Things were happening at a seeming breakneck pace. Just as Britanic steeled himself ready for the assault by the armoured figure coming through the portal another figure dived for the ground at his feet. He didnt recognise the figure but seeing as he was joining the defensive line at his side he took a leap of faith this was some other hero responding to Mechano's threat. With no time for a formal introduction, Britanic was about to give the stranger a thumbs up to acknowledge his presence. However the stranger started to open fire underneath the armoured figure hurtling towards them.
Damn!, he doesn't realise that's PPD back there I got to st...
Britanic's train of thought was cut short as his attention was forced back onto the portal.
*Hyperstream somehow manages to swerve and impacts the sewer wall and rolls to the side.. her flight system cutting out halfway through the roll.. sending her sliding across the cement with a none too pleasent metallic screech.*
"Ow.." she grumbles as she finnally stops just short of the water. She then forces herself up to a kneeling position... looking down at the damage as she was hurtling backwards through the portal.. thus her front side took the brunt of the gunfire ". . . slag, thats.. going to take forever to repair... and since when do the PPD carry Uzies? ... since when do they freaking fire at registered heroes..?" *she grumbles.. momentarily forgetting the other person that was there.* "... Hyperstream to command base, insurgents near device, send reinforcements, respond." * her brow furrows as she realizes that, despite the open portal.. her base isn't receiving a signal.*
*her facemask retracts and she spits out some accumulated blue mech fluid onto the ground* "... prime.. just slagging, /prime./"
One of set of bombs had been disarmed, Longbow both virtue and Union side had reached the one underneath the statue of Cyrus Thompson. It had been as simple as hitting the off switch, just like Mechano said, though displayed when the offswitch was hit was a little video of Mechano saying "good ape, it gets a banana" and a banana being desposited onto the floor from a tray within the device.
There was still one set left, underneath the PPD Precient in Kings Row.
Edward tapped his fingers, "hmm one set activated, one set disarmed this seems more like it...just goes to show you need to prove you're being serious in this day and age to get things done...hmm now to activate the last remaining set or not...choices, choices..."
"ON THE GOUND! HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD!"
After the gunfire ceased Ashen turned his attention to the next problem. He had no idea who, or what, had come through the portal and was currently attempting to watch her and the rip in space simultaniously, though his gun was pointed firmly at Hyperstream.
"No sudden movements, I don't want to have to shoot you. Comply and I won't have to."
For the briefest second he risks a glance at Britanic, snapping a quick salute. Quite an achievement while holding a rifle.
"Sorry sir, name's Ashen. Spotted the hostiles uniforms as they were retreating, PPD. Still as a recommendation we should avoid contact if we can. They might not be like our PPD."
Friends are just enemies that haven't betrayed you yet.
*Hyperstream looks up, and her eyes narrow...* "I hate to inform you.. but I do not think they aren't OUR PPD either." *more fluid seems to drip from her mouth.. she was apparently more badly damaged than she thought.*
"I doubt very much that I'm in fighting condition... I was not prepared for the attack..." *he may note that she is currently clutching her arm.. and, for lack of a better term, bleeding. But otherwise remains motionless.*
Britanic looked down at the armoured woman. She was obviously injured, and she no longer seemed to be the threat he'd originally percieved.
"Not some sort of invasion after all, more like an asylum request then. My name is Britanic, and my friend here call's himself Ashen. Sorry if we seem a little unfriendly but some nutter by the name of Doctor Mechano has opened a portal between our two worlds, and frankly we wasn't exactly sure what to expect coming through."
Noting Britanic seemed to have everything under control Ashen nodded once at Hyperstream before turning his attention solely back to the portal.
"Apologies miss, didn't mean to cause offence, just naturally wary is all."
Frowning to himself inside his mask Ashen backed further from the portal, settled on one knee and readied his rifle. Then he just sat there, weapon ready, still as a statue.
Friends are just enemies that haven't betrayed you yet.
