2013.04.03 - Echos Through Time 1

Detroit. Motor City.
Once, this was a thriving metropolis. But by the looks of things, that was decades ago. Maybe even a century. Or more. Sure many of the memorable things that made up this city are still here, such as Greektown, The Ambassador Bridge, and even the Soldier's and Sailor's Monument. But all of them, just like almost every building and sky scraper appear to be run down at best, or more often than not abandoned. Worse, there's wreckage where some buildings should be, as if the very buildings themselves were somehow destroyed and left as just giant heaps of rubble.
There's maybe a single part of the city that even looks 'new'. That being a building in the center of Downtown Detroit, where various sky scrapers once stood, there is a foreboding looking building maybe four or five stories tall. One that has not only the look of a military base (right down to the patrolling guards), but for some reason it also has the noises of one of the cities old auto factories coming from it. But what ever this building is, it's one that the locals go out of their way to avoid no matter what.
It is almost as if it doesn't matter where people were...
Or what they were doing...
It doesn't matter if you were home asleep in bed, walking in the park, going up an elevator, or in school.
Instead, no matter what people were doing, it's as if they were once somewhere else, and then they're here. In some cases they may even have ended up in their 'costumes' with no warning, making it so that there isn't just an apparent change of location, but also of clothing as well.
But where is here? A building. A high rise. An office on one of the upper levels to be exact. A large meeting room that could hold maybe 20 people to be even more precise. In the distance, outside the window though an odd facility that looks like a cross between a factory and a military base can be seen.
And as people appear, there's no fancy effects. No flashes of light. No loud noises. It's just as if one second they weren't there, and the next they were.
But even as these newcomers 'arrive' there's already two people in the room. One is an almost comedically thin man with large, almost bug like eyes, wearing purple cover alls. The other is a woman, one who looks like she's /at least/ in her 50's, with long, wavy, dark hair that's greying at the temples. What she's wearing is hard to tell due to the fact that she has an old, well worn trench coat over her clothing. Even her eyes are hidden by what looks like a purple pair of sunglasses. But who ever she is, she has the stance like a fighter.
Either way, those two do sound like they may have been arguing for a while. But what ever they're arguing about makes little if any sense. At least not yet.
Channel had a training session in the Danger Room at the time. Thus, Channel is in her full X-Suit costume, something she rarely goes out in. She's got the navy blue mask which stretches all over her head, covering her hair and face. The suit itself is a tough, thick-looking black suit that looks to be thick enough around the torso to function as body armor, which the outfit is a little thinner but far more flexible along the legs and arms. The boots are likewise thick and made for heavy use. The belt has a yellow 'X' emblazoned upon the buckle, and contains several hard pouches which contain various tools. She's in mid-punch against something when suddenly she's home. In an office from which she could see outside through a window. She recognized this city. "What the hell?" she breathes quietly, looking around.
"Who nuked Detroit, and who am I going to have to kick the everliving...". Pause. There are already some people here. She turns to look at them, taking in their appearance quietly as she lets the sheer anger at the fact someone or something has utterly wrecked her already struggling hometwon this badly. There weren't a lot of things Jocelyn was protective of, and Detroit had it's problems, but it was still home to her.
"What's going on?" the teenager asks. Direct and to the point usually got answers, even if she was biting back a good hunk of anger. Anger wouldn't do her any good in this situation. She had to control it and focus it. Find out what was going on before she went and dealt with the problem. She'd learned that much from her previous trip back home.
Cannoli and milk. If there's anything better it /might/ be chocolate chip muffins and milk... Gabriel really doesn't mind all that much and at the moment its the first option he's enjoying. Or was. In between putting down the half a cannoli in one hand and going to pick up the glass of milk he's not in his apartment anymore and instead is in some boardroom. And of course, important details have to be taken care of first when something like this happens.
After a double take where he examines the offending hand and its very much missing glass of milk he turns his head here, there, and everywhere, spotting the two strange people with a fascination with purple... "Hey! What'cha do with my cannoli!?" Then he sees Channel, "Do you have something to do with the Case of the Disappearing Cannoli, Channel?"
He was somewhere in the middle between sixth and seventh period at school, making his way from Trig over to History, and ugh, that class promised to be yet another snoozefest, with ancient Mrs. Welling droning on and on. He still had a minute or two to class, and he could see the door to the classroom. Robbie Baldwin sighed, and slowed his pace a bit. Don't be late, but you don't have to rush because it's so dull...
*blink*
And suddenly, he's somewhere else. Robbie blinks, starting to rub his eyes as if he fell asleep on tghe way to class (which would be a first, even for him), and finds resistance in the form of goggles. And Bubbles. "Wait, what?" is all he manages to get out, seeing unfamiliar people so far. The woman in the trenchcoat gets a look. "Uh, Ms. Sandiego, I'm supposed to be in class."
One moment he's climbing onto a rooftop to start patrol and the next Axiom is finding himself climbing onto a table instead. He blinks several times and quickly hops off when he sees other people. Familiar people even. "Uh...Speedball? Channel? What's going on?" he asks, giving the older woman and the strange man a wary look.
"Wha-huh...ah!" And that would be Jeremy's arrival. The kid was running pretty quickly when he suddenly blinked here, and thus his momentary startlement and disorientation leads him to keep on moving and slam right into one of the chairs in the room. The kid ends up going over the chair, knocking it over and falling atop it on the floor. "...ow..." He coughs, and sits up, brushing himself off a bit as he peers around the room. "Um...wait...where am I?"
Lor-Zod had been sitting in the Hall of Justice, continuing his study of humanity by watching a show about teenagers in school who break into song on a regular basis. When he suddenly finds himself in a new place, he's on his feet in a blink and looking around at those around him. "Hello," the boy offers as he looks from one person to the next, obviously confused.
Tommy was running upstate, checking again how fast he can run, wearing his green and white outfit for once. But definitely nowhere close to a meeting room in a high rise. There was no warning and as far as he can sense (and he is quick to catch details) the trip here took no time. So he freaks out for a whole half a second. "WhatthehellwhereamI?" Spends another half a second recovering, and then a couple more checking who is here with him. Oh, look: Eddie, Speedball and Xavin. And a bunch of people he doesn't know. He slides towards his team-mates, "do you... oh, you neither? Okay. What now?"
With a bulging canvas bag of groceries cradled in both arms, Xavin slowly - and invisibly - creeps towards a bodega's back room, intent on finding a way out of the place that doesn't involve tripping its burglar alarm. With two employees on hand, it's been a waiting game--which is probably why, just as he finally finds a moment when neither man is looking at the door and decides to make a break for it, he finds himself stepping from linoleum to pricey carpeting.
"My groceries--!" the shocked Skrull exclaims as he steps into visibility, eyes quickly darting around the other faces in the room; within moments, shock and panic recede some, making way for wariness. "Where--" he hisses, edging towards his nearest teammate.
Back at the bodega, the bag of purloined goods abruptly tumbles into visibility, confounding both employees.
