TeChameleon

Flashpoint Zeo compensated for the abrupt shift in direction, pacing the flying Blaster from slightly ahead- anything nasty that tried to jump them would find that a) things that are actively on fire are most likely inedible, and b) having six feet of flaming sword shoved into the first available orifice was decidedly painful.

"ADD, much?" he said drily to Isabel. "Would suggest that perhaps finding new allies is less useful when old allies have been left behind during search?" The big tanker didn't bother slowing down when they came out a side tunnel between the cyborg and the soldiers- few things could make the appearance of a nine-foot tall flaming giant less startling, and easing into view slowly probably wouldn't help. Instead, he simply... appeared. One second a comet-streak of flame, the next a huge form wreathed in flame just standing there, arms folded, giving Egregore and the soldiers a placid look with burning yellow eyes.

If anybody started shooting, they would be... dealt with. In the meantime, the tank was content to observe, taking a good look at all involved in this bizarre little confrontation in the sewers.

Star Strider Forces Registry
Name: Energon X
Global Contact: @Wall of Knight
Level of Classification: 50
Origin: Science
Super Rank & Super Group: Irregular member of Paragon's Greatest Heroes (I think... I did say 'irregular', no? )

Flashpoint Zeo glanced at the blonde swordsman. "Nazi, no. Crazy, probably. Run around with people in tights to beat up crooks." He nodded briefly to Isabel, hood bobbing. "Is good that at least are not alone." Then he rolled his eyes slightly, yellow flames flickering. "Apologies for strange speech pattern... is side effect of condition."

At Isabel's abrupt departure, he raised an... eyebrow? Under the hood, in the flickering light of his glowing yellow eyes, it was hard to tell; it could have been a more reptilian eyebrow ridge, too. Then he shrugged, heavy shoulder plates moving. "Perhaps best to follow?" he suggested, suiting actions to words and blurring after the blaster.

Isabel was passed by what looked like a horizontal comet several times in the space of a few seconds as Flashpoint triangulated where the sound was coming from. Then the big tanker 'paused' near her, pacing her flight. "Sounds coming from that way." he said, jerking a thumb down one of the side tunnels. "Some speech English." he added.

The brief flash of light from Isabel's blast caught Flashpoint Zeo's attention, and the huge tanker backtracked in a fiery blur, finding the open manhole. A brief study of the displaced manhole cover revealed the familiar pattern of energy-blast induced scoring. He grunted briefly, and hopped down after- the blast marks hadn't even cooled fully yet to his thermal vision, so the one who made them couldn't have gotten far.

He hopped down as well, and risked a call, hoping that whoever was around would register that the call was in English, rather than German, and hesitate before opening fire. "Caught in ridiculous teleport-explosion also?" ... of course, he was durable enough to handle an impressive amount of shooting, but it didn't mean he enjoyed it... the flame-wreathed giant waited patiently.

The world slowly swam back into focus for Flashpoint Zeo, the huge tanker having reflexively wreathed himself in mystic flame when his teleport started going wrong. He had been jumping to the riot in Galaxy City when the time-space continuum went 'flooie', and gotten pulled in with the others.

One glance at the street lined with Fifth Column banners was enough to send him careening off the street in a blurred fiery rush to hide in the shadows of a building. Flashpoint had been in the supers game long enough to recognize the scene instantly, being one of those who had travelled to Axis Amerika on behalf of Portal Corp before the dimension had been sealed off and lost.

Behind his mask, the tanker's mouth twisted into a frown. Given the nature of the emergency he'd been responding to, there was almost guaranteed to be other heroes of his world here. However, there was no guarantee that anyone else knew they were here, which limited his options for finding anyone, if he didn't want half this world descending on them; there was no love lost between Axis Amerika Earth and Primal Earth.

He thought quickly. In all probability, they had all been deposited close to one another; a superfast grid search was probably the way to go. And once he hooked up with them... he glanced around again. Reflected in his glowing eyes danced the flames of worlds burning.

