2012-10-05 A Savage Game-Pt. 2

It's evening, the sun is nearing the horizon but has yet to grace it with it's touch. Instead it lights the sky with beautiful purples and violets, splashes of orange highlight the edges of the clouds in a spectacular manner. No one really seems to notice. There's a calm to the air as a few security men stare as the large bay doors of the labs open and a transport opens it's cargo hatch. Stonewall was transported to STAR Labs, and shy of having one of the super heroines fly through the sky with a giant super dense half naked man slung over one shoulder, this is the only way to do it. Especially since the team's resident teleporter has become suddenly hard to reach.
Bunker's with Stonewall since he can float the man around on a brick platform. When they got word the transport had arrived, he went to the transport and is now walking towards the bay with him floating behind on the way to the garage area.
Marissa Sometimes has fallen in on the other side. "Dang it." She hates, most of all, the fact that they're having to get outside help...but she's no expert on biology, or on magic. Given all the time she might have, perhaps one day, but she IS an engineer...that's who she is and what she is.She wasn't there for the incident in Detroit, but Supergirl's here now. She's still got mixed feelings about not being called in to help, but the fact that apparently everything happened so quickly soothes her a bit. Still, she's not about to let anything more happen to Stonewall or any of her teammates and friends. Also, in case the hover truck broke down, she could have flown Stonewall to STAR Labs herself.
Robin got a message from Nightwing, and is popping in to check on things and lend a hand if anything is needed during transport. Robin banks the red jet, switching into hover mode and parks on the roof, glancing down at the scene below curiously. He swiftly does his post-flight and hops out of the machine and moves to the roofs edge for a closer look.
Stonewall's large body floats on Bunker's glowing platform. At the same time, the flashing red lights of alarm sound in unison with the deafening claxon that signals alarm. <Security breach in progress. Nerve agent detected. Counter measures initiated. Evacuation of the premises required.> says a generic sexy lady computer voice. Outside the doors a thick fog is rolling in across the carefully kept lawn, it's nearly twelve feet high, soupy enough to classify as an appetizer on a menu, wasn't there a moment ago... and it's moving against the wind.
"It's not our fault." Bunker tells Mend. "We weren't prepared for what happened. We /couldn't/ have been prepared for what happened. Not given the sudden call for help and the time limit the cops gave us. Which we should have forbidden them to do except we can only order the army around, not Detroit's police so they wouldn't have listened to us anyway. And there were the hostages too we had to think about." He's obviously given a lot of thought to why it's not their fault. "What?" Nerve agent? He's not sure what a nerve agent is but if it needs counter measures and evacuation, it can't be good. "Shut the outer door." he says and creates a brick wall just inside the garage to cover the opening. Just in case.
"Nerve agent is bad," Mend says, simply. "Okay...we're under attack. Bound to happen sooner or later." She eyes the fog suspiciously. "Gas mask. I need to carry some kind of gas mask, something lightweight." That's for later. "The nerve agent is probably to get us to go outside so they can pick us off," she adds, almost thoughtfully.There is a great view from the top of STAR Labs, which allows Robin to blink a second as he spots something odd. "What is that....?" the teen muses out loud a moment, before suddenly finding his gaze being moved back towards the semi-funeral procession. Robin blinks, and shakes his head, his 'detective senses' tingling as he looks back once more to the lawn.
***Don't go into that fog.*** Robin warns over the Titan's comm channel as he takes a few steps back from the edge of the building. The Teen pulls his grapple gun and fires it into the concrete, and then leaps over the edge of the building, pulling up short just above the loading bay level to peer in through the glass.
The warning klaxon shakes Supergirl out of her reverie; she might not have been able to protect her friends then, but she can do something about it now. Before Bunker seals off the garage, Kara shoots out into the open. She's the one best suited to withstand a gas attack (she hopes), and the Girl of Steel stands defiantly in front of the encroaching fog. Taking a deep breath, she exhales with gale force intensity, trying to blow the fog back away from the base.The STAR Labs techs who were waiting by the transport for Stonewall to unload, look around in confusion, then run towards the building just as Bunker throws up his brick wall. Supergirl manages to sneak out in front of the wall, and stands before the approaching fog, filling her lungs with air... and her blast of gale force wind manages to halt the oncoming wall of smoke, even push it back a few feet. But only for a moment. Then it pushes on with sudden renewed vigor, bearing down on her as if her breath angered it.
