Helena allowed herself a remark out loud,
"Finally, something I can work with!"
She avoided heroic language wherever possible because she knew that pride always came before a fall. But the plant/meteor/alien/whateverthehellitwas had shown that it had psychic power. Helena had thrown up a wall of psionic resonance around her which had kept most of the attack at bay. Her ears were ringing from the echoes of the blast but now she was able to do something other than merely scanning the area for troubles unseen.
As the 'flower' wilted, Helena hitched on to the psychic signal as it drew back. Effectively she surfed its waves, walking slowly towards the meteor and building up strength. She was a hundred yards from it now, managing to glide past the convulsing clones on the way there, although she had to push one to the floor to get a clear line of sight with her target.
The strange gas enveloped her body and dulled the bright sparks of purplish energy which began to radiate from her eyes. She stood, stock still, and raised her arms above her head. The ground around Helena became much darker, as if the sun were moving to an eclipse, and in slow motion she let her arms fall as a torrent of spiky psychic energy surged through the air, unseen by most, and grounded itself in the flower, coursing down the 'stalk'.
Annie had heard Union's words through the fog that filled her mind. Her blue eyes snapped open as pain seared through her head. There were a lot more heroes around the meteor than Annie had realised and she didn't know any of them.
She raised a hand to her head, she could feel a lump. As she pulled back her hand she could she blood on it.
"It must have been where I hit the floor." she thought.
She could see the Shivan and a big man attacking the meteor. She saw the doppelgangers ambling toward the meteor. She unsteadily got to her feet. She summoned every ounce of strength she had. Raising her arms she produced a storm to knockback the clones.
@Wild Red
"In the Rogue Isles, loyalty goes to the highest bidder." Wild Red
Steve saw what Union was doing and nodded. He continued to pump the meteor full of deadly radiation, his body pulsing with an eerie green glow, with every split that forced the meteor open, his hand went deeper and deeper, the radiation spreading.
Steve brought his hands up above his head, a massive ball of radiation building up in it, "see...you...in..hell.." a phrase Steve had taught himself to speak in English if ever he needed a witty oneliner...throwing the huge ball of coalescing radiation down into the meteors core.
Badge Earned: Wing Clipper
A real showstopper!
With psychic attacks added in to the already messy melee Fanservice was having trouble, fighting the endless hordes wasn't working and no one seemed to have a plan yet of how to stop is peacefully.
Time to fall back on one some good old FA training then.
"Follow me! I have an idea but I'll need help!" she yells to Nighteye darting towards the horde.
With her momentum Fanservice kicked off against a desperately flailing clone it bursting under her heel, fire completely consuming it leaving nothing but ash.
Well it was a pretty big jump.
Landing in an abandoned street some distance away, Fanservice was glad to see it was still here. A refuelling tanker for petrol stations that had been making the rounds, she'd passed it on the way in and luckly the people had been abandoned on foot. It was heavily armoured, because Hellions loved to try set them ablaze, but Fanservice had a way with fire and was sure she could get it to go up if it got close enough. Probably.
Clambering on top of the driver car she waited, hoping she was being followed. She'd have done it all herself, if only she knew how to drive.
Gall felt blood stream from his nose. Not from the clones assault, for once, but from the barrage of psionic force that pushed him to the ground. Nausea emptied his stomach, adding an acidic aftertaste to the coppery flavour of his own blood.
He spat out venomously, dragging his aching sorry @ss onto his feet. Retrieving his Sai from the ground beneath him he adopted a fighting stance again, looking visibly weaker in his physical state but more resolute than before.
The clones were dissolving as he watched, watching the meteor thing attempt to defend itself from the heroes attacking it.
He bellowed at the clones still remaining, then charged.
VGX-3 had watched the clone of Union run from it's blasts, the flower come back and send off the purple light, none of which effect it, however it could see on it's scanners that the clones were trying to defend the Pod, and they were attempting to drive back what ever heroes were there attacking the Pod. With it's flight mode still online, VGX-3 flew towards the line of clones, switching it's direction so the bring it in a line with a good few of them. It's robotic hands switch back to blasters, then clipped together to form a much big gun, it's beam cannon the range of it wasn't great and it only had enough power for a single long blast of it, but it's AI progarm had made it's "mind" up, it was the only course of action other than flying and ramming them at full speed, which it would do next.
VGX-3 began to charge up the cannon, the eeire blue glow coming from deep inside the barrel and the low loud hum of the energy build up echoed out as the almight blast shot forth, aimed directly at the heads of the line of clones. As the bema shoot out, the gas around it parted the air cusion caused by the blast was effect to knock most people over, the beam struck the first clone pasting though it's head, then the next and next to that.