And as people arrive, the arguing between that woman, and that guy just comes to a sudden, and abrupt stop. At least for a moment or two. That is before they both go silent and turn their heads to glance at the new arrivals. All though as he watches them arrive, the guy starts to look smug.
The woman on the other hand (who may even sound familiar to some of the people) just peers at the arrivals, before she jabs the guy with one finger.
"We need allies Phantom! Not wanna-bes! And /ESPECIALLY NOT/ kids! Hell, between your Axiom look alike over there, not to mention the Speedball, Speed, and..." The woman just peers at Jeremy and Lor for a moment, before she mutters a slight. "Hell."
"They aren't wanna-bes. I assume you Hawkeye. They're the real deal. You asked for people to help you rescue the others tonight, and my master has brought them." is said, before that guy glances around and bow.
"I apologize for the inconvenience, and the sudden change in scenery. I am a Space Phantom. And welcome to the future. About 50 years give or take." is said as he becomes dead serious, his gaze flickering to Channel for a moment.
"If you want me to tell you that story, I can... Or better she can." he jerks a thumb at the woman. "But we need your help.I roughly 2 hours, the Metaloks will launch an attack. And when they do, the last traces of sentient living organic life will be extinguished from the face of the Earth, unless we attack them first."
Channel takes in who is here. Axiom. Gabriel. Jeremy. And a bunch of other youngsters Channel didn't know. Her communications equipment wasn't picking up on the X-Men either, which meant she was the only one in the neighborhood. Well, at least she knew a couple people here. "We're in Detroit," Channel says. "But not the Detroit I know, Axiom," she says in response to the boy's statement. A look is given to Gabriel. "Not me. Probably these people have some information about it though".
Then the ones who were already here begin speaking. "So this is Detroit, fifty years from our time". She's freakishly able to accept they just got time traveled. Knowing a couple people who have been shot back from the future gives Channel a bit more room to consider this. "Alright. So, who or what are the Metaloks? What do we need to be concerned with, since you brought us here? I don't know if the Metaloks are active in our time. I, at least, haven't heard of them, Space Phantom. I don't suppose you have a basic rundown on what we'd expect to face that won't take too much time?" Pause. "And who are we rescuing?" she adds.
Channel's tone is less angry now, as she's brought herself under control. Now things were more business-like. If they were going to get out of here, they'd need to play ball, or at least find out some information, and they'd need that same information in a debriefing, so two birds can get killed with one stone.
Gabriel leans back in his chair and nods in reaction to Channel's comments, "Those are all good questions. And the sooner we can take care of this little problem for you the better. Cannoli go stale really fast." Talk about your one track minds. However, his eyes are taking in the people around him, almost as if weighing options about something.
"Oh, Ax, Speed, you know people here?" To Speedball, Axiom knows everyone. It's Axiom's thing. He listens to Channel speak, and he nods, letting someone else take the lead. Speedball does that. Often. He gives a sidelong glance to th Space Phantom, looks as if he's about to ask a question, but stops cold as the Phantom speaks to his companion. Hawkeye.
"No, Hawkeye," Speedball says, jaw-droppingly astonished at a future version of a teammate. "There's only one Speedball. And I gotta say you are so in full-on MIiiiiiiiiiighty-" said as Speedball realizes there's people around and some of them are younger, but 'Mighty' was not his word of choice. "Mode." Cough.
Axiom just tilts his head as others appear. Lor-Zod gets a slightly longer look than the others before Axiom shakes his head. He had the oddest feeling he'd met the kid before but couldn't remember when or where or even if it actually happened or not. It wasn't important for the moment though. Jeremy and Gabriel being around had Axiom frowning slightly and then looking towards Space Phantom and the woman. He squints at the woman getting that odd feeling again and then he hears what she's called and gasps. "Hawkeye?" he squeaks in surprise.
The question from Speedball gets a nod. "Everyone b-but those two," he gestures at Space Phantom and Lor-Zod. Time travel is easy enough for Axiom to grasp considering his love of comics and trips to other dimensions so the concept of a future Hawkeye isn't one that's too shocking. He gives Speedball a little nudge as he almost says something else and nods along to Channel's question. "I've n-never heard of Metaloks before..." he chimes in.
"Um, um, sorry, I..." Jeremy mumbles, as he slowly gets up and sets the chair back upright. "Um, I-I didn't see it, and...waitwhat?" He stares at the man and woman, wide-eyed. "/Fifty years/? Wh...but...holy /crap/!" He shuts up as the guy continues, though, and just stares through the duration of the explanation, a little overwhelmed. "O-Okay...so...um...end of the world...right..." At least there's people around he knows. He starts stepping over to be closer to Gabriel, nervously.
Lor-Zod looks back to the two who were already here, and his eyes widen a little at the quick 'briefing'. Unlike some of the others, the whole thing seems shocking to him. He opens his mouth, likely to ask what Metaloks are, when Channel beats him to it and he just shuts up, looking to her and back. Looking to Axiom he says, with a small wave, "I'm Lor-Zod." No fancy codename or anything, just his name, just like any other kid introducing himself except for his weird name and clothes. He looks back to Hawkeye and Space Phantom and adds, "I'll fight. Kal-El said I had powers, I'll try to use them to help."
Tommy is not taking the news calmly, "what? You had no right to bring us here!" Particularly in a way he couldn't prevent at all! That is just freaky. He glares at his buddies because they are taking it too calmly! Or maybe they are socked worse than he is. "Who is Hawkeye? She is not here."
Phantom's introduction puts a stop to Xavin's attempts to size up the rest of the gathered heroes; the extinguishing of all living life is a reasonable /enough/ excuse for being jerked out of time and space, certainly.
Still doesn't stop him from shooting Hawkeye a nasty glare as he listens to the Phantom, though; 'wanna-be' /indeed/.
"--/killable/ are they?" he finishes, peering over at the Phantom. "And how will we be getting /back/? I'm sure I'm not alone in preferring--our--Earth."
With that out of the way, the Skrull frowns at Tommy once more and lowly offers, "There's a /war/ to be fought, Speed; try to keep your eyes on the prize."
Since Channel asked a good, obvious question, the woman takes a deep breath, and tries to remain calm, before responding.
"Metaloks are kind of like Deathlo... Never mind. I don't know if you've encountered them yet. Just think of them as cyborg zombies. Where the electronics are calling the shots. And they're made out of dead bodies. Most notably people with powers. Mutants. Aliens. Metahumans. They almost all have the same powers they had while alive, but the mindless loyalty of a computer. All thanks to The Avengers."
While she speaks, the Space Phantom actually palms his face at Gabriel before he speaks up.
"Provided you don't get yourself killed, you'll return to the exact moment you left. Thus there's no chance your food will have gone stale. You'll also return in the same physical condition you were when you left as well."
The woman... Hawkeye reaches up and takes off her sunglasses, and just offers a faint 'heh' at Speedball and Axiom.