Through the glowing bricks the muffled cries of pain and wet gargling sounds of death can be heard, muted a bit, but in no way silenced. A few cracks of panicked gun fire sound as security personnel shoot into the fog in fear, but there are only a couple of those, and they are far off, distant, and short lived. Mend might be right about forcing people into the open, but there's no need to pick people off. Because everyone on the well manicured coporate lawn of the building dies quickly, ugly, and loud. Bunker and those inside the loading watch as the STAR Labs techs scream and claw at themselves, as if trying to push something away as the fog touches their skin. Skin brightens, blisters, and then it's too thick to see through, a merciful covering, stopping the Titans from witnessing what comes next. A hand smacks against the glowing bricks and can be seen from the inside as its blistered surface slides down slowly, leaving a trail of blood behind.
It doesn't take long for all of this to happen, it's fast, merciless, and efficient. Fast enough that the countermeasure can't stop it from clearing the lawn of life before water spouts douse the fog and powerful wind generating fans blast a mini tornado blast of air across the lawn. The fog seems... as resistent to these things as it was to Kara's breath, but not immune this time, and eventually it recedes before dispersing completely. In it's place is a small invading army. Four groups of five men are spread across the lawn,each wearing a variation on the black tac gear that should be familiar to Mend and Bunker, odd weapons are strapped to each of them, and of the groups only 2 seem standard issue military. One of the remaining 3 is composed of men in small armored suits, another has 2 men who don't wear tac helmets and instead have faces shrouded in deep dark hoods one of whom is leaning heavily on the other as if exhausted, and the last is a group of men that are just finishing anchoring a massive vulcan cannon to the lawn's turf, it's massive belt chain of improbably large bullets is slid into its loader. In the center of all of these stands a man over six and a half feet tall with broad massive shoulders, his stylishly shaggy hair is black, his skin well-tanned, and a closely trimmed beard covers his features. He wears a style of military coat that only a commanding officer would bother with, and carries no tac gear of his own. He points, "There." he says in a deep rumble that carries over the field of corpses like a trumpet, and the vulcan cannon swings towards Bunker's glowing wall. His dark eyes spark with knowledge and his lips curl upwards in a smile made of broken glass, arrogance, and murder. Vandal Savage has come to the Titans.
Bunker's eyes widen in horror at the effect of the gas on everyone. "Madre de Dios." Bunker says under his breath, fists clenched at his side as he resists the temptation to drop it so the owner of that hand can get in. But he knows it's too late. His eye widen even further as he sees the cannon. He has no idea what it is or what it can do but he's very, very afraid he knows. "I... don't know if I can stop whatever that fires." Suiting words to action, he runs off to one side so as not to be in the line of fire. "Supergirl, are you all right? Who else is here, who just spoke?""I think that's Nightwing's friend, Robin," Mend says into her com, also moving to one side, studying the bad guy through whatever vestiges of fog there might be. Okay. She's pissed. Stone *cold* pissed, which is a far more dangerous kind than red hot. This guy's going to pay... Kara's the only high firepower they have offensively. Unless. "Bunker." She moves over to him and whispers. "Tilt-a-whirl, perhaps?"
The fog starts to fall back as Kara blows it away. But still, there's a few tendrils that reach her. As the mist touches her skin, Kara screams out in agony. It's painful, like her skin's on fire where the mist makes contact. But when the fog recedes, Kara flies backwards, trying to escape the pain and get a bird's-eye view of the battlefield. When she sees the men with the standard guns, Kara focuses on them as her next target. Flying back down, her skin reddened in patches from the effects of the mist, she fires of a blast of heat vision to try and melt the guns and take away some of the bad guys' firepower.
A vulcan cannon, armed mercs, and a tactical strike. 'And here you are dangling three stories out in the open like an idiot.' Robin thinks to himself. One can almost see the 'NOPE!' cross the teens face as he comes to a halt, and hits the reverse button on the grapple gun and starts to shoot back up towards the roof.