".. I am Hyperstream.. I came to investigate the energy build up I detected not to long ago.." * she pauses to slowly wipe the fluid from her face*
When I located the source, what appeared to be law enforcement had already found it.. though.. they were unusually reluctant to allow me to examine the device... *she frowns.. sagging a bit before striaghtening up.. in her kneeling position.*
When it.. activated.. I rushed to see what had happened.. and that is when they opened fire on me... ... on that note... it appears I require some assistance... *she winces* ... possibly in the form of a pair of... pliers..? The piece of lead embedded in my arm is making it difficult for my body to seal the hole..."
"I can kinda see what's happening on the other side..." One of the disguised enforcers said, squinting through the portal. "That cape is still alive. Do you think she might try to get them to help her...specifically in the task of beating us to a pulp?"
"It's not beyond all doubt." The head enforcer stated calmly. "But in that event, the moment they come through, we can always say she is nortorious for disguises and trickery and the such. Heck, if they're from a different universe, we could even say her crimes have led to such and such disaster." He mused. "In any case, I don't think we're going to have too much trouble. They wouldn't dare try and go through without waiting a few hours for officials to arrive. And reinforcements will be here soon, and then, it won't matter what they choose to do."
Pstorm had already been near a sewer entrance when Dr. Mechano's message first came out. She didn't see the message itself, but the sudden similarity in the thoughts of over half of Paragon City made it easy to get the idea. Well, relatively speaking.
Mechano's second message and the detonation of the second bomb sent her speeding to its location, worried she was heading for a trap. Why on earth would he tell them where any of the bombs were, detonated or no?
Being psychic had its advantages. The moment she came upon the PPD, she knew their true intent. As they spoke their thoughts to their comrades, her eyes narrowed. It was bad enough that one of the bombs was keeping a hole punched through reality, but now they wanted to ruin first contact with whoever was on the other side? There wasn't much to work with as a weather manipulator in a tight series of underground tunnels, but there was certainly enough disgusting moisture in the air to try.
Pstorm turned around the corner, throwing her arms forward. A huge blast of wind shot down the tunnel towards the false PPD officers. If the winds were strong enough, the team would be sent flying through the portal. What she wasn't sure of, is if the heroes she saw on the other side would receive her message across that gateway. 'Those aren't PPD, and they're definitely not friendly.'
----------------
Whether or not Dr. Mechano enjoyed his solitude was of little consequence as a sudden shudder in the air itself made a presence known.
"Are you what passes for evil brilliance in this universe?"
Should the Doctor choose to face this intruder, he would find a gruesome sight. A deathly pale face with traces of rot across the bald head held cold eyes filled with contempt. A black and green ventilator concealed where a mouth would presumably be. An outer suit that looked like blackened, decayed flesh covered everything else, with gloves and boots that bore wicked spikes, as well as elongated tips at the nails. A series of what looked like veins traced all across this, a dark, sickly green liquid flowing through them like blood. From the black skulls with green eyes at his shoulders, a shredded cape held impossibly together moved ever so slightly in the dead air. A dark green jewel set in a black bone belt seemed to drain light from around the man even as he radiated a malevolence of his own.
"Are you mad or foolish?" he asked, not caring if Mechano deigned to answer his first question. "I will admit, you were not easy to find. At first. After your little display, piercing the dimensional barrier became much easier. I will tell you now, I have no dreams of a new horde of so-called heroes and self-serving villains flooding their way into my realm. The thought that you could wish, or not even consider, the same tells me you are the latter. I will be only the first visitor you will receive if you go through with this."
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
Edward didn't look over his shoulder, he was too busy tapping away at a keyboard.
"I don't know how you got in past the security system but welcome to my humble abode...I do suggest keeping your threats to a minimum, it would upset Steve..."
There were dull thuds which echoed down the hallspace of the lab as something large, green and glowing rounded the corner. A Shivan, by the size, a Shivan decimator. Large mechanical protrusions jutted from its green gelatinous body, basic cybernetic enhancements. The cybernetics were not the only thing wrong with the picture, in it's mighty clawed hands was held a small tray, balanced precariously on which was a steaming cup of coffee.
