TeChameleon

Poe's escape would have been perfectly smooth, had he not forgotten one thing. Well, two things, actually... make that three.

One, that Energon X was just as fast as he was. And two, he was more than a little pissed with Poe. And finally, and most importantly, he was still between Poe and the doors.

Poe popped out of the gas cloud to find the now-familiar bloody glow coming, once again, at the bridge of his nose. "Welcome back, you miserable bugger."

((I'm assuming from your post that Poe was headed for the elevator doors- if not, let me know and I'll edit my post))

((Has anyone else noticed that we seem to have ditched the OP in all this chaos? Lt. Briggs, where'd you go?

And I really wish people would stop yanking Poe away as I'm trying to bludgeon him. Godmode or not, he's got a beating coming))

Energon X listened to the grumbling with half an ear, then snorted. "If any of you have a better plan than 'follow the lizard', you probably should have spoken up back at the Vanguard dropsite." he snarked over the team channel.

"Bladewing, if you run into trouble, let us know... some of us are mobile enough to back you up in a matter of seconds. Of course, if you find out something we need to know, let us know as well."

The Blaster stopped talking and concentrated on keeping the fast-flying Soulhound in sight, noting with a certain amount of interest that it was headed in the direction that Bladewing had gone.

Odd... I wonder what made those clockwork parts form a circle around us, if not as a perimeter? This mission keeps sliding down the weirdness chute, no matter how boring the others might think it is. He froze for a second, techwings missing a beat as he performed the midair version of a startled stumble. A mortificator named Karl..? Could it be..? he thought agitatedly, thinking of the powerfully built figure with the coffin on his back. That coffin... the City Rep may be in more trouble than we originally thought. he considered grimly.

Energon X' attack ricocheted off the barrier and slammed into the floor with a noise like thunder, actually managing to penetrate the translucent shell that had snapped into place all around the two of them far enough to dent the floor rather badly.

He glared at Poe for a second before giving vent to his feelings with a distorted scream and quite spectacular storm of undirected blue-white energy that inflated the rubbery barrier like a balloon, denting the floor further and bowing the wall of the elevator out briefly, making it lurch sideways for a second.

Then he proceeded to kneel, regaining his strength, and cursing Poe with quite astonishing thoroughness, starting at his personal habits, working its way through a (stunningly low) assessment of his intelligence and sanity, touched briefly on hygiene, maligning his powers, calling his employers fools and worse for putting up with him, and then starting in on his ancestry, going back sixteen generations before starting to work its way forwards again. He had gotten as far as viciously impugning Poe's Great-great-great-great-grandfather for a second time when the rather mangled elevator doors slid open once more.

Energon X glanced around quickly. "I'm with the lizard." he said quickly And the zombie twins... if they're not automatons, what the [censored] are they?

"We'd better get moving... anybody else able to keep up with Bladewing to snag Karl, head that way... the rest of you, let's go if we want to do this thing!" The Blaster wasn't necessarily in his element giving orders, but he could do it when he had to. He took wing again, trailing the Soulhound and keeping a wary eye on the Clockbit perimeter, unconsciously holding his breath as he prepared to cross it.

Energon X ducked almost casually, the seeker drone passing over his head and sticking into the wall by its blades. Experience told him that was a temporary solution at best, but...

"I am sorry, did I slur when I told you 'super-speed'?" he said mockingly as he snapped a blue candy, briefly wreathed in a blue glow that restored a certain amount of his power. "What, you thought you were the only one with toys?" Another blue glow flashed for an instant as the Blaster entered the carefully focussed state that allowed him to conserve his power, wielding titanic forces at a fraction of their usual cost to himself.

He surpressed a wince as he wound up another punch. This is not good. That power sink did some damage, and tight spaces don't play nice with my fighting style. He aimed another shot at Poe, this one apparently clumsy. Only problem was, Poe could either take the shot... or watch most of the bottom half of the elevator get smashed out from underneath him.

If this works, I'll either temporarily disable Poe, or else smash enough of the elevator to fly clear of the seeker drone, or at least buy some breathing room. "Can you fly, Mr. Poe?" the blaster asked as the fists came down.

((No, I haven't forgotten about the Power Sink, but the Blaster's instinct when things are draining your endurance is to hit them until they stop draining your endurance))

Energon X watched the gas with mild interest and stinging, half-squinted eyes. Arrogant ponce... what did he think the metal over the bottom half of my face was for?

As Poe entered the elevator, a voice behind him said "Superspeed, you pompous sod." Brief flashes, one red, then one yellow, were all the warning the crazed Husk corporationer had before a red-glowing fist that could crush Impervium like tinfoil came at the side of his head.