"I'll say you look like them. Almost. But it's nice to see you." Then there's a glance at the others, "For those of you that don't know me, I'm Hawkeye. That's all you need to know about me. As for 'rescuing'... The last /four/ Metas I could find, the only people who could stop the Metaloks were taken in. Odds are they're probably dead and being converted. If not, then one of them alone could stop the Metaloks. If we can get to him."
Jeremy gets a nod from The Space Phantom at that, before he offers Lor an odd grin. It's almost as if the odd man in purple knows something he doesn't want to say. All though Tommys reaction just causes him to quirk an eyebrow at Channel, as if asking her a silent question.
All though as Xavin asks yet another important question, the much older looking Kate says, "No one knows. Too many meta have been killed. Heck, in the aftermath of the fight between The Super Adaptoid and The Avengers in Times Square..." She shakes her head. "Too many died. Any of them... All of them could of been transformed into Metaloks. There could be just a dozen. There could be hundreds, or thousands. And down there..." She motions to that combination factory and military base. "Is Camp Metalok itself. It's where the Government makes, and houses them."
Noting the look from the Space Phantom, Jocelyn is already turning to look over at Eddie and Tommy, then to the rest of the group. "We're needed here, and I feel comfortable that we're being asked to do something important". Of course the look to Eddie, the boy may realize, is one of her seeing if Eddie can also help reassure his teammate. Channel doesn't know him well enough to know his buttons. Fortunately, everyone else seems onboard with this.
"Okay. So they're sort of like undead robots. That means we don't have to go through ethical issues if we have to disable them". That made Channel feel a bit better. "In that case, we should get moving, if everyone is in. Though I know that a lot of us don't know each other particularly well, and if we're going to infiltrate this place and rescue these metas, we should have some idea what the others can do. Otherwise we have no chance of working together well as a unit. Though we can talk about that on the way, if people are willing".
The woman looks back at the two natives. "Okay. So, do we have any transportation options? Even if something doesn't work, but is large enough to carry us all, that could help. Also, I don't know if anyone else has communications equipment, but if you have any available, I think we could use it if we get split up".
A look is given to the others. "Anyone not in? We've got limited time, it sounds like".
Gabriel stands from his chair and pats Jeremy on the shoulder as he gets closer. "Saving the world and all that and I don't even have to sacrifice my cannoli? Not my usual gig but I guess I can go for it. Just find me the right being to touch." Looking over at Speed he grins, "Think of it this way, you couldn't stop them from bringing you here, you can't force them to send you back. And its a worthy quest they want to send you on so why not go for it?"
"So no chance of getting put back in Taylor Swift's hot tub," Speedball says with a sigh. History class it is, then. "And we're horribly outnumbered, fighting cyber-zombies, to rescue people who might or might not be already dead and converted. Which could lead to certain death and the annihilation of all life, and we're all been pulled from an alternate timeline because we might make an impact, but we're very likely to perish." He slams a fist into his palm. "Let's do it."
There's another quick pause from Axiom as Lor-Zod introduces himself and the power booster stares a moment at the use of Superman's 'real' name. That bodes well as far as he's concerned. He sighs slightly as Speed rants and Xavin asks about killability. He nods when Space Phantom speaks up about them going home. "Figured it'd work that way," he murmurs.
"Deathlok..." Axiom'd heard that name before, mostly in relation to rumors about cyborg zombies, but that was the extent of it. Of course everything else Hawkeye says has him looking particularly horrified. Especially the part about how it's the Avengers' fault. Even as his expression continues to look like someone suggested he kill a basket of puppies, he takes note of the 'Super Adaptoid'. That he heard of too. There's a flare of visible anger from Axiom at the mention of the government being behind it all. He fights it down though, focusing on the floor. Glancing at Jocelyn, Axiom takes a deep breath. Closing his eyes just a moment, he looks back up and nods.
"Let's go. We go in, get those people, and save the world."
"Wait, robot zombies?" Jeremy's eyes actually go wider, and he looks over at Gabriel, smiling nervously. "Umm...any chance this is a kind of late April Fool's joke or somethin'?" He already knows the answer, though, and he sighs, hanging his head. "Um, if you th-think I can help...I'll do it. It sounds like people are in real trouble. We can't leave it like that. I-I'm...not sure how good I am at things like this, really, but...I'll try my best. Okay?"
Lor-Zod looks to Channel, as she asks what they can do, "I'm fast. Kal-El said I can fly, but I haven't figured out how to yet. And that my eyes would be tools, but I don't even understand what he means. But my parents have been training me in combat and tactics my whole life." Then he looks back to the two that brought them and says, "I'm ready."
"You are all nuts," grumbles Tommy, facepalming at the comments he is hearing. "Look," he addresses mostly the other members of the Young Allies, "if they have the power to bring us here from the past so easily, they should be able to deal with those robots easily too. Or they could have picked Superman, Thor. Doctor Fate and the Fantastic Four, who are more powerful and skilled then us. This whole setup stinks, and you guys are too trusting."
"We're already here, Speed," Xavin notes with a broad sweep of his hand. "Could they be lying? Perhaps. Could this be a trap? Certainly; one way or another, we'll know in two hours." He's /trying/ to keep his voice relatively low - the name of the game is pacifying his teammate, after all - but he certainly isn't entirely inaudible. After glancing briefly towards Hawkeye and the Phantom, he returns his attention to Speed and jerks a thumb towards them.
"Unless you'd like to try them /now/, with all their power over time and space, anyway."
With that said, he glances towards Channel and assures, "No ethical issues /here/, either way; I'm not so wild about extinction."
"Transportation is not a problem." The Space Phantom raises a hand, and makes a motion like he's about to snap his fingers. "Just don't mind a /brief/ visit to Limbo." Pause. "The timeless Limbo, not the demon filled Limbo."
All though before he can do that, he peers at Speedball. "No. Sorry. My Master set the rules." Then he glances at Gabriel. "And anyone who wishes to go back will be sent back. This is a volunteer only mission."
Kate meanwhile nods at Eddie, "Now that's the Axiom that I remember." before she blinks and nearly facepalms at Jeremy. The fact that Lor sounds so positive in his abilities, in addition to the name he said, well... That distracts the female archer enough that she doesn't. Of course Tommys rant, well...
"I didn't choose you. Odds are with how he goes on about his 'Master', The Space Phantom didn't either. If you want to stay here, feel free. But those of us who are going, are going."
In fact as Xavin says what he says, Kate simply nods once.
But finally, the Space Phantom snaps his fingers, and things are suddenly dark. Anyone who doesn't want to stay and help will find themselves back where they were when they were taken. but the rest...
The rest will suddenly find that there's noise all around them. Like machines moving and rolling about. There's a clang like a press. All that, and more.
Worse, as peoples eyes adjust to the sudden change in lighting, why the change in sound happened should be apparent. they're no longer in the meeting room. Instead, they've all been moved again. The older Hawkeye and The Space Phantom too.