Nazis? Repugnant little vermin who idolized a dead madman. Flames surged around the tanker for an instant, then he was gone, leaving behind a whisper of "Some things, only flame cleanses."

((so, I has arrived- Flashpoint's going to be zipping up and down the streets- not much visible beyond a... well, basically a split-second comet-y looking thing, but he'll probably pass by the aboveground characters pretty quick. Of course, being what he is, any thermal scans will have him showing up pretty brightly. Feel free to have the other characters react to him however.))

((... if the tacos have turned into mummified dead mold-things, I'm not sure eating the burgers is the best idea...))

Target Lad glanced down, annoyed at being distracted. "Try th'Mighty Mart if'n th' fast food places arenae any good!" he yelled back. Then a shift in the light brought the thing Matrix was still clutching. At a guess, it used to be a taco, but at this point in time it was... well, basically mummified, covered in a layer of dust even thicker than the dead blue mold on it. The little archer shuddered. "There's summat strange goin' on here..." he mumbled to himself.

Should anyone be interested, I'm also WriMo-ing under the alias "Bugz_Toon", and, much to no-one's surprise, I'm also doing a superhero story, although it has little or no connection to the City of universe.

((well, let's see- the plot threads at the moment are Draculad and the Doc about to be eaten (or worse) by massive swarms of bugs while Target Lad hovers outside yelling at them; Richard and Areu have wandered off to find the person that was screaming in Talos, the base (or something in it) is talking to people using morse code blinking lights, the group needs to find food and tech to try and repair the base, and DredgeofAngst's character John is running around in tiny circles screaming like a girl as bugs try to eat him in the North end of Steel. Okay, maybe not screaming

So, pick something and go with it. I'll see if I can't guilt Plague into stopping playing Fable II and Fallout III (which I'm resolutely not buying until after NaNoWriMo is finished >.&lt and posting at least once in a while ))

((From the looks of it, there are only three of us still around- doodaa is enthusiastic but seems to have rather limited time; Dr Techno is... less enthusiastic, but seems to have even more limited time, and PlagueofUndeath appears to have been eaten by a Grue))

Hmm... okay, let's try this.

Beam Spam- Energon X
Rain of Arrows- Target Lad (duh?)
Funetik Aksent- Jager Horowitz (well, all the Jagers, really, but he's the only one I brought into the RP).
Screaming Warrior- Horowitz again ("DOT. VAS. MY. HAT!")
Mouthy Kid- Target Lad
Just a Kid- Target Lad
Sidekick- Target Lad again (to Energon X, if anyone cares)...
Good Is Not Nice- Uhm... most of my characters. Tempus Fugitive most especially, though.
Set Right What Once Went Wrong- Tempus Fugitive
Glowing Eyes of Doom- Energon X (permanently, just for fun). Also The Scarlet Eye, although it's singular in his case.
The Time Travellers Dilemma- Tempus Fugitive (cheerfully subverted, since he really doesn't care that much. He's more concerned with making sure sizeable chunks of the multiverse don't go straight to hell and/or explode).
There Is No Kill Like Overkill- ... again, a lot of my characters, although Tempus Fugitive, Energon X, and Jager Horowitz are good at this.
Arrows on Fire- Target Lad
Bottomless Quiver- Very nearly literal for Target Lad (somewhat justified in that he's got a pocket dimension full of arrows)
Hammerspace- quite literal for pretty much all of my characters, mildly justified because they have to be pulling that gun/bow/axe/whatever from somewhere in-game.
Hyperspace Arsenal- Tempus Fugitive. In the most literal sense possible.
The Chew Toy- Target Lad, although at least some of that is more his own perception than reality... but probably not all of it >.>
Exploding Heads- The Scarlet Eye
Who Wants To Live Forever- The Scarlet Eye, although it's subverted fairly thoroughly, in that he's quite happy (or as close to 'happy' as he's able to be, anyways) to live forever.
Nigh Invulnerable- Jager Horowitz, given that he's basically a cartoon character (although this seems to be a fairly common trait of Jagers... or at least, they're really, really hard to kill)

Eh... losing interest. I'll stop for now.

