and punches it into black motes of glob that land all around. "Nooo!!" Malice whines, but moves to quickly chase after Granny and the others, sniffling.
"Genocide... in... progress... all... organics..."
The timer is going much slower now, for whatever reason. The planetary static defenses are apparently on the fritz, as none of them are moving to fire. All of the Parademons and other troops are retreating towards the skyscraper-sized buildings, leaving only a few automated drones and machines to fire petty lasers at the retreating heroes. Once the last of them goes through, Tony's portals will close behind.
After a long length of time, the timer finally expires. "...have... 1... second..."
And then the world becomes engulfed in bright white light, the countless burning furnaces roaring out for miles. A thousand miles out of Apokolips is saturated with disintegrational energy, roaring on and on. Again the voice comes out, to those safely within sanctioned rooms or the fortress-like warships in the sky. "24 hour purge in progress. Please wait. 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 56 seconds remaining..."
Shortly after Julie gets back to Earth, the metal box Ping!'s loudly at her. She can feel it speaking in her mind, voice warm and kindly.
"Hello!"
"You are not Granny Goodness."
"But I love you, also. Goodbye!"
It then attempts to electrocute her to hell and back with surprising force, before in a great CRACK! of energy displacing itself out of that universe, and back towards Apokolips. Oops. Her Mother Box is a bit uppity about strangers...
Vorpal does NOT need to be told twice that they have to leave. Seeing Granny burning heels is enough to tell him that this will not be good. Organizing amongst his team-mates, he ends up helping those who need a ride on their way out, as his levitation allows him fast travel on 0-G. When he plops through Stark's Tolkien Portal (or whatever it was he had called it, he was in too much of a hurry to remember), he promptly collapses to his knees and takes a deep breath. Amazingly enough, he's not short of breath, and doesn't pant. "... what the -hell- did I do back there?"
Carrying back the Box might after all not have been the most wise decision, because as Julie was about to toss it to a tech back at the watchtower, the electroshocks sent her to the knees, seeing the box vanish then....
Category:Log