Al Papavich charged with many scrappers and tankers while blasters flew up behind them. Controllers and defenders reinforced the line trying to tame Babages mind and healing when the time arose. Babbage was not alone in his assault on City Hall, many Prices and clockwork minions were making there way twords City Hall.
Many heroes took charge ordering large squads and platoons of heroes. Al Papavich led a group of tankers and scrappers. He told all the tankers there to make a line and hold there positions. The scrappers would be behind them. Blasters would either hover over the line or ready to fire between the gaps of the tankers. Defenders and controllers would just get ready to buff and debuff when they could. "FOR PARAGON!" "GIVE "EM HELL!" heroes would yell and shout as they prepared for impact. The clockwork were getting closer, hums and buzzes rang as they approached. Each clang of there feet formed one with several large booms from Babbage and the princes. Al Papavich thought to himself if the line would hold and if the scrappers would be effective jumping into the collision of tankers and clockwork. He knew the blasters wouldnt have much trouble sniping off lone clockwork. Just holding the line will be the challenge. "There has to be 300 clockwork atleast!" a tanker named The Big Frost said. "Hmmm 300 against how many of us." Al Papavich replied. He readied his katana for battle.
as the army of clock-work slowly marched forward, all steppign in the same time and acting the same, icey fresh stood up. he slowly put his hands on the ground and consintrated all of his powers into one giant attack. icey fresh started to kool the ground down to such negative temperatures that the oxogen and hydrogen in the air imedatly froze to the ground. this frezzing pattern shot up under the tankers feet cracking and ripping the road just from the sheer temperatur drop, then right as it got under neath of babages feet Icey fresh let out an extreamly loud scream. with that the temperature for the entire city must have dropped at elast 20 deggres, but the sorce off the cold ness was not icey fresh, but babbage, he was now encassed in a a thin layer of ice, not only that but frost had jammed his gears up, his fual lines froze sold, and his centrul prossing unit had gone compleatly offline. icey fresh was compleatly drained and dropped to one knee, "that will hold babge for a a few hours, you have to take out the clock for minnions before they can free him" said Icey Fresh as he lay on the ground out of energy.
The Cowman sighed again.
Great, now not only was he suffering from "arcade withdrawl", but now his butt was all icy. He pried himself off the frozen robot, brushing some of the ice off his jeans.
"I'm gonna be all damp when this stuff melts," he thought to himself. He looked around, watching the mass of little robots advance on the heroes, completely unable to keep the score from "The Lord of the Rings" out of his head.
He suddenly noticed that his sword was missing. He found the katana, frozen to the machine's back. Reaching down, he grabbed it, yanking hard, but unable to dislodge it. Getting a better grip, the Cowman strained against the ice until the sword suddenly came loose with a pop, sending him falling over backwards off the robot.
Laying on the cement, trying to get his breath back with hordes of robots swarming past him, the Cowman looked up at the sky.
"Maybe I'll just lay here for awhile," he thought, breathlessly.
After feeling a flash of both cold and embarisment, Experiment got off the robot, and fell, rolling down his back, and he hit another annoying little mettle piece.... and he saw millions of little tiny clockwork... "GEARS! GEARS ARE COMING FROM THE PRINCES!"
The army of robots rushed on the whorde of heroes, tankers thrashed and flailed there arms just knocking clockwork minions into the air, blasters picked off larger bots with combined shots dropping them instantly. Many robots were frozen in place. Many scrappers ran through masses of enemys swinging their weapons and throwing punches and kicks. Healers tried to keep up and keep valiant heroes from falling, but not all could be saved. Many heroes were already on the ground. Al Papavich wildly swung his katana dicing sthrough robots like a hot knife through butter. He ran in deep within the cherge of robots completly surrounded with two other heroes he never met. He wondered how they would hold up in this desperate fight to save city hall.
After blasting a few Gears and Cogs, he saw oscillators in the air. "Time for an air battle huh? I dig it!" and he took to the skies, smashed one, and it was sent hurtling to the ground. "Yeah! One down, about 5,000 more to go..."
After knocking down 10 more blasted Sprockets, Experiment kicked what felt like a metal wall. "Damn, note to self, not all things are clockw...AGH!!!!!!" and he was hit, hurtling and smashing into 10 other heroes, and he looked up, seeing a whole wave of Cannon, Assembler, and Tesla princes. "Oh no..." was all he could get out before he was thrown straight into the city hall, making a hole in the roof...
Icey_Fresh poped a few respites into his mouth and jumped back up and into battle. he hit a butten on his custom battle suit (that enchaced his mutant abillitys) and went into stealth mode. he then ran through the crowd of robots touching the battery packs on there backs, 1 by 1 he frozze there fuels cells, this was his way of fighting. instead of killing and destroying robots he deactivated them, it was all he could do with his limmed power after the earlyer incadent. Now it was just up to the heros to fight for what the belived in, Justice, Honor, Morals, and above all kicking robot ***!