***This is Robin.*** the teen sends over the comm channel. ***I'm on the roof. Give me 10 seconds and I can give us some air cover.*** With a quick roll Robin is back on the roof and flipping the remote start on the Redjet. ***Well....I'll help with air support*** he says, as Supergirl takes to the air.Savage's eyes track the blue and crimson streak skyward, "Overwatch, aerial threat initiated." he says flatly even as Kara's heat vision cleanly slags the weapons in the hands of the soldiers. They simply cast the rifles aside and unsling SMG's. They have weapons to spare after all, and faith in their commander. They don't even look up towards the sky and the heat vision threat. That's not their job. The one hooded man who so far has been propping up the other, now pushes his comrade to the side, letting him fall to the earth unsupported, the fallen man's frail and thin frame becomes a limp pile on the grass. The remaining Magi chants softly, his hands moving in swift circles and almost Tai Chi like motions, though something about them is to jagged, wrong, against the way arms should move... And then he soars into the sky, rocketing straight at Kara, his hood falling away from his face and coming to rest on his tac vest. His face is mutilated, the eyes sewn shut, his head is shaved and covered in mystical brand scars, his nose removed giving him a deathshead look, but for all that he seems to be able to track Kara just fine as he hurtles her direction.
There's a soft whirrrrr as the barrels on the cannon start to spin, and then massive armor piercing rounds slam into the glowing bricks. Savages eyes take everything in stride, and he stands unafraid in the center of the attack, a relaxed and authoritative posture. "Beta, support Overwatch, I hear a jet engine. Engage anti-aircraft weaponry." It's Vandal Savage... he came prepared. Meanwhile, the two groups of men who's weapons have been melted and replaced, haven’t stopped advancing, they're moving towards the area the cannon is drilling into, looking to enter the labs, weapons shouldered.
Bunker rushes over to his wall blocking entry into the building and puts a hand on it. A single shell from the cannon doesn't pierce the wall. Multiple shells will. And bricks are being destroyed with each hit making him reinforce it as quickly as they disappear. "I don't know how long I can keep this up." he warns. Maybe forever. Maybe a minute. The situation has never come up before. "But if they add firepower, it's not going to last."
"Okay. Then...we need to take out that cannon. Can you give me a brief window to get out there?" Hopefully, Bunker will know NOW not to worry overly much about Mend getting hurt. But she has to get to the cannon to carry out her plan. Without being incapacitated on the way. Deep breath.
Well, some guy performing martial arts-style maneuvers then flying? Considering the mists hurt her, it might not be smart for her to tangle with him. She flies down toward the vulcan cannon, more comfortable in dealing with tech. **Robin, their leader's down near the back. Trust me, you can't miss him.** She plows into the ground in front of the cannon and it's crew, sending a shockwave of earth towards them. Bursting up from the ground, she goes back to the communicator. **Bunker, keep the garage sealed and protect Stonewall. Mend, I'll work on the cannon; go after the crew and the flying guy if he comes after me**Robin jumps into the Redjet and straps himself in hurriedly. He lifts off, and drops off the fire side of the building, using STAR Labs as cover his jet hovers and he brings the machine around, quickly thumbing through his weapons checklist. 'Tear gas, knockout gas.....no no no...nothing with gas. Oohh...concussion missiles.' comes the thought, as the teen whips the jet around the edge of the building and starts to lock in on the leader.
He's right about to pull the trigger when his Jet starts yelling at him. "Holy radar lock...!" he yells, twisting the jet sideways as the men in mech suits send a pair of small missiles his way. The first missile is narrowly avoided, and sails off out to sea. The second strikes the edge of the Labs, exploding into a ball of fire and concrete. ***"I'll pay for that!*** Robin comms, swinging the jet around and sending a missile of his own back at the mech suited men.