In all it took out seven clones, from the different heroes that had been cloned, however the blast itself the recoil from it had sent VGX-3 soaring backwards, the bot hadn't put the shock supports or lock clamps on it's legs. It was as if it just did the blast as a last resort, of course this meant the beam suddenly shot off wildly as it was sent backwards and off target, hitting what or who ever was in the way.
Annie's storm was in full force and happily raging away over the clones. Annie turned her attention back to the meteor. She staggered slightly, not quite as stable on her feet as she should have been.
She could see the two big guys and the shivan taking on the meteor. She carefully added the gravity field again, reducing it's size so it only affected the core of the meteor. Concentrating putting as much pressure as possible into the small area.
@Wild Red
"In the Rogue Isles, loyalty goes to the highest bidder." Wild Red
The result of Helena's attack was yet to be seen. However a blast of energy clipped her ear and caused her to fall backwards. Her hair whipped up in the wind obscuring her view somewhat and she staggered around in a circle, trying to regain her composure. She felt a foot, possibly booted, collide with her face and she tasted blood on her lip. It was unclear at this stage, with all the commotion, if the move had been intentional on the part of a clone or simply a case of too many cooks.
Luckily for Helena the situation coupled with the weird green gas, which was still pumping away it seemed, masked her awkward movements.
Helena managed to drag herself up to standing, wiping drops of blood from her mouth where she thought they might be. Two panicked clones, looking half-dissolved but still with those curious orange-glowing foreheads, loomed in front of her. One stuck its hand out and Helena. not a person endowed with any great strength, couldn't stop it from closing its hand round her windpipe. She spluttered, trying to make a noise so that anyone would hear her. The other clone mindlessly struck at her body, landing a blow on the right side of her stomach and making her convulse.
Helena felt her consciousness fading and, with a great effort, she desperately tried to shout ,
"Heeghlllll...."
Brian staggered backwards, exhausted from the effort of fighting the psychic assault. He stepped away, happy to watch the other errant heroes take advantage of the opening. He ended up next to Annie as she commanded the storm around the meteor, keeping the fog clear as it flowed stuttering from its rapidly shrivelling vents. He offered an arm for support should she need it after the battering she had taken.
The meteor was coming under attack from all directions, the heroes surrounding it fighting off the clones with ever increasing ease. This was not what it had planned. The seeding of the planet was to have been straightforward, as it always had been on other planets. Scan the surroundings, replicate extant life forms and then transfer its passengers to them so that they could begin eliminating the indigenous population. This trip had been different though. There had been a collision. It had hit something on the way into this system. Something huge, a leviathan gliding its way earthwards. Something that it could detect had a vast intelligence and murderous intent. It had lost contact with its companions and could now no longer detect any of them. It wondered where they may have ended up. This mission was a failure. As its internal systems withered and died from the influx of radiation, a shockwave of psychic energy erupted through its probe, travelling down into its cortex, searing alien synapses and frying the internal systems. With its last command, it released control of the protoplasm devices to its passengers, a mother cutting the cord to its young. Its simple mind would never know what they would do, whether they would survive or perish. At least this way, it gave them a fighting chance.
The black crust of the alien pod began to wrinkle and char as the radiation poured through it, feeling the crush of increased gravity that reduced it to a cracked and withered husk. The tentacle fell limp and for the first time since it landed, the gas production stopped. Around them hundreds of cloned heroes fell limply to the ground like puppets with their strings cut. The orange fireflies that sat in their foreheads flowed amongst the green fluid as it formed a thick layer of goo that covered the street. With a last wheeze, a flow of orange lights identical to those that had powered the clones ran in a trickle from the pods vents, swirling into the green ooze that surrounded the crash site.
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
Commander Union's felt the shell of the pod buckle as he forced it. It split open. The combined assault of radiation, gravimetric pressure and psychic shock must've weakened it considerably. The tentacle fell limp. Union looked up to see the clones collapsing. He spotted the two remaining Union clones as they fell to their knees, slowly liquefying.
He turned to Steve who was still firing out deadly radiation and put a hand on his shoulder.
"I think you can stop now." he said quietly.
Union looked out across the battlefield as the noxious fog slowly drifted away. He peered out over the strange ocean of slime, the little orange glows floating across its surface like lifeboats. He felt an overwhelming sense of pity wash over him. He slumped down on the the now lifeless pod, quietly contemplating these events.
((Edited to include Annie's efforts))
----- Union's finest underachiever -----
Farewell CITY of HEROES
The First, the Last, the One.
Union: @ominousvoice2059
Annie had almost run out of energy and her storm disappeared. She lent on Brian's offered arm.
"Do you think it's over?" she looked at the broken meteor and saw Union and the Shivan standing down. She let go of the gravity field and collapsed against Brian. Even though she had her full weight on him, she weighed next to nothing.
@Wild Red
"In the Rogue Isles, loyalty goes to the highest bidder." Wild Red
Gall snapped the neck of the clone that strangled the woman. A spinning strike knocked the fight out of the other before he pierced both clones' heads with his Sai. He knelt beside the woman, looking for signs of life.
