High above the scene of destruction, a small white helicopter with the Paragon City News Network logo emblazoned on its side approached. Inside, Jack Carter, one of the networks roving reports quickly focused his camera on the carnage below as the network fed his live report on air.
Adjusting his headset and microphone, he panned the camera over the ruins of the building, focusing on the various bodies of the Freakshow members half buried, then shifted to the brightly glowing figure at the centre of the rubble and began to speak into his mic.
"This is Jack Carter, reporting for PCNN at what appears to be a battle in downtown Galaxy City. We've just arrived on the scene of what looks like a partial building collapse, and a number of heroes fighting what appears to be some members of the Freakshow, and an unknown assailant. We're going to try to get in closer for a close up of the action as it happens."
Tapping his pilot on the shoulder, he gestured for him to take them in closer, then resumed his commentary as they moved in closer.
"The action appears to be centred around the brightly glowing figure below, which is surrounded by some kind of strange gas. I can see a hero near the figure, and what looks like bolts of lightning hitting the ground nearby. It looks like the figure is attacking the hero, lets hope she'll be OK, folks!"
Unseen by the pilot, the down draft from their chopper blows some of the gas aside, and it billows up in to the air, and into their tail rotor. Immediately, the gas starts to dissolve the metal, and alarms begin to sound as the chopper starts to spin.
Carter calls out in fear as everything starts to go haywire, and the chopper starts to spiral out of control.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Standing her ground as flying shards of concrete fizzled out of existence against her shield, Phoenix called out to the figure again, wincing as a bolt of energy blasted the ground an inch from her toes.
"You are obstructing the containment of a major chemical weapon. On the authority of the Peacebringer Army I demand that you identify yourself and stand down!"
C'mon... give me something.
Above, something distant was buzzing, thumping. Shaking her head rapidly in an attempt to clear the sound, she realised that she wasn't imagining it, an electric shock coursing down her spine as she realised what the sound was.
Aw, hell. Tell me the press weren't retarded enough to send a chopper here...
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Edward looked up, his arm reparing itself, "oh great...newshounds in trouble..." he quickly got to his feet, flaring his wings and taking off at speed to the Helicopter, bitting his tongue as he went through the gass but the draft of his wings keeping the worst at bay.
He quickly judged his moment before landing on the spinning chopper, "need a hand?" he grabbed hold of Jack Carter and the pilot, making sure to cut the pilots seatbelt with this claws so he could pull him out.
Heaving one over each shoulder he jumped out of the helicopter, waiting until he knew he'd be clear of the blades, he opened his wings and glided down to a nearby rooftop far enough away from the carnage to set them down safely.
"That gas destroys metal, you were lucky the entire chopper didn't get it, not to mention your camera," he looked at the flailing chopper and shouted out.
"SOMEONE WITH SUPER STRENGTH STOP THAT THING!" Edward wasn't strong enough on his own to hold up a chopper, he could slow it but it would still crash.
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Ellie glared blankly Pheonix for a moment, then glanced up on hearing the approaching chopper falling from the sky.
Her lips parted and deep hollow voice sounded. "Protect."
She flung her arms above her head, and a torrent of power erupted from her hands and eyes, slamming in to the falling chopper seconds after Ed evacuated its occupants. The falling craft seemed to stall in the air as the triple beams of white/purple energy ripped into its disintegrating shell and blasted it from existence.
A split second later, the beam ceased and Ellie's arms lowered until they were stretched out to her sided. Again that hollow voice sounded, repeating itself, and crackling bolts of lighting erupted from her hands, arcing through the clouds of gas in a spiders web of energy and destroying the gas. A few seconds later, the bolts of energy ceased, and the glow surrounding Ellie winked out as she fell to the ground, unconscious.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Smirking with no small amount of relief and shaking her head slowly, Phoenix stepped forward, kneeling next to the prone form to check her vital signs, eyepiece running deeper scans and recording its results to the computer..
"Little dramatic, but works for me..."
Raising a hand to her ear, she spoke quickly and quietly into the tiny mic as she worked.