((trust me, there is an excellent reason for what I'm doing. If I get any of the details wrong, please let me know, Techno. Also, yay, I can keep going!

And... is it just me, or is almost everyone bringing in characters that would have a really rough time fighting swarms of regular-sized bugs? ))

The instant the portal stabilized, Danny bolted through, soaring out into the cold air above Atlas Park, his voice lingering behind briefly. "There're folks i' trouble, wha're ye standin' 'round for, y'great gowk?" Then his rocket boots kicked in, and he started to move, a blue-glowing exclamation point carved across the night sky for Draculad's Library Tower. "There's summat weird goin' on here..." Danny said, mostly to himself. If the commlinks were still working, it wasn't well.

Eldricht lights played around the tower, weird shimmers like summer lightning dancing across it. One moment a portion was bright and shiny-new looking (or as much as a gothic tower ever got, anyways), much like the rest of Atlas Park usually was, the next it was very slightly dingy, like the buildings surrounding it. Age and emptiness had come for the Library, crawling across it like scabs developing in fast-forward.

All around the base of the tower, the bugs were in a frenzy, a boiling, writhing red carpet whirling around the walls like jaws snapping, lunging at the walls and darting back as another flash of weird non-light earthed itself.

Inside, the lights flickered feebly, and the X-S system fought the encroaching entropy, error messages flashing and vanishing as the powerful computer struggled mightily against whatever forces were invading the tower... in vain.

One bite at a time, the Library vanished, the interior replaced with dusty, empty rooms... or, worse still, sticky, dripping tunnels with vaguely organic-looking walls that echoed with a diseased chittering. The devastation slowed as it approached the core where X-S resided, but it didn't stop.

------

Downstairs, the change swept across the room just slowly enough to be seen, crawling obscenely across the room with a tinge of uncanny non-light at the transition point. It tingled as it oozed over Dr. Lore, but left her unharmed and unchanged, at least on the surface. In her hand, the medilaser blinked softly.

Then the sound came... a tiny, faint crunching, ever on the edge of hearing. Above Dr. Lore, the ceiling wavered a final time... and then one of the devil termites dropped through. And another. And...

------

Upstairs, X-S was sending out a distress signal. It could not stop the change.

------

Outside, Danny risked a yell. "Oi! Y'gits i' th'tower! If'n ye head f'r th'roof, I c'n get ye off an' clear! An' maybe t'a safe spot."

------

In Richard's extradimensional base, the screens in the ops center were pulsing brilliant light, showing Talos Island and, dimly visible in the shattered night, a small human figure in the midst if virtual drifts of stunned or dead bugs. The lights in the center and across the complex flashed 'Uh... hello? This could be important...'

((Techno, if you want to have Draculad save X-S by yanking his memory core or whatever and bring it to the ruined base, you can))

((Two things, Dredge- first off, Paragraph breaks are your friend. That's a bit of a wall-o'-text to wade through. Secondly, it's already been established that it's cold out (Danny, my character, wore a coat because of it).

Also, Techno, are you coming back? I'm seriously just waiting for your answer before we can keep going))

Prayin' for ya, SS- and your daughter and the rest of your family. Although I can't say I'm sorry I didn't find this thread until after the good news hit, heh...

Best wishes for you and the clan, neh?

((apologies for the delay... just getting something fairly important sorted with Techno. Soon as that's dealt with, I think things are going to get rather interesting *evilgrin*))

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((I wouldn't say we're at loose ends, I kinda like how we're seperate for now. We'll join up eventually, but no need to rush it.))

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((... sent you a PM about this))

((doodaa, if you could have Matrix finish the repairs in your next post, that'd be great- it'll make things simpler if the quartet and the duo become a single group- Techno and Golden are kind of at loose ends, and I'd like to gather them in))

The kick resulted in a decent-sized chunk of the ceiling dropping onto Richard's head as he started to walk out of the room, accompanied by the lights flashing out 'Jerk!'. Given that he was more-or-less invulnerable, that didn't do much, but it was likely to be a little disquieting, especially since the ceiling seemed stable otherwise.