Edward turned slightly to take the coffee, drawing in a small sip and letting out a sigh.
"This would be Steve, if you do have any problems with my plan feel free to take it up with him...or the rest of my heavily armed robotic family..."
Edward chuckled, "now you probably asking yourself, why would I do something like this, infact since you are asking me such a question I can only hazard a guess that you have asked yourself, infact it would have been the first thing you did before arriving here.."
"The simple answer is chaos, in this dimension I bring chaos, unadulterated chaos, the likes of which Paragon city has not seen since the darkest days of the first Rikti war."
Edward stretched with a grunt, continuing to type while talking, "you see, mankind stagnates, it stops evolving, only through a life of chaos can manking truly become free and unfettered to advance both naturally and scientifically, now I could have gone the simple route and simply tried to nuke every major city but there is simply no fun in that, not to mention they are prohibitively expensive...and the ones in Warburg barely dent Statesman, let alone take out an entire city."
"To answer your initial question, as to whether I am foolish or mad, I assure you I am quite, quite mad, for as long as there is even the smallest bit of chaos caused, it makes me happy...now if you excuse me I have the last remaining set of bombs to activate...if there is only one set someone bright young spark could see it as an opportunity to keep it stable and ferry villains out of one Paragon and into another, keeping their identity unknown allowing for a whole new crime spree. We can't have that can we, where is the fun in that...oh and let us hope the universe doesn't implode on us shall we..."
Edward gave a manaical grin and pressed a button, underneath the PPD Precint, with Longbow about to close in on both sides, the remaining set of bombs detonated, renting a whole in time/space.
"Welcome to a new world my friend, a world where the individual, as well as the many, can become a super villain of epic proportions, where a Priest and a Devil battle for mans souls, where chaos is caused at every turn, as the good Lord said, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end...and this...is an entirely new beginning..."
The intruder looked widely unimpressed at the speech, and even less so as Mechano detonated the final bomb. The damage was done.
"Chaos," he muttered with a derisive chuckle. "Perhaps in your universe, there are no heroes with the ability to halt your foolish endeavors, but I can assure you mine has grown far beyond such limitations. I congratulate you in your last success." As Steve came closer and eventually passed through the intruder, he sighed. The image vanished, reforming in front of the Doctor, eyes level with his. "I am called Blightlord, and I am certain we will see much more of each other in the future."
The projection faded, leaving Mechano with his solitude once more.
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
Pstorm's surprise attack naturally caught all of the enforcers entirely by surprise and flung them backwards, right in the direction of the portal.
Except for one. The head enforcer didn't even seem surprised, just mildly annoyed, and the only movement he made was to turn towards her, casually stretch out both arms and catch two of his cronies before they flew through the portal. The other three went right on through. He let the enforcers down onto their feet, both of them immediately separating to put some distance between the three of them since it was obvious the hero before them had area abilities.
"Little girl," The head enforcer said in a low and VERY angry voice. "You need to be making the morally RIGHT choice. Are you going to waste time fighting me here when this bomb has already done its job, or are you going to find and disarm the last one before IT explodes?" His fists began to seethe with negative energy. "Because you don't have time to do both." The Conducter, Red Death's right-hand man, waited calmly for her reaction.
And then the last bomb went off.
***
Unionverse
The unfortunate enforcers who hadn't been saved by the Conducter found themselves flung through the portal unceremoniously and landing face-first in a large stream of muck, stunned trying processing what had just happened, and in front of the three heroes there.
***
Virtueverse, St. Martial, Undisclosed location
It was a plesantly lit room, with a splendid veranda overlooking the ocean, marble tiles for the floor with the occasional ornate pillar thrown in, a pool (which will not be further described in any way), and a mishmash of Eastern and Carribean art and cultural decorations. One wall was, in fact, a very neatly styled monitor that look just like a wall until it was turned on. Right now, a VERY angry individual was watching reports flood in as the second bomb detonated.
The individual squeezed the glass he was holding, shattering it in rage.
He walked - no, STORMED over to a nearby desk, hit the speaker button for the intercom there, and spoke.
