TeChameleon

Energon X arrived at the Boomtown entrance without incident and headed in to the Vanguard Camp. Vern had already arrived by this point, and had set up a small SERAPH sub-station, loaded with ultra-tech equipment. E-X wandered over and wordlessly allowed him to link the computer banks with the Blaster's black-white-and-gold sensor-laden armour.

After a few minutes of nothing more than a faint hum, he raised an eyebrow. "So... any insights to be gained on all this weirdness from the sensor banks? Was that actually Cohen the idiot that we saw all those different times, for one? And what's the deal with creepy and creepier, the so-called Vanguard Sword twins that are dragging us around?" he asked his techy friend.

((This is more or less the typographical equivalent of doodling- a mildly funny idea I had that I figured I'd bang out for your amusement and/or horror))

Energon X sat, casually perched on an updraft and invisible to the eyes of mere mortals, high above Atlas Park. This was where he came to relax, the fortified heart of Paragon City where nothing more dangerous than the occasional idiot gangbanger stealing a purse happened. Well, somewhat more than occasional... the Blaster had taken to sniping them from high above, like some bizarre, socially acceptable form of pigeon hunting.

In between blasting Hellions off to Juvie from half a mile away, he would simply hover, enjoying the breeze and the peace and quiet of the open sky, shared only with the ever-patrolling dirigible. Kind of nice not to have yet another Earth-shattering crisis on my hands; between demigods and demagogues, it's been a busy few years. he thought idly.

Then he groaned aloud. "I should know better than to even think things like that..." he muttered. "Three... two... one..." he said aloud, holding up the appropriate number of fingers. Air raid sirens sounded, and the sky took on the strange, greenish tint that was irritatingly familiar to Energon X. "I'll say this much for my luck... it's consistent." he growled.

The Blaster ignored the general warning over the Vanguard channels, and put out a call of his own. "The Rikti ruined my day off... what say we ruin their day in return?" he commented over the general broadcast channel. "I think if we splatter a few of their dropships, they'll get the idea."

This idea was greeted with general enthusiasm, and in surprisingly short order, a tidal wave of violently-conflictingly-coloured spandex was roaring upwards on rocket boots, wings, capes and antigravity, as dozens of superhumans and friendly super-powered 'visitors' gave the first dropship a... warm... welcome. The A-Bombs in its hold detonated spectacularly before a single one hit the city, and the brilliant cloud of supers turned their attention to the next.

Five or six of the heavily-armed dropships were disposed of that way, although several still got through, dropping their loads of bombs... and then the troops started porting in.

Sort of.

Energon X frankly stared as the portals wavered, distorted, and started disgorging both startled Rikti... and... "Soldiers of Rularuu..?!?"

((TO BE CONTINUED))

((Uhm... Energon X is inside, just floating, and Horowitz is nowhere near- he's a good twenty minutes behind the thing))

Energon X had stirred at the mention of the dropships, then subsided when it became clear that there wasn't going to be any midair battling (somewhat to his disappointment).

He synched his flight field more closely with that of the modded flyer and remained floating in the lotus position, patiently waiting for arrival at their destination.

All that could be heard from within the Council Base was a single sharp retort, then a long, bass rumble. The ground bucked and heaved like a ship on a stormy sea for a few minutes, then settled as loose rocks and dust poured from the ceiling. Nothing too spectacular... until one remembered that the Base was under sixty feet of solid rock.

Aboveground, the retort had been a scream of tortured air as uncounted pentajoules of raw energy vented into the atmosphere, Energon X' distorted electronic shriek of pain lost in the thunder of hundreds of tons of air and earth being reduced to superheated plasma.

The shockwave roared out, collapsing already-unstable buildings and tearing up the roadways even further, a roar of power that shattered stone and turned the matter at it's heart to glass, totally obliterating the last hints of Klaus' lab... and destabilized the already-badly distorted local spacetime even further. Anyone that attempted to manipulate reality in Boomtown now would find that their life had abruptly become very interesting, and, in all probability, significantly shorter.

********************

STEEL CANYON:
Lights flashed and a klaxon blared in the Steel Canyon Medical Centre. "Got a major event happening here! Partial mediport from Boomtown!" one EMT yelled. "Bugger... things there haven't been working 100% for a while now. Wish those [censored] capes would be a little more careful in there." Senior Technician Alicia Crowley muttered. She spun a dial and hammered keys as fast as her considerable typing speed allowed, trying to isolate and refine the signal.

Then she gave a low whistle. "Whatever got this guy is beyond anything I've ever seen. Some of the techs that work the Portal Corps duty have hinted at power levels like these, but even there they're scary-rare. It's distorted space-time to the point that, even though he was practically standing on a transfer node, we can barely grab him!"