Now they're in a factory. A factory where people... People where over half their bodies have been replaced with obvious cybernetics are working what looks like an assembly line. An assembly line where /people/.... Correction, dead bodies, are having bits chopped off and artificial components installed.
Worse, as the group appears, some of the cyborgs manning the line stop and turn their heads to look at the gathered 'heroes'.
Channel glances to Lor-Zod. "Alright. Don't use powers you're not trained in using unless we're in a desperate situation. That's a good way for things to end in a mess we don't need," Channel tells him. She takes note of wht the others say. "I understand, Jeremy. Stick with him," the woman says, gesturing to Gabriel. She could tell the boy was comfortable around him, and that would help his confidence in what was going to come next. A nod is given to Gabriel, Speedball, Axiom and Xavin. "Axiom, fill us in on what you know along the way, at least from our time. I know you have a lot of knowledge about these sorts of matters and just about everyone of note in our world. It might help us".
Then they find themselves in the factory. Pulling in a bunch of energy, Channel charges up her defenses. There...were a lot of energy options around here. With an energy absorber around, that meant playtime. She pulls in some electromagnetic energy that she picks up on and launches some bursts at the group of cyborgs in an attempt to overload their circuits and just make them stop moving while keeping the burst away from her new teammates, at least for this mission.
"Stop the cyborgs," the woman states calmly as she looks around. "I've got a read on where we need to go. If you spot an alarm, disable it". They didn't really have a lot of time here. She starts moving forward towards wherever she can pick up on those energy signatures.
Gabriel turns to look at Speed and grins a bit as he motions him over with a crook of his finger, "Hey Speed-Boy. Come here and shake my hand. I figure, two speedsters'll cut this job down to size in half the time, don't you think?" He holds his hand out for Tommy to shake, hoping the other young man takes the hint.
"All I know is what Hawkeye said. Dangerous cyborg zombie," Axiom replies to Channel. "And if it's got powers too, we're going to have to be even more careful," he says. There's a nod of agreement when Jocelyn speaks to Jeremy. "You two stick together. Be brave and watch his back, okay," he offers a smile to Jeremy, trying to reassure him. Speed makes him frown though. "Speed, please. Even if this is a trap, can we really afford to take the chance if the world is at stake? And even if it is a trap, we'll get through it. I have faith that we can handle whatever is being thrown our way," he says. "So please, do it for me? I'll make it up to you when we get back too," he says. He shoots the Space Phantom a look when he mentions Limbo but lets it go when he clarifies which Limbo.
Appearing in the factory, Axiom draws in a sharp breath. The sights have him feeling that same mix of nearly sick and angry he felt back when dealing with the 'Silence Zombies' but he fights it back. No time for that. "Don't g-go too far from the group and if you get in a hard spot, yell and I'll give you a boost," he adds to Jocelyn's words. Rushing forward, he jumped and kicked the nearest cyborg against the machine to knock them out.
"Speed's right," Speedball says, and lifts his shoulders. "Sure, it's Hawkeye. Look at the way she wants to facepalm every time I open my mouth. They could be lying to us, and it's a trap." He tilts his left hand, weighing the option against his right. "But, they could also be telling the truth, and if we walk away when they need us...can we really risk that?"
Speedball moves over to Eddie's side and whispers. "You. I learned it by watching you."
Speedball moves away just as the group is transported to the factory, and the cyborgs are starting to get restless. "Resistance is Futile, my /ass!/ Let's go!" The blue-clad hyperactive hero bounces in, but he doesn't aim for the Metaloks. He goes right for the machinery, to make sure they don't make more.
Jeremy nods to Channel, and looks over at Gabriel...and then suddenly they're someplace else again. He meeps, and stares around, looking a bit ill for a few moments...but danger overrides gross stuff any day. Jeremy's body is surrounded by a blue light--Channel of course would recognize that as his own energy absorption powers--though he doesn't appear to be charging like Channel is. Maybe the kid works by different rules. For now, he just sticks close to Gabriel and anyone else nearby, putting his body between them and the cyborgs (as many as he can, anyway). He may not be able to go offensive yet, but he at least can try to protect his friends and sudden allies! Meanwhile, he's looking around for any energy source he can actually get in contact with...loose wires, energy blasts, things like that. From the way Speedball's going, he thinks he might have an option or two soon...
Lor-Zod looks up to Channel, "But I haven't been trained in any powers." He pauses and says, "But I've figured out how to be fast." So, as soon as Channel says to go for the cyborgs, he does. He accelerates into a blur as he speeds towards one of the cyborg, twisting as he stops to do some kind of martial-arts-esque elbow-strike at the metallic belly of a cyborg. Of course, he's also a lot stronger than he thinks he is. His blow, as strong as he can make it thinking he's striking with a child's muscles, hits the cyborg with enough force to send it flying and smashing heavily into anything in its way.
Oh, so this phantom from space and the old maybe Hawkeye now claim they had no choice about how to bring here? How convenient! Tommy looks very unconvinced, but he is not leaving his friends alone with those kidnappers. Then, before he can demand more explanations, they are teleported again and he finds himself surrounded by zombie-robots. "Great, just great," he grumbles. Then his form blurs as he speeds-up to his maximum. The white-haired speedster slows down briefly only to grab something metallic and heavy to use to hit the Metaloks. He also tries to charge a few of them with hyperkinetic energy, to see if they explode.
"Watch yourselves!" Xavin exclaims over the roar of ignition, as dead eyes turn towards them. Trailed by fire, the Skrull takes flight to give himself a better angle on the factory as the rest of the group rapidly spreads through it. If he had his druthers, he'd set the whole damn place aflame and let the corpse-soldiers burn, but--there are /far/ too many friendly targets; much as it pains him, a more surgical approach is required, so it's tight streams of super-heated plasma, rather than sheets of fire that he rains down on the cyborgs in passing.
And thus things start to get interesting...
The energy signatures that Channel detects are a good distance away. But not too far. And these signatures are /unique/ to put it mildly. For while everything in the immediate area is more or less 'factory normal' (i.e. mechanical and electrical energy), the energy farther off is all over the scale in regards to the sheer number of kinda and types, including a whole bunch that are very rare, and very exotic.
Either way though, all she and the group have to do is move straight ahead.
Not that moving straight ahead is easy. because even as the call of 'stop the cyborgs' is made, the cyborgs in the room start to attack. But even as they start to pull weapons, they're kicked by people like Axiom, thrashed with super speed martial arts by Lor-Zod, by being thrashed by Speed, while others have their energy yanked from them remotely by Jeremy and Channel. And that's not even counting the zombie cyborgs that 'die' left and right due to Xavins fire. But no matter what, these zombies fall, and fall easily. For the moment anyways. Likewise the zombie making machinery is trashed somewhat easily by Speedball.
But as these 'workers' fall, a couple start to come from the very same direction that Channel is indicating. In fact there's a black and red blur as /something/ arrives. Something fast. Something that maneuvers its way through the group and slams right into Hawkeye, sending her flying.