"Arrange an incredibly violent, explosive and PUBLIC accident for Dr. Mechano. An example needs to be made. And get that damned Union rat up here along with a few Plague Spreaders. I think he needs to learn what happens when he doles out inaccurate information."
He turned the intercom off, and headed for the kitchen to get himself a new glass of ---------. He let loose a little steam as he did so, taking deep breaths and reminding himself that it could be worse. All three bombs could have gone off, fully merging both dimensions. Even with two portals up, as long as he controlled one of them, he had a large monopoly. He might even be able to control both! He severely doubted that, but one never knew.
The elevator that served as the only entrance dinged open. A terrified, ratty-looking man wearing rags and cuffed was shoved out by two arsonists. The man walked over, the captive's sudden scream as he saw him silenced by a swift kick to the face.
"Into the pool." He gestured, sipping from his new glass. The arsonists obliged. The man's screams never went beyond the veranda's security glass.
Edward chuckled to himself as he talked to nobody after the image had faded.
"Oh they could halt me, if they had the will to kill me, heroes wont, that is what makes them a hero and me the villain, besides without me, what fun would there be in the world, who would bring the chaos which makes being a hero a thrill, break them out of their humdrum little lives..."
Pstorm's head cocked as the second bomb went off. "Yeah, uh huh. That makes you priority one," she said, throwing one arm out in a wide arc as the other shot forward. Twin tornadoes hurtled toward the three soldiers, one of wind, the other of pure psionic energy. Either was liable to send you sprawling with a very bad headache.
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
*Hyperstream struggled to her feet as the thugs were sent flying through the portal.. sensing the psychic message, she forced a smile* "Ah... help, has arrived."
*she outstreached her good arm at the thugs.. best to try and look threatening to the current foes at hand. Her arm thrummed as the weapons system charged up to prepare to fire, heat emmenating from the, now open, port in her palm.
((Ack! Trying! To! Keep! Up! *bops Mech!*))
Erica the Butler hummed a random tune in a somewhat cheerful manner as she made her way around the sewers in search of Molly's drones, her two nanotech blades clinking with every brisk step she made.
Eventually, she found one. Or more disappointingly, all of them, staggering all over the place in what appeared to be a blind panic about something. All of them were screaming too, in a manner of speaking. Ironically, one of them was trying to perform it's own rendition of the theme from Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Inconvenient... the machine servant thought to herself with a raised brow, before crouching down to pick on of the panicked drones up. Looking the drone in the eye, Erica established an IR connection with it.
Now... what's scaring you, now?
*****
Molly finished up taking all the readings she could from the portal, and stormed over to the thing to offer her help, hauling her rifle - as pink as her nanotech suit - from her back. The rifle gave off a whine as she grabbed, as if "telling the world" it was gearing up for a fight.
"You lot are with the good guys, right?" Molly giggled as she slammed one of several clips into her weapon of choice.
Sam: "My mind is a swirling miasma of scintillating thoughts and turgid ideas."
Max: "Me too."
Stuff
Britanic wasn't happy about the current situation at all. It was bad enough one of Mechano's bombs had caused a dimensional breach, but now he had some armoured heroine from the other side taking refuge from imposter cops while his only back up from his own side was some gun toting vigilante. Trying to decide on the best course of action, his train of thought was soon disturbed when a few of the fake PPD officers were blown through the portal into his side by some hero's assault on the other side. as the fake officers crashed into the ground Britanic took up a fighting stance ready for any aggression from them once they'd got to their feet again.
Keeping one eye on the fake officers, and another on the portal itself he thought to himself...
I wish somebody from D.A.T.A. or Portal Corps would hurry up and get here, otherwise im just going to have to lob this lot back through the portal and try collapsing it myself.
The Conducter became a blur, manuevering around the tornadoes at super speed before launching himself at Pstorm in an attempt to smite her across the face. The two other enforcers were each caught by the two-pronged attack in turn, both of them being tossed around like ragdolls as the localized storms chased them around.