OOC:I have been on vacation for that last week so I missed some of this but I am going to jump back in.
Lord Raymond, having taken refuge during the fight to rest up, jumped off the top of a building down into the center of the Robot Hordes with a thud and slash of his axe. As the dust had cleared two Cannons had been decapitated by his blow. He then turned and faced the oncoming Arsenal of Clockworks.
Lord Raymond lept in the air and swung at a Tesla Prince, and just before the blow was struck the Prince blasted Raymond through a wall.
"You win some you lose some..." said Raymond as he stood up and dusted himself off. Raymond calmy walked out of the whole shaped like his body and stared at the Prince. The Prince began to charge his attack and Raymond saw his chance.
"Block this, old chap." Raymond had thrown his axe staright through the Prince's chest and lodged it in the head of Oscilator which had come in to back up the Prince.
"Bloody 'ell!" shouted Raymond as 4 Princes jumped on top of him pummeling him into the ground.
OOC: Ive also been gone for a while, and im gonna jump in too.
Emerging from where he had been hiding Quick Voltage jumped into the battle. Seeing Lord Raymond being pummeled he quickly began sniping off the Telsa Princes, and one by one they fell off. Running towards a group of clockwork and smashing them with his fists.
(OOC I have been away too, responding also))
Girl Genius walked calmly through the battle.
Her new suit, the Mark III was performing beautifully. Its stealth capabilities had been largely untested before today, and she was thankful that they were working beyond her wildest expectactions. She thought she knew what she needed to defeat the clocks - she was glad that it had been close by and she had been able to run and get it.
Not that it was necessarily easy to walk through a battle, even invisibly. The Mark III didn't have much in the way of armament, and being totally invisible didn't stop her from being solid. There were all sorts of obstacles to avoid, flying bodies and flying sparks, electricity shot, if not at her, certainly near her. It was not beyond the realm of feasibility that a clockwork would miss its target and hit her, an occurance which would almost certainly be the end of the scouting mission. Though the suit was a technological wonder, she had no powers apart from the ability to invent it.
Still, it was worth the risk. There were too many clocks, that was worrisome, but they were also acting as one unit, which was even more troubling. The heroes gathered around city hall were battling as best they could, but the outcome of the war was in doubt, while the clocks were engaging in devastating military-style formations, multiple clocks ganging up on heroes and picking off any strays. The heroes were already forming protective groups but the tide of the battle was not turning.
And she suspected that there was only one way they could be coordinating so well.... time to test the theory.
Bit by bit, she waded into the ranks of the clockworks, leaving the battling heroes behind. She took a last glance at the very first hero on the front lines, a large man flailing away with his fists, and then skirted a clockwork prince and the sight of him fell behind.
Now she could see nothing but clockworks - no heroes in sight. Here the lines of running machines were neater, and it was harder to avoid being hit. She hovered gently above the heads of the clocks, below the wheels of the oscillators, skirting gently, if slowly, between the two layers of clocks. If her theory was correct, what she was looking for would be in the back somewhere. From here there was no sight of the ferocious battle at city hall that she knew was taking place.
The she spotted it, and swerved. A moment later, she was on it.
It was an enormous clockwork, not Babbage, but simply a large prince. It was somewhat larger than the other princes, but not obviously so. What had attracted her attention was something that would typically been difficult to observe in the heat of battle: this Prince sported numerous antennae which pointed, rather delicately, in a variety of directions.
She took a breath, scared, and looked back over her shoulder. She could see flashes of light towards city hall, nothing more. No one back here.
I don't want to die, she thought. But... what choice was there? She looked back at the flashes of light, at the heroes who were fighting so valiently, and knew that there was none.
The Mark III Stealth Suit allowed her to get close enough to the clock to actually place her device on his chest. Magnetically backed, it stuck like a limpet, the timer on its face reading...
05
An enormous hand shot out and grabbed her around the waist, picking her up. As usual, the stealth had been interrupted by touching something, one of the suits biggest disadvantages. She was now visible. A sea of clockwork eyes turned towards her.
04
It picked her up; she opened her 'comm. Who knows, perhaps someone would hear - radio silence didn't matter any more. The other princes, notably, did not fire.... which made perfect sense. It was unlikely that they were willing to risk damaging the prince with the antennae.
03
It raised its hand and squeezed, lifting her into the air, and her breath caught, feeling one of her ribs crack. "This is Girl Genius," she gasped, hoping that someone would hear. Well.... of course someone would hear, it was the standard hero distress frequency. Whether anyone would be able to respond would be doubtful, but she still felt obligated to make the broadcast. "I have broken through the lines of clockwork and located what I believe is their central communication clock. Get ready when it goes offline."