That something is followed by another. Something that flies and looks like it's engulfed in flames. Worse there appears to be another two not much father behind them. And these two Metaloks, unlike the easily destroyed drones appear almost to have something extra to them...
Also of note, the Space Phantom appears to be nowhere to be found. At least for the moment.
Correction. Jeremy didn't yank any energy remotely. But he did absorb any energy blasts aimed at him.
Channel nods as the group seems to fan out in a pretty good position. The cover plasma is greatly appreciated, as it's going to keep a lot of stuff off them. However, those new arrivals looked way worse than the drones, and the woman gives a brief pause to assess them. She then shrugs and switches to a different tactic, shifting her energy to boosting her physical strength and dexterity now as well. "Air is fire and gamma energy. Ground looks like a speedster". The latter should be obvious, of course.
Channel then dashes forwards towards the flying one even as she speaks. "Axiom! Hit me!" She leaps up, using her flight ability to boost her, as she attempts an uppercut right at the flying version of these critters, letting her energy shield absorb those flames and deal with any gamma energy that might otherwise be a problem. If she strikes it, she's letting loose a blast of pure kinetic energy as she strikes it. She's hoping that Axiom gives her a boost so they can take one of these punks out of the fight immediately with a couple really hard blows, as that would make her strike with more force on both counts.
Gabriel jumps over to stand by Axiom in a brief lull in the action. Putting his hand on the younger boy's shoulder he leans down to murmur in his ear without taking his eyes off what's happening around them. By the time he's done talking he's also going all wobbly. After a second or so spent looking like an amoeba magnified 1000 times he's suddenly an exact copy of Axiom. What might be interesting to note for people that've seen his acti before, this time he's copied everything, down to the costume. And then he's spinning away to kick the closest 'zombie'.
As he spins away he starts changing again but this time instead of his usual amoeba shift its more of a mild morphing of his uniform so that it becomes a mix of Axiom's and Channel's.
Bringing his knees close, Speedball goes right into 'ball' mode. Imagine a superball at about onne hundred and some-odd pounds that picks up speed with each rebound. And that the superball can aim, somewhat. He's trying to listen as hard as he can the cyborg-making machinery crumples like paper as he crashes through it. He does catch the red-and-yellow blue, which doesn't match the color scheme of the blue he knows of (i.e. Tommy). "Incoming!" he calls, feeling a stomach-twitching surge of anger as the blurry cyborg pummels Hawkeye. Speedball changed angles, and tries to aim for where he thinks the guy is running for, to try and put him down.
Axiom grabs the weapon of the cyborg he just took down and jumps slightly when Gabriel grabs his shoulder. He nods to the murmuring and waits. Seeing Gabriel become himself, Axiom just stares. "So weird," he mutters. Turning, he flings the stolen weapon to nail a fleeing cyborg in the back of the head and then applies his boosting abilities to Jocelyn. He gasps slightly when Hawkeye's hit. "Someone check on Hawkeye!" he calls. "And watch out for the speedster!" he adds, jogging to catch up with Channel and Gabe.
"Okay...okay...lots of stuff goin' on, um..." Jeremy's a little frazzled, this being the first time...well, that he remembers...that he's been in a fight as huge as this. Well, okay, that thing with the dogs in the park was pretty wild, but it pales in comparison even still, and those were /dogs/, not killer metahuman zombie cyborgs from the future. Or, he guesses, from the present, and he's from the past. Time travel mixes him up even more than usual. A few energy blasts come his way, and the kid makes sure he's between them and the others--not at first sure if it'll work or not, he breathes a sigh of relief when his shield does indeed pull in the energy rather than letting him get a big hole blown through his chest. "All right...I can do this!" He raises his hands, and returns fire, downing a couple of the cyborgs--chanting under his breath, "they're dead already, they're dead already"--while watching out for his allies. He does catch sight of Lor-Zod during all this, and the sight of a kid his age beating the crap out of those things gets his eyes widening again. . o (Whoa...cool!)
Advancing as the group makes its way forward, Jeremy takes a moment to stop by one of the machines that Speedball wrecked, and takes a deep breath as he looks down at one of the exposed and sparking wires. "Okay...okay...yeah. I-I gotta try." He bites his lip, and holds a hand out to the sparks. The power streams into his shield, and he lets out a whoop, turning...only to see the /real/ nasties show up and knock that Hawkeye lady flying. "Y-You stay away from her!" he shouts, and fires an extended stream of electricity at the red-and-black blur, trying to follow it where it moves and only letting up for a moment if it passes too close to an ally (or vice versa) and he might hit them--though he does tend to let up /early/, one might note, giving the thing too much space to avoid even the slightest risk of hitting an ally. Spotting Speedball flying in, he tries to use his electricity to box the blur in and force it to meet the speeding superball. Power streaming in, power streaming out...Jeremy can keep this up for quite a while, like that. The downside? He's pretty much stuck in place if he wants to keep it up at this level.
Lor-Zod just stares a moment in the direction the cyborg he hit went. "Rao," he says softly under his breath, glancing down at his arm. Then his attention is brought back into the fight as the speedster and the fire metaloks arrive, and grins with the overconfidence of realizing how powerful he is. Since he hasn't figured out flying yet, he once again blurs into action on the ground. Now that he has a better sense of his strength, he doesn't go for the martial-arts, just trying to catch up to the speedster metalok to punch it.
Tommy can see the red-black zombie coming, but it is too fast for him to intercept before Hawkeye is hit. That kind of enemy is his area of competency, though, so he changes targets and moves to intercept the super-quick zombie. Halfway to catch up, he breaks the speed of sound.
With the drones thinning out, Xavin's attention is drawn towards the new arrivals. He begins to stretch his hand towards the burning zombie, but after a quick glance down at the flaming extremity and a thin-lipped frown, he draws that arm back, turns his eyes downwards, and decides to focus on the /other/ threat.
Who is moving too damn fast for him to even track; if blanketing the area with fire were an option, he'd be in business, but since he's reasonably confident that the lionshare of his fellow heroes would just burn up rather than absorb or resist the heat, he has to consider a Plan B.
"Spee--!" he exclaims, partially drowned out by Tommy's sonic boom. His hands fly up to his ears as he banks to a stop, and the flames surrounding him flicker out; he jerks a foot or two towards the ground before coming to a stop, held aloft by a pillow of invisible force. Eyes flicking between the red-black blur and Speedball, he gingerly lowers his hands and decides to simply demonstrate that plan, rather than try to explain it over the ringing in his ears: with a flick of his right hand, he create an invisible field in Robbie's path, angled just so to send him soaring towards a piece of machinery that has, thus far, managed to survive destruction--and should provide a good launching point for continuing the pursuit.
And provided that his bubble-shrouded Ally isn't too disoriented, he'll continue throwing the occasional field out, always aiming to keep Speedball on the super-quick zombie's heels while lending as much extra motion as he can.