"Where's Kheldragon?" Energon X demanded again as he tried to smash Poe straight back out of the elevator.

Energon X glared around, the actinic blaze of purple that passed for his eyes shining so brightly that twin purple 'spotlights' indicated where he was looking. "You're not the only one with a bad feeling." he said flatly.

"Poe's back."

He rose off the floor, glancing over at DJ Zero, who ignored him resolutely. Should've known he wouldn't get involved, even if his customers are in danger. Can't threaten the peace of the D. Dick. Irritated, he drifted slowly across the club, seeking the source of the energy fluctuation he was feeling as his powers responded to Poe's presence.

Even when not going all Dragonball Z on someone, Poe's energy field remained so strong that it created a detectable resonance in the blaster's powers. Frown wrinkles creased his forehead as the resonance began to fade. Blast... you're not getting away from me, you bugger.

A blue-gloved hand flashed to his belt, sorting rapidly through the collection of minor charms and radiation boosters that virtually every super carried. He pulled several out, snapped them open and was immediately surrounded by a pulsating yellow glow, purple glow briefly subsumed in yellow radiance as his senses were pretenaturally sharpened.

"He's headed for the elevator!" he yelled, then rushed forwards, his cape snapping with abrupt acceleration. He slammed to a halt in front of the angry Poe, fists roaring with barely-fettered power. This jerk may be more powerful than me by an order of magnitude, but anything... and anyone... will break if you hit them hard enough.

"Poe." he rumbled threateningly. "Circumstances would tend to indicate you know where a friend of mine is. Khelldragon? The dracoform Warshade? Any information you might have on her whereabouts would be... appreciated." the blaster growled.

((Tch... Poe certainly is good at making enemies, isn't he?))

Energon X climbed wearily out of the crater he had made, Mortificators sprawled all around, and stared up at the floating crystal Dax-cloud.

"I dislike admitting it, but green and shiney up there has a point." a shake of the head created brief twin streaks of yellow flame. "The necrophiles here can wait. The super-goon-of-the-week with the superweapon-of-the-week is gonna have to take priority if we want to have a world to return to." he finished with a cynical sigh.

Honestly, what is with people and digging out ancient artifacts of unimaginable power and building giant telepathic mechanical spiders or cobbling together mechanical armies and allying with demonic forces from beyond time and space or getting possessed by aliens... feh, sometimes this job just makes me tired.

He raked a ravening blast across the ground between the opposing forces, reinforcing the separation. "Of course, if you sorry zombie-lovers want to continue the fight, I'm more than happy to oblige. You pathetic vermin make me ill." he finished, so much scorn colouring his tone that it seemed like his voder should overload and explode.

((EDIT- it probably doesn't make much difference, but I edited my post that Diov rendered nonsense by a simultaneous post.))

Energon X' head snapped up at Dennis' shout. "Vahzilok?" he growled. "Not attacking... great. Just what we needed. 'Enemy mine', my [censored]."

He rose to his feet, glancing at the crowd around the makeshift 'doorway' that Ghoul's rather precipitous descent had created, then giving a small shrug.

A split-second later the wall imploded, nearly burying him, and Energon X floated through in a blaze of blue-white power, an aura of hard light rippling around him. Those that knew him would know just how close he was to losing control- if he got any more agitated, or if some external stimulus (such as a high-powered energy field nearby) triggered it... this building would be rapidly-dispersing monatomic dust above a twenty-metre crater, and Energon X would be unconscious (at best) at the bottom of it.

He took one look at the melee scrum the tense scenario had dissolved into and growled. A sniping blast lanced out of his extended fist, knocking one of the Eidolons jumping Ghoul through a wall, rapidly followed by a heavy blast of power that nailed the Eidolon in place like a butterfly on a board.

Then he dropped out of the sky and vanished in a blaze of speed. A heavy thud, and another Eidolon was floored, standing to stagger in dizzy circles as Energon X reappeared a good fifteen yards away. A spin, a torrent of energy, and the Eidolons were scattered. Another blurred rush, another thud, and then the blaster was standing next to where the Eidolon had been, glowing fist outstretched as the synthetic undead got a brief flying lesson... one that ended abruptly in a seething stream of blue-white fire that distintegrated it completely.

Then he staggered heavily as a crossbow bolt slammed into his body armour. And another. He turned, his eyes a dangerous mass of yellow flame, following the bolt's trajectory back to the large group of Mortificator's it had come from. E-X lurched skywards, the toxins working their way into his bloodstream from where the bolts had scratched him already taking effect.