02
It raised its other hand. She could see electricity dancing in its palm. She swallowed hard to try and clear her heart, which was thumping somewhere in the region of her adam's apple. "It's you, isn't it?" She said to the clock. "The sprockets and oscillators communicate to the knights, knights communicate to dukes, dukes to princes... and princes to you."
01
"THREAT DETECTED," droned the metal voice of the Prince.
In some part of her mind, Girl Genius had a moment to reflect on the beauty of the ball of lightning, how perfectly constructed it was, and how gracefully it arced through the air. Even off her skin it seemed to move almost like water. There was a voice in the distance, screaming... perhaps it was hers. The last thing she saw in the gathering darkness was the gleaming, glittering lightning, dancing like diamonds against the blackness of the night.
"THREAT ELIMINATED," droned the Clockwork Prince, dropping the motionless form of the hero who had touched it.
00
The bomb magnetically planted upon the clock's chest went up like a box of fourth-of-july fireworks. Fire and electricty spat in every direction, forming an inky column of black smoke rising over the tops of the buildings. It left scorch marks on the metal chest of the clock as it was engulfed in a cloud of smoke.
The smoke - at least on the ground - cleared quickly, though smoke still rose from joints. It didn't seem, upon casual examination, that the bomb had done anything. Yet every antenna was bent and melted; some were completely gone.
The effect on the surrounding clocks was immediate and obvious, as if a shockwave had passed through them, from that spot going forwards, through the princes, the knights, the dukes, the oscillators, the sprockets. Neatly-formed groups of clocks broke apart, no longer moving as one. Attack formations unformed. Shots of lightning missed. Very rarely the sprockets suddenly stopped fighting, staggering randomly in blind circles, a single unit dizzying itself while a hundred of its companions scattered in every direction. In the sky, the same thing could be observed, as some of the oscillators bumped into each other, hopelessly tangling their helicopter blades and crashing into the earth as lumps of chopped up metal.
It was not a total victory - though moving seperately now, the clocks still were quite determined to make mincemeat of any hero in their way - but it would, with luck, give the heroes the opening they needed to turn the tide of battle and seize the victory of the day.
At least, that had been the plan....
The Cowman picked himself up, heavily from the ground. Many of the Clocks had taken a few shots at him as they had passed and now he had bled all over his good jacket. The ground was littered with smoking robots after that bomb had gone off.
"Gave me a nose bleed," he thought, irritably. He made his way through the motionless Clocks, his steps slow and slightly labored. Without even seeming to realize it, he grabbed the ankle of a woman in some type of armor as he passed, dragging her along behind him.
Walking up a flight of steps to a platform surrounding a building, he finally dropped her leg and stopped, sighing heavily. A whirring made him look over his shoulder to see a Sprocket clicking towards him.
"Maurice, would you go away," he sighed, wearily, casually booting the small robot back into the middle of the battle. Sitting down against the wall, he tossed his katana on the ground and pulled down his gas mask. Rummaging through his pockets he finally pulled out a Pez dispenser and tilted the head to eject a piece.
Then he paused, looking at the single piece of candy. Then he looked at the sea of Clocks attacking the heroes. Then looked back at the single piece of candy. Then he snapped off the top of the dispenser, dumping the entire contents into his mouth.
"I officially hate today," he thought as he crunched.
After long minutes of being perfectly still, Girl Genius stirred. Her hands went dully to her head and she mumbled something indistinct. It sounded vaguely like... "wha... happened...?"
"How'm I supposed to know?" he answered to the mumbled question. "I was just mindin' my own buisness when robots started tap dancing on my kidneys." He paused, feeling his side. "Actually that may just be KIDNEY, now."
He nudged her head slightly with his foot.
"Hey, you brain damaged or anything in there. Cause I already got blood all over my jacket and I don't need brain drool all over it too."
[ QUOTE ]
He nudged her head slightly with his foot.
"Hey, you brain damaged or anything in there. Cause I already got blood all over my jacket and I don't need brain drool all over it too."
[/ QUOTE ]
"Uhhhh..." Girl Genius rolled over. "I'm OK... the clocks..." She sat up gingerly, "What - oh!" Her eyes went wide. She had just seen where they were.
After what seemed like hours, Experiment woke up, and flew right out the hole in the roof. He saw carnage everywhere he looked. "Looks bad doesnt it Ex?" said a mechanical voice.
"Yeah yeah, I know PDA.... maybe this is a job for Electron?" he said to his wrist.
"OK, activating battle armour Alpha!" shouted the wrist computer, and armour covered experiment.
"Kevlar mode!" shouted experiment, and a new, blue armour surrounded him. ".... I feel like a power ranger...." said experiment, "But oh well, BACK TO THE BATTLE!"
After waking up, and also still running with electricity, Experiment flew straight ahead, wondering if Babbage was close to the City Hall... almost right. After seeing the damage caused by Babbage, Experiment flies straight to it, just to be hit by electricity, but his forward momentum pushed him right into Mad Cow, and put them on the head.