"Keep it up, little hatchling," he hisses, flicking his eyes down to Jeremy. "It won't be long before it's out of places to hide!"
Considering what happens with Channel... And Eddie... And Gabriel...
There's no easy way to put this. The boosting.... No, the double boosting means that there isn't much the flying guy can do. The blows strike. They strike with such force that the cybernetics shatter into untold itty bitty pieces on impact. The fire and gamma radiation is absorbed, thus leaving the blackened husk of a form free floating for a second, before it just falls to the ground in a crumpled up mess, all its joints bent in ways that should not be possible, and many many more 'joints' that a human being should never have showing signs of being 'bent'.
The drone that Gabriel hits tries to block the attack, but just doesn't move fast enough. It falls. But at this rate the 'workers' might not last much longer.
As Speedball comes flying right at the speedster, it does something odd, namely it starts to run around Speedball, even as he continues forward. Yes, that's right, it runs around him, staying just barely out of reach. Heck, it even looks almost like it's outrunning that electrical blast from Jeremy somehow as it does that. Or it starts to, only then it has to zig to avoid Lor-Zods punch, and Speedball bounces off of one of Xavins forcefields, sending him right back at the Metalok, which puts it fight back in the path of /both/ that electrical blast and Speedball, at the same time!
*ZAP!!!*
Thus the Speedster is knocked down. For a moment. But as it starts to get up, it should be visible. It looks /almost/ like its wearing a flash costume under its cybernetic parts. Only it's a black flash costume with red highlights. Worse, it then starts to run again...
And as Axiom gets ahold of a cyborgs weapon, another waves of Cyborgs starts to come out of the woodwork. These are all armed with military grade weapons. Some of them even start firing on him, if only because of how he was shooting some of the other zombie cyborgs.
Of course those other two Metalocks arrive as well. And one as it charges makes a fist before a red energy like blade appears in her hand and she leaps at Lor, swinging said blade with a sort of raw skill that could even impress sword masters.
The other Metalock also looks female. But it starts to grow. After just a few steps it's almost 12 feet tall and moves like it's trying to kick anyone that it can!
Heck, 'Old' Kate nearly gets stepped on, before Speed manages to grab her and goes to get her clear of the fighting.
On the up side, a door can be seen up ahead. A big door. Those that can detect energy or who have super senses will be getting all sorts of things from what ever is beyond that door. But what those things are is hard to describe...
Double boosted. Channel is not just being boosted by one booster, but now by two.
This is NOT going to end well for Team Metalok. Not when the boosters just literally gave Jocelyn not only the ability to launch the amount of energy equivilant to several nuclear warheads, but the ability to survive a direct hit from it.
As the miniscule cybernetic pieces shatter all around Channel and fall to the ground, she looks around, just feeling the sheer power rush into her, eyes going wide. With the boosting, she's able to control it and handle it all at once. "Okay then," she says, glancing down and seeing the two boosting her. "We just hit the big leagues".
The girl lands and just starts pulling in energy, draining the electronic systems in the area extremely efficiently. This place didn't need working computers, at least in this room, right? She also spots those laser rifles being fired and decides to try and bend as many of those up and into her energy absorption as possible to shield her teammates from the onslaught of cybernetic attacks, especially the ones firing at Axiom.
Then Channel releases a blast with an amount of power behind it that is somewhere beyond the range of ridiculous and into the realm of utterly insane. The target of her blast is the giant female. There were enough people with ways to deal with the other one that she felt confident they could handle it, plus she could hit the big target easier. She also flies towards it at a ridiculous speed, hoping to strike it with another powerful punch just in case the energy strike doesn't eliminate it. This one looked pretty tough.
"Sweet, flight!" Gabriel takes a running jump and flies at the Metalok wielding the big red sword, hoping to blindside her. And bonus, energy sword, which means that having Channel's powers means he should suck it up, so as soon as he gets close to her he start pulling the swords energy into him, "Channel!? What ese can I do with these powers of yours? Never mind, energy bolts!"
It was a great tactic by the young heroes. The combination of abilities by everyone managed to take down the speedster-cyborg for a bit. Though, Speedball collided right as the lightning blast did. And while the physical impact isn't a problem, his kinetic field isn't much against energy. He feels that keenly; his body goes stiff, and his usually wavy-in-motion hair stands on end as he's blown backward by the blast, landing in a pile of metallic wreckage, twitching.
Getting shot at makes Axiom start to regret throwing away the gun he stole. Especially when he gets grazed along the shoulder by a pair of beams. Cursing under his breath, he dives and rolls behind Jocelyn. Hide behind the nice mega-durable girl. "Gabe! Don't get too far from Channel! Speed if you can hear me, evac Speedball! Lor-Zod, try and hit the big one!" he calls out ideas as he gets them. He may not be a general but knowing how to use different powers effectively is a fanboy thing and something a mimic needs to know. Looking around some more, Axiom frowns. "We can't waste a lot of time fighting these guys! Channel, which way do we go?"
"Yes!" Jeremy cries out, as their strategy appears to work...but as he sees the results, he looks crestfallen. "Oh, /crap/." 1) Speed/ster/ still up and running. 2) Speed/ball/ down for the count. "I-I'm sorry!" He was trying to keep from hitting an ally, but he just couldn't keep up with all the speedy stuff going on. Kid clearly feels /awful/. "Um, um..." He lets up on the blast for a moment, but as he sees the speedster start moving again, he gives a frustrated, wordless yell and sends out another extended blast, aiming for the speedster directly as best he can now. "I-I don't know if I can stop him! S-Somebody give me a better plan!"
Lor-Zod grins and stops a moment as the speedster goes down, but he doesn't realize the sword-wielder is coming at him until it's almost too late. If he was better trained, he could probably speed out of the way, but his instinct is to flinch and yell and raise his hand defensively. In this case, it works, as the energy sword just bounces off him. Again, he looks shocked, but the echoes of the moment of fright still keep him from grinning again. Still, he does as Axiom instructs and charges at the giant.
Well, /that/ didn't go entirely as planned. Xavin tracks Speedball all the way down to that scrap pile and grimaces at the impact; keeping himself from staring at the twitching body is something of challenge, but fortunatelly, Flashlok is there to help him out by retaining consciousness.
"That /was/ my plan," the Skrull bites off as he quickly scans around for the offending blur. Upon spotting it, he turns to face it and thrusts both hands forward with a bellowed warcry; invisible force rushes outwards, 'shaped' into little more than a crashing wave that rips through factory machinery and Droneloks as it rushes towards the nimble zombie.
"Thus, I am going to be pinning my hopes on overwhelming violence, instead, for now," he tightly adds as he concentrates on maintaining those energies.
The giant/growing girl doesn't stand much of a chance. Does she? Especially not once Channel absorbs all that power, and blasts her. In fact, a giant hole is created in the giant girls chest doe to that blast, before she has a chance to really do much, and she just falls. but as she falls Lor-Zod comes at her and more than likely does who knows what else to her.