But he reached the enemies without further incident, unless you counted several more crossbow bolts bashing into his shiny-new black armour, bringing it well on its way to being as scarred and battered as his blue-and-purple suit. Landing with a thud, he growled again. "Alright, you pathetic Frankenstein wannabes. I have but one thing to say to you. Three... two... one..."

And the world went white.

*pops out of the water riding a shark, which promptly bites Entropy_Aegis in half*

*disappears under the water again*

((E-X is still right next to Martin, Grey, scanning with his rather unique senses, although so far none of the GMs seem interested in telling me whether or not I've found anything...

And hey, I'm right up there with littering it with bodies, at least unconscious ones.))

*races through singing "It's raining pianos!"*

*it starts raining pianos, squishing everyone*

((Oog... the 'friendly Vahz' aspect may not fly so well with E-X. He's more than a little sensitive about them, thanks to his disfigured face and some of the run-ins he's had with them.

For now, I'm just going to say that they're out of his line-of-sight and keep him out of the action, because his reaction to finding the Vahz camp (again) would be... well, boom (again).))

Energon X remained where he was, studying the ground. One of the advantages of being a Blaster was not needing to get up-close and personal when things went Wahoonie-shaped. If there was trouble at the groan-point, he could do his damage just as easily from where he was.

He widened his field of perception, seeking dimensional ripping, subatomic energy traces, and all the various indicators of super-science that would conceal someone in plain sight.

E-X spared Dennis a glance, wincing slighlty as he did. Phantasms always gave him a headache with their bizarre amalgamation of ectoplasm and raw energy. "The random bits of energy? They're too diffuse for me to say with any kind of certainty that they're even there, much less what sort of energy they are. If you want to take a look for yourself, you're more than welcome to- your senses may be better suited than mine for this."

He returned his attention to the Sword duo, frown lines creasing his forehead, and resisting the temptation to ask where Louie was. Energon X slid smoothly downwards, landing next to Martin and joining him in peering at the ground after a perturbed glance at the Soulhound. "As soon as I become an expert on reptilian cryptozoology, I'll let you know whether or not I think the thing is 'fine', but unless it reacts vastly differently to stimuli than its more conventional cousins, it's not in the best of shape- in the lizards that I know of, those actions indicate discomfort or internal distress."

He stared at the ground, quite open to the possibility that the City Rep was cloaked in a way that he couldn't detect, shrunken down to germ size, dimensionally displaced, or any of a dozen lunatic scenarios that anybody with any length of time in this game ran into on a routine basis. He even gave an idle arm wave through the space the Soulhound seemed to be staring at.

Whoever... whatever those two are, they're smooth. Calling them out probably won't accomplish anything, and unfortunately, they're not likely to allow me to touch them after I tried to catch them out, so I can't get a clearer reading. Pity this suit is strictly recording sensors- with all the gear packed into it, SERAPH could probably give me an accurate readout. For now, eyes on goal. If they try anything funny, they're looking at a faceful of exotic energies.

Energon X glanced down as Inky tapped him on the arm. I must be out of it to let her get so close without noticing. Either that or the D is lulling me into a false sense of security... He tossed a quick purple glare at the hovering form of DJ Zero, then returned his gaze to Inky. "That's probably not a bad guess, shortstuff. She popped out of a rip in the air over the bar and then jumped back into it a moment later- that's the last I saw of her. Looked like Dimension hopping to me- surprised that Zero let her get away with it, he usually prefers people to use the officially-sanctioned exits."

He nodded to Fraenir as the draconian giant returned. "If by 'waiter' you mean that goon with the massive energy field, then probably only indirectly- she definitely left under her own power."

E-X raised an eyebrow. "Do you think we should go after her? She's been gone for a while now, and... Poe, wasn't that his name?.. was powerful enough to give her some serious problems if she's interfered with his machinations." He hesitated, thinking for a moment, then hopped into the air and glided swiftly across to where Power Breaker was sitting.

"Excuse me." he told the brute, nodding politely. "It seems an acquaintance of yours has upgraded himself to my 'people-I-wish-to-beat-unconscious-and-dump-in-the-Zig' list. What can you tell me about Poe?"

Energon X was scanning the ground with uneasy senses, trying to figure out what in the nine hells the Clockpowder was doing around them, when he happened to glance at Darkvapour and the Sword duo, his attention drawn by the brief chatter.

He froze. That's not a human nervous system. he thought with some shock. Even the crystalgoon over there has at least some traces of electrically active neurons that I can perceive, although it's very, very faint thanks to his energy absorption keeping most of it from escaping. He stared harder, yellow flames roaring out of his eyes sharpening to the point they threatened the integrity of his cloaking field.