Danny gave the ceiling a worried look, but didn't comment. He flew back to where Matrix was working and hovered, waiting as patiently as he ever did... which wasn't very... for the telepad repairs to be finished.

------

Across town, yet another earth-shattering shriek sounded- the clear sound of a sonic-empowered superhuman pushing themselves to their very limits, in desperation or anger, it was hard to tell. The big window across the tram shattered into a thousand thousand glittering shards, and glass showered from exploding windows as far away as the docks.

Devil-termites exploded from the walls, pouring out like an obscene crimson tide, hailing from walls and oozing out of every crevice to form a sluggishly moving carpet, the majority of the bugs stunned, some even dead, as they built up to be nearly three feet deep in the Eastern end of the zone, tapering off to a 'mere' foot closer to the center of the Island.

Throughout the city, the bugs... shifted... disturbed, often extruding slightly beyond the protective walls that formed the borders of their hiding places, a pulsing, throbbing ripple of bloody red from a wounded city, eerie in the urban nightglow.

------

Back in the base, in the now-empty ops center, the lights flickered 'What the hell was that?' as the consoles flashed to life, screens scanning rapidly across Paragon City.

((going to be a bit before I can do a serious plot-post, but I should be able to get it up later tonight... stay tuned, all))

Danny blinked at Matrix zooming around like bad stop-motion animation. "I saw th'folks i' Atlas Park, no' far fr' th'statue. Dinna know if'n they stayed there, o'course, but 'tis a reasonable spot t'start." Leaving the other archer to work, he wandered off, floating swiftly down one corridor and up the next.

After a bit, he found his way back to Richard in the ops center. "Ah... an' how big were ye sayin' thi' place wa'?" he questioned. "On account o' i' seemin'... bloody huge. An' creepy." he added.

((and yes, there is reason for this. The base is a wee bit bigger than Richard remembers... there's also a practical reason for it- if this is going to be a safehouse (for a given value of 'safe' <.&lt for survivors, we're going to need room >.&gt)

((okay... if Unholygiant hasn't put in a reappearance by tonight, it'll have been a full week without word. I have some ideas as to where to take this; what would be the general feeling towards me taking over the running of this? Of course, if Unholygiant turns up soon, I'll turn it back over to them, but... well, I don't really want this one to die))

Danny floated impatiently by the workbench, watching Matrix work. He couldn't contribute, and he was stuck in the base, so he was going a bit squirrely. "'m votin' against raidin' an El Super Mexicano for food, f'r th'record." he commented acerbically. Then he paused, thinking for a moment.

"There're some base-type widgies over thataway." he added, then thought some more. "And if'n ye're needin' wee powersources, 've got these..." he finished off, pulling out an arrow with a strange, blunt head. A brief twist, and the Talsorian Blade that formed the cutting edge snapped to life with a crack and a hiss, casting an eerie green light across the dimly lit workbench.

"M'Cross-D quiver still seems t'be workin', a'least." he said. "I dinnae ha' quite infinite arrows, bu' there sh'd be enough f'r just 'bout anythin' we're needin'."

Danny gave Fixit a look, then jerked a thumb back the way he had come. "'tis easy t'find- th'rooms be all marked. And I dinnae ha' an accent, 'tis th'rest o' you lot tha' ha' accents." he said firmly. He snagged the last teleporter back from where Fixit was holding it out, affixing it firmly to his belt under his long, rather tattered at the base, trenchcoat. The movement of the tail of the coat caught his eye, and he made a face. Leastaways 'tisnae catchin' fire any more... he thought briefly.