Savage watches the switch in opponents, and sighs. Figures. "Plan B!" he says over the din of the battle. The cannon crew struggle to maintain control of their weapon as the earth shifts before it. The rounds chew straight through the dirt wall Kara erected, but it saps some of their energy, making the impacts on the other side of it softer, and far less accurate as they can't clearly see their target anymore. When Vandal's shout is heard, the aim instantly alters and the cannon gunman squats down, swinging the barrel of the mini gun upward. It takes a moment of careful aim before the steady stream of bullets hit Robin's missile, detonating it on high. Now they track him. The mechs turn their attention to Kara, and instantly hypersound waves that no human ear could hear, hammer into Supergirl like a kick in the face, even as flashing strobed million plus candle power lights are uncovered in the suit, and send random pulsing blasts of pure light at her eyes. With the two sets of gunmen now locked out of the buiding via the purple brick wall, and without the cannon to support them, they pause, considering their options... then they begin to rig charges on the walls just to either side of Bunker's blocked entrance. Savage meanwhile, continues to stand and watch all of this unfold. His smile remains arrogant, controlled, and disturbingly joyful. Combat, warfare, it's where he excels, and dammit all if he's not having /fun/.
"Are you sure?" Bunker asks but a rectangular Mend-sized section of the wall detaches from the main part and sprouts a couple handles made of tiny bricks. Her very own riot shield which will reform once she passes through it. With the vulcan cannon no longer pounding his wall, the center of it slides forward, walls forming at the sides to keep it attached, until it forms an alcove that he can walk into and see what the men are doing. "No, you will stop doing that." he says and girders fly to the left first and then the right.Moving out, quietly...keeping close to the wall. For right now, Mend hopes she won't be noticed before she gets to the approaching soldiers, or some of them, anyway. Their leader would be a preferred target, but without teleportation or flight she has no chance of getting to the back, where any sensible leader would be hiding.
And now, the sonics and strobes from the mechs hit Kara. Her hands go up to her head, covering up her ears to try and block out the sonics hammering in her skull. The strobes are countered by closing her eyes, but the sonics are still affecting her. Struggling to stand back up, Supergirl concentrates, then starts to spin in place rapidly. The drill like motion of her feet cut into the ground and Kara goes downward, trying to put solid ground between her and the sonic emitters.
The good thing about using smart missiles, is they can be fired indirectly. Robin ducks the jet back behind the Tower as the vulcan cannon turns towards him and sends a pair of the concussion missiles streaking out from behind the building. The shots look way off, until the missiles course correct and start to turn in a long arc back towards the cannon emplacement.
Of course, the missiles are just the cover. The Redjet swings out from the other side of the building, the Gatling gun in it's nose already spinning as Robin sends a hail of gel rounds, each set to deliver a potent electrical shock.
Savage does not hide in the back of his men, he stands in the middle, defiant, fearless. And if you were immortal, wouldn't you be just a bit braver then the next guy? The soldiers are literally against the walls on either side of Bunker's door when Mend pushes her way through, and they simply point weapons at her. The instant before they can fire however, Bunker has her back, covering her with flying girders, knocking soldiers left and right. One of them, one of the two that were quick enough to dodge, look at Miguel, "You cannot stop us." he says as he presses the detonator on a charge large enough to blow out the first floor of a house. A charge that currently rests at the base of the front of Bunker's alcove. It was supposed to be attached /to/ the wall, but it slid off, it was the best the soldiers could manage. Two of the soldiers are caught in the blast, and their bodies fly through the air, pin wheeling with the limp limbs of the unconscious or dead. Only the 'riot shield' Mend holds protects her from the blast, but it does slam against the front of the shield like a 20 mph car.The Mechs do not give up on the assault as Supergirl spins into the ground, one of them simply detaches the sonic emitter from his armor and tosses it into the hole after her, hoping that will keep her busy. Meanwhile the other mechs turn towards the entrance to the building and start a brisk trot towards the source of the explosion. There's a mission to complete. The cannon crew turns it's attention towards the missiles and begins attempting to mow them out of the air, the first they hit easily, the second... It's not so simple. The two men covering the cannon are down in gel delivered seizures before the second missile is struck, and the man firing the gun goes down a second later, leaving only the ammo feeder and the heat sink guy functioning. They simply step over their comrades and pick up where the twitching men left off. Meanwhile, Robin feels a 'THUMP' on the outside of the jet, and a shadow falls over the cock pit. Sightless sewn eyes peer into the cabin a moment before an emaciated hand simply smashes through the glass with super human strength, grips the yoke Robin uses to steer the plane, and rips it out, tossing it away. Leaving Robin alone flying a plane with nothing to steer by. Or aim with. Savage's grin remains, but his men are dropping and he's not yet gotten his prize. He's not thrilled.