These two? Unless Sword's doing some very funky new surgeries on their operatives, they're 'bots. Far more concentrated energies running in almost perfectly straight lines through a vastly simplified network. He hesitated for a split second. They're about to do something. Let's see if I can't draw them out.

"So, do you two rehearse that speaking-in-unison bit, or does it come unnaturally?" he commented offhandedly, deliberately blurring the 'un' in 'unnaturally' just enough that most people would automatically hear the 'come naturally' ending to the cliche. "The longer we sit here watching your pet lizard contemplate its navel, the more chance something unpleasant will have happened to the City Rep before we find her."

He shrugged. "Could you turn off the forcefield or whatever it is around the Soulhound so it can be healed and we can get on with this?" he added as an afterthought.

((E-X noticed the healing being deflected, but hasn't necessarily thought there was anything odd about it- this is a flying lizard that can smell souls, after all :/))

((As Energon X stands patiently in the D, waiting for Fraenir to put in a reappearance, or somebody else to acknowledge his existence.))

*grabs rock and beats Mutant_Illusion over the head with it*

Better?

""Oh! I got an idea, lets sing Kumbaya and get drunk instead of finding the [censored]-hole and beating him to a pulp!" Energon X mimicked in a synthetic sing-song voice. "If you know where your erstwhile target is, then lead the way. Otherwise shut your noisehole- I may be visible from the air, but you can be heard from a mile away. I'm amazed you haven't already attracted more playmates for us."

He faded from view. Jerk the idiot might be, but he appeared to have stumbled on a valid point. "Better?" he continued, still on the team channel. "I don't like the looks of things from up here. Things look clear, but there's stealthy movement all around the perimeter of our position, and I can 'see' anomalous energy signatures that refuse to stabilize into anything concrete- could be nothing, could be the beginnings of a teleport trace, could be a freaking army of Clockwork nearby... couldn't tell unless they become clearer."

He paused, drifting downwards to perch invisibly on the ledge of one of the ruined buildings. "At the risk of sounding cliche and/or tempting fate, it's quiet. Too quiet. The clockbits that 'got away' from us formed a perimeter around where we are- no telling what would happen if we tried to cross it. And my gut is warning me that that may be the least of our worries."

Mostly because of the bizarre fashion in which those to Sword screwheads are acting. I'm starting to wonder if they're even entirely human. They certainly haven't offered any insights as to how their weird little reptilian pet is supposed to have found the City Rep when she's not visibly here.

[ QUOTE ]
and you're gonna die in a few seconds :P

[/ QUOTE ]
Pretty much a given in this thread...

*grabs Krazy in a giant black-hole-mucus-hug and then implodes, taking Krazy with him*

*grabs the black holes and jams them up Bladewings nose*

Ha-ha, blackhole in your sinus cavity!

*drops the International Space Station onto everyone*

*then, just because, drops the Moon on top of that, than smashes Earth into Mars, Venus, and Mercury, finally dumping the whole mess into the Sun, then detonating that in a fiery Supernova.

Then ignites a chain reaction that blows up that entire spiral arm of the Milky Way, then blows up the core and the remaining arms*

*then blows up the Andromeda Galaxy, just for the hell of it*

Energon X, now back up to full strength, and his collection of charms and boosts replenished from cross-D storage, flared the giant wing-disguised antennae and launched skywards, carefully watching the dispersion pattern of the apparently randomly bouncing Clockwork bits.

The Soulhound isn't moving, despite apparently being in reasonable health thanks to the healing. he thought silently, circling higher. Something else is going on. If that thing is here, then so is the City Rep. Or at least her soul.

He repeated that statement aloud. "If that thing stopped here, then the City Rep is here. Or, at the very least, her soul is here." He concentrated a little, still watching the Clockwork scattering, but also watching for the telltale traces of energy he could perceive that would warn him of the presence of a ghost.

Blazing yellow eyes narrowed as he hovered about a hundred meters above street level. "Anybody familiar enough with the sewer system to say what is directly under that lizard-thing?" he questioned. "Nothing says that the goon who bludgeoned States has to be keeping her at street level or in a building- there's so many bloody caves and rubbish under this city, it's a wonder the whole thing hasn't gone the way of Faultline and the Hollows."

He continued to glare at the bouncing and rattling bits of Clockwork, the beginning of a pattern starting to tickle at the back of his brain, but stubbornly refusing to coalesce into anything more than a tickle. A perimeter, maybe? But to wall us in or keep something else out?