"Cancel that containment call, gas has been dealt with. Get some medical support out here, we got at least one Peacebringer unconscious and if any of those Freaks survived this they're gonna need it too."
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Ellie's vital signs are weak, but she seems stable enough, if out cold. Of the strange energy signature that was running through her matrix, not a trace of it can be found in her system, and though her power levels read a little higher than the average Peacebringer, there's nothing to indicate the level of power she'd just displayed.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Nodding to herself at the sound of ambulance sirens getting closer, Phoenix uncoupled the computer from her belt and brought it up so she could see the screen, a small box floating to one side of the eyepiece showing the recording of the past few minutes, flowing graphs flickering to its right.
Damn... that's a hell of a reading. I don't like that it's suddenly vanished. Can I isolate that, I wonder?
Tapping rapidly on the base unit''s touch-screen, she watched impatiently as the readings were compared to their current level, the processor hunting for differences in energy type and level between the former state and the current one and laying out the results in a new graph, a red warning box flashing excitedly.
Eyes widening slightly at this, she tapped the computer again, linking it to the network and streaming the isolated data to Sunstorm and the FA's databanks.
Raising a hand to her ear again as the medics arrived and began to fan out across the scene, she linked into the FA comms and spoke directly to the AI.
"351, data packets incoming. I want this incident analysed, top priority. If this happens again, I don't want to be caught off-guard. I don't care who you have to hack to get the information you need, just do it. Oh, and if you beat Sunstorm's lot to a conclusion they'll be a bonus in it for you."
Clicking off the comms, she stood slowly, stretched and surveyed the scene, the eyepiece retracting and snapping shut as she secured the computer back onto her belt.
Who the hell did this? Who was that guy on the rooftop? What the hell just happened? Too many questions, not enough answers.
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Sat across from the warzone, Revenant Star sat atop a building watching the emergency services as they began to crowd into the area.
Peacebringers, he muttered darkly, think they own the [censored] universe.
He shook his head and watched the show. He made a note not to stay too long. Sooner or later someone would want to start pointing fingers of accusation and he didn't want to be there when they did. It was rare that Warshades ever got the benefit of the doubt.
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
Edward lept off the rooftop and landed next to Ellie, "Ellie, Ellie, Ellie...what have you been upto?"
He looked a Phoenix, "she'll be alright...still I've not seen her do something like that...hell even the tiger thing was new to me..."
The covering on his arm was regenerating quickly now the gas had gone, molecules being collects, wiring being resoldered. He flexed the arm...
"Oh...names Ed by the way, thanks for helping out..." He slowly shifted into his Angel form, the metal arm replaced by flesh, "the media wont look too kindly on seeing a Demon at the scene...even if they did just catch my Demon form on camera..."
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A slender figure suddenly teleported in next to Ed, clad in the black and white of the Unity Vigil and the spitting image of Ellie, aside from purple hair. She glanced about to get her bearings, then spotting Ellie, knelt down beside her.
"Dammit Ellie." She muttered, "What the hell have you been doing?"
Looking up at Ed and Phoenix, she fired a rapid interrogative at the two. "What the hell happened here?! Bodicia intercepted a news report a couple of minutes ago, and redirected me here as soon as she could. Why's Ellie out cold on the floor, and what the hell happened to the ground and building?"
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Acknowledging the introduction with a nod, Phoenix replied in a quiet voice. "'m'Jane. And I was just doing my job. Or trying to, to be honest I had no idea what was happening, just tried to stop it-"
She was abruptly interrupted by the appearance of what looked rather like another Ellie. Holding a hand up in an attempt to placate the newcomer's barrage of questions, she reactivated the eyepiece and ran a quick scan, the computer identifying the colours and displaying its stored information on the Unity Vigil.
Detaching the little gadget from the earpiece, she cleared a small patch of ground and made a few practised adjustments, boosting the power of the display and enabling it to project an image into the air. Pulling the recording from the computer, she looked up at the other-Ellie and tapped the green button.
"See for yourself, if you can wait that long."
The eyepiece on the ground beeped and began displaying the recordings, a flickering image hanging in the air a metre above: the Freaks, the building collapse, Ellie's emergence from the rubble, the gas-grenade and the confrontation between Ellie and Phoenix.