The boy irritably kicked one of the consoles (prompting an outraged "Oi!" from the Morse-Flashing light fixtures), and, much to his surprise, it flickered to life with a view of Atlas Park and two figures, made small by distance, bouncing across the screen. "Ye best hurry wi' th'repairs, mates... we arenae alone any longer, an' th'bugs be chasin' em." The lights flashed a sequence that, if viewed in the correct order, would spell out "FINE. Happy now?" as the view on the screen steadied somewhat and cleared of static.

There was a brief grinding from the ceiling as one of the base-defense turrets tried to deploy and seized. The lights flickered in a disappointed fashion, almost a visible sigh.

((Just to make sure everyone's clear- with the morse messages the lights are flashing, each letter is coming from a different light, and it's going very fast- you'd almost have to be expecting it, looking in several directions at once, and have excellent eyesight to even have a chance of catching it))

Danny shrugged and zipped across the base. The entry pad was in the usual small side room, and he prodded it gingerly, fully expecting a shower of sparks, acrid smoke, or possibly a rip in space-time disgorging tentacled monstrosities from beyond sanity. Thankfully none of this happened, although the lights flickered oddly again. Then the boy shook his head, reluctant to simply hop through and hope for the best.

He rose a bit higher once again and soared down the hallway towards the workshop. He frowned at the tech-bits on the floor- after all, the rest of the base was scrupulously clean (if dusty), for the most part, but wrote it off as the work of the mysterious saboteur. Gathering up a handful of items that looked the same as the thing Richard had used to get them all here, he sailed back to the main control room.

"If'n these widgies be th'same a' th'one ye were usin', then we've got four o' them total." he announced, holding out the armload. "And I didnae try t'make more o' them, since i' I were t'screw up, t'would be mite uglier than just bugs... portal accidents can turn y'inside out, or smear y'across six dif'rnt dimensions... so aye, t'isnae somethin' 'm quite comfortable wi'."

Danny looked down from where he was hovering near the ceiling, as far from the open console as he could get and still stay in the room. "Erm... d'ye ha' anymore o' those portal widgets?" he questioned. "'m thinkin' tha' havin' just one i' a recipe f'r disaster." A pause. "More disaster, anyway. 'special i' tha's th'only way t'get in here."

As Fix-It poked around the innards of the consoles, various status lights blinked, winking on and off rapidly- the code for "Hee hee hee..." flickered across the room, each letter produced by a separate light. You'd have to be very alert to notice it, but it was there... in one of the small side rooms, several leftover parts vibrated off shelves, falling to the floor with a gentle tinkle. Should anyone care to investigate, they'd find that these were bits that could be used to fix the most pressing of the problems... along with the anti-personnel defenses. And not the mediporter or infirmary.

Ignorant of all this, the boy archer, looked thoughtful for a moment. "D'ye know if'n there be a Longbow base close by? Or th'Sky Raiders? A couple o' their wee bitty airplanes 'd make it a mite easier t'get around f'r those of ye tha' cannae fly."

((yes, I do have something quite specific in mind as to what's going on in the base, and scavenged bits are the least of it, hehehe... oh, and I've already cleared it with Rebel))

((sent you a PM about it))

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"You guys need a techno-wizard?" he asked, walking over to Richard and TargetLad "What do you guys need?" He looked over the screens and monitors humming softly.

[/ QUOTE ]

A screen on another console sputtered to life momentarily, then shorted out and went black as the console it was sitting on started to smoke. The central surveillance console chose that moment to have all five screens light up again, the three damaged ones flaring eye-searingly bright before going blank, the two more-or-less functional ones strobing insanely through a flicker of images too fast to be seen.

The base lights powered up, then flicked off, then on again then... if Danny knew Morse Code, he might have recognized the pattern spelling out "Ouch!" in the flashes.

The boy archer directed a flat glare at the room at large, waved a hand, and said succinctly "Tha'." Thankfully, Akemi's Photon globes were still lighting the rooms.

((This could get interesting. Also, it just occured to me, Doodaa- it looks almost like we've switched roles between here and the Time/Space Shenanigans thread- I'm playing the kid here ))