When the smoke from the blast clears, the brick alcove still stands. Bunker's bricks are made of sterner stuff than a mere house. It was the multiple, high speed impacts that were a problem. But speaking of problems, there's just fighting a defensive action. "Supergirl, you okay? Robin? Mend, be careful. You might not be able to die but you can't do anything dead." And if they train the vulcan cannon on her, it would rip her to shreds. Can she come back from that? On the other side of the his wall, bricks starts flying outward. High, low, single, girders, a flying obstacle course not so much aimed but merely trying to hit anything that comes close.
Mend doesn't have an answer to Bunker's silent question. She's thrown backwards, but the shield keeps her from real damage. Growling, she frees one hand to throw a flash bang into the midst of the men. Part of her wishes for something more lethal, given the carnage that preceded this battle, but...superhero rules. Ducking behind the shield to protect her eyes from her own weapon, but not before trying to make an assessment. (Question. Does being immortal really make you brave...or just crazy?)
Well, so much for that plan. Kara winces as the sonic device is tossed down after her. She can't hear Bunker's question only the piercing ultrasonics. Gritting her teeth, she turns around inside the hole and unleashes blasts of heat vision at the source of the sonics, trying to destroy it and get back into the fight.
Robin looks up at the sightless man who just ripped his jet open like it was made of paper and not the latest and greatest in super alloys and armor plating and eeps a moment. Still standing on the cock pit is he? ***Jet is going doing. I'm punching out.*** Robin comms in response to Bunker. Well sightless ninja dude....dodge this? Robin reaches up and pulls the eject switch, sending what’s left of the canopy sliding backwards and the Teens chair rocketing upwards at the cloaked sightless man. Hopefully the chair hits first and not, well, Robin's head, but there weren’t a lot of options at this point.
Okay, this is getting out of hand. The two members of the team deemed the least threat by Savage, have already managed to hold off two trained squats. The gloves are off. The mechs head onward, one reaching up to literally swat one of the bricks from the air, though the effort tilts him oddly to one side. Hrm. Intel was off on the purple kid. He has more juice then they though. <Overkill.> the lead Mech suggests, and then he turns the sound emitters on Bunker's wall, trusting the barrier isn't sound proof, and dropping it to screeching human hearing levels. Meanwhile another armored man sends a series of RPG like projectiles towards the alcove, while a third lowers a pair of brightly glowing energy weapons at the wall, their constant and unforgiving beams borrowing at the bricks with scorching heat and force. Meanwhile, only four men of the original ten that were sent to breach the door remain, of those four, two have functioning visors that protect them from the effects of the flash bang. One is within reach of Mend, and he drops low, sweeping a leg out in an attempt to take her out at the ankles, the second one starts to circle around to flank her as his two blinded/deafened comrades roll on the ground in agony.
The hole in the earth where Supergirl vanished suddenly erupts in a blast of super heated crimson beams, and the emitter is instantly slagged into tiny bits of molten metal, giving the Kryptonian a moment of blessed silence and relief. The Sorcerer atop the plane is hit by the ejecting teen, though this manages to knock the ejection chair out of alignment and send it spinning upwards in a maddening spiral that's a couple of G's worth of vomit inducing force. Hell, the head rest is bent where it smacked magic guy's chin! Overwatch shakes his head, clearing it from the impact, and the skin over his face is even more shrunken and shriveled then before, the super powered magi looks as if he were eighty years old. Taking a moment to look, around, he narrows in on the beams of light. He flies forward, grips the front of the plane, and then points it down. Right at the hole where Supergirl disappeared moments before.
Bunker cries out and claps his hands to his ears to try to shut out the sound. And while his bricks last on their own, he's not reinforcing them so the heavy barrage of multiple, different types of weapons creates holes in the wall and lets the beams and rockets fly into the loading bay.
Two of them. And they both dropped their guns, and neither is reaching for another weapon. Mend grins a bit nastily. "Bring it," she says as she leaps over the sweep, doing her best to land close enough to the guy to throw a punch into his solar plexus, keeping a weather eye out for his friend. True, she's no Nightwing, but she's definitely a better fighter than she used to be.