Scooping the piece up again, she hooked it back into place and glanced back at the newcomer
"Good enough?"
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"slow down Eloise...first off, most of this was done by the Freakshow, second of all Ellie here seemed to have gone over her power limit, I only caught glimpses because I was too busy saving a reporters hide but energy started arcing from her, purplish tinted at the edges..almost warshade-like."
He looked at the scattered remains of the helicopter.
"She used her power to blast an out of control chopper out of the sky before it crash landed onto some innocent people, the Freakshow used this odd kind of bomb which ate metal, the idiot tossed the thing like a freaking grenade as some nether-energy using Tank sped off in a Truck, they'd smashed up the office building pretty bad and it didn't hold, the rubble collapses on Ellie and then she went all glowie and started spewing energy..."
He smiled, "there...that help as an explanation...Eloise...I recommend you ask Bodi for an emergency medical base teleport for Ellie before the media start gathering, Ellie has enough bad press as it is with her past..."
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The newcomer watched the video playback silently as Ed spoke, and her face paled as she saw what had happened. Once the playback ended, she muttered in a quiet voice. "That's... Not possible... He's gone... He CAN'T be back..."
She leaned forwards and carefully picked Ellie up, holding her in her arms, then straightened up. "I'd appreciate it if you could send a copy of that footage to the Unity Vigil, marked for the attention of Tiger Dark, that's me by the way; Ed can explain who I am."
She turned to look at Ed, "It'll be faster for me to 'port her there myself, Ed. I need to get Ellie out of here, before Sunstorm and his cronies get wind of this, and she'll be far safer at the tower than anywhere else."
Moving a couple of paces away them, she glanced down at Ellie's unconscious face. "I think some of her past might be coming back, Ed. And god help both of us if it is."
Looking back to the two heroes before her, the purple coloured energy of the Warshade erupted around the two almost identical women, and they vanished in a flash of light.
@FloatingFatMan
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Ed nodded and begun his duty, shifting into human form he walked over to the dead freakshow, putting their eyes closed and saying the last rites over each of them, putting the sign of the cross on their forehead, "God show you mercy," he added after each one.
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A real showstopper!
Stretching again and deactivating her armour with a snap of her fingers, Jane waited patiently for Ed to finish his work before approaching him again.
"I'm not in the habit of sending sensitive information to people I don't know, though this does seem pretty serious. Miss Purple there said you could explain who she is, which would help. So, if you wouldn't mind..."
Trailing off expectantly, Jane carefully sat atop a piece of rubble, and awaited a response.
Character references! Artz! Whatnot!
He applied the last rites to the last dying Freak and stood up, his expression switched to one of deep sorrow to a small smile on his face in an instant, "Eloise is her name, she's a member of the Unity Vigil, a warshade if I remember correctly...she never told me what her exact relation to Ellie was, I just assumed Preatorian doppleganger gone good..."
He chuckled, "yeah...the Unity Vigil is an odd mix of people, including myself as you can see...it's safe to send her the information, she only has Ellies best interests at heart though the two of them don't get along with your 'normal' Kheldians like Sunstorm..."
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A real showstopper!
Nodding at this, Jane tapped a few buttons on the screen without even looking at it, compressing the footage and sending it as directed. Carefully pressing a few more, she looked down as the computer beeped and regurgitated a small flash memory card, which she quickly palmed.
"No such thing as a normal Kheldian. Could pick almost any two and you'd find more differences than similarities, in my experience. Not that I've always got on terribly well with Sunstorm myself. These days he does his thing, I do mine, and we just stay out of each other's way, and it seems to work."
Raising the hand containing the card, she held it out to him.
"I got some pretty detailed energy readings too, managed to isolate... something in the waveform, but damned if I know exactly what it is. Don't trust unsecured networks with this, but it's on here, if you want it."
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He nodded and took it, "I'll have a go at analyzing it myself along with Bodicias help...one of the joys of being a scientist and a catholic..." he chuckled softly.