And yet as that happens, almost all the machinery in the room goes dead. As do the remaining worker drones, and even a chunk of the military Deathloks. But not all. The rest continue to fight. Some may even get knocked down due to energy blasts from people like Gabriel. Others try to continue to fire on Eddie even as he hides behind Jocelyn.
After a few moments, if one were to really look at Speedball as he lies there, they may, for a flicker of an instant, see The Space Phantom standing next to him. That is before they're both gone.
Of course as the other Metalock, the one with the energy sword, has her blade basically bounce off of Lor-Zod, she then gets stopped in her tracks as he energy is absorbed by Gabriel. heck, she even turns to face him, and it almost looks like she mouths the words 'Kill me now. Please.' as she tries to face him.
That speedster though, as it runs, is slower now. And try as it might, it can't work up the raw speed fast enough to avoid the assault from that super skrull. Thus it gets damaged. And thus it starts to slow back down...
Meanwhile that large door beckons...
"That way," Channel points out, indicating the doors. "We should move, quickly". And by quickly, she mostly means by mimicing the classic 'Superman' pose of flying forward, fists outstretched, and attempting to punch out any remaining Metaloks / Cyborgs / Whatever that are still kicking around. Which happens to mean she's going to try and clobber the speedster as she makes her way through the giant door, ready to absorb anything that comes on out.
Nothing fancy this time from Channel. Just going for the goal quickly now.
Gabriel shoots an energy blast point-blank at the Metlock that was previouslt wielding the red sword, following right behind it with as hard a punch as he can throw, aimed at the same spot as the bolt.
Hoping that will be enough he drops the femlae Metalock and tries to head for Jeremy with the intent of making sure that they both stick with the group.
Pressing his hand to his wounds, Axiom curses as he tries to find something to dodge behind. He's trying to hold off on mimicking Channel just yet, trying to keep tabs on things. But when it looks like there's a blast coming for him he can't get out of the way of, Axiom mimicks Channel. His costume shifts into a fusion of his and his friend's in a flash of light and he absorbs the blast. Adjusting to the new senses, he fires off a blast at the ground under the armylok and follows quickly after Channel. "This way, guys!" he calls as he heads through the door.
Jeremy keeps up the electrical barrage to aid Xavin's assault for as long as he can...but the group's moving on, and Jeremy's faced with a choice: stay with his current power source, or go with the group. "Um, um..." Seeing what he's pretty sure is Gabriel headed his way to get him moving, Jeremy nods. "I-I'm coming!" He runs for the exit they're all headed towards, still firing electrical blasts at the speedster for as long as he still can--which, freed from his power source and firing high-powered blasts, isn't long. Fortunately, there's still some sources of energy around in the form of the military drones, and Jeremy takes the unusual step of trying to jump /into/ the way of various shots, both to charge up his batteries and to keep the shots away from those who might not be able to take a hit. "Don't worry about me, Mister Gabriel! Keep goin'! They're gonna need you more than they need me!"
Lor-Zod punches the giant just once to make sure she's down, but he's not the kind of kid to glory in destruction. Once it's down, he's moving on, following after the others fast enough to be a blur until he catches up, then slowing again. He looks back to Jeremy and says, "I think we need everybody."
Eyes narrowed, Xavin laces his fingers together into a 'gun' shape, takes aim at the slowing Flashlok...
... and has to move on with the rest of the group, lest he be left behind. Given its speed, he settles for launching a final, spike-shaped force field in its direction, hoping to at least injure it badly enough to keep it from flanking them.
Or, you know, just injure it, if Channel is successful in downing it.
Once that's handled, he turns to float after the rest of the team; along the way, he begins to list in Speedball's direction, but the Phantom's brief appearance keeps him on course, and once the weapon-toting 'loks make themselves known, he tries to keep some of them out of the fight by throwing forcefields around their gun barrels.
The combined power that goes flying towards those large doors does a number on everything between the heroes and the doors. Yet again, they don't stand a chance. The doors themselves buckle, and then are blown away...
Revealing a room. A large room. One that anyone who enters it, be it Channel, Axiom, or anyone and everyone else, will find to be almost surgically clean. In the center of the room is something that looks almost like a giant statsis tube. Inside said tube is a giant green translucent humanoid creature. Strapped down to a table is a guy with the words 'Human Bomb' on his shirt screaming at the top of his lungs as a pair of cyborgs try to do /something/ to him. On his right, on another table is an old man. Only this old man (who may very well be in his 80's, if not older) looks almost familiar. If one were to really look at his face, they may see that he's a much older version of a 'known' super villain. One known for explosive powers. Powers that in theory could level a large chunk of a Connecticut town. On yet another table there's yet someone else. Someone in a yellow and blue costume, that likewise has Metalocks working on him. Worse, as the group enters, the old man moans, "Free us... We can end this now if you set us free..."
That is before a door opens on the opposite end of the room. But more will be said about that in a second.
The speedster Metalok though continues to slow under the assault. As one of Jeremys electrical blasts hits him, he even stumbles as his cybernetic leg locks up...
Right before he is impaled by that invisible 'bullet' which renders him inoperable.
Likewise, as forcefields appear around the gun barrels of various military grade Deathloks, their guns explode, usually taking their arms, and chunks of their bodies with them.
But anyways, as doors open on the far side of that 'white' room things can be seen. Not one. Not ten. Not dozens. but /HUNDREDS/ of things. Each one is half machine. Half corpse. Some have capes. They all have costumes. Some are flying. SOme don't even remotely look human. But /ALL/ of the beings behind that open set of doors on the opposite side of the room are Metalocks.
And they all not only have powers, but are starting to advance towards the white room now that it's been breached.
Okay. There are way too many nasty electronic things going on here, so Channel decides to just do one thing: drain. Electronic beings, computers, whatever. If she can at least stop whatever is being done in process, maybe it would buy the others time to deal with this problem by weakening things for the others. Electrical energy and other energies just start surging into the woman as she absorbs it, trying to stop whatever is being done. And hopefully she will drain a bunch of it, enough so that the others can handle this issue.
Because at that point, the sheer amount of power she'd been wielding overwhelms Channel, and she passes out.
Seeing Channel fall Gabriel dashes over to catch her. And suddenly he's her. As soon as he comes in contact with Channel, which is about the same time at which he catches sight of the sheer number of Metalock heroes coming at them, he becomes an exact copy of the girl.
A quick look of confusion comes over his expression then he quickly but gently puts his new twin on the floor and yells out to Axiom, "Axiom, need a boost here!" and starts to suck in as much energy as he can, from every possible source before aming the strongest energy blast he can /over/ the tables, trying to clear all the cyborgs working on the heroes in one fell swoop if she can.
As soon as he sees the room, Axiom fires off energy blasts at the Loks working on the people, hoping to take them down quickly. Xavin, Jeremy, Lor-Zod! Get 'em free!" he calls. As Channel falls, Axiom curses softly again. Gabriel beats him to the punch and he nods. He drops his mimicry and boosting of Jocelyn and focuses on boosting Gabriel instead. Costume back to normal, he keeps the boost up and rushes towards the blue and yellow costumed person to work on trying to get them free.