She clicked a few times, and the lights flickered, dimming fractionally as power to the transmat tube was boosted. "I'm not losing this guy that easily... Huh." she paused. "Well, at least the signal's cleared enough to read his Ident- Energon X, eh?" She half-turned. "Paul! Bring up his old files, see if we can't cross-reference the pattern with some of the other medcenters. Use that to fill in some of the blanks, just be careful you don't regress him into his teens or some stupid thing."

*********************

UPSTAIRS, STEEL CANYON MEDICAL CENTER:

"Ow." was Energon X' first coherent thought upon reforming on the mediport pad. "Remind me to thank you with a boot up the [censored], Mr.-I'm-a-German-mad-scientist-with-a-bad-imitation-accent..." he growled over the team channel. "How long was I out? Looks like Steel managed to pull me clear, although I don't even want to know what Ground Zero looks like..."

The Blaster cracked his neck, stretching. Always feel so stiff after an emergency 'port out... he thought idly, hopping down off the pad and heading for the elevators. At the exit, he paused at the reception desk. "Well, they saved my spandex-clad buttocks again... would you mind passing my thanks... in the form of a five-star dinner in Founder's Falls... to the transmat team on duty?" he asked the receptionist. After getting his I.D. card back from her, he stepped out the doors and took to the skies, winging his way rapidly back to the Baumtown hazard entrance.

((Oh... uhm, that could've been clearer in your post. I kind of wondered, but reading your post, with Klaus complaining, made it sound like E-X had popped right back next to him >.&lt)

...

*Darkvapor suffocates on the irony of yelling 'all hail' when there's nobody left to do the hailing...*

((Uhm... judging by the amount of action elapsed, you have about 10 seconds before E-X goes critical on you. Putzing around with a tape recorder while standing next to him strikes me as a decidedly bad idea))

*rezzes*

*Hello Kitty leaps off of the deathstick and suctions to Entropy_Aegis' face, and proceeds to eat it (Entropy's face, that is, not the stick)*

Ooh! I like irony.

It tastes like chicken.

Then again, what doesn't?

*says humourously ironic things at Entropy_Aegis until his head explodes*

A harsh blue light emanating from Energon X suggested that, quite possibly, the Council was the least of their worries. Questing tendrils of energy snaked out, skittering across the walls, ceiling, and floor of the cell, leaving charred, molten trails wherever they passed.

"My control was already shaky, thanks to all the B.S. we've been subjected to." the Blaster said flatly, deadly calm tones hinting at a raging maelstrom within. "Magic rearranging space and time in my immediate vicinity did not help. You... may want to... vacate the premises. Quickly." the blaster said, his voice trailing off to a groan as the blue glare took on a lethal edge, pulsing erratically.

In less than thirty seconds, the blaster was going to detonate spectacularly, a towering column of blue-white power ravening through the steel and concrete of the Council Base to claw at the sky above. For now, though, he simply clutched at his head, fighting to contain his energies long enough for the team to escape.

...

*looks at phony Wave Motion Gun*

*looks at Darkvapor*

*beats Darkvapor into a bloody smear with the fake gun*

Energon X glanced at the other blaster. "You don't listen very well, do you?" he grated irritably. Something was wrong... even the aggravating whine of the Council detention fields couldn't account for the edge he was feeling. "I found her here on a scouting run a few minutes ago. What I found isn't what's here. I don't like it."

E-X glared around, purple spots appearing where his gaze fell, a sure warning that his emotional state was intensifying enough to threaten his control over his vast, but unstable, powers. No suspicious energy traces flickered; not even the weird null-space that he saw when raw magic was venting into the atmosphere hinted at the cause of his unease, which meant one of two things; either he was being paranoid, or their opponent was manipulating their minds directly to hide what they were doing.

"That would be me." Energon X said, glaring a little at Dusan. "Arrogant soul-manipulating little ponce... wonder if he even realizes that there's a 'damage dealer' standing right next to him?" he muttered under his artificial breath.

He continued a little louder "Reality has proven to be... mutable... lately. Either through the influence of the Mundi, or some other factor in play. What I found may or may not still be there." the Blaster commented with an irritable grunt. "Letting those two idiots jump up and down on the Council may not actually be a bad idea- letting them set up another ambush for us via the teleporter would not be a fun experience." he added as an afterthought.

"Anyways, the cells are the best place to start looking for the City Rep." he finished.

*greets Darkvapour's return with "Hail the mighty slayer of evil!"*

Wave Motion Gun? What Wave Motion Gun?

...

Oh, this Wave Motion Gun? Well... I wasn't going to use it, but... it seems such a shame to waste it.