"Don't be too late, don't be too late...." The words left him like a mantra, echoing and useless.
The psychic pressure faded. The Portent took a moment to restore his mental focus, then clambered to his feet, a grim suspicion forming in his mind. He approached the pod, slowly.
It was lifeless. His sensors detected nothing deeper than the radioactive residues the attacking Shivan had left. The copies it had made had fallen or were gradually melting away to nothing.
He raised an arm, pointed at Steve, pulsar gauntlet charged to subdue the protoplasmic creature. "Stand back," he warned Commander Union.
Knights Exemplar: Wolfram, Autumnfox, Starlit Spirit.
Militia: The Portent, Wavekite, Mr. Sandman.
The Cadre: WarpLocke, Zajin.
Numerous others.
Steve withdrew his arm and looked to the heroes.
"gumurgh!" by the sounds of it a reassuring 'well done' though it really could be anything.
The Shivan knew that the day had been won, Steve looked at the Portent before going over to it's shopping, some of which had been spilled by the panicking civilians, what a Shivan was doing with various baby related items was a mystery to all but himself and a selected few not present. Seemingly ignore The Portent as he scooped up a few bags of nappies and some cartons of powdered milk and placing them back into the bags before hoisting them in his two massive arms and continuing his amble towards home as if nothing had happened.
Badge Earned: Wing Clipper
A real showstopper!
The noxious fog had almost completely dissipated and beams of sunlight began to bathe the area in a warm glow. Union watched Steve as he walked away, the Shivans gelatinous membrane glistening in the sunlight. The sight of a 9 foot Shivan carrying bags full of shopping caused an amused smirk to slip across his lips.
The smirk dropped when he caught sight of the corpse of the man killed by his clone. His eyes fixed upon the dead man. His heart sank once more. The sunlight shining down upon the lifeless body seemed less of a warm embrace than the revealer of painful truth.
"We won." said Union solemnly. "But the price was too high."
----- Union's finest underachiever -----
Farewell CITY of HEROES
The First, the Last, the One.
Union: @ominousvoice2059
Nightseye reached the truck where Fanservice was standing only seconds before. Looking at the huge flamable substence warnings on the truck she instantly understood what her new friend was up to.
"Seems awefully dangerous to the rest too.", she mumbled while jumping behind the steering wheel. Then the clones that where following her started to collapse. For a moment she looked at Fanservice from out of the window.
"heeeee... I am not sure what is happening but it looks like we don't have to set this whole area on fire Fanservice!", she screamed to her.
- The Italian Job: The Godfather Returns #1151
Beginner - Encounter a renewed age for the Mook and the Family when Emile Marcone escapes from the Zig!
- Along Came a... Bug!? #528482
Average - A new race of aliens arrives on Earth. And Vanguard has you investigate them!
- The Court of the Blood Countess: The Rise of the Blood Countess #3805
Advanced - Go back in time and witness the birth of a vampire. Follow her to key moments in her life in order to stop her! A story of intrigue, drama and horror! Blood & Violence... not recommend to solo!
With the fog clearing Annie took a moment to take a look at the damage caused. The meteor had left a huge crater and the street was covered in green goo. Annie had to blink several times when she saw Bill.
"Wow a Zombie. Sorry I meant, wow an un-dead American. I think!" Annie's head was starting to feel like it was filled with cotton-wool again. She saw Commander Union still by the meteor. She looked in the direction he was and saw the civilian, her lamp-post lying next to the body.
"Thanks for the arm." She looked up and smiled, Brian could see her eyes were slightly unfocused. She had to tip her head back so far that her hood slipped from her head. Underneath the hood Annie had a gash that started on her forehead and reached around to her ear.
Putting all her weight on her own feet Annie took a step toward Commander Union. Her knees gave way after the first step. Even though Annie's mutated bone structure allowed her to absorb large impacts, that fall must have caused more damage than she realised.
"So tired! No-one minds if I go to sleep?" She mumbled as she lay down where she had fallen.
@Wild Red
"In the Rogue Isles, loyalty goes to the highest bidder." Wild Red
Fans watches the clones fall to pieces, kicking the wind shield with a smile.
"Wow! Uh, I guess..my..bluff worked! Yep, they couldn't cope with a plan this brilliant."
Dropping down off the truck she opens the side door for Nighteye
"Nicely done anyway, was good to fight with you Nighteye. Want to go back and help mop up, or shall we split and go get a little celebrating in? Leave the others to clean up the goop."
"Lets check how the others are doing... and then split. I have a few friends to check on.", Nightseye replied...
Together they walked towards the remains of the meteor. Brian Mackenzy was sitting next to it.