One of the advantages of super-speed: ability to take in a lot of information in a fraction of a second. Supergirl sees the jet being tosses at her, and Robin's out of control ejection seat. Mend can handle herself in a fight until reinforcements arrive. And even though she has a lot of faith in Robin's capabilities, rapidly spinning out of control might be a bit much for him. So, Kara flies out of the hole, like a bullet fired from a gun, and punches through the dying Redjet, emerging from the fireball to catch Robin's ejection seat and stop the spinning. "Hey, she smiles apologetically. "Where do you want to be set down?"Robin's ejection seat spins violently out of control, the rockets on the underside meant only to propel the seat upwards, not give it a way to steer. Not to mention the heavily dented top will prevent the chutes from opening. Robin, ejection seat and all, are about to crash through the side of STAR Labs HQ when Supergirl shows up to save the day. Dizzy beyond belief a the moment, the Teen mumbles something about stopping the world now, please. He'd like to get off.
The men fighting Mend are very good as well... but they're not meant for hand to hand combat. They're trained in unit cohesion, firearms, and a little self-defense... but it's not the same thing. Her fist hits the thick tough Kevlar of combat vests. The air hisses through the man's teeth but he doesn’t' go down, instead he steps in wobbly but quickly, trying to drag her down to the ground where her smaller size and mass would become a much larger obstacle to overcome. Meanwhile, his partner circles and bides his time.
One of the mech's steps through the weakening bricks like they were the tin wall of a shack, bending them this way and that, and small metal needles shoot out and hit the young hero in the chest. A split second later there's a spark of electricity as the tazer line lights up and sends thousands of volts through Bunker's body.
The plane explodes in mid air, Supergirl's body causing it to fall in dozens of flaming bits to the earth instead of exploding like a bomb on impact, lessening the damage it would have otherwise done. The men manning the cannon, still seeking a target, flee, as a chunk of the Red Jet about the side of a Smart Car crushes the cannon to bits beneath it's flaming bulk.
Bunker cries out a second time, this time from electricity. Don’t' taze me bro! As the voltage courses through his body, he drops semi conscious and lightly twitching.
Mend has her hands full. She’s good. She's not great, not yet, and the two men are keeping her well and truly occupied. She's not happy about it...at this rate, the guy's going to get whatever his objective is, and that's not good enough. (Perfectionist heroine).
Supergirl smiles a bit at the joke; if Tim's okay enough to joke, he'll be fine. She sets him down on the roof, keeping him behind a raised portion of the roof, then turns back to the fight. Mechs shocking Bunker? Not for long. The Girl of Steel flies up and picks an angle of attack that lines her up with both of the mech suits. Flying down hard and fast, she tackles the two mech soldiers, body-checking them towards the bay.The mechs are hit with enough force to twist the steel of their frames in odd ways, a screeching of metal fills the air. A voice speaks from behind her, deep and confident, "You have all done so well, surprisingly so." it's Savage, "Overwatch, delay her." he says simply as there's the whoosh of someone flying in behind them. The mutilated magi lands lightly in the doorway of the bay as Vandal himself guides the floating sled with Stonewalls comatose body back out onto the torn up lawn. Overwatch, the once hale and healthy mid life magi, is a human skeleton now, his skin parchment thin, stretched tautly over his bones, blue veins standing out starkly against his pallid scarred flesh. He wheezes as he turns sightless eyes unerringly onto Supergirl, "Nagor mull golloth thul." he says in a raspy torn paper like voice. Instantly, Supergirl cannot see. There's the soft sound of Overwatch’s body hitting the floor, though his labored heartbeat and breathing continue, raggedly, as Savage himself lifts the comatose giant from the ground without visible effort, and then moves towards one of the bay's transports. He, none to gently, drops Stonewall into it's back and then fires the vehicle up, it's engines whirring to life instantly. He doesn't even bother to look at his fallen men before the transport disappears through the doors and out into the day. The two men battling Mend, and getting the worse of it, completely give up and fall flat from their combined injuries as the transport vanishes into the distance. One of them holding his arm close to his chest.
The aftermath is fairly brutal, there are downed security men, damage to STAR Labs, though Bunker's bricks managed to soak the majority of the damage. RPG's dug out a small chunks of concrete from inside the bay, and the lawn is a complete disaster. The entire battle, from the first fired salvo to the end, took less than four minutes, a brutal, quick, efficient strike.
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