*blows up planet and everyone on it*

((he's not keeping up- just Jager-tracking it. He's gonna turn up late, wet, and annoyed. And ready to kick some butt))

((Oy!.. E-X knows how to hit where he's needed. Check my post- he deliberately stayed clear of where the brawlers were taking out the Council one at a time. You might be having a rain of unconscious Council landing around you, but you were never in any danger of getting blown up))

On hearing the Referee's question, Energon X cracked one eye open, revealing an actinic purple glare that threw the occupants of the cabin into sharp relief and hinting at the cosmic storm held in check by nothing more than the Blaster's fragile flesh... and his iron will.

He shrugged, an infintesimal movement of armoured shoulders. "I have my reasons." He went silent for a moment, then continued. "Letting hyperpowered nutjobs like Poe run loose is just a bad idea in general, so I'm coming along on principle. Then there's the fact that, despite the fact he has never seen or met me before today, there's an excellent chance that he's going to be trying quite hard to kill me. I can't imagine him being too happy with me after I blew him to a wisp of greasy smoke, anyways... so there's self-preservation, there."

The blaster fell silent again for a long moment. "And of course there's the fact that Poe just pisses me off." he added as an afterthought.

((Not a lot I can post with Horowitz other than 'swimming, swimming, swimming' until the flyer lands, so I'm holding off on that))

Energon X had been thrown against the wall hard enough to be briefly stunned when Martin saved him from the Council ambush. He shook his head to clear it as he regained his senses, and glanced around.

The wall-o'-bullets was faltering slightly- Bladewing in the middle of the Council was having roughly the same effect as a fox in a henhouse, and even one blaster pulling out all the stops was chaos incarnate, as Klaus turned that entire section of the underground base into a winter wonderland.

E-X made an amused noise. One blaster going full out was chaos incarnate. Two doing the same was a distillation of the End of the World.

He scrambled to his feet, but remained crouched in a passable approximation of a sprinter's start position. A lull in the firing, thanks to the mayhem reigning in the room, and he was blurred, then gone.

"Fire in the hole!" he yelled, decloaking in the heart of the still-fighting Council... and already glowing blue. This should be far enough away from everyone to keep them clear of the worst of the blast.

A brief twinkle.

A gentle noise, soft as a falling souffle.

A blaze of blue like an exploding star, and a roar like the breaking of worlds.

NOVA.

((crazy busy right now- will probably not be able to post until Monday))

((well, my post was because aside from you slapping Klaus, our group hadn't actually moved since Diov's last post. I don't want to get us mixed up with our pair of loveable axe-crazies who are in a different part of the base entirely... that or they're about to burst through another door into the same room >.&gt)

Meanwhile, in another part of the base...

Energon X had taken point as was his (mildly suicidal) habit. Klaus was somewhere behind... 'painted' as a target, should he try anything irritating. E-X was a trifle paranoid about 'friendlies' who tried to popsicle-ize him.

The little group ran up against... "ANOTHER locked door? Don't they ever get tired of that joke? It's not like they slow us down all that much..." he griped. "I'm just glad I did my scouting run through here before they locked down. It's hard to make a stealthy pass-through when you have to smash the furnishings every twenty feet." He gave an irritable shrug and drew back one red-glowing fist.

The energy-backed blow rang the blast door like a gong, slamming into it with enough force that, unless there was something odd about it, it would be sent scything through the air to embed itself in the far wall.

((And yes, this is supposed to be the door that the ambush is behind.))

((Uhm, Grey? You kinda missed my last post >.< Horowitz just tilted the Arachnos Flier almost onto its side to let Briggs get on board, and he was planning to get in after her))

Energon X shrugged calmly. "Poe may be dangerous, but what isn't these days? He'll blow up same as anyone else if you apply enough explosives." The Blaster hovered slightly, folding his legs to assume the lotus position in midair and relaxed, focussing his energy patterns so that he could access as much as possible of his titanic energy stores on as short a notice as possible. Blue light flickered briefly around the crammed cabin, then settled as he found his centre. This accomplished, he settled in to wait.

------------------------------

Jager Horowitz stared at the fuzzy outline of the departing Arachnos flier and frowned, ignoring the loud man who had charged past and leapt onto the outbound ship. "Vell... dat vas rude." he commented to no one in particular. Then a gleam entered his eyes. "But they'ze not gettink avay from me dat eazily... not ven dere is a fight dis goot going to happen."

With a cry of "Ve Hunt!", he dove into the greasy water, cutting cleanly through it in rapid pursuit of the Arachnos Flier.

((Hey, Grey? Ghoul jumped Klaus after Klaus took a shot at E-X- it looks like you missed that, since you're chewing Ghoul out for jumping some random idiot for no real reason))

((I believe this falls under the category of fan fiction, which they don't seem to mind, as they actively encourage it- they even illustrated one (creatively titled 'fan fiction' ) from the writer of Narbonic Labs.

And thanks for the kind words- the speech pattern isn't always easy, but man is it ever fun to write))