Jeremy runs as fast as he can in the wake of the group, giving an appreciative look to Lor-Zod at the encouragement, and stumbles into the room ahead, trying to catch his breath momentarily. "O-Okay...this looks really bad...um..." And the doors open and hundreds of Very Bad Things are coming in. "O-Okay, this looks way worse!" He looks about, taking in the scene, and makes a snap judgment. "We've got to help those people! Fast!" And with that, he raises his hands and starts firing energy blasts (of the same kind he was absorbing from the military-metaloks) at the Metaloks working on the captives, even as he makes his way across the room to try to get near the table that the old man is on...though unfortunately, Gabe's uncontrolled energy-absorbing is taking those out of the air. On the bright side, more power for Gabriel's blast! Regardless, Jeremy's making his way there, staying low to avoid accidentally absorbing blasts from friendlies. Supervillain? Yeah, Jeremy's clueless about that one. The old guy said he could stop this, so Jeremy's going to try to get him free. Hoping Gabriel's done after that big blast, he aims for one of the shackles holding the old man and fires, trying his best to hit the shackles and not the man. "Um, um...Lod-Zor, no Loz-Dor, no...um, cool strong kid! Can you break this stuff?"
(Additionally, one who looks closely might notice that Jeremy is now partially transparent.)
Lor-Zod speeds over to the prisoners, trying to punch aside any metalok that's still in the way, as he answers Jeremy, "I hope so. And it's Lor-Zod, or just Lor." If the metaloks don't get in the way, he tries to rip one of the shackles out.
Channel goes down, only to be caught... and gently set down... by... Channel.
Xavin's eyes flick between Channel and 'Channel' a few times, and then, after a slight shrug of his shoulder...
... there are /three/ Channels. Solidarity, right?
"I have a better idea; boost me!" the third hisses as she then wheels around towards the far side of the clean room and brings herself to the ground. Fingers spreading, she stretches her arms towards those doors and tries to keep the teeming mass of meta-zombies at bay by stretching a dense force field across it... which holds for about two seconds before its energies are towards Gabriel. Which means that it's time for Plan /C/.
"Gh--hostages it is, then," the Skrull mutters, running towards the Human Bomb as the upper right part of her body is sheathed in a coat of orange rocks. Once she's close enough, she'll try to get as good of a hold on the shackles as her blocky fingers will allow and rip them free.
Those Metalocks, the horde of hundreds, advances.
And Channel falls.
Even if he's boosted, Gabriel doesn't have the raw power that Channel had from the double boost. with that said, he still has a decent amount of power. And as it's fired at those Metalocks, it slows them down. It even annihilates some of them. But they keep coming.
Between the combined efforts of Eddie (working on the guy in blue and yellow), and Jeremy working on another, not to mention Lor and Xavin just ripping the shackles off...
Well, that happens once, the old dude just flicks a finger at the giant tube, and then there's a small explosion, before the glass shatters, and the translucent green giant is set free. He then in turn says, "Boys..." as he turns his head to look at that 'Human Bomb' and the yellow and blue guy, "Time to make the big bang... The final bang..."
Thus all three of them start to glow. And each one starts to glow in a different way, with different effects. But before they can do much else, the Space Phantom appears for a moment, and all the 'time lost heroes' suddenly find themselves somewhere else. Outside. During the day. On top of a high rise building. Still in Detroit.
"You just saved the world." is said as The Space Phantom stands there, addressing the heroes, while a mushroom cloud rises in the distance... A cloud that also quickly starts to expand towards the tower everyone is on. A mushroom cloud that appears to originate from the general direction of that 'factory'.
"Thank you. Of course if Nitro and The Super Adaptoid had never done what they did back in the day, this never would of happened. But I think Nitro at least just atoned for his mistake."
And with that said, people will up and find themselves back where they were before this even started, with things just like they were when they left.
Gabriel looks around, a little bewildered by the uncontrolled chage into Channel, followed by the sudden double teleportation. Then he realizes he's back at his apartment, cannoli and milk in front of him so he takes a bite from the cannoli and grins, "Ah! Crunchy and fresh, as promised." As he chews he slowly reverts back to his natural Gabriel persona.
Axiom was about to react to the whole explosions and the Space Phantom saying things. But then he's teleported again and right back onto that rooftop he as climbing onto. And he trips, falling face first onto the roof. "Ow..." he groans. Rolling back over, Axiom takes out his phone to start sending messages to the team. He's got to make sure Tommy, Robbie, Xavin, and Kate are okay...even if it was 'Old' Kate that got hurt, he's worried about 'young' Kate...and get as many of them together as he can to tell them about the things that just happened.
A still-transparent Jeremy watches the mushroom cloud spread from the top of the building, a few tears in his eyes, and hangs his head. "I-I...guess that was the right thing to do...but it's kind of hard to feel really good about that...um, anyway...what n--"
"-ow...wh-huh...ah!" Back in the time he came from, a startled--and no longer transparent--Jeremy forgets that he was moving fast at the time he was pulled from...and has also forgotten that he'd just accidentally tipped a very shaky shelf while trying to get a box down from it at the soup kitchen he's been working at. Fortunately, the shelf didn't fall all the way...but it did let loose a barrage of cans and other supplies that Jeremy /was/ going to dodge until his unscheduled trip to the future. A moment later, Jeremy's surfacing from under a pile of foodstuffs, rubbing his head. "Oh, come /on/! You couldn't send me back two seconds /earlier/?"
Lor-Zod's eyes widen as he watches the mushroom cloud, but he looks up to Space Phantom, and smiles in reassurance at what he says. Then, after a blink, he's sitting in front of the TV again in the Hall of Justice rec room. Looking around quickly, as if he thinks those he met will still be there. "<Have to find them again,>" he says to himself in Kryptonian.
And just like that, they're outside with a front row seat for the extinction of the Metaloks. The stuff about atonement and saving the world, it's all well and good, and Xavin certainly keeps an ear open to it, but mostly...
Mostly, she's just gazing into that mushroom cloud as it fills the horizon, mouth slightly ajar. "Beau--" she begins to whisper, even as it becomes clear that the shockwave is coming for /them/.
"--tiful," she finishes upon reappearing - still in Channel's guise and costume - in that bodega, right next to her bag of stolen groceries and the employee who's leaning down to pick them up. The two stare at one another for a moment, neither quite sure what to make of the other... and then Eddie helpfully interjects from wherever he is by sending her a message.
"Yes," she exhales in her best approximation of Channel's voice. "Well. I'll--leave you to your grocering; urgent phone business. You understand." After a brisk salute, the Skrull takes off for the door, knocking over a display of crackers along the way. Once she's stumbled out of there, she'll find an appropriate alleyway to duck into, and soon enough, she'll be back in her own skin.
More or less, anyway.
Category:Log