He noticed Nightseye and smiled... "We did it apparently, ms. Nightseye", he said. She walked towards him and gave him a kiss... "Call me Feline. How does it feel to be a hero... Brian."
- The Italian Job: The Godfather Returns #1151
Beginner - Encounter a renewed age for the Mook and the Family when Emile Marcone escapes from the Zig!
- Along Came a... Bug!? #528482
Average - A new race of aliens arrives on Earth. And Vanguard has you investigate them!
- The Court of the Blood Countess: The Rise of the Blood Countess #3805
Advanced - Go back in time and witness the birth of a vampire. Follow her to key moments in her life in order to stop her! A story of intrigue, drama and horror! Blood & Violence... not recommend to solo!
Bill stopped his tireless arm and hung up the thorn blade ... he kicked the remains a few time just to be sure , sometimes dead thing still bite he mused ...
Stepping clear he looked around the damage , dead and ruin ... Paragon what a place ...crossed his mind
Knowing his first aid skill where limited to saying there ,there it doesn't look too bad Bill moved off to check the wreckage for anyone trapped ...or any space rock or clone fragment still needing a stabbing ...
Nodding to Annie , and replying .. no Zombie is fine , it is what I am .. Bill poked around the crash site looking for any clues to the things origins ...
Im no hero, replied Brian, slightly surprised at the term. I just
oof! He was slightly staggered as the slender form of his daughter, The Amber Banshee came running up to grab him.
Are you ok? Did you get hurt!? What the hell were you doing!? she demanded. Her embrace suddenly turned to anger as she kicked him hard on the shin in frustration. Strangely the thought of disappointing her hurt more than any of the blows his impervious skin had absorbed. Amber leapt back, holding her foot. It was as if shed kicked solid concrete. OW! she yelped. Sorry! replied her father, slightly cringing.
It was as he looked down at his daughters foot that he noticed the orange glowing fireflies that had been in the clones foreheads, floating on the goo. There seemed to be a flow of them, as if they were swarming together into a stream of glowing orange.
Hey! he said. Anyone noticed this? He pointed towards the rush of glowing objects. It was then that he looked up and saw Helena. Oh no
he muttered.
@Dante EU - Union Roleplayer and Altisis Victim
The Militia: Union RP Supergroup - www.themilitia.org.uk
The Portent tracked the Shivan as it moved away from the meteor, waiting for a clear shot. Curious that it showed no further hostility, but it could hardly be a coincidence that it had emerged at this precise time and place to kill another extraterrestrial. He watched, curious, as the massive alien retrieved a selection of rather incongruous items and set off purposefully, oblivious to his presence.
He scanned his surroundings. He was surrounded by the exhausted, the wounded, and the dead. Nobody had won this battle... if that was even what it had been. There was nothing he could do to help the people here, but he could, at least, find some answers.
Engaging his stealth suit, he set out to shadow the Shivan... wherever it might be going.
Knights Exemplar: Wolfram, Autumnfox, Starlit Spirit.
Militia: The Portent, Wavekite, Mr. Sandman.
The Cadre: WarpLocke, Zajin.
Numerous others.
Union hopped down form the meteor and joined Brian and Banshee. They watched as stream of orange glows flowed along the surface. Unions brow furrowed in curiosity. The concern began to rise from the pit of his gut as he too spotted Helena. He answered Brian's question.
"Yeah. I did."
----- Union's finest underachiever -----
Farewell CITY of HEROES
The First, the Last, the One.
Union: @ominousvoice2059
The blade that struck the first clone had weakened its grip considerably - well, the arm had fallen to the floor and gone 'gloop!', that was quite a considerable lessening of pressure.
Unfortunately Helena had blacked out by this point and she fell to the floor with a nasty smack.
She thought she could hear the voice of a man, whispering some odd incantation: "...bee-oh-kayyy" but that might well have been the last vestiges of her psychic power, echoing in her mind before she bit the big one.
Helena hadn't noticed the stream of orange glows what with being occupied by two attackers. A handful rippled across her body where she lay.
The pain stopped. Unions head began to clear. He shook off the last remaining pain and leapt to his feet. He quickly rushed forward, grabbed his brow mantle and put it on. He turned to the meteor. The clones were coming in fast now. Their actions seemed desperate. Union headed quickly to the meteor. Annie was still wounded, the zombie, Bill was hacking away at the sphincters and Steve was still pumping radiation into the pods fissure.
Union had an idea. He leapt up on top of the pod, next to Steve. He looked down into the heart of the pod. The strange eerie glowing captivated him for a brief moment, but he soon snapped out of it. He put his plan into action. He wedged his foot against the edge of one side of the fissure and his hands gripped the other. He took a deep breath and heaved with all his might. He was going to rip this thing open.
----- Union's finest underachiever -----
Farewell CITY of HEROES
The First, the Last, the One.
Union: @ominousvoice2059