***
The three undercover enforcers steadily got back onto their feet, glaring for a moment at the armored heroine they had shot earlier and the "Union-siders."
And then they turned around and went back through the portal.
Pstorm's eyes widened as the Conductor whizzed toward her. "Oh f-" was all she managed before being cracked solidly across the helmet. She let herself be flung away, stopping her flight just before colliding with a far wall. A hurricane whirl surrounded her, the girl not about to make the same mistake twice.
The sewer grew colder and colder, the already slick ground freezing over quickly. She hoped that it would make things difficult for the speedster. Meanwhile, she also hoped that the three soldier leaping back through the portal would also find themselves tossed about by the two tornadoes.
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
"Too many targets. Too many options."
"Good guys?" He responded distractedly to Molly "Can't speak for anyone else but I'm just here to protect my people."
"Damnit, got back through. But what could I have done?"
While most of his thoughts were on the other side of the portal he had spared too little time to watch the refugee PPD on the union side. Unfortunately something felt wrong.
"PPD, meant to arrest villains. If the refugee...."
He halted his train of thought, dimly remembering mention of pliers. Rummaging inside one of his many coat pockets he threw a pair in the rough direction of Hyperstream.
"If the refugee is a villain they would have mentioned, not just left. This is wrong."
Following the Conductor as best he could Ashen attempted to judge where he would turn up next, sending a brief concentrated stream of fire through the portal where his legs would hopefully appear before turning his attention to the men returning through the portal.
"Hate snap judgements. Hope that other Meta can keep 'em busy."
Friends are just enemies that haven't betrayed you yet.
Edward pondered for a moment.
"Hmmm...I should probably dispatch a drone to go take a look...Gizmatron, Gigaflux, front and centre"
The two unintelligent drones appeared.
"Head to Paragon City and find out what is going on...engage heroes if you have to but try to keep yourself in shadow..."
The drones folded themselves up, Edward putting them in their airdrop boxes. He pressed a button, teleporting them to his intended location.
Not far from the portal where all the kerfuffle was going on, two loud splashes could be heard as two green boxes teleported into the sewer, dropping from the roof down into the filth which flowed through this mansized tunnels. The metal boxes fell away as the drones unfolded themselves. Unfortunately robots are about as good at stealth as a cat covered in bells, loud clanking, splashing, footsteps came down the tunnel as they moved in on the location the bomb had previously been planted before it's time/space wobbling, portal creating, explosion.
The Conducter didn't super-slip on the ice. He got shot in the legs instead. The wounds weren't serious, but they would hinder him in the long run, so he made a gesture towards the enforcers and retreated - carefully - away from Pstorm to perform first aid on himself.
The three enforcers who had emerged from the portal were not hassled by the twin storms, the remaining two having been unfortunate enough to maintain the ire of the respective whirlwinds. When the Conducter gestured at them, they all opened fire on Pstorm.
Pstorm was on the defensive the moment Conductor gestured. The Hurricane grew thicker, a great fog rolling out from her, obscuring their aim. She half slid, half rolled behind a corner as bullet fire ripped straight through where she had just been standing. Geez...
The three men's minds were clear to her from this close. She concentrated, becoming momentarily oblivious to her surroundings as she planted a mental suggestion in each of their minds. 'The moment you turn your back, they're going to mow you down and take your cut of the pay.'
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
"Hold your fire, secure the perimeter." The head enforcer hissed as a spray of bullets came back through the portal, spraying his pant-leggings with sewage as they just barely missed chopping his legs out from under him. The remaining enforcers obeyed, and retreated to a safer distance, keeping their weapons leveled on the portal.
"If one of those Union-capes comes through, we're going to try and dupe them. Violence will be a last resort." The head enforcer stated calmly, and checked his watch. Reinforcements would be arriving in about an hour with the proper equipment to stabilize the portal and possibly try to secure the other side.
But, of course, that would all be irrelevant if the other bombs weren't disabled. Even now, Longbow was issuing soldiers into the sewer system to disable the remaining two bombs, and had issued a general alert to any heroes who wanted to help.