"You take care now...if you need me...here's my card," passed Jane a card which his Kings Row address on it, "if you need anything analyzed off the record, you can use my lab...it's a bit of a mess though.."
There was a flash and Ed disappeared off into the distance at speed.
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A real showstopper!
Jane straightened on the lump of concrete and mock-saluted Ed's departing back, starting to relax only to be rudely interrupted by a beep in her ear. Sighing, she tapped the playback button and listened carefully to the message.
Rolling her eyes, she stood stiffly and snapped her fingers again, armour flaring back into place. Taking one last look at the scene, she rocketed into the sky and vanished from view, muttering to herself.
"Rolling the boulder up the hill, only to see it roll back down... Sisyphus coulda been a hero."
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Standing from his vantage point, Revenant Star dusted himself down. He was fairly angry. Already he could see news trucks arriving, turning their cycloptic eyes on the remaining heroes. He already suspected what the news would report: Poison Gas Cloud stopped by Heroes. No-one would give much thought to what would have happened if it had gone off at ground zero.
He teleported himself away, rueing his decision to take up a hero license and making a mental note that the only thing hed bring to the next fight would be popcorn.
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
....the owner of the mis-matched eyes flickes the off switch and the monitor screen goes black ... "wow" , was the thought .. "that gas is way too nasty , i hope the collapse did the job instead "
The head bearing the eyes turns barking orders " ok phase 2 as soon as the truck is here ,i want the infomation ready by sunset tomorrow , too many have seen , to many will question , more speed NOW ! "....
The PPD's CIS van pulls up outside the semi demolished Office Block .... " arh Fxxk what the hell are we meant to do this this lot " ....
Across the street a young women appears from a side alley , looks at the state of her workplace , swears , and looks for a friendly faced cop to ask when she is going to be able to get back to work ..
Molly hated feeling useless. And that was exactly what she was feeling right now as she looked down upon the remains from the fight. She was late to the party, lost one target and accidentally blew up another. She couldn't do much about the dangerous cloud of gas nor the news chopper that foolishly flew by.
One quick facepalm later, a frustrated Molly headed back to her apartment in the same zone, running through the data she picked up from the Kheldian on the way. Approaching the door, Molly had only one more thing on her mind: She needed a nice, long bath...
Sam: "My mind is a swirling miasma of scintillating thoughts and turgid ideas."
Max: "Me too."
Stuff
Manny relaxed, glad that there was far more power here that was far more capable of dealing with situations like this.
"You did good, Manny." Kata touched her companion on the shoulder and headed back to the motorcycle.
"Kata?" Manny turned with a strange expression on her face
"Yes? Before you ask, of course I'm going to have to investigate this further. It's my job."
The older woman sighed and bowed her head. "I will stay, if you don't mind? I think the paramedics may need some help moving all the rubble."
Kata nodded and got back on the bike, pausing for a moment to reflect on what she had seen: Some sort of purple energy, a gas bomb, a wrecked building and a gang of Freaks. Crazier things had happened, she was sure, but there were still some pieces of the puzzle to be found.
"over here ..we got a live one " , the rest of the paramedic rescue team swooped on the clearly moving body of what appeared to be one of the office workers ...
The young women chating to the young policeman suddenly points and crys out "My god its Mr Jethkins my boss ..is he alright ..."
the so named MrJethkins disappers behind a screen of medics as tests and checks are done ...
finally the police have numbers and can start to herd the crowd away from the area ......
as the do the new vans final burst onto the scene ...spilling camera and mike carrying newhounds onto the pavement like hungry swarm . . . .
The mysterious man continued to walk off away from the battle passing people in the street, his eyes stared ahead of him, cold and chilling glaze that they were. His smirk on his lips grew bigger as the sound of the screams came from down the street, suddenly those around him began to run, one of them bumped into him. The mysterious man switched his glazed to the man who bumped him, staring at him coldly he frown.
"Bad idea that was buddy." he muttered, grabbing the guy and hurling him into a passing car. "Next time, watch where your going."
A woman screamed as the guy hit into the car, forcing the car to hit it's brakes, coming to a sudden stop as the mysterious man quicken his pace and turned down an allyway, before stepping behind a dumpster.